KIDNAPPED, A Romantic Suspense Novel (15 page)

Great. His state of partial dress left little doubt to her brothers what had just occurred between them. Now they had more reason to put holes in him.

“Matt! Put down the gun.” She struggled against Luke.

“Be quiet, Sami,” Matt ordered her without taking his eyes off Jake. “This guy’s dangerous.” Matt moved to one side, giving Jake two targets, instead of one.

She pushed against Luke again. “Stop it. Someone is going to get hurt.” Her eyes locked with Jake’s. She read both betrayal and resignation written there. “Please, Jake. They’re my brothers.”

“I figured that out, sweetheart.”

Sarcasm dripped from his cold voice. His anger flowed over her from across the room like a mental slap. Her heart froze with the pain of it. He thought she’d set him up. Desperation pushed her to fight Luke, harder.

“Sami, stay still,” her brother whispered in her ear, grappling to hold her back.

She reached around and grabbed him in the one spot where her youngest brother was ticklish, and pinched. At the same time her heel came down on his instep. He released her.

Sami jumped into the center of the room, directly between Jake and her brothers. She faced two of her three brothers, the heros of her past, with her back to Jake. The man had just shown her pleasure like she’d never known. She’d be damned if she’d let these two idiots put another hole in him.

“Sami, get down!” Matt ordered.

“What are you doing?” Luke looked at her, then to Matt.

“Samantha, get out of the way.” Jake ordered her from behind.

Oh great, a room full of testosterone.

“I’m not moving, until you all,” she paused to look at each of them, “put down your weapons.”

“Sami, he’s a criminal.” Matt informed her with that by the book attitude he’d had long before becoming a law officer.

“He’s dangerous.” Luke just had to add his two cents.

“I’m not letting them arrest me, Samantha.”

She cast Jake an angry look, then turned back to fix her meanest little sister look at her brothers. Hands on her hips, she glared at them. “Look, I realize you thought I needed rescuing. But I don’t. Jake is no more dangerous to me than you guys.”

She held her ground and her breath, while her brothers exchanged looks. Never mind talking sense to Jake right now.

“Sami?” A small, frightened voice from behind Jake drew everyone’s attention to Nicky.

“Come here, Nicky.” She wrapped her arms around him, turning to glare at her brothers. “See what you’ve done. You’ve scared him. Now put those things away. Either you help us, or get out.”

Finally, her brothers looked sheepish enough. Matt slipped his weapon back in its holster. Sami, waited until they appeared calm, then turned to beseech Jake to lower his weapon, too. It took him a moment to take his focus off her brothers, but eventually he too lowered his gun.

“Now, if you guys will tell me what you’re doing here?”

“Sweetheart, that’s obvious,” Jake snarled from behind her. “This little show of yours isn’t necessary for my benefit. I haven’t figured out where you hid the phone, but somehow you called them to come rescue you and Nicky from me. Too bad they were a few hours too late to save your virtue, too.”

“Look you,” Matt lurched across the room like a charging rhino, Luke right on his heels.

Sami, too stunned by Jake’s outrageous comment, barely moved Nicky out of their path before they descended on Jake. She watched in horror as three sets of arms and legs scrambled on the floor in an all-out-battle.

They were going to tear out his stitches. Even if the big jerk deserved to have some sense knocked into him, she hated to see her work torn to shreds by their stupidity.

“Stop it.” She grabbed Luke’s belt and pulled back until his chin hit the floor. Dazed, he rolled to the side.

“Matt! Jake! I said stop…ooph,” Matt’s elbow clipped her on the head, sending her stumbling backward to land on her butt.

The two combatants froze. Jake managed to push Matt off him. He scooted across the floor, moving her hand from her forehead.

“Samantha? Are you okay?” The concern in his voice and his gentle touch as he searched her for injuries, gave her a little hope that her brothers’ appearance hadn’t completely destroyed the tenuous relationship they’d formed.

“Yes, no thanks to you guys.” She batted his hand away, then looked at his shoulder. Splotches of fresh blood spattered the white gauze. “Dammit. I knew that was going to happen. Is the male bonding period finished now? Or would you like to go a second round until there isn’t anything left of either of you for me to patch up?”

He had sense enough not to answer her question. Instead, he helped her to her feet, then over to the couch. She glared at her brothers, then held her hand out to Nicky to join them once more. Luke and Matt slumped on the opposite couch. Jake stood by the fireplace, buttoning his shirt.

“I will have to look under that bandage. Who knows what damage you did under there.” She let her gaze linger on him a moment.

He nodded. “Later.”

She switched her attention to her youngest brother. “You just had to call him didn’t you?” she said, waving her hand in Matt’s direction.

“What do you mean he just had to call me?” Matt jumped in. “You get kidnapped by this guy, the police and feds are looking for you, then in the middle of the night,
he’s
,” he pointed to Luke, “the only one you contact? You’re damn straight he had to call me.”

“I didn’t ask him to!”
There Jake, take that information and stuff it in your ear
. Sami pulled Nicky tighter into her arms. God save her from big brothers and their egos. She glanced at Jake. He looked like the poster boy for belligerence.
Make that all men
. “Look, I needed some information that Luke could obtain. If there was some other way to get it, be assured I wouldn’t have called him, either.”

“What information could Luke give you, I couldn’t get?
Police
,” Matt emphasized the word, fixing his gaze on Jake, “can usually get anything you need, little sister.”

“This is the cop?” Jake mumbled beside her.

Sami shook her head. “This one is highway patrol. The cop isn’t here,” she suddenly realized. “By the way, why isn’t big brother with you two?”

“Dave’s back in Cincinnati.” Matt crossed one leg over the other, his ankle resting on a knee. “With Judy so close to delivery, Luke and I decided to leave him out of this for now.”

Sami nodded her agreement. Their oldest brother would be highly irritated when he found out he’d been left out of the loop, but she felt he should stay with his wife and kids, too. Besides compared to Dave’s take-no-prisoners attitude, Matt appeared levelheaded and calm.

“Great,” Jake muttered, “a family full of cops.”

“Yeah, we’re cops. Apparently we take our oath to serve and protect a little more serious than you feds do.”

Sami watched Matt bluster from his seat. He’d always hated when someone on his force went bad. If he believed Jake was dirty like the news reports said, her defense of Jake was the only thing keeping her brother from attacking again.

“What did you tell them about the investigation, sweetheart?”

Sami tried not to flinch at the sarcasm Jake continued put into the endearment.

Matt surged off his chair. “One beating not enough for you, Carlisle?”

“Will you stop?” She glared at her brother, then swung around to fix the same look on Jake. “And you stop trying to antagonize them. I didn’t tell them anything. I asked Luke to find out some information for us about the Kreshnins. I can’t help it if he’s a blabber mouth.” Something she said registered positive in his brain. He smiled, actually smiled that melt-your-heart smile at her again. Would she ever understand this man?

With a soft growl, she switched her attention to Luke once more. “Besides telling this Neanderthal where I was, did you announce it to anyone else?”

Luke had the good sense to simply shake his head.

“Did you find out anything useful?”

“Who are the Kreshnins?” Matt asked.

“Boss Kreshnin, is a
chielovek ochen zloy
, very bad man.” Nicky spat the words out with so much hatred Sami’s brothers exchanged a curious look.

She wrapped her arm tighter around the little boy. “We are all going to protect you from Boss Kreshnin. You don’t have anything to worry about anymore. Okay, sweetie?”

Nicky nodded.

“Obviously there’s more going on here than we’ve been told, Sami.” Matt leaned back in his seat, relaxed for the first time since arriving. “Maybe you and Carlisle would like to fill us in?”

Sami glanced at Jake.

The look on his face suggested he’d rather die than explain things to her bothers. It also told her he didn’t plan to forgive her anytime soon. Well. Fine. She handled the impossible on a daily basis. Earning his forgiveness would rank somewhere between a fractured pelvis and a ten-car pile-up on the hard-to-handle scale. Whether he wanted it or not, right now, she and her brothers were all the help the man had.

“They can help us. I know you think of yourself as The Lone Ranger, Jake. But you’re going to need help this time. And right now, they’re all we’ve got.” She stood and took Nicky by the hand. “Now, I’m going to go change Nicky’s bandages.”

She slammed the door behind her.

“Are they going to kill, Jake, Sami?” Nicky’s frightened question stopped her in her tracks.

She stooped and grabbed him into a fierce hug. “Oh no, Nicky. They’re my stupid big brothers, but they wouldn’t hurt Jake.” At least she didn’t think so. “Let’s get those bandages off and see how things are healing.”

Nicky climbed on the bed. “Will it hurt?”

“Will it hurt, Mommy?” Aimee lay on the narrow hospital table, nearly swallowed up by the thin cotton gown, surrounded by all the sterile hospital equimpent. The nurse busily prepared the equipment for the bone marrow tap—the very first one Aimee had ever had.

Her heart tore at the thought of the pain her delicate child was about to endure, but she’d never lied to a patient. She wouldn’t start with her own daughter. She smoothed the hair from her forehead and kissed her softly. “I’m sorry, sweetie. It will hurt some.”

“Worse than when I had to take the medicine?”

Aimee hated the chemo, but had taken it without question. She hadn’t even flinched when the nurses had to replace her IVs.

“Yes, it probably will.”

Aimee had stared at her with those big brown eyes of hers, then she smiled. “I bet it won’t hurt me nearly as much as Mr. Bungles hurt when he had his arm torned off.”

She’d laughed at the memory of Aimee’s stuffed bear having his arm ripped off by her brother Dave’s dog.  Trust her daughter to find courage to face the ordeal ahead. “No, I’m sure it won’t hurt that much. I promise.”

Sami’s heart jumped into her throat. She gave Nicky the most honest answer she could. “Not near as much as it did when the Kreshnins did this to you. I promise.”

* * *

Jake watched Samantha march off to the bedroom. God she had a cute butt for a traitor. Despite his anger, his body remembered the soft warmth of her as he’d made love to her.

“Now, tell us about this mess you dragged our little sister into.” Matt emphasized the words little sister. The guy believed in driving the point home.

Jake filled them in on his undercover roll in the newly emerging Russian mafia, the shooting that led to his kidnapping Samantha, and the death of his captain and mentor, Tom Bridges.

“How long were you under?” Matt asked.

“Almost three years. I had to slowly work my way in from the fringes. This new mafia has little structure.”

Matt nodded. “That’s what we’ve heard. Dave says they’re starting to see some of their kind in Cinci, too.”

“Then you know they’re ruthless.”

“Not afraid to maim someone just to prove they can.” Matt explained to his brother. “So what’s these Kreshnins’ game?” Matt asked. “Drugs?”

“Yes along with money laundering and extortion.”

“Tax evasion,” Luke added. His older brother stared at him. “That’s why Sami called me. Seems Jake here, has stumbled into a tax evasion case, as well as immigration cover-up.”

Jake sat back and studied the men across from him. Samantha
had
called for information, just like she claimed. She hadn’t really sent out an APB on him. They came to her rescue even though she hadn’t asked for it.

“Anything else?” Matt asked him.

Jake shrugged. “Just murder.”

Matt eyed him with suspicion. “Who’s murder?”

“A Russian immigrant who headed the local bank in the Russian-speaking community, Alexi Ivanovich.” Jake relaxed into the leather couch. Damn his shoulder ached since his wrestling match with Samantha’s brothers
.
  

The younger brother, Luke, scooted to the edge of his seat, excitement shining on his face. “That’s the guy who’s been on all the local news shows the last two weeks. His family believes he’s been kidnapped,” he explained to his brother. “He’s a celebrity among the immigrant community, guaranteeing stable loans and liberal pay-back conditions. He works through the state government to assure the people meet all the regulations and have ample housing, too. He’s a model citizen.”

“He was.” Jake’s statement hung like ice in the suddenly chilled room.

“You saw these Kreshnins kill him?” Matt continued to sound suspicious.

Jake shook his head. “Not me. Nicky.”

“The kid told you he saw the murder go down?”

Again Jake shook his head. “I heard it through the gang the Kreshnins were laundering crack money for.”

“Which gang?” Matt asked.

“Ever hear of the Haviers?”

Matt whistled. “Biggest cocaine-running cartel in the Eastern United States. Every State Trooper division in their path has lost at least one man to them, our unit included.”

“Didn’t they come out of Cuba?” Luke asked his brother.

“Yeah, in that wave of refugees Castro let out of prison during the Mariel boat lift in nineteen-eighty. They took over little Havana in Miami, managing to gain control of the cocaine pipeline one city at a time.” He fixed his gaze on Jake. “Don’t tell me they’re mixed up in this mess, too.”