Taking What's Theirs (Siren Publishing LoveEdge)

by Kalissa Alexander

  Seth poured himself a drink from the minibar in his office and sat back down at his desk. He stubbed out his cigarette before he put his head in hands as he continued to go over everything that Amanda had told him about how the girls were abducted. They were targeted in bars for the most part and only approached if they fit the profile. Sal’s men looked for pretty ones that were young and naïve who, when a good-looking man pursued them and plied them with drinks, would take risks they knew they shouldn’t but did anyway. Once they were in the hotel room, they were immediately drugged and taken from the life they had known into a nightmare of sex, drugs, and God knows what.

  Abigail’s face swam before him. Rod hopefully hadn’t plied her with drinks, but he had pursued her that night at the bar and taken her back to his room. What if it hadn’t been Rod, but one of Sal’s men? The thought of Abigail being drugged and raped brought on not only a cold fear that seeped into every part of his being but a violent need to throw up. He ran for the bathroom off his office and hung his head in the toilet.

  He swore as he pulled himself up and flushed the toilet. He washed his face and brushed his teeth. There was no longer any hiding from the fact that Abigail meant everything to him. There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do to keep her safe. Pictures of her smiling, laughing, and crying out with pleasure ran through his head. He needed to know she was safe.

  He went back into his office and picked up his cell phone. He rang her number but it went directly to voice mail. She was probably working and he was being stupid. He’d call her later. And then what, he thought to himself. He shook his head as if to clear it. He didn’t want to be in love with her. But this was Abigail he was talking about, not the woman he had known as Samantha. That woman was a criminal. He wasn’t sure why, but it made him feel less used knowing he had been taken by a professional.

  Abigail was nothing like her. Why had it taken seeing Samantha or Amanda again to make him see what had been right there in front of him? He loved Abigail with every breath he took. And this time, he knew his brothers did too. Their love for her had been right there looking back at him. He had just refused to see it. And Abigail, did she love them? He thought he knew the answer, but he had never once made her think that he did, and Rod and Jamie, as far as he knew, hadn’t spoken those words either.

  He heard a knock at his door. His assistant opened it for two men who introduced themselves as FBI agents. He nodded and sat behind his desk, beckoning them to sit down. He would see this thing through. He’d make sure she got the deal and that those poor girls were found and brought back to the people that loved them.

  Chapter Twenty

  Abby sat under the warm Florida sun near the pool of her aunt and uncle’s home. It was a beautiful one-floor rancher that sprawled over two acres of land. Her aunt and uncle were trying to convince her parents to live with them permanently. The house, her aunt said, was too big for just the two of them and she hated the thought of selling it. Having her parents there would be the solution to all their problems.

  She knew why her parents had said no. They thought she would be living with them and they knew she would have never wanted to live with her aunt and uncle. They were nice, but it would have been weird for her, but that wouldn’t be the case for her parents. She had to get her own apartment as soon as she could. She didn’t want to be the reason her parents moved out of this house that she could tell they loved. It was the perfect arrangement for them financially and she knew her mother had always been close with her sister. She agreed with her aunt. It made sense for all of them to live together and share expenses.

  This weekend the restaurant was closed for kitchen renovations. They had all gone to Disney World and Epcot Center together. They had asked her to go with them, but she had no. She would enjoy some alone time and had promised herself she would look for jobs online.

  Her mother had known something was wrong from the moment she had stepped off the plane. She tried to pretend everything was fine, but she obviously wasn’t that good of an actor. Her mother had questioned her a few days after her arrival, but she had only said she was seeing someone and it didn’t work out. Her mother accepted what she said and didn’t pry any further. Abby was thankful for that. She wasn’t quite sure how her mother would react if she told her she was in love with three men who liked to handcuff her and spank her for not only their pleasure but hers too.

  She missed their touch, the way they held her, and the way they dominated her body. It had been almost four weeks since Seth’s phone call when she had decided she had to leave them on her own terms. They had called her, but she had just let their calls go to voicemail. She knew she had acted like a coward, but she couldn’t bear to see them again knowing how she felt and that it wasn’t the same for them. It would have been torture.

  Jumping up from the chaise lounge, she ran and dove into the clear, cool water. She swam for a few minutes and then floated on her back, keeping her eyes closed. The sun was bright and warm on her face. Her aunt told her it started to get cold around November and by February it could get downright frigid. Jacksonville, by some, was considered southern Georgia instead of northern Florida. It made sense it would be colder than most parts of Florida.

  The one bright note in her life was her parents. They loved Florida and also working for their nephew. It seemed that the job of managing the restaurant was like a dream come true for her father and also for her mother, who enjoyed being a hostess a couple days a week. They couldn’t wait to sell the house now that Abby had made her decision to come live with them. Her father had already been in touch with a realtor. Seeing them happy was the best therapy for the all-consuming pain that she couldn’t seem to shake. Time was the only thing that would help. At least that was what she kept telling herself.

  Lifting herself out of the pool, she toweled off and walked through the sliding glass doors into the modern kitchen that her aunt had renovated a few years before. She caught a glimpse of her reflection in the smoked glass of the double-wide refrigerator. The bikini she was wearing was something she would never had put on if anyone else was home. She had seen it at the sex store that she and Jessica had visited. It had been a spur of the moment purchase. It barely covered her. In fact, now that it was wet, it was transparent. What had she been thinking?

  She pulled out a vinyl placemat from a drawer and placed it on the kitchen chair. She was still damp and didn’t want to leave a water mark. She liked this house a lot. It was all light and windows. It was cheerful. Her parents would be happy here.

  When they returned, she was going to tell them that if she didn’t find a job on her own in the next few weeks, she would work at the restaurant. She couldn’t lounge around here forever and feel sorry for herself. It wasn’t fair to anyone and the sooner she had a job and found her own place, the sooner she could move forward and stop pining for the three men she knew had never been hers to begin with.

  She heard her cell phone ringing from the living room where she had left it when she was watching television earlier. She ran to pick it up and smiled. Jessica’s voice greeted her.

  “Hi! I wasn’t sure you were going to answer.”

  “I just came in from the pool.”

  “Oh, rub it in why don’t you?” Jessica laughed.

  “Sorry about that. How are you?”

  “Good. But I wanted to give you a heads-up about something.”

  “What?”

  “I had a visitor today and he was looking for you.”

  * * * *

  Jamie threw his jacket down on one of the sofas before he went into the kitchen, where he surveyed the contents of the refrigerator for a half-eaten container of rice pudding—one of his many indulgences. He pulled out a spoon from the kitchen drawer and sat down at the kitchen table. He had wanted something sweet. Thinking of something sweet that he wouldn’t mind devouring, he pictured Abigail and wondered how she was doing. He missed her and couldn’t wait until she was back where she belonged.

  Ever si
nce the shock of seeing her in his brother’s bed in the hotel room in Atlantic City, she had never been far from his thoughts. He still couldn’t believe how she had come back into his life. But she had and he had never been happier. Each weekend that she came to them was like Christmas morning when he was a kid. He loved unwrapping his presents then and she gave a whole new meaning to the word gift. He also loved watching her come undone as she came hard for them. The fact was he loved everything about her.

  He laughed to himself when he thought how he had not been looking forward to taking her to the formal. Marty had begged him to take his girlfriend’s friend to the dance and promised all sorts of favors if Jamie would help him out. Marty had been persistent and persuasive. Important attributes that had helped his friend become a successful criminal lawyer for a firm in San Francisco. He was married with one kid and another one on the way. Jamie was glad he had found happiness as well as success.

  He remembered how upset Marty had been when Abigail’s friend had dumped him soon after the dance. She was a beautiful girl, but she had an aggressiveness about her that he had not found attractive. However, she had been the catalyst for that night and for that reason alone, he would always be grateful to her.

  He heard the front door slam and knew one or both of his brothers were home. He wondered if Seth had called Abigail. He had thought about calling her himself, but he didn’t want to inadvertently do anything to undermine Seth’s plans. His brother liked to call the shots and even though he consulted with his brothers, Seth liked being in control, especially with women. Unfortunately, there was a reason for his obsessive-compulsive nature, and knowing that, Jamie was always considerate of his brother’s needs even when they conflicted with his own.

  Jamie wondered if Seth would ever get over Samantha and what she had done. He hadn’t thought about her in a long time. He had never been truly in love with her, but Seth had been insistent that she was right for them, and he had let himself believe it was true, but he had never been in love with her. He knew that now for sure. Abigail had helped him understand what real love was. What he felt for her made what he felt for Samantha seem like child’s play.

  He would give anything if he could go back in time. He would have called her and brought her into their lives. But his dad’s death had thrown him into a depression and by the time he had come out of it, he had convinced himself he would be no good for her and that she was probably already with someone else.

  Rod came walking into the kitchen interrupting his thoughts. “Left work without us? Couldn’t wait to get home?”

  “Yeah. I couldn’t wait to dig into this pudding.” He laughed.

  “That stuff is really bad for you, you know.”

  “I know. But so is the fried chicken from that fast food place you like to pretend you never go to, but we all know you do.”

  “Point taken. Forget I mentioned it.

  “Where’s Seth?”

  “Getting changed. He said he wanted to talk to us.”

  “What about?”

  “He wouldn’t say. Just that he wanted us all together.”

  “Sounds serious.”

  “Probably some legal matter. But nevertheless, I’m glad we’re going to have a little family meeting. I have something I need to discuss too.”

  “Holy shit, now I’m really intrigued. What’s going on?

  “Let’s wait for Seth.”

  As if on cue, Seth came sauntering into the kitchen. “What’s for dinner?”

  “I think,” Rod said, “that there’s some lasagna left from the other night. That and a bottle of wine sounds good to me.”

  “It does, but first I’d like to talk to you about something that happened today. I thought there would be no need to discuss it at all, but there was a lot more to it than I initially thought. I saw Samantha today.”

  “You’re kidding,” Jamie said, trying to gauge his brother’s mood. “That’s the last thing I ever expected to hear you say.”

  “I hope it was because the cops needed you to confirm she was the one that stole from us,” Rod asked, his eyes wide and angry.

  “Not exactly. She wanted to see me. She had a legal problem. She called me. And just for the record, her real name is Amanda Parsons.”

  “She went by an alias. Can’t say that I’m surprised to hear that. But I can’t believe you took her call.”

  “I’m glad I did.”

  “Don’t even tell me she’s trying to worm her way back into your life after what she did.” Rod all but shouted.

  “Calm down,” Seth said, holding up his hands. “It wasn’t like that.”

  “Then what was it like?”

  Jamie understood why Rod was going nuts. The woman had practically destroyed Seth. His confidence had been in shreds, at least where women were concerned. Even now, he didn’t trust them. They were good for fucking but little else. He wanted to believe that Abigail was the exception for Seth. But this revelation was making him wonder if Seth could possibly still be in love with a woman who had not only used him but all of them for nothing but her own selfish needs. What was it about that woman that got to Seth? It just didn’t make sense. Seth had never been the forgiving type even before he met her.

  Seth sat down opposite Jamie and motioned for Rod to sit down too. Reluctantly Rod did, crossing his arms as he waited for Seth to answer his question.

  “She got herself in some trouble and not just with the local authorities, but with the FBI.”

  Jamie and Rod sat and listened as Seth told them about his meeting with the woman they had known as Samantha. Rod’s face went from anger to disbelief back to anger. Jamie knew his own face reflected the same emotions. This was crazy and from what Seth told them, he had no choice but to help her. Those young girls had to be set free and as soon as possible.

  “I talked to one of FBI agents before I left the office. They found the girls and Sal is behind bars. Samantha will get her deal once she testifies.”

  “Thank God,” Jamie said. “Samantha’s lucky those girls were okay. I’m not sure the FBI would have been too eager to help her otherwise. They have ways of dealing with people like her.”

  “Well, it’s over,” Seth said, “at least that part of it.”

  “What do you mean, that part of it?” Rod asked.

  Seth took a moment before he continued. “I couldn’t stop thinking about Abigail and how easily it could have been one of Sal’s men that she met at the bar that night and not Rod. The outcome would have been very different and the realization of it made me sick, really sick. The thought of anyone hurting her like that made me face some hard truths about myself and about her.”

  Jamie held his breath. He knew what he wanted to hear Seth say. Please, let this be a breakthrough for him.

  “I never thought I would ever be able to love a woman again because I would never be able to trust her. That was until I met Abigail. Samantha, without even knowing it, finally made me see that Abigail was so far removed from her it wasn’t even funny. It forced me to admit what I’ve known in my heart for a while.”

  Seth stopped for a moment to catch his breath, his eyes looked sad. “I love Abigail and until today I wouldn’t let myself acknowledge it was even a possibility. I think you feel the same way, but if you don’t, I understand. I’m not going to do what I did last time, I promise you that. I couldn’t do that to you again.”

  Jamie had never seen his brother quite like this, not even when Samantha had left them so cruelly. Seth looked beaten and broken. He loved her but he wouldn’t pursue her if it meant hurting them. The love Jamie felt for his brother bubbled over into his words.

  “You may be one of the strongest men I’ve ever known. I love you, Seth. And the truth is, I love Abigail, too. I don’t want to live without her in our lives. I need her, too.”

  Both he and Seth looked to where Rod was watching them. Suddenly Rod broke out in a huge grin. “Looks like the Owens brothers are in agreement on this one. I was going to talk to b
oth of you about my feelings for Abigail tonight. Seth beat me to it.”

  Seth’s face lit up as if the weight of the world had been lifted from his shoulders. “Now I know what real love is. It’s the way I feel about her. And this time, knowing you both feel exactly the same way, makes what I’m about to suggest not only attainable, but downright possible.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “Who was it?” Abby asked Jessica, holding the phone tightly. She felt her heart leap into her throat.

  “Jamie Owens.”

  When she didn’t respond because she was having a difficult time breathing, Jessica said, “I know. Strange, huh? He asked me where you were.”

  “You didn’t tell him, did you?” she choked out.

  “I didn’t think it was a secret. I mean, you liked the guy. He’s still every bit as handsome as he was the night of the dance, maybe even more handsome, and I didn’t see a wedding ring. I thought I was doing you a favor. You said you broke up with that guy you met in Atlantic City and well…I thought Jamie might cheer you up.”

  “You told him I was here?” She could feel the adrenaline in her body kicking into action.

  “Like I said, I didn’t think it was a secret. He actually said he was going to Florida on business. He had some things to take care of here in Philadelphia and wondered how you were doing. I just thought, wow, the guy’s here on business and decides to look her up and then he’s on his way to Florida. It must be karma or something.”