Protect My Heart

by Judy Corry

  “Am I really a temptation to you?” It was so nice being able to talk to him about this and to have everything out in the open.

  “Absolutely.” He leaned against the wall by my bedroom door and smiled, showing his dimples. “I can’t even tell you how many times I wanted to pull you into a corner and kiss you.”

  “You’re telling me,” I mused. “We should have had this conversation months ago.”

  Arie took hold of my hand and pulled me closer to him so my body was aligned with his. “Does it bother you that I’m four years older than you?” he asked, letting his hands clasp behind my waist.

  “Of course not!” I smiled, happy to have him be so affectionate with me after so many long months of wishing. “That just makes it, like, ten times better.” I combed through his soft hair with my fingers. “You know, me dating an older man is quite exciting.” I laughed.

  “Good.” He moved his hands behind my neck and pulled me in for one more kiss. After a moment, Arie pulled his head away from mine with a sigh. “I think you better go to bed,” he said. “If you don’t leave me now, I may never let you go.”

  That sounded just fine to me. I didn’t want to go to bed. I wanted to stay up all night, talking to him, cuddling with him, kissing him.

  But he was right—I needed to get to sleep. We’d have all day together tomorrow. “I don’t want to go, but I will because I know how cranky you get when you don’t get enough sleep,” I said, patting him on the chest.

  He arched his eyebrows and grabbed my wrist. “I’m cranky when I don’t get enough sleep?” He was smiling. “I’m pretty sure it’s the other way around.”

  “Whatever,” I said, swatting his hand away. “I’m as sweet as honey early in the morning.”

  “Maybe, if that honey happens to have a bee’s stinger stuck inside of it and it stings your throat on the way down.”

  “Okay, okay. I get it. I need my beauty sleep or I’m a real beast in the morning.”

  He smiled and touched my cheek with his thumb. “Good night, Emma. Sleep well.” He gave me one final kiss.

  When he pulled himself away, his body went tense. His eyes locked on something behind me, and the feeling in the air changed. I wound my head around to see what had startled him but didn’t see anything. Before I could ask what was wrong, he clamped a hand over my mouth.

  “Did you close your bedroom door before we left?” he asked in a tone I could barely hear.

  Had I? The hair on the back of my neck stood up as I tried to remember. I couldn’t. But I didn’t usually close it.

  I shook my head, feeling my pulse throb in my temples.

  “Someone’s here.” He pulled his gun out and rushed me past our bedrooms and down the stairs. A shot fired before we made it through the living room.

  “Run! Take the car,” Arie yelled.

  I glanced back as he darted behind the couch. Adrenaline pumped through me as I searched the room for the car keys. They were on a hook by the back door.

  Jason and Sophie clamored out of their bedroom, weapons drawn.

  More shots rang.

  Arie.

  I couldn’t leave him behind to die. I hesitated by the door, my hand shaking on the knob.

  “Leave!” Arie shouted as he shot around the couch. “Get out of here now!”

  My shoes were glued to the floor.

  Footsteps retreated above.

  Were they leaving the way they came?

  Jason bolted up the stairs after whoever was trying to escape. Sophie followed behind him.

  In a second, Arie was by my side, yanking open the door and pulling me around the back of the house just as I heard what sounded like a shot, and then a scream followed by someone crashing down the stairs.

  “Hand me the keys!” Arie held out his hand.

  I fumbled with them, and they slipped out of my numb fingers, landing in the damp grass. Arie swiped them off the ground, unlocking the car as we ran to where it was parked on the street.

  I yanked open the door and climbed in. I tried to catch my breath as I waited for Arie to get in.

  What was happening? Had I just heard someone die in there?

  The driver’s door opened. Arie climbed in and stabbed me in the chest with a needle.

  I twisted in disbelief and saw someone I had never seen before: a middle-aged man with dark hair and dark eyes.

  I screamed. But before I could do anything, the man put a gun to my head.

  “Don’t even think about moving,” he said, his accent much like Sophie’s.

  I froze with fear. My head started to feel fuzzy as the man put the key in the ignition and drove away. I looked in the rearview mirror and saw Arie lying in the road just as everything went black.

  CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

  EMMA

  I WAS GAGGED and tied to a metal chair. I was so exhausted, both emotionally and physically. I’d been up most of the night, after waking from my drug-induced sleep, and the ever-present fear and anguish had drained me. My body ached everywhere, and my head was fogged over like I was waking up from a bad cold. Three men were talking in the corner of what appeared to be some sort of office space.

  The large room was dark, with a single lamp giving off light from a desk about twenty feet from me. There was no light streaming through the windows since they were covered in black butcher paper. Because of the darkness, I wasn’t certain whether the sun was up yet. I figured it had to be morning by now because of how much time had seemed to pass. I also knew we were a few stories above the ground, because I’d felt every single step as Damian, Mr. Lund’s friend, had carried me on his shoulder up the stairs.

  After we had arrived, I soon figured out that the man with the dark hair and dark eyes was actually Fenris—my long-lost uncle who wanted my money, then wanted me dead. Just a few minutes ago, I’d overheard Fenris say something about taking me to a bank and wiring money to his accounts.

  It was only a matter of time before I would be killed.

  Fenris walked across the room toward me, his shoes clicking on the cement floor.

  “It is nice to finally meet you, Emma, after all these years,” he said in a low, accented voice. “It’s a pity there isn’t much time to get to know each other better. You do look so much like your mother, Adelle. She was beautiful.” He sighed. “It was such a disappointment when I heard she had found a way to get herself killed in that house fire before I had the chance to marry her myself. We could have been a happy family. With my father’s fortune, I could have given you a glorious childhood.” He smiled smugly, which told me just how much he thought of himself. In another time and place, I may have thrown up in my mouth. But as it was, I only thought about how badly I wanted out of there. How I needed to figure out a way to escape.

  “But there’s no use in wishing for what might have been. I’m just thankful to have finally retrieved you from those irritating bodyguards of yours.” He paused and looked at me with a calculating smile. “You must be happy to be rid of them. Locked up in that little condo for months. I did you a service in killing them. They were much too overprotective.”

  What? Had I heard him right? Did he just say he’d killed all my bodyguards?

  I turned my head to the side and vomited on the cement floor, feeling so sick.

  Not Arie. Tears surged to my eyes as the image of Arie slumped in the road flashed through my mind. Fenris had killed him. I fought to break out of my restraints. If I could just get free, I’d strangle Fenris with my own hands. I’d kill him. I would kill him and smile as I did it.

  But the only thing my struggle did was exhaust my muscles further.

  Fenris took a step back from my vomit. But his smile grew wider when he noticed the hateful glint in my eyes. “Yes. Three bodyguards are dead, all because of you. But don’t worry. Your conscience will be cleared, too, by the end of the day.”

  Meaning I would be dead, too.

  Fenris spoke again. “We live in a different world than we did twenty years ago.
You really should have been more careful with those social-media sites.” He laughed. “To think, just hitting some guy at a party was all I needed you to do.” Fenris walked closer to me, patting my head with his hand. I attempted to jerk away from his touch, but he gripped my chin with his fingers. His face was inches from mine. “I’ve waited for this moment for eighteen years. And don’t worry, I’ll make this as painless as possible. It’s the least I could do for my only niece.” He patted my cheek twice and then let his hand drop. He walked away.

  After he joined Mr. Lund and Damian, I surveyed the room for possible exits. There was one door that led to the staircase we’d come up, and another door behind me that might lead to a balcony or outside exit. I was close to the balcony exit, but the other door was clear across the room from me, and I would have to get past my captors to escape.

  I didn’t have a chance.

  CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

  ARIE

  I DON’T KNOW how long I was lying in the street unconscious, but when I awoke my head was pounding. I ran a hand along the back of my head. It was wet with blood and had a huge bump on it.

  Emma!

  The car was gone. Emma was gone!

  I stumbled back into the house and found Sophie crying over Jason’s body.

  Oh no . . . oh no . . . don’t let him be . . . My heart constricted in my chest.

  “Is he . . .?” I asked Sophie, my insides throbbing.

  Sophie nodded and sobbed into Jason’s chest.

  “I’m so sorry.” And I really was. But as sorry as I was, I needed to find Emma. Every minute I stayed here was another minute Emma was in danger. I looked around the main level and peeked up the stairs, but I didn’t see a sign of anyone else in the condo. “I hate to leave you like this, Sophie, but I have to find Emma.”

  She nodded her understanding as more hard sobs escaped. “Go. Find her.”

  I grabbed the keys to Jason’s car off his dresser, almost feeling like I was desecrating the space by running in there disrespectfully, but I had to hurry. They could be anywhere in this big city, if they were even in Philadelphia at all.

  As I backed the car out of the garage, all I could think about was how hopeless this situation was. It was going to be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. I was alone. I had no leads, and this city was huge.

  If only I had some way to track them.

  My mind perked up at that thought. Emma’s tracking bracelet. I rubbed my forehead. I was pretty sure she’d been wearing it on the date tonight. Hopefully she still had it.

  And as long as her captors hadn’t thought to destroy it yet, I might have a way to track her.

  CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

  EMMA

  “HOW MUCH LONGER UNTIL the banks are open, Shane?” Fenris asked from the other side of the room.

  Mr. Lund glanced at his watch. “Thirty minutes.”

  “Very good.” Fenris nodded. “Let’s head to the car now. I’d like to get the money transferred first thing, and then you can take care of her before my flight leaves.” He grabbed his cane and walked out the door.

  Mr. Lund began untying me from the chair.

  “I didn’t know this was his plan,” he said, his low voice behind me as his knife cut through the rope on my right leg. “Damian convinced me it would be a quick job—grab you in Maplebridge, hand you over, get paid. I didn’t sign up for murder.”

  I couldn’t tell whether he was telling the truth. But either way, he was not a good guy.

  He moved in front of me and cut the rope around my other foot. “Fenris threatened to kill my fiancée if I didn’t finish the job.” When I looked into his eyes, I couldn’t ignore the touch of fear that was there. Was he telling the truth? I took in his physique. He was tall and lean, not particularly muscular. He had the build of a school teacher, not a hardened criminal. Had he really just gotten mixed up with the wrong roommate?

  I shook the thoughts away. He was just playing with my mind.

  He glanced toward Damian, who was stacking some papers together in a blue file. Mr. Lund moved behind me, cut the rest of the ropes except the one tying my hands, and then helped me to stand. He pushed something small into my fingers. I felt around the object. It was made of metal, smooth and warm. His pocketknife?

  “Use this when you can,” he whispered in my ear before taking the object back and sliding it into my back pocket. “Arie’s not dead.”

  My muscles went weak, and I would have collapsed if he hadn’t grabbed me roughly and started yanking me toward Damian.

  We were about halfway down the stairs when we heard someone coming toward us. “It’s the police,” Fenris gasped as he came into view around the corner. “Take the other exit.”

  Damian tossed me over his shoulder and bolted back up the stairs, darting into the room we’d been in a moment before. We were almost to the other exit when the door banged open.

  “Where is she?”

  I jerked my head up. Three policemen had burst the door open, two men and one woman, and were now blocking Mr. Lund and Damian. Fenris was nowhere to be seen. Each of the policemen was heavily armed.

  “Put your hands where we can see them, and we won’t shoot,” the stockier of the male officers hissed in a menacing voice. He had his gun aimed right at Mr. Lund’s chest. The woman trained her gun on Damian. They all looked so dangerous.

  “I’m not here to make deals,” Damian growled as he dropped me to the ground. He pulled his gun from its holster and aimed it in the officer’s direction.

  A shot rang out, reverberating off the cement walls surrounding me. I flinched and forced my eyes shut, expecting the officer to be hit.

  When I opened my eyes, I saw Mr. Lund writhing on the floor. There was a mess of blood spilling all over his hand as he clutched it with his other hand.

  Damian didn’t miss a beat and shot at the woman, who darted behind a pillar. The bullet narrowly missed her. The last officer took a few steps to take cover behind a desk. I screamed as I struggled to get to my feet and find somewhere to hide. With all these shots being fired, it was only a matter of time before I was hit!

  I ducked behind a desk. If I just stayed there, maybe I would be safe until the fight was over.

  One of the officers had just fired at Damian again when someone snuck up behind me. Fenris. I darted my eyes round the room, but no one had noticed his appearance.

  He hooked both arms under my armpits and yanked me back. I shifted from side to side, to make dragging me from the room more difficult, but he was stronger than I’d thought.

  I remembered the knife in my pocket. If I could just get my hands in my back pocket, I might be able to get to it. I stretched my arms as Fenris pulled me back, but they weren’t long enough. Then Fenris stopped, and I felt cool metal at my temple.

  His gun.

  “Come with me nicely, and I’ll leave your family alone after I’m finished with you,” Fenris said in a low voice.

  I nodded.

  My struggling stopped, but then I went like dead weight in his arms.

  He’d said come nicely, not easily.

  Before long, though, Fenris had me out the back exit and on a staircase, several stories above the ground. A brisk morning breeze whipped at my face, and I could hear the busy traffic below.

  “I’m not about to let you slip through my fingers again.” Fenris leaned against the railing to rest, wheezing from the exertion of pulling me outside.

  More shots fired inside the building.

  The sound of police sirens drifted up from the street, sounding only a few blocks away. Backup was coming. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be too late.

  Fenris swore. His gun clicked as a warning.

  What was I supposed to do? Die now or die later? Was it even possible to escape once Fenris had the money transferred? What good would that little knife be, anyway?

  But I had to try. I might not be able to use the knife now, but he had to untie my hands before taking me into the bank. And when he did tha
t, I would use the knife on him.

  We made it down one flight of stairs when a stampede of footsteps sounded on the steps below. I looked up, expecting to see a police officer. But instead, I spotted a man with dark hair and a familiar gray shirt rushing toward us. He looked over the railing, and our eyes locked.

  Arie?

  Arie!

  He was alive!

  Mr. Lund had told the truth.

  Ferris yanked on my arm to get me to move, nearly tripping on one of the steps. Seconds later, Arie was standing only five steps above me, his eyes wild.

  “Let her go!” Arie pointed his gun at Fenris as he took a step closer.

  Fenris pulled me to his chest.

  When I noticed his gun was pointed upward, with his hand on my shoulder, I stomped on Fenris’s foot, slammed a fist to his groin, and shoved him off my back with all my strength.

  Fenris’s gun shot toward the clouds as he groaned and stumbled on the stairs. His hands searched for something to keep him from falling—they found my arm, and soon we were both falling over the railing.

  A strong hand clamped around my frantic hand, yanking me upright. Arie’s foot kicked past me, connecting with Fenris’s chest.

  And I was folded into Arie’s arms.

  Fenris’s screaming stopped at the same time a loud thud sounded below. I did not need to look down to know that he was dead. Numbness poured over my body and tears streamed down my face as I shook.

  “It’s all over now, Em,” Arie said, his cheek against mine. “It’s okay,” he repeated over and over again. He was trembling, too, as he pulled back and inspected me, as if to assure himself that I was really okay. Then he hugged me again and murmured as more police arrived down below, “You’re safe. Fenris will never bother you again.”

  I wrapped my arms around his neck and sobbed into his chest. It wasn’t until Arie leaned heavily against the side of the building that I actually looked at him. Blood was seeping through his shirt.