Obsession and Surrender (The Billionaire's Temptation Book 7) (11 page)

Chapter 21

Whoever had renovated Wyatt’s place had done an amazing job when it came to picking out the shower fixtures. Once she’d rinsed the shampoo out of her hair, Lilly let the hot water pound onto her shoulders and back, hoping Keane would hurry up and get back so he could join her while she was still naked.

She couldn’t help but linger. Long, hot showers were definitely a favorite of hers, and they did wonders for helping her with her stories. It seemed like showers and driving around town helped to clear her head so the ideas flowed—and if she was having any problems with her stories, that’s when she usually figured things out.

Although she’d just finished the manuscript she’d been working on, she was already figuring out the storyline for the next novel in her series. Her hero would be a bad boy biker and the heroine would be a far too serious and determined law student working her way through school at the local bar. They could get into
all sorts
of fun and trouble.

She heard the shower door open behind her, and turned to face Keane with a smile. “I was hoping you’d join me.”

Except that it wasn’t Keane
. Lilly’s smile died even as her survival instincts kicked in.

Tall and far too strong, the intruder grabbed her as she screamed and tried to fight him off. He pulled her to him as she struggled to get away from him, her footing slippery in the shower. He held her naked body against him as she screamed herself raw and tried to slip out of his grasp, elbowing him so he’d let her go.

She couldn’t let this happen. Not again. She fought him with all her might, panic and adrenaline flooding her veins, her memories of Dylan mixing with the present, as her fear overtook her while spurring her on to keep fighting.

With her struggles, she barely felt the pinch to her neck. But she did feel the burn of something entering her system…and then…the darkness…closing in…her body going limp as she was swallowed by the darkness…

***

Lilly’s head swam against the inky blackness as she fought to free herself of the sleep that wanted to pull her back under. She came to with a startled start, her heart galloping inside her chest with a surge of adrenaline, remembering that she had to fight. She fought to get free, her struggles futile as her head continued to swim, even as she realized that her hands were somehow bound with some form of restraints. Her eyes popped open, plunging her back into her nightmare as she realized that she was no longer in Wyatt’s loft—and she was no longer safe.

“You’re awake… That makes me so very happy.” The man, her captor—
Sirius
—gave her a smile, though his eyes held a glint of crazy excitement that did nothing to reassure her that all would be well. He was sitting next to her on the edge of the mattress, her handcuffed hands preventing her from getting away, though as she struggled, the blanket he’d covered her with shifted enough to reveal that she was still naked. “I’m sorry that we’ve gotten off to such a rocky start. I did try to get in touch with you after you stopped answering my emails, but that didn’t seem to work. None of that matters now that we’re no longer apart. And…I’m sure that with time you’ll see that this is a good thing, that we’re perfect together. As I’m sure you know by now, I’m your biggest fan.”

Her eyes stung with tears and her body trembled with the tension of her fear, even as she tried to stay calm. Where the hell was she? It appeared she was in the bedroom of an older home. A cottage maybe? But how long had she been out—and what the fuck had he done to her while she’d been unconscious?

Now, however, was not the time to lose her wits and start panicking. She had to stay calm…had to convince him that he’d made a mistake—and she had to get the hell out of there.

Keane
… Her heart ached at the mere thought of him. He’d be so worried about her…or had he come home when Sirius was still there and Sirius had hurt him to get away with her? The thought of Keane coming to harm nearly did her in as she tried her best to hold it together.

“If you’re a fan of my writing, then why are you doing this to me? Please…
just let me go
. I promise not to press charges if you just return me safely.” At this point, she’d tell him anything if it meant she could get away from him.

The scary part was that he looked so…
normal
. Tall, lean, handsome enough, albeit with a somewhat forgettable face, grey eyes and sandy brown hair. He couldn’t have been much older than she was. He looked like he could be
any
guy—not some psychotic stalker.

“I can’t let you go. Not when we finally have a chance to be together. Don’t you see that we’re meant to be, Piper—or should I say Lilly?” Taking a deep breath, as if fighting to stay in control of his actions, Sirius brushed her hair from her face, his touch lingering as she tried to pull away, a shiver of repulsion and fear racing through her. “In a way, this is perfect. It’s just like Jax and Erin. At first, she wants nothing to do with him, but eventually she realizes that he’s the only one for her. Their love is meant to be. And just like that, I know you’ll come around, even if it takes time. I’ll make you love me, Lilly.”

“Did Dylan put you up to this?” He had to be the one behind this whole thing. It wasn’t like there were a whole lot of guys who browsed the romance shelves. “Is that why you’ve taken me? So he can get some sort of sick and twisted pleasure by living vicariously through you?”

“
No, Lilly…
Not at all. Don’t you see that all this…all I’ve done…is because I love you—and I need you to give our love a chance. Dylan was never worthy of you. He told me what he did…bragged about it, bragged about how he’d fucked you, made you scream, and how you were now a famous author.” His jaw tightened with a visible anger. “But he wasn’t worthy… Nothing more than a dumb fucking criminal I got stuck sharing a cell with.”

So he’d been in prison already. That couldn’t be good. And though Sirius knew Dylan, at least Dylan hadn’t sent him to find her. Clearly, the guy was delusional if he thought they were like the characters in her books, but the fact that he didn’t like Dylan and what he’d done to her, at the very least, left her feeling hopeful that she wouldn’t have to go through the same nightmare Dylan put her through. “Is that how you found out about my books? Through Dylan?”

“I’d like to think it was fate, Princess.”
Princess
… Jax’s nickname for Erin. Fuck…he really had gone off the deep end. Yet, maybe she could figure out a way to use it to her advantage—and at least Dylan wasn’t directly involved, by some small miracle. “But yes…it was through him that I got to know you. The more Dylan spoke of you, the more curious I got. Once I managed to get my hands on your books…I finally felt whole, like I’d found what I’d been looking for my entire life. It was as if you were speaking directly to me. I was Jax—and you were my gorgeous Erin.”

“But you can’t be Jax. Because Jax would never kidnap Erin.
He’d never hurt her
—he’d never want her to be scared of him. He’d protect her and keep her safe.” She thought of Keane once more, her heart hammering inside her chest. How long had she been drugged for? And where the hell was she? Keane must know by now that she was missing. He must be looking for her, but how the hell would he find her?

Sirius shook his head, his lips pursed together. “All this is exactly for that reason, Lilly.
I am protecting you
. I’m keeping you safe from those men you’ve been with. Those men who don’t—”

“Let me stop you right there, because you’re the one who’s taken me against my will, and handcuffed me to the bed naked. And if you care about someone, that’s not what you do. You don’t kidnap them and scare them to death. You don’t stalk them.” She might still be scared, but she was pissed off too. And she had every right to that anger. “You need to uncuff me.
Now.
And you need to let me go.”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t do that.”

Chapter 22

Keane set their food down on the kitchen counter, surprised Lilly wasn’t already waiting for him, though he knew his girl certainly liked her hot showers. She would happily stay under the pounding spray until the water ran cold.

He called out to her, as he started heading toward their room. “
Lil
…I’m back. Food’s getting cold.”

She wasn’t in the room, but he could still hear the shower running, so he knocked on the bathroom door. “Hey, baby girl…wrap it up in there.”

Nothing. He didn’t bother waiting, barging into the bathroom and finding it empty as panic gripped him.
“Fuck!”

There was water all over the floor and the bath mats were a mess. There’d either been a struggle or someone had dragged her, disrupting the mats. Not that it mattered.
She was gone
.

He didn’t waste any time looking around the loft, knowing that he wouldn’t find her. Sirius already had her. But how? How the fuck did he get to her? Did he pick the lock? Override the security code? Not that it mattered. That fucking bastard had kidnapped her and stolen her away. She was on her own, scared and vulnerable, and at a madman’s mercy.

He tried calling her phone—and heard it ring over by the nightstand.
What the fuck was the Irish version of 9-1-1?
Would the cops even take her abduction seriously or would they make him wait a given amount of time before bothering to look for her?

9-9-9
. That was the number he needed. He called and gave them the information he had: Wyatt’s address, told them about Lilly missing, how she had a stalker who’d followed them over from the States, how they’d come here to try to escape him—and he gave them Sirius’s name. They were sending someone to take a statement, but it already felt like too much time had passed.
Fuck
.

Pacing the floor, his nerves jagged and raw, he hung up with the police and got ready to call Wyatt—when he thought twice about it. Wyatt had a lot on his plate, and at this point, Keane still had to wait for the cops to show up. There was little Wyatt could do to help at the moment, so Keane would leave it for a little while, at any rate.

Hadley
…hopefully she could find something out. He placed the call, trying not to fucking lose it, trying not to put his fist through a wall. She answered the phone immediately, and listened to him as he told her everything he knew in a panicked ramble. “I know…stay calm. Easier said than done. Yeah, I’ll have the cops call you. I appreciate it…I can have a car waiting for you at the airport.”

Hadley was going to fly in to help hands-on, while her team tried to circle in on Sirius’s location. Maybe see if he’d rented any vehicles, or homes, or if he’d booked a room somewhere. With him being overseas, he might make mistakes, might have less options available to him, since he was away from what was familiar.

Keane tried to think of what he could do next, and was at a loss, his mind racing and refusing to settle. He felt so helpless, and it was killing him. He didn’t even know where to start looking for her. Didn’t even know how the fuck that bastard had managed to take her away. Sirius’s information—he quickly jotted down everything he knew about the fucking bastard, so the cops would have it. He couldn’t afford any delays, couldn’t afford any mistakes.

By the time the two cops showed up, he was climbing the fucking walls with worry. There were two of them, a man and woman, both looking serious. The woman made the introductions and seemed to be the one in charge. “Name’s Burke, and this is Ward. May we come in?”

He let them in and showed the cops to the living room. Ward wandered about the room, while Burke took a seat and urged him to do the same, since he was pacing the floor. “I’d gone down the road to get us fish and chips and when I returned, she was gone. They took longer than I’d hoped to get the food cooked, but even then, she was only left alone for about forty minutes.”

“And you said she has a stalker? And there’s a good chance he—
is it a man?
—managed to track you here from overseas?” Burke pulled out her notepad and jotted down some notes, glancing over at her partner, as he checked the windows and then continued wandering around the room.

“She’s a well-known author, and though she writes under a pen name, the guy found out her real name and where she lives. He was in her home, and it was too risky for her to stay there, so she moved in with me. But when he eventually tracked her to my place, we decided to come here to Dublin to stay with my brother.” He ran a rough hand through his hair, wondering what he could have done differently to keep her safe.

“And your relationship—you’re a couple?” When he nodded, she continued. “Have you been together long?”

“Yes—and no. We’d been together in the past, and recently got back together. But I’m not the one you need to be looking at. Her stalker is obsessed with her. His name’s Ash Sullivan, although he also goes by the name Sirius. He’s some sort of computer whiz and has managed to cover his tracks fairly well.”

Keane handed the cop Hadley’s business card and the paper with the info he’d jotted down on Sirius. He then forced himself to take a deep breath, trying to calm himself so he could keep a clear head, so he could focus on the task. “I’ve been working with a security company to try to track him down—that’s everything I have on him so far. The security company might have more details, but hopefully this will be enough to get you started. And spare no expense. I’ll pay for whatever you need, whatever it takes, to make sure we find Lilly safe and sound.”

Burke had him run through the details of the evening, and he explained how he’d returned to find the shower still running, the rugs messed up, and Lilly gone. While they talked, Ward went through the rest of the home and then returned to join them. “There doesn’t appear to be any visible point of entry. You said the security system was turned on?”

Bastard… He must have found a way to override it. “Yeah, I know for a fact that it was turned on, because I waited to hear the beep of the alarm setting. But the guy’s good with computers, some sort of hacker…”

“It could be simpler than that. The front door is fine, but the back door has plenty of glass surrounding it—and the security keypad is visible from certain angles. No dead bolts on the back door either. If this guy’s been watching the house, then there’s a good chance he saw one of you punch in the code when you used that door, and then just picked the lock open.”

“Fucking hell…” Something so stupidly simple. They hadn’t even thought of it, and since Wyatt’s car was usually parked back there, it was definitely an entrance that got a bit of use. “You need to help me find her. She’s in danger. You have to do something.”

“We’re going to do all we can.”

***

After several attempts to contact Wyatt, Keane opted to just go to the club to let his brother know what was going on, especially since he was going to fucking lose it if he was forced to just wait at the loft alone. He should have never left Lilly alone. Not for a goddamned fucking minute. And he should have done more…gotten her a security detail…some sort of panic button…a GPS tracker.
Fuck!

Luckily, Keane knew one of the managers at the front of the club, and was immediately told to go through and that Wyatt could be found in his office at the back of the club and up the stairs. In the state Keane was in, he barely noticed the thumping of the music or the scantily clad attendees as he found his way to the stairs and took them up to Wyatt’s office. He quickly knocked, and then went to let himself in, too impatient to wait, but found it locked. He pounded again, fighting the urge to kick the door in, just to try to vent some of his anger—when it opened.

Wyatt stepped out into the hall, and pulled the door closed behind him. Keane immediately knew that something was most definitely wrong despite the tense smile on Wyatt’s face, which was fooling no one. “Hey. Glad you could make it. I’m just wrapping up some business, but I can meet you guys downstairs in the executive lounge. Where’s Lilly? Is she downstairs?”

“No. Sirius has her.
He’s fucking taken her
, Wyatt. I spoke with the police and they’re going to check security cameras and try to find him, find where he’s taken her, but fuck…I can’t just sit there and do nothing.” It was killing him. The thought of losing Lilly was doing him in, though worse still was imagining what that fucking bastard might be doing to her.

“Fuck, Keane…” Wyatt shook his head and glanced over his shoulder at his office. “Go home, and as soon as I’m able, I’ll head over.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Something was definitely up. “What the hell’s going on, Wyatt?”

“Fuck, I’m sorry—but I can’t talk right now. Just go back to the loft. I swear, I’ll be there shortly. I just can’t…” The way Wyatt’s gaze kept shifting only added to the worry, stress, and anger raging through him.

Keane didn’t know what the fuck was going on, and at this point, if Wyatt didn’t want to tell him, then he didn’t care. Lilly was his priority. “I’ll be at your place—or fucking wandering the streets looking for Lilly—not that you can be bothered right now.”

“Keane.”

But he’d already turned around and was jogging down the stairs, even as his brother continued to call out to him.

Lilly…she was all that mattered
.