Forbidden Attraction: A Contemporary Romance Box Set

by K. C. Crowne

  “I can't handle this!” Ruby said as she bounced up and down. “I feel like a kid again going to my first concert.”

  But the other occupants in the room weren't sharing our enthusiasm. Rolo and Reuben were lying on the couch staring at me with their chocolaty eyes begging me not to leave. Meanwhile the cats were sprawled out in the sunshine, barely noticing the rest of us existed.

  “Okay, be good,” I said to the dogs. “Don't let the kitties bully you.”

  They both licked my face in farewell then we were off. Ruby and I decided to join the rest of the revelers and walk down to the park. I could almost feel her buzzing with excitement beside me, but although I was happy to go to the show, I was all churned up inside.

  I kept thinking of Ogilvy's face when he told me about his daughter. Kept thinking about what he'd said about Jared. Then I thought about the baby inside me. Thought about what I was going to do when so much else was going on.

  “You okay?” Ruby asked as she linked her arm into mine. “You look worried.”

  “I'm...”

  Pregnant? Scared? Confused?

  I didn't know what to say, so I just said, “Tired. I'm tired.”

  “You've been working too much.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  We kept on walking. Ruby bouncing down the road singing her favorite Red Cherry hits while I joined along trying to suppress the nausea in my guts.

  At last, we reached the park. It was already a sea of people facing the stage at the bottom in front of the town hall. Skeletons and ghosts hung from the trees and railings while above us, a string of pumpkin fairy lights hung over the crowd.

  “It looks incredible!” Ruby said in awe. “I had no idea they could make this little town look so cool. Ooh, look at all the beer stalls. Let's go get some drinks.”

  “I'll just have a water,” I said as she pushed her way through to the nearest bar.

  “What? Are you serious?”

  “Yeah. I'm not feeling great.”

  She gave me a puzzled look but bought me the water anyway. With our drinks, we pushed our way through the crowds until we were dead center of the park facing the middle of the stage.

  “Think we can get any closer?” Ruby asked.

  “Nah, it's like pushing against a brick wall.”

  The excitement of the town pulsed through the crowd. There was a sense of energy I'd never felt here before, a feeling that we were all united.

  Minutes passed and the tension grew as people became impatient for the band to appear onstage. Above us, the sky was beginning to darken making the orange Halloween decorations pop from their surroundings.

  People began to chant as the lights on the stage flashed on. Beside me, Ruby bristled with excitement.

  “Red Cherry! Red Cherry! Red Cherry! Red Cherry!”

  A rumble of anticipation traveled through the ground beneath our feet as thousands of people stamped their heels and yelled.

  At last, the figures of Red Cherry stepped out onto the stage and the crowd erupted into deafening cheers.

  “All right Station Springs!” the lead singer yelled into the microphone. “Are you ready to rock?”

  Once again, the crowd erupted into cheers so loud my ears hurt. Beside me, Ruby was ready to explode. We watched in awe as Marcus, the guitarist stepped forward then began playing his first riff.

  The crowd responded by jumping up and down and screaming.

  "This is wild!" Ruby shouted. "I can't believe they're really here."

  As the music started, the anxiety within me lessened enough for me to focus on the band and not worry about everything else. I started to have a good time, banging my head in time to the music and rocking my whole body.

  I was starting to enjoy myself until something sharp and hard jammed into my ribs.

  "Ow!" I moaned, thinking it was just some overly hyperactive dancer who had caught me with their elbow. "Watch what you're doing!"

  I carried on dancing, but once again, the sharp pain returned to my ribs and the heat of someone's breath reached my ear.

  "Just do as you're told and don't make a scene," came Billy's voice.

  Looking down to my ribs, I saw he had a gun pressed into my side. Shrouded by his jacket, nobody could see a thing. To the crowd, he probably looked like a regular guy sidling up to a girl.

  "What the fuck are you doing?"

  "Just follow me."

  "No!"

  I looked around at everyone, but they were all too busy dancing and screaming to notice.

  "Just do what I say, and you won't put everyone else in danger," Billy said, his lips pressed into my ear.

  Frozen to the spot, I stared at Ruby, willing her to notice. At first, she saw me standing still, then she detected the fear on my face. Then she noticed Billy standing behind me, and her eyes drifted down to my side.

  "Don't move," I told her. "He has a gun."

  "Make a sound and you're all dead," Billy seethed. "Now the both of you, follow me."

  I stood rooted to the spot and tried to wriggle against him. He responded by cocking the gun.

  "I'm not fucking around," he said in my ear. "Now just walk right outta here."

  "No. No you can't do this."

  "I swear if you make one more sound, I will shoot you where you stand."

  My first thought was to somehow escape and get somebody's attention. I craned my neck and looked around the crowd for signs of security, but it seemed as though everyone was congregated near the stage.

  Save yourself. I told myself. Fight him.

  But in that moment, I wasn't terrified for myself, I was terrified for my baby, and so I did as I was told. I would have done anything to not put the little life inside me at risk.

  How can this be happening with so many people around?

  But that's what made his plan so perfect. He was hiding in plain sight.

  "Keep moving," he told us both. "That's right, just walk on right out of here over toward the van there."

  Gradually, we pushed through the crowd until we reached the edge of the festival along the main road that led toward the center of town. At the bottom of the street, an innocuous, navy blue van sat parked. He pushed me toward it with Ruby beside me.

  I looked over at her and saw tears were streaming down her face. But I couldn't cry. All I could think of was how to get away from his gun. I thought about kicking him, hitting him, reaching for one of the many discarded beer bottles in the gutter to hit him with. But I knew one wrong move and he'd pull the trigger.

  The look in his eyes told me he meant what he'd said. He'd shoot me dead and Ruby too if I didn't do what he told me.

  We arrived at the van just as the side door slid open. A figure in black with a scarf over his nose and mouth quickly reached for Ruby and bundled her in. She screamed as he touched her, and he instantly clapped a gloved hand over his mouth to stifle her voice.

  "Get in," Billy ordered.

  He pushed me inside and I fell down on my knees. Then he was climbing in behind me and slamming the door shut behind him. The van was empty, dark and smelled like the cheap air fresheners they give away for free in gas stations.

  The floor was rough against my knees, and the four of us knelt down on the cold metal beneath us, the sound of heavy breathing permeating the air.

  "Please," I begged. "Don't shoot me."

  "What did I fucking tell you about not making a sound!"

  Billy lashed out and struck me hard across the face with the gun. It was the shock of the cold steel against my cheek that stunned me more than the pain. It wasn't until I felt warm liquid dripping down my face that I realized I was bleeding.

  "I'm begging you," I said in little more than a whisper as I clutched my face. "I'm pregnant."

  There was a sharp intake of breath from the corner of the van. I looked over and saw Ruby's eyes widen and the tears start to fall heavier.

  "You're pregnant?" she cried. "Why didn't you tell me?"

  "Shut the fuc
k up!" the other man yelled as he slapped her across the face.

  I was filled with rage. Nobody got to hit my best friend. But as much as I wanted to rush to her side, the cocked gun was still pressed against my ribs.

  The other man turned toward me and pulled the scarf down his face so I could make out his features in the faint light that shone in from the nearby streetlamp.

  "I've been watching you, " he said in a thick New York accent. "I know who you are. Know you've been in bed with that Jared prick. That fucker and his cronies put me behind bars. I'd tried to save him that night in the bunker. Had pretty much led him to my brother and the girls. And the asshole got me locked up!"

  "You're a murderer!" I blurted out angrily without thinking. "Criminals deserve to be behind bars."

  He was silent for a second, but I could see his cheeks turning red with anger. Then his arm shot out and his hand fixed itself around my throat.

  "Bitch!" he yelled. "I knew I'd fucking enjoy every second of killing you. Knew that the best way to get to those SecuriCorp assholes was through their women. Those heroes all come running for their damsels in distress, don't they?”

  He laughed maniacally and squeezed harder until I could feel a searing pain through my neck and head as my vision began to blur.

  “I told you you'd never get away with leaving me,” Billy's voice whispered as I started to grow faint. “Did you really think I was gone for good?”

  Jared

  I was trying to enjoy the band, but all I could think of was why I couldn't get a hold of Megan. Standing at the side of the stage, I scanned the crowd for her bouncing brunette head but couldn't see her in the ocean of people.

  “I've never seen so many people in this town before,” Jackson shouted over the music as he bobbed his head in time to the bass line. “It's crazy!”

  Walking backstage to the control center of the security operation, I saw Dylan in front of a wide range of screens showing cameras pointed in all directions across the crowd. I felt the need to look over every single one of them for Megan, but again, I couldn't place her.

  “How's it goin'?” I asked Dylan.

  “Wish I was out there with you guys,” he moaned. “Instead of being stuck in here watching the cameras. That stalker we're supposed to be looking for probably isn't going to show up.”

  He pointed up to the screen where I saw a dark van parking up beside the crowd.

  “It's been circling the venue for about twenty minutes now.”

  “Probably just looking for a space. It's packed out there.”

  “Maybe,” Dylan replied. “But I dunno. There seems something weird about it. Can't place my finger on why.”

  “You're just suspicious.”

  “We're literally paid to be suspicious.”

  “Good point,” I laughed. “I'll catch you later. Give me a shout if you notice it do anything strange.”

  He gave me a thumbs up and I aimed to go back to the stage, but not before my phone rang. When I saw Megan's number flash on the screen, I felt a surge of excitement.

  “Hey! I've been trying to call you all day.”

  There was no reply.

  “Hello? Megan are you there?”

  But all I could hear was the muffled sound of the music down the line along with what sounded like mumbling voices.

  Aw, shit. She's pocket dialed me.

  I moved to hang up, but before I could, a voice popped through the line clearer than all the others.

  "Don't move. He has a gun,” Megan's terrified voice echoed.

  "Make a sound and you're all dead," replied a man.

  Billy...

  Rushing back to Dylan I told him what I heard.

  “Seriously? She definitely said the word gun?”

  “Definitely. Did you not see Billy in the crowd?”

  “Hey, you pick out one individual ex-boyfriend in this crowd,” he said, pointing to the screens.

  All we could see were hundreds of rows of banging heads, every face a blur.

  “Wait. Who's that?” I said, pointing toward the van on the screen.

  Dylan zoomed in as three figures approached it walking at a clip. I caught sight of the unmistakable brunette hair and Ruby's bouncing curls.

  “That's them!” I said. “Zoom in some more.”

  “I'll try but this is pretty much as close as I can go.”

  Fiddling with the buttons, he drew in a closer image on the screen, the two of us leaning in as the side door to the van flew open.

  “Who's that beside Megan?” Dylan asked. “And why is he so close to her.”

  I saw the way Billy's arm was pushed up into her side, could see her fear from the way she moved.

  “He's got a gun,” I said. “Move. Now!”

  We sprang into action, running past Jackson on the way while radioing for Lucas.

  “South west corner of the park!” I yelled. “Dark van. Go!”

  Megan

  “Get off her!” Ruby screamed as she flung herself at Mario Gianni.

  But she was no match for him, and he pushed her away easily. She fell back against the side of the van, hitting her head with a cry as she fell.

  The pain in my throat was overwhelming, and no matter how much I tried to suck in air, nothing reached my lungs. Digging my nails into Mario's hands, I tried to release his grasp of me, but it only grew stronger.

  Tears streamed down my face as I grew dizzier, and as I tried to ball my hands into fists to hit him, I felt my limbs grow weak and limp.

  “Shit,” I heard Billy's voice say. “Security are coming already. They must have seen us.”

  “Drive!” Mario ordered.

  Billy jumped into the driver's seat and started the engine, the sound of the gears crunching as he pulled away.

  No! If he drives away, you'll never be seen again. He'll kill you and bury you both in the mountains. No one will know what happened.

  But more than anything, if I died, I would never get to be a mother, and the baby inside me would die too.

  The thought raised an anger and strength within me I didn't know I possessed. And although I was close to passing out, my windpipe closing over and my lungs burning. Although I could barely move, see or hear anything but the blood pumping in my head, I fought with all my strength.

  I kicked him as hard as I could with my hands feeling behind me for something, anything that could be used as a weapon. At first, all I could feel was the cold, metal floor. Then my fingertips grazed something heavy and long.

  A crowbar!

  As the last of my breath dissolved in my lungs, I struggled to reach it.

  You can do it! Just one more inch. Just one more breath. Just live a second longer!

  I pushed myself as hard as I could, my eyes boring into the eyes of my would-be killer. And with what could have been my dying breath, I reached across that one critical inch and wrapped my fingers around the crowbar.

  I had no time to lose, and with all the power I could muster, I swung it as hard as I could against the side of Mario's head. It landed on his skull with a thud and a crack.

  A rush of air entered my lungs as he fell away from me, dazed. He staggered backward, the shock in his eyes evident. Fortified by my anger and the fresh air in my lungs, I swung the bar one more time, hitting him across the head. Blood spattered out from his scalp, peppering the side of the van as he fell onto his back.

  Ruby rushed to my side and hugged me tight.

  “He's knocked out,” I said. “Quick! Tie him up!”

  She pulled off her scarf and quickly wound it around his wrists which she pulled up high behind his back.

  Behind us, sirens blazed. Looking out the back window, I could see a blacked-out truck racing toward us, the SecuriCorp logo emblazoned on the front.

  “Give up now,” I told Billy, the crowbar still gripped in my hand. “Don't be stupid.”

  He pulled on the steering wheel as we rounded the bend toward the town hall. The stage, now flanking us to the left, l
oomed over us, the bright lights shining into the interior of the van.

  I could see how much Billy was sweating. Could see the fear in his eyes. But I could also see how tightly he still gripped his gun as he drove.

  With the crowbar still tight in my hand, I leaned over the back of his seat, pressing the metal bar against his throat. Lightly at first, then harder.

  “Stop the van!”

  But he only pressed the accelerator harder.

  “Get back, you dumb bitch!” he struggled to say.

  He tried to reach around to punch me, but I pressed the bar deeper into his neck. He began flailing wildly, losing control of the wheel.

  “You psycho bitch!” he tried to yell as I pulled the bar back even harder.

  “Stop the van!”

  At last, he reached for the brake pedal, but not before he lost control of the van entirely. The first thing I heard was the screech of the tires followed by Ruby's terrified scream as the van went careening toward the stage.

  There was an almighty crash as the van hit the railings, then the deafening screams of the crowd as they dove out the way. The last thing I saw as the van crashed into the stage was the shocked face of the guitarist as we plowed into the stage beneath him, his Marshall amps wobbling and toppling down on top of us.

  The impact sent my head flying into the back of Billy's seat. When I opened my eyes, I was lying on the floor with blue and red lights filling the inside of the van as the police approached.

  Outside, I could hear the sound of doors opening and feet hitting the ground.

  “Megan!” Jared yelled over the chaos. “Megan hold tight I'm coming!”

  Thank God he's here to save me.

  But my optimism was too soon. Behind me, I could feel the rising figure of Billy as he pulled himself up from his seat, broken glass falling from his injured body.

  “Fucking bitch,” he seethed. “You're fucking dead.”

  I looked up over my head just as his hand reached down in the shards of broken glass on the floor. His fingers felt for his gun.

  Trying to sit up, I fell back, dazed as blood trickled from my head. Then I felt the cold steel of the gun press against my temple.