“Miss Kohl,” the one with the unsmiling eyes began.
A little thrill of fear spiked up her spine. Something was wrong. “That’s not a delivery tray.”
What they had rolled in was made of canvas. She could see it plainly now.
“No. It’s not,” the second man agreed. He took a step toward her.
Kinley backed up. “That’s a laundry hamper.”
It was the industrial kind used in hotels. Why had they brought her food on a laundry hamper? Except there wasn’t actually any food because that would have come with silverware and glassware, not two silver covers that she could now see weren’t actually covering anything at all.
“Don’t scream, sweetheart. We’re not here to hurt you.” The second man was inching his way toward her.
Holy crap! Then what were they going to do?
Kinley wasn’t about to obey them. She opened her mouth and let out a long shout as she turned on her heels and sprinted for the door.
At least she meant to sprint for the door. Unfortunately, she tripped on the stupidly long train of her dress and fell to her knees. She scrambled, her heart pounding. Get up! She had to. Kinley had no idea what these men wanted, but she wasn’t about to give it to them.
An arm wound around her waist, and she was pulled back against a hard body. She screamed again, but this time a hand clapped over her mouth.
Did they mean to rob her? Rape her? Kill her? God, was this really happening? Tears overflowed.
The first man, the really big one, stepped in front of her. “It’s all right, Kinley. We’re going to take care of you.”
Yes. It looked like they were going to take care of her—by burying her somewhere or tying her feet to cinder blocks and dropping her in the ocean. She’d watched enough ID TV to know what came next.
She tried to sink her teeth into the hand that covered her mouth. He cursed, and she managed to gain a tiny bit of purchase, but otherwise, he held tight.
“She’s f**king biting me, Law,” he hissed.
A smile crept across the face of the one called Law. It looked rusty from disuse, but when he smiled, his eyes lit up. “Good for her, Ry. I told you she was stronger than you thought. Baby, you have to stop fighting us or I’ll have to do something I’d rather not. I want to talk to you. I want to explain everything.”
He wanted to explain how he was going to rape and murder her? She bit down harder. The arm around her waist tightened, but the hand never moved.
“Goddamn it, Law. She’s about to take a f**king piece out of my hand. She’s got two of the fingers I type with,” he snarled. “Take her out or I will.”
Law stepped up, and she noticed the needle he was carrying. Nothing scared her more than that. She stopped biting the hand over her mouth and tried to scramble away. She couldn’t be unconscious. She couldn’t be at their mercy.
Kinley kicked back, desperate to escape their hold.
The mass of muscle behind her didn’t move an inch.
Law looked down at her, those blue eyes of his filled with some unnamed emotion. He reached out for her with an odd tenderness as he smoothed back her hair. “I will take care of you, baby.”
She shook her head frantically, but that needle hit her arm anyway. It went right through her silk gown and sank into her flesh.
“Go to sleep now,” he whispered.
Almost immediately, the world began to turn hazy, her vision fading from the periphery in. Her muscles went soft, her knees weakening. But she didn’t hit the floor. Ry picked her up, lifting her into his arms as he started across the room.
“Gently,” Law said as he pulled the top off the laundry cart and shoved it to the side. “I don’t want to hurt her.”
No matter how hard Kinley tried to stay alert, she couldn’t fight the drug anymore. Her whole body went limp, held up only by Ry’s strong arms. As her mind floated, she had the vague thought that it was nice. She’d never been held like this before. She was too big. She would probably kill his back. She opened her mouth to protest, but nothing would come out. Her eyes slid shut.
“I’ll take care of her,” Ry promised, holding her close.
He lowered her down as the world went dark.
* * * *
Law looked down at the woman in the cart and felt a blazing sense of satisfaction. Kinley Kohl was safe, and he intended to make sure she stayed that way. Two months of surveillance, then adopting a cover to watch her a bit closer for the past week had convinced him that Dominic was completely wrong about her.
And, if his instincts were right, she was also a virgin—and a submissive one at that.
Yeah, that got his c**k hard. He’d always been a raging pervert, but Kinley Kohl had turned him into an obsessed freak. The moment he’d seen her, he’d known he wanted her. She was gorgeous and had the kind of soft body that made him hard all over. If he’d just wanted to bang the f**k out of her, he would have been all right. Then…he’d seen her with a bunch of homeless kids at a charity event, and his damn stupid heart had engaged for the first time.
He had to protect her. Yeah, from Dominic, but mostly from her dickwad fiancé.
Riley walked out of the bathroom, shaking his right hand. “Well, we know she has all her teeth. Fuck that hurt.”
“Don’t be a pu**y,” Law barked, still staring at her.
He was proud that she’d fought back, especially since she tended to be submissive to the stronger personalities around her, like Greg and her bitch of a sister. More than once, he’d seen them take advantage of her sweet nature. Law had been a little worried that when he and Ry abducted her, she would just cry and beg. He wouldn’t have been able to handle that. Instead, she’d bitten the shit out of his brother.