by Dawn Brower
Aaron nodded. “Anything to help. Might as well leave everything up on the computer too. It’s easier to show him that way.”
“Good,” Sullivan said. “I need to find Lana. Stay here until either I return or Carter arrives. Make sure he takes the flashdrive as evidence.”
“Can’t you wait to find her?” Aaron glanced around the room anxiously. “I don’t like being in charge of this thing. It’s made me nervous since Sienna found it. Wilson was killed for this thing.”
“Please,” Sullivan asked. “It shouldn’t take long to locate her. I already owe you for bringing this to me, but Lana should be done changing by now. I need to find her.”
“All right,” Aaron reluctantly agreed.
A knock echoed through the room. Sullivan glanced up as a tiny woman walked inside. She kept her head low and she trembled slightly. “Excuse the interruption, sir, but there is something you need to see in the kitchen.”
At this rate he was never going to find Lana and go home. “Can it wait until morning?”
She shook her head. “No, sir, I’ve already called emergency services. It’s Mrs. Kelly. She’s...”
Sullivan didn’t wait for her to finish. He was rushing out of the room past her as fast as he could without running. Maybe he should run. It was Lana’s mother, and if something happened to her, Lana would be devastated. When he reached the kitchen, he found a man standing near the supply closet. He was a young guy, probably no more than eighteen. “What’s your name?”
“Richard, sir,” he replied. “I was hired on for the wedding staff. Is Mrs. Kelly going to be all right? She’s a kind lady.”
“Where is she?” he asked.
The man gestured inside the closet. “She’s on the floor, sir. We don’t know what happened to her.”
Sullivan rushed inside and over to Mrs. Kelly’s side. He leaned down and checked her pulse. Thank God she was still alive. The piece of fabric under her head seemed familiar. It was a metallic gold like Lana’s scarf from her bridesmaid dress. She had been in there and must be aware of her mother’s injury. She would not have left her side willingly. That meant something had happened to Lana too.
“Seems like there’s more going on here than finding that flashdrive,” Carter said drolly. “You have a weird idea of a party.”
“This is not my doing,” Sullivan replied anxiously. “Lana’s missing. I think they have her.”
“They?” Carter raised a brow. “What evidence is on that drive to make you believe there’s more than one.”
“Nothing,” he said. “But I know Lana. If it was only Colleen, she’d have dealt with her and still be here. They can’t have gone far; Lana hasn’t been missing long.”
The paramedics rushed in and checked on Mrs. Kelly as Sullivan and Carter talked. The paramedics loaded Mrs. Kelly onto the gurney as Carter and Sullivan exited the kitchen. He hoped she would be all right. Either way, he’d take Lana to see her mother later, once he found her.
“The house is large, and they could be hiding anywhere,” Carter said. Sullivan nodded. “Except the staff is cleaning and organizing the house after the wedding. My mother likes efficiency in all things. That’s why she hired extra staff. They would have left the house to avoid being discovered. I suspect that’s why Mrs. Kelly was attacked. She was probably in the wrong place and paid the price for it.”
“Then let’s organize a search of the grounds,” Carter said. “Dane should be here soon. He can take one group, and I’ll lead another.”
Sullivan didn’t want to wait for Dane to arrive. His stomach churned and he had to find Lana. If Carter wanted to wait he could, but Sullivan wasn’t standing idly by while the woman he loved was in danger. “That’s all well and good, but I know the estate better than anyone.” Except his parents and Lana. “I’ll start without you and let you know if I find anything. Aaron has the flashdrive in my father’s study. He’s waiting for someone to come retrieve it. If you’re not going to help me, at least go do that.”
“Down, Cowboy,” Carter said and placed a hand on Sullivan’s arm. “You don’t exactly have experience in this kind of thing, and you’ll be outnumbered if you do locate them. Wait for backup; it’s the smart thing to do. We can grab the flashdrive later. Aaron kept it safe this long, so it’ll be fine for now.”
Sullivan shook his arm free of Carter’s grip. “That may be true, but they have Lana. I’d die if something happened to her. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do, no risk I wouldn’t take, and no chance I’m fucking staying here when she needs me.”
Carter sighed. “Wait five seconds and I’ll go with you.” His fingers flew over his phone as he texted a message. Probably to Dane... “Okay, let’s go. Where do we go first?”
“Follow me,” Sullivan said. “I have an idea.”
He walked out of the kitchen, down a hallway that was the fastest route out of the house. It had to be the way they’d left. This particular path was as far away from the wedding reception as possible and a little off the beaten path. Not many people went this way unless they wanted to go to where it led in particular. Sullivan prayed he was right.
“THIS IS RIDICULOUS,” Lana said for the hundredth time. “Even with your shady judge and equally nefarious witnesses, this wedding isn’t legal. Besides, I have to sign the paperwork too. Nothing you do is going to convince me to do anything so stupid.”
“Don’t you ever shut up?” Victoria asked.
“Do you ever breathe through your nose, or do you prefer to keep your mouth open in invitation?” Lana shot back.
“Bitch,” Victoria said.
Lana snorted. “At least you recognize yourself in the mirror.”
She couldn’t believe these idiots had concocted this stupid scheme. The judge had stopped talking and looked at Colleen. She nodded at him to continue. “Do you take Lana Kelly to be your lawfully wedded wife?”
“I do,” Tony said.
Lana laughed. “Please tell me that’s the name you put on the marriage license.”
“Of course it is,” Colleen said. “It is your name.”
“Shit,” Victoria said. “No, it isn’t.”
Lana guffawed. The idiots had some communication problems. Victoria would know her real name because she was around when she went by Lisanna. Colleen and Tony, on the other hand, knew her only as Lana. That was after her transformation into the smartass she was now.
“Don’t be daft,” Tony said. He crinkled his eyebrows together and stared at them as if they’d lost their minds. “She’s Lana. Always has been.” Poor fool couldn’t see how wrong he was in his assumption.
“No, she hasn’t, you moron.” Victoria said. “Her real name is Lisanna. Lana is her damn nickname.”
This would be the best comedic show she’d ever attended if they weren’t all raving lunatics. At least she wouldn’t have to worry about this farce of a ceremony much longer. They would probably end up killing her after all. At least she wouldn’t die as Mrs. Anthony Derosa, so there was that. Not much of a consolation in the grand scheme of things.
“Well, this was all for Tony anyway,” Colleen said nonchalantly. “We have the money, so he can deal with his prize any way he sees fit.”
“Money?” Lana lifted a brow. “Is that what makes your heart go pitter-pat in the heat of the night? You make yourself come to those dead presidents?”
“I forgot how nasty her mouth is,” Colleen said glaring at Lana with hatred. Then turned toward Victoria and Tony and demanded, “Can one of you please gag her?”
“No,” Tony shouted. “You promised she’d marry me. I did everything you said. I set her house on fire. It was supposed to be me who rescued her, but no, that rich bastard beat me to it. I was about to run in and be the hero just before he arrived. Now, she’s so grateful to him that she’s living with him. That should be me.”
Tony was the reason she’d lost her house? Sadness spread through her. He was further gone than she’d thought. There was no coming back from this. His
fixation on her wasn’t healthy.
“You think I enjoy seeing her with him?” Colleen snapped. “He has always had eyes for her. Everyone could see it, but we all thought we could make him forget. We’re all fools, but I think you’re the biggest one of all. You actually think you can marry her and make her love you. Get over it, asshole. Take your share of the money and disappear. That’s what we plan on doing.”
“She does have a point,” Victoria said indifferently. “Though, on the bright side, if we get caught, at least I don’t have arson or a murder charge to contend with. That’s all on you two.”
The trio of lunatics were unraveling before her. Soon the separate threads would detonate, and if she was lucky, explode on each other. Maybe she should start to take a few steps away from them. Slowly, because she didn’t want to clue them into her plan...
Step one. No one noticed.
“Since my services are no longer needed, I’m going to call it a night,” the judge said. “Ladies, gentleman, it was nice doing business with you.” The man walked away and didn’t look back. The three crazies watched him, and Lana took three more steps backward while their attention was elsewhere.
“Good riddance,” Victoria said. “We don’t need him.”
“Yes, we do,” Tony disagreed with her. “I need him to marry me and Lana.”
“I can’t believe he’s this dumb,” Colleen said. She rolled her eyes, then told Tony, “It’s not happening. At least not tonight. Take Lana and go someplace sunny without extradition.”
Lana took several more steps back. Tiny, baby steps, and she had at least three feet between them now. If she could lose her shoes—without them noticing... She would have a hard time running in the heels and then there was the stone steps to contend with.
They were arguing full-blown now. Not one of them paid attention to her, and she was almost to the stone steps. Then, suddenly, they all turned to face her. Fuck. She’d have to make a run for it. They had all realized how close she was to escaping. She spun around and hit a solid wall of muscle. Lana started to fight and push, but was quickly embraced by a strong male with arms of steel. All right, that was an exaggeration, but after the night she was having, it was allowed.
“Easy, Lisanna,” Sullivan said softly. “It’s me.”
At the sound of his voice she burst into tears and laid her head on his shoulder. Shouts echoed in the distance, but she didn’t care what was happening. She’d thought she might die and never see him again. This was the miracle she’d been praying for. “I love you,” she said between sobs.
“I love you too,” he said. “I believe I told you I gave you my heart a long time ago. Keep it safe for me, will you. It’s a fragile thing and couldn’t handle being broken.”
With those words, she cried harder. She didn’t know what she’d done to deserve this man, but she promised not to take him for granted again. A love like theirs didn’t happen often, and she intended to hold onto it until her last breath.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Sullivan was nervous. He’d never been this anxious in his entire life. The months leading up to this point should have made him more confident. Lana didn’t even try to move out. Instead, when she received the insurance check for her house, she decided she didn’t want a house of her own. She wanted to build it again and donate it to Dani’s new foundation. It was going to be a refuge for battered women and children. Sullivan had never been prouder then when she told him her idea. She was going to present Dani with the deed that evening at dinner.
The beginning of their relationship had been rocky. That was, of course, an understatement, but Sullivan didn’t like to dwell on the past. They had a wonderful future ahead of them. The trio of crazies, as Lana referred to them, were in prison. Carter had heard a good deal of their confession, and Lana filled in what he hadn’t. Victoria had been pissed to find out that while she hadn’t actually committed any of the crimes, she was still equally culpable. Conspiracy was a nice law that tied her to them.
The door to the apartment opened. Lana stepped inside and toed off her sneakers. She was dressed in a pair of sea green scrubs and had her red hair piled into a messy bun on top her head. She always looked beautiful to him, but never as much as she did in that moment. Maybe he was crazy, but no matter how many times he saw her, he couldn’t get over how she was finally his. The love of his life and the only woman he would ever love.
“Hard day at work?”
“Not particularly,” she said and crossed the room to his side. “The same as it usually is. How about you?”
“The company’s still there,” he said, then leaned down to kiss her lightly. “We’re going to make it through the mess Colleen made.”
“That’s good,” she said. “She really hates you. Why did you ever think hiring her was a good idea.”
He shrugged. “You know, my sister asked me that once. She’s qualified, and she didn’t come off as a raving lunatic when she interviewed for the job. Besides, I don’t do all the hiring. That’s what the HR department is for. I gave them my top three choices, and they made the final decision. She must’ve made a good impression.”
“Well,” Lana said. “She may be nuts, but she’s smart. I’d bet she’d been hiding the crazy for years.”
He laughed. “Let’s talk about something more pleasant than the trio.”
“Like what?”
Lana slid her hand up his chest and loosened the knot in his tie. She pulled it apart and began working the buttons of his shirt open. “We do have dinner reservations later with my family. Do you really want to start this now?”
“I want nothing more,” she said.
“Good,” he said and pulled up her top and lifted it over her head. “Because so do I.”
They undressed as fast as possible until they were both naked. Sullivan lifted her against the wall and entered her in one swift motion. She wrapped her legs around his waist and met his thrusts as he trailed kisses over her face and neck.
“So good.” Lana raked her nails over his back. “Harder,” she demanded.
“Any harder and we might break something,” he said with a laugh.
She leaned forward and sucked on his ear. Her hot breath washed over him as she whispered, “Are you afraid?”
“Never,” he replied.
Challenge accepted. He carried her to the dining room table and set her on top of it, then stepped away from her. She lay back against the hard surface, giving him a perfect view of her glorious breasts. Lana lifted her arms above her head and stared at him seductively. “What are you waiting for? An invitation?”
Sullivan ran his hands up her stomach toward her chest. He palmed each breast in the palm of his hands and massaged them. She moaned and lifted her hips. “I need you.”
“In a minute,” he promised.
“Come closer.” She licked her lips. “I want to kiss you.”
“Not yet.” Sullivan waited as long as possible to heighten her arousal. He tweaked her nipples between his fingers until they were ruby red points, then he moved his hands under her and yanked her against him so he could lean down and suck her nipples into his mouth. “Mine,” he declared as he moved over to the other one.
“Always,” she agreed.
Sullivan entered her again and rocked inside of her over and over again. He loved her with his body, heart, and soul. If he could give her more of himself he would, but he couldn’t fathom how. Maybe, over time, he’d figure it all out. He knew one thing for certain though: she was perfect—everything about her, and them together had turned out far better than he could’ve hoped for. He loved her more than he’d ever thought possible. Lana gave him a reason to do better—be better.
Her moans echoed through the apartment. This was one of the best parts of having her come home to him. They couldn’t keep their hands off of each other, and the sex couldn’t be better. That wasn’t all they had though. Love was the binding thread that tied them together. He pulled her up so she could wrap her leg
s around him and hug him as they road their pleasure together. Then he leaned down and kissed her as she’d demanded earlier.
He tasted her lips with his tongue and then pushed it inside her mouth. Their passion exploded, and for a brief moment he couldn’t be sure where he began and she ended. He pulled back and met her gaze. It was as wild as the emotions rolling through him. If possible, he loved her even more in that moment. They were in sync in a way they’d never been before, and he wanted to imprint it in his memory. This woman couldn’t be more right for him.
“I love you,” he said as his orgasm rocked through him. She hit her peak at the same time and screamed his name. “Will you marry me?”
That hadn’t been how he’d intended to ask her. He’d planned a romantic evening with wine, dinner, and dancing. Then he’d get down on one knee and promise to love her forever. She’d been right when she’d said that.
Lana chuckled. “You have amazing timing.”
“So that’s a yes?”
He’d keep asking until she agreed, but he hoped it wouldn’t come to that. She was his soul mate, and they belonged together. He wanted her to have his name and let the world see how much they loved each other. She deserved everything, and he intended to make sure she received it. The image of her in a wedding dress walking toward him at the altar wouldn’t leave his mind. He had to have all of that, but with her alone.
“Depends,” she said.
“On what?” he asked, carrying her to the bedroom. “He wanted to make love to her properly. Different places were nice once in a while, but he liked to love his woman right—in a soft bed. “Name it and it’s yours.”
“Can we elope?”
He hadn’t expected her to say that. The image of their wedding was shifting. Did it matter if she had a white dress and they said their vows in a church? No, it really didn’t. Not as long as, at the end, she was his wife. “I’m not against it,” he said carefully. “But won’t your mother be disappointed if she doesn’t get to fuss over you?”