It was official, I was part of the family. Cora was swooping in to take care of me just like she did the rest of the crew. I could have kissed her for it. I looked at my sister and had zero doubt a nap would do her some good. She had dark circles under her eyes and looked worn down and empty. I could literally see the way her heart and soul were hurting in her shadowed gaze.

“I think that’s a good idea. I’ll call Royal on the way and see if they have any information on Oliver as well.”

Cora told me solemnly, “This isn’t the first time a guy that just couldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer has wreaked havoc with one of our girls. I know how stressful and dangerous the situation can be. You need to take care of her.”

I walked around the lounger and wrapped Cora in a tight hug, and something really struck me as permanent and definite when I told her thank you and she pulled back and told me point-blank, “We take care of our own.”

Poppy climbed to her feet as well and offered Cora a wobbly smile. “I’m so glad my sister found you guys and this place. I really think it was where she was always destined to be.”

Cora laughed and followed us down the stairs as we headed back into the shop. “Of course it’s where Salem was supposed to be. Rowdy is here and I think it’s pretty obvious to anyone that’s been paying attention that they were bound to end up together.”

We went downstairs and I had to wait a second for Rowdy to look up from what he working on. When he did, those summery eyes chased some of the chill of fear and worry away.

“I’m gonna take Poppy to your place. She’s exhausted and hanging on by a thread.”

He looked around me at my rapidly wilting sister and nodded his head. “All right. Wanna give me twenty minutes and I’ll follow you so that I know you’re safe? I can cancel my last two appointments for the day.”

I would feel better with him there, but I figured Poppy and I would be okay as long as we stuck together and we weren’t going to my place but to his. “I think it’ll be fine, but if you want to come home early when you’re done, I won’t complain. Poppy really needs to rest. Can you stop by my place and grab Jimbo and some stuff for her on your way?”

He told his client to give him a second and set the machine he was using down and snapped off the black latex gloves covering his hands. He got to his feet and dug his keys out of his pocket. He fiddled with the ring until he handed two loose keys over to me. He placed them in my palm then bent low so that his mouth was right next to my ear and whispered, “Another first. No girl has ever had the keys to my place before.”

I got hot all over and wanted to kiss his face off, but we were at work and it wasn’t the time. I curled my fingers around the metal and smiled at him. “First and last.”

He lifted his chin in agreement and turned back to finish the impressive geisha tattoo he was putting on his client.

I went back to Poppy and hooked my arm through hers after thanking Cora again as I guided my sister out of the shop. She sort of shuffled alongside me, and once we got to the car she slumped down in the passenger seat and didn’t say anything to me as she gazed out the window. It was depressing and disheartening, to say the least. I just let her be, and once we got to Rowdy’s apartment complex, it was by some unspoken agreement that we planned to hustle inside just to be safe. Neither of us wanted to linger out in the open until we knew for sure the authorities had located Poppy’s soon-to-be ex-husband..

I had some stuff scattered around Rowdy’s place already. I had been making my way into his life, into his space, subconsciously for weeks and weeks. I was making myself at home without even realizing that’s what I was doing. I just needed my dog and some provisions for my sister and I could camp out there indefinitely.

I was just about to shut the car door and click the locks closed behind me when another car motor revved and screeching brakes made me pull up short. I looked over the top of the open door I was holding and felt all the blood rush out of my face.

A sedan stopped right next to my car and the driver’s-side door swung open violently. Before I could react in any way other than to freeze in surprise and shock, a short man got out of the car and pointed at my sister where she was hovering nervously next to my car on the curb. I knew this wasn’t a good situation.

“Get in this car, Poppy.” He didn’t yell, didn’t posture, he just told her what to do in a coolly clam voice that was terrifying.

“No.” Poppy didn’t say it. I did. But there was no way I was letting her go anywhere with him. He looked unkempt and crazed and there was obvious danger stamped all over him.

He vibrated in rage when I barked the negative at him, and instead of letting the argument escalate or raising his voice and coming after me, he methodically produced a gun from somewhere behind his back and pointed it right at me.

I had lived in a lot of big cities and not always in a good part of town. I had seen guns before and even witnessed gun violence at a club here or there along the way. What I had never had happen to be me before was to be facing down the barrel of one with a man clearly ready to pull the trigger on the other side of it.

“Get. In. The. Car. Poppy.” Each word was hollow, deliberate, and laced with evil.

I could hear my sister whimpering and felt the tension between all of us wind up and scream with the need to break. My hands curled around the frame of the door as I stared unblinking at the gun.

“Move! I will shoot your sister. I should do it anyway as a favor to your father.”

I swallowed hard but refused to react. I had a feeling if I so much as twitched an eyelash the wrong way he would feel justified in pulling the trigger. Why hadn’t I thought this through? Of course, if he had followed me home to see where I lived, the lunatic would have followed me to Rowdy’s as well. Hell, the creep very well might have been lurking outside of the shop all day just waiting for his moment. I felt like an idiot, and my sister was the one who was going to suffer.

“Oh my God.” Poppy whispered the words and I saw her move out of the corner of my eye.

“Don’t!” I couldn’t stop the command and jolted when the gun went off in a thunderous BANG. I gasped and watched at the bullet skated across the hood of my car. I jumped involuntarily and couldn’t stop shaking in terror. I had always been independent and confident that I could take care of myself, but right now I was lamenting not just waiting twenty minutes for Rowdy to come with us. Not that I wanted him in danger, but something about having him close by gave me the feeling things would be all right no matter what, and that was a feeling I could desperately use right now as the gun was leveled at my face once again.

“I will shoot you. I don’t care about you. I just want what’s mine.”

Poppy had moved so that she was between me and the gun. I wanted to reach out and grab her and pull her back to me, but now I didn’t want to risk him pulling the trigger and shooting her.

“Poppy, if you get in that car he’s just going to shoot me as soon as you close the door. He’s going to hurt us both.”

She was shaking so badly that she could hardly stand up. Her honey-colored eyes were gigantic in her face and I couldn’t see any way this was going to end without bloodshed.

“No, he won’t. Put the gun down, Oliver, and I’ll get in the car.”

He laughed and it sounded as deranged and crazy as he looked. “You don’t get to give orders. I give the orders. Get in the f**king car, Poppy.”

“Listen, the police are already looking for you. You just fired a gun in a crowded metro area. How long do you think you have before you’re surrounded by cops? If you want me to go with you, put the gun down and I will. I’m not getting out of the way until you do. You’ll have to shoot me if you want to hurt Salem.”

Shit. This wasn’t good. Not at all. I went to tell Poppy to run, to move, to do something—anything besides getting in that car with a man that had already proven he could break her, but I didn’t get the chance. Oliver went back the driver’s door of his car and tossed the gun in the direction of the backseat. If Poppy did get in the car like she seemed determined to do, there was no way she could get to the weapon before he could.

“Now get in.” Apparently his desire to have my sister under his control outweighed his desire to threaten and harm me. “I’m not telling you again. An obedient wife listens to her husband.”

“Don’t do this, Poppy.” I was pleading with her in desperation.

She looked at me over her shoulder. “Get in the car and call the police.”

“He’s going to hurt you—kill you. You can’t go with him.”

“I have to. You’ll save me. You always do.”

She pulled open the passenger door of the sedan and slid inside. Oliver looked at me over the hood of his car and made a finger gun. He pretended to shoot me right in the head just as the faint sounds of sirens could be heard. He slipped inside of the car and raced off with my sister’s horrified face looking at me out of the passenger window.

I dove for my cell phone and called 911, Royal, Rowdy, my parents, and Sayer in that order. The police were already on their way, and before I screamed at Rowdy that I needed him and that he had to come hold me together, I was surrounded by detectives and patrol officers. They were all asking me a million questions.

What color was the car?

Did I see the license plate?

What was he wearing?

What was Poppy wearing?

Did I know what kind of gun it was?

Did I think he was going to hurt Poppy—or himself?

Where would he take her?

The questions were endless and I couldn’t answer most of them coherently. I felt like I was numb. I felt like I had walked into a bad shoot-’em-up movie and the plot had just twisted in a glaringly obvious way. How did I not know better? I was crying silent tears. I was shaking so hard my muscles hurt. I felt like all the words being spoken to me were just white noise over the roar of my blood and the thundering of my heart. I wanted to curl up in a fetal position on the ground and rock. I wanted to get in my car and go speeding off in a random direction like I would just magically find Oliver and my sister if I did that. I wanted to throttle Oliver, kick my dad, and shake my mom within an inch of her life.

I heard my name hollered through the chaos. I caught sight of Rowdy’s tall frame and blond hair as he made his way through the throng of law enforcement, intent on getting to me. As soon as his arms closed around me I shattered into a million pieces. I collapsed and let him hold me up as I cried and cursed and swore vengeance on everyone. I had never had anyone I cared about taken from me before. Sure, I had left, walked away because I felt like I had to, but having someone I loved ripped from me in a brutal and vile way left me torn open and aching. It gave me an entirely new appreciation for those wounds Rowdy had suffered with his entire life. I curled my arms around his waist and swore to God, the universe, and whoever else happened to be listening to me that I would never let him go again.

I felt him kiss the top of my head as he squeezed me back. “I’ve got you.” He did. He absolutely did and I had him.

“I know you do. I’ve got you, too.”

Now we just had to stay strong and hold on to one another while Denver’s finest went after the lunatic that had kidnapped my little sister.

CHAPTER 19

Rowdy

IT WAS A MISERABLE NIGHT. The police weren’t being very helpful, and if it wasn’t for Royal showing up and being the unofficial liaison between Salem and the detectives working the case, I felt like there was a pretty good chance my girl would have ended up in lockup herself.

She was understandably frantic, but more than that, she was furious. She was mad at herself for leaving the shop unescorted even though I kept telling her it wouldn’t have mattered. Oliver had a gun and he was determined to haul Poppy off. Regardless if I had been with them or not, a bullet was a bullet and chances are he would have seen me as a threat and shot first just to get me out of the way. I should’ve kept quiet because that just made her angrier and more distraught. I knew the feeling. The idea of a crazed gunman pointing a weapon at her and firing it off anywhere near her made me want to hurt everyone.