“Watch me.”
Chapter Five
Kinley looked around her rather nicely appointed prison with Egyptian cotton sheets, solid wood furniture, and a stunning spa-like bathroom. She’d assumed that when Dominic said they could hold her here forever, he’d been exaggerating. Now, she wasn’t so sure. Her “cell” and everything she’d seen of the place certainly looked self-contained enough to make that possible.
She’d tried all the doors and the windows, even to the point of attempting to break one. But someone had installed ridiculously thick glass. Her puny attempts to break through it had resulted in nothing except sore arms and frustration.
She’d finally given up and showered, then slipped on clean clothes. It was practically heaven to be out of that tight dress. Kinley had eschewed her jeans for a cotton skirt and long sleeved T-shirt. They didn’t have any plan to rape her, it seemed. They’d had ample opportunity while she’d been passed out and hadn’t taken advantage of it. Since her skirt wouldn’t be making her ravishment easier for them, why not be comfortable?
When she’d awakened in her posh prison, she’d been surprised to find all her luggage and then some, including the cases of island wear she’d packed for her honeymoon in the Caymans. With all the sandals, swimsuits, and sundresses, she wasn’t packed for Alaska—and Kinley suspected that’s where she might actually be. She didn’t hear the hum of a fan or air conditioner. If she’d been in upstate New York in summer, wouldn’t they need some cool air by midday?
The other bit of evidence? The warm clothing the guys had bought her. Law? He seemed like the concerned one. She was struck by the fact that none of the garments were as utilitarian as she would have expected a man to buy. The sweaters were all soft and cheerful, in colors she would have bought for herself because they complemented her complexion. The sweatpants were adorable and stylish with bling running down the pant legs. Even the socks were pink and fuzzy. It was as though someone had shopped with her taste in mind. Why would they care if the clothes they bought pleased her?
They were unusual kidnappers who apparently didn’t watch TV to see how bad guys should really behave. She should probably be as scared as she’d been when she’d first awakened and realized they had locked her in the unfamiliar bedroom. But that level of fear was hard to maintain when her abductors had done little but feed and clothe her. Someone had even charged her iPad so she wouldn’t be bored. If they were going to give her a diversion, Kinley didn’t imagine they were going to waterboard her or stick bamboo shoots under her nails.
What they hadn’t done was give her a sense of time. The sun was still up—and didn’t it stay up forever in Alaska in the summer?—but she had no idea how many hours had gone by. They’d taken all the clocks. Without Internet, her tablet wouldn’t tell the time in her current time zone. And she’d never gotten a cellular data plan for it. The rest of the room was bare with the exception of a plush queen bed, an elegant nightstand, one chair, and a lamp that hadn’t proven to be as sturdy as the locked window. One blow and it was broken.
Maybe not her best move. When night fell would she be left alone in the dark?
She gazed out the window at the mountains in the distance, heavily covered by green everywhere—trees, bushes, soft grass, dotted with a few fledging flowers, all surrounding a lake. The views were sweeping, incredible. She’d only been to upstate New York once, so she certainly hadn’t seen all of it, but the bit she recalled hadn’t looked this majestic. Still, she had to hold out hope that she wasn’t too far from civilization to escape, that home wasn’t over four thousand miles away…
A brief knock sounded on the door before it opened too quickly for her to barricade it.
The biggest one walked in carrying the one thing guaranteed to make her feel better.
“I thought you might want her.” He held Gigi in his big, callused hands that had been so gentle when he’d gotten her out of that god-awful corset. He was Law. The name suited him.
Her sweet Yorkie looked no worse for the wear. Gigi’s little body shook, and she yipped and barked with joy.
With tears of relief, Kinley grabbed her sweet little puppy and held her close, filled with a guilty sense of happiness. She hated that Gigi and been nabbed and wondered how she’d been enduring captivity so far. But she was so relieved to have her puppy—one of her most beloved comforts—here with her.
“They brought you here? Oh, baby girl. Are you okay? Were you scared?”
Gigi just licked her nose, rubbing their faces together.
“She might have been scared, but she fought back.” A lopsided grin bent Law’s lips. God, when he smiled, her heart tended to stutter in a way it shouldn’t about a man who had kidnapped and drugged her. A criminal shouldn’t have a smile like that. “She had the good sense to bite the shit out of my brother. He struck out with both the Kohl females.”
Silently, Kinley cheered on her dog. “Gigi is the sweetest little thing to me. Not so much to others. And she can bark like crazy when she doesn’t get her food on time. She’s used to being fed twice a day and she knows when it’s dinner time.”
“Ah, that explains a lot. She’s been a little high strung.” He sobered as he looked at the lamp on the floor. “Did you try to break the windows or was the lamp just particularly offensive?”
“You can’t expect me to not try to escape.” She turned away. Maybe if she ignored him, he would leave. Being alone was preferable to being with criminals.
Was Greg a criminal?
“The windows are hurricane glass. A couple of years back, the owners had some trouble with hunters and stray bullets. They have kids and a whole lot of money, so they changed all the windows in the house. They’re very heavy and almost impossible to shatter. The house has a top-of-the-line security system in place as well. We’d know if you somehow managed to even crack a window and we’d be on you very quickly.” His voice softened. “You can’t get away, Kinley, and you wouldn’t be very happy if you did. We’re miles away from anything you’d call civilization. There really are bears out there. You could get hurt.”
She clutched her dog. “If you’re so worried about me, why did you kidnap me from a beautiful bridal suite in Manhattan and bring me to this wilderness?”
He sat down on the bed, his big frame incongruous against the flowery comforter. He was a masculine beast in feminine surroundings. “You won’t believe me, but we’re trying to protect you, bab…Kinley.”
Yeah, she was buying that. “This is about the big guy’s revenge. How did you get wrapped up in this?”
“Dominic and I stick together through thick and thin. Always have, always will.”
So she guessed the idea of trying to divide and conquer them wouldn’t get her anywhere. If Law was willing to risk prison time to help Dominic, that said something serious about their bond. The only person she’d do that for was Annabelle, so she knew they must be thick.
“Look, I’m sorry about his sister. But I don’t think I can do anything to give him the…closure he’s looking for.”
Kinley really was sorry. She couldn’t imagine losing her sister. Becks might not be the most thoughtful sibling on the planet, but she was blood, family. Whatever his faults—and she’d bet there were plenty—Dominic had really loved his sister and grieved her now. Losing her to an overdose must have been terrible.
“Carrie never took drugs,” Law said softly. “I grew up with her. I was in the same grade as Dominic, but we came from different sides of the tracks, to say the least.”
“He came from money.” She could tell. He had an air of authority that she’d seen emanate from the wealthiest of men. It came from the world being at their feet.
“A lot of it. And Ry and I…didn’t.”
“So how did you two meet Dominic?” Usually kids with such divergent upbringings didn’t meet. She and Annabelle were the exception more than the rule.
Law shrugged, not like he didn’t know, but like he was uncomfortable. “My dad ran off when Ry and I were kids. Mom…well, she did everything she could to keep us clothed and fed. I was out hustling kids out of their money at the movie theater one day. Cards, dice, whatever game of chance I could rig. I didn’t beat anyone up for it, but some of the other little pukes did. They started picking on Dominic because he was rich and hadn’t gone through puberty yet, so he was small. I thought three teenagers against a twelve-year-old was crappy and unfair. I was a few months older and had already started my growth spurt…and I liked fights, so I jumped in. Ry helped. Dominic became our best friend after that. Since Carrie was younger than him, I kind of watched her grow up. She didn’t do drugs. Not ever.”
Had Law been in love with her? She knew she shouldn’t care, but he was being so gentle now, it was easy to imagine that he’d bestowed that tenderness on Carrie in the years he had known her before she’d died. Yet... Kinley hated to admit that Law being in love with Dominic’s late sister bothered her.
“Maybe not as a teenager,” she argued. “But she was a model. That world is very fast. You can’t know what she did, then. Unless you were with her in New York.”
He shook his head. “Oh no. We were getting our asses shot off in Afghanistan.”
“You and Riley?”
“No, me and Dominic.”
Why would the rich guy go into a warzone? “Did he go to one of the academies?”
“We were nineteen when 9-11 happened. Dominic said he couldn’t sit in a classroom when his country was in danger. He left Harvard to join up. I followed him.” Law shrugged. “I couldn’t let him go alone.”
Her sister wouldn’t even go to the bathroom with her. Only Annabelle had ever been that kind of friend. She knew the deep connection it had taken for Law to follow his friend into battle. Kinley even had to give Dominic some grudging respect. What kind of courage had it taken for him to leave his wealth and privilege behind to serve his country on the other side of the world?
Of course, Law could be lying, too, to win her goodwill or sympathy or whatever. Kidnappers were criminals who didn’t normally do good things. “I don’t need to know your history.”
She just wanted to escape. Maybe she and Greg could rearrange the wedding quickly with the same understanding in place. Certainly, she could convince him to pay for her father’s procedure until they could schedule the ceremony again. The first payment to the hospital was due in a week. Her fiancé wouldn’t punish her father by making him skip his treatment because she’d been kidnapped…would he?
“Yeah, you need to know this part. We had finished up our third tour of duty. We were back here in the States for training. Carrie had married Greg while we were gone. By then, we’d moved onto Special Forces and our missions were a matter of national security. We didn’t go to the wedding, but Riley did. He told Dominic and I both that he had serious concerns about how Greg treated Carrie. One night a couple of months later, Dominic got a phone call from her. She left a voicemail because, well, we had the night off and we were taking advantage of it.”
He flushed just a little, letting her know that they hadn’t exactly been playing charades. Kinley frowned. Had they been taking advantage of someone together? No. Oh. Oh. Were they gay? That was a horrible thought. It was kind of an insult to women everywhere that those two amazing hunks of masculinity would be interested in each other. She would have never guess it, but…
Why did her hot kidnappers have to be gay?
Irrelevant. She forced herself off that mental track. “What did her message say?”
Greg had explained that his first wife had suffered bouts of depression. He’d cared for her greatly, but in the end he hadn’t been able to love her enough to save her.
“She sounded scared.” Law stared at her, as if willing her to understand. “She said that she was leaving Greg and needed Dominic to call her. She was perfectly lucid and totally scared. She wasn’t taking drugs.”
“But—”
“The police found her dead twelve hours later, and I know Greg damn well killed her. Carrie was like a sister to me. He’s my best friend. I can’t just let it lie.”
“Greg was in San Francisco when she died. He couldn’t have killed her.” Dominic’s grief was clouding his logic. Kinley might not love Greg Jansen, but she certainly didn’t picture him actually killing his wife.
So why was the tiniest part of her relieved that she wasn’t going on her honeymoon today?
“What do you know about a man named Vincent Dargo?”
Kinley shivered. He was Greg’s head of security. She couldn’t stand how he looked at every woman who walked by like she was a piece of meat he couldn’t wait to tear into. Brutally. Viciously. “I don’t have much to do with him.”
