ABANDON ALL HOPE: The Hope Brother Series (Book Two) (21 page)

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 The tires of my truck skidded as I rounded the corner of the entrance to the Four Seasons Hotel.  A caravan followed behind me, made up of Hank’s Ford, Beau’s Chevy, and Seth, Jesse and George in Dad’s old truck, and Barnard Johnson’s Buick trailing behind.  Hank had called him before he heard from Lee, hoping he might have an address for LaCroix.  He showed up at the Haggard’s right as we were leaving.

We parked and trailed into the hotel lobby looking like a pack of frantic disheveled hillbillies.  I ignored the looks the doormen gave us and ran up to Lee, who was waiting in the lobby for us.

“What the hell is going on?” he asked.

“Where’s Ruby?” I growled impatiently.

“Why are you so hell bent on saving Ruby Rust, Crit?” he asked, squinting his eyes suspiciously.

“Because I’m fucking in love with her, goddammit!”  The collective gasp I heard behind me made me turn around.  “Yeah, now y’all know.  Is it really that much of a fucking surprise?”

“Well it is to me, considering she’s my best friend and I’m your sister, for goodness sake!” Georgia replied, her eyes wide with shock.

“I’ll explain later. But right now Ruby needs us, so are you going to take me to her or not, Lee?”

“Let’s go,” he said, turning and walking to the elevators.  He pressed the button for the tenth floor and we all piled into the elevator.

“Shouldn’t we call the cops?” Barnard asked.

“Fuck the cops,” I said.  “There’s no time!”

“Now, son, we need to take the time to really think about this.  Lincoln is dangerous.  He already shot Ruby’s father, this isn’t a situation we should barrel into half-cocked and unprepared.”

“I’m prepared,” Seth said, as he pulled a gun out of his jacket.

“What the hell, Seth?” Georgia asked.

“George, you know I don’t leave the house without this thing.  You can never be too sure,” he replied with a shrug.

“Please don’t shoot anyone, Seth,” she pleaded.  “I can’t take anymore fucking death!”

“As long as I don’t have to protect myself or anyone else, I won’t,” he replied, as the elevator doors opened.

“I’m prepared, too,” I said, as I pulled my gun from my jacket.

“For fuck’s sake, we’re all going to die,” Georgia said.

“Which way, Lee?” I asked, ignoring her.

“What’s your plan?” Lee asked, standing in front of me, his arms crossed, blocking my way.

“My plan is to beat the shit out of this guy and get Ruby away from him safely,” I said.

“You think he’s just going to open the door and let you in?  Don’t be naive, Crit.”

“Look,” I said, grabbing him by the neck of his shirt, anger pulsing through my veins.  “I appreciate what you did for Jesse, I really do, man.  You helped our family in unmeasurable ways.  But if you don’t tell me right this fucking minute where my girlfriend is, I’m gonna rip your goddamned head off.”

“It’s your life, man.  Suite 1015,” he replied, shrugging me off.   I ran down the hallway, my vision clouded by Ruby’s face, Ruby’s sweet eyes, her heavenly smile.  If LaCroix had hurt her, I’d —

The sound of a gun going off stopped all of us in our tracks.  I hesitated for half a second, then began banging on the door and shouting.

“Ruby! Ruby!” I screamed.  The door was locked, and no matter how hard I threw myself against it, it didn’t budge.

“Crit!  I’m okay,” Ruby cried from the other side of the door, relief spreading through my veins at the sound of her voice.

“Shut up!” LaCroix’s voice sounded through the door.  “Get out of here, Hope! This has nothing to do with you!”

“LaCroix open this fucking door right now!” I yelled, banging on the door.

Another shot rang out and I jumped back away from the door.

“Ruby!” I hollered.  I heard her crying through the door.  “Please stop, Lincoln!” she cried.

“Those were warning shots, motherfucker!” Lincoln  yelled through the door.  “Now get away before I hurt her.  Like I said, this has nothing to do with you.  As long as I get what I want, Ruby gets out alive.”

“And what is it you want?” I yelled.

“I just want to get out of here,” he replied, his voice muffled.

“What the hell are you talking about? Who’s stopping you?  All you have to do is let Ruby go.”  The elevator doors dinged down the hall and we all turned to see a group of cops come running towards us with their guns drawn.

“Get away from the door!” they yelled, surrounding us.

“You have to save her!” I yelled, as they pushed us back down the hallway.  

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 “Lincoln, you don’t have to do this,” I pleaded, as he tied my hands behind my back.  He had sat me down on the sofa, forcing me to put my hands behind my back while he tied them with a sash from the drapes.

The sounds of muffled voices outside the door had gone away, and with it Crit’s voice, too.  The silence terrified me.

Being alone with Lincoln terrified me.  The wild look in his eyes terrified me even more.

The phone rang behind us, startling us both.

Lincoln answered it on the third ring.

“What?” he answered.  He paused, listening for a moment before unleashing a laundry list of demands.

“I want a private plane, a pilot, a hundred thousand  dollars and clearance to get out of the country,” he said.  “I have a bomb in here, ready to blow at my command.  You have an hour to get me what I want or this whole place goes up in flames.  If anyone tries to get in, Ruby dies.”

My eyes widened at his words.  I looked around the suite frantically for a bomb, but I saw nothing that looked remotely like one.  My eyes trailed to the bedroom door, wondering what was behind it.  Lincoln slammed down the phone, and walked over to me, his gun still in his hand.

“It’s such a shame,” he sneered creepily, lifting one of my curls in his fingers and pushing it away from my face.  “You’re so pretty, Ruby.  You could have had a nice life with me.” His hand cupped my cheek as he looked down at me.

My stomach wrenched in disgust.  His touch sickened me, and the look in his eyes would have struck fear in the most courageous person.  I had to figure out a way out of here.

I only had one weapon to use.

He laughed, and turned away.  I watched him walk over to a bar in the corner and pour himself a drink.

“I almost got away with it all, you know,” he said, raising his glass casually “and I still might. If I can get to the Cayman Islands, I’m set. I have a king’s ransom stashed away there. And they’ll never come for me there.”

“Let me come with you,” I said, suddenly.

“Yeah, right,” he laughed.  “How stupid do you think I am?”

“I don’t think you’re stupid at all.  You’re right.  It’s about loyalty.  I think we’d make a good team.  Let me help you.”

“How could you help me?” he asked.

“I could help you get out of here.  Help you get away.  If you agreed to take me with you.”

“Why would I do that?” he asked, his eyes narrowed suspiciously.

I pulled myself to my feet, my hands still tied behind my back, and walked over to him.  I stood right in front of him, my face inches from his, the smell of whiskey hitting me hard.

“Because you want me,” I whispered, pressing my chest into him brazenly. “Because I want you.  You turn me on, you have from the very first time I saw you.  I was just confused about Crit, but you’re right.  He’s just a small town cowboy.  He’s not like you.  You’re sophisticated.  Rich.”  I paused, my eyes peering into his, and licked my lips seductively.  “Sexy.”

His eyes widened slightly, his lips parted as he drank in my words, sizing me up, measuring my sincerity.  I held his gaze and then bit my bottom lip.

“Why the change of heart?” he asked.

“Because, like I said, you’re right.  You were right about everything.  My father is an alcoholic.  I’m stuck taking care of him because my mother left me with him.  I would be better off without him.  And Crit, too.  He just uses me for sex, that’s all.  He doesn’t really care about me.  And I don’t care about him.”

“Is that so?” he asked.  He was loosing it, his eyes frantic, little beads of sweat popping up on his forehead as he watched me.  Bravely, I smiled at him, pushing my breasts into his chest a little harder.

“Yes.  I swear.  Come on,” I whispered. “Untie me. Let’s have some fun before we figure this out.  I’ll tell them I’m coming out, that I’ve knocked you out  somehow.  While I distract them, you can disappear.  I’ll catch up with you later, and we can leave together.”

“You think that will work?” he asked.

“Of course.  But first, I’m dying to finish what we started the other night.  I’ve wanted you since I first met you, Lincoln,” I said, slowly blinking my eyes at him.  “Untie me so I can show you how much.”

He paused another moment, downed the whiskey in his glass, and ran his hand through his hair.

“You’re something, aren’t you, Ruby?” he asked.

“You have no idea.  Let me show you, Lincoln.”

He put the gun down on the bar, and turned me around.  When he freed my hands, I sighed in relief.

“Thank you,” I said, turning around and snaking my arms around his neck as I kissed him.  His whiskey breath seared my senses, and I willed myself not to gag.

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 “Just let me go up there!” I screamed to the cop in charge.

“Sorry, sir, that’s not going to happen,” he replied.  “We’ve got everything under control.”

“The fuck you do!” I hollered.  “He could be doing anything to her up there! What the hell are you waiting for?”

“Sir, if you don’t leave the area, I’ll be forced to have you restrained,” he said, standing in front of me, his black, beady, unemotional eyes staring back at me fearlessly.

I turned and walked away.
 There has to be something I can do
, I thought.  I looked up at the windows of the hotel, searching for a way in that wasn’t being guarded by armed police.  They were swarming all over the front of the property by now, having flowed into the parking lot like a swarm of bees after we were forced back downstairs and pushed far away from the hotel entrance.

Barnard, Georgia, Seth, Jesse, Beau, Hank, Finn and Lee had gathered around Hank’s truck, watching from afar and trying to comfort each other.  It was impossible for me to just stand there.  I paced around the parking lot, my head spinning, trying to figure out how in the hell I was going to save Ruby, because I certainly didn’t trust the police to get her out of there alive.