Merchants with Evil Intent (58 page)

      
“I like this fuckin’ guy,” Travers
smiled.

      
Greg and Joe withdrew their weapons and
pushed Declan aside as they entered. The uniforms, wanting no part of breaking
and entering, stood on the porch of the two flat.

      
The apartment was dark and quiet. Declan
found a light switch. Harsh lightening blinded them momentarily. They stood in
the kitchen, getting their bearings. Declan looked around and found a small
butcher block that held knives of various lengths. He peeled the largest one
out and held it defensively, nodding to Travers.

      
They walked cautiously through the
apartment, their eyes and ears alert.

      
Greg and Joe lowered their weapons when
the found the place deserted.

      
“Fuck!” Greg growled.

      
Joe went towards a desk and looked around
for notes, anything that might lead them in the right direction.

      
Declan checked the trash can, finding
empty beer cans and cigarette butts.

      
“Where the feck does he
have
her?” Declan muttered.

*
     
*
     
*

      
“Oh, you taste so good,” he murmured as
he lowered his mouth to her abdomen. “I’m going to get you so
moist,
you’ll be begging me to fuck you.”

      
She squirmed beneath him when she felt
the heat from his mouth cover her.

      
A soft knock banged against the door.

      
He stopped suddenly, his eyebrows lifted.
“You keep quiet,” he snarled, moving towards the door.

      
“Whaddya want?” he yelled through the
door.

      
“I’m just checking to make sure
everything is okay. A tenant said they heard a scream from your room,” the old
man replied.

      
“I’m fucking my girl and she’s loud,
alright?” Geno yelled.

      
Ben Foster wasn’t sure about this; the
guy didn’t seem right in the head. “Okay then. Sorry for the intrusion.” He
stumbled away from the door.
The guy creeped him out.

      
Geno turned back after checking out the
curtain. Nosey old fuck.

      
“Now where were we?” he grinned as his
naked body covered Camryn’s.

*
     
*
     
*

      
“Maggie? I need your help!” John cried
out in McShane’s office.

      
He waited several minutes and shook his
head when she didn’t appear.

      
Before he left he choked out, “Our little
girl needs your help.”

*
     
*
     
*

      
Geno halted his assault on Camryn
momentarily.

      
She barely noticed.

      
Her mind carried her to Ireland. With
Declan. The two of them walked on the strand, holding hands. The gannets didn’t
scare her anymore.

      
She’d seen scarier things.

      
A strange clicking sound pulled her from
her reverie.

      
She wouldn’t open her eyes.

      
A gut-wrenching scream erupted from her
when she felt a knife cut into her wrist.

      
And again, in her upper
arm.

      
He stopped for a moment. “A gunshot
wound? How sexy,” he murmured. He began his slicing, not deep, but enough to
mar her beautiful body.

      
God, he was so hard. He didn’t think he
could hold off any longer.

      
Tears seeped from the corners of her
eyes, spilling into her ears.

      
She was losing consciousness when he
slapped her to awaken her.

      
“Don’t pass out on me yet. I want you
awake when I fuck you,” he rasped in her ear.

      
She felt the blood running from her wrist
down her arm. She turned her head, not wanting to look, but needing to.

      
Oh, God, the cut was deep. Blood and
white stuff oozed from her wrist.

      
She passed out when he forcefully pushed
himself into her.

*
     
*
     
*

      
“I’d like to report a disturbance,” Ben
Foster murmured into the phone. He rattled off the address and ended the call.
Pulling the curtain away from the window he kept his eye on room nine and
waited for the cops to arrive.

*
     
*
     
*

      
A red-haired woman walked the strand
towards her, smiling.

      
Camryn’s eyebrows furrowed. “Do I know you?”

      
“I’m Teaghan.”

      
Camryn inhaled sharply. “I’m dead.”

      
Teaghan smiled and took Camryn’s hand.
“No, love, you’re no’. You’re betwixt. Ya canno’ stay.”

      
Camryn shifted from foot to foot in the
soft sand. “I don’t understand.”

      
“It’s not for us to understand. Declan
loves you and only you.” Camryn shot her a disbelieving look causing Teaghan to
smile wistfully. “Oh he liked me eno’, but love? No. You’re his first. Stop
pushin’ him away, gel. It’s killin’ him inside.”

      
Camryn swallowed the lump in her throat.
“I don’t think I’m going to survive this.”

      
Teaghan gripped Camryn’s shoulders. “You
must!
For him.
For you.”

*
     
*
     
*

      
While Joe and Greg soothed the uniforms
Declan paced the parking lot.

      
A sob stopped his pacing. He turned,
spotting Maggie. He looked around, no one else noticed her.

      
“Where is she?” he gripped her shoulders
firmly.

      
“She’s dying and I can’t protect her!”
she sobbed.

      
“For the love of Christ
woman!
Where?” he hissed.

      
Greg walked away from the uniform
bitching at him when he saw Irish talking to the woman.

      
“Who’s this?” he asked. He gaped when
Declan pulled away from her. Shit, the woman looked like Camryn.

      
“Maggie O’Mara,” Declan whispered.

      
Greg lifted an eyebrow. “As in…?”

      
“Camryn’s mom,” Declan said through
lowered lashes.

      
Goose bumps prickled the back of Greg’s
neck.

      
“Come on, I know where she is,” Declan
ground out.

*
     
*
     
*

      
The three of them piled
into Butler’s sedan.
Greg turned to look back at Maggie O’Mara, but she
was gone.

      
“Irish, what the fuck was that?” he
asked, rubbing the goose bumps on his arms.

      
“Ya wouldna believe me if I told ya,”
Declan sighed.

      
As Joe Butler pressed the pedal to the
metal, Declan silently prayed they’d make it in time to save her.

*
     
*
     
*

      
Eoghan gasped at the sight before him. He
brandished his sword.

      
Geno stopped and turned his head.

      
“Who the
fuck are
you?” he growled, rising from the bed.

      
“Your worst fecking
nightmare, your rotten whoreson!”
Eoghan bellowed.

      
The knightly looking man poked him with a
sword, but he felt nothing. Geno’s eyebrows furrowed.

      
“I’m anxious for what awaits you when
Declan arrives. Surely he will show no mercy. You will die a slow death and
meet your brother in hell!”

      
Geno lunged at him. He gasped when he
fell through the knight. He turned and lunged at the knight again. This time,
when he fell through the knight, he banged his head on the round table and
knocked himself unconscious.

*
     
*
     
*

      
Butler’s sedan skidded on the stone
parking lot. The cherry light on top still circled, casting an eerie glow
against the white, battered building.

      
Ben Foster walked outside holding a set
of keys in his trembling hands.

      
“I don’t know…I could be wrong, but
something don’t feel right about that guy,” he said shakily.

      
“What room?” Greg yelled.

      
“Nine,” Ben muttered, extending the keys
to Greg, but Greg was already headed towards the room with Declan.

      
They didn’t need keys. A simple slam
against the cheap door gave them easy entrance.

*
     
*
     
*

      
The door splintered into several pieces
and so did their hearts when they saw her tied to the bed.

      
Declan bent, clutching the door frame.
Bile rose to his throat.

      
Greg covered his mouth with his hand.
Unable to suppress his gag reflex he ran to the sidewalk and emptied the
contents of his stomach.

      
Eoghan snapped, “
It’s
no’ too late. She’s still alive. Get up man and help her!”

      
Declan swallowed the lump in his throat
and started towards the bed. His jaw clenched when he eyed the fecker on the
floor. First he covered Camryn with a bedspread that had been cast to the
floor.

      
Then, when the bastard started to moan,
he pulled him up by the hair and punched him. He kept punching until Joe pulled
him away.

      
Declan was shaking with fury. “I’m no’
done yet!” he yelled.

      
“Go tend to Camryn,” Joe urged. When Declan
struggled against him Joe pushed him away. “She needs you!”

      
The bastard sagged against the table,
spitting out blood and teeth when Greg reentered the room.

      
His jaw clenched. Pushing Joe out of the
way he took his turn, kicking and punching the son-of-a-bitch until the bastard
had the indecency to pass out.

      
Declan grimly took the utility knife from
the nightstand and cut the nylon rope tied around her wrists and ankles after
he removed the gag from her mouth.

      
He took her dress and ripped a length of
it, tying it around her wrists to stop the bleeding.

      
“Where the feck is the ambulance?” he
growled, holding her against his body.

Chapter
20

      
Camryn returned to her happy place. The
lush green hills went on forever, dipping and rising beneath her.

      
She took a deep cleansing breath.

      
Ireland was heavenly.

      
She felt a gentle tug on her hand and
looked down curiously.
Nothing there.

      
Frowning she walked through the tall
grass, shoeless. The grass tickled and felt cool against the soles of her feet.

      
She spun around, arms
outstretched.
Her white linen skirt billowed out, sending cool gusts
against her legs.

      
The breeze felt good against her warm
skin.

      
Why was she so warm?

      
She ran slowly at first, letting the cool
breeze envelope her, when she heard a muffled sob.

      
Her heart clenched as she searched for
the mournful sound.

      
The more she searched, the louder the
sobs became.