License to Love (40 page)

She didn’t have much to go on here. Jerry made sure to keep
her away from the Holloway family, and he never shared any details about his
work. Though she’d always had the urge, she’d been afraid to dig into the
Holloway’s affairs. Alexander visited her when Channel Eleven News first hired
her. He told her to never, under any circumstances, share any information about
Keith Holloway, his hotel chain, his restaurants, or her father’s job.
Remembering the strange conversation chilled her, and she shivered.

“Dad,” she whispered. He pulled his head up to look at her.
“What are they talking about out there? What’s happening?”

She hoped they were calling the police, even if it was to
report her.

The door opened and Keith stepped in. “Young lady, get up.”

Jerry held his hand out to her, keeping her in her seat. He
stood and turned around. “Please let her leave. I don’t want her involved in
this. I’ll do whatever I need to if she can leave.”

“Dad!”

He held his hand out to silence her.

Cora saw Alexander, standing in the doorway behind Keith,
with that ever present, annoying smug smile on his face.

“Jerry,” Keith said, before stopping to sigh. It was a long
pause. “I wanted to keep things simple, but this has gotten too complicated
already. I think it’ll help things move along if Cora stays with us.”

Cora saw the life fall from her father’s face as he stumbled
against the back of his chair. She sat still, looking between the three
different men, and at that point she really felt afraid. 

Keith looked down into her bewildered face. “My dear, it
looks like you’ll be staying. Your father has a few things to work out.”

Jerry seemed to have no say in the matter. Alexander took
her by the arm again and pulled her back into the hallway. “Dad!”

Alexander yanked her against his chest, trapping both of her
arms.

“If you’ll both cooperate, neither of you has anything to
worry about,” Keith said. He was standing in the doorway so Jerry and Cora
could both hear him. “Miss Evans, all you have to do is sit tight, be a good
girl, and wait. Jerry, you just have to get my money back.”

Alexander tightened his grip on her arms.

“You can’t force me to go anywhere with you.” She wrestled
back and forth, trying to kick his shins. He spun her around and brought her
face right up against his.

The shuffling of footsteps coming down the hallway behind
them brought a stop to Alexander’s angry words.

“Hey!” The voice sounded familiar. “What’s going on?”

She wiggled loose enough to turn her head. Cora’s shocked
stare stopped Nick a few strides away from them.
He knew about this
.
Cora forced her mouth shut and looked away from him.
The lying piece of
crap!

Keith answered Nick’s question. “You apparently didn’t do a
good job of distracting her. Ever heard of dinner and a movie?”

“Where are you going with her?” Nick demanded.

Keith looked at Alexander and held up a hand. “Hang tight
for a minute.” He jerked his head, signaling for Nick to follow him into the
study. The door snapped shut and she was left in the darkened hallway with
Alexander’s hands wrapped around her arms again.

Low, rushed voices poured out from underneath the study
door, but Cora couldn’t understand what they said. They sounded more like angry
animals than people. She jerked when Jerry spoke, pleading for them to release
her. Keith barked at Jerry while Nick tried to cut him off.

“Not Alexander!” She thought Nick was speaking. “I’ll do it.
You have to let me do that for Jerry.” His voice softened and she got the
feeling he was talking to her dad, maybe reassuring him.

A minute passed with Alexander’s fingers gripping harder and
harder around her arms. As calmly as she could, she said, “You’re hurting me.”

She almost cried when she heard how scared her voice
sounded. His grip loosened but he still pulled her back against him. His breath
fell on her neck. 

She turned her head the other way and tried to keep her
breathing under control and her heart rate somewhat normal, so she could think.
Without a weapon, she just had her brain to get her out of this.

Nick left the study and backtracked down the hall while
stealing only a short glance at Cora. It had been a meaningful glance, that
said something, but she had no idea what. She tried not to watch him go.

Keith emerged and announced to Alexander, “He’s taking her
up.” Alexander’s hands tightened on her arms again. Before he had a chance to
argue, Keith continued, “I need you here. You can check on them as soon as
possible.”

Nick strode around the corner with a stuffed duffle bag and
stopped in front of Alexander. He didn’t need words to explain what he wanted.

She felt like a piece of meat, and in the least flattering
way.

With a penetrating stare at Nick, Alexander let go of Cora’s
arm and took a step back. Cora looked at the closed study door, wishing she
could see her father. Then she gave Nick the coldest look she could manage.
Keith stood watching her, his cold eyes surrounded by the harsh, lined face of
a lifetime smoker.

With strained and false control, Cora sighed and crossed her
arms. She prayed they didn’t see how small she felt, or how her hands trembled.
The men around her seemed too large and threatening, and she knew they carried
guns holstered under their suit jackets.

Leaning next to Nick’s ear, Keith said, “This is the last
chance you get to redeem yourself.”

Redeem himself?
She wondered about Nick, but then he
glanced her way. She turned her head. Alexander stood by the study door, his
arms crossed and his robotic eyes watching them.

Thank Heaven Keith didn’t send her with Alexander. Nick,
even if he was a liar, couldn’t be as evil and scary as that creep. If she told
the truth, however, she knew her instincts on this weren’t working properly.
She didn’t know what she thought of Nick.

“I want to see my dad.” She was able to control her voice
level that time.

Keith’s face didn’t soften one bit. “You just did. Nick, you
should be on your way.”

The way he looked at Nick seemed like a dare. There was the
tiniest of pauses. 

“Let’s get going then.” Nick took her arm and led her
through the house and into the garage. He took care not to hurt her. Still, she
seethed that he was telling her what to do. As soon as the door shut behind
Nick, she whipped around and tried to throw her hand across his face with all
her strength.

He caught her wrist.

“We’ll take the red Mustang over there.”

She didn’t look. “Will Jerry be safe?”

“I’ve done all I can for him.” Nick’s strange reply didn’t
answer the question. “He wants me to keep you safe and get you away from Keith
and Alexander.”

Jerry wanted Nick’s help? She felt tears forming in her
eyes. “How could you just leave him in there with them?”

He tried to avoid her gaze at first. Sighing, he stopped and
looked her in the eye to whisper, “This is the best I can do to keep you both
safe. We have to get you out of here,
now.
” 

An icy chill ran through her at his words, followed by an
involuntary shiver at the piercing determination in his eyes. She stepped back,
suddenly lost in what was happening.
How
could this be happening?

Nick led her by one shoulder and turned her around, edging
her to the vehicles.

“My car.” Cora stopped even as he nudged her forward. “Why
is my car in your garage?”

Her tiny red Miata was parked on the other side of several
huge SUVs. Someone had moved it inside and put the top down. Somehow that took
her anger level over the top.

“Keith’s garage,” Nick corrected. “Alexander must have moved
it in here.”

Cora shuddered again as the realization hit her. Alexander
had probably watched her park her car and sneak across the lawn to the house.
Nick seemed to be on the same line of thinking.

“He might have followed me to the restaurant. It’s a safe
assumption to say he planned for you to end up here.”

She stared at the cement floor and wished she could slip
right through it, away from Nick and away from this mess. Nick’s scent filled
her nose; her stomach did a small flip. When she glanced at his face, she
thought she saw concern there. However, she didn’t plan on trusting anyone who
worked for Keith Holloway. The words ‘
how could you’
almost came out,
but saying that would show him that she felt stabbed in the back. That didn’t
make any sense. Why would she feel betrayed after one short, mysterious yet
flirty, meeting? 

Nick opened the passenger door of his Mustang for her, but
Cora stopped short. The air felt full of static, ready to shock them at any
second. They both held their ground.

“Cora.” He stopped to grind his jaw. “I’m getting you out of
this house to keep you safe, and I’m doing what they say for now to keep your
dad alive. You’re leaving, and it’s either with me or Alexander.”

Each word came out slowly, like he was trying to control his
temper. Or maybe panic?

Cora cast another look toward the door leading inside. “I
want to know where Jerry will be.”

“Keith won’t tell me that.” Nick’s voice grew quiet,
ensuring no one in the house could hear him.

So they don’t trust him, she thought, yet Keith gave him the
job of watching her. That didn’t make a lot of sense. Something seemed strange
about Nick’s involvement in all of this.

She glanced down at her skirt and heels. “I have a bag of
extra clothes in my car, can I at least get it?”

“I’ll do it.” He watched her the entire time he walked to
car and got her bag. “Now if you don’t get in, I have a feeling Alexander will
soon come out to take care of things.” He nodded toward a security camera
mounted in the corner. He ushered her into his own vehicle, filled with the
scent of new leather and fresh pine. Nick walked around and slid behind the
wheel, but he paused with his hand holding the key in the ignition. While he
stared at the wheel, Cora could see him wrestling inside.

“This feels like the worst thing I’ve ever done,” she said.
“I shouldn’t leave him there alone.”

His resolve cracked. She saw it, clear as day, in his eyes.

“Cora… this is the worst thing I’ve ever done too, but if we
don’t do things Keith’s way, he’ll kill your father.”

“No…”
It was more of a breath than a word. She stared
at him blankly as he leaned over and grabbed her buckle. She didn’t move as he
clicked it in.

The car engine roared in the garage before the door opened
and Nick pulled out. She turned her head to see the house, and that one lit
window in the dark.
It’s me and you. I’ll help you somehow, Dad.

Nick’s words registered now, that her dad would be leaving.
How could Jerry find money that he didn’t steal? She tried to think of any way
she could get away from Nick and get help, if she could do it before he called
Keith.
 

“I’m sorry they involved you,” he said, a mile or so down
the road. Thankfully he didn’t add that she should have minded her own business
and stayed away from the house. Nick didn’t say a word about her following him.
She didn’t want to hear that she’d put herself in harm’s way by snooping around
the Holloway property either. 

“I want to take you somewhere else, somewhere safe, but
that’s Alexander’s car half a block back.”

She turned to look before she realized that even that might
be dangerous. She noticed Nick was taking back roads and alleys, cutting
through town. She watched for road signs but didn’t see any.

“Where are you taking me?”

“There’s a tiny cabin up in the mountains,” he answered
while glancing in the rear view mirror at Alexander’s head lights. “Please
don’t be scared, I promise I won’t hurt you.”

Her rattled nerves didn’t need this. “Then why are you
driving me out to a secluded cabin?” While speaking, she slid her arm down the
armrest, feeling for a lock button. There didn’t seem to be one. She glanced at
the door, saw the controls down lower, and slammed her hand into them.

Nothing happened. Neither button moved the window either
way.

Nick glanced at her hand. “Alexander disables the locks and
windows on all the passenger doors. He altered my car a few days ago too.”

Tears stung the inside of her eyelids. Mortified, she rubbed
her face, hoping he wouldn’t notice. It seemed likely he was playing both
sides, acting like he wanted to help her even as he kidnapped her. Since he
ignored her previous question, she asked, “Do you believe Jerry stole from
Keith?”

“No, I don’t.”

He didn’t?
“Then why are you helping him?”

“I’m a pawn in this, too. You’ve been thrown into this
without any say, I’ll give you that. I got involved on my own accord, but I had
to.”

A new and bigger wave of panic hit. They were leaving the
city on some kind of cutoff road that didn’t have a sign she could read. She
looked out the window, or tried to look like she was staring outside, while she
considered the best way to break it. How would she break the window and jump
out without hurting herself?

“Who was the man in the study with my father?”

“The oversized teenager is Terrance Holloway, taking his
rightful family place, fulfilling his duty, proud to be a Holloway.” 

Now where did that come from? She saw another angle to this
story: Nick was trying to fit into the Holloways for some reason, but he was
bitter about it. She knew better than to ask, but decided to get there by
another route and ask questions about the other people involved.

“What exactly does Alexander Pierce do for Keith?”

“You know Alexander?” Nick questioned, waited in vain for an
answer, and said, “He’s a white-collar criminal who somehow made a connection
with Keith. Guess he saw an opportunity for some job security. He screens who
gets hired, takes care of surveillance at the warehouses, and handles different
problems that come up. He even does a little press.” Nick glanced over and saw
her roll her eyes.