“Smalley?” Jon said.
Doubt had crept into Jon’s voice, but if Smalley was having seconds thoughts, it wasn’t obvious. Deep grooves appeared between his mouth and jowl-like cheeks as he smiled. “Strip her.”
Sheer terror seized Lucky. “Wh-what are you going to do?”
Smalley chuckled. “Give us whatever you’ve got that connects our father to your mother, and you won’t have to find out.”
“I—I could be your sister,” she choked out.
Jon grimaced as though only now realizing the implications, but Smalley laughed. “At least you’re prettier than our other one.”
Self-preservation demanded she give them the journal and be done with it. She could call the police in the morning and report them. But Senator Holbrook’s reputation would be ruined by then. And unless they hurt her badly, she knew the police wouldn’t do anything. She meant nothing to this town.
“Lucky?” She suspected Jon felt the tremors going through her because he said her name with hope. She longed to capitulate, but she wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she did. She wouldn’t sacrifice her self-respect. It was all she had.
“I don’t care what you do,” she said. “I won’t give you anything.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
MIKE WAS AWAKENED by the sound of an engine revving up and then down the road. Every time he thought it was gone, it would break the quiet once again.
Finally, he got up. It had to be a bunch of drunken kids drag racing, he decided. If he didn’t put a stop to it, someone could get hurt.
Cursing because he’d just fallen asleep after hours of tossing and turning, he pulled on his jeans and an old T-shirt and yanked on his coat. Then he grabbed a rifle and headed outside, only to find the road empty.
He walked down to the end of the drive and looked both ways. Nothing. Of course they would’ve gone home now that he’d bothered to drag his tired ass out of bed.
He stood there for several minutes, heard nothing and turned back. Before he reached the house, however, the distant sound of a motor hummed on the cold night air.
Mike crossed to his Escalade and sat on the back bumper, resting the butt of the rifle on his thigh as he waited. The truck—he could see it was a truck now, judging by the height of the headlights—was drawing closer. When it was only a few miles away, he moved into the middle of the road and fired a couple of shots into the sky to make sure he got the driver’s attention.
At first Mike thought whoever was behind the wheel wasn’t going to stop. He was about to jump out of the way when the truck slowed and Smalley stuck his head out the window. “What do you want, Hill?”
Mike could see someone sitting in the passenger seat and guessed it was Jon. Smalley and Jon spent a lot of time raising hell together. “What are you two doing out here?”
“Just havin’ a bit of fun.” Smalley glanced at his brother for confirmation, but from what Mike could see through the front windshield Jon wasn’t smiling. Jon didn’t seem to be having any fun.
“It’s getting late. How ’bout you go home or at least have your fun somewhere else?”
“We keepin’ you up?”
“I wouldn’t be standing out here if I could sleep.”
“Okay, sure thing,” Smalley said, but before he could drive away, Mike heard someone call his name, softly, shakily and seemingly out of the darkness. Mystified, he put a hand on Smalley’s beefy arm, which was dangling out of the cab along with his head, and peered into the bed of the truck. There he found Lucky tied to the side, wearing nothing but a lacy bra and a pair of white panties. Her hair looked like she’d been through a wind tunnel, and she was shivering violently.
“Lucky?” He set his rifle aside and peeled off his coat.
The truck lurched as Smalley put the engine in Park and climbed out. “Hey, leave her be.”
Mike’s heart thumped wildly as he hopped into the back. What the hell was going on?
“This is between Lucky and us,” Smalley said. “She knows what she needs to do to get out of there, don’t you, Lucky?”
“G-go to hell,” she murmured, but she looked beaten. She sat on the cold metal of the truck bed, curled into as much of a ball as she could manage with her hands bound to the side.
Smalley clucked his tongue and shook his head. “See how stubborn she is? Oh, well. We just got started. She’ll be singin’ a different tune when she’s had enough.”
“She’s finished now,” Mike said, wrapping his coat around her, then working as quickly as possible to untie her.
Smalley scowled. “Hey, slow down a minute, Mike. This here’s none of your business.”
“It is now.”
A grunt reached Mike’s ears as Smalley reached over the side to stop him, but Mike gave him such a murderous look that he backed off. “You’ll be hearing from me once I have her safe.”
“There’s no need to act so damn self-righteous,” Smalley said. “Everyone knows you don’t like her any better’n we do. No one does.”
Mike clenched his teeth. Obviously Lucky hadn’t heeded his advice and kept her mouth shut about her possible connection to Dave. Mike couldn’t think of any other explanation. “What did you figure this would accomplish, Smalley?” he demanded, growing frustrated with the knots. “Where’re her clothes?”
“Hell if I know. I’m such a prize, I couldn’t keep her from strippin’ down.” Smalley wheezed as he laughed at his own bad joke.
Mike didn’t know he was going to do it—he didn’t know until he lurched halfway out of the truck bed and his fist met Smalley’s fleshy face. But that moment of impact was immensely satisfying, especially when Smalley stumbled and fell backward, then blinked stupidly up at him from where he lay sprawled in the road.
“You ever touch her again, you’ll need crutches,” Mike said. “Do you understand?” He slapped the back window to make sure he had Jon’s attention, too. “Do you understand?”
Jon climbed out and cut through the glare of the headlights to reach his brother. “Jeez, Mike, what’s gotten into you? I think you might’ve broken Smalley’s nose.”
Judging by the blood, Mike thought Jon was probably right. He hoped it was broken. A broken nose was less than Smalley deserved. “That isn’t all I’m going to break if the two of you so much as look at Lucky again.” Finally the knots came free and he swung himself over the side before turning back to get her.