Divine Phoenix (36 page)

* * * *

Friday night, Lily stood in front of the bathroom mirror at Del’s house, getting ready for Jack’s birthday party. Lily smiled and let loose a deep, luxuriant sigh as she recalled the way they’d loved her the night before. She’d awakened with stiff muscles in the same position she’d been in as she drifted off.

She applied a second, thin layer of mascara, glossed her lips, and put on her earrings as Del appeared in the mirror’s reflection. He stood in the bathroom doorway and leaned against it as he gave her backside an appreciative head-to-toe inspection. She quivered when he reached out and caressed her ass, which was unfortunately covered already in a pair of snug-fitting dark denim blue jeans. Not satisfied with that simple, arousing touch, he made eye contact with her in the mirror as he pressed close behind her, pinning her to the bathroom countertop.

“Lookin’ sexy in them jeans, cowgirl.” His voice was a husky, growly sound, and her pussy responded with a rush of heat and wetness.

His starched emerald-green button-down shirt intensified his gray-green eyes, and she felt a wave of longing descend over her at the hot look he gave her. “Cowboy, you keep looking at me like that and we’re never gonna get out of here.”

Del’s forearms snaked around her hips, and he pressed his palm against her mound. He rubbed his fingertips over her covered pussy, and her juices wet her panties as he rubbed his hard erection against her lower back. “Know what I want?”

“Two uninterrupted hours?”

Del tilted his head to lightly flick the sensitive spot beneath her ear with the tip of his tongue. “That’s part of it. I want you between me and Clay again. Tonight. Think you’re up for that?”

Tension curled in her core at the thought, and her pussy convulsed in excitement as she imagined it. “U–Um, yes. I’d love it.”

Del stroked her hips as he looked at her in the mirror. “I know what we’re asking of you, Lily. If we ever push you for that and you’re not in the mood, all you have to do is tell us. We are the luckiest men in the world that you’re willing to do that but I want you to know you’re not obligated if you don’t feel like it.”

Lily nodded. “I’ll try to remember that but I really am on board for tonight.”

Del kissed her temple and smiled. “Just making sure. I know you push yourself pretty hard. I can’t wait to show you off tonight.”

Lily blushed at his words and cupped his cheek as she watched him in the mirror. He made her feel beautiful, desirable, and powerful.

“I need to go check on Sargent before we leave for the evening and lock up the other buildings.” Del had accepted a delivery of feed and other supplies from Cunningham’s Feed Store earlier that day. “No sense in tempting fate.”

Lily nodded and watched him through the doorway as he sauntered away. His tight butt was sonnet-worthy. When he was out of earshot, she murmured, “I’ll bet I could bounce a quarter on that ass. Mmm!”

The closing of the backdoor was punctuated by the ringing of her cell phone. Wondering who it was, Lily peered at the caller ID and froze when she recognized the number.

JT.

Lily’s heart lurched in her chest, and she had to swallow before she could speak. “Hello?”

“Listen hard, you unfaithful bitch. I’ll talk slow so you’ll understand—” His hateful voice abraded her nerve endings.

“How did you get this number?”

“Shut the fuck up and listen. I have your old man. I’m at your house on Bluestem in Divine. You come to me right now. If you’re not here in ten minutes, he’s dead.”

“But I’m over ten minutes from town
right now
.” Panic sent a chilling wave of gooseflesh over her, and she felt shaky as adrenaline dumped into her bloodstream.

“Well then, you’d better hurry, hadn’t you? And you’d better be alone, too. If I see a hint of either of those two sons of bitches you’ve been fucking, I blow a hole in your dad’s head. Ten minutes.”

“Wait! Let me talk—”

The line went dead before she could ask to talk to her dad. She looked at the phone and thought about calling him back. But time was wasting and she knew he wasn’t kidding about giving her no more than ten minutes. JT never gave an inch on anything.

She considered telling Del but knew JT was serious about her coming alone. As a concession, she left Del a note on the kitchen table. If JT got his hands on her, he’d be more interested in punishing her than in killing her. That might buy her time, and she knew her men would come after her. But boy, were they going to be mad.

Grabbing her purse and keys, she ran out the door. Another layer of fear was added to what she already felt when she looked at the sky. The wind was buffeting clouds quickly across the sullen, dark gray expanse, and she had to fight the urge to go back inside. It looked like it was going to start to rain soon, and she hummed with the beginning of panic when she heard the rumble of distant thunder.

The urge to not be alone when storms threatened made her want Del beside her, but she couldn’t put her dad in greater danger. The note she’d left was detailed and, convincing herself that they would know what to do, she acted to save her dad. She threw her purse in her little Mazda and took off.

It wasn’t until she was at the turn onto the highway that she realized in her haste she’d left her cell phone on the kitchen table. It was a stupid thing to do, but she was already losing time and couldn’t afford to go back for it. Plus, if Del was back at the house, he’d never let her go.

She kept a fearful eye toward the sky as she obliterated the speed limit and was thankful that she didn’t get pulled over along the way. She slowed on her way through town and heaved a shaky, terrified sigh as she pulled onto the driveway of her childhood home. JT’s white work truck was parked by the newly leveled porch. A gust of wind swept dry leaves across the driveway and into the air. The sky had grown considerably darker, and the temperature had dropped.

“I can do this. I can do this. Don’t be scared.”

There was an involuntary quiver in her voice, and waves of gooseflesh shimmered over her skin as she climbed from her car. Her legs almost gave out, and she had to brace herself on the car door for a few seconds before she could move. She resisted the urge to flatten out against the ground when she heard another closer rumble of thunder.

Reminding herself she was stronger now, she approached the house, fighting the instinctive flight impulse. It didn’t make a difference that they hadn’t watched the forecast and known the weather was going to do this, she’d still be here. It terrified her even more to know that JT would use her astraphobia to his advantage.

The scent of fresh lumber and paint filled her nostrils as she walked across the front porch to the door. Not bothering with the key, she turned the knob and stepped into the dark living room.

She paused for a second, trying to hear over the pounding of her heart beat in her ears. She called out for the only person she wanted to see right now. “Daddy?”

She felt eyes on her, and a horrific wave of terror ravaged her senses as a hateful voice whispered next to her ear, “There’s no one here but me, Lily.”

A fraction of a second later, the old paralysis washed over her as his big hand gathered her hair in a fist at the base of her neck, sending shooting pains all over her body. Her scalp was tremendously sensitive, and he had used it as a means to punish and control her over the years.

“You cut your hair. Add that to the list of things I need to punish you for.” He shook her by the grip on her hair as he drew her to him so that they were face-to-face.

“What do you want from me, JT?”

“Oh,” he said with a long, gusty, smelly sigh right in her face. “It’s a long list, but at the top of it is you making this divorce go away. Then we’re going to go home and pick up right where we left off, which was with you already in dire need of punishment.”

“Why? Why do you want me back? Why?” It was a pointless question to ask. None of his reasons could make this okay, and it would only get him monologuing, which she hated.

“Mostly because of the money you’re fixing to inherit. But also because I know it’s exactly what you don’t want, so I want to give it to you. You owe me for this merry chase you’ve led me on and the hassle you’ve put me through with those fucking lawyers.”

“Where is my father?”

“For all I know, snoring away in his easy chair, back in Durst.”

Lily’s anxiety eased slightly when she realized her father was in no immediate danger but then doubled when she realized she was alone…with a sadistic lunatic.

“Now, we’re gonna go for a little ride.” Yanking her by the hair, he hauled her out the door

* * * *

Seth Carter walked out of his garage, wiping his hands on a rag after finishing up work on his 2010 Harley Softail Custom. He and a friend were taking a ride the following afternoon. He looked up at the ominous sky and hoped that the thunderstorm forecasted for tonight didn’t ruin their plans.

A female voice drew his attention. Something about the voice was familiar. He looked around and pinpointed where it had come from, a few empty lots down from the house he’d just bought. He heard her voice again and knew something was wrong. The woman sounded scared. Stepping up on his porch he looked more closely and recognized her.

He made long strides, covering the distance to the house they had come from. The man had Lily Valentine by the hair, evidently not realizing he was being observed. Seth recalled Lily’s explanation the day he’d met her. Tears had filled her eyes and made his heart ache as she’d fought an inner battle before admitting her tattoo was a slave tattoo. Whether it was officially a slave tattoo or not was irrelevant when the fact was that she’d received it without her blessing and hated the horrible mark.

He was willing to bet the son of a bitch dragging her across the porch by a fistful of her hair was her ex-husband. The bastard had a lot of nerve doing that in broad daylight and must have thought that nobody was home next door because he’d been in the garage with his motorcycle the whole time.

Lily spoke, and while he couldn’t understand her words, he could hear the pleading and fear in her tone as the asshole pushed her roughly into the white truck.

He came within a few yards of the truck and called out, “Hey! Everything okay here? I heard yelling. What are you doing with her?” Lily looked out the passenger window at him, and her eyes grew big, round, and even more scared, and she shook her head at Seth as the man scowled over the roof of the truck at him. She put her finger to her lips. “What’s going on?” He didn’t let on that he knew Lily.

“Nothing, mister, just a lover’s quarrel between me and my wife,” the tall, powerful-looking bastard grated out in a nasty, asking-for-trouble voice.

Lily rolled down her window. “It’s nothing, mister. We were just arguing.” Her eyes were enormous and she looked beyond terrified, and Seth was surprised she was able to communicate as calmly as she did. She mouthed, “
Call Del
,” then out loud, she said, “We’re just on our way home. Nothing for you to worry about, really.”

“What are you doing at this house?” Seth asked Lily, trying to press home the point that he didn’t know her.

“Just looking in the windows, mister. Wondered if it was for sale and we got in a fight about paint colors.” Lily looked behind her and whispered to the man in desperate tones as he reached behind the seat for something. When she turned back to Seth, she said, “We’re sorry.”

She rolled the window back up, but he could hear the pleading in her tone even though it was muffled by the glass as she spoke quickly. The bastard stood back up and looked satisfied, like he enjoyed terrifying her. Seth had a feeling there was probably a loaded weapon in the man’s hands which was hidden from view. She reached out and pleaded again.

The evil-looking bastard grinned. “No harm, no foul. Have a good evenin’.”

Seth nodded and backed away like he was satisfied. The cold wind sent a gust of leaves around him, and he brushed his long hair from his face as he watched the truck back from the driveway, leaving her Mazda behind.

One thing was certain. The man with Lily was probably her ex-husband and she’d just sacrificed herself to keep him from getting hurt. As the truck drove off and turned the corner, he watched the man grab Lily by the hair again and bash her head once against the window frame of the truck door, and then she disappeared from sight. Seth sprinted to the house as fast as his legs could carry him while pulling up Del’s phone number.

* * * *

Clay groaned inwardly as Tabitha climbed into the front passenger seat of his F-150. Being in an enclosed space with her cat-hair-infested cardigan was just what he needed right now. Luckily he’d remembered the inhaler and had used the nose spray before they left the shop, hoping that might hold a full-blown allergy attack at bay long enough to get her home.

Moments after he’d let her out the back door she’d knocked again and told him her car wouldn’t start. With the unexpected thunderstorm on its way, it wasn’t safe for her to walk home and it wouldn’t have been very gentlemanly of him to allow her to do that anyway. So he’d agreed to drop her off at home.

His phone rang in his pocket as he pulled out of his parking space, and he hit the button on his steering wheel and answered the call via the truck’s Bluetooth system. “Clay Cook.”

“Clay, it’s Del! Where are you right now?” Del’s tone was serious and brooked no kidding around, which was unlike him.

“I’m taking Tabitha home. Her car wouldn’t start. Why?”

“I just got a call from Seth Carter. He lives near the old house on Bluestem Street. Seth said he saw Lily being dragged by her hair out of the house by a man who fits JT King’s description.”

Clay barely noticed when Tabitha gasped in shock.

Del continued, “And I just found a note from Lily lying on the kitchen table next to her cell phone. She said JT told her that he had her dad and had instructed her to come alone. She thinks he’s trying to force her to stop the divorce. Seth said he’s pretty sure that King is armed.”

Clay gripped the wheel and wanted to pound it at the helplessness he felt. “Son of a bitch! Did she say anything to Seth, try to warn him?”

“Seth said she acted like she’d never met him. He said she looked terrified and when they were driving off JT hit her head against the window frame to knock her out. She must’ve tried to fight him. Seth said she told him they were going home.”

“That would be Durst.”

“There’s only one road to take if you’re heading to Durst. Where are you?”

Clay pulled out of the parking lot and sped toward the highway. “I’m headed that direction. Del, whatever he has planned, the storm is going to make it even worse. There’s no telling what he’ll do to her. He may even kill her.”

“Well, but…” Tabitha blurted out but then slammed her lips shut and gulped when Clay looked at her. Of all the times for her to run her mouth this wasn’t one of them, and he was grateful when she decided to keep her trap shut.

“Don’t worry, Tabitha, I’ll get you home as soon as I can.”

He pulled out a handkerchief as his nose began to tickle. At least it wasn’t as bad as it would’ve been if he hadn’t remembered the preventive medications. This was a fine time to be having a sneezing fit. His heart tripped as he thought of what could possibly be happening to Lily at the moment.

Over the sound system, Del spoke. “What did you say, Clay?”

“Nothing, Tabitha’s in the truck with me. I was saying something to her.”

“She’s in for a wild ride, I guess.”