Page 58 of Ruthless

“That’ll do it.”

She held up the phone. “We have water in the garage still, so put him in the chair. While you boys get some distance, I’ll call Donna, and then the police.”

“Half an hour would be good,” Slash said. “By then we can be having a beer somewhere with lots of witnesses.”

“I can do that.”

“I like you. You think like a fine biker chick,” Slash said.

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“Damn right it is. Ronan and Jett, if you fuckers don’t pick up your option on this one and let her know you want to keep her around, one or two of the other guys are going to for sure.”

“They come near her, I’ll forget what a pacifist I intend to be, starting tomorrow,” said Ronan with a deep glower.

“She’s ours if she’ll have us,” said Jett with quiet seriousness.

Tessa’s heart skipped a beat, and she could have gotten lost in the moment, but reality intruded. Realizing they had to get away, she said, “You get your asses out of here…but, yes.”

Ronan and Jett were grinning like mad as they walked to the bikes a couple of the others had already lifted for them. Jett was still limping but didn’t seem seriously injured, and Ronan had apparently escaped any injury. They lifted their hands in parting before the bikes roared to life.

She watched the cloud of dust they kicked up as they left and wondered why these guys seemed so much more alive than anyone she knew. No wonder they’d irrevocably captured her attention and her heart.

Harvey moaned, and she turned to see him sagging in the chair Slash had tied him into after carrying him into the office like he weighed nothing at all. Spittle and blood ran down from the corner of his mouth. The kids were actually playing in the garage, making it sound like recess. The tension was broken, and they were bursting with the energy of relief.

In the distance, one of the bikes stopped. A figure lurched from the bushes alongside the road, and whoever was on the bike pointed back to the garage. The figure turned and staggered toward her. It was the bus driver. She smiled. He could help with the kids. Maybe after she undid his cuffs, she’d put the keys in the drawer and forget where they were. If Mr. Affir came back, he might have to wait until the police undid his. He hadn’t been much help at all.

When she went inside, she talked to the kids, and they all agreed that the story the police would understand might not exactly match everything they’d seen, but it was basically the truth.

Chapter 16

When the police arrived,the story they were told puzzled and amused them, that the group had been kidnapped and brought here. Tessa had posted the demands on Taylor’s Facebook page, and then some bikers had come by. Taylor had panicked and fired at them. At that point, Kayla insisted on explaining her role. Not about her phone but the clever way she had distracted the man with the rifle. Tessa could tell they believed her by the way they winced. That the kidnapper’s son told the same story sealed it.

They found a dazed and frightened Mr. Affir hiding in a ditch further down the road. Tessa was disappointed to learn the police had a key that would undo his handcuffs. She’d been looking forward to seeing a locksmith cut them off.

Overall, the police were kind and efficient. They hauled Taylor off for questioning. “The way he’s carrying on, he’ll go straight to psych evaluation,” the lead detective told her.

“That’s where he belongs,” she told him. “You might want to check his Facebook page.”

The officer smiled. “These nutters seem to think we care what they put up there. As long as it isn’t child porn…”

“Nothing like that. But he’s a sick man.”

“You think he shouldn’t be prosecuted?”

“That’s not for me to say. He strikes me as someone who has demons he can’t control. I don’t think he intended to harm anyone in the beginning.”

The detective shook his head. “You’re a lot more forgiving than I’d be in your shoes. He smacked you a good one with that pistol and was going to kill you.”

“The paramedics want me to get my head checked, so maybe I am soft in the head.”

Naturally, child protective services had to come to evaluate the situation, and they took the children and Tessa to the hospital so a doctor could check them out. “Once we know they’re okay, we’ll notify the parents to come and get their children,” the woman in charge told her.

“I’d better call the school and let them know things are all right,” she said. She used Slash’s phone and called Donna Turnbull on her direct line to give her an update.

“Thank God you’re all alive,” she said. “Now that you have a moment, tell me what happened. I’ll need to make a report.”

With the woman from CPS eavesdropping, Tessa gave her a short version, sticking mostly to the story she’d told the police.

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