Kept

by Jami Alden

  “Let me go, you crazy bitch!” Alyssa yelled, wondering where the hell the hotel staff had disappeared to. She hit Kimberly again, wincing as her knuckles connected with her sister’s chin.

  Kimberly grunted and raised her hand. Alyssa tried but couldn’t block her as Kimberly landed a blow to her head with something hard—much harder than a fist.

  Alyssa’s knees gave way, her head ringing as she realized what Kimberly had hit her with.

  A gun. Pointing directly at her face.

  What the fuck was the matter with him? Derek had done it again. Let his anger get the best of him, let it take over so he said horrible, awful things he couldn’t stop even as he saw the devastation washing over Alyssa’s pale face. But when Van Weldt had hit her, when he’d seen her go down, rage like nothing he’d ever known had blown through him like a firestorm. It took every bit of control he possessed not to kill Van Weldt with his bare hands. As far as Derek was concerned, the guy was lucky to get off with a few bruises.

  Then, when he’d seen the rapidly darkening mark on Alyssa’s cheek, he couldn’t hold it back. Anger was clawing him from the inside, demanding to be let out. And he let it out all over the woman he loved.

  Sure, he was pissed at her, angry she’d taken such risks. But Derek knew exactly who was at fault. Himself. If he could have, he would have beaten his own ass to a pulp for being such an idiot. He had accused her of being stupid. But he was the one who had let her talk him into this against every shred of common sense he possessed.

  She was right, he was the stupid one. He accused her of putting herself in danger, but he was the asshole who hadn’t stayed close enough to stop Van Weldt from getting physical. He was the one who let down his guard, let her convince him her uncle wouldn’t do anything really bad, not in front of this crowd.

  And he supposed a smack in the face wasn’t the end of the world, but any injury to her was too much in his book.

  But instead of pulling her to safety, kissing her cheek, and getting her the hell out of there, he’d gone and creamed her.

  His cheek stung from where she’d smacked him. He could have caught her hand, but he had taken the slap, knowing he deserved every blow, every angry word that had passed her lips.

  …pining after his mommy who left him, pushing away anyone who’s idiot enough to try to get close to you because you’re afraid they’ll leave, too.

  She was right. And he needed to grow up and let it go, or he was never going to have a chance with Alyssa.

  He scanned the crowd, forming his apology in his head. Should he first tell her he loved her to soften her up? His throat got tight with panic at the thought of admitting it out loud, but he had to do it sometime, and now was as good as any.

  I’m done throwing myself at people who treat me like garbage.

  Give me another chance, he thought as he stepped onto the dais for a better view. I know I don’t deserve it, but give me another chance, and I swear I’ll treat you like a queen. He cased the crowd, looking for Kimberly’s tall figure and pale blond hair, easier to spot than Alyssa’s much shorter profile.

  He didn’t see them.

  It’s fine, his rational analytical brain assured him. She’s with Kimberly. They probably found a quiet corner to tear me to shreds. And we’ve already determined Kimberly wasn’t involved.

  The uneasy sensation he’d been nursing all night intensified, uncurling in his gut like a snake, slithering up his spine.

  Had they really determined Kimberly wasn’t involved? They hadn’t found evidence that Kimberly was involved in the deal with Abbassi, but still. He’d taken Alyssa’s word for it, believed in her fierce conviction that her sister would never want to hurt her.

  Cold sweat filmed under his T-shirt. Had he done it again? Underestimated the enemy just because she was a woman and didn’t look dangerous?

  Derek scanned the crowd again, getting a little frantic when he didn’t see them. He moved off the dais, oblivious to the questioning looks of the guests and staff as he ducked behind the screen where he thought he’d seen the two women go.

  There was a door back there that led to a service hall. He looked up and down the hall, didn’t see any sign of the two women. He was about to duck back in the ballroom when he saw a white-coated busboy carrying a tray full of glasses.

  “Hey,” he said. “Did you see two women back here? One tall, one short?”

  “Si,” the man replied in heavily accented English. “I think they go that way.” He pointed down the hall.

  Derek took off at a lope, dread building in his stomach as he pulled out his phone to call Alyssa. But before he could dial, his phone rang. He picked it up when he saw Toni’s number on the display.

  “What’s up?” He’d come to the end of the hall the busboy had indicated. The only thing there was a service elevator.

  “Is Alyssa with you? I need to talk to her.”

  The hairs on the back of Derek’s neck rose at the urgency in Toni’s tone. “She went with Kimberly.”

  Dead silence. Then a soft “Shit.”

  “What? What did you find?” He instinctively pressed the elevator button to the lobby level.

  “You have to find her. I found a copy of the termination agreement Blaylock and Oscar were talking about. It wasn’t for Harold, it was for Kimberly.”

  Oh, fuck.

  “Exactly. And get this—Blaylock and Kimberly are having an affair. There are e-mails and IM logs. You should see the stuff she says about Alyssa.”

  He’d done it again. Overlooked the enemy when she was in plain sight.

  Worse, he’d let his emotions get the best of him. In his anger at Alyssa, he’d dropped his guard, turned his back, lost focus long enough for the enemy to get the upper hand.

  To take the woman he loved.

  He hung up the cell phone and sprinted for the staircase. They’d been gone only a few minutes. He flew down ten flights of stairs and burst into the lobby, oblivious to the startled stares as he sprinted for the door. He ignored shouts from the valets as he ran down the ramp to the hotel parking garage. He was almost to the bottom when he heard the roar of an engine.

  Big, German, and coming up fast. The lights hit him straight on, momentarily blinding him as they headed for him. Derek ducked and rolled, narrowly avoiding becoming a blood streak on the wall as the driver attempted to pin him.

  Derek came to a stop just in time to register the license-plate number and Alyssa’s terrified face in the rear window as the car sped off.

  Derek. She wanted to hurl herself from the car, scream his name until he came after her. But hurling was out of the question because her hands were bound in front of her. And there was the matter of Kimberly’s gun trained at her head. Screaming would only get her another knock on the head, and at this rate she was going to sustain serious brain damage before the night was through—if she didn’t die first. If she wanted to get out of this, she needed to keep her wits about her.

  She scooted as far as she could go across the leather backseat of the BMW and prayed that somehow, some way, Derek would find a way to get to her, especially because her purse, her cell phone, and, with it, Derek’s tracking device were currently lying somewhere on the floor of the parking garage.

  “Why?” Alyssa asked, unfreezing her tongue enough to ask the million-dollar question.

  Kimberly made a scoffing noise and gave Alyssa a disbelieving look. “Are you kidding me? You’ve never been anything but Daddy’s bastard and a family embarrassment.”

  “So you decided you needed to kill me?” Alyssa’s tone was aggressive, impatient, but, hey, it looked like she wasn’t going to make it through the night, and she’d be damned if she died without finding out why.

  “I worked my ass off for the company,” said Kimberly. “I did everything for the family. I brokered a deal to save the business. But who got the credit for saving the company? You! You and your skanky ad campaign with Van Weldt diamonds all over your twat.”

  “So that
’s why you killed Daddy? Because he gave me credit?”

  The driver headed for the on ramp to the Bay Bridge, heading east toward Oakland.

  “No, you idiot. I killed him because he was going to fire me. I got us enough capital to avoid bankruptcy, but when Daddy found out that Louis and the diamonds might not all be legitimate, instead of thanking me for saving the company, he decided to fire me.”

  “What did you expect him to do? You made a deal with a guy who turned out to be a diamond smuggler and an arms dealer.” Kimberly’s face pulled into a mask of rage, and Alyssa wondered if mouthing off was going to earn her another blow to the head. Or worse.

  Kimberly visibly pulled herself together. “There was no proof we knew that when we made the deal. We could have easily spun it so we came out looking like the victim. But Daddy said I’d broken his trust. Like he’s one to talk.”

  “What about your mother?”

  “She was a mess. She was becoming more of a public embarrassment than you are.” Kimberly was insane, a stone-cold sociopath without an ounce of regret or remorse. Kimberly’s mouth pursed. “You’re supposed to be dead, too,” she said, her matter-of-fact tone more chilling than her earlier rage. “But not everyone was completely on board. Louis had something else in mind for you.”

  They came off the bridge, and the driver turned south on the highway.

  “What do you mean?” But she already knew the answer to that question. A memory burbled to the surface. We can still work this out, Alyssa, he’d said, even as his hand squeezed her breast in a bruising grip as she lay there, helplessly strapped to the bed.

  She shrugged. “I don’t know, and at this point I don’t care. All I know is, as much as I want you dead, Louis wants you alive. For now.”

  CHAPTER 22

  FOCUS. ADRENALINE PUMPED through Derek’s veins, bordering on panic as he wove through evening traffic. He took that energy and channeled it into razor-sharp focus, becoming the machine with no other goal than to take down his enemy and complete his mission. He accelerated and swerved, narrowly missing the bumper of the Prius in the lane next to him as he maneuvered his Audi to the on ramp of the Bay Bridge. He couldn’t afford to think of Alyssa now, her terrified face in the car window.

  The fact that he’d finally realized he loved her, and now it might be too late….

  He shoved all that out of his head, pushing it aside, put himself on autopilot.

  It was the only way he could save her.

  He checked his navigation system, which showed that according to Toni, the black Beemer hadn’t made it across the bridge yet.

  After Derek had picked himself off the floor of the parking garage and sprinted to his own car, he’d placed a quick call to Toni. Within minutes she’d hacked into the system of red lights and traffic cameras that monitored San Francisco and the Bay Area highways. With the license-plate number and general direction Derek provided, Toni by some miracle managed to pick up the car and sent its updated location to Derek’s nav system.

  “I should be able to get a visual soon,” he told Toni, who had stayed on the line with him to give him verbal updates before sending the BMW’s location. At this time of night, traffic was steady, but he wouldn’t have any trouble picking the big sedan out of the throng. Then it was just a matter of keeping his distance and not letting himself get made.

  And there they were. Several cars ahead. The BMW moved fast, steady, but not fast enough to attract attention.

  He put Toni on hold so he could call the cops. They could pull the BMW over and end this right here and now.

  The dispatcher picked up. “Nine-one-one operator. Please hold.”

  You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.

  Alyssa shivered as Kimberly and the driver escorted her into what appeared to be an abandoned warehouse. The only sign of life was another dark sedan similar to the one she’d arrived in, parked in the wide driveway, and a faint light showing through the broken windows along the roofline of the warehouse.

  Gravel crunched under her high heels, and she stumbled. With her hands tied she couldn’t brace herself and took the impact on her bare knees. She cried out when a sharp piece of gravel stabbed into skin and bone.

  “Shut up,” Kimberly said as she jerked her back to her feet.

  Across the street, a dark figure rounded the corner and shuffled past, a pile of old rags pushing a shopping cart.

  Alyssa yelled at the top of her lungs. “Help me, please! I’m being kidnapped! Get the police!” Her cry was cut off by the butt of Kimberly’s gun clipping her on the side of the head again.

  Not that Kimberly needed to worry, Alyssa realized blearily. The vagrant didn’t so much as glance their way as he rattled his way down the block.

  Kimberly and the driver opened the door and shoved her inside the dimly lit warehouse full of empty crates. Broken bottles and trash littered the floor, and it smelled like it might have been recently used as a bathroom.

  And standing in the center, his dusky skin jaundiced by the yellow light, his lips pulled into a smile that was all the more frightening in its pure delight, was Louis Abbassi. He was flanked by two men carrying wicked-looking machine guns while another man joined the driver to stand by the door.

  “Ah, you are here,” he said, and Alyssa swallowed back bile at the glee in his tone. “It has been too long since I have seen you, beautiful Alyssa.”

  The way he drew out the S’s in her name reminded her of a slithering snake. “What do you want from me?”

  He reached out to touch her cheek, and she couldn’t keep herself from flinching. His smile fell at her response. Quick as a striking snake, he backhanded her across the cheek. Her ears rang, and her eyes filled with tears. Now I’ll have a bruise to match the other cheek, she thought morbidly.

  “You can taste pain or pleasure, chérie, but the more you shrink from me, the more determined I will be to break you.” He ran his fingers down her throat, pressed meaningfully against her windpipe. Alyssa swallowed hard, her knees shaking as she thought of Andy, choked to death and left in Alyssa’s closet. She forced herself to hold perfectly still as Louis ran his hand over her collarbone, down her chest, to cover one small breast.

  She caught Kimberly’s smirk out of the corner of her eye.

  “I did what you asked,” Kimberly said. “Now give me the passport and the account number, and I’ll get out of here.”

  Louis nodded and gave Alyssa’s nipple a rough squeeze. She struggled not to vomit.

  Please, God, please let Derek be coming for me.

  I will always come for you.

  She clung to his words like a lifeline as Louis turned to Kimberly, who was standing, arms folded, toe tapping impatiently like she was waiting for a late train. Not like she had just cold-bloodedly handed over her half sister to a psychopathic killer.

  “Yes,” Louis said, turning from Kimberly to retrieve a briefcase resting on the floor. “You did as I asked, and now you will get what you deserve.”

  Unease replaced the smug impatience on Kimberly’s face as Louis said something in a flat, clipped language she didn’t recognize and nodded at the thug standing to his left.

  The horrified realization on Kimberly’s face matched Alyssa’s own as, without a word, the man lifted his gun. There was nothing but a faint pop, and Kimberly’s chest exploded. Her mouth opened in a silent scream as she staggered back several feet and then fell in a sprawl. Her eyes stared silently at the ceiling, and a trickle of blood ran out of the corner of her mouth.

  Derek had parked his car several blocks away and crept to the warehouse where Kimberly had taken Alyssa. Now he stood just outside the door, his Sig raised, silent and still as he blended into the shadows.

  He listened intently, his stomach boiling with sour bile as he listened to Louis. The sick fuck was obsessed with her. Derek had a feeling the whole deal with Van Weldt had been an elaborate way for Louis to get close to Alyssa.

  Suddenly a woman was screaming loud, long wails.
Every primal, male instinct in him bellowed at him to charge in there, gun blazing to protect what was his.

  Alyssa. His woman.

  Then he heard her sobbing. “You shot her. Oh, my God, you killed Kimberly.”

  Which meant Alyssa was still alive, and he needed to get a fucking grip.

  He dug deep, summoning years of practice in shoving his emotions aside, all his military training. Following his emotions would get him killed, and Alyssa would still be in the hands of this sick fuck.

  He drowned out the sobs that cut him like razors, forced himself to stay focused, to analyze the situation and come up with a strategy that would get them both out alive and unhurt.

  He used the darkness to his advantage as he craned his head for a quick glance inside. The two thugs standing near the door didn’t so much as feel the air stir. There were two more men inside with Louis, and then Louis himself.

  Five men, all armed, against himself, armed with his Sig. 45 and a wickedly sharp combat knife.

  He cursed silently as he remembered his extra clip locked in his gun case in the trunk of his car.

  Seven bullets.

  Five men.

  Good enough odds for him.

  Someone was screaming loud and high like a siren wail. Maybe it’s the police. Maybe they’re coming to save me. Something hit her across the face, a big, open hand smacking her over and over. The siren wail stopped, and Alyssa realized it had been her screaming.

  Suddenly everything became disjointed, disconnected, like her life had become a movie she was watching rather than living. She saw herself, hands to horrified mouth as she watched one of Louis’s thugs drag Kimberly’s body away.

  She saw Louis draping his suit jacket over her shoulders and pulling her close in a sick attempt to offer comfort.

  “You killed her,” Alyssa finally choked out, coming back to herself. “Why would you kill her? She was working with you, helping you.”