Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
~IVIE~
M y head is pounding. I can’t see well because my eyes are blurry from the multiple slaps across the face that this asshole seems to enjoy handing out.
I don’t know where I am. After he plunged the needle into my arm at the clinic, I blacked out. This room is dark, with no windows. And I’m sitting in a chair, my hands tied behind my back, just like the James Bond movies.
“You’re going to tell me,” he says. His voice has remained calm the entire time. How long has it been? It feels like weeks.
“I’ve told you over and over again, I don’t know. ”
“I don’t believe you.” His lips spread into a thin line. “My associates and I will be very disappointed if you don’t tell me where he hid the money. And they’ll be here soon.”
“My father couldn’t keep a dollar in his pocket,” I reply. “He spent money, his or anyone else’s, as soon as it landed in his hand. If he had your money, I’m sure he spent it long before he died and went to hell.”
His eyes narrow. “You didn’t like your father.”
“Of course, I didn’t. He was a pitiful excuse for a human being, and I ran away the first opportunity I got. And let me just say, at fifteen, it wasn’t like I could hide easily. But he also never came looking, so there was no love lost, was there?”
I firm my lips and blink the tears from my eyes. Not from crying. No, this asshole isn’t going to make me blubber like a baby. The water is from that last slap.
The man has a hell of a right arm.
He sighs and shakes his head.
“It’s too much money for you not to know where it is,” he insists. “So, we’re going to have to get a little rougher.”
He reaches over to a table and retrieves a pair of needle-nose pliers and bolt cutters.
“It would be a shame to start removing fingers from those dainty little hands.”
“I. Don’t. Know. Anything.”
“I. Don’t. Fucking. Believe. You.”
He leans in and almost touches my nose with his. I can see light flecks of gold in his green eyes. And something starts to spread through me.
Not just anger. Not just fear and frustration.
Determination.
“I’m going to take off your fingers and then your toes. And if that still doesn’t make you talk, I’m going to poke those pretty blue eyes out.”
“There’s one thing you didn’t think of,” I reply evenly. His eyes narrow just a bit, and I smile widely. “You forgot to tie my feet.”
And with that, I pull my knees to my chest and kick out with all my might, plowing the soles of my feet right into this asshole’s gut, sending him flying backward.
His arms flail, and he trips on a broken floorboard.
And then, as if in slow motion, he hits his head on the corner of a table and falls to the ground, blood gushing from his head.
His eyes are empty.
He’s not breathing.
“Oh my God,” I whisper, staring at him in horror. “Oh, shit. Shit shit shit. I killed him.”
I look around at the plain walls and the single door behind me that must lead to the outside.
But I can’t move. My hands are not tied to the chair, they’re tethered to the floor, the rope through a metal ring. So it’s not even like I can scooch my way over to the door and make noise.
I’m stuck.
I knew I was going to die in this room. Even if I’d told him what he wanted to know, even if I could , he would have killed me as soon as I did. I knew I wasn’t leaving here alive.
But now I have to die by starvation and without water? I would have rather he put a bullet in my head.
I sigh and stare at the man. I don’t know him. I have no idea what his name is, or how he knew my father. Obviously, my father double-crossed him on some deal. He mentioned his colleagues.
Who are they?
I don’t even know how long my father’s been dead. When this guy told me that he couldn’t make my dad pay before he died, it was the first I’d heard of his demise.
I’m not surprised. He would have only been in his mid-to-late fifties, but he’d lived a hard, dangerous life.
For me, he died when I was fifteen, and I ran out of that horrible place in New York.
“I’m going to have to sit here and watch him decompose,” I whisper in horror. “He’s going to smell and get disgusting. Jesus, why do I have to be so clumsy? Leave it to me to send his head into the corner of a table just right.”
I try to stand and attempt to work my way around so I can untie my hands, but I only succeed in almost dislocating my shoulder.
That won’t help anything.
“Did he say his associates would be here soon? Oh, hell, I am going to die here. They’re going to kill me.”
I bite my lip. My heart starts to race. I haven’t had a panic attack in a long time, but I’m on the verge now.
I’m stuck with a corpse, and bad men are on their way to kill me.
I’m a sitting duck.
“I didn’t even get to tell Annika that I love her,” I wail, feeling horribly sorry for myself. “Or have sex with Shane. Or even just spend time with him! I’m halfway to falling in love with him already, and now I’ll never get to finish. I won’t get to see the sun or eat raspberries in ice cream or go to the ocean.”
Now, tears well up in my eyes. I thought I was safe. My cover was iron-clad. How did this asshole find me?
I hear rustling on the other side of the door and freeze.
This is it. This is how it ends.
But I won’t go down without a fight, damn it.
I hear the door open, and then everything happens so fast. I lash out, kicking and yelling.
“I won’t make this easy on you, motherfucker! You may kill me, but I’ll kick your ass first.”
“Hey, hey, hey.” The voice is soothing, and when I open the eyes I didn’t realize I’d closed, I see Shane standing in front of me, then kneeling to look me in the eyes. “It’s us.”
“Us?”
I glance around to see Shane’s brothers and Nadia, one of my very best friends in the world.
Carmine squats next to him , checking for a pulse. “Dead.”
“You killed him?” Nadia asks as Shane gently rubs his fingers through my hair, and Rafe works on the ropes.
“Yeah. My clumsiness paid off.” I tell them how it happened. “But we have to get out of here. He said he had associates on their way here. That’s who I thought you were.”
“In and out,” Shane says, seeming to remind them all of their mission. “We deal with the rest later.”
“What’s the rest?”
“Plane’s ready,” Rafe says with a nod. Suddenly, my hands are free, and Shane lifts me into his arms.
“We’re getting you out of here, little dove.”
I lay my head on his shoulder, suddenly so tired I can’t keep my eyes open. I feel weird. Dizzy.
And then I feel nothing at all.
“Wake up, sweet girl,” Shane croons in my ear. I feel like I must be in heaven. Surely, I’ve died, and heaven is a place where Shane’s voice wraps around me and makes me feel safe. “Come on, Ivie, I need you to open those gorgeous eyes for me.”
My eyes flutter open, and I see Shane leaning over me, smiling down at me softly.
“There you are,” he says. “You scared me for a minute there.”
“I’m in a bed.” I frown and glance around. “Are we flying ?”
“Yes, we’re flying back to Denver.”
“Wait.” I sit up and press my hand to my head. “Weren’t we already in Denver?”
Shane sits next to me, takes my hand, and then kisses my fingers, making my stomach jump.
“What do you remember?”
“I remember being taken out of the clinic. I was drugged. Then I woke up in a shitty room and got beat up a bit. Ended up killing my captor on accident , and then you arrived.”
“I suppose that’s the CliffsNotes version,” he murmurs. “Honey, he took you to New York. We found you in a basement in Queens.”
I blink, completely baffled. “I was passed out that long? I wonder what he drugged me with?”
“As do I,” Shane says, examining me. “Does anything hurt?”
“I’m a little stiff and sore from having my hands tied behind me for so long, but other than that, I’ll live.”
“When I saw his handprint on your cheek, I wanted to kill him myself,” he admits. His voice is mild, but by the look in his eyes, I can see that he means every word.
“I kicked him,” I say, thinking it over. “He was up in my face, trying to intimidate me, and I just brought my feet up and kicked him in the gut, hard. He jerked back, tripped, and then fell against the table.”
“That was too good of a death for him.”
I blow out a sigh. “Yeah, well, it was fast. I don’t know who the hell he was.”
“I do,” Shane says. “We’ll talk about it all when we get to my place.”
“ Your place?”
He just looks at me with those gorgeous brown eyes that always seem to hypnotize me.
“Shane, I have to work. Annika needs me. Oh my God, Annika!”
“We’ve already told her that we found you safe and sound,” he assures me. “We’ll stop and see her before we go to my place in the mountains.”
“Shane, I can’t go with you to the mountains.”
“And I can’t let you go home,” he says. “Not until we have a full picture of what’s going on here. I’m going to keep you safe, no matter what. A little time away from work won’t hurt anyone.”
“I don’t?—”
“I’m not asking,” he says, his voice sharp, and I gape up at him.
“I was just kidnapped once. I won’t do it again, Shane. I care about you, and I enjoy being with you, but I’ll live my life under my terms.”
He rubs his hand over his lips in agitation. “I’m just trying to keep you safe.”
My head is throbbing. “I don’t want to have our first fight on this plane.”
His expression softens, and then he chuckles. “Fair enough. Have you eaten?”
“My captor didn’t offer me room service.”
“Let’s go eat something,” he suggests and reaches out for my hand. He leads me into a different part of the plane where the others are seated. Carmine and Nadia are curled up on a loveseat, looking at an iPad. Rafe is staring out the window. All their heads come up when they hear us enter.
“How are you feeling, sugar?” Nadia asks, rushing over to hug me.
“I’ll be okay. I’m hungry.”
“I have a tray ready for you, miss.” I look up at the formal voice and blink at the older gentleman who’s smiling kindly at me. “I’m Charles, and I’m happy to help you today.”
“Thank you.” I glance up at Shane, but he just nods and gestures for me to sit at a table. Within a few seconds, Charles sets a charcuterie board full of cheeses, meats, nuts, and olives in front of me, and I immediately dig in. “This is awesome.”
“What would you like to drink, miss?” the attendant asks.
“Water, please.”
He nods and turns to fetch my drink. Shane sits opposite me, watching me wolf down the food.
“Want a cashew?” I ask him, holding out the nut.
“No, you eat,” he says.
“How long has it been?” I ask, suddenly not sure how long the jerk had me. “Since I left the clinic?”
“About twenty-four hours,” Rafe says.
“This is pathetic,” I reply with a laugh. “I just ate twenty-four hours ago and I’m starving. I can’t even consider this a fast.”
“Killing people burns a lot of calories,” Nadia says.
“And so does adrenaline,” Carmine adds.
“True. And probably the drugs. What a crazy turn of events. So much for living a boring life.”
“I have questions.” I look up at Shane’s statement, and my stomach tenses. “Questions I need answers to so I can do my job here and protect you.”
“I’m not your job.”
His jaw clenches. “Yes. You are.”
“No. I’m not.” I eat a grape and consider him. “Don’t get me wrong. You’ll never know how much I appreciate all of you for saving me. I shudder to think what might have happened to me if you hadn’t come to find me. I would have died. Whether that was a long, slow death with a corpse decaying next to me, or a quick one when the other bad guys got there, I don’t know. But I wouldn’t have lived through it. So, I owe you a huge debt of gratitude that I can never repay.”
“You don’t owe us anything,” Nadia says. “This is what family does.”
“We rescue each other from kidnappers?” I ask, suddenly feeling emotional. Annika and Nadia are the only family I’ve ever really had.
“Among other things,” Nadia says with a wink.
“I’ll answer your questions,” I say with a sigh. “But can I please eat this delicious cheese and get some rest first?”
“I don’t see why not,” Shane replies, seemingly placated for now. I need to think about how much I’m going to tell him.
It’s not that I don’t trust him. It’s that I’m embarrassed. Of what and who I come from. Of what I had to do as a child. And I’ve always hoped that my past was so far in the rearview that it was forgotten.
Over.
But now, out of the blue, it’s front and center. Exactly where I never wanted it to be.
But, worst of all, I’m afraid that when I tell Shane the whole truth, his feelings for me, whatever they may be, will change. He’ll lose that spark of interest in his eyes whenever he sees me. He’ll want nothing to do with me.
And that will hurt most of all. Because even though we don’t know each other all that well yet, he’s come to mean a lot to me.
“Looks like we’re landing,” Rafe says as the plane starts its descent. “We’ll be at Annika’s in about an hour or so.”