Erin's Way (23 page)

At the touch on his arm, he found Catherine standing next to the bed. She leaned over and hugged him gently.

“It’s all right, Sam. I share your feelings. As soon as we can persuade Jenny to let you out of here, I want you to come to our house.”

“Why?” Sam couldn’t help asking and blinked in embarrassment. The animosity between Stoner and him had been so longstanding, it was still difficult for Sam to adjust to the change that had made him almost a part of the family rather than the older man trying to take Stoner’s daughter.

“I…my farm,” he protested, trying to dig his way out.

“All taken care of,” Stoner finished as he entered the room. “Carter and my hands will get your herd and your horses tended. I also talked to your hired man. He’s about cleared with his doctor. The neighbor kid said he can help out extra too.”

Sam looked at Stoner.

“I don’t know how to thank you.”

“Just get better so you can find my daughter, Sam,” Stoner rumbled. “She needs you a whole lot more than she needs the rest of us.”

Sam swallowed. It eased some of the guilt he’d been feeling. That Stoner would even make that kind of statement was an admission of just how far his relationship with Erin had progressed.

Sam didn’t want to admit it, but he was tiring. Everything on him ached abominably. He knew he needed to rest, but he was afraid that would never happen. Images of Erin tormented him every time he started to relax. The thought she might be injured or frightened tore at him. As tough as she was, she was still no match for a gun. And the idea of someone shooting her made his nerves crawl with impatience to be up and out of bed. He had promised to protect her, but he hadn’t.

Evan was going through what they had discovered about her two friends to update him, but Sam was having a hard time concentrating.

She was so feisty, but she was also tiny. Someone with any size could hurt or break her so easily, and she was too assertive not to fight back. Then there were her emotional reserves. Sam wasn’t sure how deep those ran yet. He recalled the brittle young woman who’d shown up at the country club last fall. She had been more than halfway to having a serious addiction problem, but she’d overcome that. Sure she’d changed a lot, but it wasn’t that long ago that she’d stood in that guesthouse too scared to go into dinner with her own family. Just how much pain or temptation could she stand?

“Sam? Did you hear me?”

He looked back to Evan and passed a hand over his eyes. “I’m sorry… Lord, Ev, I can’t get her out of my mind.”

“Do you know if she’d heard anything more from the guys from her ship…Captain Rick and Matty?”

“No, she hasn’t heard from them.”

“Are you sure?”

Sam glared at Evan. “I’m positive.”

Evan’s phone vibrated and he pulled it from his pocket. When Jenny frowned at him, he shrugged.

“Yeah. This is Evan.”

He listened for several minutes, then jammed it back into his pocket.

“Jim caught up with Rick Nelson at the hotel where he and Matty have been staying. Jim’s just finished questioning Rick. They’re checking his story right now. He claims he’d gone to the coast to talk to a charter captain there about buying a boat, and he just got back into town tonight. Said Matty was supposedly checking out some late season skiing in West Virginia, but should have been back today. There’s no sign of him at their hotel room, and his belongings are gone.”

“Matty’s who I saw.” Sam’s voice was grim.

“You’re sure?”

“Positive. I didn’t see anybody else before I blacked out, but I heard another voice. Someone else was with him.”

“You think it was Rick?”

“No. The voice was different. Colder. Didn’t have that smoky quality Rick’s voice has.”

“You think it was the drug dealer?”

Sam sighed. “I can’t come up with anyone else, Evan. Erin was scared of the guy. Damn… What was the name? Delancey…Delacourt. Delacroix. That’s it. Delacroix!” Sam tried to sit up. Now that he’d remembered the guy’s name, there were so many things they needed to follow up on.

“Whoa there,” Jenny barked, moving in to ease him back against the bed. “Sam, you’ve got to get some rest. Evan can make sure everyone follows up on the guy. If you continue to show improvement, I’ll move you out of ICU in the morning, but tonight, I want you to get some sleep.”

How the hell was he supposed to do that? His mind was in turmoil and he couldn’t calm himself.

“You want me to give you something?” Jenny arched a slender blond brow, as if she sensed where his thoughts had gone.

“No.” The last thing he wanted was to be drugged up if something developed. “I’ll settle down. That’s all I can promise.”

After she ushered everyone out, Sam closed his eyes. He had seen the fear and concern on all their faces and knew it was echoed in his own. His uninjured hand clenched the covers.
Oh Erin, baby, I’ll find you. Just hang on!
Sam glared at the tubes and wires attached to him. They were as effective as handcuffs. If he even attempted to remove one of them, it would set off alarms and bring nurses running.

He would wait until they moved him. He could wait for that, and then he was outta there. He didn’t care if he had to walk out in a hospital gown with his ass hanging out in the breeze. He was going to find Erin and bring her home. No matter what had happened, he would bring her home where she could be safe with him.

He swallowed thickly. He wouldn’t fail a second time.

* * * *

“I see you’ve decided to come around.”

Erin opened her eyes. Andre sat on a chair nearby. She was in a heap on the floor, but not the same floor as before, and the tape was gone.

“Go to hell.” Erin glared at her captor.

He grabbed her hair and pulled her into a sitting position. “You’re in a bad spot to take that kind of tone. It’s a shame. Guess I could put the tape back over that mouth, but I can think of so many better uses for it. Besides, we’ve moved accommodations, so even you screaming won’t help you now. My resourceful companion found this for me.” Andre paused to cast an arm around the room. “Not my taste, but then trailer trash has never been my thing. Still, this will do until I can get everything settled. Then we will discuss your future.”

He paused and smiled at her, his pale eyes cold despite what she was sure was meant to be a pleasant expression.

“You should thank me, you know. Originally I intended to simply kill you and rid myself of the inconvenience of having someone who had heard too much about my family’s business. However, the little show you and your lover put on last night has convinced me you have some other, more useful purposes. That was a magnificent blowjob you gave him. I look forward to getting one.”

Andre smiled again, and Erin’s stomach rolled. He had seen her with Sam. Just the thought he had watched her and Sam make love was bad enough, but that he imagined she would ever touch him in the same way was insane.

“Ah… I see you think you would never do that, but you will darling, because you’re about to develop a serious drug habit, and with me as your only supplier, you’re going to find you’ll do anything for a fix, including sucking my cock or anything else I dream up. And I can promise you I’m endlessly inventive.”

“You’re crazy,” Erin spat at him. He was even sicker than all the rumors she had heard, and there had been plenty of talk in some of the dives Rick and his crew frequented. Erin had heard tales of Andre’s penchant for roughing up women, not to mention the fact she was fairly certain Andre had been branching out recently. “Besides, what do you need me for? You’ve got Matty. Did you let him suck you last night?”

The crazy light in Andre’s eyes hardened into something even uglier. He slapped her hard enough to snap her head sideways. “You will have to learn to keep your mouth shut. It’s you who may go back to St. Thomas with me, bitch, not him. But only if you learn to keep quiet and do what you’re told. Otherwise, there are plenty of dense woods behind this place where no one will find your body for a long, long time.”

Erin ducked her head. The sheer force of his reaction told her a lot. She had suspected something more had gone on aboard the
Sprite
than just Andre riding as a passenger. She had heard them on deck late one night after she had gone to bed, heard the moans of passion, and guessed what was going on. Rick and the rest of the crew had always thought it fun to seduce men, especially the ones who so vehemently insisted they were straight. Matty, in particular, always laughed afterward that the ones who protested the most also moaned the loudest.

If Matty wasn’t going back to the island with him, what was he going to do? More importantly, what did Rick know about all of this? Erin felt as if her heart were breaking. Rick had been her best friend, almost like a father, though she never would have said that to him. To imagine he knew was enough to crush her spirit. But how could she think otherwise? Matty obviously did, and she couldn’t imagine him doing anything without Rick telling him. When tears clouded her vision at the idea of such a betrayal, she shook her head to clear them. She would not let them see her cry. Not ever again.

She lifted her head to glare at Andre. “I will never thank you. You’re scum.”

He hit her again, this time drawing blood when the blow split her lip. He put his face close to hers and snarled, “You’ll thank me, and you’ll beg me.”

Erin started to snap something back, but instead kept her mouth shut. She already felt like a punching bag, her lip split and her cheek swollen from his blows. In addition, there was a throbbing where she’d hit her head when she fell.

Her thoughts slipped to Sam, but she forced that picture away. Sam was dead. She’d seen it. Oh God. Erin felt the emptiness again, a vast chasm with no bottom. How could she handle that huge hole?

You’re about to develop a serious drug habit.

Andre’s words came back to her. It wasn’t as frightening as it first seemed, and probably not as frightening as Andre intended it to be. In some way, she’d been self-medicating most of her life. Not relying on anything was the novelty. Falling back on her old habits would fill the emptiness of a life with no Sam in it. If she never had to think or feel again, then maybe she could forget Sam was dead. Maybe if they calculated wrong, she’d overdose. Good-bye, Erin. Good-bye pain.

“Where’s Matty?” Erin finally asked after Andre shoved her into a chair at a scarred kitchen table.

“Gone. You don’t need to worry about him anymore.”

“What do you mean gone?” Her heart tightened. Sure, she knew Matty had betrayed her, but he had been a friend. She wouldn’t put anything past Delacroix. He’d already shot Sam in cold blood, so getting rid of Matt and Rick was logical. Erin sucked in a shaky breath. She didn’t want to be next. As long as she was breathing there was hope she could get away, and when she did, she would make sure Andre paid.

Andre popped the lid on a can of beans and pushed it in front of her. Erin kept her expression impassive even though the cold beans made her want to puke.

“Did you kill him?” She tried to keep her tone nonchalant, as if she didn’t care one way or the other, but she wasn’t sure she’d managed it.

“Shut up and eat. Like I’ve already told you, you’ll be a whole lot better off, darling, if you’ll learn to keep that mouth of yours shut other than when I tell you to open it. I’ve got plenty of uses for it, none of which involve you talking.”

Erin looked at the room temperature beans in front of her and forced back the bile rising in her throat. He had untied her hands, but had one of her arms cuffed to the table leg. Knowing she would only make him angry if she didn’t eat something, she picked up her spoon and shoved a mouthful of beans inside. Andre watched her like a hawk.

“I’ve got a little dessert for you after dinner.”

At first she thought he meant sex, that he would force her into some of the kinky stuff she’d heard he liked, but then she realized he had a syringe sitting on the counter just behind him. Erin didn’t want to plead. She’d done so well getting clean. As easy as it would be to give in to the oblivion of getting high to help her forget what had happened to Sam, she didn’t want to do that. She had worked too hard to crumble now. After two more shaky attempts to eat, she tossed the spoon down.

“I’m not hungry.”

Andre smiled. “Then it’s time for dessert. You’ll really love this. I promise.”

She tried to fight when he came at her with the needle, but with one hand chained to the table, it was easy enough for him to grab the other and jerk it behind her. She knew the drug he was using. It was a popular one in the club scene, and there was no need to find a vein. Ketamine in the muscle was just as effective. If he used enough, it was effective as a date rape drug. It could also be addictive.

“No,” she whispered. “Please don’t.” She hated to beg. Hated it. She tried once again, to jerk away, but succeeded only in wrenching her shoulder. Andre laughed. With the ease of long practice, he pushed her sleeve up and plunged the drug home.

“You’ll like it, baby,” Andre breathed in her ear. “You won’t give a shit what happens once you’ve been high a couple times. You’ll just want more. Then we’ll play.”

She stared unseeingly at the paneled walls of the trailer. As the drug took effect, she felt unreal, as if she were no longer a part of her body. The pain was gone and she was floating. He was right. This was all right.

None of it seemed real to her any more, and if it wasn’t real, then that meant Sam was still alive. Soon, they would eat dinner and curl up on the couch together. She would burrow under his shoulder and lean her head against his muscular chest. His arm would curve around her shoulders and his hand would stroke her arm. They would stay that way for a while until he kissed her. Then as their kisses deepened, he would take her clothes off. They would touch each other.

“That’s it, baby,” a voice came from a distance. “Touch yourself for me.”

That wasn’t Sam. Erin bumped back to earth with a jolt, found her hand between her legs, and Andre staring at her. When she noticed the bulge in his trousers, she began to scream. He slapped her, but she hardly felt it. Rage and frustration made her thrash against the cuff on her wrist. The chair tipped out from under her and Erin slammed to the floor.