by CY Jones
“We’re not friends,” I tell him, with my hands balled up at my sides while I grind on my poor teeth.
“Aren’t we? We’ve been out to dinner together and I attended your wedding, well one of them,” he says, eying the ruby ring shining bright in the sunlight with triumph. “Don’t friends do those sort of things?” he questions, smiling like the cat who ate the canary. I don’t like his smile. It’s sinister and speaks volumes if you know how to decode it. Ever since I first met him, there’s something about him that always seems to put me on edge. A feeling deep inside that tells me he’s dangerous, and in my career, I’ve learned to always listen to my gut.
“What do you want? As you can see, I’m busy.”
“I can see that. I don’t blame that man of yours for rushing you to the altar in only two days. If I were him I’d probably do the same. You’re not the type of woman one should let go easily. Andrew was a fool.”
“What do you want?” I ask again, this time in a more demanding voice. I do not want to hear about him wanting me or my ex. I’ve closed that chapter in my life. Andrew let me go. Nathaniel has no hold over me. I’m no longer the sweetened pot in some sick business transaction, so he can fuck off.
“Haven’t you been listening?” he says moving closer. I yelp from surprise when he grabs me by the wrist and pulls me to his hard body. Like almost everyone besides small children, he’s taller than me and I have to look up into his cold dark gaze. The cocky, amused asshole is gone and in his place is a man not to be fucked with. “I told you at dinner I always get what I want. It’s time you learned that all actions have consequences.”
I feel a sharp sting at my neck before my vision starts to blur and I slump against Nathaniel’s body. His body heat engulfs me way more than it should. “What did you do?” I slur. My mouth waters and my tongue thickens until I can’t talk at all without sounding like a newborn babbling their words. Nathaniel is holding me up and all the while I’m wondering where the hell is my husband? Where’s Chaz? Spots dance in my eyes and it’s a battle to keep my eyelids from shutting. I try to fight it, but too quickly darkness descends and I’m being carried away by the devil.
21
Taken
Justin
I drum my hands on the steering wheel to the beat of the song playing on the radio, happy as hell. I did it. I fucking did it. I married the woman of my dreams. Maybe later I’ll freak out, but not now. Now I’m happier than I have ever been, more so than when I married Paige. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Paige, I still do, just not as much as I love Brooklyn. What I feel for her is more than love, it's a devotion that’ll never wither or fade with time. When I married Paige, I was fulfilling an obligation, but with Brooklyn, I’m fulfilling my destiny. It’s crazy, I know. I’m crazy, and I thank my lucky stars she's just as insane to go along with all of this. Now the only problem is her brother. Hopefully he won’t kill me. If it comes to a fight, I’ll let him have the first punch. He deserves it, but if he doesn’t find satisfaction from that one hit and goes in for more, I’ll fight. I don’t see anything wrong with me loving Brooklyn and I refuse to let his overbearing nature turn this into something twisted. The way I see it, we both won. He got Paige and I got Brooklyn.
Noticing I haven’t moved an inch, I lean out the window and wave down the guard standing stationed outside the parking booth.
“Hey, is something going on?”
“The parking arm has been acting up all day. We’re waiting for it to go up to let the cars out. It shouldn’t be much longer.”
“Okay, thanks,” I tell him, and he walks off.
It’s cold as monkey balls outside, and I don’t want Brooklyn to have to wait for me out in the cold, even though she’s used to this weather. It’ll take me some time to adapt. I’ve lived my whole life in sunny California where the coldest it’s ever dropped is sixty-five degrees. I haven’t told her yet, but I’ve expanded my company here in New York and bought Chaz’s townhouse. It’s a surprise, one of the many I have for her. I know she’s been worried about where we’re going to live. Even though she hasn’t said it, I know she doesn’t want to move away from the city. She likes her independence, away from her brother, which is why for the past few months, I have been working my ass off to open another branch of my real estate company here in New York. I had to take some online classes to get certified to sell real estate in this state and find a partner who could run the California branch while I get things settled and running here. It has been a lot of sweat and hard work, but it’ll be worth it to see the smile on her face when I tell her she doesn’t have to move. I know for me she would have moved to Cali with no complaints. She’s selfless like that, but luckily I’ve learned to become a pretty selfless guy myself.
Damn, still not moving. I hope both she and Chaz moved inside to wait on me. I don’t want her catching a cold. The beige pea coat and dress she has on are not enough coverage for a long wait outside in the cold.
Maybe I should have paid for parking on the street. I only objected because there's salt sprinkled all over the sidewalks to melt the snow, and I didn’t want her to hurt herself. Just as I’m about to wave the guard down again, maybe throw some money at him to get things moving along faster, the line of cars starts to move. I feed my ticket into the machine, the finicky bar goes up, and I circle the courthouse to the front where Chaz and Brooklyn should be waiting.
“Where’s Brooklyn?” I ask when I spot Chaz on the sidewalk looking around frantically.
“I don’t know. She was just here, and then she was gone.”
“What do you mean she was gone? Where’d she go?” Chaz doesn’t deserve my tone, but I’m irrationally pissed right now. I have a really bad feeling about this.
“I don’t know. A friend of my dad’s called me over, and I left her for a second to talk to him. I saw her moving down the stairs, so when I got done speaking with him I followed but couldn’t find her.”
“What the hell? You just fucking left her by herself?” I’m aware I’m shouting and making a scene, which probably isn’t a good idea to do in front of a courthouse, but my heart is racing, and I’m afraid something might have happened to my firecracker.
“Get a grip, Justin. She’s a grown-ass woman who has been living in this city longer than the two of us put together, not some five-year-old whose hand needs to be held. She couldn’t have gone far.”
“It is cold out here. Did she go back inside?”
“No, I would have seen her. In fact, this isn’t like her. She wouldn’t have wandered off without telling me. What took you so long anyways?” he asks, but not as an accusation, more like he’s trying to work something out in his head.
“There was a problem with the parking arm. It wasn’t letting cars out, so I had to wait for them to fix it,” I answer.
“And I conveniently got called away, leaving Brooklyn by herself,” he muses.
“What’s going on? What aren’t you telling me?” My heart has gone from racing to competing in the Kentucky Derby. I don’t even feel the cold anymore.
“By any chance, you wouldn’t have that ex of hers phone number would you?”
“No. Why the fuck would I have that? What are you getting at Chaz? What does he have to do with anything?” I hope he’s not implying Brooklyn had a change of heart and ran off with the asshole.
“Stop that thought right now. Brooklyn loves you. She’ll never leave you for him.”
“Then why are you asking for his number?”
Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut. Stay in ignorance where it’s safe. Not safe for me, but everyone else, because when he answers all bets are off and the monster inside me will break free of his chains and go on a rampage. Hell has no fury like a woman scorned or a man in search of what’s his.
“I believe she was taken, and Andrew has the means to track her.”
In a calm, and yes, you should be very fucking afraid tone, I ask, “Taken by who?”
“Nathaniel Bishop.”
Well, shit just got real. Nathaniel better pray I find my wife quickly without a hair harmed on her perfect body, or he’ll wish he never laid eyes on her.
“You look bloodthirsty, and in this case, I approve. Come on,” he says waving towards the SUV, I left running on the sidewalk. “I got a plan. Let's go get your wife back.”
Brooklyn
My eyes feel like they’re glued shut, sticky as I try to pry them open. My head is pounding like a drum. I’m disoriented, my brain muddled. Where am I? I can’t remember a damn thing after saying I do to Justin. Justin... My husband. Is he okay? Did we get into an accident or something? “About time you woke up, Sleeping Beauty. Shit just got real,” Gloria grumbles. Her voice ping-pongs around my head along with the pain and a whimper escapes my lips.
“What the hell is going on? Where are the others?” I ask since she’s the only one I sense.
“The others are still knocked out with whatever that asshat gave us.”
“Who? Gave us what?” I know you’re not talking about Justin. I’m so confused and nauseous. My stomach is turning. The slightest movement could send me hurling.
“Nathaniel Bishop. He abducted us at the courthouse and now we’re on his private jet going gods know where.”
My blood turns cold at her words. Briefly, I remember him confronting us outside the courthouse before everything went black. I knew I had a bad feeling about him, and I was right, but what kind of man abducts someone on a busy street in broad daylight? “A powerful lunatic, that’s who,” Gloria answers my unasked question.
Prying my eyes open, I manage to focus them from the hold of the drug keeping me under. Blinking the brightness away, I notice I’m sitting on one of the jet’s lounge seats with my feet up. The expensive leather hits my nose, causing my stomach to turn even more. Nathaniel is seated beside me. He is on his phone, but as soon as he notices I’m awake, he ends the call with a clipped reply and turns to me.
“You’re awake quicker than I expected. I thought we’d be at our destination before you came to,” he says, wiping at the sweat on my forehead with his bare hand.
“Where the fuck are we going?” I growl, shaking off his concerned hand.
“Mexico for our honeymoon,” he answers smoothly like his reply isn’t as mad as he is.
“Are you batshit or is it me? Please tell me the part I missed in class that says when I married Justin it gave you the right to abduct me in broad daylight, and then fly me off on a honeymoon with you as my companion and not my husband.”
“I told you, beautiful, I always get what I want.”
“So!” I shout, throwing my hands up, which was a big mistake because I fold over and groan in pain from my throbbing head. “Fuck, I’m going to be sick.”
With hurried hands, Nathaniel grabs one of those sick bags from the side of his seat, and I expel what little food I ate this morning and whatever drug he gave me into it while he holds the bag steady and my hair back from my face. Once I’m finished, he flags what looks like a guard down to get rid of it.
“Here drink this,” he says, handing over a glass of ice water. I’m wary at first. I wouldn’t put it past him to drug me again with the water, but he wasn’t expecting me to be awake yet and so far, he’s been honest with me, even if he’s delusional. With my thirst winning out, I take the glass and down the whole thing. The ice cubes cool my heated skin and do wonders for my pounding head. I’m tempted to ask for aspirin, but I’d rather not push my luck. A knows how it would react with whatever drug I was given to knock me out.
“Better?” he asks, taking the empty glass from me and setting it back in the cup holder attached to his chair.
“You can’t possibly think it’s okay to kidnap me? I have a life. A husband who doesn’t care how rich you are and is going to skin your ass alive when he gets his hands on you.”
“I’m not worried about Justin Anderson,” he snarls, waving my threat away. “I own New York, and he’s trying to get his foot in the door. One word from me, and I’ll destroy everything he’s trying to accomplish. You got to love the irony,” he laughs, so sure of himself. “It’s because of you he decided to open a branch of his company in New York, and if he doesn’t get with the program, it’ll be because of you he goes bankrupt and loses everything he’s worked so hard to build.”
This is news to me. I didn’t know Justin was planning on moving to New York permanently. I thought after the honeymoon, we’d go back to California. I want to tear up because I know he’s relocating for me, to make me happy. God, if I didn’t already love him, this would push me right over. I hate that it’s Nathaniel fucking Bishop that breaks the news to me.
“Justin isn’t like Andrew. He’s not going to lie down and play dead. He’s not the type to sacrifice everything for his ambitions like Andrew’s father. You’re barking up the wrong tree. He will come for me, and he will kill you.” “And we’ll help,” all of my voices chime in, each of them finally awake.
Dark eyes blink slowly unfazed by my words, and he gives me a cruel smile. Nathaniel is a psychopath, too used to getting what he wants. In his eyes, nothing is out of his reach, including people. I’m nothing more than a slave he told himself he must own. A toy to use until he gets bored. What kind of people raise their child to think this way? “Not very good ones,” Sophia mutters.
“Yeah tell me about it.”
“He’ll come around. True, he won’t fold as easily as Tom. You know it was Andrew’s father who started all this. He’s the one you have to blame for getting you involved, not Andrew.”
“What are you talking about?” Of course, Andrew is at fault. He’s the one who filmed me and used the video to blackmail me into doing his bidding.
“So naive. You know, you really underestimate the power of your beauty. I had my eyes set on you since you did the Abdulaziz interview. Your beauty as well as your confidence spoke volumes. The professional way you held yourself even though you were in the middle of a war zone in the enemy's camp in front of a warlord. Your fearlessness and your strength called to me. I knew then I wanted you and would do anything to have you.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. That was two years ago,” I gasp.
“And for the last two years, I have been plotting.”
“Plotting what? What do you want?”
“You of course,” he answers with no hesitation.
“Okay, I repeat, you’re crazy. Seek help before it’s too late and while you’re at it, drop me off at the nearest airport. I don’t care where the fuck we are, I can find my way back on my own.”
“Cute, lovely, but you’re not going anywhere. I have spent way too much time and effort to get you here.”
I want to scream. Throw something. Beat some sense into his thick delusional head. Taking a deep breath, I close my eyes and slowly count down from ten before blowing the breath out. We’re one-hundred percent screwed. There’s no arguing with a crazy person who thinks they’re right, that’s insanity 101. The only thing you can really do is try to understand their point of view and try to turn the tables on them using their logic. I have five personalities. I understand crazy.
“Okay, why don’t you tell me how all this came about,” I ask nicely. I can see the wheels turning in his head. I’m a little too calm, and he doesn’t trust that, but he’s a cocky bastard, so he obliges me.
“Like I said, after I saw the interview I was hooked. Obsessed with you, I hired a private investigator who followed your every move and reported back to me.” I suck in my teeth, making a noise, but he continues. “It was clear you were head over heels in love with Andrew and he with you. You had one of those fairytale relationships with one flaw.”
“His father,” I fill in the blanks. No one needs to tell me he didn’t approve. I already knew.
“Yes, his father. He hated your guts. Still does actually, but more so because you left his son hanging at the altar for another man.” I roll my eyes at that. I’m not explaining the many reasons why
Justin is a better man than Andrew.
“Okay, you used his father, how?” I prod, pushing this story along. “I hope you bitches are thinking of a way out of this while I distract the crazy man beside us.”
“Tom’s a relic. He’s too old school to be the CEO of a thriving media company. He should have passed the torch to his son ages ago, but he was too preoccupied with Andrew’s relationship with you. Using my contacts, I crashed a couple of his stocks, forcing contributors to pull their funding and invest in his competition. Truthfully the only thing keeping that company going was you and a couple other diamonds in the rough. The company was about to file for bankruptcy when he came to me. He’d heard rumors about The Gentlemen's Society, and was following leads when he tracked me down and asked for my help.”
I remembered when Chaz spoke of the group. He said they are so secret that you couldn’t even find a rumor or whisper about them.
“Let me guess, you were the one to make sure the rumors reached Tom’s ears and sent him running to you.”
“Clever girl. Beauty and brains, a rare combination nowadays.”
I ignore his compliment, tapping my nails on the arm of my chair. “What else happened?” I push.
“At the time I was going to have him offer you to me right then and there in exchange for my help saving his business, but there were complications. First, you were too much in love with Andrew to come willingly. Then there were my parents. They would never allow me to marry you no matter how much I wanted it. You were born into the wrong family and would never have met their high expectations. Then there’s your career. A Bishop does not work. In their eyes, and much of the way I grew up, you offer nothing to the table. Making pretty babies isn’t enough of an incentive.” “Wow, what assholes,” Shelly comments.
“If that’s the case, why didn’t you give up? Why do all this?” I ask, waving my hands around wildly. “You’re married to Veronica. She’s beautiful, and apparently able to satisfy your parents’ high ass standards. Going after me just seems like overkill.”