Hot as Sin (Hot Shots: Men of Fire #2)(20)
Author: Bella Andre

Dianna had been waiting for her in the café on Vail’s main street, and for a split second, April had been so happy to see her sister that she’d almost hugged her. Excitedly, she tried to tell Dianna about the Farm, about what a good experience it was. But before she could figure out how to best explain her new living situation, Dianna had started pushing all her buttons.

“Tell me why you want to stay in Colorado,” Dianna had asked. “Why you won’t come back and enroll in junior college? I’m willing to give you another chance to get back on your feet. We need a part-time research assistant on the show. I’m sure Ellen would take a chance on you.”

April was proud of her new skills and hoped Dianna would be too. “I’ve already got a job.”

“Doing what?”

“Cooking.”

It wasn’t hard to see how shocked Dianna was. And that she wasn’t the least bit impressed.

“Cooking? You’ve never even wanted to watch the cooking channel with me. Tell me where the restaurant is, what it’s called. I’ll have a word with the chef. He’ll understand that you need to come home with me.”

“I’m not working in a restaurant,” April explained. “I’m cooking for everyone on the Farm.”

Before she could explain things more clearly, Dianna said, “The Farm? What in God’s name is the Farm?” Her expression suddenly grew even more anxious than it already was. “Oh God, April, you’re not mixed up in some kind of cult, are you?”

April had made a face, tried to tamp down the sudden rush of anger, tried to recover the sense of peace she’d felt for the past couple of months.

“No, of course it’s not a cult. A commune is totally different from a cult. We’re an intentional community.”

“No way,” Dianna had said in a hard voice that April had never heard her use. Even when she’d done something bad, her sister had always been gentle with her. “I’m not letting you live on a commune or a Farm or whatever you’re calling it. I didn’t work this hard to get us out of a trailer park so that you could turn around and live in mud huts with a bunch of hippies.”She grabbed April’s arm. “We’re going to get your things and then we’re going to leave.”

April yanked her arm out of Dianna’s grasp. How could she have thought that Dianna would understand?

“I already told you, Dianna. I’m staying here. In Colorado.” April let her mouth twist into a satisfied smirk. “On the commune.”

“Jesus, April. You haven’t always made the best choices, but I didn’t think you were stupid.”

That was when April finally snapped. “It must hurt to have a pole rammed so far up your perfect ass.”

She’d gotten the hell out of the café before Dianna saw her tears.

All she wanted was to be back at the Farm with her new friends, but it was raining way too hard, so she spent fifteen dollars to stay at the nearby youth hostel that she and Kevin had slept in their first night in Vail. Curling up on the hard bed, she tried to sleep, but a group of teenage girls was blaring the TV in the main room.

Suddenly, she heard someone say her sister’s name and she sat up in bed, hitting her head on the top bunk. A sick premonition rushed over her as she ran out of the room in her underwear and heard the news report about Dianna’s crash.

On the floor of the closet, her stomach churned with a sick mixture of guilt and remorse. Dianna wouldn’t have been on that winding road in that storm if it hadn’t been for her. And now, if she couldn’t get out of here, she might never get the chance to say she was sorry.

Abruptly, her train of thought was broken by the sound of loud footsteps.

Oh shit, he was back!

The door opened, and before she could so much as make a sound, he was coming at her with a needle. She tried to get away from him, tried to scream behind her muzzle, but there was nowhere to go, no way to escape.

The man watched the girl go limp and waited for the satisfaction of how easy it was to keep her hostage.

Instead, he felt numb. From top to bottom, inside and out. He barely even saw the girl, his mind clouded with visions of his brother lying cold and stiff beneath a white sheet.

“What do you want me to do with her?”

He turned to Mickey, a brawny but simple man he’d hired a handful of times when he felt that he was entering a potentially dangerous situation. Early on in the business, he’d learned that for the right amount of money, Mickey would do whatever needed to be done, no questions asked.

But he needed sleep in order to think straight. He’d simply keep the girl locked up until he fleshed out his plan.

“Just watch her. Make sure she stays put.”

Mickey stepped closer, looked in the closet. He smiled, revealing a lack of good dentistry. “She’s pretty.”

“Don’t touch her.” The man’s round face fell with disappointment and he amended, “Not yet.”

He didn’t want Mickey to be too rough with the girl before Dianna was here to witness it. He almost smiled at the image of the rich, blond TV star bitch being forced to watch the brute sodomize her sister.

Fortunately, he thought as he went to get some sleep, it wouldn’t be long before both he and Mickey got exactly what they wanted. Mickey could have the girl.

And he’d have his revenge.

CHAPTER SEVEN

DIANNA HEARD someone say, “Take deep, slow breaths,” and realized Sam was counseling her in a gentle voice as she stood in the comforting circle of his arms.

It was the very last place she’d ever expected to find herself.

“You need to sit down.”

She wanted to race straight out of the hospital room to search for April, but he was right. She’d be no good to April until she calmed down and came up with a clearheaded plan.

Sam helped her back onto the bed and covered her legs with a blanket, then got her a cup of water and made her drink it.

Her mouth was dry despite the water. “I’m scared, Sam.”

In her early years at the TV station, she’d taken night classes in elocution, learning to keep her voice even and moderated. She barely recognized this squeaking anxious woman talking to Sam as herself.

“Where is she? What did she say?”

“Some guy grabbed her, but she got away and was calling from a gas station.”

“Did she tell you which one?”

Her hands began to shake. She might have created an amazing career and bank account for herself during the past ten years, but even as a broke eighteen-year-old overwhelmed by the crowded city streets of San Francisco, she’d never been this frightened. This freaked out.