Chapter Four Turncoat
“Make any stupid decisions, and she will pay,” the big man said in a low, rumbling voice as he walked a few steps behind.
Tommy froze mid-step. He had been considering bolting into the trees, but the warning stopped his heart cold.
“I thought she wasn’t going to be harmed,” he said, forcing his voice to stay steady. He didn’t know if the man had a gun, a knife, or just those gargantuan hands but the thought of any of them touching Evie made his blood run cold.
They broke through the trees, and Tommy spotted a black Chevy Tahoe parked behind his Porsche. Oh, God. This is actually happening. His knees went weak, and he stumbled. The man’s hand shot out, gripping the back of his jacket and hauling him upright effortlessly.
Rupert had been on him for months to consider a bodyguard, and Tommy had brushed it off. He didn’t want someone shadowing him everywhere.
“It was more of a suggestion,” the man said, and Tommy could’ve sworn there was a trace of distaste in his tone. It jolted Tommy’s brain back into motion.
“I did not want to scare her more than I already was,” the man added, holding out his hand. “And I need your phone as well.”
Frowning, Tommy handed it over, watching as the man powered down both his and Evie’s phones before pocketing them. Then he gave a small nudge toward the waiting SUV. “Get in. Passenger seat.”
Tommy narrowed his eyes. A suggestion. So, this guy wasn’t acting alone. And if he wasn’t bothering to hide his face, Tommy doubted there was a version of this story where he walked away alive.
He opened the passenger door and climbed in. The man followed, snapping a pair of handcuffs around Tommy’s wrist and the interior door handle before closing it with a solid click.
As the man walked around to the driver’s side, Tommy tugged experimentally at the cuff. It didn’t budge. He slumped back with a quiet groan. So much for trying to run at a red light or bail out in traffic, he’d just end up being dragged behind the vehicle.
“So… you’re a professional,” Tommy said as the man slid into the driver’s seat and started the engine. “You kidnap people for a living.”
A low chuckle rumbled from the big man. “I do a lot of things for a living. Very few of them are nice.” The casualness of it sent a cold spike down Tommy’s spine.
“Once a contract is signed and the money handed over, I carry out the directive,” the man added.
The word contract landed heavy in Tommy’s ears.
“Oscar Stanley hired you, didn’t he?” Tommy’s voice was flat, resigned.
Of course it was Oscar. The man’s ego was more fragile than sugar glass, and over the last five months, Tommy had shattered it time and time again, first by stepping in with Evie and then by essentially firing him.
He had expected some retaliation but had to admit he hadn’t thought he would go to these lengths.
“Pudgy bald guy, reddish beard, inflated sense of self-importance?” The big man sounded like he was both annoyed and amused by Oscar.
“Yeah. That's him.” Tommy glared out the window for a moment. The fact that Oscar had sent the man to kidnap him when he knew Tommy would be with Evie and didn’t care if she got hurt in the process royally pissed him off and if he managed to get out of this alive, he would make sure the pompous fucker lost everything.
“He seriously said you could hurt Evie?”
“He said she was not to be harmed unless necessary. Why?” the man glanced at him curiously.
She’s his daughter.”
The man’s hands tightened around the steering wheel. The reaction was small, but Tommy saw it. Moral compass, then. He looked annoyed, disgusted, even, at the realization of who Oscar had put in danger.
“Would you have hurt her?” Tommy asked.
The man frowned, clearly insulted, but ignored the question. “And your relationship with his daughter?”
“Completely platonic,” Tommy growled. The accusation always made his skin crawl. “I’ve known her since she was two months old.”
“She’s young and beautiful, and you two appear very close.” The man shrugged, as if that explained everything. “She would be hard for any man to resist.”
Tommy’s temper snapped. “I was fourteen when she was born and I’ve changed her diapers.” His voice rose, sharp and furious. “She’s practically my sister! Is that what he told you? That I was fucking her?”
A wave of nausea rolled through him. Sure, he could acknowledge Evie was becoming a beautiful young woman, but in his mind she was still the shy little girl who used to fall asleep on his shoulder with her thumb in her mouth. The idea of anyone twisting that made him sick.
“No,” the man said calmly, shaking his head. He didn’t flinch, didn’t even look offended. “He told me you are destroying his company and stealing his family from him.”
“His company,” Tommy muttered, trying to fold his arms over his chest. The handcuffs stopped him short, and he growled in frustration. “It’s my damn company. My father started it and passed it to me.”
The man gave him an amused look and rolled his eyes.
Tommy glared back, catching the unspoken judgment.
Spoiled rich kid, born into it, never earned it - and for some reason, he wanted to set him straight.
“I did a double major in business management and computer engineering at MIT,” he said tightly.
“Then I spent seven years working in every division before I ever sat in the CEO’s chair. It wasn’t handed to me.”
He took a steadying breath. “As for stealing his family? I haven’t stolen anything.
He drove Evie away himself with his need to control everything and refusal to accept that she’s her own person.
He only supports her if her life lines up with what he wants.
” Tommy shook his head, anger simmering under his skin.
“I just want her to be happy. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.
His lack of a relationship with his daughter is his fault, not hers, and certainly not mine. ”
The man said nothing for several long minutes. The silence was thick, the road humming beneath the tires. When Tommy glanced out the window again, the signs told him they’d left Brooklyn and were already in Queens.
“Why does he consider it his company?” the blond asked suddenly.
Tommy exhaled. “He was the COO under my father. When my parents were killed by a drunk driver, I was only twenty-three. He took over as CEO until I was ready, then stepped back down without a fight. Everything was fine until I announced that Sloane Tech was changing direction a year later.”
He looked out the window, watching the lights streak past. “He wants to chase government contracts and focus on developing defense tech. I want to focus on innovation, on making technology affordable for everyone, not just people in power. I also started updating our internal policies and procedures, removing things that didn’t make sense anymore.
Stock dipped for a while; he panicked and tried to convince the board to remove me. ”
Tommy’s mouth tightened. “He conveniently ignores that our stock recovered within six months and is stronger than ever.”
Tommy could hear the bitterness in his own voice, but he didn’t care.
He’d been overlooking Oscar’s insubordination - the constant undermining, the quiet accusations - for nearly two years.
He’d done it for Della and Evie, because they mattered to him, and he didn’t want to destroy whatever was left of their family.
Rupert had been urging him to fire Oscar for almost a year, promising the board would back him.
Tommy had refused out of loyalty and gratitude for how much Oscar and Della had stepped up after his parents’ deaths.
But after the outburst in September, when Oscar had screamed at the CFO and thrown a glass at the wall, even Tommy had to admit it was time.
By the time they pulled up to a small house near the airport, Tommy already had the beginnings of a plan.
The man clearly wasn’t a fan of Oscar. His disgust back at the mention of Evie had said as much and Tommy thought he might be able to use that. Offering double what Oscar was paying had crossed his mind, but he had a feeling the man would take it as an insult.
He studied him instead.
Good-looking, not Tommy’s type, but the kind of man who turned heads. Broad-shouldered and massive, the sort of size that made Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime look like a hobbit. He moved with quiet assertiveness, every motion controlled, purposeful and effortlessly intimidating.
Tommy realized both he and Evie had obeyed him without question, not because of what he’d done, but because of what he could do. There was something about that calm certainty, that unspoken promise of violence, that froze resistance before it even started.
Inside the house, the blond man handcuffed Tommy to a bed in what passed for the living room. The chain was long enough for him to reach a small three-piece bathroom, but not much else.
Tommy sat up, propping the thin pillow against the headboard as his captor moved methodically through the space, opening cupboards, flicking lights, checking corners.
The place looked half-abandoned; the drywall was torn down to the studs and wiring, the flooring switched halfway across the room from linoleum to vinyl planks, as if someone had simply given up halfway through the renovation and the only furniture was the bed and a square kitchen table with two mismatched chairs in the corner.
“I take it we’re here for a while?” Tommy asked dryly.
“Until I am given the next set of instructions,” the man said without looking up. He sounded almost bored as he closed the last cupboard and crossed to the table, muttering something in another language before sitting down.
“Right.” Tommy hesitated, weighing his words. He needed to test how much of a conscience this guy really had.
“Since you told me Oscar’s behind this,” he began carefully, keeping his tone light, conversational, “and you let both me and Evie see your face… I’m guessing I don’t walk out of here alive.”
The words hung there. Then the fear hit, sudden and cold, and Tommy’s stomach dropped.
He swallowed hard. “Does Evie?”
“Does Evie what?” The man tilted his head at Tommy, confusion evident in his green-blue eyes.
“Get out of this alive?” Tommy’s chest tightened. Two years ago, he would never have imagined Oscar capable of hurting his daughter, but now, especially if Oscar learned Tommy had arranged for Evie to be his successor, Tommy felt certain Oscar wouldn’t hesitate.
“Oh!” The blond chuckled. “I would have taken her too if that were the case.”
Tommy let out a massive sigh; the tightness in his chest eased. The man studied him, curious. “I am a little surprised at the level of concern you have for her safety,” he said. “The man who hired me is convinced you are using her to get back at him.”
“Like I said, she’s practically my baby sister.” Tommy kept his annoyance at Oscar buried, keeping his tone even. “Do you have a name?”
The man hesitated, then shrugged. “Thorn.”
“Thorn,” Tommy repeated, looking him over. The name fit in a way he couldn’t explain. “So… is this what you do? Kidnapper-for-hire?”
A low chuckle rumbled from Thorn; he grinned, amused. “Yes. Essentially. I am part of a group of former Serbian military. We left service and offer our skills as mercenaries, bodyguards, soldiers for grey ops, whatever is required.”
Tommy seized the opening. “Have you done many bodyguard jobs?”
“I was with the Serbian Security Corps,” Thorn said, folding his arms and smirking slightly. “I provided security for the President of Serbia during the last three years of my service. Are you looking for a bodyguard, Mr. Sloane?”
“I need one, apparently.” Tommy managed a faint, wry smile. “If you come work for me as my bodyguard, I’ll give you whatever you were promised to kill me as a signing bonus, help you get U.S. citizenship, set you up with a very generous annual salary and private accommodations, of course.”
“Of course,” Thorn murmured, though Tommy could see the offer had landed. The man’s expression was thoughtful now, not dismissive.
Sensing silence was his best tactic, Tommy leaned back and glanced at his watch.
If his timing was right, Evie had already reached the police and was probably either at the precinct or with Rupert by now.
The thought made his pulse quicken. He had no idea how Oscar would react when he realized Evie, not him, would be acting in Tommy’s stead.
Before he could think too long about it, Thorn’s phone chimed. He read the message in silence, his expression unreadable. Then he stood and crossed the room.
Tommy tensed automatically but kept his face neutral as Thorn approached. To his surprise, Thorn pulled a key from his pocket, unlocked the handcuff, and extended his hand.
Tommy hesitated for only a second before taking it. Thorn hauled him to his feet effortlessly, so effortlessly that Tommy nearly stumbled forward into him.
“You have a deal, Mr. Sloane.” Thorn steadied him with one hand on his shoulder and shook with the other.
For a moment, all Tommy could do was breathe. Relief washed over him in a dizzying rush, leaving his legs weak.
“Excellent.” He exhaled, rubbing his wrist where the cuff had been. “We need to get back to Brooklyn. You may have just unintentionally put Evie in danger.”