Silent Lynx: Heart of Detroit Series



  Silent Lynx

  Adventure/Romance

  (Heart of Detroit Series)

  Sylvia Hubbard

  Copyright 2010 Sylvia Hubbard

  All rights reserved.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual person, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

  This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

  For information address:

  Sylvia Hubbard | PO Box 43439, Detroit, MI 48243

  Visit her website at: https://SylviaHubbard.com

  DEDICATION: I’d like to dedicate this one to my fans, who love reading my work and love the Hearts. They’ve encouraged me to keep them alive and fun and most of all darn sexy! Enjoy them and please let me know how you like ‘em with a review to wherever you purchased the book.

  SILENT LYNX

  “For the last time, Tannie, I said no!” her father said, pounding his fist against the desk.

  Tanae narrowed her eyes and stomped her foot angrily. “You treat me like a child! I’m twenty-three years old, and you’re forcing me to stay a prisoner in this house with a drunken stepmother and you! It’s not fair! It’s my birthday, and I want to go out!”

  One of his men cleared his throat at the library’s doorway, and her father nodded in understanding. Tanae paid little attention to the important package that the man carried. She was consumed with her problems.

  “This conversation is over, plus it’s nine at night, and no young lady should be out on the street this time of night. Tomorrow I’ll have my security take you shopping all you like. Now go away, Tannie and make yourself pretty.” Her father took the package from the guard, and they paid little attention to her as he unwrapped the brown packaging around an old rusted green lock box. Once he checked the contents inside with a satisfied grin, he placed this box in his wall safe.

  Tanae was incensed at how her father was paying no attention to her. “What’s that?” she demanded to know.

  “That’s none of your business,” he snapped. “Didn’t I just tell you to go and find something else to do?”

  Stomping back to her room, she gathered up her purse and keys.

  “What did he say?” Jennie, her best friend, asked, who had been waiting for her.

  Checking the mirror to make sure her makeup was perfect on her beautiful brown flawless skin, she smiled back at the reflection with her perfect teeth and full sensual lips. “Who cares what my father says,” Tanae said and motioned her friend to be quiet as they snuck out the house.

  Depending on her father’s lack of details, she had already dressed in her short black dress and stiletto heels

  Getting past her father’s sleeping guards was easy since she had been watching them for the past year. Ever since her father had gotten into government research last year, doing whatever she wanted had been out of the question. Followed by big thugs wherever she went in public, had made Tanae’s life miserable.

  1“Do you know how much trouble you’re going to be in?” Jennie said incredulously, as she hopped in Tanae’s brand new BMW.

  Tanae put the petal to the metal and took off burning rubber laughing hysterically. “This feels so good, Jennie!” she exclaimed. “This was worth the trouble. I just had to get out of that house. I’ve been practically locked up for the past three months. All because my father took that stupid job with the government, I’ve got to be a prisoner in my own home. He lets Arnold go to college, but what do I get? Online courses at the University of Phoenix? How lame is that?”

  “He’s going to shit bricks when he knows you took off without the bodyguards,” Jennie said worriedly looking behind to see if they someone was following them.

  “Don’t you worry your pretty little head off,” Tanae said pulling out a personal electric shock device from her purse. “I’ve turned it on stun to give me time to get away. Arnold got it for me for Christmas. Isn’t it cute? It matches my outfit.”

  Jennie just shook her head at her friend’s shallowness.

  Tanae only giggled because she wasn’t that shallow, but she loved to look good. “You haven’t even said Happy Birthday to me.”

  “Why can’t we just go home and celebrate your birthday?” Jennie asked worriedly, as they pulled up in front of a packed club.

  Tanae paid for valet and urged Jennie to hurry up and get out so they could get in. The bouncer stopped them at the door because Tanae was not about to stand in the long line waiting to get in.

  “Where’s James?” she demanded to know. “He always lets me in.”

  “You must be Ms. Jenkins. James said to expect you,” the bouncer said and opened the rope to allow her in. “Have a good time, Ms. Jenkins.”

  She huffed at him and stomped past him.

  “James is always here every Saturday night,” Jennie said. “Where do you think he is tonight?”

  In Tanae’s opinion, Jennie worried about too much. They’d known each other since high school, and Jennie followed her around sometimes like a puppy dog. Jennie was book smart, but not world smart.

  “Missing a good party,” Tanae said as she began eyeing the room for a good dance partner.

  Lots of guys came up and asked them to dance, but Tanae refused them all. She was picky, and Jennie stayed by her side.

  Two greasy looking guys, in particular, came over and tried to pick them up. “Hey Y'all look so lonely,” the ugliest one said, winking his eye at Jennie. “Why don’t Y'all come over to our table and join us?”

  “Why don’t two get a life and a facelift,” Tanae snapped. “And get the hell away from us.”

  The other one smiled cajoling getting too close to Tanae. “You’re a pretty little girl; I can make you feel really beautiful you give me a chance.” He held up a bag of coke.

  “You can take a bath and maybe you’ll make my eyes stop watering from the smell of you!”

  The guys finally took the hint, but the ugly one looked extremely hurt. Tanae didn’t care because they were blocking the view to her very nice leather dress that fit her size ten body making her look very good.

  “What are you looking for tonight?” Jennie asked.

  Tanae usually had a different flavor every night, and tonight she was in the mood for tall dark and handsome. Of course, she didn’t realize her flavor until he walked in the door with the short guy standing next to him. He looked fearsome and sinister as his dark eyes locked with hers, but he made no attempt to approach her. The short guy looked as nervous.

  “I gotta pee,” Jennie said squirming.

  “Go pee then,” Tanae said annoyed.

  “Why don’t you come with me?” Jennie insisted.

  Tanae tore her eyes off the mysterious man and glared at Jennie. “Why don’t I wipe your ass while I’m at it, Jennie? Damn, can’t you do anything by yourself?”

  Jennie looked hurt, but Tanae didn’t know why and she didn’t care to know why.

  “You know the more I know you Tanae, the more I’m starting to get sick and tired of your selfishness and bitchiness.”

  “Do you honestly think I care what you think, Jennie? The only reason you hang your tired ass around me is because I have money, looks, and you couldn’t get a man by yourself to save your life.”

  “You stupid bitch! I can find a man on my own!”

  “Good, because you can find your way home without me, while you’re at it!”

  Jennie stormed away, and Tanae went over to the bar. She looked around the clu
b to see if the guy was still around but huffed in disappointment when she couldn’t find him or his little sidekick.

  Without Jennie around Tanae was bored to death and decided to make an early exit from the club despite the fact that there were many requests for her to stay.

  Walking out feeling a little lonely without her shadow, she briefly wondered if Jennie was trying to hail a cab. Looking about, she just shrugged when there was no sign of Jennie and walked to the parking lot herself.She couldn’t find Jennie around, so she walked over to the valet. They were pretty backed up, and she didn’t feel like waiting, so she snuck her keys from the box and went to find her car on her own.

  Tanae was confidently tomorrow Jennie would forgive her bitchiness as usual and want to go shopping. Jennie couldn’t rub two cents together. Her parents were broke, and she was living from check to check at some silly office as a temp. Jennie had gotten a degree in psychology while Tanae stuck with a Liberal Arts degree just to appease her father and get out of school.

  After the few drinks at the club, Tanae was a bit intoxicated, but she was sure she could drive herself home. Fumbling in her purse for her car keys, she grudgingly found them and started to put them in the driver’s door lock.

  Suddenly she was shoved against the car hard, knocking the wind from her and pinned there with her mouth covered.

  “Don’t scream,” a voice warned on the side of her.

  She knew it didn’t come from the person holding her because the voice sounded like a shorter person.

  Someone picked up her dropped keys and ordered her to get in the car and unlock all the doors. They stayed behind her, and her face was shoved forward when she tried to look in her peripheral vision at them.

  “My wallets in the trunk,” she said.

  “Get in the car lady,” the shorter voice ordered.

  She got in and unlocked the doors. The voice went around and got in the back seat on the passenger side while her other heavier passenger door opened behind her and got in. All the doors closed and she felt cold metal press against the back of her neck. Looking in the rearview mirror, she saw they had on a dark ski mask and wore black clothing, but the one sitting adjacent behind her wasn’t that big compared to the one sitting directly behind her.

  “Put the keys in the ignition, lady, and pull out the parking lot. Go down to Woodward and get on the Ninety-Four West,” the smaller man ordered.

  Stubbornly she said, “And if I don’t do what you want?”

  He pushed the gun against her neck harder. “We can kill you now or later; it’s your choice.”

  For some reason, she had a feeling the smaller man wasn’t talking for himself because he had turned his head to the larger man when he spoke. She started the car and began to drive where he wanted her to go.

  “Where are you taking me?” she demanded to know as they started down the freeway.

  “Where we want you to be,” the smaller man said snickering. “Now shut up and drive.”

  After a few more moments, she said, “My father has a lot of money. He can pay you a lot of money for my safe return. More than whoever hired you to do this to me.”

  “Shut up,” the smaller guy said. “Pull up to the next exit and drive toward your old apartment.”

  Tanae continued to stare up into the rearview mirror whenever she could. They were moving about and doing something behind her, but she couldn’t tell what it was.

  When the larger man realized she was analyzing them, he reached up in front and yanked the rearview mirror off the windshield and threw it on the floor. Tanae’s heart accelerated because she thought for sure he was about to hurt her.

  “Whatever you’re planning you’re not going to get away with,” she protested.

  “Keep your eyes on the road!” the shorter man ordered.

  “Why don’t your big friend say something?!” she demanded.

  “Because he ain’t much of a talker.”

  She narrowed her eyes trying to think what that meant, but then she remembered seeing his large hands moving. “He’s deaf?” she inquired quietly after a minute.

  “No, lady, he can hear very well.”

  Tanae then realized that he was a mute, but she didn’t say anything to this observation as the smaller man gave her more directions. She was ordered to drive to the parking structure of her old apartments where she used to live about three months ago before her father ordered her to stay at home because of security issues. Her belongings were still there at the apartment.

  They made her punch in her key code to get into the parking structure and park her car in the spot for her. Since it was so late, there was no guard on duty, and she needed her keycard to access the elevator.

  “My friend wants to know why did you go out by yourself?” the smaller man asked.

  Spitefully she snapped, “If he wants to know so bad, why doesn’t he ask me himself?”

  “Because he doesn’t talk, lady,” the smaller guy confirmed. “Now why did you go out by yourself?”

  “I was tired of being kept prisoner inside that house with my step-mother. I wanted to do what I wanted to do,” she answered reluctantly.

  “Now because of your stupidity you’re being kidnapped,” the smaller man said speaking for, the larger man.

  She could tell the little guy was speaking for the other guy again. “I didn’t act stupidly,” she defended herself. “I’m a grown woman; I deserve some freedom.”

  “You may be grown, but you act like a spoiled little brat.”

  The larger man snatched her purse out the front seat and rifled through it until he found what he was looking for, then motioned for the smaller guy.

  Someone removed the gun from her neck from her neck, and then the smaller guy said, “This might hurt a little lady.”

  That was the last thing she had remembered before the darkness took over. She wasn’t sure how long she had been out, but when she awoke it was very evident of the pain in her arms from being tied above her head and attached to a wire cot face down.

  Tanae tried to move around but realized there was rope holding her down on her waist, and her ankles were also tied down so she couldn’t move. Someone cover her mouth, so she couldn’t scream for help, but she doubted that anyone would hear her if she could scream.

  Her eyes grew wide as saucers as she saw several roaches crawl under her on the floor, but her bonds were tight, and she couldn’t slip from them. She was in a darkened room with a light on behind her. She couldn’t see anything else around her except two doors on either side of her, and one blocked up window by one of the doors, but the rest of the room seemed empty although she couldn’t tell what was behind her.

  Listening hard, she could hear the voice of the smaller man from another room. “I’m sorry man; I thought I put two of them in the bag! We can pick one up when we go tell’em we have her.”

  There was a momentary pause, before the smaller man said, “We can leave her here with Manny and Bruce. They’ll watch her…”

  There was walking around, and the smaller one said, “Y’all got a charge of her, and Y'all better take care of her real good. We’ll be back.”

  “Aww, why we gotta watch that dumb spoil bitch,” another male voice whined.

  “Cause I said so and stopped your bitching.”

  She heard a door slam close after that and sighed with relief. The heavy steps leaving meant that big one was gone, but she couldn’t relax all the way. She realized she wasn’t wearing the same dress as before. Someone had changed her clothes, and she wanted to know who that had been to put her in an old gray jogging suit.

  After staring at the floor for another hour when her count of cockroaches had gotten over fifty, she heard footsteps approaching her room. There was whispering outside of her doorway before it opened.

  She stayed perfectly still and continued her deep slow breathing so they would think she was asleep. This didn’t deter them from coming int
o the room and closing the door behind them. They were still whispering as they came to the bed and her heart was beating so loud that she could just barely hear what they were saying.

  “Stupid bitch, calling me smelly,” one of them growled.

  She immediately recognized the voice as one of the guys from the club and gasped.

  “That ain’t as bad as her tellin’ me I need a face lift, Manny,” pouted, the other one.

  Tanae knew this was the one who had been talking to the smaller guy in the other room, and this was also the ugly one from the club.

  “I see you ain’t talking junk now, you stupid bitch,” Manny sneered. “Is she, Bruce?”

  The ugly one must have been Bruce because he started agreeing with Manny.

  She wasn’t about to lose her cool over two very incompetent assholes.

  Somewhere above them, they heard a bump and Bruce gasped. “Come on Manny, that big one scares the shit out of me. I don’t want to be in here when they come back.”

  “We’ll have her twice by the time that motherfucker gets here,” Manny said. “Help me get her pants down.”

  This is when she began to fight and tried to muffle her protest, but that didn’t stop them as they began to pull down her pants and force her to open her legs. She felt the smelly one get on top of her as she desperately tried to wrench away; All she could do was cry because she was tied tight.

  Bruce egged him as she felt his member press against her backside. With renewed strength, she tried to struggle and twist her body around to avoid penetration.

  Suddenly there was a loud crash as if the door broke open and she could hear Bruce screaming along with a lot of sounds of fist meeting flesh. The smelly one scrambled off of her, but he was practically thrown against the wall near the head of the cot. She couldn’t tell if his neck was broken, but he was passed out with his pants still down.

  Tanae turned away from him shaking and crying so grateful for her rescue.

  “Are you alright?” the sound of the small man said from behind her.

  She didn’t answer him but cried harder knowing this wasn’t the person she wanted to rescue her.

  He repeated her question several times to her, but she refused to answer.

  When she felt someone adjust her clothing, she stiffened, but didn’t panic; yet when the gag was taken off her mouth and quickly placed over her eyes, she screamed in protest.

  “Shut up!” the small man ordered. “We’re trying to help you.”

  “If you were trying to help me,” she said her throat despite the fact that her throat was hurting. “You would let me go!”

  “We won’t do that, but if you do what he says this won’t be…unpleasant?… yeah, unpleasant for you.”

  She felt her ankles and waist being released, but then whoever was untying her stopped.

  “Are you going to fight us?” the small man asked with a great deal of caution.

  Reluctantly, she shook her head and felt large hands reach over her and untie her hands. She could smell the large man up close and was well aware of how masculine he smelled. His breathing was shallow and knew he had been the one saving her from getting rape.

  Once she was free, she sat up but made no attempt to take off the blindfold. Her wrist and ankles were killing her. When someone grabbed her arm and jerked her to her feet, her legs seemed to stay asleep, and she had to grab hold of the big guy tightly to not fall on the nasty floor.

  When she couldn’t let go without falling, he scooped her up and carried her quickly somewhere. She knew she was carried out the room and it wasn’t far from the first room. His arms were large, and she was able to determine, this man was pretty much no joke. He was twice her size and could overpower her easily.

  On top of that, she was acutely aware of how good he smelled. He didn’t wear any cologne, and his natural pheromones made her senses tingle. On top of that with her blindfolded, her other senses started to pick up on his size, his deep breathing, and his touch.

  Carefully he set her down and didn’t let her go until she was firmly holding onto a chair before he stepped away from her. He walked away and closed the door behind her.

  She started to take off her blindfold until she heard the smaller man say, “Don’t do that, Ms. Jenkins.”

  Reluctantly she stopped and was handed a towel with a bar of soap.

  “Until we get the word to leave from here, you’ll stay in this room. It won’t be long, but we aren’t sure how long this all should take,” the small man explained.

  “My father will pay whatever ransom you want,” she snapped.

  The man didn’t say anything, and she didn’t like how unusually quiet he had become.

  “When you leave can I take the blindfold off?” she asked.

  “No. We’d prefer you leave it on.”

  She heard him walking to away from her, and she asked, “Why is he a mute?”

  The man hesitated before answering. “Really bad strip throat as a baby that wasn’t treated in time. He lost his voice when he was ten completely.” The door closed and she knew she was alone in the room.

  Curling up in the chair, she cried herself to sleep hoping her father did whatever he could to get her away from these people.