Break Me Down

“Not letting me? Right.” She waved at one of the security guards by the door. “Jack, I’m leaving. I don’t want this man to follow me. I’m calling my safe word.”

Jack stepped forward, his mouth flattening into a sober line. “Of course, mistress.”

Gibson groaned. “Jack, she’s upset and shouldn’t be driving like that. We’re not in a scene. She’s a friend and I’m trying to help her.”

The big guy shrugged. “Sorry, man. Rules are rules. You’re going to need to stay inside until I see her to her car.”

Gibson threw his hands out to his sides. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. Sam, don’t do this. Let me help.”

She turned and peered at him over her shoulder, resignation in her eyes. “I gave you a chance to do that. But you said it yourself. You can’t. There’s nothing left to say. I’ve got to go, Gib.”

She walked out the door with the security guard, leaving Gibson with two other staff members who would uphold the rules just as strictly. And if he was in any doubt, they both sent him don’t-try-me looks to punctuate it. He crossed his arms and leaned against the wall, steaming. Fine. She could leave. But he knew where she lived and he’d be damned if he was going to let her be alone tonight.

He’d give her a few minutes’ head start and then he would follow her.

But fifteen minutes later, when the guards allowed him to leave the Ranch, he never caught up with her car. She’d either driven like a bat out of hell or taken an alternate route. No matter. He knew his destination. But when he reached her apartment, her car was nowhere in the parking lot, he got no answer when he knocked on her door, and her phone went straight to voice mail.

The seed of anxiety that had nestled in his gut when he couldn’t find her car on the road bloomed into full-fledged worry. He hit a different button on his phone and called his brother. It was the middle of the night, but maybe Sam had gone to Kade and Tessa’s house. She probably had a key, and Tessa was her best friend. Who better to go to if she needed a shoulder to lean on?

His brother answered on the third ring, groggy-voiced. “Gib? What’s wrong?”

“Is Sam at your place?”

“Sam?” Kade asked like he was trying to make sense of the word. Sheets shifted. “No. Why would she be here?”

“Are you sure? Could she have come in while y’all were sleeping?”

“No. She doesn’t have an alarm code and she knows we’re getting on a plane this morning. Why? What’s wrong? Did something happen? Don’t tell me you messed around with her and pissed her off again.”

“No, it’s not like that. Shit.” Gibson ran a hand through his hair and leaned against Sam’s door. “Sam was jumped outside of the bar tonight.”

“What?”

“She’s okay. Or was, at least. Banged up and freaked out, but okay. I saw her at the Ranch afterward, but she left upset and now she’s not at her place.”

More rustling noises filled the line and Tessa’s voice sounded in the background. “Babe, who are you talking to?”

“It’s Gib,” Kade said. “He said Sam was jumped outside the bar tonight. Have you talked to her?”

“What? Oh my God. Give me the phone.”

Tessa got on the line, and Gibson quickly explained what he knew. Then, without giving her time to ask too many questions, he got straight to the point. “I need to know if you have any idea where she is or where she’d go if she was upset.”

Tessa let out a breath, obviously shaken at the news. “God, poor Sam. She wouldn’t come to me, though. She doesn’t like bringing her problems to other people. When she’s upset, she goes all hermit crab.”

“So why wouldn’t she just come home?”

“Did you knock on her door?”

“Well, I didn’t telepathically send her a message through the wall.”

Tessa ignored his sarcasm. “Did Darcy bark his head off?”

Gibson looked up, the significance of the question settling in, and turned to the door. “No.” He knocked again, harder, louder. Nothing. “No barking.”

Tessa sighed. “Son of a bitch. That girl has a hard head.”

“What?”

“I bet I know where she is. She’s off this week, and she’s been renovating her grandmother’s house in her free time. She probably took the dog and went out to the country.”

“Wait. Her grandmother? I thought she didn’t have any family.” He hadn’t gotten Sam’s whole story, but he knew that she and Tessa had met in foster care.

“She doesn’t anymore. Her grandmother died when Sam was eight, but she found out last year that the house and property had been left to her. It’s about an hour and a half outside of Dallas in the middle of freaking nowhere, and the place is in rough shape. Electricity’s spotty and no cell service. I told her it wasn’t safe to be there at night, but she loves that place. If she’d run anywhere, that’s where she’d go—some place where no one would bother her.”

Sam alone in the country, upset, no electricity or phones? Sounded like a seriously bad idea. “I need to know exactly where it is.”

“Gib …”

“No, Tess. I get it. You want to protect her privacy. But I saw her tonight. She’s shaken and doesn’t need to be alone.”

“If I leave now, I can go check on her. We’re taking the company jet for the trip. They can hold it.”

“Or I can go out there, and you can go on your vacation. Come on, you know she’s safe with me. I’ll go check on her and get her to come back home. No way should she be staying alone in some ramshackle place. She can have my cabin at the Ranch if she needs a place to get away for a week.”

Tessa was quiet for a moment. “She’ll be seriously pissed at me if I send you out there.”

“Have you seen any horror flick ever made? Single woman alone in the woods in a broken-down house?”

“That’s not playing fair.”

“But it’s true. Come on. Let me help her. I know I screwed things up, but I still care about her and can be a friend to her.”

Tessa let out a beleaguered sigh. “A scared Sam is not a good Sam. She’ll lash out at anyone who tries to help. It’s one of the things that got her kicked out of so many foster placements. I can sometimes get past that wall, but she’s going to be in full-scale defense mode.”

“You don’t think I can handle that?”

“You can’t push her or caveman her. It will make things worse.”

He rubbed his brow, his heart beating fast at the thought of Sam out there alone in the woods. He wanted to push. He wanted to go out there, haul her over his shoulder, and bring her back home with him. But Tessa was right. If he tried that shit with Sam, she’d run farther and faster. He took a calming breath, trying to keep his voice even. “I’ll be whatever she needs me to be in order to get her back home safely.”

“Whatever she needs? You really mean that, Gib?” That was Kade again. Great, they’d put him on fucking speakerphone.

Gibson gritted his teeth. His brother was always doing that, poking that tender spot. “I mean it.”

“Good. Then go get her, man. If you don’t, I’m driving out there myself. That place is a goddamned death trap.”

Tessa groaned, but then he heard the sheets shift and a soft thump, like she was falling back onto a pillow in defeat. “I’ll text you the address.”