Saving Each Other (BWWM Romance) (3 page)

“Our sources say that Tamara Taylor will be speaking on behalf of Rory Corporation today, their summit begins in an hour. Stay tuned here for live coverage.” The reporter said confidently. In the corner of the screen, they showed a picture of Tamara. I’m not going to lie, she is a stunning woman, unlike any I have ever seen. Her skin was a perfect shade of warm caramel, her hair was flowing and black which contrasted perfectly with her bright brown eyes and her curvy frame. Her looks made this so much harder, they reminded me that she is a person…nevertheless, there is a job to be done.

I left my plates in the sink for Sarah, my house…well more like penthouse keeper to wash. I got my things together in the duffel, grabbed the files I needed and headed to my Audi.

“Call Justin,” I told the Bluetooth command system. After one ring, he picked up.

“Dan, are you ready?”

“I"m bringing the car to the lot now. I’ll tell you what’s next from there.”

“Got it,” he answered and then hung up.

I was about five minutes out from the garage where the van was parked. I listened to the last few minutes of one of my favorite songs, it helped me focus. Once there, I could see Justin at the van. I parked and got out, grabbing my bag from the trunk.

“Take the car back to my place then I need you to get the rest of the files, they should be coming out of the printer now.”

“Sure, but uh… are you sure you don’t want me to do the snatching?” he said quietly.

“You think I can’t do it?” I asked him, surprised at his audacity.

“N-no it’s just...“

“It’s just nothing, now stick to the plan and meet me in an hour. You know where.” I took the keys to the van from him and got in, making my way to City Hall.

I parked at the far end of the garage and turned the engine off. I pulled out my phone and turned on the live coverage of the conference, leaning back comfortably in the seat. As time passed and it got closer to the end, I felt more nervous. I had never done anything violent before…I shook those doubtful thoughts from my head. I had to focus on the end goal here, the reason for doing this. All those people…

The concluding words of the conference signaled that she should be coming out soon. I got out, looking around to make sure there was no one else in here. I had Justin shut down the security cameras in the garage, he posed as a maintenance worker ...a bad one obviously. I made my way towards her car, stopping about two cars before.

I waited for a while before I heard the clank of her heels approaching, I watched her pass by me, her hair flowing with the briskness of her walk.

“Ms. Taylor?” I walked up behind her, right next to her car door.

“Yes?” She turned around, and in one swift movement-- before I could change my mind -- I struck her across her face. She nearly passed out then, it was easy to carry her to the van. I felt bad, but felt worse about Rory Corp. Once I put her in the back, she came to and tried to fight me but it was no use. She was in. She was mine.

I pulled up to the ranch shortly after. I walked around to the back to get her out. I will admit, I was taken aback when her sharp heel struck my face and she made a run for it. I watched her as she ran, she was getting pretty far but it didn’t take long for me to catch her.

“Hey! You aren’t going to get very far, there is nothing for miles!” I shouted at her, she lost her footing and fell and started screaming out for help. I threw her over my shoulder and carried her back to the house.

I sat her down on one of the chairs and sat across from her.

“Why are you doing this?” I still kept my grip on her arms, expecting her to try something fancy again.

“If I let you go, will you run away again?” I leaned in close to her, her eyes looked back at me wide and scared. Her scent came off of her easy, she smelled like lilies and perfume.

“No.” I couldn’t tell if she was lying or not, but I let her go and sat down.

“What do you want from me?” she asked me sadly. I knew that would be the hard part, I wished I could have just thrown her in a room until it was over, but I couldn’t even do that. I’m not soft, but I know exactly what I want, and I always get it, but sometimes my emotions get in the way of things. I had to stay strong this time though, there was too much and too many people at stake here.

“It isn’t what I want from you, it’s what I need from you.”

“Look, I don’t know what you think but I don’t have much money.” I chuckled darkly.

“I don’t want your money.” We were interrupted by Justin coming in.

“I got the stuff, boss.” I gave Tamara a stern look and went to talk to him in the corner.

“Is this everything?” I asked him.

“Yes, I made sure of it. We have everything we need. Does she know?” he asked me.

“No, I don’t even think she has a clue.”

It was hard leaving her in that room the first time, but I couldn’t show it in front of Justin. I disappeared to the office to look over the files, making sure I had everything right. At first, I wasn’t absolutely sure I needed to kidnap Tamara but all points of reason said yes. You can’t exactly spread all your poisonous ways and harm innocent people without an outstanding lobbyist.

I closed up all the files and sighed heavily, rubbing my face to try and wake up. I tried to shake the past memories from my mind. I knew if I asked Justin to be nicer, he would think I couldn’t handle this so I couldn’t do that. It was worse when we had to make her undress, I turned away to be polite but that’s all I could do, we needed to make sure she wasn’t wearing any wires or had any transmitting devices on her.

I remembered that horrible gash she had on her face and I didn’t want it to get infected. I grabbed some rubbing alcohol and cotton balls and brought dinner to her.

“Hello, Tamara.” She was sitting in the corner of the dark room. I set down the tray in front of her.

“I need to clean up that gash on your face, so you don’t die from an infection while we still need you.” I put some alcohol on the cotton and wiped her face.

“Ow.” She pulled back quickly.

“Sit still,” I said sternly. I kept going, finishing up quickly, there was no point in hurting her unnecessarily.

“There, I’m done. Here’s your dinner, make it last because breakfast won’t be for a while.” I got up to leave with the alcohol, just in case she tried to use it as a weapon.

“Wait,” she called out, I couldn’t help but stop.

“What?”

“Can you at least tell me your name? You know mine,” she pleaded with me.

“You’re quite the lobbyist, you’ll soon find that negotiating is the source of all your problems.” I closed the door behind me, I had to get out of there.

It’s not like I didn’t want to tell her my name, I just really didn’t want to give her what she wanted. She seems like she gets enough of that.

I opted for a hot shower, I really needed it after today. I missed my large shower back home though, even the water felt better. I shampooed my hair before I got out, drying off quickly.

I dressed in some more casual clothes and dried my hair off with a towel. I was prepared to sit down and watch TV to try and forget about the current situation, but then I started to hear screaming. I thought it was all in my head, a guilty conscience perhaps, but it got louder and it didn’t stop. Half of me was telling myself to just ignore her but I couldn’t. The plan was never to be inhuman, that’s what got us into this anyway.

“Hey!” she screamed when I barged into the room and she fell to the floor. I shut the door behind me, looking down at her angrily.

“Will you stop screaming?” I snarled.

“No. I demand to know why I am here!” she screamed. I looked back at her, not saying anything.

“Why did you kidnap me?” she asked me softly. I could tell she was trying to be strong, for the most part I guess she was, but I had to be stronger. It was hard not to be nice to her.

“What makes this easier is that you are oblivious to what you are doing, how much pain you are causing.” I voiced my observation. It just doesn’t make sense how she had no idea what her company was doing…no fucking clue.

“What? What are you talking about?” she sneered at me, she was so helplessly confused that it was hard not to laugh. I chuckled at her darkly, moving around the room to the far corner.

“How long are you going to keep me here?” she pleaded with me. I moved away from her, even scared and dirty, she was…breathtaking. She made this so much harder, but not enough to break down my will.

“Until all is well,” I answered, not wanting to give too much away.

“Okay…why can’t you just me what the problem is, and I can try and fix it. Then you can let me go. I won’t even tell the police. Please.” “You can’t fix this problem…well not directly at least.” She was the silent trigger to the whole operation.

“Can I at least have something to eat, please I am starving. You don’t want me to die of starvation do you?” Her attempts to get her way deserved applause. I didn’t say anything before I left, I was mad at her for getting to me so I didn’t tell her I was helping her.

I went to the kitchen and prepared a bowl of oatmeal for her. The nutrients ought to keep her satisfied for a while. I got her a glass of orange juice for vitamin purposes and put it on the tray.

“Here, eat.” I went back, setting the tray in front of her.

“Thank you,” she said softly.“Can you at least tell me your name? I know the other one’s name, Justin…he isn’t as nice as you are.” I laughed a little bit, finding her attempt to guilt trip me amusing. She ate slowly, trying to savor the food.

“Guilt tripping me won’t work, I’m a lot smarter than those government officials you ‘lobby’ every day.” I put quotations around lobby, I never thought it was a deserving term. It’s just a fancy way of saying ‘convince people to do what you want.’

“Okay…well, what is your name then? I won’t stop asking you,” she said sternly. I really did give her points for persistence. She was very strong willed, I expected her to be broken down by now, easy to handle because she was so scared but she was still kicking. Still demanding.

“My name is Dan,” I answered, succumbing to her persistence.

“Is that your real name?” I wasn’t expecting that.

“Well my birth certificate says Daniel if that’s what you’re asking me,” I answered simply.

“Oh...okay then, is this your house?” She asked me another question. For some reason I didn’t mind talking to her, but I didn’t want her to get too comfortable. I’d never had to try to take the reins from someone that I was in control of, or supposed to be in control of.

“No, why would I live somewhere like this?” The place was a dump, I didn’t struggle to become a self-sustaining American and live in a luxury apartment, drive a luxury car and vacation on the beach to end up living in the place like that. Her question made me laugh.

“Is this where you take all your victims then?” I laughed internally.

“No, you’re my first.” I looked at her before I shook my head and cleared my throat. “Victim, I mean,” I clarified. Her finely shaped brows furrowed in confusion.

“So why me?” She asked the same question in a different way.

“I told you, you’re a means to an end,” I said simply, still not giving much away.

“Whose end?” she pressed. I sighed heavily.

“That’s enough.” I turned on my heel to leave, but her pleading stopped me again.

“Please don’t leave me here all alone, I’ll go crazy. Listen, you’ve made it very clear that I am going to be here for a while so maybe you can loosen my leash a little bit.”

“I haven’t put you in it yet,” I said, gesturing to the cuffed chain in the corner. Justin was the one that put it in there, I just didn’t approve of treating someone like an animal. Those are the kind of things I’m against, but she didn’t know that.

“No!” She jumped up and ran to the farthest corner of the room.

“What if I was like a… a live-in prisoner?” She came up with something quickly.

“What is that supposed to mean?” She was being really smart about it, trying to play her way out of this. I tuned out most of her words, not even listening. “You think this is just some play?” I said after I tuned in again.

“Why won’t you tell me why you have taken me?” she asked me again.