"They're stopping," Justin pointed out with a frown.
Tomasso leaned closer, trying to get a better look at Abigail's face. It looked to him like she was grimacing. Mary appeared concerned, and Jet did too.
"They're turning back," Dante murmured.
"Maybe they forgot something at the store," Justin suggested as the trio started back the way they'd come.
"No. They are heading back to the villa," Tomasso murmured with certainty just before the threesome walked past the convenience store.
"How did you know?" Justin asked with surprise when the trio continued past the last of the stores.
"Because unless one of you gave her blood, Abigail did not feed before leaving the villa," Tomasso said. "She had the last four bags last night. The cooler in our room is empty."
"Mary and I left before she got up," Dante said apologetically, indicating that he hadn't been there to suggest she feed.
"She and Jet were gone when I came downstairs," Lucian said and then glanced to Justin in question.
"Jet and I were in the kitchen," Bricker said slowly, his expression thoughtful. "I was sticking close to the fridge because it had the blood in it and Jet was there. I didn't want him finding it and asking questions. But when Abigail got up, I went to make a phone call," he added with a grimace and then shook his head and said, "When I came back, both of them were gone. So unless she grabbed a bag before leaving . . ."
"She would have hardly fed in front of Jet," Dante pointed out.
"No," Tomasso agreed, and didn't mention that she wasn't yet able to bring her fangs on by herself anyway, so couldn't have.
"Then you're probably right in your suspicion that they were returning to the villa so that she could feed," Lucian said, obviously having read that thought from Tomasso's mind when he'd first asked if Abigail had fed before leaving.
Tomasso merely nodded.
"Who's that?" Justin asked suddenly.
Tomasso glanced back to the screen to see that Abigail, Jet, and Mary had paused on the edge of the lane through the trees that led to the villas. They were turning back as a man rushed up to them. Their abrupt stop made two men walking behind them split to move around each side of the group.
"Dr. Cortez. He was the doctor who tended Abigail while she was ill," Tomasso murmured, recognizing the little man hurrying up to the trio. His attention, though, was on the men who had just walked around Abigail, Jet, and Mary. Tomasso leaned down to get closer to the screen again, and as he watched, the pair moved up the lane a bit, but then scurried off the path and into the trees.
"Did you see that?" Dante asked, leaning in now too.
Tomasso nodded.
"Those two guys?" Justin asked, leaning in as well now. "Where'd they go? Who are they?"
"My kidnappers, Jake and Sully," Tomasso said darkly. "And I believe they are hiding in the bushes."
"One is hiding in the bush, the other is leaving. Look." Dante pointed to the screen, his finger first over Jake, just visible crouching by a flowering bush on the edge of the trees, and then his finger moved, pinpointing Sully's distinctive red jacket moving back toward the camera under cover of the trees.
"Where's he going?" Lucian muttered, leaning closer now as well.
They all fell silent as the man disappeared from the screen. Tomasso shifted his gaze back to Jake then, before returning his attention to the doctor as he clasped Abigail's hands in both of his. He was beaming and chattering away, and then he was shaking her hands as if to emphasize a point.
"What's that? A van?" Justin asked suddenly and Tomasso quickly scanned the shot, spotting the white through the trees. It was only showing a bit here and a bit there, but could be a van, Tomasso thought.
"And the guy in red is back," Dante muttered.
"Sully," Tomasso said quietly as he spotted the red jacket through the trees between what might be a white van and Jake. A moment later the two men were crouching together again, watching as the doctor finished talking and turned to rush away as quickly as he'd approached.
Abigail, Mary, and Jet turned back to continue their walk then, passing right by the pair kneeling in the bushes. They were nearly out of the screen shot when Jake and Sully stepped out of the trees and moved up behind them. Tomasso had a terrible urge to shout a warning to Abigail, but this was a tape. What was happening had occurred hours ago. So he watched helplessly, just able to see Jake pull what appeared to be a gun from his jacket and slam Jet in the back of the head with it.
"Damn, that's gonna hurt when he wakes up," Justin predicted as the startled women turned to catch Jet as he fell.
No one commented as they watched the men force the women to drag Jet into the trees toward what they thought was a van. A moment later the splashes of white moved forward, away from the camera and in the direction of the villas, apparently on a road on the other side of the trees.
"We need to see where that road goes," Tomasso said, straightening as the film continued with nothing of interest to them. He headed for the door, aware that the others were following.
"Oh! Hey, wait," Justin said just as Tomasso opened the door.
Pausing, he glanced back in question and Justin pointed to the resort's head of security and the security guard, both sitting blank-faced in chairs at the panel they'd all just been hanging over.
"Go ahead," Lucian muttered, waving them on. "I will take care of this and catch up."
Tomasso didn't have to be told twice; he was turning away before Lucian finished speaking.
Seventeen
"Are you all right?" Abigail asked in a whisper that she was hoping the men couldn't hear from wherever they were in the house.
Mary nodded silently, but then peered down at the chains surrounding her from top to bottom. When her gaze returned to Abigail it held the question, What the hell?
Abigail offered her a sympathetic expression. Their kidnappers had really overdone it with the chains and--
On the other hand, she thought suddenly, if these men were the ones behind the disappearances of all those immortals that Tomasso had mentioned, they should know better than most how strong immortals were. Right?
Abigail glanced from Mary to Jet, her mind working. Just how strong was she now that she'd been turned? Was she strong enough to break the ropes binding her? Strong enough to throw Mary over her shoulder and carry her out of here? If Jet woke up and was able to move, and if she carried Mary, they might be able to--
"Where is Jet?"
Abigail glanced back to Mary at that question and then nodded to the left. Mary immediately twisted her head around until she could see him behind her.
"Poor kid," Mary muttered. "He's gonna have a headache too. Hopefully that's all though," she added with a frown and began to try to turn to get a better look at his head wound. The movement immediately made her chains jangle and Mary froze, her eyes shooting to Abigail's in panic.
In the silence that followed, the sound of the doorknob turning was like thunder. Mary's eyes widened, and then she closed them and let her head drop back to the floor as if she'd never woken up.
Following her lead, Abigail lowered her own head to her chest, feigning sleep. She heard the door open and footsteps as someone crossed the room toward her, but still gave a start when something brushed against her arm.
"I'm just checking your ties," Jake growled resentfully as she lifted her head.
"Sorry, you just startled me," she said.
"Hmm." He hesitated, obviously still stinging from her disgusted expression earlier. Irritation crossing his face, he reached for her sunglasses, muttering, "Why are you wearing those ugly things? I can't see you properly when you look at me."
Abigail leaned her head back sharply, hitting it against the wall as she tried to avoid his reaching hands. She had nowhere to go, however, and in desperation, closed her eyes as he lifted the glasses away.
"What are you doing? Open your eyes. I wanna see them," Jake snapped.
"I can't. I've been sick.
My eyes were damaged by the dehydration and the doctor at the hospital said I shouldn't go without sunglasses for at least a week if I want to see properly again." Abigail had no idea where that lie came from. She was usually an awful liar, but boy, this was the second doozy to slip off her tongue since encountering these men.
"Oh right, the dengue," Jake muttered and she felt the glasses slide back into place on her nose.
Letting her breath ease out, Abigail raised her head, but kept her eyes closed to prevent his seeing the silver specks through the dark lens.
"Thank you," she murmured.
Jake grunted. "I had a friend go down with that dengue hemorrhagic virus. Nasty business. The doc wasn't on the island when he came down with it. We were sure he was gonna die. Bleeding everywhere, nose, mouth, eyes. He was even sweating blood . . . in buckets. I think he was close to taking his last breath when the doc got back. Put him on a liquid intravenous, gave him blood transfusions and a couple days later he was fine. But before the doc got there I thought he was a goner," he muttered. Abigail was sure she could actually feel his searching eyes on her face as he asked, "Was it like that for you?"
Abigail hesitated. Her instincts were telling her that he was testing her somehow. That perhaps the sunglasses made him suspect she might be a vampire after all. Finally, she said truthfully, "I don't remember most of it. Just waking up feverish and in terrible pain. And I remember my nose started bleeding as they were trying to get me to drink water and then I looked at my arm and it was like you said, like I was sweating blood, but only little pinpricks of it, not big droplets or buckets, or anything."
"Yeah, like that," Jake said and she could almost feel him relax. Apparently she'd passed the test if it had been one. "Little pinpricks of blood all over his skin . . . Yeah . . . You had it bad."
"Yes," she agreed.
They were both silent for a minute and then Jake announced, "Sully thinks we should kill you and your boyfriend."
Abigail stiffened and just barely kept from opening her eyes. Forcing herself to stay calm, she said softly, "He's not my boyfriend."
"No?" The word faded a bit as he said it and she suspected he'd turned to look at Jet. "Is he with them then?"
Abigail cautiously opened her eyes to see that he was looking at Jet. Afraid that if he looked at him too long he might recognize that under all that hair was the pilot who had flown them out here, she tried to think of something to say to draw his attention back her way, but before she could come up with something, he started to turn back. Abigail immediately closed her eyes again.
"Well?" Jake asked impatiently. "Is he with them or not?"
Abigail had read somewhere that in kidnap and hostage situations, establishing a rapport and appealing to their family feelings raised your chance of survival. So she lied. "He's my brother. We're here with our mom and dad, a family trip to celebrate his graduation."
"Yeah?" Jake asked with interest.
"Yeah," Abigail murmured, and then hoping to get Jet out of there so she could risk an escape attempt, she pointed out, "My brother didn't see anything. You guys knocked him out right away from behind. You don't have to kill him. Maybe you could just let him go? Dump him on the beach or something before he wakes up? That way my parents wouldn't have to lose both of us."
A long silence followed and Abigail almost opened her eyes to see what was happening, and then Jake said, "That's real brave of you. Selfless too."
"He's my brother. I love him," Abigail murmured, and all of that was mostly true. While Jet wasn't related by blood, he was like a brother to her, and she definitely loved the big idiot.
"How much?" Jake asked.
Abigail frowned with confusion. Did he want money? She wondered and asked, "How much what?"
"How much do you love him?" Jake asked.
She stilled as she sensed him moving closer, suspecting where he was going with this now.
"Enough to play nice with me to convince me to let him go?" he asked.
Abigail felt the gun barrel slide along her leg and had to press her teeth tightly together to avoid saying something she would regret. But she was thinking that she probably should have expected this from the man. After all, he was the sleazeball who wanted a "pretty little mermaid with perky titties" that he could keep in a fish bowl and use at will. Why wouldn't he think it was okay to force a gal he planned to kill to have sex with him in exchange for her brother's life?
Jake was scum, and Abigail was beginning to cramp with her need for blood, which was making her crankier than her time of the month ever had and even she would admit she was a complete bitch at that time.
"There's the van," Justin said.
Spotting the white vehicle up ahead as they came around a slight bend in the lane, Tomasso nodded. They'd followed the short road from the point the kidnappers had made the girls drag Jet into the trees. There had been no turnoffs or offshoots, the road was a straight shot up to here, and the van was parked where the lane ended . . . right behind the villas.
"It must be a service lane for the housekeeping staff to use," Dante commented as they approached the van.
"Are we sure it's the same van?" Justin asked suddenly, sounding uncertain. "It has the resort logo on it. I don't imagine they let clients drive them."
"Maybe they stole it," Tomasso suggested as he stopped to peer in through one of the windows.
"I'd definitely say they stole it," Lucian said, his voice grim, and Tomasso glanced around to see him standing in the vegetation at the side of the road. It reached almost to the top of his hips, hiding whatever Lucian now bent to examine.
Curious, Tomasso walked over. The man was brushing a strand of dark hair away from a woman's face. Obviously a local, she wore a white housekeeping uniform with the resort logo on its pocket. A man in white slacks and a white shirt also with the resort logo on the pocket lay next to her. Both were young, attractive, and dead, their throats slit.
"These kidnappers are rabid dogs and need putting down," Lucian growled as he straightened.
Tomasso nodded and turned to peer at the nearest villa to where they were standing. It was right next to their own villa, he saw, and was no doubt where Abigail, Mary, and Jet were being held.
"Well? What's it gonna be, girlie?" Jake barked, his voice raspy as the gun barrel slid up past her knee.
Abigail's mouth tightened. She wasn't sleeping with the scumbag. That was a given. The very thought made her stomach hurt . . . or maybe that was her hunger. Probably her hunger, Abigail decided. It had been growing since she'd woken up, and just seemed to worsen once she'd realized what it was. Her sense of smell had grown keener too. The hungrier she got, the more she seemed to be able to smell and much to Abigail's dismay, A-hole here was smelling delicious despite being a first-class scumbag. His scent made her think of bacon, or maybe she just associated him with it because he was a pig.
"He gets to live and you get to go out with a bang," Jake coaxed and laughed at his own play on words as the gun moved further up, pushing the hem of her sundress before it.
Abigail had never experienced a fury quite as pure as what roared through her then. It wasn't so much that he was daring to touch her even if only with the gun, although that pissed her off too. But that he could sit there and blackmail what he thought was a poor defenseless young woman with something like that? And then callously make a joke of it?
Trying to calm herself and figure out what to do, Abigail swallowed. However, she couldn't help thinking that while he'd said a lot trying to convince her that Mary was a monster because she'd been turned, he was the true monster.
"But you have to convince me you like it, or I'll kill your brother there after all, and torture him first, make him beg to die," Jake added as the gun barrel reached her upper thigh.
Abigail eased her eyes open to see that the barrel was straight down, pointing at the bed and was continuing upward toward the apex of her thighs. The attempt to grab and stop it was instinctive, and it was only as she felt
the resistance of the rope that she remembered it and then the rope snapped. Abigail suspected her expression was probably as surprised as Jake's when her hands whipped around in front of her body, but she was committed now. Snapping her legs closed around the gun, trapping it, she covered Jake's hand on the gun and squeezed, crushing his fingers against the metal.
She heard a crack crack crack, but it took a heartbeat for Abigail to realize she was hearing the small bones in his hand breaking. Startled, she automatically eased her grip and Jake quickly snatched his hand back, leaving the gun between her legs.
He tried to back away then, but Abigail's right hand was already closing around his throat and squeezing. Grabbing the gun from between her legs, she lunged to her feet on the bed in one quick motion that startled even her. Whoa! She'd never been very athletic, more a bookworm, and this was practically Olympic gymnast medal-worthy, she thought in some part of her mind, and then was distracted by choking sounds from Jake. She'd lifted him off the floor as she stood, Abigail saw. The man's feet were dangling six inches above the floor and kicking weakly. His face was turning purple. She was killing him.
Cursing, Abigail flung him back away from her. Her thought was to toss him far enough that he had a hard landing and was left stunned so that she got the chance to shoot him with one of his precious darts as he'd shot Mary. It should put him out long enough for them to escape, she thought. But she was way stronger than she'd thought, and Jake had more than a hard landing. He flew all the way across the large room and crashed into the opposite wall with force.
Man, I'm Hercules in a sundress, Abigail thought almost hysterically as she watched him go limp and drop to the floor.
The jangle of chains caught her ear, knocking her out of her stunned state. Abigail glanced to Mary to see that the woman was trying to get turned around on the floor so she could see Jake. Jumping off the bed, Abigail rushed to the other woman.
"No," Mary said when Abigail stuck the dart gun in her mouth to free her hands and then lifted the blonde to her feet. "Just go. Get help."
Pulling the gun from her mouth, Abigail muttered, "I can't leave you and Jet," as she tried to find the start of the chain to begin unwinding her.