Chapter 13
Kai
“THIS IS A BAD IDEA,” Leo whispers as I try to break into Rachel’s house for the second time—but who’s counting? All the other times I broke in don’t really count since I used a key. I knew I should have made more copies.
“You said that yesterday, but I didn’t see you complaining when Noah took you home and spent the night with you.” This is harder than it looks; the videos I watched made it look way easier. How the fuck do burglars do it?
“Well, it’s still a bad idea,” Leo repeats. I heard you the first time, buddy—now shut up.
I will admit, yesterday it was a bad idea, but this time I have a plan.
The door cracks open, and I turn to look at Leo.
“Told you I could do it,” I say as I stand and walk inside.
Leo follows me, trying to stay quiet. We walk past the living room, which is empty for once, and up the stairs.
As I am about to reach Rachel’s open door, Ripley comes running, barking adorably.
“Hey there, little one,” I say as I pick him up and give him a treat I brought.
“Can you be quiet for a little bit so I can kidnap your mom?” I whisper, scratching behind his ear.
Rachel needs to know I’m crazy about her, and so far, my actions haven’t shown this.
Not really. I need her to know I’m not going anywhere.
I need to make things official between us, and what better way to do that than by recreating how it started?
She kidnapped me and started our love story.
I’m kidnapping her to start our relationship. Sounds fair to me.
“So you can do what now?” Leo yells, and I shove the puppy into his arms. I’ll admit I might have left some details out when I told him that we were going to break into her house again.
It’s not my fault. He would never understand that what Rachel and I have is unique.
It’s a love story fit for a book, but my friend isn’t that open-minded, and I’m afraid he might call the cops on his own business partner if he knew the entirety of my plan.
So, I lied. A white lie. It’s not a big deal.
Unless you’re Leo. Then you would probably think it is a big deal. It’s all about perspective.
“Shut up and hold the puppy.” I walk to Rachel’s room.
She is sleeping peacefully, and I can tell this woman is probably not going to wake up anytime soon from the bottle of sleeping pills on her nightstand.
Good girl. She’s doing my work for me. It’s a little after midnight, and she doesn’t have to be at work until at least nine the next morning.
She probably took enough pills to stay asleep until seven.
Enough time to take her where I need to and have her secure in bed before she wakes up and tries to kill me.
“You aren’t seriously thinking of kidnapping her, are you?” Leo says, this time keeping his voice low. He’s learning.
“She did it first,” I point out as I pick her sleeping body up in my arms. “Come on, little criminal, let’s go for a little walk.” I stroke her cheek with my finger, and she moves in her sleep, hugging me. Good girl.
“Let’s go,” I say to Leo as I walk toward the stairs.
“For the record, I’m against this,” Leo says. “What am I supposed to do with the puppy?”
“Jesus Christ. Am I supposed to tell you everything?” Leo looks at me like I’m asking him to solve a math problem. “Leave the puppy here; I’ll come in the morning to feed her.”
“You’re planning to keep her until the morning.” Bingo. Now walk.
I slowly go down the stairs, carefully taking one step at a time until we are back in her hallway and out the front door.
I made sure to the best of my ability not to break the lock, so when Leo closes the door behind us, it stays closed.
I walk to Leo’s car with Rachel in my arms, and Leo finally decides to help.
He walks in front of me and opens the door, allowing me inside with her still in my arms. He gets in the driver’s seat, and I stay in the back seat with Rachel partially on my lap, sleeping peacefully.
She is like an angel. So beautiful. The moonlight entering the car lights her face just enough.
Her curly hair frames her face, and her delicate features make her look so peaceful and sweet.
The small nose, round cheeks, and pouty lips are all highlighted by the calm expression on her face as she sleeps without a care in the world.
This is going to change soon, but for now, she looks like a sweet angel.
Fragile and delicate. Part of me is eager to protect this woman at all costs; another wants to ruin her until my name is the only word she can speak.
I want nothing else to be in her mind except for me.
I stroke her hair slowly. “We’re going to have so much fun, you and I, little criminal,” I whisper to her sleeping form.
“Are we going home?” Leo asks as he exits her driveway.
“No. Take us to the house.” The house I grew up in and mostly keep out of spite is the perfect place to execute my little plan.
No one goes there anymore, except for my sister, who left town last night and won’t return for at least the next six months.
We are close, but not that close. When she is in town, we do everything together, but once she leaves, it’s all emails and missed phone calls.
It works for us. My brother, on the other hand, disappeared once our mother died.
He never looked back. He was already the oldest of the three of us and an adult.
My sister and I were the only ones who went into the foster system after our mother’s death; she was five years younger and stayed with a family that wanted a little girl.
It didn’t take long before they adopted her.
We kept in touch, but they didn’t want another child, let alone someone like me—a boy who was already getting into too much trouble.
I bounced from foster home to foster home for a while until one of my bad decisions landed me in juvie.
That’s where I met Leo. That’s where we decided to protect one another.
We stayed there for eighteen months, just eighteen months until we were both legal adults and our records got sealed after our release.
We came up with the plan for the bar about ten months into our stay, spending eight months planning every detail.
By that time, the inheritance my mother left me kicked in, and my part was enough to help us start the bar.
I also got part of the house, but since my sister was comfortable and set for life with her new family and my brother didn’t want anything to do with it, I used it to help Leo and me out.
We stayed there for the first three years while the bar was struggling before the town trusted us.
The records might have been sealed, but the town didn’t forget.
They knew who I was, and trust had to be built from the start.
It’s a small town, but not too small, and we were lucky enough that people outside my old neighborhood were willing to support us.
This house was the reason we were able to make it happen, and that’s why I keep it.
The bad memories, the abuse, the sadness, and the loss of my mother don’t hide the good parts.
IT’S A SHORT DRIVE before we arrive at the house.
Leo helps me get her inside. She is in a deep sleep, and I am starting to worry if she overdosed on those sleeping pills, but her pulse is steady, and I can tell she is sleeping peacefully.
I place her on the bed in the master bedroom.
I take the metal handcuffs I brought with the long chain and cuff her ankle to the bed.
For a moment, I think she is about to wake up when her body moves, but then she quickly settles and is back in a deep sleep.
“Time to play, little one,” I whisper as I walk away from the bed and out of the bedroom.
I close the door and walk to the living room, where Leo is standing next to the front door.
“Are you going to be okay?” he asks.
“We are going to be just fine. I have stocked the house for a few days,” I explain, knowing my friend is more worried about whether I am going to feed the girl than anything else.
Leo goes into dad mode very quickly—not in a kinky daddy way, but in an I-have-to-take-care-of-everyone-around-me way.
It’s one of his best qualities. He would give you his last bottle of water in a desert if it meant you would be comfortable and had a better chance of surviving the heat.
Without a second thought about his own survival, that’s the type of person he is, and for that, I love him.
“I will take care of the dog. I will get the keys for her house from Noah.” Because that will go over well. I am sure Noah would love the fact that his best friend is being held against her will by a guy they barely know.
“Don’t you think her friend might have a slight issue with his friend being kidnapped?” I say with a low laugh, trying to keep my tone down so I don’t wake up Sleeping Beauty.
“She is clearly into this shit. Do you forget how you met her?” Leo jokes, and even though it was a low blow, it is a very valid point. She is most definitely into this.
“Oh yeah, you are right. She is probably going to have a great time,” I smirk. I know I will. “But what if he calls the cops?”
“And tell them what? ‘Hello, police? The man my friend kidnapped decided to kidnap her back.’ They will think you guys are into some weird role-play, and trust me, no one is going to mess with that.” That’s a valid point.
“I am going to head home. I am guessing I should not expect you at work the next few days?”
I nod as I open the door for him. “I will be back in three days; it should be enough time for me to play with her.”
“Have fun,” he winks and turns to walk away.
“Trust me, I will,” I yell before I close the door.
I lock the door and set the alarm before I walk to the kitchen.
I stock up on snacks and move to the living room, where the big TV screen already shows the feed for the bedroom.
Rachel is still asleep. I will need to figure out a way to contact her job since she will need a cover for that, but maybe Noah will handle it after Leo contacts him.
After the three days we spend together, she will either fall in love with me and we will emerge from our lockdown as a couple or she will report me to the cops the moment she is free.
Either way, it’s worth it. Maybe I am a little delusional.
I am probably causing her some form of trauma, but that’s something we can worry about later.
My girl is unhinged and unpredictable. It’s more likely she will be into this than be traumatized by the kidnapping.
After all, she started it. She kidnapped me first.