Captive, Mine (2 page)

He paused and turned toward me, making a show of checking his watch.

“How do I know you work for my father anyway?”

“Good girl,” he said, releasing my wrist and smiling. “He said you might ask. It’s Velveteen Rabbit, your safe code.”

I stared at him. How long had it been since I’d heard my dad read me that story?

My mom had run out on us when I wasn’t even a year old. I had no memory of her. My dad and I had been close all my life, so with all this crap that was happening, as tough as I tried to act, I was scared. I was scared for him and for me. And I guess he and I both knew all along that something like this could happen.

Ever since I was little, my dad and I had a secret code and that was it: The Velveteen Rabbit. It was my favorite book. He’d read it to me every night for a year and I still had my well-worn copy of it. I knew if ever someone said they’d been sent by my dad, they’d know those words. It hadn’t come up before, and I didn’t expect it to at twenty-four years old either. But there it was. My dad was still taking care of me from wherever he happened to be at the moment.

“We have to go,” Lake said, this time he sounded almost nice.

I nodded once and looked away. I didn’t want him to see the tears in my eyes and I didn’t want him to know I was scared.

* * *

T
he pictures didn’t do her justice. Not one bit.

He’d memorized them, of course, until he knew every line of her delicate face, the large brown eyes, the long, wavy black hair, the rich olive tone of her skin. He remembered lingering over the shot taken of her outside on the front stoop of her brownstone, the steam wafting up from her coffee in the chill morning air. The low angle of the morning light seemed to render the white gown she wore diaphanous, revealing far more of her figure than he knew she’d have liked.

He’d taken special care to memorize that photo.

Now, as the truck bounced over the pothole-ridden streets of the city, he watched her again. It made her uneasy, his gaze upon her. He found he liked that. Her eyes, like doe’s eyes, darted to him frequently, as if by keeping him in her sight she was reassuring herself all was well.

It certainly wasn’t, but she didn’t need to know that. Not yet, anyway.

“You forgot something,” he said, nodding toward her.

“Probably forgot all kinds of things.” She glared at him, her eyes squinting against the sunshine pouring through the windshield. “Which wouldn’t have been an issue had you let me, I don’t know,
pack
.”

Ah, yes, beautiful she may be — but that mouth.

“Try again, Ms. Cross.”

She looked out the window, jabbing a thumb at the unmarked in the next lane. “We certainly didn’t forget them. Like a goddamned motorcade. Very subtle.”

“Seat belt.”

“What?” Her hand reached up automatically for it, then she stopped herself. “You’re serious with this?”

“Put it on.”

Those big brown eyes stared back, her jaw tight. One of the tires dropped into a pothole large enough to swallow a man, her breasts moving with the jarring bounce of the truck. She winced, cursing under her breath, her gaze sliding away.

It was shaping up to be a long trip.

“Seatbelt, Ms. Cross.”

“Are you my bodyguard, or my dad?”

He scanned ahead for an open stretch of curb, finding a loading zone for a busy restaurant supply business. It would do.

“What are you doing?”

Lake pulled the truck to the curb, the cruisers slowing to a crawl as horns blared from the cars behind them. One of the cruisers flashed his blues, waving the cars around him even as his puzzled white face peered over at their truck.

“Let’s get this out of the way now.” He leaned over her, and she shrank into the seat, her lips a surprised O. “I’m here to keep you
safe
, to get you to your new home.” His hand caught the belt, whipping it out and around, seating the latch with a loud click. She inhaled sharply as he pulled up, cinching it tight, the shoulder belt snug between her breasts. “And I can’t very well keep you safe if you die in a car wreck, can I?”

“I don’t wear—”

“You didn’t before, but you do now, Ms. Cross. This is a new life, a new start.” He flashed her a grin, then pulled back onto the road, squeezing the big pickup between the two waiting cruisers.

“I can’t believe this. This is a fucking nightmare.” She flashed him a withering look. “I don’t care what you think, Mr… whoever you are.”

“Lake.”

She frowned. “
Lake,
then. I don’t wear seat belts.”

“Never too late to start doing the right thing.”

You could try taking your own advice, for once.

But it was much too late for that. Much too late for anything at all.

His earpiece crackled to life. “Everything okay in there?”

Tucking the cord fully behind his ear, he smiled over at the cruiser next to them. “We’re good.”

The detail had insisted on the radio, though he detested it, knowing how easy it was to pick up a signal from outside. It was pointless, and sloppy, but he needed to play nice for now. The two officers were more of a help than a hindrance at this point anyway, especially in getting them through the god-awful upper Manhattan traffic. Once they’d gotten closer to their destination, he’d have more options, wouldn’t be so penned in. But that was still many hours away.

He glanced back over at her. She’d crossed her arms over those little jiggling breasts of hers, her head turned away. “Did the officers brief you on what’s going to happen today?”

“They did all that at the sentencing for Daddy,” she muttered, still looking out the window. “Said I wouldn’t know when they were coming, but when they did, I’d have minutes to pack up. They never said anything about you though.”

“Your father added that little detail at the last minute when there were… developments.”

Her brown eyes turned to him then. “Developments?”

Traffic came to a standstill, the distant sound of horns blaring somewhere up ahead. He sighed, drumming fingers on the steering wheel.

“Well, are you going to spill what the hell you mean by ‘developments’? Nothing good, I’m sure.”

“Your father received several threats.”

“Nothing new there.” She grunted. “Pricks can’t get to him, and it’s killing them. He told me all about it.”

Oh, if only you knew, Ms. Cross.

That wasn’t his problem though. He had a job to do first. And then that was it — no more tours, no more missions, no more contracts. No more. Then he could face what life he had left.

“This is something else. Something new.”

The earpiece clicked on once more. “Something’s up, looks like. Let me check it.”

The channel went dead a moment, then the officer was back on. “Water main break about ten blocks north. Christ.”

Lake hated these wrinkles, these little challenges fate and random chance always threw in the way on missions. He didn’t like fate or chance — both could get you killed just as dead.

“How long?” He knew the answer before the radio crackled in his ear.

“Hours. Traffic’s a mess on the whole upper west side. We’ll get you out another route.”

“What’s going on?” she murmured as the officers flipped on their lights and strobes, their sirens blaring their staccato warning tones as the cruisers picked their way through the slowly moving cars.

“Stay on my ass,” the patrolman said in Lake’s ear.

“Looks like we’re going on a little detour.” Lake kept his tone light. “It’s nothing.”

Her gaze moved from the cruisers, then back to him, the quick movement of her eyes betraying her fear.

It was an absurd time to think it, but he rather liked that look in her eyes.

Not now, Lake. Just get this over with.

As their little convoy snaked through the traffic-snarled streets of New York, he ran over the plan for the next few hours in his mind once again. So much could still go wrong, so much should go wrong — but he knew it wouldn’t.

Hit the marks, Lake. Timing. Timing. Timing.

His employer knew what he was doing hiring the company. Lake would perform this last mission, this last task, and he’d do it well — no matter how unpleasant, even wrong, it might be. Right and wrong weren’t part of this equation. Only the mission, the job, mattered now.

He’d fulfill his contract, and then he’d be done. For good.

Chapter 2

I
stared out the window at New York City traffic as our motorcade made its way around the mess.

Every time I’d glance over at Lake, he would meet my gaze so I determined to stop looking at him. I’d just sit quietly. He wouldn’t tell me where we were going and I guess that was part of his job. Part of his “keeping me safe.” That made me fume.

I could still feel where he’d touched me when he had strapped me in and as much as I wanted to push the button and unlock the seat belt, instinct told me not to do it, not to test him. I wasn’t used to being told what to do. Hell, I was the one who did the telling most of the time. Daddy’s business, I wasn’t a part of that. He made sure to keep me far from it. But I wasn’t stupid either. Drug money paid for my apartment, my clothes, my car.

My car…I missed it already. It was a little black BMW M6 Convertible. I tugged at the too tight seat belt, giving him the meanest look I could muster. Screw him. Who was he anyway? A bodyguard. I called the shots, not him.

* * *

“H
ow much longer?” I checked my watch. Almost four hours had passed since we’d left the city.

He glanced at me as if only now realizing I was still sitting there.

I raised my eyebrows. “Time? How much longer until we get to where we’re going?” I shifted in my seat, trying to get comfortable but failing.

“We’ll stop for the night in a few more hours.”

“Hours?”

He nodded. He was deep in thought and obviously didn’t feel like answering my questions.

“I need to pee,” I said, smiling when he glanced at me. I didn’t really but he didn’t need to know that. Why make this ride pleasant for him when it was anything but for me?

“We just passed a rest stop. You couldn’t have mentioned it earlier?”

“You can take this next exit. There’s a Starbucks a few blocks off the highway. I could use a cup of coffee too.”

“We’re not taking another detour.” He didn’t even bother looking at me when he said it. “We’ll stop at the next rest area.”

“I have to go
now,”
I said, wiggling a little. “You don’t want me to have an accident in your truck, do you?” As I said it, I looked in the backseat. It was immaculate; he obviously took care of it. The only thing there was a toolbox on the floor. “I’d feel terrible if I messed up your truck,” I added when he met my gaze, my tone as flat as possible.

“Try to be a big girl and hold it, Lily. We’re not stopping.”

“You’re being a jerk.”

He said nothing to me, but kept his eyes on the road, passing the exit, mumbling some words into his mouthpiece.

“Where is my new home going to be anyway?”

“I only know the details for tonight’s stop. We’ll know more about the final destination tomorrow.”

“Okay, then how about tonight? Where are we stopping?”

He turned to me and forced his lips to form a smile. “Holiday Inn.”

“Why are you being so mean? I’m the one whose life is over.”

He looked at me when I said it and there was one brief moment of emotion in his eyes. Something about that made me take notice, especially when in the next instant, it was gone.

He exhaled. “We’ll spend the night near Columbus, Ohio. From there, I really don’t know. I won’t until tomorrow morning when we head out again. It’s another few hours at least to get to our destination. Why don’t you close your eyes and get some rest?” he asked, sounding almost nice for a second.

I shook my head and looked forward. I couldn’t believe this was happening to me. I had a life, friends. I had everything. I looked out the passenger window to hide the tears that filled my eyes. I was not going to cry. Not in front of him.

At least our escort had lost the marked cars with their blaring sirens. Now three dark sedans followed us while another led the way up ahead.

* * *

“M
s. Cross.”

Someone shook my shoulder.

“Wake up, Ms. Cross. We’re here.”

I opened my eyes and sat up, my body stiff from the awkward position I’d apparently fallen asleep in.

“Get off me.” I shrugged off his touch, feeling disoriented and at an even greater disadvantage. I hadn’t meant to fall asleep.

He chuckled, opened his door and stepped out. I unbuckled my seatbelt and flipped the visor down, quickly checking my face in the mirror. My hair was tangled where I’d slept on it and my eyes were red. I pushed the visor closed and looked around. We were parked outside a Holiday Inn that looked like it hadn’t been renovated since the seventies. The lot was dark and as I watched, Lake picked up a rock and threw it at the lamp closest to the truck, effectively blacking out this part of the parking lot.