Starting Over Read online

  As they exited the building, Adalee walked to her car, waving good-bye to Bailey when suddenly a van came flying into the parking lot and crashed into Bailey’s car. Adalee jumped out of her car and could see Bailey pressed against the airbag that went off, with glass all over her. She looked at the driver of the van as the man jumped out, carrying on about not seeing her or something stupid.

  “How could you not see her? You came speeding into the damn parking lot,” she yelled at him.

  She reached for her cell phone and to check on Bailey when the man struck her with something. Stunned by not only the hit to the back of her head but also the fact that this guy attacked her, it was too late when he struck her in the face, grabbed her hands, and placed the bindings on them. In the distance, she could hear sirens blaring as he lifted her up, brought her to the van, and threw her into the back. Her head was pounding, and her vision blurred. What the hell is going on? Who is this guy? What does he want?

  The van sped off in the opposite direction of Cherry Hill. She growled at the pain and the fact that this dick got the upper hand on her. She was not on guard, not in cop mode at all, but instead focused on her new friend and what happened. “Oh God, Bailey, be okay. Please, someone had to have seen the van. Someone called the police. Hurry.”

  The pounding sensation continued and then the nausea. She fought it as best she could but then threw up in the back of the van, gagged, and moaned from the terrible sensations in her head. “Please don’t pass out. Please don’t pass out. Holy shit what is going on? Who is this guy? Please,” she kept repeating and then rocked slightly trying to ease the pain.

  She couldn’t even move her arms because the asshole had restrained her. He was a big dude, too. Like six feet plus, wide shoulders, evil expression, and kind of reminded her of a lumberjack minus the flannel shirt. He had a beard, full but cut short. Who was he? As the van slowed down to a normal speed, she hoped that was his mistake. That he assumed no one saw his license plate or a description of the van, but that someone did. Someone had to see. The person who called the police. She heard the sirens. Help wasn’t far. They would find him and her, too. Hopefully before matters got worse.

  What she hadn’t expected as she began to drift off was the van to stop, the engine running, and the driver to get out. She strained her neck from the back of the van to look up toward the window. She saw darkness, some street lights and the corner of a flashing sign. She remembered that sign. On her way to Central Valley before Cherry Hill. A shopping center and a chicken lit up for some fast-food restaurant and a gym. They were still in Central Valley.

  She gasped as she heard the gunshots. One, two, three, then the door open, the guy jumped in and then sped out of the area. He just shot someone. Who? Why? What the hell is going on?

  She rolled to the side from him taking the turn too fast, and her back and shoulder slammed into the something hard She looked around the van for a weapon or something she could use somehow to escape or maybe cut the bindings, but all she saw were a bag of zip ties, a duffle bag, and what appeared to be a security guard’s uniform. Her head pounded, confusing her thoughts even more. She was angry, but the dizziness was too much, and soon darkness overtook her thoughts and vision.

  “No! Fuck no!” Jeb yelled as he paced the back parking lot of the physical therapy center. The place was swarming with police, paramedics, and his brothers were there now, too.

  “The van was last seen heading out of Central after the driver got out and shot Felix Fords,” Sheriff Titus Mullen told Jeb and his brothers.

  “Why the fuck would he take Adalee? Why?” Coda asked.

  “Because it was Felix and me who arrested him years ago and put him in jail. We caught the case and found him right after he brutally raped a woman, the third in a spree where he killed them afterward. We saved her, but obviously he never forgot about us,” Jeb said, feeling sick to his stomach.

  He never would have thought Miller Smith would do something like this. He really thought he was after something specific or just looking to rape women again and evade capture.

  “Then what about this insurance guy who was killed earlier today? What’s the connection?” Titus asked.

  As the black SUV pulled onto the scene, Jeb shook his head. “I think we’re about to find out.”

  “Who is it, Jeb?” Everett asked.

  “Federal agents,” he said, and they all got quiet.

  “Jeb Perkins?” the one agent asked.

  “That’s me.”

  He reached his hand out to Jeb. “Agent Feller. I understand that it’s your girlfriend who was taken.”

  “Yes.”

  He eyed Jeb over. “We’re doing our best to figure out where exactly he’s headed, and from our intel, he was last seen going towards Highway 26.”

  As the agent explained where they were with this case, it became apparent that more was at stake here than just locating Adalee. This guy was traveling somewhere specific and with a purpose, and Jeb had a feeling it wasn’t just to a secret location where he would have his way with Adalee. He felt sick. Absolutely sick to his stomach. Miller Smith was an evil rapist and killer. He knew exactly what he would do to Adalee once he got her to a safe place. Flashbacks of the crime scenes from years ago and the way they found the young woman who was nearly killed by Miller popped into his head. As the agent spoke with Titus and started to inform him about how things would be handled and working with the departments together, Jeb’s cell phone rang. He glanced down and saw that it was Turbo Montgomery, an agent he trusted, and also Bailey’s cousin.

  He walked away and gave nods to his brothers, who did the same thing.

  “What do you got?”

  “Heard Bailey is going to be okay, thank God, but that this dick has your woman. I’m onto something. Heard the feds are there. They have their own agenda, but this is personal to you, Felix, who is touch and go right now in critical condition, and to me. I came across some of their intel, and it seems this judge lives in Texas. As a matter of fact, not far from town. Like an hour. I’m assuming our guy is heading that way. I got eyes on the van, Jeb. I want you and your brothers, armed of course, to head toward Cypress Hills.”

  “Son of a bitch.”

  “Keep your phone close and make your way out of there.”

  “Got it, and thanks, buddy.”

  “Don’t thank me yet. We still have to save your woman.”

  Jeb ended the call and told his brothers what they needed to do.

  “You guys head out now. Stop by the house, grab our shit,” he said as Deputy Faris Montgomery walked over.

  “What do you guys need? Whatever is going on, I want in on this asshole. I want to help you to get to Adalee in time.”

  “We got some inside info, Faris. It may be best for you to be our guy here and to update us on what these feds do,” Jeb said.

  Faris gave him an expression like he was crazy if he thought he would stick around here twiddling his thumbs.

  “Okay, let Kane know you’re helping us, and it’s on the down low. That should be enough.”

  “I’m off duty now. Was ending my shift so I’m all yours.”

  “Okay, come with me. You guys grab our shit and head to Cypress Hills.”

  “Got it,” Rhett said, and they walked away.

  “We got the feds looking at us. Follow my lead,” Jeb said to Faris.

  “Titus,” Jeb called to him and then headed over toward where his friend, the sheriff of Central Valley, stood with a few officers. They were organizing the scene and trying to keep up with any updates on the van.

  “What do you need, Jeb? Anything at all.”

  Jeb gave a nod toward the federal agents. Titus squinted. “A little distraction while I disappear and follow up on a trustworthy lead.”

  “Got it. Anything else, you just call my cell phone.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Hey, bring back your woman safe and sound. She’s a beauty and she’s tough, remember that.”

/>   “Thanks.”

  Adalee felt like she was out cold for hours, but the van wasn’t moving, and she couldn’t tell if he was still there or not. She adjusted her eyes as best she could in the darkness, her head still pounding, an ache in the back of her neck, and her lip split and swollen as well as her cheek from his strike to her. She took a few unsteady breaths and tried to force herself to lift up. As she did, she saw that they were someplace else. Some place she didn’t recognize. She glanced toward the back doors of the van and wondered if they were locked. Could she somehow turn backward and get the door open that way, then fall out? As she looked, she noticed that the security uniform wasn’t there. She tilted her head back at the driver’s seat of the van. If she could get up front, get someone’s attention or even unlock the doors? She thought about it and pushed herself up. Her vision blurred, and she teetered but growled through the pain. She was perspiring as she lifted backward in between the seat and the console. She was stuck.

  Suddenly the door opened. “You fucking bitch!” he roared at her and grabbed her shoulders.

  She reacted. She slammed her forehead against his face, instantly breaking his nose. She struggled to get free as he raged in pain, cursed like a madman, and gripped her like a sack of potatoes and tossed her into the back of the van. Her back, head, and shoulders hit the metal flooring, but she rolled to the side, and as he came at her—literally dived at her, crushing her—she screamed at the top of her lungs. She bit him in the shoulder.

  He roared again. “Grrr! Bitch!”

  He struck her across the mouth, and she kicked him. Just kept kicking him until he came at her again, straddled her body as he ripped her top open and then stared at her breasts. She felt her face swelling, her eyes, her lips and cheeks, and her head pounded everywhere at this point. Her arms were stretched under her ass. He had her. He won.

  He was breathing through his nostrils. “You’re incredible. Holy fuck,” he said as blood dripped from his broken nose, his swollen eye growing bigger, uglier by the second.

  She did that, and she would continue to fight no matter what. He cupped her breast, pushed down the strap, and lowered over her, crushing her body, and as his mouth made contact with her neck, she turned to the side, making him lower even more, and she bit into his neck and didn’t let go.

  The scream that filled the van sounded horrific as he pulled back, his hand against his neck, and he was bleeding badly. His eyes were wide. He looked insane, and she spit the blood from her mouth and cursed him out.

  “Want more asshole?” she yelled at him.

  As he raged and went to strike her with one hand, his other against his throat, fingers red from blood that continued to flow from the wound she caused, she kicked him and kept kicking until he didn’t care about his bleeding neck and gripped her hips and attacked. If she was going to die like this, die today, then she would die fighting.

  She screamed, and the doors to the van shoved open. She couldn’t see what was happening but saw the flashing lights, heard the roars of anger, and then the guy pulled a gun from his waist. Two shots rang out, and he flew back against the wall of the van. She turned to look, saw the shot to his head and chest, and then looked back to the open doorway as her men appeared. Jeb was still pointing his gun, and then he looked at her. His eyes widened, and he put his gun away. Her men were there. All four of them.

  “Jesus, what did he do to you? What the fuck did he do?” Rhett asked.

  She closed her eyes and rolled to the side in pain. She could feel them caressing her skin and then cutting the bindings on her. She heard sirens and could hear more men arrive. She looked back at the guy who abducted her. Besides the bullet to his forehead, his neck was bleeding terribly, and she knew he would have eventually died from that bite. His nose was broken and swollen, bleeding, his eyes, too, and she felt proud that she had fought that hard. But she was even more proud that her men searched for her and hunted her abductor down, as well, or she could have died right here in the back of his van.

  “Looks like you fought hard, Adalee,” Coda said to her.

  She closed her eyes, and they carefully got her out of the van and right to the paramedics standing by. There were so many police officers, so many flashing lights, and it reminded her of the shootout in New York and the pain that followed. The difference was that this time, she had her four men and a community of such special people that she knew she would get through this just fine.

  “Can we cover her up please,” Jeb said and grabbed a hold of a sheet.

  They weren’t leaving her side, and the four of them were barking orders, making demands, and taking over control of the scene. She loved them so much and was going to make sure she told them that the second they were all alone.

  Epilogue

  Adalee lay out in the sun on the lounge chair, just taking in some rays. The headaches were now few and far between, and the bruising on her skin uglier than a week ago. She wore a royal-blue bikini, her breasts pushed into a deep cleavage, the material barely covering both mounds, but she wanted to look hot and sexy for her men when they all joined her this afternoon. She had felt like she just dozed off when she sensed movement around her and then lips press to her belly and hands gently glide along her ankles and thighs.

  “What is this you’re wearing?” Jeb asked, and she opened her eyes to see her four men standing there in swim trunks, muscular chests galore, tattoos, scars, complete sexiness overload, and she smiled.

  “Waiting on the four men I love to join me,” she said, and then Coda squatted down next to her and reached behind her neck, stroking her skin and the knot to her bikini top.

  “Our woman is hot and sexy. This is one hell of a bikini, and you cannot wear it anywhere but right here with us. Got it?” he asked.

  She smiled and held his gaze, his blue eyes sparkling before he kissed her lips, and then she felt him undo the tie, as Jeb and Rhett pushed down her bottoms. She lifted her torso, and she felt Everett’s fingers slid right into her cunt.

  “Everett,” she moaned.

  “Right here in the sun, in the open, we’re going to make love to our woman, then cool off in the pool, dry off, and make love again,” he said, stroking her.

  “Then we’ll start all over again,” Rhett said and kissed her bare skin, pulled off the top of her bikini, and now she was completely naked and at their command.

  “Open for us. Raise your arms up, and give us complete control,” Jeb said to her.

  She moaned as Rhett and Coda suckled her breasts, pulled on her nipples, and Everett stoked her cunt. She opened her eyes, and there stood Jeb. He was stroking his thick, long cock and was completely naked, too, and she licked her lips.

  “I can’t let you guys have all the fun. I need to join in and taste you, too.”

  “Your head, baby,” Jeb said with concern.

  He wasn’t over the events that took place and how she had been a victim because of a case he had. She tried to make him realize that it hadn’t been his fault and that no one could analyze the mind of a serial rapist and killer, but he was even more protective than ever.

  “Please, baby?” she asked and licked her lips.

  “The cabana. Now,” he ordered, and she was lifted up and carried to the cabana by Rhett.

  As Everett lay on the edge of the long, wide lounge chair, she lowered over his cock and took him inside of her. Jeb knelt next to her then, and she bent to the side to reach Jeb’s cock. She immediately licked his thick, hard cock and began to taste him. Her head felt a little funny still, but her desire to please her men took priority. After all, when they were done making love, she could take a little rest before they started all over again. She hummed when she felt the cool liquid pressed into her asshole.