by Lynn Stark
As soon as she was excused by a nod from her father, Piper made her escape. Yanking off her shoes as soon as she left the house, she ran across the manicured lawn to the house her father had built for her.
If the house had been anywhere else she would have loved it dearly. Someone had snooped through her room and found her dream scrapbook. In it were several photos of a French country manor house, among many other photos of things she liked.
The building of the house had brought her no joy, however. A tear had fallen with each brick laid. She had watched the progress from her bedroom in the main house, watching as her future unfolded before her. This was all she would ever have if she didn’t do something about it. She was kept in a gilded prison. Even her dreams were kept prisoner within the wrought iron fence surrounding the property.
Knowing Jace, the ever-present bodyguard was following behind her, Piper didn’t bother to close the door. She went straight to her room, closing and locking the door. As soon as she turned on the lights her three pets greeted her.
The little spotted pig popped up from its fuzzy bed and ran across the carpeted floor. The cat, a much pampered Ragdoll, leapt from the top of the armoire. And the most spoiled dog on the planet tippy-toed until she reached her mistress. The pig and the dog had been rescues, given up or taken away from people who wanted “cute” until they realized every animal needed care. The cat had been a gift from her mother.
“Hello, sweetie,” Piper said with a smile, picking up the dog and tucking her against her chest. A tiny tongue licked her throat. “We’ll go out in a second. Just let me change.”
The pets were used to the routine. They waited patiently as she stripped down to her skin and pulled on a pair of worn shorts and a bright pink T-shirt.
Sparkle the pig trotted after her. Mindy the toy poodle snuggled in her arms and Charm the cat ran ahead. It didn’t take long to get to the backyard. She wasn’t surprised to see Jace standing on the stone patio waiting for her.
It irritated her as it always did. Other than the time in her bedroom, she was never alone. Piper didn’t bother asking him if he would give her time alone. He wouldn’t. He had orders to watch her at all times.
Walking across the lush carpet of grass she waited as Mindy and Sparkle relieved themselves. She almost smiled as she recalled the man’s astonishment when he discovered her tiny pig was housebroken. She had her own litter to use in the house, but she rarely did so. Piper was never gone long enough for the animals to get that desperate.
Once they were finished the three oddball pets played as she watched. As Piper did so, she wondered just how much more of this she could take. There was a whole world out there to be explored. While she had traveled the same world extensively with her parents, she wanted the freedom to just hop in a car and go. She wanted to be able to stop for fries whenever the mood struck her. She wanted to eat a TV dinner on her couch while in her pajamas without worrying how she looked in the eyes of her parents and their guests. She wanted to do so many things without having to ask for permission, without a bodyguard, without feeling like she was going to be crushed by the weight of the chains binding her mentally.
Sitting cross-legged on the ground, she smiled as Sparkle began running circles around her. “You’re a funny pig,” Piper laughed, reaching out to tickle the pig’s back. Sparkle grunted and ran off as fast as her little legs could carry her, made a wide arc, before returning. Mindy barked at the pig from her lap, poking at her with a tiny paw. Sparkle gave her a piggy kiss before running off again. Charm sat beside her, bushy tail swishing, waiting for the right moment to pounce.
As Piper sat there playing with her pets her mind was going a mile-a-minute. Though she recognized every advantage she possessed as the daughter of a very wealthy man, and was not ungrateful for what she had, she knew she couldn’t go on like she was for much longer. Being at the mercy of a furious bull had made her start looking at everything from a new perspective. While she had simply been going along with her father’s every whim, she now questioned why she did so. She was a grown woman. She was educated.
She had choices. She wasn’t a prisoner.
Well, she was, but if she gave it enough thought, she should be able to plan an escape.
Piper could feel her spirit die a little more with each passing day she remained under her father’s thumb. Tears burned her eyes suddenly. Tears? A Barrows never cried. They didn’t feel sorry for themselves.
“You forgot the treats,” a deep voice said from above her.
Tilting her head back Piper looked up the length of Jace’s big body. She wondered idly if he would strip down if she asked him to. She laughed humorously as she took the small box from his hand and thanked him. She couldn’t even get the guy to stop for fries. She really doubted he would strip down to his skin so she could admire what she suspected was a gloriously sculpted male body.
There was no surprise when Sparkle ran up, wanting a treat. Piper smiled and shook the box, which about made the tiny pig lose her mind. Piggy lips smacked as treats were crunched noisily.
As she got Sparkle to do one trick after another, she wished Jace would talk to her. But he had made it clear the first day that his job description didn’t include conversation with the boss’s daughter. It was rather disappointing to learn the man didn’t have enough balls to ignore one little command from her father.
Once Piper’s little pig had finished her repertoire of tricks, she stood and brushed off her backside. As she did so a tiny red glow from beneath the canopy of trees caught her eye. Her heart pounded heavily in her chest. No! No! No! her mind screamed in protest. She swallowed hard against the tears, the anger, and the frustration which were welling up inside her.
Her father even had cameras watching her in her own backyard? The idea of losing that precious little piece of privacy she’d thought she had was all she could take.
Without giving away her new knowledge, Piper gathered up her pets and headed for the house. She waited until they’d washed their treats down with a drink of water, and then walked through the house without even acknowledging the bodyguard, something she had never done before.
Until today she was nothing if not polite. Unlike her father, she recognized people for what they did, their contributions to her life and their hard work. Though she didn’t like having a bodyguard, she wasn’t going to treat him like he was less than nothing.
Right now, however, he represented everything she hated about her life. If she spoke to him she was afraid she would take her frustration out on him.
Jace was good at reading people. Piper Barrows was no different. He recognized the signs of frustration, anger, and despair. The only time he saw any pleasure in her life, any kind of happiness, was when she was playing with her quirky pets.
Douglas Barrows wasn’t the only one whom had done background work. Jace made a point of knowing about his employers. Piper Barrows had nothing but a privileged life from the moment she was conceived. At that time her father had only been a millionaire. During the past twenty-six or so years he had multiplied that many times over. The man provided everything for his daughter, but gave her nothing. She was like a tiny jeweled bird flapping her wings against the bars of a golden cage.
The woman possessed an education she couldn’t use. She had an imagination she couldn’t apply. And she had a passion she couldn’t express.
He had seen the little glances she threw in his direction. He wouldn’t be male if he didn’t realize what was behind them. Miss Piper Barrows was curious about him, was probably doing a little fantasizing.
If the woman wasn’t his job, he would be more than willing to satisfy her curiosity. As it was, she was as off-limits as a woman could be to him. It was probably for the best. What did a man like him have to offer other than a hard-driven lust?
After going around the house, locking doors and checking windows, he went to the room he had chosen to use. It had been designed as a downstairs master suite. He left the door open so he c
ould hear movement in the house. There were no alarms on the house and he was going to suggest changing that. He would also suggest perimeter alarms, though he was loathe to do so. He knew she had finally spotted the camera in the tree in the backyard. He could almost feel her combined outrage and heartbreak. It was yet another bar in the cage holding her.
Jace pitied Piper. He wondered about Douglas Barrows. The man had everything. He was wealthy beyond belief. He could understand the man’s desire to keep his only child safe from the dangers of the world, but there had to be a way to do it without caging her in, without taking away the most basic freedoms.
From what he’d been told, Piper’s last freedom had been taken away after she had been attacked by an unscrupulous stock contractor at a small county rodeo. After that Douglas Barrow had basically placed his daughter on lockdown.
A smile tugged his mouth at one corner. Jace thought there was a bit of spitfire in the tiny woman. He could see fire in her silver-gray eyes. He’d like to have seen her before she had been attacked, when she had been taking on a cowboy with no scruples. The woman probably had some of her father in her, whether she wanted to admit it or not.
One thing he could see happening. There was going to come a moment when everything Douglas Barrows had done to protect his daughter was going to come back to bite him.
Chapter Two
Piper reached her limit five days after discovering the camera, when she made plans to go to a rock concert with a friend and her father nixed them. He told her it wasn’t safe for her to go into such an uncontrolled situation. Even telling her father she would take extra bodyguards hadn’t convinced him to allow her to go.
The news had come to her through Jace, of course, whom had spoken with her father about her plans. When she had gone to supper that night she had cornered him, asking him why she couldn’t go. It was only a concert. A few hours of fun. She hated sounding like a petulant teenager. He had stared at her as if he didn’t know the meaning of the word and he probably didn’t. Douglas Barrows was all business twenty-four-seven.
As she stared up at him, wondering why he hated her so much, Piper felt the last of her spirit wither within her. After the “emotional” moment he had readily excused her from having to participate in the rest of the evening.
Piper made her escape, as relieved as always. She ran across the lawn and into the house. A few minutes later she was playing on the lawn with her pets in the last rays of the evening sun. As she did so her mind was working furiously, making plans, and asking herself if she could really be so bold.
Could she do it?
Feeling the beginning of rebellion welling up from deep of inside her, Piper spent the next few days working over the details of her escape in her mind. She didn’t dare write anything down. She couldn’t leave a clue, wouldn’t leave a hint of what she was going to do.
When she implemented it she realized she was more terrified of being caught by Jace than she had been of the bull trying to crush her into the ground. One thing she had learned from that experience was that there was always hope. All she needed was one opening, one opportunity, and she could get away, just as she had when she had pushed herself between the rails of the pen just before the bull crashed into them.
Yes, there was hope. After putting Sparkle into a heavy canvas bag, she tucked Mindy and Charm in their cloth carriers, slinging the long straps over her body. She looked around her room one last time before she left carrying a large suitcase her friend had left behind months before. On the desk was a letter to her parents, all her credit cards, her cell phone, and the keys to her house and the car she was rarely permitted to drive. Everything else of importance was tucked in the pouch around her waist.
With her heart pounding in her chest Piper was afraid to breathe as she moved through the house. There were no squeaky floorboards or stairs to worry about. But the shadows and dark corners filled her with trepidation. She expected Jace to step out of any one of them as she did her best to move stealthily to the front of the house. She wouldn’t risk going out the back, which would take her too close to the room he used.
The door latched silently behind her. Once she was outside she didn’t waste time. She kept to the shadows, hoping her black clothing helped her blend in. She had covered her hair and face with a black mask she had bought for a skiing trip years before. It suited the purpose admirably, as did the black carriers and suitcase she held her most precious possessions in. They were flat black with nothing on them which would reflect light.
She was just one more shadow in the moonless night as she moved as quickly as she could toward the northeast corner of the property. Her load was weighing her down significantly. She was heading to the one point of weakness she knew of in the outer defenses of her father’s little kingdom. It was a narrow gap in the wrought-iron fence where it joined the brick wall of the disgustingly large garage.
The streets were quiet as she hurried along them, hoping as she did so that a police car didn’t come along on patrol. That would be awkward and downright embarrassing. When she was six blocks away she saw the dark sedan idling at the curb. With her heart jumping up in her throat she hurried toward it.
A tall, elegant man got out when he saw her. He took the carriers with her pets and the large suitcase, all without a word. He didn’t speak until she was in the car beside him and they were underway.
“How are you, Piper?”
“Other than terrified, I’m good. How are you, Colt?”
“I’m good. I haven’t gotten to do anything to piss your father off in ages. Do you think this will do it?”
“When and if he finds out? I’m sure it will.”
Enlisting the help of Colt Redford, a man her father despised, had been pure genius on her part. She hadn’t done it to anger her father. She was doing that just by leaving. But she knew Colt would help her. They had become friends on her visits to his hometown of Silver a few years before. The family had gone there to enjoy the excellent skiing the area had to offer. They had gone four years in a row before Colt and her father had gotten into an argument. She didn’t know the details, but whatever had gone on between the two men, it had brought to an end trips to the charming town. It hadn’t, however, ended their friendship. They had continued it by way of disposable cell phones. She had felt she was being deceitful, and maybe she had been, but it was the only way for her to have a friend her father couldn’t take away from her. She doubted anyone had ever intimidated Colt.
Piper felt no remorse for involving Colt in her escape. The man was several years older than she was and was probably as wealthy as her father. He was from old money, which he had built upon with several business enterprises. No, he was her father’s equal in every way and the perfect person to back her when the time came.
If she hadn’t grown a backbone of her own by then.
The trip to Silver was interesting, if not direct. Colt made a point of causing confusion, knowing there were literally thousands of cameras along any route they would take. They were at banks, restaurants, nightclubs, gas stations, and dozens of other businesses wanting to at least provide the minimum of security. Her father would have them all checked, to find the smallest clue as to how she got away and where she was going.
It took several hours longer than it normally would, making car changes, enlisting carefully arranged decoys, but they finally arrived at a small airport near Las Vegas in a beaten up minivan. She was snuggled down in the back with her pets and didn’t get out until Colt pulled into a large hangar and the huge door was closed.
There was more than one animal anxious to relieve themselves and since Piper didn’t want them doing anything in the small plane waiting for them, she made due with sheets of torn newspaper in a cardboard box for Charm and spread out paper for the other two. Mindy was quick about it, but Sparkle was very particular. She finally relieved herself after some gentle cajoling and the promise of a treat. After cleaning up after them she loaded them back up into their carriers.
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The small plane didn’t seem like it was big enough to stay in the air on its own. Or, perhaps, it seemed way too big to stay in the air. Piper didn’t know which. She had never been on such a small plane before and it was more than a little unnerving. Though her pets snored away as if everything was right in the world, and maybe in theirs it was, she couldn’t relax her white-knuckled grip on the pouch at her waist.
“Hey, sweetheart,” Colt said after they’d been flying for about an hour. “I’ve got something to keep your mind off the flight.”
Piper turned her head reluctantly away from where it had been fixed on the blur of the propeller to look at the handsome, completely competent and confident man beside her. “What’s that?” she asked in a strained voice.
“I was wondering if you’d let me tie you up and fuck you later, after you’ve had time to relax.”
Piper blinked. There had never been anything remotely sexual between the two of them. She swallowed hard. “Okay. Maybe. We’ll have to see.”
Colt’s laughter was so unexpected it startled her pets. Charm yowled loudly in protest, Sparkle squealed angrily, and Mindy whined and barked unhappily. She really didn’t like loud men. It didn’t matter if it was laughter.
Piper didn’t know whether she should be amused or insulted. She chuckled and punched her friend in a muscular arm. It felt really good, so she reached out a tentative hand to stroke him from shoulder to the crook of his elbow.
“Careful, baby girl. I’m really the big, bad wolf in disguise.”
But Piper was shaking her head and smiling as she removed her hand. “Nah, you’re my best friend and I love you.”
Colt’s handsome face softened as he looked at her. “I am. And I love you, too.”
Jace tossed his bags into the back of his truck. It was a badass-looking thing from its flat black grill to the big tires and rugged black rims. Out of a job, he was on his way to track the wayward heiress and general pain in the ass. Though he suspected Piper was just fine, he wanted to confirm it.