Chapter 9
CHAPTER 9
V alerie Kincaid’s condo
Two days after the party
“What do you mean you hit her? Why in the world would you do that, Valerie? If the Danvers find out, you have as good as assured that Kincaid’s bid will be accepted over mine.” Simon Chandler lashed out with his left hand and backhanded her.
Valerie fell to the floor and crawled over to him, wrapping her arms around his legs and looking up. “I’m sorry, Master. It will never happen again. I’ll make nice with her. I promise, it will be okay.”
Simon placed a palm on her upturned face and pushed her away.
“Please, Master, let me fix this.”
“I don’t think you can. Leave me, now.”
She bowed as she backed away. “Yes, Master.”
Stupid woman. If she didn’t satisfy other needs, I would get rid of her, but she is so good at being submissive, and I enjoy her too much. But what she did will set back my efforts. I thought I had it in the bag until Kincaid showed up with his perfect wife. I hadn’t realized how good Bree Taylor was or I might have married her myself. Now I have to see if I can fix what my submissive likely cost me and I’m not sure how to go about it .
Sunday, two days after the party and the disastrous aftermath, Bree was in a good mood as she fed Lilly her jar of baby food.
Lilly liked the pureed peas and even more wanted to play with the spoon Bree was using to feed her. She kept grabbing for the spoon .
But Bree was faster, keeping it out of Lilly’s hands.
Adam appeared in the kitchen, going over to Lilly and kissing the top of her head. “How are my two favorite girls this morning?”
Bree looked up and smiled. “We are doing great. She’s eating her peas and trying to grab the spoon. We’re having a typical day. I think I’ll let her play on the floor in the living room with a wooden spoon and a couple of pans. She’ll like that, even if it will be noisy for us.” Bree was wearing yoga pants and a huge Colorado University Buffaloes t-shirt along with Nike sneakers. She knew better than to wear nice clothes when feeding Lilly her baby food. It got literally everywhere.
Adam grabbed a coffee pod and placed it in the Keurig machine. “That will be fun for her and won’t bother me. I’ll be ensconced in my office all morning.”
“Working on the Danvers proposal?”
He nodded. “Thanks to you I think we have a good shot at him accepting my offer. I don’t believe Simon can come up with something better, but stranger things have happened.”
“If they knew what Valerie did to me in the bathroom, then you would definitely have a lock on it. But I didn’t want to be the one to make trouble for you.”
He added sugar to his coffee and took a sip. “You didn’t do anything wrong. You were perfect, and they loved you.”
“I really liked them, too.” She took another spoonful of peas and made choo-choo noises. “Here comes the train. Open the tunnel.”
Lilly giggled and opened her mouth.
Bree put the spoon in her mouth, smoothing it on the top of Lilly’s palate to make sure she got the whole spoonful. She did this a couple more times before Lilly turned away and shook her head.
“Looks like our little girl is full.”
“Yes, and she needs cleaning up and a diaper change. Would you do that while I take care of her highchair? I’m afraid not all of the peas went in her mouth.”
“Of course.” He set his coffee on the counter. Then he went to Lilly, unfastened the safety belt and lifted her from the highchair. “Good gawd. From the looks of her I’m surprised she got any in her mouth.”
“She was very messy today and managed to grab the spoon a couple of times.” Bree raised her brows and pursed her lips. Then she took the highchair tray to the sink. “That’s why it’s in her hands and hair. Maybe you should just give her a bath and start the morning over.”
Adam held Lilly at arm’s length, lest he be wearing peas, too. “I think that’s probably a good idea. From the smell of her that will be the best way for everything to get clean.”
Bree laughed at the picture they made. The big man and the little baby. She looked almost tiny in his arms. “You might as well get used to the idea that you’ll have to change your shirt after you’re done.”
He looked at the sleeves of his shirt, which were smeared with baby handprints made of peas, and sighed, bringing Lilly fully into his arms and against his chest. “You, my darling daughter, are a messy eater. I hope you grow out of that as you get older.”
“We can only hope,” said Bree from the kitchen sink, where she was using the sprayer to rinse the tray. Then she grabbed a dishtowel from the first drawer on the left side of the sink and dried the tray. She set it on the table and wiped down the vinyl chair.
Adam carried Lilly upstairs for a bath and clean clothes.
Bree admired that Adam was a hands-on dad. He could have left her to care for Lilly completely. But he was a great father. He wanted to be involved in all aspects of Lilly’s care, and Bree let him. She was perfectly happy not to have to deal with every dirty diaper, though she missed giving her a bath. They’d purchased a little ring that suctioned onto the tub where Lilly could sit in and play.
She loved her bath time. She splashed and played and chewed on everything she could get her hands on.
She was teething and drooling like a St. Bernard dog. Her clothes were often wet, and she had to be changed.
Bree had gotten to where she kept a bib on Lilly all the time, just to keep her clothes drier.
She was watching Adam give Lilly a bath when the doorbell rang. Bree got up to go answer it.
Adam looked up at her. “Carole will get it, so you don’t have to leave.”
“Carole is at the grocery store. I need to answer the door. Besides it’s probably the florist. I decided to get some new plants for the formal dining table. I like to keep fresh ones in there. That new girl, Camile, you have working for you in the acquisitions department told me about this florist and that they were having a great plant sale. I called and ordered several things and gave them the code for the gate.”
“Oh, okay. I’ll have Lilly out of the bath and in the nursery by the time you return.”
“I’ll look for you there.” She walked downstairs and reached the front door just as the doorbell sounded again. She opened the door. “How may I hel?—”
A burly man in a ski mask stood on the porch with a gun. “Don’t make a sound. Come with us, and the man and baby won’t be harmed.”
Bree looked up at where Adam would be with Lilly and knew she didn’t have a choice. “Let me get my purse.” She wondered how many men there were since the one with the gun had said us. She heart pounded and she wondered if she’d ever see Adam or Lilly again.
“No. No purse. No phone. Just you.”
She nodded. “Fine.”
He led the way to a white van that said Sandy’s Floral on the side, opened the sliding door, and jutted his chin at the opening. “Get in.”
She’d stepped up to enter the van.
The man gave her a hard push.
“Hurry up!”
She was pushed into the van, landing on her right side.
Then the man slid the door closed and as soon as he was in the passenger’s side, the driver took off before the masked man even had his door shut.
“Where are you taking me?”
“Some place safe. You don’t need to worry.”
Bree knew she needed to make the men afraid. Maybe they didn’t know the penalty for what they were doing. Maybe she could bluff her way to getting them to believe that Adam cared enough to get her back. “Who are you working for? Why did you kidnap me? That’s a federal offense you know. You’re in big trouble. When my husband finds out what you’ve done, he’ll come after you and he won’t stop until he finds me. He’ll kill you for what you’ve done. I hope whatever you’re getting paid is enough to be worth your life.”
“Shut it, before I kill you now.”
The driver, who was also masked, looked at the man in the passenger’s side. “Do you think she’s right?”
The man shrugged. “It’s doesn’t matter now. What’s done is done.”
The driver looked at the burly man. “You didn’t tell me we could go to jail.”
“Oh, puuleease.” Bree stretched out the word and rolled her eyes, even though neither man had eyes on her. “You’re kidnapping me. What did you think would happen? Did you think the police would just give you a candy bar, and it would all be okay?”
“No,” snapped the driver. “I never thought we’d be caught.”
“And we won’t be. We’re just supposed to drop her off at the agreed upon location and leave her there. Then we get to go back to our lives with lots of money and forget this ever happened,”
“You’re fools if you believe that. Whoever hired you won’t want to leave any witnesses, and you are definitely witnesses.”
“Mr. Chandler would never do that,” said the driver. He looked at the first man. “Would he? Joe, would he?”
Joe, the first man, didn’t answer the question, but he hit the driver in the shoulder. “You idiot. Now, she knows my name… Calvin .”
“That’s just mean. I did it by accident. I didn’t mean to tell her, you did it on purpose. What are we gonna do now?”
“We stick with the plan. There’s nothing more we can do. Just drive.”
“Fine.” Calvin turned his attention to the highway
She was glad for it because all the weaving and rolling around in the back on the metal floor wasn’t comfortable on her backside. I’ll be very glad to get out of this van…unless they decide to kill me instead.
Adam carried Lilly down to the kitchen. “Bree,” he called as he walked into the room.
But Bree wasn’t there. He proceeded throughout the house. “Bree? Where are you? Bree.”
“Adam! Adam!” yelled Carole
He found Carol in the kitchen.
“Adam she’s gone. Someone took her.”
“What do you mean ‘took her’?”
“I just got home, and I thought I saw a man put her in the back of a van. I was just calling 911.”
“Continue. While you do that, I’m calling my security people.” He gripped Lilly tighter.
The baby fussed and tried to pull away.
He eased his grip. “I’m sorry, Sweetheart. Daddy is just scared for Mommy, but we’ll get her back.” He turned his gaze toward Carole. “I don’t care what it costs, we will get her back.”
Carole nodded as she placed her call to 911 and described the van and the man to the best of her ability.
Adam repeated to his man what Carole said.
When she was done, she ended the call. “The police will put out an APB, but I don’t have a lot of hope they’ll find it.”
“Why not?”
“Because the man knew the code to the gate and knew we were getting flowers today. How could they know those things?”
“I don’t know. It sounds like I have a spy in my organization. Bree mentioned one of my new employees, someone named Camile, gave her the tip about this florist. I’ll have Camile picked up before she has a chance to flee.” Adam put Lilly in her playpen.
She immediately picked up a teething ring and began chewing on it.
He turned back toward his housekeeper. “Don’t give up yet. My men will find her. They have contacts even I can’t imagine.”
Carole stood wringing her hands in front of her. “I hope so. I just wish I’d come back five minutes sooner; this wouldn’t have happened. I would have been the one to answer the door and?—”
“You can’t think that way. You couldn’t have done anything to change it. For those men to take her, in broad daylight, like they did, they were probably desperate, and you might have been injured or killed if you’d gotten in their way.” Adam placed an arm around her shoulders. “Don’t worry, we’ll find her. I won’t stop until I do. Nothing is as important to me as Bree and Lilly.” He squeezed her shoulders. “I need to ask a favor of you. Will you take care of Lilly for me? I need to go to the office to coordinate the search. It’s much easier to do it from there where we have all the equipment needed.”
She looked up at him. “Of course, I’ll take care of her. I’ll protect her with my life.”
“I hope that will never happen. Keep all the doors locked and don’t open them for anyone but me. Even then I’ll come in through the garage. Set the alarm system after I leave. I can monitor it from work.”
“I will. I promise.” Carole’s mouth formed a flat line. “I’ll lock the front door now.”
“Good. I need to say goodbye to Lilly.”
Carole nodded and left to do her errand.
Adam stalked to the playpen and picked up Lilly. “Sweetheart, I have to leave for a while. Auntie Carole will be here and taking care of you. I have to go get your mommy back.” He kissed her forehead.
She slapped his face with her wet left hand and a slobber-covered teething ring in her right hand.
Both seemed sticky, too, but he couldn’t figure out from what. It didn’t matter. He kissed her again and returned her to the playpen.
Lilly began to cry.
Carole came into the room from the kitchen behind him. “Don’t worry about her. I’ll make sure she’s okay.” She picked up Lilly.
The baby stopped crying and grinned at Carole.
The woman laughed.
Adam wanted to, as well, but the thought of being unable to share it with Bree dampened his mirth. He hurried out of the kitchen to the six-car garage, got in the Corvette, and drove to his downtown Denver office.
His office was in a thirty-two story building known as The Kincaid Tower. His office was on the thirty-first floor. The thirty-second floor was an open area with two bars, several seating areas with beige couches and dark brown leather chairs.
The elevator opened directly to his administrative assistant, Emily’s desk.
Emily looked up.
“All the men are here and ready to report to you.”
“Thank you. Hold my calls unless it’s about Bree.”
“Of course.” Emily went back to her work.
Adam entered his office and saw his three top security employees waiting. Two were in the chairs directly in front of his desk. The third was on the sofa on the right side of the room. Adam sat behind his desk.
“Tell me what you have. Jesse, you first.”
Jesse was a dark-haired man with a Van Dyke beard. He looked down at the tablet in his lap. “We pulled traffic footage and found the white van as it was leaving your neighborhood. We tracked it until it stopped in an industrial area. Two men got out of the van, and they had a woman with them. The people went inside a warehouse owned by Simon Chandler. Seven minutes later the two men returned to the van and drove away. “
Adam slammed his fist on his desk and leaned back in his chair. “This has something to do with the Danvers account. Simon wants it, and he’s taken Bree to stop me from getting it by making me back off.”
The blond, clean-shaven man sitting next to the dark-haired man crossed his right leg on his left knee. “I believe we can free her. It appeared that the men just dropped her off and left. The van was tracked back to a flower shop where the men abandoned it and got into a black SUV.”
Adam stood and paced behind his desk. He stopped and stared at the blond man. “Well, Sid, did you track the SUV?”
Sid shook his head. “We figured we should keep an eye on the warehouse where Bree is.”
“You’re right. That’s the important thing.” Adam looked at the third man. He had dark, curly hair that was almost black. His skin was olive, he had a small gold hoop earring in his left ear and a plain gold wedding band on his left ring finger. “What do you think, Tony?”
Tony sat up, then placed his elbows on his knees, and clasped his hands together. “I think we need to act like Seal Team 6 and get Bree out of there before Simon hurts her. You and I both know what Simon is capable of.”
Adam’s stomach clenched. He didn’t like the thought of killing someone, but Bree came first. He’d do what was necessary. “I want to do it as soon as possible. And I’m going with you. Just because I’m not a SEAL anymore, doesn’t mean I’ve lost my skills.”
“Adam are you sure you want to do that? You have a baby at home now to think of. What if something happens to you and Bree?” asked Jesse.
Turning his attention toward Jesse, Adam ran his hands through his hair. “I have to be there…for Bree. I can’t explain it. I just know I have to be there.”
Jesse threw up his hands. “Okay, let’s do this.”