101 Nights Box Set: Volume One

by SE Reign

  “Will do. You may want to warn her who it is as well.”

  I glance at him. “Smart. But …” I’m getting ready to break up with her. It’s looking like a better idea by the second, if it’ll mean protecting her from my father’s bizarre tactics. “I’ve gotta break it off. There’s no way she’s staying involved like this.”

  “I can take care of both of you,” George reminds me. “But she needs to know, so she understands why we’re monitoring her and the electronics.”

  There’s more than one reason I don’t want Natalie near me. I can’t tell George the other reason, though, that I don’t like feeling the way I do now. Now that we know who is fucking up my world, we can take steps to mitigate the damage and danger. As usual, things will be back to normal in a few days. Except that I’ve fallen for a woman I can’t have.

  I need to talk to my father. No part of me wants to take that step. Ever. I want him to rot in the deepest hole I can find. But if he’s behind the men bothering Natalie, then he’ll be the first I tell that we broke up.

  Absently, I follow the lumbering orange bus with my gaze. Too deep in thought, I don’t notice that it doesn’t stop.

  The screen door slams.

  “Let me call the school!” Suleyma calls. “Sometimes she stays over for tutoring.”

  I turn, glancing at George, who’s rising off the couch. He looks ready to brawl, while I, too, feel the sense of tension that makes me think something is wrong.

  Leaving the living room, I don’t bother giving Suleyma privacy but move close enough to hear her on the phone.

  “… some mistake,” she says, confused. “I’ve been here all day, and I’m the only one permitted to sign her out.”

  A pause as she listens.

  “What do you mean?”

  My heart sinks into my stomach. It can’t be a coincidence that my father’s head of the intelligence and security bureau is in the country, and my sister goes missing.

  I snatch the phone from her and hang up.

  Suleyma turns, fear in her eyes.

  “There’s no one that can handle this now but us,” I tell her quietly.

  “What did the school say?” George asks, approaching us.

  Suleyma blinks a few times before responding. “They said I signed her out at about noon.”

  George and I exchange a look. He steps away and grabs his phone, striding outside to the porch to make a call.

  “Don’t worry, Suleyma,” I say. “We’re going to move you as planned, and George will find Layla.”

  My thoughts turn to Natalie, and I reach for my phone. I have no texts from her today, but I didn’t expect to. There was way too much emotion and tension last night for her to text.

  Even now, knowing I need to check in on her after this mess, I can’t quite figure out what to say, maybe because there are things I want to say that I don’t think I should. Like how I don’t want to lose her and that – even if we break this off – I’ll make sure she’s taken care of for the rest of her life, whether or not she wants me to. I owe her that much.

  Those types of expressions aren’t ones I’m comfortable with. Having never made them in any circumstance before, I don’t quite know whether or not I should.

  In the end, I settle for a quick, simple note with no uncomfortable sentiment whatsoever. When you’re free, please call. It’s important.

  “EJ,” George ducks his head into the house. “I need a moment.” He’s grim, his features tinged with red indicating he’s also pissed.

  George doesn’t get angry easily.

  I join him, and he paces for a moment, his phone clenched in his hand.

  “First, I’m thinking you need to call Malika. Security officials like him can’t just come unannounced into the States. Malika can get the US officials looking for him and anyone he brought with him,” he recommends. “Second, he wasn’t the one who grabbed Layla, though I think his men did. I’ve had a tail on him since the incident yesterday. He was in New York this morning.”

  My mind is working fast. Before I can ask how he found out about Layla, George curses.

  “This is what I was trying to tell Alisha,” he mutters. “Not to get involved. Not to pry. Someone probably followed her hack into my systems. I swear if I ever talk to her again, I’ll …”

  “Later, George,” I say impatiently. “If he was spotted in the city, we can find him.”

  “He lost my tail this morning,” George replies. “And …” He pauses.

  I wait, dread growing.

  “I had the team check in on Natalie. She’s not where she’s supposed to be. They’re searching the place now.”

  Cold fear shoots through me. I can almost hope that Layla disappearing is unrelated to Hassan, if he’s in New York.

  But Natalie and Layla going missing so close together …

  I don’t wait for George to confirm she’s gone. I dial Malika.

  The phone rings twice before she picks up.

  “I don’t have time now, nephew,” she says curtly.

  “Father sent Hassan to the States, and suddenly, my fiancée disappears,” I reply coolly. “I can think of a whole slew of diplomatic issues with this scenario.”

  There’s a shocked silence, then, “Natalie is gone?”

  I glance at George. He shakes his head.

  “Gone,” I confirm. Along with my crippled sister. I can’t tell her about Layla, but she can at least get the ball rolling with Natalie’s disappearance.

  “Give me five minutes to leave this meeting.”

  I hang up.

  George is glaring at his smart phone. “I had a slight … issue with Alisha I didn’t tell you about. I took out her systems completely, but she managed to hack further into mine first and planted a Trojan virus. As soon as hers went down, so did mine. It’s still down, which means I can’t get into certain places I need to in order to do some checks.”

  “You can’t hack,” I translate.

  “No.”

  I wipe my mouth. I don’t understand all of George’s capabilities, but I know for something like this, we need access to information, access that is probably not going to come voluntarily or cheaply.

  “Fuck. Whatever you need, as much as you need, George. Just find them.” I stare at the green grass in the front yard, not quite able to think past the idea of Layla and Natalie being gone. There’s a difference between me sending Natalie away and her being taken because of her association with me. “What the fuck is my father thinking?”

  I can’t even begin to predict a man like my father. I don’t imagine he will hurt my sister, at least not initially. He’ll want to use her to manipulate the population and tribunal of Nijala against me. Maybe he’ll claim she was kept prisoner and use that excuse to disinherit me.

  No, he’ll need her alive and well enough to put on display, even if she has no memory of who she really is. It’s when the spotlight wears off that she’ll be in danger. My father didn’t start his antics with me until I was being sent away to boarding school, and there was no one I could talk to.

  But Natalie …

  I’m starting to sweat, my hands clammy. I can’t even imagine what he’ll do with her or to her or why he wants her. Maybe it’s to blackmail me.

  Maybe it’s to keep me from marrying and fulfilling his decree in a more permanent way.

  Another car accident. The death of choice for Nijalan royalty and officials that get in my crazy father’s way. The man entrusted with making that come to fruition: probably Hassan.

  Old wounds I’ve been struggling to keep closed lately are tearing open, memories and pain I never want to remember inching their way free. I’m trying to dismiss any idea of my father hurting my sister, but still recall what her mangled body looked like after the accident. I remember the fear, the love, and the pain at knowing that – if she survived – she was going to be meant for a worst fate than a quick death by car accident. I sat in her hospital room for a week straight, refusing to leave, in case my
father came by.

  My mother died the day of the accident, not long after she made it to the hospital. Layla should’ve died as well, according to every doctor in the place, and I swore I’d protect her, if she just pulled through.

  George waves his hand in front of my face. “We need to go. They know we’re here, and we can’t take a chance he’s after you, too.”

  “I don’t give a shit if he is. Let him take me!” I snap.

  “Mate, let’s think this through.”

  I glare at him, furious at myself and the world, unable to think straight and even angrier to know that most of what’s going through my mind are emotions I can’t control.

  Not Natalie. God the idea of her being hurt or in danger does things to me that I just don’t understand. Or like.

  George’s calmness rubs off on me. I know that, no matter what might be going on, the more time it takes us to find Hassan and uncover the details of my father’s plan, the more danger Layla and Natalie are going to be in. There’s no time to sit and think about my relationship when their lives are at stake.

  “We’ll go to the airport,” I say quietly. “I don’t think we’re going to catch Hassan here in Ohio.”

  “I’ll arrange it.”

  “I’ll call the publicist team and have them announce Natalie is ill,” I say, my mind starting to work once more.

  I go in to get Suleyma, cell clenched in my hand as I await Malika’s return phone call.

  It can’t end like this. I won’t let him take away anyone else I care about.

  Chapter Eleven: Natalie

  When I lurch awake, I’m not only nauseated but cold. So cold. I blink away the darkness only to realize I’m blindfolded with my hands tied behind me and my ankles bound. This is not the good kind of tied up, like I do with Elijah.

  The surface beneath me is lumpy, and there’s a weird droning, not loud enough to be a plane but loud enough that it’s difficult for me to hear anything else. My neck is bent at an uncomfortable angle, and when I try to straighten it, my head bumps a wall. The light scent of exhaust and oil fill my nose.

  Car trunk. Oh, god! What the fuck am I doing here?

  I try to shift, and jam my feet into something that feels like a body. Horrified I’m in the back with a dead man, I freeze. Adrenaline runs through me, making me more aware of my surroundings, confirming the fact I can’t possibly be anywhere else but a trunk.

  Someone is crying softly. The body I’ve just kicked moves away from me. She sounds young, terrified.

  “Is someone there?” I venture.

  Her sobs stop, and I hear her gasp. Silence falls, as if she’s holding her breath.

  “If you’re there, please answer.” I’m close to tears, too. My stomach is roiling, and fear makes me shake more than cold. “My name is … N…natalie. What’s yours?” It’s a struggle to keep from either throwing up or weeping.

  Another quiet, then a barely audible response. “Layla.”

  Resting my head against the floor, I take a few deep, steady breaths, not wanting to vomit in the enclosed space.

  “Nice to meet you, Layla,” I say. “Are you okay?”

  “My leg hurts.”

  I hope it’s not because I kicked her. Guilty already, I focus on my breathing. Horrible thoughts race through my mind, sudden reminders about how many people associated with Elijah have died in car accidents, about the mystery texter’s threats.

  “Are you okay?” Layla asks.

  I swallow hard, not wanting to break down in front of her. “I think so. Just have a bellyache. Do you know what happened?”

  “N…no.” Her voice trembles. “I was in school, then someone took me out and said my aunt needed to see me. We went … somewhere and then they … they tied me up and put me here.”

  Why the fuck am I in the trunk with some kid? Was this guy some kind of hired kidnapper who happens to throw everyone he grabs into the same car?

  “I was in here forever,” Layla finishes. “Then they put you in here with me.”

  “How long ago was that?” I ask. I never thought I’d be kidnapped, but I watched enough crime shows to know I should probably figure out how far I might be from home.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Daylight? Nighttime? Anything?”

  “I don’t know!” Her tears are starting again.

  “I’m so sorry, Layla,” I say, reining in my panic. “We need to find out where we are and where we’re headed.”

  Her sniffling calms then stops again. “Border. He said we’re driving across the border.”

  It’s a six-hour drive to the Canadian border from the City. I can’t fathom what these people are doing or why they want to take us out of the country.

  Then again, everyone on the planet will be looking for me, once people realize I’m gone. Is Canada much better than the States for hiding me? Is that the plan?

  “Is he going to … to kill us?” she asks in a stricken tone.

  My chest tightens so quickly, I can hardly breathe. Tears squeeze from my eyes. I don’t know what to tell her, but I feel like it’s my fault she’s here. They were after me. Why is she here at all?

  “No, Layla,” I manage. “We’re going to find a way out.” I keep my voice as light as I can. “We need to stay calm and work together. Maybe get one of us untied or … do you have a phone?”

  “They took it.”

  “Okay. Then … we’ll figure out something. Just let me think.” And stop panicking. My emotions are all over the place. Elijah would know what to do. He always does. If anyone can find us, it’s him, assuming he discovers me missing before his trip ends.

  Layla is crying again. “I want to go home!”

  “I know, honey,” I say. I’ve dealt with enough hysterical teens and parents at my law office to know she needs me to be calm and in control. “Let’s just focus on what we know about the people who took us and where we might be. Okay?”

  No answer, just crying.

  “First, there has to be a reason we were both taken,” I say. “These people didn’t say why they took you out of school? You didn’t see them tracking me or something?”

  “N…no.”

  What the fuck is going on? The bizarreness of this puzzle nudges aside my emotions, and I force my groggy, drugged mind to think.

  “How many were there?”

  “Two men.”

  “Are you Nijalan by chance?” I venture, afraid of the response. If she says yes, I have a feeling we’re headed for a car accident.

  “My parents were, but I’m American.”

  Thank god. “So we’re headed to Canada. You were grabbed at noon. I was knocked out way before that. Did they get you yesterday?”

  “I don’t know. It was dark when they put you in here. I was in the trunk all day.”

  “Driving?”

  “Yes.”

  While it’s possible they drove around New York for hours, I don’t see any logic behind it, especially if they picked me up after dark. They had to have stashed me somewhere for a few hours.

  “Where did they kidnap you?” I ask, grappling with the peculiar timeline.

  “Dayton.”

  “Ohio?”

  “Yeah.”

  A chill runs through me. This is becoming too much of a coincidence. “Do you know a Kallista King?”

  She hesitated. “I can’t tell you.”

  “So you do know her.” Fuck. Whoever grabbed me must’ve known about Elijah’s ultimate secret. But how?

  “I … I am Kallista,” she says so quietly that I can barely hear her.

  “But you’re Layla.”

  “Sorta. Every once in a while, a man comes and gives me a new name. I have to move to a new state and be someone else.” There’s frustration in her voice. “I just got a puppy, and Suleyma said he was coming again.”

  “How often does this happen?” I question.

  The car goes over a bump, and I’m slammed against the ceiling then the floor again. My stomach
is growing more insistent, harder to control. I roll onto my back as much as possible.

  “Every few months since I was nine,” Layla answers.

  I barely hear her response, lost in my attempt to control my belly.

  “Are you okay?” she asks.

  “Not really,” I admit. “Since you were nine. How old are you now?”

  “I’ll be fourteen in a month.”

  Five years. An image flashes in my mind, that of a smiling girl named Layla, killed on her ninth birthday.

  “What’s the name of the man who comes?” I ask, unable to believe the picture forming in my mind.

  “Elijah.”

  Alisha was wrong. He doesn’t have a wife or daughter. He’s been hiding his sister for five years. But why? Because of all the accidents in Nijala? Because of his father’s strange illness?

  He’s protecting her from someone. Am I the reason they found her? I had her address in my purse. I was grabbed a few hours before her. Did I give them the last piece of information they needed to find her?

  This time, I can’t stop the tears. Not only have I damned an innocent girl that Elijah spent millions to hide, but I realize how wrong I was about him, too.

  I didn’t think him capable of caring for another, didn’t believe the glimpses of concern he expressed for me were real. The kind of man I thought he was wouldn’t protect a helpless child like Layla or hesitate to ditch me in order to claim his throne.

  I’m not sure I ever really gave him a chance, and now, it’s too late. If I’d gone to him with the texts, he could’ve tasked George to find these people before they found me.

  Before they found Layla.

  What have I done? I lay in horrified silence for a long moment, the truth of my situation – and my new found companion – sinking in. It’s not just two of us in danger but three, if I count the baby. Baby. There’s no fucking way …

  I put us all in danger.

  The idea of destroying the life of two children, one of them mine, overwhelms me.

  I lose it and begin sobbing.

  “Natalie?” Layla pushes closer to me. “Natalie, you said we’d be okay, right?”