Chapter 2
Two
Piper
T he kidnapping itself was rather anticlimactic. I followed the man to a black SUV, getting in the front seat after a moment of confusion. Was this like a rideshare where I was expected to ride in the back? The front felt intimate, consenting, yet the back was far too vulnerable for my liking. I didn’t quite know the etiquette of an abduction.
Not that it mattered where I sat in the end, since he didn’t even spare me a glance. I ended up in the front, even though the nearness to this man made my muscles stretch to their limits with tension.
The interior of the SUV was impeccable. It smelled like new car and … something else. Woodsy, masculine. Him.
Appealing.
Absolutely abhorrent and unhinged of me to notice my maybe murderer was sexy and smelled nice. But I couldn’t help but think that.
He drove to my apartment building on the Lower East Side, which I was only able to afford because a great aunt we barely knew had owned it and lived in it until she died and bequeathed it to me and my sister. It was worth millions now. We could’ve sold it—God knew we needed the money. But I would never. That place was the one sign that the universe hadn’t damned us completely. We’d been given it when we had no other home, no family, nothing.
It was a symbol of hope. We’d turned it into a home, even if Daisy had moved out and it was now just me and a moody cat.
And where would I go? Even the millions I would’ve made couldn’t buy me anything comparable in the city, and leaving the city seemed absolutely unthinkable. It was my home. I’d forced it to be that way because I didn’t have the strength to go back to the one other place in the world that made my heart sing.
I was overrun with the ‘what ifs’—what if I had made a fiscally responsible decision and sold this place when we got it, getting me and Daisy out of the city and somewhere … safe? I wouldn’t be getting kidnapped right now and Daisy wouldn’t be…
“Where is my sister?” I demanded, turning in my seat as we somehow got an impossible parking spot right out front of my building.
When his eyes darted to me, there was nothing in them. Nothing human or empathetic. It was terrifying, like I was looking into a black hole. “Unharmed,” he said. “And she’ll stay that way as long as you comply.”
The threat wasn’t overt. It didn’t need to be. This man just existing, breathing, staring at me was a threat.
“Comply with what?” I bit down on my bottom lip. I knew that this was obviously some sort of intimidation tactic in order for me to surrender to Stone, but I didn’t understand any of it. And even with this man beside me, even with the pure terror he instilled in me, it wasn’t enough to make me submit.
Instead of answering, he handed me a vibrating phone.
The name Stone flashed on the screen.
My hand wasn’t shaking when I took it—I was proud of that.
I pressed answer on the screen but didn’t say anything. How exactly was I supposed to greet the crime boss who didn’t take no for an answer?
“Piper,” he drawled. “I hope you’re well.”
The sound of his voice made my empty stomach turn. The forced politeness was ridiculous. As if this was all normal. Sane.
My spine straightened as I forced myself to ignore the man beside me, who I knew was watching me. Instead, I looked out into the busy New York street, at the people going about their lives as if mine wasn’t imploding in the cab of an SUV.
“Well?” I repeated on a cold laugh. “I wouldn’t consider me being forced from my run and my sister’s life being threatened as well .”
“He hasn’t touched you, has he?” was Stone’s cool, biting response.
Still, I didn’t look at him, my kidnapper, the man whose gaze was as heavy as a hundred city buses. “No, your lapdog has not touched me.” The air in the cab seemed to chill, my bones practically chattering.
A pause. “Good.” I could almost see him nodding.
“What is this, Stone?” I clenched my hands around the phone, wanting to crush it in my palm. “What’s your game plan here?”
“I’m going to give you a little … vacation,” he said pleasantly.
My heart continued to pound. “Vacation?”
“Yes, you work too hard, and I know you haven’t taken one in years. Not since Turks and Caicos in 2017.”
The hair on my arms stood at hearing how much information he had, just how much digging he’d done on me. I wasn’t a dark or sordid person, but my past had its fair share of skeletons, and all could have been used against me.
“Yes, but I went to Turks and Caicos with my friend Hailey, not a six-foot-something brute who looks like he strangles puppies for fun.” My sharp tone was entirely put on. Inside, I was trembling and crying and screaming.
My windpipe constricted at the sound of Stone’s laughter. “He will not hurt you, you have my word.”
“Excuse me if your word means jack shit to me,” I snapped. Being a smart ass to the crime boss having you kidnapped wasn’t smart but I didn’t want to go quietly either. My life was quickly careening into something too strange and terrifying to be real. I couldn’t just let it happen.
Even if I had the horrifying certainty that I had absolutely no control here. No way to escape.
“I understand,” Stone replied calmly, with no hint of a temper. Though I assumed he had one. You didn’t become a crime boss by being mild mannered or kind. I’d do well to remember that.
“You live a busy life, Piper,” he continued. “You work very hard, take care of others, are constantly on the move. I understand that doesn’t give you the time for the consideration that my proposal requires.”
My lungs seized.
“I may have a bit of a shitty memory, but I’d remember a proposal.” I remembered the flowers, the gifts, the letters. But no proposal.
“Uh,” he grunted. “Not exactly romantic, I’ll admit, but it is not a reflection on how the rest of your life will be.”
“The rest of my life?” My heartbeat was a hummingbird, and an anvil settled in my throat.
“It’ll be a good life, I assure you.” I heard tapping, like he was working on the computer while ruining my life. “You won’t have to work. You’ll be able to move out of that apartment of yours, and I’ll ensure you have the best of everything.”
“I have a good life.” My mouth tasted sour. “I like my life. And I apologize for the obvious sting it is to your ego, but I want my life to be lived without your … attention.” I tried for yet another one of my gentle but crystal-clear rebukes I’d been giving since it became obvious Stone wanted me.
It was a complex dance to have to do, to reject a dangerous man. Well, to reject a man in general. All rejected men were dangerous in the right circumstances. Protect his ego, make it seem like you’re doing him a favor but don’t insult him. Otherwise, your life would be in danger.
“I know you think that now.” He didn’t sound even slightly perturbed. “But your time away will give you plenty of space to reconsider.”
“I won’t. Reconsider,” I replied firmly. I was still clutching on to the vague hope that he’d finally get the picture, take the rejection well and let me go back to my life, no hard feelings.
“You will,” he replied, just as firmly yet with no threat in his tone. He didn’t need it, did he? He had someone beside me doing all the threatening. “And we’ll watch over Daisy while you’re gone. I know how much she means to you.” He let silence fall between us so the heaviness of his words could crush my heart. Crush my hope.
My vision clouded with tears I would never let fall.
“Understand that we’ll never be far,” Stone continued. “I’ve taken the liberty of drafting an email and a text you can send to your friends and your employers about your sudden need to walk the Camino de Santiago. To go find yourself. Without the trappings of a phone or social media.”
Acid burned my stomach. He knew. I didn’t know how he knew, but he knew that I’d been planning to one day—when I had the time and the money and the courage—take a month off to walk across Spain.
I squeezed my eyes shut and pinched the bridge of my nose. I understood exactly what he meant. Running would result in Daisy being hurt or maybe even killed. Talking to anyone, trying to get help, same deal.
In an instant, all my fight left me. My entire life had been dedicated to taking care of my sister. Keeping her safe. No way would I do anything to put her in harm’s way.
“Enjoy your trip, Piper,” Stone said, taking my silence for what it was: defeat. “I look forward to seeing you upon your return.”
Eyes still closed, throat searing with fury, I replied on instinct, as if he hadn’t just threatened my sister moments earlier. “I wish I could say the same.”
Instead of being mad about my words or the bite to my tone, he laughed again. As one might at a toddler talking back, trying to assert dominance, thinking they had some kind of agency when in reality they didn’t.
Well, maybe not a toddler since I’d worked with plenty to know they were mini dictators. The reality was I had less rights and control than a two-year-old right now.
I ended the call.
Steeling myself, I handed the phone back to the man beside me, my captor. When our fingers brushed, I didn’t miss his swift intake of breath from the simple contact.
Shouldn’t I be the one getting all weirded out by the causal touch of a stranger, one connected to the mob boss threatening to kill me?
Yet his cool skin, smooth as porcelain, didn’t make me want to jerk my hand away. Especially with his reaction. Some part of me stored this away for later. He didn’t like to be touched. Or it might’ve been just my touch in general. Still, something to keep, maybe use. Not that storing up information would get me anywhere. Even if I outsmarted this man—which a knowing part of me said would be highly unlikely—they’d just hurt Daisy.
“Go inside.” The man jerked his head to the building. “Pack a bag.”
He didn’t move as if he was going with me to supervise, ensure I didn’t call anyone, try to escape. It was extremely cocky. Or maybe it was because he expected me to understand just how really screwed I was. There was no escape, no one to rescue me.
I was going somewhere with him, and there was no fight to be had, despite the animal inside me clawing for it. Instead, I got out of the car, walked into my building, ascended the elevator, entered my apartment and packed a bag. Within an hour, we were leaving Manhattan, the island that held my entire life.
I wondered if I’d ever see it again.
Because if I did, it meant I had been convinced to marry a monster.
And if I didn’t, I was fairly certain it would mean I was dead.
I supposed it wouldn’t matter then, would it?