Love And Money (Love Series - Book 2)

by K. L. Prince

  “I’m sorry, my dear, but that ship has sailed. You squandered your chance I’m afraid,” Bill Mason says, beginning to walk around the darkened room again.

  “Please, I will do anything. I just want to go home,” she says, standing up from the mattress to plead her case.

  “Sit down!” Bill Mason yells angrily.

  She immediately obeys his command. The last thing that she wants is to experience what it feels like to be shot. If Bill Mason were to shoot her, it’s highly unlikely that she will live long enough to see the light of day again. It’s obvious that Bill Mason is not going to let her go. All she can do now is do what he tells her to and try to live as long as she can, so Caden can find her.

  She wonders if Caden knows about the place where his father is holding her. It seems like a factory building of some sort, which is surely abandoned. As Bill Mason wanders around the large and dirty room, she tries to send thoughts to Caden telepathically. She begs him in her mind to find her. After that, she starts to do the only thing left – pray.

  “You see that man over there, young lady?” Bill Mason asks, stopping his stroll and looking at her. She nods her head yes before she can bring herself to answer vocally. “That is Malcolm,” he says and turns his gaze towards the large man standing in the doorway of the room.

  She follows his gaze to the man standing in the doorway. Malcolm is expressionless. She wonders if he has any daughters. If he does, she wonders if she could use that to her advantage to convince him to let her go.

  Bill Mason continues, as if reading her mind, “I am going to leave you in Malcolm’s care. Don’t give him any trouble because he has been instructed to take whatever means necessary to control you and that includes killing you. Do I make myself clear?”

  “Yes,” she replies and turns her gaze down towards the floor.

  “Good. If you have to go to the bathroom or you get hungry, bang on the door and Malcolm will get you whatever you need,” Bill Mason says heading to the doorway where Malcolm stands. “Be a good girl while I’m gone,” Bill Mason says, as if he’s her father, before disappearing through the doorway.

  She grimaces as the huge metal door that holds her locked away slams shut. She gets up and quickly walks to the windows that are covered with wooden boards. She tries to pull them, until her fingers bleed, but it’s useless. They are too tightly secured.

  Small slivers of light shine through the cracks between the boards and the window. She lets the warmth of the sliver of light hit her face. The realization that it’s the only light of day that she may ever see again is heartbreaking.

  She spins around and leans against the boarded up window, taking in the small room that will now be her home. The realization that the dingy room may be her final resting place and that she will never see Caden’s face again, which she was just admiring and was able to reach out and touch a just few hours ago, brings immense sadness.

  She walks over the mattress and lies down. She covers herself with the blanket that she was given and closes her eyes. She lets the depression that she feels take her over completely. She doesn’t resist or fight it. She welcomes it. She wants to feel the pain because otherwise she might feel nothing at all besides sheer numbness.

  Although the pain that she feels is excruciating, it reminds her of Caden and she wants to be able to feel him every second that she is away from him. She sees his face before her closed eyes and imagines his quirky grin. She hears his laughter in her mind. She knows that besides hope, the only thing that will get her through is the images the she holds in her mind’s eye and her memories of the times that she has spent with Caden.

  She imagines that the pain she feels radiates out from her like a beacon, letting Caden know where she is, so he can find her and save her from the hands of his maniacal father.. She wonders if he knows that she that is missing by now. She wonders if he has gathered together a search party and if they have started looking for her. She wonders if he has gone to the police.

  “Please find me, Caden,” she whispers. “I’m so sorry,” she says and cries herself to sleep.

  * * * * *

  “Harper!” Caden calls out when he finds the living room of his condo empty. He closes the condo door behind him and smiles. “You better be in that bed,” he says, quickening his steps, as he makes his way to the bedroom.

  While he was gone all he could think about was Harper sprawled across his bed in the nude waiting for him. He couldn’t handle the emergency at work fast enough. All he could think about was getting back to his waiting fiancée and holding her in his arms again.

  When he gets to the bedroom, he is confused when he finds it empty.

  “Harper?” he calls out again, sticking his head in the bathroom to check and see if she is inside.

  When he finds it empty, he starts to worry. He pulls his cell phone out of his pocket and dials her number. His call goes straight to her voice mail. Her cell phone is off.

  “That’s weird,” he says, hanging up without leaving a message.

  He decides not to let himself get worked up. He will not let himself worry just yet. He decides that there is probably a perfect explanation to why Harper isn’t in the condo. He decides that she must of just stepped out for a minute and will be back shortly.

  He decides to grab himself a beer, watch some sports, and wait for her to get back. As he makes his way to the refrigerator to grab himself what he decides is a much deserved beer for having to deal with the headache at the office, he catches something shiny out the corner of his eyes sitting on the kitchen table.

  He makes his way over to the kitchen table to see what has caught his eye and he is stopped in his tracks when he recognizes that it’s Harper’s engagement ring.

  “What the hell?” he says, rushing over to pick up the ring.

  He sits down at the kitchen table with the ring in his hand, trying to process what is happening. Why is Harper’s engagement ring sitting on the table? Why isn’t she wearing it? He is overcome with confusion. His gaze is drawn to Harper’s laptop computer screen and his eyes read, “Dear Caden.” His heart skips a beat and then sinks. Before he reads any further, he knows that’s going to happen next is not going to be good.

  He starts to read out loud, “I’ve given this a lot of thought and I’ve decided that everything with your father is just too much to deal with. I can’t marry you under the circumstances. I hope that one day you will understand. I am leaving and I am not coming back. Please don’t follow me. I’m sorry. Harper.”

  He sits back in the chair at the kitchen table and rereads the letter. It doesn’t make sense. They were perfectly fine before he left. There was no indication that she wanted out. Harper seemed completely happy. He can’t understand what could have possibly changed in a matter of a few hours.

  He pulls out his cell phone and tries to call Harper again. If she is going to leave him, at least she could be woman enough to do it to his face. Doesn’t he deserve more than a ‘Dear John’ letter? What they had was not some casual dating situation. They were going to be married for goodness sakes.

  His call immediately goes to Harper’s voice mail again. She is obviously avoiding him and the situation. A feeling of anger overcomes him that is so intense, he stands up and slides everything off the kitchen table and onto the floor with one smooth motion of his arm. Dishes and cutlery break and crash as they hit the floor, along with Harper’s computer, causing the screen to go black.

  He spins around in the kitchen, looking for something else that he can break as a means to release the anger and the grief that he feels inside. Why didn’t he push Harper harder to leave? If he had, they would be far away somewhere and she would still be right beside him. Now, all he feels is incredible regret and unbearable loneliness.

  He moves from one end of the condominium to the other, breaking anything that isn’t tied down. When he runs out of things that he can destroy and he has expended all of his energy, he sits down and sobs.

  * * * * *<
br />
  Olivia drives through the streets of the city in a panic. It’s been five days since she’s last spoken to Harper and she’s out of her mind with worry. She’s tried calling Caden a thousand times to see if she can get any information, but she hasn’t been able to get a hold of him either. She needs to find out something before she goes absolutely crazy from worry.

  Not only is she worried, but Harper’s mother is worried, too. Harper’s mother hasn’t heard from Harper for just as long as long as she has and her mother is climbing the walls with nothing but pure fear in her heart. Her mother is on the verge of going to the police department and filing a missing person’s report, but Olivia told her to wait until she has gone and searched out Caden.

  As she makes her way to Caden’s condo, all she can think about is her last conversation with Harper regarding Caden’s father. She wishes that she had persuaded her friend to run away with Caden as he had suggested, instead of deciding to put things off until after the wedding. She wishes that she had pushed her friend to make that decision before leaving her house that day.

  She remembers how she had told Harper that she would rather never see her again and know that she and Caden were okay, rather than never seeing Harper again because she was dead. What she said to Harper still remains true.

  As she pushes the gas pedal practically to the floor, she holds out hope that Harper and Caden’s sudden disappearance is the result of them deciding to run away together, rather than something more ominous.

  She hopes that when she gets to Caden’s condo, Harper is there and that she and Caden have just decided to hole up in his condo and spend some time together without the interference of the outside world. She hopes that they have just turned off their cell phones and become two hermits in love.

  If Caden isn’t there, she hopes that when she asks around, she finds out that not only has Harper gone missing, but he has as well. She hopes that the two of them are lying on some sandy beach somewhere, soaking up the sun’s rays and planning their future. She hopes that they are missing because they ran away together and not because Bill Mason decided to make them disappear.

  If she finds Caden is not at his place and he is missing, she knows that she will not have to wait very long to find out the true nature of his and Harper’s disappearances. Harper has been her friend for a long time and she knows her friend like the back of her hand. If Harper and Caden are safe somewhere, Harper will let her know somehow and someway that she and Caden are okay because Harper wouldn’t want her to worry. Knowing that gives her comfort as she drives her car as fast as she can over to Caden’s condominium.

  When she arrives, she quickly parks her car and is relieved when she makes it to the front door and someone is leaving, letting her in without her having to buzz Caden. This way she can get to his condo door and demand, and or convince, him to let her through the door. He could easily ignore her buzzes, leaving her standing downstairs, and she would not be satisfied with that.

  When she gets to Caden’s condo door, she pounds as loud as she can and calls his name through the door. She is relieved and concerned when Caden finally answers the door, looking disheveled. He rubs his eyes and looks like he just woke up.

  “Holy shit, Caden. You look like hell. Is Harper here?” she asks, pushing by Caden and making her way into his condo. “Harper?” she calls out when she is inside.

  “Olivia, Harper isn’t here,” Caden says, following behind her as she searches the condo for Harper.

  “Do you know where she is?” Olivia asks, turning towards Caden.

  “I have no idea. She broke up with me and gave me back the engagement ring,” Caden says, looking dejected.

  “What?” Olivia exclaims. “Harper broke up with you? That doesn’t make sense,” she says, confused.

  “Yeah, I went to the office to handle an emergency and when I came back, she was gone. The engagement ring was on the table and she left a note saying that she couldn’t handle things with my father,” Caden replies, starting to look as confused as she feels.

  “Caden, I haven’t heard from Harper in over a week and that is very unusual. The most that Harper and I go without speaking is maybe two or three days – never a week. Not only haven’t I heard from her, her mother hasn’t heard from her either. Her mother is absolutely terrified. If Harper broke up with you, she wouldn’t stop getting in contact with me or her mother. Something is wrong, I can feel it.”

  “Wait a minute. You haven’t heard from Harper in a week?” Caden asks, sounding very concerned now.

  “I’ve been calling her, texting her, leaving messages and I haven’t gotten a single response. If she called things off with you, I would be the first one to know and I haven’t heard a thing. Something is not right, Caden. I’m scared. We have to do something,” she says, sitting down on Caden’s sofa and pulling out her cell phone to check if there has been any word from Harper.

  “Maybe she just needs to get away for awhile and clear her head. She did just call off our engagement,” Caden says, sitting next to her on the sofa.

  “Caden, Harper loved you. She was so excited to plan the wedding and marry you. If she was having second thoughts, I’m absolutely sure that she would have spoken to me about it. She did mention that she was concerned about your father, but it was not enough to call things off. She was willing to go head-to-head against your father to marry you. I hate to say it, but I think that she was even willing to die. Plus, Harper is not the type of person that would just up and break up with you through a letter. That is not her style and she definitely wouldn’t do anything to cause her mother to worry the way that she is. Even if she didn’t want to speak to anyone, she would have at least let her mother and I know that she was okay. Not only that, Harper hasn’t shown up to work and she never misses time without calling in. She hasn’t shown up for any of her shifts for the last week and she hasn’t called in to let them know that she wouldn’t be in. I’m telling you that something is seriously wrong,” she says, disappointed to find no messages from Harper on her phone. She turns to Caden, “Do you think that your father had anything to do with this? Do you think that your father has taken Harper? Do you think that he has hurt her?”

  Caden runs his hands nervously through his hair and says, “If Harper is missing, it seems like the only plausible explanation.”

  “Can you go and speak to him and find out if he had anything to do with Harper being missing?” she asks, feeling scared.

  “I’m going to go and get to the bottom of this right now,” Caden says, standing up from the sofa, grabbing his keys and cell phone off the living room table. “If my father has anything to do with Harper’s disappearance, I’ll be able to tell. If he’s lying, I’ll be able to tell. If he’s taken her, I’m going to get her back, I promise. I’ll let you know what I find out.”

  “Okay,” she says, following Caden out of his condo, extremely fearful for her best friend’s life. “Please get her back,” she says, hugging Caden.

  “I will do my best,” he says, before getting into his car and speeding away.

  Chapter 14

  “Where is she?” Caden screams, as he barges into his father’s office, grabbing his father by the collar and pulling him up so that they are face to face.

  “I don’t know what the hell you are talking about,” his father says, startled. “Shelia, if you would excuse us,” Bill Mason says to his secretary, waving her out of the office.

  Caden throws his father down into his desk chair, causing it to roll backwards. “I know that you did something to Harper. Where is she? You better not have hurt her,” Caden says when Sheila has left the office and closed the door.

  “Oh, Harper, that money-grubbing woman,” Bill Mason says, straightening his shirt.

  “What are you talking about?” Caden asks, confused by his father statement. He thought Harper was a liar, not a money-grubber.

  “I offered your bitch of a fiancée a million dollars to leave you and she took it,” Bill Mason
says, looking smug.

  “I don’t believe you. Harper would never do something like that. She would never take your money and leave me,” Caden says in disbelief.

  “Well, believe it, Son. I’m afraid she happily took the money I offered her and she split. You’re never going to see her again,” Bill says, reclining in his chair. “I told you that she wasn’t who you thought that she was from the start, but you wouldn’t listen, but now you see, don’t you? She was only in it for the money from the start. It’s obvious that she would rather have the money without you attached.”

  Caden stands and stares at his father. He’s speechless. He doesn’t for a second believe that Harper took the money from his father, but he definitely believes that his father offered her a million dollars to leave him.

  He quickly contemplates what his next move is going to be in this game with his father. He’s a hundred percent sure that his father had something to do with Harper’s disappearance, but what he needs to know now is if she’s still alive. He would love nothing more than to threaten his father or kill him on the spot, but he chooses to change tactics and move in a different direction to find out the information that he needs.

  He flops down in the chair across from his father, placing his head in his hands and says, “I can’t believe that Harper would do this to me. I thought that she loved me. I could have given her a million dollars several times over, if money was what she really wanted.”

  “Son, don’t think of it as a defeat, think of it as a victory. It’s better that you learned about Harper before you walked down the aisle with her. Imagine what you would have lost if you had married that woman.”

  “I hear what you’re saying, Dad, but it still hurts. I loved Harper and I planned to spend the rest of my life with her. Now what am I supposed to do?”