44. Graham
GRAHAM
Before I leave, I lay Dani down on the bed. I fuck her hard into the mattress, pumping my cock into her tight pussy while she has her legs spread and plays with her clit. Then I come on her tits before I let her go.
As the plane takes me back to Manhattan, I can’t stop thinking about her.
“Rumination” is the word.
I flew to Italy originally because I needed to sleep, and I can’t sleep without her. Yeah, I wanted to fuck her, too, but I can feel the tyrant’s grasp I keep on myself slipping.
The back-to-back long-haul flights don’t help. All I can think about is her. And how Frank will keep me away from her if he finds proof that I’m the kidnapper. I shouldn’t have come back. I should have just taken Dani with me—we could have gone somewhere far away.
But she’d miss her friends and her family, the ever-shrinking rational part of myself reminds me.
I’d take her dog. She’d have Lulu. And she’d have me. I’m the most important person in her life. There’s nothing wrong about thinking about the woman who’s going to be your wife.
A ring. I need a ring. And her father’s blessing. Then she’ll be mine forever.
“Holy fucking shit.”
Finn races to me when Connor lets me into Grayson’s penthouse.
I don’t trust myself to be home alone right now. I’ve basically been living on the airplane, only having it land for fuel and a fresh crew as they flew me around the world after the three and a half hours I spent in Switzerland.
Dani’s supposed to be home today. That’s why I’m back in Manhattan. I cannot be here without her. But she hasn’t called me or texted me.
This is why you can’t let her out of the house.
Or maybe she was busy wrangling bachelorettes. The rational part of me sounds like it’s drowning. And it’s easy to ignore.
“Where the hell were you?” Finn shakes me.
“Grayson, Grayson!” Connor calls.
“Jesus Christ,” my oldest brother swears when he sees me. “Call Aaron,” he orders Finn.
“What did you do, Graham?” he demands.
Finn has Aaron on FaceTime. He looks like he’s about to have an aneurysm.
“We were at your penthouse yesterday to stage an intervention, and lo and behold, you’re not there. We were too late because you’ve already gone off the deep end.” Grayson shoves Connor.
“You smell like airplane. Where were you?” Grayson demands.
“Nowhere.”
“Graham.”
“Everywhere.”
“See! He’s lost it.” Connor sniffs.
“Connor, shut up.”
“I needed to go see my wife,” I explain.
“You’re married? What the fuck?” Aaron screams on the phone.
“Can you calm down?” his business partner, Wolf, says from off-screen.
“My brother has lost his goddamn mind. I’m not going to calm down. Fuck you.”
“We’re not married yet,” I backtrack, “but we will be. Soon.”
Finn sucks a breath through his teeth.
“I’m not insane,” I protest. “I’m not being crazy.”
“That’s what they all say,” my youngest brother mutters.
“Connor!”
“I’m marrying her,” I explain calmly. “Dani’s going to quit her job and live with me forever and ever.”
My brothers are apprehensive.
“This is not like locking someone up,” I assure them. “This is different. This is love.” I look around. “Where is Spencer? I need to plan a proposal.”
Grayson shakes his head slowly. “You are not getting married. You’re getting relocated to Argentina.”
“They have penguins there.” Finn looks worried.
“They’re not nice penguins. They’re dusty,” Connor adds.
“You don’t understand. I can’t move. I have to marry Dani because if I don’t, then it doesn’t mean anything. It just means that I’m the monster they’re talking about on the news—someone loose on the street, kidnapping innocent women.”
“You did kidnap someone.” Grayson grabs me. “Remember?”
“No, it was love at first sight,” I protest.
“He sounds insane. You’re right,” Wolf says from the phone, while Aaron snaps, “Told you.”
“You’re not getting married. That’s final,” Grayson booms.
Grayson’s front door opens.
“Spencer, grab him!” Aaron yells from the phone.
“What?” Spencer is confused.
I use the distraction to dart past him out the door. I’m in the elevator before they can catch me.
My mom texts me as I’m driving to Dani’s parents’ house.
Mom: Hey, just wanted to see if you wanted to get dinner with us tonight.
Mom: Bring Dani.
Graham: We’ll be there.
I should probably see my mom one last time before Dani and I run off to start our new life. Right?
My soon-to-be fiancée seems a little frazzled when she opens the door.
“Is your father home?” I ask.
“How did you get up here?” Her eyes widen.
“The doorman likes me.” I push the door open.
She seems surprised to see me, because she resists then lets me push her out of the way.
“You didn’t call.” She shuts the door softly.
“Is your dad here?” I repeat.
“What do you need from my dad?”
“I told you.” I’m impatient. “We’re going to get married. But it’s not like I’m just going to steal you away. I want to do it right.”
“He’s going to think it’s weird,” she says nervously.
“You love me, don’t you?”
“I… What?” she chokes out.
“Dani, I love you. I fell in love with you the minute I saw you.” I grab her hands.
“I’m too hungover for this,” she groans.
“I want your dad’s blessing, but if you think he won’t give it, then we’re just going to have to elope. I know it’s not ideal.” I kiss her mouth. “But you promised me, Dani,” I remind her. “You promised me that you’d never leave.”
I take her hand. “I told my mother we’d come meet with her for dinner. Claire and Ryan have something planned at their apartment. Come on. Come, Dani. Now.”
I keep our fingers laced together as I drive her to Ryan’s apartment. Lulu is antsy on my lap.
“He lives in a nice building in Brooklyn, one of the new developments. One of Spencer’s, I think,” I tell Dani.
“Graham.” She pauses. “Are you”—her eyes search mine—“feeling okay?”
“I love you. I’ve never felt better. Come on. If you’re early, you’re on time. If you’re on time, you’re late.”
Ryan seems nervous when he opens the door.
“Graham…” He trails off. “You’re early. Dani, are you okay? You don’t look so great.”
“Hungover,” she croaks.
“Here.” Claire goes to the fridge. “I always get free samples from my marketing job. They’ve sent me some weird soda things that are supposed to be healthy.”
He tries to usher her away from me, but I keep my grip tight on her.
Aurora stands up from the small dining table in front of their windows when she sees us. “Graham and Dani.”
“Dani’s hungover,” Ryan announces.
Claire twists her hands.
“Graham…” My mom comes over. She doesn’t hug me, just kind of grabs my arm.
Dani’s trying to pull herself together, chatting to Claire, telling her about the bachelorette party from hell.
I spent the first eight years of my life being hyperaware of other people’s emotions and changes in the vibes in the cellar, being hypersensitive to what people are thinking, to when danger’s coming.
Something’s wrong here. Very wrong.
My hand is still on Dani’s arm, and I start backing away from them—my so-called family.
“We’re leaving.”
“Graham, seriously?” Dani tries to shake me off. “We literally just got here. You dragged me away from trying to unpack and do laundry to come here. I left all of that on poor Piper. And I had to tell my mom that I had to cancel going to visit her great-aunt, and now you want to leave?”
“We have to go,” I repeat.
“I’m staying.” Dani’s digging in her heels.
“Dani!” I yell at her. “We have to go now.”
“Don’t speak to her that way, Graham.” My mom’s chin wobbles.
“It’s not that. I’m—I’m not like that,” I try to tell her. “Dani. We have to go. I know you feel it too. They’re after me.”
Claire looks down. Frank’s eyes are FBI-hard.
“Admit it!” I yell at them. “Just admit it. You’re trying to take her away from me.”
“Graham.” Claire takes a shaky breath. “You know I work for StreetAI, and we have those delivery robots? Well, they have cameras. I was reviewing footage on them, you know, to fix the code? And I found one from that night—the night that girl was kidnapped.” Claire trails off then pulls out her tablet and shows me.
I watch Dani next to me, holding her breath, as the video from the robot delivery pod plays.
On the empty street, my car almost hits a lamppost. There’s Dani, trying to jump out of the car. I see myself shove her down, drag her back into the car.
It’s violent. Horrible. Brutal.
“Just tell me it’s not what it looks like.” My mom’s crying. “Graham, how could you?”
“I didn’t—that’s not me.”
“That’s your car,” Frank thunders. “You kidnapped an innocent girl off the street.”
I drag Dani to me. “She’s not some girl. I love her. We’re getting married.”
My mom shakes her head and sobs—that quiet sob she’s mastered from a decade of darkness.
“Mom, please. I’m not like that. I’m not like him. Dani, I never hurt you, did I?” I plead.
“Look, Claire, let’s not share that with anyone else. You know what?” Dani holds up her hands. “Why don’t we all just take a minute? We cannot have that video out. I don’t think you understand.”
Of course she loves me. I breathe a sigh of relief. It’s going to be okay if I can just get us out of here.
Ryan and Claire grab Dani. She stumbles as they pull her back, away from me.
“Dani!” I reach for her.
Frank tries to put himself between us.
“I always knew you were shit. And I know you did something to Kraig too,” he yells. “You’re going to prison, just like your piece-of-shit father.”
“No. You can’t take her from me. She’s mine.” I lunge at him and tackle Frank against the wall. Hard.
Dani and Claire scream.
“Kid, please don’t hurt him. Frank, please!” My mom is begging. “Frank, please. I asked you not to go to the police. I can’t handle the stress. Please. I’m begging you to just wait.” My mom separates us.
Dani stands there, horrified, her hand over her mouth. Claire’s sobbing. Ryan looks sick.
“Dani—no. I love you. Please, come away with me. We can leave. We can leave this place. Just us. Dani. You know I’m not like that. That’s not me. I didn’t mean it.” I beg her. “I want to marry you, Dani. I love you. I’ve never loved anyone like I love you.”
She’s crying, the tears dripping down her nose.
“Are you completely crazy?” she yells. “You are. You are crazy. You did kidnap me. Admit it!”
“I didn’t mean to.”
“Yes, you did!”
“Yes—but we fell in love.”
“Did we?” she demands. “You’re possessive and crazy, and not in a fun way.”
My mom is heartbroken.
“Look.” Dani lets out a tired sigh. “I don’t want the money or the condo.
I just think maybe we need to take a break.
You need to probably get some sleep.” Dani wipes at her eyes.
“Honestly, so do I. I can’t deal with this right now.
” She smears her makeup, revealing a dark, ugly bruise on her face.
I feel sick. Drop to my knees.
I did that. I hurt her.
It’s a bruise that’s a few days old. From when I was there, in Switzerland. I stagger up. Shove off Ryan when he tries to stop me from going to her.
I cup her face, hover my fingers over the ugly bruise.
I hurt her. I’m hurting her. The ugly truth is a shot in the chest.
I am exactly like my dad. I have become him.
I look up at my horrified mother. Still have enough shame to know an apology doesn’t cut it.
“I shouldn’t be around you, Dani. I’m not safe to be around you.” I feel my heart break.
“Graham—no.”
“Dani, I’m so sorry.” I turn back away from them, toward the door, while Frank tells me to stop.
“Please forgive me.”