A Recipe for Passion [Novum Energy] (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Kaley Colter

  Chapter 10

  Ellie was scared. She regretted getting herself into this mess. She had let Marcus get to her, let him make her think that the life she was living wasn’t good enough. But Nick loved her. He wanted her with him all the time, and his desire to have her live with him was completely sincere. He didn’t feel sorry for her, and he wasn’t motivated by a sense of obligation. She knew that now, but it was too late.

  She was waiting for Banyon to open the door, filled with so much dread that her stomach was churning and she thought she might throw up at any minute. And when he finally swung the door open and looked down at her, her ribs squeezed her lungs painfully and she had to struggle to breath.

  “Ellie,” he said, sneering at her. “Nice to have you back. Come into the kitchen and sit down.”

  Ellie followed him into the house, closing the door behind her, just as she had before. She sat down at the kitchen table, waiting for him to join her as he grabbed a beer from the fridge.

  “So, Ellie, do you have my first payment ready?” he asked as he sat himself across from her at the table.

  Ellie swallowed, her whole body trembling with fear. “Um, actually, I’m a bit short on the first payment. Something…came up that I couldn’t control. Can we just increase the interest rate?”

  “Can we just increase the interest rate?” Banyon repeated mockingly, taking a sip from his beer. “Hmmm…good question. What do you think Marcus?”

  Ellie’s face paled as she saw her stepbrother stride into the room. He leaned against the fridge, crossed his arms over his chest and grinned at her.

  “I think that would be a poor decision on your part, Banyon,” Marcus answered, staring at her. “I think there’s a better way to ensure you get your money.”

  Ellie was on the verge of tears. She didn’t understand what was going on, but she knew without a doubt that she was in danger. “Marcus…wh–what are you doing here?” she asked, her voice barely a whisper.

  Marcus grinned at her all the more disdainfully. “Well, when Banyon called me and told me that you had contacted him in search of a loan, I knew you’d screw up and be short on your payments. And I couldn’t help but involve myself.”

  Ellie turned back to Banyon. “I promise to pay it all back. You can increase the interest to whatever you want. I’ll pay it all back. Please believe me.”

  Banyon looked at her for a minute, and then slowly shook his head. “I don’t really care if you promise. We had an agreement, and you broke it. So I’m entitled to do whatever I need to do to get my money.”

  Ellie tried to focus on breathing, shrinking away when Banyon started staring lasciviously at her chest. “So…what does that mean? What are you going to do?”

  Marcus came forward, pulling a chair out from the table and sitting down. “Well, that’s what Banyon and I have been talking about this past week,” he said, leaning back in his chair. “I told him that you were currently making a living sleeping with some rich engineer, and then the idea kind of came to us. You’re going to strip for money. You’re going to strip for whoever we tell you to strip for until you’ve earned the entire fifteen hundred back. Plus interest. And if you do good and the money comes easy, we might decide to keep selling your services, beyond the loan.”

  Ellie was panicking. She got up from the table and ran to the front door, screaming in terror as Banyon slammed her to the floor and pinned her firmly beneath him.

  “Please, no, let me go,” she cried, struggling to get away as Banyon shoved her face to the ground and held her arms painfully behind her back.

  Marcus slowly walked out of the kitchen until he was standing right in front of her. He bent down and looked her in the eye. “Sorry, Ellie. You’re stuck here until we have the money back. The first party you’re stripping at is at midnight tonight. Oh, and if a client offers more money to fuck you, then you’re gonna say yes.”

  * * * *

  Nick was extremely worried. It was late, and Ellie still wasn’t home. He had called her cell phone at least thirty times, but with no answer.

  Colleen came padding into the living room and set a mug on the coffee table. “I brought you some tea, Nick,” she said as she sat next to him on the couch.

  “I’m going out of my mind here, Colleen. I don’t know what to do. This isn’t like Ellie.”

  Colleen stared into her lap for a minute before answering. “I think something’s wrong. She hasn’t been herself lately. She’s been edgy all week. I’m almost certain that something was going on she wasn’t telling me about.”

  Nick ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. “I know. I felt the same thing. Something has been weighing on her.”

  He couldn’t sit still any longer. He jerked himself off the couch and did a restless lap around the living room before finding himself on his way to Ellie’s bedroom. What he hoped to find there, he didn’t really know. But it was the closest he could get to her at the moment, and he couldn’t stop himself from pushing open the door and stepping inside.

  He took in a breath, a small smile playing on his lips. It smelled like her. It was the delicate scent of rose and orchid that he could never get enough of, that drove him wild whenever he buried his nose in the curve of her shoulder.

  He wandered around her bed to her nightstand, his attention caught by a sheet of paper hanging precariously off the edge. Grabbing it into his hands, he sat down on her bed and looked at what she had scribbled.

  It was a recipe for Chelsea buns. He shook his head and smiled. The little rascal had remembered him telling her that his grandmother used to make him the traditional English dessert whenever he went to visit her as a child. He always associated his visits to Surrey with the sweet lemon-and-cinnamon flavor of the soft, rich buns, and he had missed them dearly when his grandmother had passed away and his family stopped making their yearly trips to England.

  It looked like she had been planning on surprising him tomorrow morning. She had written down the time she’d need to get up to start baking in order to have them ready for breakfast. His heart went soft. He was amazed at her kindness. Her gentle heart was such a big component of her identity that it showed clearly in her eyes and on her face, and it was what had drawn him to her the first time he had seen her.

  Nick placed the piece of paper back on her nightstand, making sure it was positioned exactly the way he had found it so she wouldn’t know he was in on the surprise when she came home. He sighed. That was, if she came home.

  He walked slowly out into the hall and wandered back to the living room, leaning against the wall and crossing his arms over his chest. Colleen looked up at him, her face drawn taut with worry.

  “I think I’m going to call that bastard stepbrother of hers to see if he knows anything. If not, I’m going to go to the police,” Nick said.

  He got up and went into the kitchen, pulling open the drawer where the phone book was kept. But it wasn’t there. He pulled open a few other drawers, but it was nowhere to be found.

  “Colleen,” Nick called. “Where’s the phone book?”

  Colleen came into the kitchen and searched alongside him, but came up empty-handed. “I don’t know,” she said. “I guess Ellie must have used it for something. Maybe it’s in her room.”

  Nick returned to Ellie’s room and, sure enough, the phone book was lying on her dresser. He grabbed it into his hands and trotted to the kitchen, tossing it on the counter and flipping through the pages until he found Marcus’ information.

  Praying that Marcus would give him some answers, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone, punching in the number he had found. Tense with anticipation, he waited as the dial tone rang. And rang. And rang.

  Fuck. No answer.

  With a frustrated sigh, he threw his phone on the counter and slammed the book shut, running his fingers absentmindedly along the edge of the pages as he thought about what to do next. He frowned and looked down when he felt a piece of paper sticking out between the pages, and,
flipping open the book to where the scrap of paper was located, he saw that it had an address written on it—in Ellie’s handwriting. There was also a name and number circled in the phone book, and when he turned the scrap of paper over he discovered that Ellie had also written down two dates. The first was exactly one week ago, and the second was today.

  Nick reached across the counter for his cell phone. He had a hunch that this Banyon Crete person she had circled had something to do with what was going on, and he wanted to find out exactly who he was.

  Luckily for him, Greg, one of his most trusted employees, was married to a cop. Greg’s wife had been happy to provide background checks on prospective employees before, and he was hoping she would do him the favor once more.

  “Greg,” he spoke into the phone when he heard his friend pick up. “I need a favor. I need your wife to run a background check for me. Can she do it?”

  “Sure, Nick. Why? What’s going on?”

  “It’s Ellie. She’s missing. And I think she’s gotten into trouble with the wrong people.”

  “Veronica will do it right away. What’s the name?”

  “Banyon Crete,” Nick replied, spelling out the name.

  “Okay. Nick. I’ll call you back with what she finds.”

  Nick shut his phone and pressed it to his forehead. He was praying he was wrong, that Ellie’s phone had just died and she was taking some extra time to shop or explore this part of the city. But deep down, he knew that that wasn’t the case.

  He walked back into the living room and started pacing, waiting impatiently for Greg to call him back. Colleen was sitting on the edge of the couch, dry-washing her hands nervously.

  “What’s happened?” she asked. “Did you find something?”

  “There’s a man that Ellie’s sought out. She had his phone number circled and his address written down, along with today’s date. I feel like this guy is the missing piece of the puzzle. I asked Greg’s wife to do a background check on him. He’s going to call me back as soon as Veronica gets the information on him. If there even is any information.”

  Colleen got up from the coach and walked worriedly to the window, staring outside for a few minutes before turning around. “Maybe he’s just an old friend of hers? Maybe she went to visit him to catch up and they lost track of time.”

  Nick stopped pacing and rested his hands on the back of the couch. Colleen was just trying to make him feel better, but he knew that even she didn’t believe that theory.

  Nick jerked his hand into his pocket and pulled out his phone the second it started to ring.

  “Greg,” he answered. “What did you find out?”

  “Hi Nick. Veronica did the check. This guy’s a notorious loan shark. He’s also done jail time for assault and fraud. He’s a dangerous guy, Nick. If Ellie’s somehow gotten involved with him…”

  Greg didn’t finish his sentence, but he didn’t have to. Nick shut his eyes and swore. “Okay, thanks Greg. Tell Ronnie I owe her one.”

  He hung up the phone and headed for the door, slipping on his shoes and grabbing his car keys from the front table.

  Colleen rushed up beside him. “What’s going on? Where are you going?”

  “This guy is dangerous. I think she’s with him, Colleen. Can you stay here by the phone? I’ll call you if I need you.”

  Colleen nodded, standing in the doorway and watching him go as he jumped into his truck and turned on the ignition.

  As he pulled out of the driveway, Nick still found himself stunned by the news that Ellie had gone to a loan shark. Clearly she had found herself in need of some money—though for what reason he couldn’t possibly fathom. But why the hell hadn’t she come to him for help? He loved her, damn it, and he was nothing short of pissed off by the fact that she would rather endanger herself than confide in him. One thing was for sure—once she was back safe at home with him, she was in for a serious tongue-lashing.

  * * * *

  Ellie blinked open her eyes, wincing as the pain in her arms and legs registered in her brain. She was leaning against a wall in a dark, empty room. She tried to move, but couldn’t, and looking down at herself, she realized why. Her wrists and ankles were tightly bound, and the rope was digging painfully into her skin.

  When she saw that Marcus and Banyon had stripped her down to her panties, she couldn’t stop the tears from streaming down her face. She wanted to cover her chest with her arms, but they were pulled tightly behind her back. She was trapped, and the worst part was that no one knew where she was. No one would be coming to rescue her.

  God, she felt incredibly stupid. She was amazed that she had gotten this far in life with the type of decision-making skills she had been putting on display the last few weeks. What had she been thinking? She had thrown safety and caution to the wind, all because she had been convinced that she needed to get an apartment of her own to be considered “worthy.” But worthy to whom? Nick already loved her. He loved her in spite of the fact that her life had been messy and she was in a financially unstable position as a result, and she had compromised their relationship and abused his trust by going behind his back to make this ridiculous arrangement with Banyon. All for the sake of her own baseless insecurities.

  She felt extremely sluggish and weak and was having a difficult time focusing her eyes, and the thought dawned on her that maybe they had drugged her to make her easier to handle when it came time for the party. She was terrified of what they would make her do and was desperate to escape, but she could barely lift her head up and had no hope of getting herself untied.

  She heard footsteps approach the door and she tensed, praying that it wasn’t time for the party, praying that she had more time left. Light spilled into the room as Marcus opened the door and walked inside, stopping to kneel down in front of her.

  “Look who’s awake,” he said as he let his eyes fall down to her exposed breasts.

  Ellie tried to hold back a sob as she lay there, powerless to cover herself. “Marcus, please. Let me go. I’ll do anything.”

  Marcus slowly brought his eyes back up to her face. “There’s no way in hell I’m letting you go. You got what was coming to you, Ellie. You were an unappreciative, spiteful little bitch, and now you’re going to suffer the consequences for your actions.”

  Ellie looked up at him, her tear-filled eyes shining with hatred. “I’ve been slaving away for you since high school. I’ve worked myself to the bone to pay for our house and our food and our car while you sat at home and did absolutely nothing. And now you’re not only calling me unappreciative, but you’re selling my body for money? You’re a disgusting human being, Marcus. You’re a complete piece of trash.”

  Marcus stood up and stared at her, his face twitching with rage. He made as if to turn and walk away, but then spun around and kicked her hard in the stomach. Ellie fell against the floor, gasping in pain. He kicked out his foot again, and this time she screamed as he made contact with her ribs and she heard a sickening snap of bone.

  Without a word, Marcus left the room and slammed the door closed. Ellie managed to push herself back up against the wall, and though she was desperate to soothe her burning stomach with her hands, she was unable to wriggle free from her restraints. The pain was agonizing, and she was certain that he had broken at least one of her ribs.

  Ellie closed her eyes, tears falling from her face into her lap. This was one mess she wouldn’t be able to get out of, no matter how hard she tried.

  * * * *

  Nick pulled over his truck on the side of the road in front of Banyon’s house. He jumped out, ran around to the bed of the truck, and pulled out a two-by-four. Armed with his weapon of choice, he strode over to the house and banged hard on the door, a look of lethal determination written on his face.

  A scrawny man in torn jeans and a wifebeater opened the door. He was holding a half-empty bottle of beer in his hands and looked drunk. Nick looked down his shirt and noticed that it was stained with blood in several places. He gritt
ed his teeth, hoping that the blood wasn’t Ellie’s, but promising to himself that if it was, he would make this guy lose a lot more.

  Nick stepped towards him, gripping his two-by-four tightly in one hand and placing his other hand flat on the door to make sure the little bastard wouldn’t try to close it on him. He could see the expression on the man’s face turn instantly from smug indifference to snivelling fear.

  “Banyon Crete?” he asked, his voice low.

  The man cleared his throat. “Um, ya, what can I do for you?”

  Nick stepped inside the house, towering over him. “Do you know a woman by the name of Ellie Matthews?”

  The second Nick saw a flash of recognition in Banyon’s eyes, he grabbed the man by the neck of the shirt and pushed him against the wall. “Where. The. Fuck. Is. She.”

  Banyon opened and shut his mouth, paralyzed by fear. Nick raised the two-by-four and slammed it into the wall right next to Banyon’s head, breaking through the drywall and sending chips of wood flying everywhere.

  “Answer me!” Nick roared.

  Banyon’s eyes widened in terror. “She’s upstairs. She’s in the bedroom upstairs. You can take her. I don’t care,” he said quickly in a high-pitched voice.

  Nick turned his head when he heard someone coming down the stairs and tightened his grip on his two-by-four in fury when he saw who it was.

  When Marcus caught sight of Nick he slowed, stopping midway on the stairs. His face paled instantly, and he looked to be contemplating an escape, but Nick would certainly not permit him to run off this time. No, this time, Marcus would pay dearly.

  “I should have known you had something to do with this, you son of a bitch,” Nick said to Marcus while he continued holding Banyon up against the wall.

  “Listen, Nick,” Marcus stammered, backing himself slowly up the stairs, “Ellie got herself into this mess. She came to Banyon for a loan, and she couldn’t keep up with the payments, so he has a right to do what he needs to do to get his money back.”