About That Kiss

by Cindy Miles

  The door lock turned, and the door opened. “Oh, come now, Sara.” Chase’s voice startled her. “Please get that solemn look off your lovely face.” He moved closer, lifted her chin to force her stare to meet his. “It’s rather unbecoming.”

  His jabs no longer hurt. The only thing that did hurt was the threat he held over her. The threat of taking Willa away. He could do it. Legally. He could easily prove her unfit, simply using her past.

  And he’d vowed to do just that, should she try to take Willa and run.

  Not to mention what he’d promised to do to the folks in Cassabaw.

  He kept her and Willa locked up like prized bunnies, just in case they tried to escape.

  “I can see your wheels spinning, you know,” Chase said. He quirked an eyebrow. “Since when did living in Houston’s riches prove to be such a bad thing? Here, I can give my daughter the very best of everything. Better, for a certainty, than you could ever attempt to give her, hmm, Sara?”

  “Not everything is money, Chase,” Sean said. “And stop calling me Sara.”

  “It’s your name.” He smiled.

  “No,” she corrected. “It’s the name you gave me.”

  Chase laughed. “So it is. Still. It becomes you. It’s much more...refined than Sean. Don’t you think? Now, what are you staring at so feverishly? Not plotting an escape, are you?” he said quietly. “There’s nowhere to go, really.” He dropped his head, caressed her cheek with his knuckle. “Even if you managed to get away, could you live with yourself knowing I’d make sure a certain shrimping vessel, along with the business, foundered? Or, that, I don’t know—” he shrugged, rubbing his chin “—that a particular café burned to the ground? And there’d be no telling if someone had been trapped inside.”

  Terror dug into the pit of her stomach at the thought of something happening to any of the Malones. “All these years, and I kept quiet,” she whispered harshly. “I’ve never told a single soul about what I saw. Why do you think I’d start now?” Sean blew a sigh in frustration. “You don’t need to threaten those innocent people. Your secret is...still safe with me.”

  That slow grin Chase had, which transformed his exceedingly handsome face into something horrible, spread across his features. “Yes. I know it is. And I’ll make sure it stays that way. Now.” He glanced around. “Where’s my little girl?”

  Anger rolled inside Sean. “She’s napping.”

  Chase narrowed his gaze at her. “You know, it’s really bad, bad parenting, in my humble opinion, to have kept her a secret from me all these years,” he said. “What if...what if she’d developed some rare disease, and I was the only one who could help her—” he leaned close “—being her flesh-and-blood father?”

  Sean could say nothing. She never knew when Chase would snap, and he had that spark in his eye that frightened her. She wouldn’t put anything past him. She kept quiet.

  “I’ve arranged for riding lessons for Willa,” Chase announced. “I expect her to be ready in thirty minutes.”

  Sean stared at him as he swaggered to the door then turned his gaze on her. His mouth lifted in a knowing smile. “Dream all you want, little country mouse, of escaping with my daughter, to that backwoods, saltwater town,” he said. “I know even you’re not stupid enough to cross me twice. Oh.” He snapped his fingers nonchalantly, as if discussing a grocery list. “I took the liberty of arranging a preacher to perform a ceremony,” he announced, and Sean’s stomach dropped. “Next Saturday. Very exclusive. Just us. And Dominick.”

  He turned and left, the resounding click of the lock echoing as he imprisoned them in the loft of Black Hills Estates.

  A forced marriage. Captive in a loft. Kidnapping.

  How could all this be happening?

  Chase was going to force her to marry him then legally give Willa her rightful name. In a week.

  It was a living, breathing nightmare.

  He was even wilder now than he had been five years ago.

  With a heavy heart, her thoughts returned briefly to Nathan, the Malones and Cassabaw Station. Squeezing her eyes tightly shut, she again tried to rid her mind of the memories. They hurt, tore at her gut, making her insides tight, her lungs robbed of breath. Jesus, she wanted it back, so bad. Wanted it all back.

  Wanted Nathan Malone back.

  But that was not going to happen. Chase Black was too powerful. He had connections, and he wasn’t going to let her or Willa go. Ever.

  For a brief moment, tears burned Sean’s throat, scorched her eyelids. They seeped out and fell down her cheeks. She allowed herself a small cry, to let it out, and let the memories in. They were all she had of...

  The man she loved.

  She’d keep every single memory tucked away inside, forever.

  Wiping her cheeks, patting her eyes dry, she made her way to Willa’s room to prepare her for unwanted riding lessons.

  She’d brace herself for Willa’s questions—the same ones she asked every single, solitary day since their forced exit from the island.

  Where’s Captain Nathan, Mama? Why can’t we go home? I miss King Jep. When can we leave?

  With a heavy heart, she opened the door and made her way to her sleeping daughter.

  She hated for her to ever know the ugly truth. That her father had been born into privilege, had been left a fortune when his parents had died with him the sole heir. And instead of using those resources for anything remotely good, he’d delved into a dark, dark world. A world of deceit, of illegal businesses, of threats. He was nothing more than a crook in a fancy suit.

  Sean recalled the first time she’d laid eyes on Chase Black. God, she’d thought he was...exotic. So refined. So classy, cool, confident. They’d met in a bar, one she’d been dancing in. She hadn’t even been eighteen. At the time, when he came on to her, she’d thought she was special. For a time, he had made her feel that way. Made her believe she was above seedy bars, above dancing half-nude for money. She’d thought him to be her prince. Her champion.

  He’d been anything but.

  One day, though, she knew her precious daughter would find out. Find out everything. It terrified Sean.

  She could only pray Willa wouldn’t hate her for it.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Cassabaw Station

  “NATHANIEL,” OWEN CALLED OUT.

  At the wheel, Nathan turned to stare at his father. Another storm approached. It was the beginning of hurricane season on the Eastern Seaboard, and they were already in line for a tropical depression. They’d haul this load of shrimp in if it killed him. They were almost to the harbor, and the wind had picked up, tossing the Tiger Lily around like a rag doll.

  His mind was on nothing, save Sean and Willa.

  They plagued him. Night. Day. And all in between.

  Like now.

  They’d left, and not a scrap of news had arisen. He had no idea where they’d gone, could find no trail of evidence.

  The names Sean and Willa Jacobs were fabricated.

  Nothing legal about either.

  Whom had he given his heart to, then?

  “Yes, sir,” he finally answered his dad.

  Nathan heard his father speaking, even over the squall. He heard the wind, heard the rain splattering against the deck, felt it sting his skin.

  “We need to get this haul in now, son,” Owen yelled.

  “Right!” Nathan agreed, and navigated through the storm. Inside his head, though, his thoughts were a myriad emotions.

  His heart, his insides, felt twisted. Gutted. The constant sensation that he’d been punched in the stomach plagued him. Sean Jacobs had lied to him. Rather, she’d left something very important out. What, he didn’t know, other than her name wasn’t really Sean Jacobs, and Willa wasn’t really Willa Jacobs.

  He want
ed to forget about her. It’d be easier that way. He’d exhausted every other avenue he knew to find them, but even if he did, what would he do? Force them to return to Cassabaw? Make her love him, like he loved her? Hell, yeah, it’d be a lot easier to hate her, even, but damn, he couldn’t. His heart had a hole in it now. Sean was missing from his life. Willa was missing from his life.

  His life...didn’t mean much to him anymore.

  They rode the rest of the way back to the harbor, fighting the rain. Once they made it to the docks and unloaded their coolers, they headed home. As they passed Morgan’s old place, Nathan’s heart squeezed a bit more. How easily the vision came to mind of Sean sitting on the dock, her long legs dangling in the water, and Willa, with her sweet little fairy wings strapped onto her back, jumping up and down. Both of them waving as Nathan navigated the Tiger Lily by.

  The rain pounded down now, the sky nothing but a flat, gray blanket above, and Nathan pulled the boat up to the Malones’ dock, and only then did Nathan realize his father was speaking. Yelling.

  “Son,” Owen said again, this time right in front of him. “It’s killing me, Nathaniel, seeing you like this. It’s...” His father rubbed his eyes, his jaw. “It’s worse than when you lost Addie.”

  Nathan heaved a heavy sigh. “Yeah, Dad, probably so,” Nathan agreed. He pushed his hair from his face, wiped the rain from his eyes. “Addie didn’t run out on me or desert me. Not on purpose. Sean, or whoever she is, did.” His throat caught, that ever-present lump pushing up, up, threatening to make him choke. “Made me love her, love her little girl, only to take off. No warning. No reason. Yeah.” He wanted to punch something, hit something. Hurt something. “It’s a hell of a lot worse. Addie just died. She didn’t mean to.”

  Owen grabbed Nathan by the shoulders and shook. “What makes you think Sean did anything on purpose, son? Stop wallowing in your own pity and do something about it!”

  Nathan stared at his father through the rain, the wind. Maybe water had gotten in his ear, settled in his brain. “Do what, Owen? I don’t even know who the hell she is!”

  Owen shoved away, just as angry as Nathan, or so it seemed. Water ran rivulets down the navy blue bill of his Coast Guard cap. “I don’t know, son,” he said. “I just know people, is all. And there’s no way in hell anyone can convince me that girl and her little daughter didn’t love the hell out of you. Out of us.” He continued to shake his head. “I refuse.”

  Nathan blinked.

  So did he. He honestly refused to believe Sean didn’t love him.

  Only, he didn’t know what step to take.

  He’d asked his brother Matt for help. Being ex-black ops, Matt knew people. Knew a lot of people. Some, the kind of people you wished you’d never encountered. All the had to go on was a hang-up call. Matt had people on that one, but so far, nothing.

  “Look,” Owen said.

  Nathan looked, blinked hard.

  Matt was standing there. In the rain. Waiting.

  Owen glanced at Nathan then leaped onto the dock and secured the boat.

  “We’ve got something,” Matt said over the rain. “Or, might be nothing.”

  Nathan held his gaze. “I don’t care. Let’s go.”

  Black Hills Estate

  Houston, Texas

  SEAN’S HEART WAS in her throat.

  How stupid could she be?

  Watching her daughter sleep, she knew she had to escape this. Perhaps she deserved everything that Chase had in store for her, but Willa didn’t. She deserved better. A better life.

  A better mother.

  One without a tarnished past. One Willa could be proud of.

  This wasn’t about herself anymore. It wasn’t about how broken Sean’s own heart was, that she’d had love in her grasp with Nathan—a man who’d fallen for her, and who’d treated Willa like his own—it was about Willa. She was all that mattered now. And growing up with Chase Black for a father could be nothing but bad.

  Sean would not expose her child to his world.

  Not if she could help it.

  Sean stared out into the night. Chase was still in the city, at his office, late...blessedly, like he had been for the past few days. She and Willa had won the affection of Dominick, who, in Sean’s opinion, thought just as little of Chase as she did. Only Dominick was...obligated. Probably scared. Knowing Chase, he’d threatened the old steward someway, somehow.

  Sean knew the repercussions of her actions. She would more than likely lose Willa. But Willa would not have to become Willa Black, and everything that went along with the Black name.

  At first, Sean had tried to look deep, hard, at the interaction between Chase and Willa. Willa had been her typical charming self. Chase? He’d tried to pass off being a kind, funny guy, but Sean could see right through him.

  This wasn’t about him gaining his daughter.

  It was about controlling Sean.

  Sick-minded as it was, that was what it had always been about.

  Sean knew something about Chase Black, though.

  Had witnessed an exchange one night. A not-so-legal one. Chase knew she’d heard the exchange between him and one of his competitors, Will Chalmers of Chalmers Enterprises, late one night in Chase’s study. She witnessed how Chase had blackmailed Will out of millions, simply by baiting him with picture-proof of infidelity—and not with just any high-priced escort. But one who wasn’t quite seventeen years old. Chalmers, apparently, frequented one of Houston’s underbelly clubs—one Sean herself had once worked at. He had a taste for underage girls. Chase had picked up on it and set one of his bulldogs to gather photos of Chalmers.

  What Chase didn’t know, though, was that Sean had discovered proof that he owned the underbelly club, knew where he kept the deed to the building, and could name him in more than one illegal gambling ring. Illegal fight-club boxing, in his building.

  Chase was as illegal as they came.

  Sean had never dared cross Chase, though. And once she’d discovered she was pregnant, Sean had thought the very best thing to do was to get out of his life for good.

  She should have known, even six years later, it’d never, ever be that easy.

  No matter how far away she’d run.

  Now the only thing she wanted to do was...run again. This time west, not east. She’d have to stay as far away from Cassabaw as possible. Once Chase discovered she’d run in another direction? He’d leave her beloved Malones alone.

  Wouldn’t he?

  She fell against the bed, dropped her head in her hands and just...shook. She didn’t know what to do. Useless information that could help put away a crooked businessman. One who, if she ran, could possibly do harm to the people she loved most. If she stayed? She subject her daughter to a maniac father who’d been raised in a fake world of money and possessions and dirty, dirty secrets.

  Who was she kidding? She couldn’t do a thing. Chase had her trapped at all angles. She’d be forced to marry him. Forced to stay at Black Hills. Forced to watch her daughter be manipulated, just like she’d been.

  God, what was she going to do?

  Sometime later, a noise jolted Sean out of a restless slumber. She sat upright in her bed. Peering through the darkness, she stared at the illuminated numbers on her clock. It was after 1:00 a.m.

  Please, don’t let it be Chase again...

  Padding quietly to her door, Sean stood there, her ear to the cool wood. Listening. The doorknob turned. The door cracked open.

  All at once, a figure stepped in, dressed all in black, and grabbed her, pulled her against him tightly and placed a hand tightly over her mouth.

  Just as fast, he turned her around, forced her to look at him.

  To see him.

  It was Nathan! He placed two fingers to his lips to hush her. Then, a second and a third figure stepped
into the room. All in black, with black face paint, black skully, just like Nathan.

  Matt! Eric!

  Sean’s heart lurched so hard, she thought it would pound out of her chest. Her insides weakened at the sight of him. Her brain couldn’t register it. Others were present, too. Men she didn’t know.

  “Where’s Willa?” Matt said quietly.

  Sean pointed to the adjoining room, and Matt disappeared into the shadows. Moments later, he appeared, her sleeping daughter hanging onto his neck.

  Sean moved her gaze to Nathan’s, and her heart froze. Those expressive green eyes held hers, but they seemed...cold. Unresponsive.

  She’d hurt him. He was still in pain, and angry.

  Her thoughts whirled as they made to leave. Sean regained her senses and vehemently shook her head.

  “No,” she whispered to Nathan and Matt. “We can’t leave!”

  “Why the hell not?” Nathan said. “Don’t tell me you want to stay?”

  The jab shot through Sean. “You don’t know who he is,” she pleaded. She’d worry about her sore heart later. She gripped Nathan’s shoulders and stared between him and his brother.

  They’d broken into Black Hills Estate and rescued her and Willa. Black ops kind of rescue. How had they even known where to find her?

  “He’s made threats,” Sean confessed. “If he finds us gone, he’ll sink the Tiger Lily. And burn the Windchimer. He’s been to Cassabaw. He knows where you live.” Her knees weakened at the thought of it all. “He’ll do it. Please. I don’t want you hurt.”

  “He has something on you,” Nathan said, close to her. “What is it?”

  Sean shook her head. “Please, just go,” she begged.

  “Hey.” Matt slid a glance out the window. “No time for chitchat. We’ll get this sorted out later.” He looked at Sean. “Do you want out?”

  Sean couldn’t find her voice.

  “Sean,” Nathan said close to her, and his gloved hand squeezed hers then gave her a firm shake. “Do you want out?”