Billionaire Erotic Romance Boxed Set: 7 Steamy Full-Length Novels (171 page)

I laid in the bathtub until I could feel the thralls of sleep threatening to take me. I toweled off and walked to the bed, where Alex lay, sitting up, still naked. I crawled in next to him and without speaking, fell asleep in his arms.

***

I woke up in Alex’s bed for the second time in two days to the smell of eggs and bacon cooking. I walked downstairs, wrapped in a small silk robe that was see-through and saw Alex, naked and cooking.

“I know eggs and bacon aren’t exactly the healthiest option for breakfast, but I think we can afford to enjoy it after last night,” he said, looking at me. I stared at his perfectly chiseled body and thought of dropping my robe and walking over to him, begging him to take me again. But my ass was a little sore and I was still tired, so I waited for my breakfast and drank up the sight of his muscles flexing and relaxing as he moved around the kitchen.

We ate gratuitous amounts of bacon and scrambled eggs with buttered ciabatta bread, perfectly toasted. I drank two huge cups of black coffee and I felt energized.

“I’m planning to go over to my apartment and get some things,” I said.

“I could have a moving crew do that for you,” Alex said.

“No, I’ll have them clear out everything I don’t want, but I want to go there one more time Alex. Gary will be with me, I’ll be safe.”

He nodded.

I dressed myself and before I walked out, I kissed Alex on the lips despite my reservations on whether I should or not. I suppose when you do what Alex and I did last night, a kiss should be no big deal, but I was still unsure. Alex kissed me back heartily and ran his hand down the small of my back. I went down the elevator in a daze and Gary waved to me from the car.

I sat in the backseat and turned on my phone to check my messages. We were a block away from my apartment when we hit traffic.

“Damn, going to be a few minutes boss. At least.”

It happened quickly.

There was a white van parked in front of us and another behind us. Men jumped out from the sliding doors and rushed the car. They wore black masks and carried batons. Two carried pistols. In a few seconds, they were opening the door and Gary was already out, fists swinging. I saw him connect with two of the men and the men dropped like rag dolls. The sound of his fist crashing into them was a terrifyingly loud thwack that made me cringe.

I screamed as two men opened the back doors and grabbed me. I tried to fight in vain before my arms were tied behind me. I saw a baton fall on the back of Gary’s head and he dropped. A black bag slipped over my head. I screamed but a sharp blow to my stomach silenced me. The wind had been knocked out of me.

I felt myself lifted up in the air and I was thrown on a seat that I assumed was a bench seat. I heard a door slam shut and then I knew I was in one of the vans. I could hear tires screeching as we peeled out. I struggled to breathe against the pain in my chest and for a moment I thought I was going to die.

“You’re going to shut up and be good. If you try to scream, we’re going to kill you,” a voice said.

I was going to die.

Chapter Sixteen

I struggled to breathe. The bag around my head, while cloth, was oppressive and grew smaller with every breath I took. The inside of the bag was a thousand degrees and tears fell from my eyes in hot wet streams. I shook my head to try to loosen the bag and I felt a hand grip around my head, stopping my movements. A knife of fear struck at my heart and I stopped moving completely.

My hands were tied behind my back with rough textured rope that rubbed my skin raw with even the smallest movement. The rope was so tight that my hands began to grow numb, but I said nothing in protest. I was too scared.

Men sat to my left and right. I could feel their shoulders pressed against mine, and I wanted so badly to recoil from their touch but there was simply nowhere to go; I was blindfolded and tied up. We were going somewhere, and aside from my terror, the atmosphere in the SUV was calm and quiet. No one spoke or made any sort of noise.

My arms hurt badly from my hands being tied up, despite my hands being completely numb now. My wrists burned like they were on fire. I thought about protesting my hands again and then realized that if I did so they might gag me. With how hot the bag was already and how hard it was to breathe, if I were gagged I might choke to death before we arrived at wherever we were going.

Did they want to kill me? I tried to consider it, but my mind was racing too quickly. I had to calm myself down, and quickly. I closed my eyes, despite the fact that they were already in total darkness, and started to count my breaths. I reached two hundred before my breath slowed and my heartbeat seemed less on the verge of causing a fatal rupture in my chest.

No, they didn’t want to kill me. If they had wanted to kill me, at least immediately, I would be sitting in the car with a bullet in my head or my throat slit. I shuddered at the image and the vision of Gary falling to the ground filled my mind. I prayed that he was alive.

I was being captured for a reason, and it was surely not just to kill me. I had to keep quiet, play this as cool as I possibly could. They might kill me later, but for now I was alive and I planned to stay that way.

I was going to be used as a bargaining tool. They would trade my life for something. The whole of Strauss Engines? That was impossible, I told myself. Strauss Engines had shareholders and investors, you couldn’t just sign it away in exchange for the life of one young woman. There was something that they felt Alex might trade for my life, but I couldn’t think of what it was. I only hoped that Alex was willing to trade it for me. I valued my life much more than whatever these bastards wanted.

I placed my entire faith in Alexander Strauss that he would save me from this predicament. I had trusted him this far, now there was no turning back. My life was in his hands.

The car ride lasted for at least two hours, maybe three. Blindfolded and without reference, I could only assume how long we had been driving. After a while, I managed to let my thoughts dissipate and I accepted my situation. There was else I could do.

The SUV stopped. I could hear doors opening all around me and the two men on each side of me disappeared. I froze, unwilling to move. Despite having calmed myself earlier, I felt a whole new wave of panic seize me. Maybe they had taken me out to a field somewhere to put a bullet in me and leave me in an unmarked grave. I fought back tears and steadied myself.

I thought of Alex from the previous night. I wanted badly to be wrapped in his arms just one more time, to bury my face in his neck and breathe in the scent of his skin. His arms wrapped around me, our embrace unbroken. I resolved that I would see him again and I would get my wish. I felt myself harden inside and the fear lessened. Anger at being taken and held against my will replaced it.

“All right, you’ve got two options,” a voice said. It sounded flat, almost electronic. “You can walk with us and make this easy, or we can drag you. I can tell you it won’t be a gentle dragging either.”

I said nothing.

“Have it your way. Oh, and if you try to scream, we’re going to have to hit you, maybe even knock you out. And no one will hear you anyway so you might as well save your breath. You’re in the middle of nowhere, sweetie.”

I remained still and silent. A pair of hands grabbed me by my shoulders and tore me from my seat with surprising strength. I tried to resist in vain and the man dragging me out of the car threw me to the ground. I landed on my shoulder and the pain shot through me like electricity. I made no sound as I gritted my teeth. Two men grabbed me underneath each arm and dragged me like a rag-doll through the dirt. I realized then that I wasn’t wearing any shoes. I wondered when I had lost them but my memory was completely void of anything involving losing my shoes.

I let my body go limp and soon enough I felt myself being dragged against concrete. We were inside some sort of building. I could hear doors opening and closing. I tried to count how many but it was too hard to differentiate the sounds. Finally, we stopped. Wherever our destination had been, we were there now.

The pair of men lifted me off my feet and threw me across a room. The floor slammed into my outer thigh and fresh, white pain shot through my entire leg. My hands were behind my back, still tied, when they were grabbed and pulled up. I pushed back, trying to strike anything I could. I could hear a man let out a small chuckle, mocking my attempt to combat him. Rage filled my blood and every muscle screamed out at me to strike. I kicked my legs out and I connected with something hard, and realized it was the man’s shin.

He let out an angry grunt and I felt myself being turned around so quickly that my legs gave out. I was hanging by my hands, and the pain in my wrists exploded as the ropes tightened against my bodyweight. I could hear a man behind me and I realized that I was held up from behind. I wiggled and writhed against the pain in my arms when I felt something smash into my stomach with the force of a mallet. All the wind exploded out of my lungs and I cried out breathlessly.

I gasped for air that wouldn’t come. The pain in my arms lessened slightly as the panic of choking filled me. I opened my mouth again and again to try to suck in the hot air in the bag that was still over my head. I felt dizzy. I found my footing but it was weak and I badly wanted to tumble onto the ground and curl up into a fetal position.

“Stupid bitch,” a man’s voice said angrily. “Fucking hit me again and you’ll lose teeth, got it?”

I felt hands crawl over me, searching me. They patted my legs and slowed around my ass. They gripped my ass cheeks and squeezed, lingering for longer than was necessary to realize that I was hiding nothing there. They moved around my inner thighs and thankfully moved up quickly without violating me. I felt them pat underneath my armpits and my lower back before they moved over my breasts. Then I felt them squeeze my nipples, hard.

I raised a knee to try to strike the bastard groping me. It connected with air and I felt a hand slap across my face just as I was starting to regain my breath. Stars exploded over my vision.

“Nice try,” the man said.

Hands tore my clothes off without any shred of worry for how it hurt when they tore against my skin. I stifled any cries of protest at being robbed of my clothes. I was positive they were going to rape me, but after I was completely naked no hands touched my skin. I felt a knife slide in between my hands and cut the rope. I rubbed my hands together, the rush of blood bringing a million tiny needle pricks with it. I heard a door close and I was alone.

I tore off the blindfold and gasped in fresh, cool air. I saw nothing but stars as my eyes adjusted to the light and I covered myself as best as I could with my arms, not knowing if anyone was watching me, but sure that someone must have been.

When my vision cleared, I saw that I was in a small room that was furnished to look like a little apartment. A cot was pushed against the corner, and on top of it I saw a stack of clothes. I immediately rushed over to it and put on the plain white shirt that was on top. Then I slipped on the grey sweatpants that looked as though they had been bought that day, although all the tags were cut off. I put on the black sweatshirt, even though I wasn’t cold, to give myself another layer so nobody would be able to see my nipples that poked through my shirt. I laced up a plain pair of sneakers and sat on the cot, rubbing my sore stomach.

I looked around the room. One of the walls was a big mirror that reflected the rest of the room, giving it the illusion that it was much larger than it really was. I was sure that this was a one way mirror and I was glad that I had chosen to cover myself as quickly as possible. I stood up from the cot, my legs feeling like they had returned to their previous strength, and began to scan the mirror with my fingers. I fought back the impulse to punch it as hard as I could. There was no sense in breaking my hand.

I turned away from the mirror and saw that a desk was pushed against another wall. I walked over to it and saw that a large bowl of noodle soup sat on top. I touched the side of the bowl with my hand. Ice cold. A two-gallon jug of water was placed next to it with an empty glass cup next to it. I poured myself some water and drank it greedily. It wouldn’t be poisoned. Why go to all of the trouble of bringing me here, searching me and stripping me, and then poisoning me?

I drank two more glasses of water. I wasn’t hungry yet, but I knew I would need my strength, so I was glad for the noodles awaiting me later. My gratitude immediately riled up more anger in me. To think that I was grateful that my captors were kind enough to leave me a crappy bowl of cold noodles. I fought the impulse to throw the bowl against the two-way mirror. I had to be smart right now. Wasting my only source of food would be anything but smart.

Also on the desk was a television remote. I picked it up carefully and turned it over in my hands, studying it. I looked around the room quickly and noticed that a television was hung in the top corner of the room. Safety glass encased it. I pointed the remote at it and pressed the power button. The screen came to life on a news channel.

I looked around suspiciously. Then the television shut off.

“Samantha,” an electronic voice called out from everywhere.

I jumped visibly and looked around, panicked and ready to fight. I put the television remote down on the desk and looked around, spotting the two speakers in opposite corners of the ceiling, also encased with safety glass.

“We apologize for you being stripped. Consider it a necessary security precaution.”

I faced the two-way glass. “Consider it water under the bridge. I completely understand,” I said sarcastically, the anger in my voice rising with every word.

“You will be given three meals a day and as much water as you need. If you behave, we’ll give you tea or coffee once a day.”

“How long do you plan on keeping me here?” I asked defiantly.

Silence greeted my question. I looked back to the desk and saw that a metal chair was tucked in neatly underneath it. I eyed it with great interest.