Chapter 8
“Jared ordered you to kidnap me? Why? Why would he want me here? Wherever here is. I haven’t heard from him in years.”
“But do you miss him?” North asked.
“Why would I miss Jared? I barely knew him. And he was the son of my abuser. Not exactly the start to a good relationship.”
“Ahh, so you want a relationship with him,” North said.
“I didn’t say that,” she replied hastily. “I don’t want him. All I was saying was that I barely know him so I don’t get why I’m here. If he wanted to talk to me then he could have chosen a different option besides kidnapping me and holding me prisoner. With a maniac jailor.”
Shit.
Was she protesting too much? Was she making it obvious how much she thought about Jared? How sexy she thought he was. Her body reacted to him in ways it had never reacted to anyone else.
“I’m the maniac jailor, I suppose,” North said dryly, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Well, this is hardly the Ritz and you’re not exactly a sexy waiter bringing me champagne.
Really, is it too much to ask that the next time someone kidnaps me that I get to wake up in a fancy hotel with someone bringing me piles of chocolate covered strawberries with all the romance books my heart desires? ” she grumbled.
She really didn’t think it was.
“The next time you’re kidnapped?” He gave her an incredulous look. “You’re planning on getting kidnapped again?”
She gave him a strange look. “I don’t think anyone ever plans on getting kidnapped. It just happens. But if it should happen again I’d like to end up somewhere that I can get a foot rub, maybe a full-body massage. I’ve never had a full-body massage before, have you?”
“No, I have not. How did this conversation get onto massages?” he asked.
“Beats me.” She shrugged.
“You’re doing this deliberately, aren’t you?” he asked slowly.
“Doing what?”
“Trying to confuse me. To make me irritated with you so I . . . what? Get rid of you? If you think that annoying me with all your questions is going to make me let you go, you should think again. I very rarely get annoyed. I rarely feel anything.”
Well, she hadn’t thought of that.
Because if she’d ever annoyed Fergus, he’d just beat her and laugh. It always put him in a good mood.
Come to think of it, he’d been an evil, asshole, bastard dictator . . . who could laugh.
This guy, who couldn’t seem to laugh or really feel much, hadn’t yet hurt her . . .
Again, are you forgetting that he kidnapped you?
It was kind of an important fact to remember. She didn’t know why her stupid brain kept trying to turn him into a good guy.
Maybe because you find him sexy.
No. Nope.
She did not find him sexy.
There was truly something twisted inside her. Wrong and weird.
Because she shouldn’t be attracted to her kidnapper.
Nor to his sexy boss, who had also once been her stepson. Gross.
God. Being twisted up didn’t even cover this. And this sort of shit wasn’t something she could ever tell her therapist.
“Why are you muttering about therapists and sexy bosses? Are you attracted to your therapist? You need a female therapist.”
Excuse her?
“You are not going to tell me what sort of therapist to see.”
He crossed his arms over his chest and she thought that he was actually scowling.
Well, one eye twitched. She was counting that as a scowl. She didn’t know whether to congratulate herself or run away in terror.
You don’t have anywhere to run.
That was an issue.
She was stuck in this small room with him . . . she might want to rethink her stance on provoking him.
But Angie was damn sick of kowtowing to men who wanted her to do whatever they desired. She’d been beaten, terrorized, raped, and used. What more was there?
A kidnapping seemed so tame in comparison.
Yep. A therapist would have a field day with her.
“I don’t care who you see, but I’m looking out for Jared’s best interests.”
She studied him. “Why would Jared care who I’m seeing? And how do you know I’m even seeing a therapist?”
“It wouldn’t be wise if you weren’t,” he said.
“Do you see a therapist?”
“I do. In a way.” Was there something suggestive in his voice?
Nah, she had to be imagining it. If there was, it definitely wasn’t as obvious as his scowl/eye twitch.
That had been mind-blowing.
“Maybe I need that sort of therapy,” she mused.
“You definitely don’t,” he said sharply as he gave her a look.
Huh. She wondered what that was about?
“You’re very sensitive, aren’t you?”
This time she was certain she’d shocked him. His lips parted the tiniest millimetre.
All right. This might be her new favorite hobby.
See if she could make North no-idea-of-his-last-name lose his composure. It could take her a while to see a fully blown emotion on his face.
But, hey, it wasn’t like she was going anywhere.
This is so unfair. What did I ever do in this life to deserve this treatment?
She really didn’t think she’d done anything to deserve the shit that kept getting thrown her way.
Maybe in her previous life she’d been an evil overlord or something.
Concentrate on breaking North.
You don’t have time to break down and wallow in fear and the unfairness of your life. If you’re going to get out of here, you need to plan, to be smart.
Was she going to get out of here? If she did, she didn’t think she could live alone again.
Seemed like there was so much evil in the world that she’d be better off living out with her sister, her brother-in-law and his band of merry men and one whack job woman. She adored Honey, but she was a complete nutjob.
She’d be the first to say it too.
Maybe Zander was right to build a compound and house his family in a bunker. Look at what had happened to her after a few days of living out in the real world.
She’d been kidnapped.
“Sensitive? I’m . . . sensitive?” he repeated.
“Yeah, you’re sensitive. Everything I say you take offense to. You should learn to just let some things go. If I want to try your kind of therapy, then that’s what I’ll do. Frankly, you don’t really have a say in anything I do.”
“The lock on the door and the key in my pants says something different.”
“Hmm. The key is in your pants, huh?” She gazed down at his crotch.
“My back pocket,” he drawled. “And no, you’re not getting your grubby little hands on it.”
“Hey! Rude. I had a shower this morning. It is still the same day as you took me, right?”
“Actually, it’s the next day. You slept a long time.”
She had? Sheesh.
She guessed she hadn’t been sleeping that well lately. Although she’d thought she wouldn’t sleep soundly in a dungeon. Even if the bed was comfortable.
“Were you concerned? Were you worried that I wouldn’t wake up and then Jared would be mad at you?”
“Why would Jared be mad at me?” he asked curiously.
“Because he ordered you to kidnap me and I died.”
She still didn’t understand what Jared wanted with her. She didn’t think that she was of any use to him now. And why come after her all these years later?
Maybe because this is the first time he’s been able to get to you?
It could be that he’s been secretly in love with you this entire time. Maybe this is Romeo and Juliet.
Hmm. No. They both ended up dead.
What about Heathcliff and Catherine?
Nope. That ended in disaster too.
Yikes.
Rhett and Scarlett?
This was starting to sound ridiculous.
This is why she stuck to romance. Happy-Ever-After guaranteed. There wasn’t much in life that was guaranteed. But that was.
“Why are you muttering about Heathcliff and Romeo?” he asked. “Are you well? Do you take pills? There was nothing I found in your house that indicated any illness. Physical or . . . otherwise.”
“Are you trying to say I’m crazy?” she demanded.
“I’m sure that doctors aren’t allowed to use labels like ‘crazy,’” he told her.
“I notice that you say that doctors aren’t allowed to use those sorts of labels, but you’re saying nothing about yourself,” she said.
“You’re smart.”
“You say that like you’re surprised,” she huffed.
“That’s because I am,” he replied.
Rude.
And now she was done talking.
“How long am I going to be here for? And when am I going to see Jared?”
“Do you want to see Jared?” he asked.
What kind of weird question was that?
Of course she wanted to see Jared.
See him.
Not interact with him. Not go near him. Not scent him.
Not . . . kiss him.
“You’re very loyal to Jared, aren’t you?” she asked. “He must be a very good boss if you’re so loyal that you’d kidnap helpless, sweet women right out of their houses.”
“You’re helpless and sweet?” he asked.
“Yes, I’m helpless and sweet.” She scowled at him. “How dare you imply that I’m not!”
“Helpless, yes.”
Implying that she wasn’t sweet?
“I’m not completely helpless!” she protested. “Why are you saying that?”
“Um, I’m agreeing with you.”
“Right, you’re agreeing that I’m not completely helpless. In fact, I might be a bad ass.”
“You’re a bad ass?” he asked, looking her over.
“Yes, a bad ass in disguise as helpless.”
“So when are you going to demonstrate this bad ass behavior? Or was that when you kicked the door and hurt your toe?”
Which was still throbbing . . . ouch.
“No, that was just to get your attention. And it worked. Now, you’re here and you’ve told me where the key is. We’re all alone. Perhaps I’ll attack you, grab the key, and run.”
“The door is unlocked,” he told her. “You don’t even need the key.” He leaned back against the closed door and raised one eyebrow.
Whoa.
He was just throwing facial expressions around like they were candy in a candy shop, wasn’t he?
“You need to stop being so emotional,” she told him. “It’s freaking me out.”
“Listening to you is very tiring.”
“You should just give up, then,” she said with hope filling her. “Give up and let me go. Tell your boss that you tried but you couldn’t capture me because I’m too much of a bad ass.”
He eyed her for a long moment. “There’s so much wrong with that sentence I don’t even know where to begin.”
What?
“One, there’s no way he’d ever believe you were a ‘bad ass’ as you put it. Two, he knows I’d never use the phrase, bad ass. Three, he also knows that if I wanted to capture you, then I would do that and I wouldn’t rest until I had.”
Sheesh.
Way to rock her confidence.
“And lastly, Jared doesn’t know that I have you. He never asked me to grab you.”
“But . . . but you said he had!”
“No, that’s not what I said. What I said was that I kidnapped you for Jared.”
Huh? Isn’t that what she just said?
“I never said he knew about it.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I don’t expect that you do,” he replied quietly. “I took you for Jared. Because you’re something he wants and I like to give him whatever he wants.”
“Why would Jared Bartolli want me?” she whispered, feeling weird inside.
Her stomach was a mix of butterflies and warmth.
What exactly did that mean?
“I have no idea,” he replied coldly, running his gaze over her.
Ouch.