by J. S. Scott
“Sebastian and Paige are leaving tonight,” I said as I walked along beside Dane. The beach wasn’t lit, but the lights of the resort and the full moon had guided us just fine.
“I know. But we’ll see them again soon. My main goal in life right now is to make you happy.”
I stopped, making us both halt since I had a strong grip on Dane’s hand. “I am happy,” I told him emphatically. “I’ve never been happier than I am right now.”
Dane made me ecstatic. I wish I had the words to tell him how much he meant to me, and how he’d changed my life. But I didn’t.
“If you’re happy now, wait until we get back to the suite,” he said in a sexy, low, and very masculine tone.
I shivered at the thought of what he might have planned. But I didn’t have to be screwing him to feel our connection. However, I’d probably never argue if he wanted to get me naked. I needed him as much as he needed me. Most likely, way more.
“Thank you for this,” I said as we continued walking.
“For what?”
“Bringing me here. Showing me some of the island.”
After our snorkeling outing, Paige and Sebastian had hosted two more days filled with sightseeing. And one evening at a traditional luau. Every moment had been sweet for me. Dane had attended every festivity, getting less and less reserved as we went along with the wedding events.
“You already thanked me,” he reminded me.
“A while ago,” I protested. “Now I’m thanking you for the last few days. It’s been incredible.”
“We’ll come back eventually. I have a place in Kauai.”
“What’s it like?”
“Expensive,” he said in a mischievous voice. “It’s a resort.”
“Another investment?” I joked.
“Yes. You’ll love it.”
“I’m sure I will,” I said.
“We’ll go there after we see more of the world.”
That moment seemed so perfect, being able to dream about a future. Sure, I was scared, but I was determined to take Paige’s advice and not let my past encroach on my future.
Dane was worth any risk I had to take to have a possible future with him.
Honestly, I needed him, and I hoped he continued to need me, too.
“I’ll be right there,” I told Dane as we reached the bottom of the stairs that led back up to the reception. I had to put my shoes back on, which meant I had to do a ton of tiny straps.
I waved him toward the stairs as I started securing all the straps.
He climbed the stairs, calling over his shoulder, “I’ll be saying goodbye to my brothers.”
“Go on. I’m on my way. Just give me a sec.”
I sat down on the cement to keep my balance while I struggled with the pieces of leather.
In moments, I was rising again, and testing my heels on the cement.
“It will do,” I said under my breath, preparing to go find Dane, his family, and Paige.
What happened after I was done occurred so quickly that I never had a chance to scream.
A warning chill coursed down my spine as I tried to speak against the hand that had slapped against my mouth.
Instantly, I knew exactly who was keeping me quiet and frozen to one spot.
He was familiar to me, and so was the terror I was feeling as he held me captive.
“Make one fucking stupid move and you’re dead, bitch,” the gravelly, hoarse voice said in my ear. He was holding me against his dirty, smelly body, the sharp point of a knife tearing into my skin.
Oh, Jesus! How could he possibly be here?
Nausea rose up in my throat, but I tried not to panic.
I knew his unpleasant voice, and I recognized his repulsive scent.
My time was up. I’d finally been caught.
There was no mistaking this man and his hatred for me.
I’d been living with it as long as I could remember.
I looked up to the patio as he dragged me away, my heart breaking as I realized I was never going to see Dane again.
CHAPTER 40
Dane
“I can’t find Kenzie,” I told my brothers when I came back to the patio. I’d gone looking for her twice, but she wasn’t on the beach.
I cursed myself for leaving her at the bottom of the steps alone, but we were in a safe area, and I hadn’t been far away.
The reception had slowly cleared out, and the only ones left on the patio were Sebastian, Paige, Trace, and Eva. I’d been searching for Kenzie for over an hour, hoping she’d just slipped away to the bathroom or another place where she could catch some privacy.
“Where in the hell did she go?” Trace asked gruffly.
I ran a hand through my hair in frustration. “I don’t fucking know. We took a walk on the beach to get away for a few minutes. The last time I saw her she was putting her shoes on to come back up here.”
“I haven’t seen her since earlier tonight,” Paige said, sounding alarmed. “I would have seen her if she’d come back to the reception. I assumed she’d gone back to your suite.”
“She didn’t,” I confirmed. “I have the room key.”
“We need to search for her,” Eva said in a concerned voice.
“I’ve been up and down the beach, and I’ve been searching every public room in this venue,” I growled, pissed off at myself because I hadn’t waited for her.
“Then we’ll have to spread out. And we should call the police,” Eva said.
“Wait!” Paige exclaimed. “I think I might know what happened.”
“What?” I asked in a graveled voice. “Tell me.” I was fucking out of my mind with worry.
“Did Kenzie tell you about her past?” Paige asked, her face white with fear.
“Crappy parents, and an equally dismal life? Yeah, she told me.”
“Did she tell you about her parents? Did she tell you that her father has been trying to kill her for years now?”
“What are you talking about, Paige?” I asked as I stared at her troubled expression.
She sighed nervously. “Then she didn’t tell you. That makes sense, because she thought he’d finally given up several years ago. But maybe he didn’t.”
“Her father is in prison. She told me that,” I answered.
“Her mother actually died in prison, but I know Kenzie tries not to think about that. Both of her parents were junkies, and her mother contracted HIV. She died of AIDS while she was incarcerated. Kenzie never had parents. Just enemies.”
I scrubbed my face, trying to comprehend what Paige was saying. “She didn’t tell me that her father was homicidal,” I confessed. “But what does that have to do with her disappearance now?”
“Paige’s father is still alive, and he’s been trying to get to her, even from jail. She testified against him, Dane. She outed everything about her parents right before she graduated from high school. She put them away. Kenzie was a witness to a vehicular murder her father committed near their apartment. A drug deal gone wrong. Her account as a witness was what cemented the case against her parents.”
Christ! I’d known that Kenzie’s life had been rough, but I hadn’t realized just how much courage she’d actually had as a teenager. It would have been so damn easy for her to just go the same route as her parents, but she’d struggled to do the right thing. “And her father wanted her dead for snitching?”
Paige frowned. “He was part of an organized crime ring, the U.S. part of a Mexican drug cartel. A powerful one that operates internationally. Her father transported drugs. He could have been a wealthy man, even though he was a horrible person, but her parents snorted and shot up the profits. Money went missing during the bad drug deal, over a quarter of a million dollars. Her father assumed that Kenzie had taken it. But she didn’t. There’s no way she did.�
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I shuddered at the thought of members of a drug cartel chasing Kenzie down. They’d apparently wanted to shake her down for the money they assumed she stole.
“I know she didn’t do it,” Paige said gently. “Not only did she tell me so, but she wouldn’t have had to live hand-to-mouth if she’d stashed the money.”
“You said he gave up?” I asked Paige.
“Kenzie did nothing but run away from her enemies that her father sent after her. If they were onto her, she ran. But after we became roommates, they either couldn’t find her, or the guys on the outside lost interest and moved on to other things.”
“And her father?” I questioned gruffly.
“He hates her. He always has. She put him in prison, and in his mind, she took his money.”
“I’m going to see where he is right now,” Sebastian said as he walked to the other side of the patio, already dialing his phone as he moved.
Paige called out the information Sebastian needed, but she didn’t move away from me.
“I’ll hit the computer,” Trace said, and then left to jog toward the elevator inside.
Only Eva and Paige stayed in place.
“Why didn’t she tell me everything,” I asked angrily. “I would have protected her better. I can’t watch out for her if I don’t understand everything that happened. I had no idea that she’d had to keep running for her life, and that her father wanted her dead.”
“I’m sure she wanted to, but she was always ashamed of where she came from, Dane. Who wants to tell anybody that your father wants you dead?”
“It’s not her fault,” I exploded.
“Of course it isn’t, but Kenzie has spent most of her life on the run or looking over her shoulder. Her father was powerful in organized crime, and she blew the whistle on him. I can only imagine how hard that must have been for her. And then the incident that left her scarred destroyed her. Her chance for a new life was gone, and she had to move back to a place that was familiar to her. Granted, she didn’t go back to Boston, but Cambridge is close enough.”
I was livid. Yeah, I was pissed at Kenzie for not telling me, but the majority of my anger was toward her son-of-a-bitch father for the things he’d done to Kenzie. Nobody who is trying to do the right thing should have to live like a hunted animal. “You think it’s him, don’t you?” I asked Paige.
Her expression was terrified as she answered, “I hope not, but I can’t come up with another plausible explanation, Dane. I don’t want it to be him, because I’m afraid he’s out for revenge. Once whoever is helping him is convinced that Kenzie doesn’t have his money, he’ll kill her. These people don’t mess around. One more dead body is nothing to them.”
I couldn’t think of anything that made more sense, either. Kenzie’s purse was still where she stashed it, so she almost surely hadn’t left willingly. “Fuck!” I cursed, feeling like I was wasting time. “We have to find her, Paige.”
“Did she tell you that she was in love with you?” she asked softly.
My head jerked toward her. “She’s what?”
“She loves you, Dane. I think you should know that.”
My chest ached so damn badly that I couldn’t breathe. “She does?”
Paige nodded. “I’m hoping you feel the same way.”
“Of course I do. Hell, I’d die for Kenzie without a second thought.”
I was still trying to take in the fact that Kenzie loved me. But I was assuming that Paige knew the truth.
“I should have told her,” I said with regret. “I was so damn afraid of getting hurt because Kenzie has that power. I was afraid I cared too much. But that doesn’t mean a damn thing now that she’s gone.”
I hated myself for not spilling my guts to her. I should have. At least she would have known that I was going to hunt for her until I dropped dead, or we found her.
“She was scared, Dane. Please understand it had nothing to do with you. It took me years to get her to tell me the whole story.”
“All I ever wanted was to fucking make her life better,” I confessed to Paige.
“It was better,” Eva spoke up. “I could tell.”
Paige nodded. “For the first time in her life, she wasn’t looking over her shoulder. You changed that for her.”
“Shit! Maybe she was too complacent,” I considered.
“It’s been years since anybody hunted her down. She thought it was finally over, but she still kept alert for the possibility.”
“Do you think those bastards in California were after her because of her father?” I rasped.
“No,” Paige replied. “I think Kenzie initially suspected they were, but they were after drug money. It was an unfortunate crime, but they weren’t connected to her father.”
Sebastian came running back just as Trace flew out the door.
“He’s out,” Trace announced. “Her father was released from prison a few days ago. He ended up getting vehicular manslaughter, so he was up for parole. Since he’d behaved in prison, they granted him his freedom.”
“I was just going to say the same thing,” Sebastian said.
“Fuck!” I exploded, feeling like I was in agony.
The bastard had scooped her out right from under me. If I had only known that she was in any kind of danger, I would have watched her like a hawk. “He has her,” I said.
Everybody nodded. Nobody believed this was a coincidence, especially me.
“We’ll find her,” Sebastian promised. “I have my security guys starting to search already. We need to track down where he would go with her.”
“My people are on it, too,” Trace confirmed. “We’ll find her, Dane.”
I’ll be fine alone. I’ll get used to it.
The words of my mantra floated through my head, but I wasn’t accepting it at all. I wouldn’t just lay down and be okay with being alone. Not after Kenzie. “I won’t be fine alone, and I’m not fucking getting used to it anymore,” I growled. “I want her back.”
“What do you mean?” Trace asked.
“I used to tell myself that I’d be okay on my own. I thought I’d get used to it. Every time I started to feel lonely, I consoled myself with those stupid damn words. But they aren’t fucking working anymore. Not since Kenzie plowed into my life like a tornado. I want people. I want my family. And God help me, I have to have her.”
“You were never alone, Dane,” Sebastian uttered in a low tone. “We were always here.”
“I didn’t see that back when I was really hurting. I didn’t see shit. But I can understand it now.”
Trace frowned. “You better understand it. We fucking love you, brother.”
Now that I had clarity, I knew they’d always loved me, but I’d been too consumed with my own problems that I’d never seen myself as anything except a hindrance to them. I wanted them to live their own lives, something that didn’t really include me. But I didn’t feel that way anymore. “I love you guys, too,” I grumbled. “I’ll explain later. Right now I have to find Kenzie. I love her. And I’m not going to lose her. I can’t.”
My gut was twisting at the thought of her being with somebody who wanted her dead.
Honestly, I didn’t understand how anybody could hate Kenzie, but her father was one fucked up asshole.
“Sebastian and I will work with our security,” Trace told me as my two brothers retreated into the hotel.
For the first time in my life, I wished I had security. I couldn’t stand to be idle.
“I’ll go help them,” I told Eva and Paige.
“The two of us will stay together and search for her. Maybe somebody saw something,” Paige said.
“Be careful,” I warned. “If anything happened to either one of you, your husbands would be completely destroyed.”
Paige laid her hand on my arm. “Nothing will happen.
I have to try to help. I’m the reason my best friend was here in the first place. And I knew about her father. I should have let Trace put more security in place, but I didn’t know he was free. I’m willing to bet that Kenzie didn’t know, either.”
I grabbed Paige’s hand roughly. “Don’t!” I told her urgently. “Don’t blame yourself.”
“I’ll stop when you do,” she challenged, sending me a pointed stare. “Blame isn’t going to help the situation right now.”
I got that. And I probably knew I needed to drop my own emotions to search for Kenzie. But it wasn’t going to be easy. “I understand,” I mumbled as I let go of her hand.
“I just want Kenzie back,” Paige said tearfully. “I’ve been so busy this week. We didn’t really get to spend any time together.”
“Hey,” I cautioned. “No blame. She isn’t going to die, Paige.” I was willing to do anything to save her.
She nodded, but a big fat tear plopped onto her cheek right before she turned away, disappearing quickly with Eva to keep up the search around the premises.
I sprinted to the door, and then was nothing but irritated when I had to wait for the elevator to take me to Trace’s top floor suite.
“Don’t give up, Kenzie. We’re right behind you,” I said in a hoarse whisper as the elevator doors slammed closed. “Whatever it takes, I’ll find you.”
Somehow, I’d locate her. I’d always been like a heat-seeking missile when she was around. I just hoped that connection didn’t fail me now.
CHAPTER 41
Kenzie
I’d had plenty of nightmares about my father finding me one day, but the reality was nothing like the scary dream.
It was worse.
“I told you, I don’t know what happened to the money,” I told him nervously.
I looked into the cold, hard face of my father, Victor Jordan, still unable to believe that he’d been my sperm donor.
He was emotionally vacant, and I couldn’t recognize a single hint of softness for his daughter.
He hated me.
He always had.
From my earliest memories, he’d been a monster, and it hadn’t changed as I’d grown up. My parents had tried to use me to smuggle their drugs into school, but I’d refused. Yeah, I’d taken a beating that had left me unconscious for an undetermined amount of time, but none of my classmates were going to overdose and die because of me.