Page 46 of Rough Start

“But you need to know, if you don’t come quietly, it isn’t me who’s going to be hauling you around; it’s Bruce and Frank,” he said, gesturing to the two thugs who were watching them. “Normally I’d be happy to play cat and mouse with you, but this is slightly more serious. My advice? Get cleaned up, pack a bag, and come back to Pine Hill with me. Listen to Max’s proposal, do what he asks, and clear your debt…”

“My father’s debt.”

“It’s yours now whether you like it or not.”

“Well I don’t like it,” she snapped and yanked her hands away once they were free. Rubbing her wrists, she swung her legs out of the car and stood. Kye was forced backward. “I don’t like any of this. We might have been old friends, but we’re not friends now. Don’t touch me again.” Her words had a bite to them but also resignation. She knew she’d been defeated. Her logical mind had finally wrapped around the reality that her hand had been forced. She was trapped.

“Let her through, boys,” Kye ordered when Eliana sulked down the driveway toward her house. The two men who had formed a brick wall parted, and she pushed her way through. Eliana retrieved the spare key from under a potted plant and unlocked her front door. She briefly thought about fleeing out the back, but when she heard Kye closing the door behind them she pushed the thought away. “You’ve got twenty minutes.”

“I’m going to shower,” she said, moving toward the bathroom and pausing in the doorway. “That’s not an invitation,” she snapped and slammed the door in his face. He chuckled when he heard the lock click. Pulling his suit jacket off, he made his way to the kitchen and rummaged through a few cabinets before finding the fixings for a fresh pot of coffee.

* * *

Muddy clothes on the floor, Eliana slipped under the stream of hot water and began washing the mud from her body. She hadn’t realized how scraped up she had gotten in the scuffle until the water stung at her scrapes. Both knees and elbows had taken a hit from the gravel of the parking lot, and her hands were sporting fresh scratches as well. The water that pooled around her feet slowly turned from murky brown to clear as she finished washing.

Turning the water off, she wrapped herself in a fluffy towel and brushed her hair. It’d been two years since she’d chopped her waist-length hair to just above her shoulders. After graduating, she’d found it difficult to be taken seriously when she’d maintained her youthful tresses. Without much thought to sentiment, she’d splurged for a trip to the salon, hacked off eight inches of hair and gotten her toes polished.

Much like that day, Eliana was forced to put on her big-girl panties and accept reality. Their past had finally caught up to them. Or rather… it had never left. How long had Kye known where she was? Staring at her own reflection after drying her hair and reapplying her makeup, Eliana had to swallow the truth: Kye had known where she was all along and had chosen not to come for her. For years she’d held out the fantasy that one day they’d be reunited and things would all work out. Well, no more. Like her long-discarded hair, she cut away the childish delusion. Kye was a Demon and had no interest in her except what he felt she owed him.

“Still…” she said softly to herself as she touched her fingertips to her mouth. He certainly had kissed her as though he’d missed her. “Probably just a ploy,” she muttered angrily and grabbed her cosmetics bag before stepping out of the bathroom. She could hear Kye shuffling around in the kitchen, so she quickly padded to her bedroom.

She simultaneously packed while she was dressing, first opting for underwear then moving to her closet to grab a few outfits. Unsure of how long her captivity would last, she opted for a variety of clothes. She had just buttoned her jeans when the bedroom door slammed open, and Kye burst in.

“The fuck!” she cursed as the commotion startled her. Kye visibly sighed in relief when he saw her standing at her closet door.

“I thought you took off,” he stated and moved farther into her teal and white decorated room.

“With your bulldogs standing guard? No thanks,” she grumbled, and when his eyes began roaming over her, she became aware that she was still standing in nothing but jeans and a yellow lace bra. “Do you mind?” she asked vehemently.

“Not at all,” he said, leaning against her vanity mirror and crossing his arms as he watched her. Clearly, he was ignoring the hint that she wanted him to give her privacy. Deciding to turn the tables on him, she took the white t-shirt she was holding and tossed it on to the open suitcase on her bed.

“Is this what you want?” she questioned in a seductive voice, her hips swaying as she walked toward him. Kye stood a little straighter. “To ride back into my life and pick up where we left off?” she continued, now standing in front of him. She trailed a finger along his forearm and looked up at him through her lashes. “Where was that again?” She held him by the back of the neck and leaned against him as she stood on her tiptoes. Letting her lips hover over his, barely brushing them, his hands dropped to her hips. “Well, that’s … just … too bad!” Just as he was leaning forward, she pushed him by the chest and pulled away from him.

“What the hell?” Kye asked as she was already crossing back to the other side of the room and yanking a green blouse from a hanger.

“Let’s make one thing clear, Kye Driscoll,” she said pointedly as she pulled the satin top over her head and turned to face him. “I don’t play the jilted lover for anyone. Whatever happened between us when we were kids is over.” She sat on the edge of the bed and pulled on a pair of white Converse. “Once this nightmare is over, I never want to see you or anyone from your stupid motorcycle club again.” Zipping her suitcase shut, she held it by the handle and turned her eyes back to Kye who looked baffled. “Let’s get this over with.”

They’d been on the road for several hours. At one point, Eliana felt herself drifting off to sleep, the gentle hum of the tires on smooth pavement lulling her into slumber. She’d dreamt awful things. Guns and drugs and someone pounding from the inside of a casket. Images of her father’s lifeless body haunted her. She could still hear the final beeps of the heart monitor that had tracked the last seconds of his life. The rapid beeping was mixed with the sounds of her father gasping for air. Choking. Gagging. Clawing at his own throat.

“Hey.” Eliana gasped when she felt the hand on her arm. Startled and slightly disoriented, it took her a moment to remember where she was. Sitting in the passenger seat of the SUV, fortunately, this time she wasn’t tied to anything. Kye was looking at her in concern. “You were having a nightmare,” he said gently. With one hand on the wheel, his other had taken her left hand. When he squeezed it, she jerked her hand away, silently fuming that the contact had made her skin tingle.

“I was dreaming that I was kidnapped from my father’s funeral, shot at, and dragged back to the hell hole I grew up in… Oh, wait, no, that’s not a nightmare. That’s real.”

“When did you get to be so sarcastic?” Kye asked, putting his hand back on the wheel. He was about full of the bitter attitude she was giving him.

“When did you become a kidnapping thug?” Eliana countered. She was sulky for many reasons, the least of them being she was exhausted and sore.

“Well, I took a few classes in college and made a hobby out of it.”

“Is that supposed to be funny?” she asked, looking over at him. Kye’s smile indicated he thought himself incredibly funny. “You’re a criminal, Kye. This is so much worse than all the crap you used to do in high school. We’re talking kidnapping, crossing state lines which makes it a felony charge, extortion, blackmail, assault, vandalism, firing a weapon within proximity of a gun-free zone, one that I’m assuming is not licensed to you which makes it possession of an illegal weapon, threatening harm with said deadly weapon…”

“God you’re sexy when you act smart,” he interrupted and pushed the gas pedal a little harder so the engine revved.

“Speeding,” Eliana continued with insolence. Kye laughed, rich and full, filling the vehicle with a much-needed break in tension. Even Eliana had to admit that it was slightly amusing. She crossed her arms, however, as a show that she was not going to give in to him in the least.

With a heavy sigh, Eliana propped her elbow against the window and leaned her head on her hand. The car fell silent again, but this time, Eliana felt anything but sleepy. Her mind was racing. Just when everything seemed to be going well in her life, everything had to fall apart. Leave it to her father to not only die but to leave her with substantial hospital bills and now a debt to the motorcycle gang that had wanted both of them dead for the last ten years. How was she ever going to get out of this? Even in death, she was still paying for her father’s mistake.

“Just couldn’t help yourself, could you?” she muttered and sighed again.