Prologue
Cooper Devlin wasn’t supposed to be kidnapped. Wrong place, wrong time had never been more evident than when he found himself bound and gagged in the back of a van next to Grayson, a boy he’d just met at spring break in Florida.
What followed were two weeks locked up in a room with Grayson Montana and Liam O’Rourke, both boys with fathers richer than anything Cooper could begin to imagine. From the best they could determine, Grayson and Cooper were being held until their fathers paid the ransom demand.
What did it mean for him that not only did his father rarely have more than pocket change, but if the men demanded a ransom for his release, his father would laugh in their faces and then find the nearest bar to see if he could talk someone into buying him a beer.
He knew both boys were worried about him.
Grayson had even begged their kidnappers to pass a message from him to his father.
The message being to ask his father to pay the ransom for Cooper so he would be freed with them.
Grayson swore his father would do it. Whether the kidnappers passed that message on, they didn’t know.
Liam told the kidnappers to give his father that same message but later admitted that he doubted his father would fork over any money he didn’t have to. Sounded to Cooper like Grayson had the better father.
He’d like to believe that Grayson’s father would get the message and would pay his ransom.
If he did, Cooper would spend his life paying the man back.
It was a big if, and he just didn’t see it happening.
Why would anyone hand over a fortune for someone he’d never met?
Cooper kept his fear to himself, but his chest was heavy and his stomach sick with dread that he wasn’t going to walk out of this room alive.
The kidnappers were ripping his dreams right out from under his feet. He had a full scholarship to Vanderbilt University in Nashville, a school with one of the top-ranked baseball programs. Cooper’s goal, his dream, was to pitch for his home-state Atlanta Braves.
He was supposed to meet the Vanderbilt coach this week, a meeting he would miss and couldn’t call to cancel. The coach was going to think Cooper had blown him off, never considering the possibility that he’d been kidnapped.
The kidnappers were stealing his chance to escape the hell that was his homelife. Even worse, he’d worked hard so that he’d be able to get his sister away from their father and into a life where he’d see her smile again. They had stolen that, too. He missed her sweet smile, her laughter.
He wasn’t even supposed to be in Florida.
It had been a last-minute thing, an impulsive decision to tag along with two of his teammates when they decided they wanted to go to spring break.
He was only supposed to be gone for two days, and he tried not to think about his sister being alone with their father for two weeks without him there to protect her from the old man’s rages.
If he was alone, he’d curl up in a ball and cry, but he refused to cry in front of his two new friends.
“I don’t understand why they haven’t released us yet,” Grayson said. “My dad would’ve paid the ransom the minute they contacted him.” His gaze fell on Cooper. “As long as they passed my message on, he’ll pay it for you, too. I promise.”
“It’s okay if he doesn’t.” It really wasn’t, but he’d learned early in life not to expect good things to happen.
“Maybe my dad called the police, and now any chance of getting out of here has gone to shit,” Liam said. “I wouldn’t put it past him.”
Cooper didn’t know what to think. It seemed like Grayson and Liam had very different fathers, and he felt like he had more in common with Liam. In his wildest imagination, he couldn’t conceive of having a father like Grayson’s. The man sounded almost too perfect, like he couldn’t possibly be real.
He liked both boys and wished he’d met them under different circumstances.
The three of them had grown close since being thrown in this room together, but desperation hung heavy in the air between them.
There was no laughter, no teasing, no telling bad jokes like there would have been if they’d become friends outside this room that was their prison.
They were huddled in the corner of the room, as far away from the bucket that was their bathroom as they could get.
Their jailers weren’t so good at emptying it.
There wasn’t any furniture, no pallets to sleep on, not even a thin blanket, and no pillows to rest their heads on, but worst of all, no privacy.
They were fed once a day, two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and a bottle of water each.
When…if he got out of here alive, he was never eating another peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
And if they were released, he was going to take the longest shower ever.
Out of boredom, they’d played Never Have I Ever, Twenty Questions and Truth or Dare, although it was hard to dare anyone to do anything in what was essentially a jail cell.
There probably wasn’t much they didn’t know about each other now.
He’d even opened up and told his new friends about his homelife, something he never shared with others.
“I’m worried about my sister,” he said. “She’s going to think I ran away and left her to face our father alone.
” Emmie often begged for both of them to run away, but as much as he was tempted, they were too young to be out on their own.
They’d probably end up living on the streets, and he’d never allow that to happen to his sister.
He had a plan, and in the end, he’d be able to take her away and give her the life she deserved.
If he could survive this and make things right with the Vanderbilt coach, that was.
“I’m going to ask a big favor,” he said.
“If I don’t make it out of here and you both do, will you try to get my sister away from our father?
I don’t know, maybe call someone and report him?
I’ll give you a list of things about him that should work to make that happen.
Without me there to take care of her, Emmie would be better off in foster care.
” He hated that it might come to that, but it would be best.
Grayson pressed his shoulder against Cooper’s. “You have my promise, but man, don’t talk like that. You’re leaving with us.”
“If the unthinkable happens, and they free us and not you, we’ll come back for you,” Liam said. “We’ll bring an army if we have to.”
“Thank you.” He managed to get the two words past the rock lodged in this throat. For as long as he could remember, he’d had to go it alone, and now here were two boys who promised to have his back. It was the first time in his life he didn’t feel so alone.
Both boys held up their fists, and he bumped each of theirs with his. “The only good thing about this is I met—”
“Freeze, asshole!”
The loud, commanding voice filled the air, and Cooper froze, even though he wasn’t the asshole in question. He hoped not, anyway. That wasn’t the voice of one of their kidnappers. He exchanged glances with Grayson and Liam, who appeared as startled and wary as he did.
“Do you think it’s the police?” he whispered. It was almost too much to hope they were being rescued.
“He didn’t say he was the police. Don’t they have to identify themselves?” Liam said.
When a shot rang out, the three of them flattened themselves on the floor. Cooper dared to hope. “I think we’re being rescued.”
A body hit the wall outside their room, and the sounds of grunts filled the air.
“They’re fighting,” Grayson said.
Liam glanced at the closed doors. “Hope whoever it is beats the shit out of those assholes.”
Cooper couldn’t agree more. The fight didn’t last long before it went silent, and that silence was ominous. Who was out there? Were they good guys? Who had won the fight? The door eased open, and he held his breath.
A man dressed in all black, including a black face mask, and holding a revolver down by his side stepped inside. His gaze roamed over each of them. “Time to go home, boys.”
“Who are you?” Liam said.
A second man stepped up behind the first. “Your angels.”
The first one glanced back. “I ain’t no angel, Bear.”
Bear—who was about the size of a grizzly—laughed. “True that.” Bear stepped around the first man. “I’m Deacon, and my friend here is Sam, but he prefers you to call him Hollywood.”
Sam growled and stomped out of the room as Deacon pulled off his mask. “Hollywood gets a bit touchy if you call him Hollywood.” He grinned. “Which is why we go out of our way to do it. Any of you need medical care?” At the shake of their heads, he said, “Good. You boys ready to go home?”
All three of them jumped up, and as one, shouted, “Yes!”
“Thought so. Which one of you is Grayson?”
Grayson raised his hand. “Me.”
“Your dad sent us to find you. Looks like you have some friends here, so we’ll take them, too.”
Cooper’s legs almost buckled under him that he wasn’t going to be left behind.
“Are you SEALs?” Grayson asked.
The question seemed odd to Cooper until he remembered Grayson had said his father had been a SEAL, which he and Liam thought was cool.
“Yes, but civilians now,” Deacon said.
Grayson grinned. “Right. Once a SEAL, always a SEAL.”
“Right on.” Deacon raised a fist for Grayson to bump.
As much as they wanted to leave immediately, they had to give statements to the police first. While that was happening, they were checked out by two paramedics who’d arrived with the officers.
The two kidnappers were hauled off in handcuffs, and after the police and EMTs were gone, Deacon said, “Other than you boys could use a couple of cheeseburgers, fries and a big milkshake, sounds like you’re good to go.”
They did in fact make a stop for cheeseburgers, fries and milkshakes—the best meal Cooper had ever had in his life—and then they were put on a private plane. Deacon and Sam accompanied them to Myrtle Beach, to Grayson’s house.
Cooper had driven by rich people’s houses, but he’d never been in one. He’d never met a rich man either. Both were more than he knew how to process. As soon as they walked through the door, a man held out his arms and Grayson flew into them.
“Son,” the man said. “Thank God you’re home and safe.”
Cooper couldn’t imagine such a greeting from his father, and he tried not to be envious.
He tore his gaze away from the father-son reunion and took in the room.
It was a big house, but the surprise was that the interior wasn’t what he was expecting.
The living room was warm and inviting. He could imagine hanging out with Grayson, kicking back on the brown leather sofa and watching a ball game on that huge TV mounted to the wall above the fireplace.
“My dad will probably put me on dishwasher duty for a year for missing work,” Liam said. “Getting kidnapped won’t be an acceptable excuse.”
Cooper glanced at his new friend. There was envy in Liam’s eyes that matched his own as they stood by, waiting for Grayson’s father to let go of his son.
“Let’s promise we’ll stay in touch, you, Grayson and me,” Cooper said.
“Absolutely.”
Grayson must have heard them because he turned to them and said, “Brothers for life.”
A promise was made and kept.