by Katie Ruggle
“Harder than you might think.” Although Judd’s voice was still mild, he’d stiffened at the implied criticism.
“I’m sure it is,” Aaron agreed quickly. “It’s just surprising that a person without any connections can disappear so completely.”
Although his frown remained, Judd settled back in his chair, partially soothed. “Even Logan hasn’t heard anything.”
Alice shot Logan a curious look.
“I’m a police officer in LA,” Logan said, catching her glance. He brushed at the front of his jacket. The motion reminded Alice of a puffed-up rooster. “The information I collect is invaluable for the family.”
With a small bob of her head, Alice searched for some way to respond. “I’m sure it is.”
Leaving him to his preening, Alice turned her attention back to Judd. “We’re watching a friend of hers,” he was saying. “With Noah and Martin in jail, we’re hoping she will relax and possibly contact her friend.”
Noah and Martin Jovanovic are in jail? Alice felt her eyes widen. As hard as she tried to keep her face blank, this news was just too amazing. She sent a mental message of thanks and good luck to the missing witness who’d apparently had a hand in getting those monsters locked away.
“Alice.” Hard fingers grabbed her chin, jerking her head around until she was looking at Logan’s annoyed face. “Quit ignoring me.”
His touch was so sudden, so rough, that she tried to pull away before she caught herself. “I wasn’t ignoring you.” Her voice sounded strained, and she tried to soften it. “I’m just…shy.”
Still gripping her face, Logan studied her for a long moment. Alice stared back, clinging to her most earnest expression, not daring to let her fear show. Finally, he released her and sat back in his chair. “No need to be shy with me.”
As he looked away, reaching for the bread basket, Alice risked darting a glance at the other two men. They were both watching, but their silence told her that there would be no help from Aaron or Judd.
“Bread?” Logan asked, his voice low and intimate. He leaned toward her, bread basket in hand.
“No, thank you.” Despite her best efforts, her polite smile was stiff around the edges. All she wanted to do was listen to Judd and Aaron’s fascinating conversation, but now she was afraid to take her eyes off Logan.
“No?” He placed the basket back on the table. “That’s probably for the best, anyway. As small as you are, you probably can’t eat too much without tubbing out.”
“Tubbing…out?” she repeated, blinking at him.
“You know.” Logan blew out his cheeks. “Getting fat.”
“I knew what you meant. I just couldn’t believe you said it.”
“Alice,” Aaron snapped, making her jump and turn toward him. “Don’t be rude.”
A rush of righteous indignation crashed through her, nearly burying her fear. She opened her mouth to protest, but the warning narrowing of Aaron’s eyes made her close her mouth before she said anything at all.
“Apologize to Logan,” Aaron ordered, as if she were a five-year-old who’d just kicked a fellow kindergartner in the shin.
She turned a blank face toward the man sitting next to her. “I apologize if I seemed rude.”
“Alice…” Aaron said, low but sharp, and she had to hide a wince.
“I don’t think you were rude,” Logan said. “You just didn’t understand what I said.”
Forcing a smile, Alice said, “Thank you, Logan.”
With a pleased grin, he reached over and patted her back. As he withdrew his hand, his fingers lingered, stroking down her arm. Clenching her teeth, Alice took back everything she’d thought about the dinner not being so bad. It was going to be horrid.
* * *
“That was disappointing,” Aaron said after a chilly two minutes of silence.
“What was?” A cramping stomach told Alice that she knew perfectly well what was disappointing Aaron—she was. After he’d rebuked her, his conversation with the Jovanovics had taken a more general—and less interesting—turn. Alice had endured three hours of pretending to drink wine and eat overpriced, badly cooked food while attempting to evade Logan’s groping hands. It had been hard to put him off when every movement had been monitored by Aaron. After Judd and Logan had left the table, Aaron hadn’t said a word or even looked at her until they were in the SUV, heading toward home.
Aaron reached out, as quick as a striking snake, and backhanded her across the face. Her head jerked to the side, and she heard the slap of skin against skin before the pain registered, sharp and horribly familiar. “Don’t play stupid. You know how to behave. You just chose not to.”
Pressing her hand against her stinging cheek, Alice said nothing. Any attempt to defend herself would just enrage her brother more. Instead, she watched him warily, fighting the urge to press against the door. There was no way to escape. She was trapped. Her gaze met Chester’s in the rearview mirror. The helpless fury in his eyes made her want to reassure him. If the driver tried to defend her, it would just make things so much worse for all of them.
“This is my chance,” Aaron said, jerking her attention back to him. “The Jovanovic family is in chaos right now. Eight people—eight!—were arrested, including Noah and Martin, and they’ll be locked away for years. Judd is no leader. That’s obvious. There’s a huge power vacuum, and I’m going to fill it.”
“So fill it!” Alice burst out. Enough was enough. Being stuck in the middle of Blanchett family power games was one thing. She was born into that. There was no way that Alice was going to get involved with the Jovanovics, though. Let Aaron wallow in all the power he could grab, but Alice didn’t want any part of it. All she wanted was the freedom to do normal things—to choose her clothes and friends and meals and job and…everything. “What does any of this have to do with me?”
He grabbed her, his fingers wrapping around her throat, forcing up her chin so she had to meet his eyes. Alice’s heart thundered in her chest, her breaths coming in short gasps. Although Aaron’s grip wasn’t tight enough to cut off air, the threat was there, that he could close his fingers and end her if he wanted to. His eyes were the exact same dark brown, same round shape as hers, but they were as cold and hard and pitiless as marbles. Alice tried to swallow and choked instead.
“This has everything to do with you,” he said, fingertips digging in just a little more until Alice knew he was leaving small, round bruises. He’d put them there before. “You’re my in.”
“Me?” she tried to echo, although no sound emerged. All she could do was mouth the word.
“You.” Aaron tightened his grip just enough that Alice couldn’t breathe. She tried to hold back the panic by pretending she was underwater, that she was perfectly safe, that she could surface for air at any time. Eventually Aaron would let her go. He’d just said that he needed her. If he killed her, he wouldn’t succeed.
Even so, she felt the panic rising as her lungs pinched, desperate for air. Her thoughts went fuzzy, fear creeping in until she couldn’t focus on anything else.
She grabbed his wrist with both hands, instinct forcing her to fight. His arm was rock-hard under her grip, solid and unmovable. Despite knowing that it was futile, she yanked and pulled, trying to pry his hand off her throat. Maybe he really will kill me this time.
Just as her vision started to go dark around the edges, Aaron let go of her throat. Bending at the waist as far as her seat belt would allow, Alice sucked in deep breaths that rasped her throat and made her cough.
“What do you mean?” Her voice was hoarse and breathless as she forced herself to straighten, and she wished she were better at faking nonchalance. It felt like weakness to show her brother how much he’d hurt her.
“According to my sources, Logan is gaining something of a bad reputation with the California ladies.” His mouth curled up at the corner—a mouth
that looked just like Alice’s. She hated that they looked so much alike, hated seeing bits of him when she looked in the mirror.
“What kind of bad reputation?” Her hands wanted to rub at her aching throat and rest against her swelling cheek, but she forced them to stay in her lap. This was important. She had to get all the information she could from Aaron. The more she knew, the easier it would be to figure out how to avoid falling in with his plan.
He waved a hand in a dismissive gesture, and Alice flinched before she could catch herself. “That doesn’t matter. What does matter is that his dad—Judd—and the rest of the Jovanovics are sick of spending money paying off these women, not to mention the doctors and judges.”
“Paying off doctors and judges?” Her stomach twisted as she tried to process his words. “Why? Did he hurt those women?”
“I said it doesn’t matter.”
Alice dropped her gaze, trying to force her brain past the idea that Logan—the same creep who’d just sat next to her all through dinner, who had touched her multiple times—had abused women in some way. He’d done something awful enough that the Jovanovics had been willing to pay off his victims and bribe the authorities. She swallowed, her sore throat complaining. “What do Logan’s…issues have to do with me?”
“The Jovanovics are hoping he’ll settle down with a nice woman.” Aaron smiled, and it was terrible. “Someone that will keep him home, away from opportunistic whores.”
Her pulse was going wild again. Aaron’s plan was a simple one, but Alice was still having a hard time putting it together in her mind. It was just too horrific. “You…” she finally stammered. “You want me to date Logan?”
“No.” For a second, his answer made her sag with relief, but Aaron wasn’t finished. “You’re going to marry him.”
Chapter 2
Ever since that night, Alice had been waiting for rescue—hoping for it, praying desperately for it even as she searched for another way to escape. The days ticked by, and she fought to hold on to hope, keeping alert for any hint that her unknown friend had finally come through. When the first sign of rescue came, however, it took a form she hadn’t expected.
She never dreamed they’d blow up her house.
The explosion knocked her out of bed, startling her out of an uneasy doze. Her insides felt battered, hurting more than her elbow or head where they’d connected with the hardwood floor. Her brain ran through crazy, illogical explanations—it had been an earthquake or a kick from Aaron or a poltergeist that had sent her flying.
She pushed up to her hands and knees while trying to sort out her thoughts. All the chaos made it hard, though. Alarms blared, shrill and ear-piercing, competing with shouts and heavy, running feet. Suddenly, it hit her—was this it? Was this the escape the note had promised?
Even as Alice climbed to her feet, she hesitated. What if this wasn’t part of the plan? What if the house was on fire, and Alice was about to be burned to death because she’d waited for some mysterious savior to arrive? She sniffed. There was the smell of smoke hanging in the air, but it wasn’t heavy—not yet, at least.
Either way, if it was a disaster or if someone had come to help her escape, she needed to be ready to run. Alice hurried over to the closet. Ever since she’d found the note, she’d been preparing for this. Shoving aside designer dresses hung on satin-lined hangers, Alice grabbed a full backpack and the stack of clothes that were sitting at the very back of her enormous closet. She yanked on jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt, topping it off with a black hoodie while jamming her feet into hiking shoes.
Heaving the pack onto her back, she hurried out of the enormous closet, not feeling a single pang for all the expensive clothes she was leaving behind. They’d been chosen for her by her father and, over the past few years, her brother. To her, the clothes were just costly prison uniforms.
Back in her bedroom, Alice hesitated again, still not sure if she should try to escape or wait for someone to arrive. The smoke was thicker, and the voices were more urgent, although still muted, blocked by at least one level and the heavy door to her room. She moved to try the door, but it was locked from the outside, as always. Every night, from ten until six in the morning, she was bolted into her room.
Her already thrumming heartbeat picked up even more. What if her unknown friend didn’t realize that she was locked in? What if they’d only been offering a distraction, an opportunity, and this was it? She could be missing the only chance she’d have to slip away, to escape from her brother and Logan and a future that was heartbreakingly close to her present.
Someone knocked.
Dropping her hand from the handle, Alice backed away, staring at the door in horror. Who was it—friend or foe or, even worse, family? The knock came again, a sharp tap-tap-tap, and she realized with a jolt of surprise that it wasn’t coming from the door.
Whirling around, she stumbled back a step, swallowing a scream. A dark silhouette filled the window. Someone was outside, their dark-clad form just a few shades blacker than the night sky.
The lurker leaned closer, the dim light from the room illuminating his harsh features, and Alice recognized him. Shock gave way to disappointment mingled with fear. It was Mateo Espina, one of her brother’s colleagues, a man who was as firmly entrenched as Aaron in their criminal empire. Alice berated herself for building so much hope on the shaky foundation of an anonymous note. Of course there was no one willing to help her, not in her tiny world of liars and thieves and abusive assholes.
Mr. Espina tapped again. Outside her room, the alarms still shrieked, and the shouts were getting closer and louder. The man outside the window watched her, still and serious, and Alice tried to figure out what was happening. Why was he outside? If he was on her brother’s side, why sneak into her bedroom? She wondered if there was a chance, even a slight one, that Mr. Espina could be there to help her. Although she quickly shut down that thought, she moved toward the window. Dressed all in black, Mr. Espina stood on the ledge outside her window, over thirty feet from the ground.
“What do you want?” she asked.
“Didn’t you get my note?”
With the window closed and the alarms blaring, she could barely hear him, but that didn’t stop her heart from taking off at a gallop. She’d thought she’d beaten down all hope, but there it was again, trying to break through her doubt. With enormous effort, she kept her expression blank. “What note?”
“Do you want to get out of here?”
Yes! her brain screamed, and she took an automatic step closer to the window, to the freedom Mr. Espina was offering. She pulled herself up sharply. Knowing her brother, it could be an elaborate trick, a test of her loyalty and obedience.
“I’ll get you out of here,” Mr. Espina said.
“Why?” The word burst out of her, revealing too much, but Alice needed to know. “Why would you help me?”
He pressed a small, creased photo to the glass. In the low light, it was hard to make out many details, but Alice could see that it was a picture of a dark-haired, smiling girl. “The Jovanovics killed my sister.”
Alice studied him, looking for any twitch, any tell that meant he was lying to her. There was nothing. He returned her gaze steadily, the picture still flattened against the window. In that moment, she made her decision. Maybe it was a trick, a cruel set-up engineered by Aaron. If it was, she’d take the punishment. It wasn’t worth turning down this opportunity, this possibility of escape.
Alice fumbled to unlock the window but then paused. Opening it would cause an alarm to go off. Mr. Espina made a hurry-up gesture, and she shook herself. With all the alarms blaring, no one would notice another one…she hoped. Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she jerked open the window.
There was a quiet, repetitive beep. Alice knew she had four minutes. After that, if the correct code wasn’t entered into the keypad in Aaron’s office, the alarm would st
art shrieking. It might be ignored, since all the other alarms were also going off. It might not. It could bring Jeb or Aaron tearing into her room, catching her and Mr. Espina in the middle of their escape.
“Let’s go,” Mr. Espina said, pulling her out of her frozen fear.
With jangling nerves that worsened with each shrill beep of warning, Alice swung a leg over the sill. She glanced down at the narrow ledge and immediately jerked her gaze back up to Mr. Espina’s. The decorative molding protruded a mere six inches, not nearly wide enough for comfort.
“Hurry. We don’t have much time.”
Choking back her terror, she fumbled around with her foot until she had it planted as securely as possible on the too-small ledge. Inhaling a deep breath, she let it out in a rush as she swung her other leg over the sill. With both feet on the ledge, she felt a wave of dizziness rush over her, and she clung desperately to the edge of the window.
“Let’s move.” Mr. Espina covered her hands with his, detaching her desperate grip with ease. He shifted her hands over next to the window, where the stucco facade offered very little grip. Alice bit down on her tongue, holding back a sound of protest as she clutched at the too-smooth stone. Releasing Alice, Mr. Espina slid the window closed.
The dark made it harder for Alice to keep her balance. Flattening herself against the wall, she closed her eyes and prayed.
“Let’s go.”
She looked at him, confused. There was nowhere to go. Instead of answering her unspoken question, Mr. Espina wrapped his hands around her waist and lifted her up.
She stiffened as the ledge disappeared from under her feet and the rain gutter appeared right in front of her. Automatically, she grabbed it, needing to hold on to something to anchor herself.
“Up,” he grunted, and she boosted herself onto the roof. A push from underneath sent her even higher, and she managed to get a knee onto the red clay tiles. Scrambling, she hauled her other knee onto the roof and crawled toward the peak. There was barely any sound over her shoulder, just the softest brush of fabric on tile, the quietest exhale. When she looked behind her, Mr. Espina was there, gesturing her forward.