Tearing Down Walls (Love Under Construction Series Book 2) (66 page)

Vic didn’t answer. He tried to think of something, anything, he could say to get her to turn him loose. “So you want me all to yourself, do you? Well, I wanted
you
all to
myself
, but not now, not if you’d do this to me.”

“Doesn’t matter. I’ll have you anyway,” she purred. Then she said the words that made his blood pressure plummet: “I’m getting rid of your little girlfriend. Once she’s gone, you’ll see that it was for the best.” She turned to go up the stairs. “By the way, need to take a piss?”

“Yeah, I do. Mind giving me some help here?” he said, glancing behind him to indicate his hands.

Instead, she barked, “Get up on your knees!” He couldn’t manage by himself, so she helped him up, got the bucket, and put it in front of him. “Oh, yeah, I guess you need some help, huh?” She was grinning from ear to ear as she unzipped his fly and reached in. Once she’d freed his penis, she pushed the bucket up to him. “Can you go, or bashful bladder?” she leered.

“I was in the military. I can go anywhere.” He let loose, and she grinned again. When he was finished, she moved the bucket and looked him in the eye.

“At my mercy.” Before he could say or do anything, she had her hand wrapped tight around his shaft. To his horror, his body began to betray him immediately. “Oh, Mr. Cabrizzi, I see you
have
missed me!” she whispered into his neck as she started to stroke him.

How does she know my last name? Or where I work? What the hell is going on? I know Steve didn’t give her that information.
He felt himself start to stiffen against her palm and he started to shut down, wondering what she was about to do.

In answer, she pushed him back down on the mattress, opened her mouth, and drew in his hardness. Vic gasped at her ferocity; she intended to have him, and he realized in that moment that how he reacted would determine how soon she went after Laura. He wondered if she planned to go down on him until he came, and then she stopped and smiled down at him.

“Now the fun begins!” Miranda pulled his jeans and boxer briefs down far enough, snapped off the pink thong she had on under her short denim skirt, and mounted Vic. A white rage passed over him, an absolute fury that threatened to undo him. He tried to go somewhere else in his mind, tried to think of Laura, but instead, he thought of Miranda that first night in the private room, splayed open for his carnal enjoyment, and how she’d felt when he’d pounded into her. As he gave over to the feelings he couldn’t stop, his heart started to break. Even though it wasn’t something he wanted, he felt like he was cheating on Laura, like he was doing something that would hurt her over and over, and the thought sliced into his heart like a razor. “Oh, sir! I see you really do want me too!” Miranda hissed as she moved up and down on his cock. “Sweet lord, I think you’re bigger than before!”

Vic felt paralyzed and he knew that this was how Laura felt when those six men brutalized her. She’d felt helpless, frightened, and small, but when her body betrayed her as his was betraying him at that second, the shame and guilt she’d felt would’ve been overwhelming. Only one thought would come to him:
Laura, if I could just see you right this minute, if I could just tell you how much I love you and how much you mean to me, if I could just kiss you, touch your face, stroke your hair, everything would be all right. But what if nothing is all right ever again?

“Oh, damn, sir, this is so hot! And bareback too! That’s a plus, huh?” Vic realized in horror that there was no condom. The idea that she could be passing something to him was horrific, second only to the idea that she might get pregnant. How on earth would he survive
that
? He wanted it to be over, and it seemed his body did too when he hit the point of no return and came with a groan, wishing the earth would open up and swallow him. When he did, he felt her tighten around him and she cried out in her own climax.

She fell on top of him, then pushed herself up on his chest and looked him in the eye. “We’ll be doing this again – soon.” Raising up enough to move to his face, she kissed him and smiled. “See you in a bit, lover boy. I’m going to eliminate the competition.” Her hands went to his fly, and then she leered at him again. “No need to put it away. I’ll just have to get it out later.” With that, she got up and skipped up the stairs, leaving him exposed and damp on the mattress.

She’s going after Laura. Oh, god, what am I going to do?

“Steve, do you know where Vic is?” Laura was getting scared. He hadn’t checked in with Molly all afternoon and hadn’t returned any phone calls. And that wasn’t like him.

“I have no idea. I haven’t seen him. Why?”

“You’re not lying, are you? Is he there?” She knew the club had already opened and that Steve was there because she could hear the music in the background.

“No, goddamn it, I’m not lying, and it pisses me off that you’d accuse me of it. What the hell?”

Now she was getting downright worried. “No one’s heard from him all afternoon. We don’t know where he is. I was sort of hoping he was there.”

The tension in her voice made Steve’s nerves start to jangle. “No, he’s not here. When was the last time anyone heard from him?”

“Earlier today, maybe this morning when he called Molly at the office? He’s not answering his phone, and he’s not returning messages. He doesn’t do that.”

Steve didn’t want her to panic, but he knew that was very unlike Vic, even after what he’d gone through the previous week. “Maybe he’s at Tony’s jobsite. Let me see what I can do.” If he was honest with himself, he was starting to panic a little. “I’ll call you if I hear from him, and you . . .”

“If I hear from him, I’ll call you,” she told him.

When they hung up, Steve hit speed dial. “Stokes, where are you?”

“I’m coming there from Louisville. Needed to pick up some files I left at the club last week.”

“How close are you to the Walters’ house?”

“Just passed the exit two miles back. Why?”

“Go to Tony’s jobsite, see if Vic’s there. If he’s not, ask around, find out how long he’s been gone.”

Peyton picked up on something in Steve’s voice. “What’s wrong?”

“No one can find him. No one’s talked to him in hours. I’m getting more than nervous about this.”

“I’ll check. Call you in a few.”

When they hung up, Steve called Molly. “Have you heard from Vic yet?”

“No! Do you know where he is?” Molly sounded frightened.

“No. We’re looking for him. Can you tell me
anything
, anything that might help?”

“I couldn’t tell Laura . . .”

“Damn it, Molly, spit it out!”

“Someone named Evie called for him, asked him to meet her at an address on Tedesco Lane.”

“Got that address?” Molly read it off and Steve assured her he was on his way there. Before he left, he checked Evie’s address in the database. When he realized she lived somewhere near the new high school in a big, nice neighborhood, he couldn’t get to his car fast enough.

But when he pulled up in front of the address, a sinking feeling settled in the pit of his stomach. He looked up and down the street. It wouldn’t have been as noticeable during the day, but at night it was crystal clear.

Every house in the whole neighborhood, for blocks and blocks, was dark. Abandoned. Empty. Steve knew Evie hadn’t called Vic and asked him to come there. He took his flashlight and made his way into the house, and when he looked around at the empty rooms, he felt a chill come over him. Then he looked down.

Blood. On the carpet. On the doorknob.

He punched a contact and waited. “Yeah, is Detective Windhorst on duty? Tell him it’s Steve McCoy and it’s an emergency.” He waited again. “Trey? Steve. Yeah, I need some help. Vic Cabrizzi’s missing and I think I’m standing in the middle of a crime scene.”

L
aura hit the door of Eden’s Gate like a hurricane. She blew past José and headed straight into the middle of the commons room. When she got to the bar, she barked at Doug, “Where’s McCoy?”

“He left. Said he had somewhere he had to go. What’s going on?”

“Vic’s missing.” When the words came out of her mouth, Doug saw the terror in her eyes.

“I don’t know where he was going, but he was on the phone when he ran out of here.” Doug picked up the house phone and punched a couple of buttons, then put it on speaker. When it was answered, he asked, “Hey, José, Steve say where he was going?”

“No. But he was mumbling something into the phone about Vic. What’s going on? I saw Butler come through here like a bulldozer.” There was a sound through the speaker and José said, “Be back with you in a minute. Peyton’s calling me.” When Doug turned to Laura, her arms were folded on the bar, her forehead resting on them. Then the speaker squawked again. “Doug, can you ask Laura to come up here?”

Laura headed back up the hallway to the little office. “Yeah?”

José was careful with his voice and facial expression. “Hey, babe, can you watch the office? I’ve got to go help Peyton with something.”

“No, I can’t because . . .”

“Thanks, hon. Won’t be gone long.” Before she could protest, José ran out the door.

Twenty-one thirty-five Tedesco Lane,
José recited to himself.
Oh, god, what’s happened to Vic?

When José pulled up to the address, he was unprepared for the sight that greeted him. Dozens of police cars lined the street, and Steve’s car sat right out front, along with Peyton’s. He ran into the house only to almost get himself knocked down. “You’re in the middle of a crime scene, sir. Please step back,” the uniformed officer growled.

“What the hell?” was all he could squeeze out before Peyton grabbed his arm and pulled him back out onto the porch.

“José, where’s Laura?”

“Watching the monitors and office so I could come here. Why?”

“Did you tell her where you were going?”

“No.”

“Good. Even without testing, Steve and I are pretty sure the blood in that house is Vic’s. There’s a long black hair in the middle of one of the patches of blood.”

José felt sick. “Do Tony and Nikki know?”

“No, and Steve doesn’t want anyone to call them until he knows more. Would you please go to Molly’s and check on her? She’s frantic. At least Laura’s at the club with Doug. Call him on your way and tell him what’s going on. He needs to keep an eye on her.”

“Will do. I’ll take care of Molly. Let me know if you learn anything.”

Laura was muttering to herself.
I can’t believe he left me here to do this. I can’t be here. I’ve got to find Vic
. She was getting more pissed by the minute and, to make matters worse, Doug wouldn’t communicate with her. He kept saying he was too busy at the bar.

She was getting ready to just lock the door and walk away from the office when her text tone went off. One look and her heart started to slam: Vic.

hey babe meat me out back ive got a surprize for u

Laura couldn’t help but think how weird that was. Vic
never
did anything all lower-case. His texts were as precise as his speech. He used few of the usual abbreviations, and his punctuation and grammar were flawless, plus he could sure as hell spell. “Get Jared’s ass out here,” Laura growled into the house phone at Doug. “I’ve got to go.”

“But Laura . . .” She hung up before he could finish.

She passed Jared on her way to the back. “Butler, where are you . . .” But she didn’t stop to hear him finish the sentence. As she passed by the bar, Doug called out to her over the music; she ignored him.

She pressed through the crowd and ran down the hallway of the private rooms, past Steve’s office, its door closed and locked. When she hit the back door, she threw it open and looked outside.

The Mustang was sitting there, door open and motor running. “Vic? Sweetie, what’s going on? Where have you been?” she called from the stoop, then stepped down toward the Mustang. She didn’t see the figure that crept out from behind the door, and she never saw the pipe, just felt it when it crashed into her skull.

And it was lights out.