Captured by the Billionaire (Omnibus Edition) (9 page)

10

Leah had never been
in a helicopter before and this wasn’t how she pictured it. Adam had promised to take her after the baby came. She had been so excited, not only about the ride itself, but more because she didn’t even ask. It had been his idea, one of the first fun things he suggested that they do together without the baby. One of the first things that gave her hope that maybe he wanted something more too.

The sunrise was even more beautiful seen from this high up, with swirls of pink and purple grazing the turquoise waters below. They had been traveling all night and she was exhausted. It was only when she saw the ocean that she realized how far from home Thomas had taken her. Home. Now that she had been ripped away, it was so clear to her that’s where she had been.

A group of tiny islands emerged from the mist and Leah felt the helicopter descending. Her heart started to thud in her chest. Whatever was going to happen to her was about to happen. Somehow she had been able to push it out of her mind on the ride here, but now the uncertainty of her very near future was inescapable.

The island they were approaching looked so peaceful, like a postcard you get from a friend on vacation that makes you jealous. The palm trees were blowing around from the wind coming off the blades as the helicopter landed in a clearing. Leah didn’t see any buildings, in fact the island looked utterly deserted. Except for the men with huge machine guns surrounding the makeshift landing pad.

Running would be pointless because it would soon turn to swimming, something Leah wasn’t very good at when she wasn’t pregnant and tired. Thomas grabbed her by the arm and pulled her out of her seat, dragging her away from the helicopter. They were approaching a group of men, all of them eyeing her hungrily except for one. The suit he was wearing was out of place on the island. His hair was light blonde, nearly white, but his eyes were practically black.

“Congratulations, Thomas,” he said cheerfully, annunciating each syllable.

“I told you I could get her here.” Thomas pushed her towards the man in the suit. He grabbed her by the wrists and looked at her bloody hands that were finally starting to scab over.

“She was supposed to arrive undamaged.” The man glared at him.

“She did that herself, running into the jungle at night like a lunatic.” Thomas shrugged, a cruel smile on his face. “I kept the brutes you hired off of her. I thought that was the main thing.”

He nodded, looking into Leah’s eyes as if he was checking for something. “Well, I guess you’ve played your part.”

He pushed Leah aside, throwing her into the chest of the nearest armed man who grabbed her by the wrists and held them behind her back. A wave of dizziness and nausea washed over her and she nearly toppled over. The suited man pulled a revolver from the inside of his jacket and pointed it at Thomas. His eyes widened in surprise and before he could get a word out, the suited man pulled the trigger. The deafening sound left Leah’s ears ringing so loudly she didn’t even realize that she was screaming. A spot of red on Thomas’s stomach got bigger as he stood there in shock for a few seconds before collapsing to the perfect sand beneath him.

“Fuck you, Walker,” Thomas gasped, his face contorting in pain.

The suited man had already grabbed Leah and was walking her back towards the helicopter that had never stopped running. He let out an exasperated sigh when Thomas spoke. “I suppose I should have shot him in the head.”

A few of the other goons had been standing several yards away from where Thomas was twisting in agony, looking as if they were waiting for something the entire time. As soon as he dropped, they began kicking sand away with their feet, revealing a piece of plywood that had been hidden. From Leah’s vantage point in the ascending helicopter, she could see it had been concealing a large pit.

The brutes grabbed Thomas by the arms and started dragging him toward the grave. He struggled as best he could against them, only able to kick his feet. A bright red stain in the white sand trailed behind him, stopping at the hole when the kicked him in. She could barely hear him screaming as they started shoveling sand into the pit, burying him alive. The last thing she saw before they faded from view was a front end loader emerging from the bushes, it’s scoop full of the rest of the sand they would need to finish the job.

Leah was back in the air again so fast it was almost as if she hadn’t touched down, except for the memory of seeing Thomas murdered before her eyes. She looked over at Walker and watched him looking out the window. He seemed almost gleeful. What kind of person could do such a thing? She didn’t want to think about what it meant for her.

It was daylight now and there was nothing to be seen except dark blue water stretching for miles in any direction. It was hard to tell, but it seemed like they had been flying for hours and there hadn’t been a scrap of earth since the island. Finally, Leah saw a tiny gray spot on the horizon. It got bigger and bigger until she realized that it was a ship floating out in the middle of nothing. There was a large white circle with an orange X painted on the top of it.

The helicopter lowered itself gently onto the target and the engine cut off. Walker grabbed her by the arm and pulled her out, dragging her across the deck of the ship until they reached an iron door. Leah looked up at the sky and breathed in the salty sea air. It was refreshing, despite the taint of diesel fumes. The sun was high in the sky behind a thin layer of clouds. She wondered if she would ever get to be outside again as the iron door closed behind her.

The interior of the ship was very industrial, reminding her of an old submarine in a movie. She could hear voices echoing down the metal hallway. Walker led her past a doorway and she glanced inside to see a few men sitting around a table playing cards, their guns propped up against the wall behind them. Her pace quickened against her will as Walker hurried her away from the doorway before the men had a chance to look up.

They reached a doorway with two armed men standing on either side. Walker nodded and one of them opened the door. It slammed behind them and Leah found herself looking at a large bed. Walker tossed her down on it and her heart sank into her stomach. She clenched her fists as her eyes searched the room for some object she could use as a weapon.

She looked up and saw him standing in front of another door, turning a wheel until it opened. Her brow furrowed in confusion as he gestured for her to come towards him, but she was anxious to get off of his bed so she complied. He pushed her through the doorway and flicked on a bright light, illuminating a small windowless room a little smaller than her walk-in closet in her house in the jungle.

There was a thin mat in the corner. Walker grabbed her by the arm and threw her on it before skipping back to the doorway. Leah looked around to see Adam’s face surrounding her. Pictures of him smiling with his happy family covered every square inch of the walls. There were more of his pleasant looking wife and beautiful children than there were of him. It was like his entire other life was being shoved in her face.

“What are you going to do with me?” she asked, her voice cracking. She hadn’t realized how thirsty she was.

“You know, I’m still working on the specifics.” He sounded so nonchalant. “You’ll know when I do.”

She was about to speak again, ask him why he had done this, but he was out of the room before she could get the words out. The thick metal door to her prison slammed shut with a clang. Leah got up and looked around at the pictures.

The smile Adam wore in most of them didn’t look familiar to her. It was fake, plastic, in every picture except for the candid shots of him with his children when they were little. In those she recognized it immediately. Everything about him was so different he barely looked like the same person. The hair really stood out to her. Her Adam’s hair was always floppy, messy,
incredibly sexy. This man’s hair wasn’t quite as bad as a politician, but it was close.

Plastic smile, plastic hair. A plastic man beside his plastic family.

That sadness in his eyes got worse as he got older. Leah found herself squinting to look at the images and realized that the light was getting brighter. All of the sudden, loud heavy metal music started playing, making her jump in surprise. It was so abrasive, the singer growling words she couldn’t understand.

The light was so bright she had to close her eyes. She could see the veins in her eyelids that were too thin to block out the blinding whiteness. Her head was already starting to hurt as she made her way over to the mat to lie down. She couldn’t lay on her stomach, so she threw her arm over her eyes to block on the light. That only left one hand to cover her ear, so she flopped on her side and did her best to shut out the light and noise.

She was exhausted. Her stomach growled as she realized it had been over a day since she had any food or water. Just when she had gotten used to the music and felt herself drifting to sleep, it changed to gangster rap. It continued like that for hours, always changing just as it turned to white noise and promised her some sleep. Sometimes it wasn’t even music, just abrasive tones and alarms that made her temples throb and her stomach turn. Eventually she got so tired she passed out, drifting into a black unconsciousness where sound and light couldn’t follow. 

11

A break in.
She had said it so casually, as if it were an everyday occurrence that he shouldn’t be concerned about. Adam couldn’t believe how lax Madam Carlyle’s security was. Most of her clients were extremely wealthy, many of them politicians whose careers would be ruined if that information ever became public. Yet, the thief had virtually no resistance breaking into her office. In her defense, she offered, nothing like this had happened in the nearly 20 years she had been providing this service.

There was no excuse for the fact that she had not contacted Adam immediately after the burglary. Leah’s file was the only one taken, and it had been nearly a month ago. When she told him that he nearly strangled her on the spot. If he’d known, he could have done something to prevent this, and for that Madam Carlyle would surely pay. But destroying her reputation and her business would have to wait.

The plane trip back to Brazil was taking forever. He’d given Gus a heads up on his way to the airport, thinking it would be better for him to replace the security team before he got home. Adam might have flown into a rage if he saw the men whose incompetence allowed Leah to be captured, and he didn’t have time to give into his fury now.

As soon as they landed, Adam realized this was going to be a lot harder than he had anticipated. He had pictured returning to Brazil every day since he’d left, excited to get back to the life that had so much meaning to him now. Leah was supposed to be waiting for him only a few
hours drive through the countryside away. But now he knew that he was driving toward nothing.

His stomach churned when he got to the end of the road. He could see the tire tracks of the truck that had stolen Leah away as he walked up the wide pathway to their home. The forest was quiet under the blazing midday sun as he walked past the empty cabanas. The door of the doctor’s hut was hanging open and he didn’t need to look inside to know that she was gone. She had been close to leaving since she’d arrived.

The original security team had been replaced as Adam expected. Even though he knew they were different men, it would still be difficult to speak to them. The team leader stopped him as soon as he passed their door, but Adam wasn’t in the mood for a debriefing now. He wanted to be inside the house.

There was a stack of boxes in the living room. He looked at them curiously for a moment before realizing that they were full of things that Leah had ordered. For a moment he pictured the excited expression on her face while she opened them and the way she would have agonized over where to hang the artwork it had taken her months to decide on.

His feet felt like lead as he forced himself up the stairs. He knew that she wouldn’t be in the bedroom waiting for him, but he had to check to be sure, for this to feel real. The emptiness of the room hit him in the stomach. Adam collapsed on the unmade bed, burying his face into the soft pillows and breathing deeply. Bright light was coming through the windows, illuminating the long golden-red strands of hair on the pillow Leah had slept on less than two days ago. He picked one up but a soft breeze snatched it from his fingers.

She wasn’t here. He had known that logically the entire time, but it hadn’t hit him until just now. He let out a howl, half screaming, half sobbing, the mournful sound echoing off the walls they way Leah’s cries of ecstasy had when he made love to her here. His fists were clenched as he paced in the room, wanting to smash something to bits. But except for the bed, Leah had picked out everything in here and he couldn’t bear to break any reminder of her.

Something glinting in the corner of his eye drew his attention to Leah’s dresser. He walked over to her open jewelry box and immediately saw the large aquamarine ring he’d given her when they found out she was pregnant. One corner of his mouth rose slightly as he remembered what a hard time they had getting it off when they realized her hands were swelling to much to be able to wear it.

Adam went over to her closet and hesitated for a moment before walking inside. He had bought Leah a lot of clothing, not that she wore it very often. His eyes immediately locked onto a pale yellow sundress, one of his favorites. She’d worn it during the first ultrasound. The image of her smiling face in the doctor’s cabana was so clear in his mind. He also remembered her wearing this dress during the one and only fight they’d had shortly after breakfast that day.

Her hiking boots weren’t there. Thomas must have made her put them on before they’d left. Her favorite cargo pants were gone too. It almost made him feel better, the idea that she’d gotten dressed before they headed off to who knows where.

Adam composed himself and headed over to the security team’s cabana to see if there were any messages from Gustavo. There weren’t. The new guys seemed a lot more experienced than the first team, and Adam regretted giving Gus so many restrictions when he’d first brought Leah here. The idea of a hut full of testosterone so close to the house made him uneasy, but clearly the best alternative hadn’t been filling it with
sub par security.

There was a team of computer techs along with the goons. It was an odd mix to be sure, but one that hopefully had everything they needed to figure out where Leah was. Apparently there was also a team of geeks living in his office back in the States, something Adam was sure Patricia was simply thrilled about. He knew he should call her, but how could he explain this? An affair was one thing, but starting a new family was quite another.

He knew there was a chance that Thomas would use what he knew about Adam’s secret life to ruin Patricia politically, but that was just one more thing he could do nothing about. He had never felt so useless. Delegating responsibilities to well paid, highly skilled employees was something he was very good at, one of the many talents that had allowed him to go as far as he had in the business world. But at this moment he would trade all his financial knowledge for the ability to do whatever those busy computer nerds over there were doing.

He left the head guard with specific instructions to contact him immediately with any new information, no matter how seemingly insignificant. As he made his way back in the house, the smell of sizzling meat filled his nostrils and he realized how hungry he was.
Ramira was inside cooking and gestured for him to sit down. He couldn’t believe that she was still here after what happened to her. Adam was thankful for the loyalty beyond words, as well as for the food. He ate at the table, staring across at the empty seat where Leah should be sitting, wondering where she was and if she had eaten. If she was even still alive to eat.

He hadn’t been able to sleep since she’d been taken, fueled by adrenaline and anger. With his belly full and the unfamiliar feeling up helplessness gnawing at him, he realized there was no point in struggling to stay awake. Perhaps with a clear head, he’d remember something useful to tell Gus about Thomas. Adam headed up the stairs, unsure if he’d be able to sleep alone where Leah should be but not wanting to be anywhere else. Her lingering scent on the sheets was comfort and torture at the same time, but he finally drifted off on her pillow.