Kept (15 page)

In the meantime…“Come here,” he said to the girl with a feral smile. He slipped the sash from his robe and looped it around her neck. His cock hardened as he imagined it was Alyssa’s eyes pleading with him to let her live.

D
EREK ALMOST DIDN’T recognize the small figure exiting the diner, one of three buildings that constituted main street for the tiny coastal town about a hundred miles north of San Francisco.

Dressed in jeans, a bulky fisherman’s sweater, and a maroon Gore-Tex shell to ward off the icy, biting rain, Alyssa was so far from her usual dressed-to-the-nines glamorpuss self it was no wonder she’d managed to make it this far without anyone catching on.

He watched her from his car across the street, eyes narrowed on her as she made her way to her car. She wasn’t driving the gold Mercedes. Sometime after she’d slipped through the window—the fucking window, for Christ’s sake!—she’d gotten her hands on a navy-blue Ford Mustang.

As he watched her point the keys and unlock the car, the anger he’d been nursing for the last day and a half surged to a boil, hissing and seething and threatening to bubble over. He’d been operating on fury and adrenaline ever since Andy had shaken him awake on the couch to inform him Alyssa had flown the coop.

She’d slid down the fire escape while he’d watched
Nightline.
To say he felt like a fucking idiot was the understatement of the century.

And Harold Van Weldt hadn’t been any more pleased, earning Derek a major ass chewing not only from Van Weldt but also from Danny. Derek knew if he didn’t find Alyssa, like, yesterday, his ass was grass, and so was Gemini’s reputation.

Fortunately Alyssa’s feeble attempts to cover her tracks had been no match for modern technology. Yesterday he’d managed to slip a tracking device into Alyssa’s phone, so now pinpointing her exact location by a matter of yards was as easy as logging on to a Web site.

Yet something kept him from letting Harold in on that bit of intel. For reasons he still couldn’t decipher, he hadn’t followed her right away, curious what the little Alyssa dot was doing in a beach house outside of a town that was little more than a pin dot on a map.

The house, he’d learned, was the property of one Raj Gupta, a multimillionaire software mogul. Derek would have been jealous to see Alyssa running away to his house, had Gupta not also been very openly gay. Still, he wondered, since when was Alyssa friends with genius software developers?

Whatever she was doing there, she didn’t seem inclined to stray far, and after giving her a day to do whatever she needed to do, Derek knew he couldn’t put off going after her. She’d made him look like an ass long enough. Now it was time to pack up her bags and go on home like a good little girl.

Alyssa clicked the seatbelt and glanced warily in the rearview mirror as she backed out of the diner’s gravel parking area. Under the thick turtleneck collar of her sweater, her hair prickled on her neck, and she got that strange pulling sensation along her shoulders that told her she was being watched.

She couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary, and the few residents braving blustering coastal weather didn’t give her a second glance.

She flicked on the wipers and pulled out onto the rain-
slicked highway, kicking herself for venturing into town. She didn’t think anyone in the diner had recognized her. The broad-shouldered, flannel-clad woman who had waited on her had dismissed her as a crazy tourist right off the bat.

“Not the best time of year to visit,” she’d said, tilting her chin to the rain as she’d handed Alyssa a to-go cup of thick, black coffee. “Most people come in summer or spring.”

“I like it now,” Alyssa had replied. “It’s quieter.”

A couple loggers had given her a once-over as she’d moved to the door, looking not at her but through her. But as soon as she’d stepped out into the downpour, she couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling she was being watched.

She gradually increased her speed, and the tires of the borrowed Mustang hugged the slick pavement as she took a sharp curve. No one was behind her, she assured herself as she glanced in the rearview and saw nothing. Still, she shifted the car into fourth and increased her pressure on the gas, eager to get back to the house and behind a heavy-locked door.

She smoothly guided the car up over a rise and around another curve. Headlights appeared in the rearview mirror, and her heart leaped to her throat. Big, silver, like an unmarked police car, it loomed behind her.

It’s nothing. Lots of people drive on this road.

She pushed the Mustang harder, gripping the wheel with one hand as she downshifted with the other to navigate a sharp turn. The lights disappeared, and her heart rate slowed. She gave another glance in the mirror to make sure the big silver car was nowhere in sight as she turned into the cypress-lined lane that led to Raj’s beach house.

She parked under the wood-shingled carport and pulled the hood of her shell up over her head. As she swung her legs out of the car, she could hear the roar of an engine over the steady drum of the rain.

It was the big silver car, headed straight for her. And she
didn’t feel an ounce of relief when she saw Derek’s angry face behind the wheel.

Derek pulled the Marauder up beside the Mustang, skidding to a stop in the gravel and mud. He jumped out of the car, impervious to the rain as he grabbed Alyssa’s arm.

“Watch it!” she yelled as coffee spurted through the lid on her coffee.

“What the fuck are you thinking, driving like that in weather like this? You trying to kill yourself?” Truth be told, if it had been anyone but Alyssa, he would have admired the way she’d put the Mustang through its paces and negotiated the twisty coastal highway.

She glared at him through the sheets of rain. “I wouldn’t have had to drive so fast if you hadn’t been riding my ass.” She ducked around him to look at his car. “That’s not your car. What, did you rip off a cop?”

“I like the Marauder for long drives. More leg room.” Plus, other drivers tended, like Alyssa, to mistake it for an unmarked police car, and hence got the fuck out of his way. “What the fuck were you thinking, taking off like that?”

“I don’t owe you an explanation,” she said, shoulders squared, chin tilted up stubbornly. The effect was ruined by her nearly blue lips and the subtle quaking under her jacket.

He shook his head and steered her toward the wooden staircase that led up to the front door. “Let’s get inside. You look like a drowned rat.”

She gave an offended huff but let him guide her to the door of the rambling wood shingle house that sat perched on a bluff overlooking the churning Pacific.

She unlocked the door and shucked off her jacket. She dropped it in a pile on the floor before toeing off her shoes. Derek grabbed it off the floor and hung it on a hook to dry before following her into the house. “So, tell me, what the hell were you thinking?”

“I’m going crazy, okay? I needed to get away.”

“Go to a spa like everyone else,” he said flatly. “Or, better yet, go to rehab.”

“I don’t need rehab,” Alyssa said through clenched teeth as she tossed the house keys on the coffee table. “You have no idea what it’s like. Constantly being watched. Having the press report your every move, printing stories that you’re a drugged-out skank.”

Derek felt his anger soften at the slight trembling in her voice and tried to restore his anger’s edge, reminding himself of how she’d made him look like a fool.

She padded across the carpeted floor of the great room to a set of sliding glass doors. She pulled back the curtains, filling the room with feeble gray light. Derek did a quick scan of the house. It was not the kind of place he would have expected Alyssa to choose as a retreat. Though large, with a spectacular view of the waves crashing through the sliders, the furniture and fixtures were dated. It was comfortable but far from the luxury digs he would have expected.

“Not to mention someone is slipping me drugs and making sure I make an ass of myself in public.” She shot him a glare. “Not that anyone believes me, of course.”

His jaw tightened, wishing she would do them all a favor and admit the truth. As cover stories went, someone slipping her drugs without her knowledge was about as lame as you could get.

Alyssa tossed her cell phone on the kitchen counter and turned to face him, her arms folded across her chest. “I just needed a few days to breathe, you know? Get away from being watched and monitored and commented on. Try to figure out why someone would want to drug me,” she said with a pointed look. “Can you understand that?”

Her eyes were wide and pleading. Derek had to admit to himself, however begrudgingly, that he could see what she was talking about. Still, she’d brought this on herself. “You
can’t spend your adult life courting attention and expect it to turn off whenever you want,” he said bluntly.

Her full mouth pulled into a tight line. “How did you find me so fast?”

Derek nodded at her phone. “GPS locater. I slipped it in yesterday. Kinda like I knew you’d try something like this.”

Her eyes flashed with annoyance. “Isn’t that illegal?”

Derek shrugged. “Your uncle demanded I keep close tabs on you. I do whatever’s necessary to get the job done.”

As quick as it had appeared, her annoyance was gone. She sat down heavily on one of the kitchen chairs, her entire body slumping with defeat. “I suppose you called him as soon as you figured out where I went.”

“I haven’t told him yet.” And he had yet to come up with an answer why.

She looked up at him, hope glimmering in her face. “I don’t suppose there’s any way you could not tell him. Just for a couple more days.” She folded her hands and brought them to her chest, almost as if in prayer. “Please,” she said. “Just for a couple days. After everything that’s happened, I need some time to get my head together.”

He swallowed uncomfortably, stunned at how tempted he was to give in. When he didn’t answer, she stood up from her chair and stood in front of him. “Please,” she said softly and took one of his hands in both of hers. The heat of her palms jolted through him. His skin warmed under her touch, the heat spreading through him as he looked down into her face. “Hold my uncle off for a little longer, and I swear I’ll come home day after tomorrow.”

He was struck by how vulnerable she looked, her eyes old and tired in her otherwise youthful face, pleading with him to give her a reprieve.

He was sinking. Sucked into the vortex of those big green eyes. He knew what he needed to do. She was a job. A task to perform. A person he was hired to keep out of trouble,
even if it meant going against her wishes. He’d already compromised himself and his company by waiting this long to come after her.

Yet he couldn’t bring himself to say no.

“Okay, but just until day after tomorrow.” He couldn’t believe the words actually passed his lips, even when her eyes lit up with delight and relief.

She grabbed him in an enthusiastic hug. “Thank you! Thank you! I can even meet up with you on my way home so it really looks like you caught me.”

Derek tried not to notice how good her rain-damp hair smelled when it brushed against his face or the softness of her tits pressing through the thick knit of her sweater. Fuck, what had he gotten himself into? “I’m not going anywhere.”

Alyssa stiffened, released her hold on his shoulders, and took a step back. “Why would you want to stay?”

“Want has nothing to do with it,” he said. “But I’ll be damned if I’m going to let you sneak off again.”

“I won’t! I promise I’ll be back on Thursday, but you can’t expect me to relax with you here.”

“It’s a big house. Ignore me.” But he could feel the warmth of her small, tense body, even from several feet away. Even in a house this size, he wouldn’t be able to ignore her.

She arched a light brown eyebrow at him. “You really think that’s possible?” Her gaze slid down his body. Sexual heat poured from it like a caress, and he felt it the same as if she’d reached out and stroked his cock. “Suit yourself,” she said, straightening to her full height and turning away. He watched, mesmerized, as the dim gray light from the window haloed her. He couldn’t see a single curve of her small body through her bulky outfit. But wool and canvas had never looked so sexy.

The reality of what he’d agreed to started to sink in. Two days alone with Alyssa. Alone in an isolated beach house,
with no one around to see what they were up to. Alone with a spoiled woman child who twisted him up in knots.

Fucking idiot.
Screw the deal. He should load her in the car and haul her ass back home, no matter what he’d agreed to.

But he was a man of his word. He’d given her two days reprieve. Surely he could control himself for that long, no matter how bad she got to him.

She wasn’t there.
Martin Fish stood on the corner across the street from Alyssa’s house, glaring as the door closed behind a mousy brunette. Even though he couldn’t make out her features, he knew the jean-clad butt was about two sizes too wide to belong to Alyssa.

His head pounded, and his vision blurred. Fuck, he needed a bed. And a drink. A woman in a trench coat tapped by on high heels, giving him a wary look and a wide berth as she passed.

He didn’t give a fuck that he looked like a degenerate, having come straight from the airport to Alyssa’s house. He didn’t care about his wrinkled clothes or the jungle stink that still clung to him. He just wanted to get to Alyssa.

But she wasn’t fucking there
. He’d heard the photographers lining the sidewalk outside her house say they hadn’t seen her since yesterday, not even a glimpse of her moving around the apartment. Disappointment had flooded through him, combining with fatigue to make him slump to the sidewalk. Just in case, Martin had hung around for hours, waiting for her to appear so he could seize an opportunity to talk to her. But the only person he’d seen going in or out was the fat ass.

He rubbed at his tired, gritty eyes, and as he turned, he caught his reflection in a window. Lean and gaunt in his jeans and canvas jacket. Hair lank and flattened to his head with rain. He looked dirty and disreputable, like a homeless person.

He realized, in a jolt of clarity, how close he’d been to fucking this all up. Did he really think he could get past her entourage and security to get to her? There was an article this morning about her uncle hiring some bodyguard to watch her. Martin wasn’t thinking right. No way anyone would let him get close.