Untamed: Duty Bound Book 3 (24 page)

“Stone is busy rounding up drunken patrons and I locked your canine monster in the bathroom.” His jacket was open, flaunting his gun. “You’re lucky I didn’t shoot him for ripping my pants.”

Snowflake was a
her
, not a
him
. For reasons she couldn’t fathom, his ignorance irked her. “What do you want?”

“I want the envelope Stone stole from my desk, the one with…” He picked up the piece of paper from the floor, glanced at it, scrunched it into a ball, and then tossed it at the fireplace. “The one with the paternity test. I won’t let Stone consort with you to bring shame on Terri Abbott.”

“What?” Hannah questioned the accuracy of her
lip reading
, but regardless of what she might have misunderstood, she had the uncanny feeling the constable wouldn’t appreciate learning the innocent widow masqueraded as a burglar at night. “What shame? The result was negative.”

A lot of fuss was created over a negative result. As long as she kept Cooper talking, there was a chance Avery would come home and put an end to this nonsense.

“You knew all along Abbott wasn’t the father.” His cold stare locked on her, Cooper took a step toward her. “Where’s your boy?”

Images of her son juxtaposed with memories of Avery’s encounter in the shed. His expression had softened.
Rory is alive, Hannah, and he’s safe. I didn’t mean to scare you into thinking something had happened to him in the explosion.
These words had caressed his lips. At the time, they’d held no significance for her. Tonight, they meant everything. She would be damned if she let anyone touch her son. “Rory is gone.”

“Then he won’t miss you, will he?”

Unsettled by the peculiar glint in his eyes, she skidded along the couch to the end and bumped her elbow on the side table. A lamp was on top, within reach. She gripped it, and as she leapt to her feet and aimed, her gaze met the end of a gun barrel.

“Put the lamp down. Slowly.”

She uncurled her fingers. Slowly—as he’d requested. The lamp shattered on the floor.
A sign of struggle, Avery.

His eyes narrowed to two dark slits, Cooper holstered his gun. “You give me the paternity test, I leave, and you can clean up the mess.”

“I don’t know where Avery put it.” As she spoke, she inched toward the fireplace. Greta’s hunting knives were on the mantle, the closest one an arm’s length away. “Why don’t you go ask him?”

“This isn’t a game.”

He lurched at her. Forsaken the knife, she spun around, raised her fist, and swung. A jarring blow to her side sent her crashing to the floor, thwarting her counterattack. He jammed her arm behind her back, and in an agonizing twist, pulled her up to her feet.

Tears of pain and anger pooled in her eyes. “Let go of me, Cooper.”

One of his hands cupped her chin, forcing her to look at him.

“I’m tired of being rejected, Parker. You slept with Abbott under his wife’s nose and you tried to pin your son on him. When that backfired, you seduced Stone. You’re nothing but a piece of trash ready for…”

As the implication sank in, she lost focus. This couldn’t be true. Whoever Hannah Parker had been, she wasn’t her.
I would never do the things she’s accused of doing.
“No!”

Assailed by conflicting emotions, she thrust her knee forward, connecting with his inflated manhood. His fingers pressed into her cheeks, Cooper shoved her toward the fireplace. She tripped over the tool set and kicked a bucket. Ashes rose into the air.

Spitting and coughing, she lost her balance. He gripped her hand, crushing her bones. Something snapped, and serrated pain seared through her ring finger.

Her vision became blurry. She tumbled into oblivion.

***

Cooper had been seen at the bar earlier on, and upon his departure, a brawl had erupted.

Dozens of arrests and interviews later, Avery wasn’t any closer to identifying the instigators or to determining if Cooper had said or done anything to incense them. Nobody knew anything, heard anything, or did anything, including the owner acting as bartender who faced damage worth thousands of dollars.

Most of them deserved to spend the night sobering up in a cell, but Avery had no interest in babysitting them all night or cleaning up their mess in the morning. He released them on their own recognizance and drove home.

Lights filtered through the covered windows. He slid his key into the keyhole and turned. When his key met no resistance and didn’t generate any click, he tensed. As impetuous as Hannah might be, she wasn’t careless. She wouldn’t have left the door unlocked. Listening for sounds that didn’t belong, Avery entered with caution. He froze at the entrance of the kitchen. The cupboards and drawers were open, their contents tossed on the counter and the floor.

Hannah…
Her name on his lips, he drew his gun before moving to the other rooms.

In the living room, a lamp had shattered on the floor and the ash bucket had been pushed in a corner, upside down. The tong, poker, brush, shovel, and tool stand were basked in a pool of ashes, along with one of Greta’s knives and a scrunched up ball of paper. He picked up the latter and unfolded it.

Bloody hell.
The information Reed had gleaned on Hannah belonged in his desk, not on his floor. How the sheet of paper ended up here didn’t matter. If Hannah read she had a son…

She’ll never forgive me for the omission and she’ll never trust me again.
This wasn’t how he’d intended to break the news to her. Regardless of the circumstances surrounding her discovery, he couldn’t imagine her thrashing his home in retaliation. He tore the paper and tossed the pieces into the fireplace.
That wasn’t meant for Hannah’s or anyone else’s eyes.

The other two knives he’d taken from Greta’s cave were on the mantle where he’d left them. Whoever ransacked his house hadn’t been looking for the knife. It left only one other document worth breaking in and searching for.
The evidence Abbott had taped under the seat of his truck before he died.

Avery had loosened the baseboards in his bedroom closet and stashed the envelope about Noel Foley’s shoplifting arrest under the carpeted floor.

His bedroom was as messy as the other rooms. When he patted the carpet, he felt a slight lump. That piece of evidence was safe, which still didn’t give him any insights into Hannah’s disappearance.

So far, there was no blood anywhere, and aside from the broken lamp by the couch, no sign of an obvious struggle. If Hannah saw the perpetrator come in, she would have hidden.

Strange whimpers reached his ears. He followed it to the bathroom, the only room he hadn’t searched yet. Something was scratching at the door.

“Snowflake? Is that you?” The moaning stopped and was replaced by strong barking. “Hold on, girl.” He holstered his gun before opening the door. As soon as the gap grew wide enough, his little female companion squeezed through and jumped on him. “I’m glad to see you too.”

Squatting in the doorway, he scratched Snowflake behind the ears while scanning the bathroom. The shower curtain was bunched up at one end, and the tub was empty. “Where’s your mistress?”

The perpetrator may have kidnapped her with the intent of using her as a bargaining chip.
If he touches a hair on her head, I’ll kill him.

Anger led to mistakes. H, and he couldn’t afford any, not with Hannah’s life on the line. With great effort, Avery reined in his emotions. It was also possible she fled outside. If anything, Hannah was resourceful. He’d learned of her survival skills the painful way.

“You stay here, girl. I need to check for tracks.”

Snowflake zoomed away, barking. Hope that Hannah might have returned surged in Avery’s chest. He rounded the corner of the hallway.

A wild yelp of agony welcomed him in the kitchen.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

A cold, wet cloth wiping her face roused Hannah’s senses. As she regained consciousness, the details of the attack resurfaced.

Her eyes flew open, and she recoiled, only to muffle a scream of agony when a fire ignited inside her hand.

“Your finger is broken. If I were you, I wouldn’t move my hand.”

Cooper’s consideration was overwhelming. “Get away from me.”

He dropped the facecloth on her lap, then leaned against the shower stall. “Do you know where women like you end up?”

No, and she didn’t care. No woman was supposed to be handcuffed to a water pipe under a sink with her back against a toilet bowl. This was disgusting. “Where am I?”

“In a quiet place.” That he seemed calm and comfortable suggested the bathroom was familiar territory. “Stone is going to worry sick about you. By morning, he’ll be ready to trade the paternity test for you. He’s such a pathetic loser.”

The only loser was the one who broke her finger and showed little respect for the law.

“That’s kidnapping and extortion, Cooper.” The constable’s behavior didn’t bode well for her safety. “You won’t get away with this.”

“You’re not too bright, so let me spell it out for you.” A smirk blossomed on his face, irking her more than the insult. “In his official report, Stone declared you and your boy missing. If I tell the sergeant that Stone disguised you and kept you in his home for his personal pleasure, his career is over. He’ll spend the rest of his life behind bars. Stone has no choice. He has to buy my silence.” A predatory glint shone in his eyes. “And so do you.”

Recoiling farther between the toilet and the sink, she pulled on the handcuff and shrieked in pain. To her dismay, her injured finger couldn’t bear the slightest effort. “Touch me, and I’ll kill you.”

“Don’t worry, Parker. I never forced myself on a woman, and I’m not about to start with you. If you care for Stone, you’ll come to me willing.”

“Over my dead body.”

“Hookers like you turn up dead in dumpsters every day. You—” A frown creased his forehead quickly replaced by a smile as he looked at his cell phone.

Cooper turned his back to her to answer, but to her surprise, he didn’t leave the room.
He doesn’t care if I listen.
His careless attitude was another bad sign for her. She caught his reflection in the mirror. Words flew from his mouth. To her amazement, she understood.

“You’re still awake—Of course I want to see you.” His chest expanded and an air of satisfaction enveloped him. “Give me ten minutes. Bye.”

Blood raced through Hannah’s body, and the tip of her good fingers pulsed in anticipation of his departure.

Presenting her with his arrogant face once more, he crouched by her side. “I have a date, but I’ll be back. You’re lucky the neighbors are gone, or I’d gag you. Feel free to scream.”

Defiance contracted her muscles. She kicked him in the shin with her boot. “Go to hell.”

He drew back, glaring. “I will tame you, Parker. One way or another.”

The threat resonated in her head long after he slammed the door.

It could have been worse. He could have turned the lights off.
In the dark, she would have struggled removing the elbow drainpipe. Anyone with basic plumbing knowledge would never hook up a prisoner under a sink.

Lucky for me, Cooper, you’re not a handyman.
The plastic pipes, made of ABS, were covered with a thin layer of dust. She clasped the slip nut with her free hand which thankfully wasn’t the one with a broken digit. Clenching her teeth, she twisted it.
Come on.
Using her body as leverage, she toiled to loosen the nut.

Sweat pooled between her shoulder blades and heat flushed her face. Cooper had dressed her with one of Avery’s coats and her boots, but before incarcerating her, he hadn’t bothered removing them, a mistake his leg probably regretted. While she relished the bruise she’d inflicted with her boot, she wished for one less layer on her back.

Twist. Come on.
The nut shifted by a few degrees, and the small gain energized her endeavor.
We’re getting there.
Under the pressure, the nut suddenly gave way. As Hannah hassled to unscrew it, brownish, slimy liquid dripped from the pipe.

The disgusting goo that coated her fingers morphed her animosity toward the sleazy constable into full-blown hatred.

***

Avery stopped dead on the linoleum floor.

The man whose picture had popped onto his computer screen earlier in the evening had a rifle pointing at Avery’s chest and a boot crushing Snowflake’s paw.

“Reach for your gun, and you’re dead.” The deep baritone threat was accompanied by another agonizing screech.

“Let the dog go, Victor. That’s cruelty.”

When the disfigured man showed no emotion, Avery feared he might not harbor any.

“If you insist.” Young lifted his boot and kicked Snowflake across the kitchen floor, substantiating Avery’s theory he was dealing with a psychopath.

“Pointing a gun at a RCMP officer is a crime, Victor.” Reminding Young of what he undoubtedly knew bought Avery precious seconds to think up a plan. “Put the rifle down, then you can tell me what you want.”

“You have something that belongs to me.”

From the corner of his eye, Avery caught movement on his left. He instinctively raised his arm. The blow hit his chest, knocking the wind out of him.

***

The wind slapped Hannah’s face and the snow stuck to her hair. While she’d freed herself from captivity, a storm had arisen.

She raised the collar of her coat to cover her ears before carefully digging her bare hands into her pockets.
The cold may be good for the swelling, but a pair of gloves and a hat would have been nicer.
Afraid Cooper might return, she hadn’t taken the time to search the closets for suitable winter accessories. She now silently cursed her speedy exit.

Except for some porch lights and a few lampposts, the neighborhood was quiet and dark which facilitated her escape. A map of the area formed in her mind. Though she couldn’t name the streets, she knew exactly where she headed. Around the next intersection was her brother’s clinic.

A green Hummer parked near the side door of the clinic beckoned her to enter and go down a flight of stairs. Halfway down, a crack appeared on the wall. It ran up, reaching the light fixture at the junction of the ceiling.
I’ve been here. Often.