Capture Her Heart

Chapter 17

Nobody made a move as they weren't sure what Audrey's reaction would be and didn't want to set her off. Audrey's eyes took the whole scene in. All the men were in her barn, a body at the back tied with his throat missing. Said throat was on the floor by Max with his mouth, chest, and front paws covered in blood. Finally, she sets her eyes on North and becomes furious.

"I'm not going to ask any questions, I just want you off my property in the next five minutes before I call the cops," she said in the calmest voice as her eyes narrowed. The men could tell she was furious as her eyes seemed to burn through them.

"Audrey, wait-" North began before he was cut off.

"No, Mr. Taylor, I don't want to hear a fucking thing coming out of any of your mouths besides a yes ma'am, and you doing as I have asked of you," Audrey said as her voice rose in volume by the end of her sentence. The men flinched back as this petite woman seemed to transform from a lamb to a wolf in spirit.

"Audrey please let us explain," Brandon pleaded as he took measured steps towards her. In a flash, Audrey took off toward her house leaving the men stunned and unsure how to proceed without being kicked off her property.

"Well, that was a fucking shit show," Gabe sighed as he pulled his shirt over his head and used it to wipe his face. "Now what the fuck do we do?"

"Where's Sunshine?" Raven asked as he looked around the barn.

"May I please explain what happened?" Corey's voice came from the haystack where Marc was sitting. He held up the phone as the rest of the group walked towards it.

A loud clang came from the phone making North flinch slightly. "No," Audrey's furious voice replied back followed by more loud bangs and a pissed huff. "Get out."

"He was trying to break into your house," Corey sighed. "Raven caught him on the porch when Max woke and alerted him to a noise."

"What?" Her voice went from fury to scared in such a flash that Sean briefly wondered if she suffered from whiplash. "You're lying."

"No I'm not," Corey replied sternly. "I may withhold information from you for your safety but I will never lie to you, Doc Em. None of us will."

"Withholding information is the same as lying," she threw back at him as another loud bang filled the air.

"Not telling you who we are fully in order to keep our enemies from you is not the same as saying an outfit looks good on you when it really reduces your beauty," he explained, even though the men could tell he was saying it through clenched teeth. "Even though that would never happen, Gabriel would rather die than allow you to wear anything that wouldn't enhance your beauty even more than it already is."

"Flattery won't change my mind," she snapped at him. "I still want you off my property and I will be withdrawing my business with Mr. Taylor effective immediately. He will still get paid but I do not need him to continue his business on my land."

"That man was going to kidnap you!" Corey finally blurted out. "Someone is out to kidnap you and we stopped that! Whoever that man was at the center sent him to take you back to his boss."

"And how do you know that?" She screamed. "Did he tell you that while you were torturing him to death? Maybe he only told you that because of the pain you were inflicting on him! He would tell you anything you wanted to hear just to stop the pain! Did you even give him a chance to talk before you decided to kill him? You're awfully calm for just killing someone on MY property! Did you even think of the repercussions you just caused for me?"

"Of course we did!" Corey threw back at her. "We just stopped him from kidnapping you! We were thinking of you the entire time!"

"Bullshit!" She must have thrown something because a second later there was the sound of glass shattering. "If you thought of me then you wouldn't have just killed someone on my land! What if there was an emergency and my patients' owners showed up? What if they came to get something out of the barn and saw that? No, you only thought of yourselves!"

Corey sighed, "I admit we could have handled it better, but Sweetheart–"

"Do NOT call me that!"

"I apologize," Corey sighed again. "We could have dealt with him in a better way but after he admitted that the teddy bear you have has a tracking device in it we lost it."

"What?" She gasped.

"Apparently you have a teddy bear from New York that was gifted to you and his boss had a tracking device put in it so he could always know your location," Corey admitted. "We were about to find out why he waited so long but wait, where are you going, Audrey? Audrey!"

The men looked at each other then left the barn once they heard running coming from the phone. They emerged outside just in time to see her running to a large fire pit with her arms full. She dropped whatever was in her hold into the ashes then picked up a large gasoline canister and started pouring. As they approached they saw it was the said bear, the Valentine's gifts that she never sent back, and a few other stuffed animals. She picked up a small tealight candle, lit it with the lighter she withdrew from her pocket then tossed it into the fire pit, her eyes never moving from the blazing fire.

"Get off my property and take your plaything with you," She pulled a gun from her back and cocked it before crossing her arms over her chest, still never looking at them. "I'll be fine."