Watched from a Distance

by Allison B Hanson

  As much as he wanted their encounter to proceed to sex, he would be content to simply be with her. To hold her and not feel so alone.

  She tossed her purse on the first bed and went to the mini-fridge to pull out a bottle of whiskey and a can of cola. As she unwrapped the first of the plastic cups, he remembered he wouldn’t be able to join her.

  “None for me, thanks.”

  “I thought you were a Jack and Coke guy.”

  “I was up until an hour ago when I switched to plain Coke. I took a pain killer before we left so I would be able to…move.” He winked at her.

  “Oh.” She looked at the fifth of whiskey in her hand and set down the cup.

  He stepped closer and wrapped his arms around her waist. He didn’t want her to need a drink for courage. If she wasn’t completely on board, he’d happily back off. While he wasn’t expecting anything long term, there was a chance for something more than a one-night stand. He lived in D.C. She lived in Charlotte. They were at least on the same side of the country and near major airports.

  Maybe they could make something work if things went in that direction.

  “If you’ve changed your mind, we can just talk. Or I can go. Whatever you want.”

  “It’s not that. I mean, I want to. It’s just—”

  He put his hands up to stop her. She bit her lip. This was more than just nerves. This was all out anxiety. She might think she wanted this, but something was not right.

  “It’s okay, Lena. I don’t want you to regret this in the morning.” He turned to leave. “How about if I meet you downstairs for breakfast?”

  He was nearly to the door, but she hadn’t answered. He could almost feel her indecision in the air. He wasn’t going to pressure her, though he was going to try for another kiss before he left.

  He was thinking about that kiss when something smashed into his head. A burst of light shot through his vision.

  Then darkness descended, and he fell to the floor.

  Chapter Five

  Dane was moving. The darkness was still there, but the cloud around his brain had subsided enough that he was awake. And definitely moving.

  Realizing he was in trouble, he relied on his training to mentally prioritize a crisis list. First and foremost, he was tied up, and didn’t know where he was. The thin hood covering his head caught on the stubble of his jaw when he turned his head.

  He wasn’t sure who had hit him or if Lena was okay. He could still smell her perfume, but he wasn’t sure if she was close or if it came from his clothing.

  “Lena?” he whispered, his voice raspy.

  “Shh.” She was next to him. Close.

  “Are you hurt?” he asked, keeping his voice low. He moved to reach for her and remembered his hands were tied behind his back.

  “N-no.”

  “What happened?”

  Maybe she had seen the intruder. She might have information that could help him get them out of this.

  “Are you hurt?” she asked rather than answer his question.

  “My head feels like it was hit with a baseball bat, and my arms are cramping up. But I’m not damaged.”

  “That’s good.”

  “Is he awake?” a male voice said from farther away.

  “No. Not yet,” Lena lied. “How much longer?”

  “We’re almost there. Maybe ten minutes.”

  “Can you turn this up? I love this song,” she requested.

  The men obliged and Shinedown filled the vehicle, making his head throb.

  “Do you have a family?” she asked, her breath right by his ear.

  This was a different question than the one she’d asked before. Originally, she’d asked if he was married. He assumed she’d asked to determine if he was available. But her question now stirred a different fear in him.

  “No,” Dane answered, thinking about the little boy who couldn’t be in his life and the wife he never really knew.

  “That’s good,” she said. And he knew he was fucked.

  A few minutes later, the sound of the tires changed from the hum of pavement to the crunch of gravel. When the vehicle bucked under him, a small hand on his arm braced him from rolling over.

  The vehicle stopped. Doors opened and closed and the distinct sound of the rolling of a van door before someone grabbed his feet and yanked him across the rough carpet of the vehicle.

  His leg was so stiff he stumbled and would have fallen if a large body hadn’t caught him and pushed him back up.

  “Easy,” Lena said. “You don’t have to be a dick.”

  “Right, we wouldn’t want to hurt him.” The man chuckled darkly.

  Dane had been focusing his thoughts on a plan of escape, and how to help Lena until he heard that ominous laugh. Now he had to prepare himself for what would happen next. Pain. And lots of it.

  He knew he was only still alive for the purpose of ransom or information. And since he didn’t have anyone who would pay two nickels to get him back, he assumed they were planning to extract information.

  That usually meant torture.

  He’d been trained to manage pain and taught how to shrink inside his own mind to protect himself. He wasn’t sure what they planned to do with Lena, but from the sound of three individual sets of footsteps he knew she was walking under her own power.

  Was she in on this? Had she set him up? As he replayed her conversations with the men, it seemed likely. But he’d looked in her eyes last night and seen nothing but honesty and interest. He wasn’t normally wrong about these things.

  His ability to read people had helped him in the business world, and it had kept him from danger on more than one occasion in his new profession.

  It was the oldest trick in the book, using an attractive woman to lure a man into danger. He sniffed at his stupidity. He’d been so desperate for companionship he hadn’t been paying attention.

  She’d come into the bar after him. She’d allowed him to approach her instead of being aggressive. She’d waited hours for him to suggest they go back to the hotel so as not to appear too eager to get him alone.

  How bored she must have been making small talk when all she wanted to do was bash him over the head and collect her fee.

  “How’s our new guest?” a different male voice asked, once he’d been brought into some kind of structure.

  “Lena says we’re supposed to take it easy on him.” The men chuckled again.

  Dane was tall and lean. Not thick with muscle like his task force brothers. Even with his eyes covered, he could tell the two goons that towered over his six-foot frame were like boulders. He wasn’t going to be able to fight his way out of this.

  They left him alone sitting against a wall for what felt like hours. He used his breathing to measure the time more accurately and decided it was not that long.

  Eventually they came back.

  His captors probably thought it would be easy to break him, but they would be disappointed. He wouldn’t tell them anything.

  His bound legs dragged behind him as they heaved him into a cool room and dropped him into a chair. The hood was ripped from his head and fluorescent light burned his eyes.

  He blinked the room into focus, and his gaze fell on the small boy bound to the chair in the middle of the room. Tears streaked through the dirt on his face, and he looked up with the same dark eyes Dane saw every day in his own mirror.

  Oh God, no.

  “Dad?” his son whispered, and Dane knew he would tell them anything they wanted to know.

  Chapter Six

  Lena wanted nothing more than to be dismissed, but she knew she couldn’t leave. They would want her to stay, if for no other reason than to force her to see and hear the pain she’d caused this man.

  It wasn’t her fault he was here. If she hadn’t agreed to bring him in, they would have found another way to get to him. She was insignificant. How many times had Viktor Kulakov told her this? Enough that she’d finally realized it was true.

  She wouldn’t
leave, though, even if she were granted that chance. If she stayed, she might have some small opportunity to help him.

  It hadn’t taken her long to realize Dane wasn’t a sleazy criminal. He hadn’t leered at her when she sat down at the bar. He hadn’t pressured her to come back to his room after one drink. He’d been kind and sweet. He’d asked her questions about herself and waited patiently for her answers. Though the answers were all lies, she felt like he’d cared.

  Then he’d kissed her, and she realized what she’d done. She’d allowed herself to be happy for the first time in months. She’d actually fallen into her own trap.

  As she’d walked hand-in-hand with him to her hotel room, she’d desperately tried to come up with some way to get him out of this without incurring Viktor’s wrath.

  Coming up with nothing, she allowed her heart to freeze over so she could do what needed to be done. Not for the first time, she wondered how long her heart could stay at that temperature before irreparable damage was done.

  She stayed in the corner of the dingy room, trying not to be noticed. She had turned into a mouse over the last months. Hiding and scurrying away whenever danger approached.

  Before her nightmare began, she’d managed a busy salon in Miami. She’d been strong and decisive. The stylists who’d worked for her respected her. No one would respect her now. She didn’t even respect herself.

  She would have been content to stay hidden in her corner, but another vehicle had arrived. Another one of Viktor’s men came in carrying a little boy. The way his small body dangled over Murphy’s arm, she thought he was dead, but then he kicked out and grunted against his restraints.

  Murphy placed the boy on a chair in the other room, and she watched as Weller and Butch picked up Dane and dragged him into the same room.

  What was going on? She’d listened in as they made their plans, and she’d not heard anything about them involving a child.

  When Dane’s hood was ripped off it had taken a few seconds for him to notice the boy in front of him. He’d gazed at the child and she saw the exact moment his heart burst into pieces—when the boy called him Dad.

  “What’s this?” Lena was propelled into the room by some remaining shred of courage.

  “You did your job well,” Viktor said from his spot beside the boy. “You can wait out in the other room if you wish.”

  She stepped closer, her gaze fastened to the little boy tied to a chair, fear evident on his oddly familiar face. He’d called Dane Dad. Apparently, Dane had lied when he told her he had no family.

  No. No. No. This wasn’t the plan. This wasn’t supposed to happen.

  “You soulless witch,” Dane spat at her. The warm, dark eyes that had gazed down at her the night before when they’d kissed had transformed into cold obsidian.

  A chill shuddered through her, and she stepped back as if he’d hit her. What had she done?

  “Lena?” Viktor’s address brought her back under control. Even his voice—filled with smooth concern—was nothing but a lie. The man was slippery as a serpent. He didn’t care about anything except money and power.

  Slowly, Dane moved his scowl to the man in front of him, and Lena wanted to run away so he couldn’t look at her like that again. But despite what she’d told herself earlier, this was her fault, and she needed to stay in case there was something she could do to help.

  She also needed to make sure Viktor didn’t doubt her. It would help her later.

  Lifting her chin, she met Viktor’s cold eyes. “I’ll stay.” He’d already taken everything else from her. She wouldn’t walk away and allow harm to come to this child. She wasn’t a monster. Desperate maybe, but not a monster.

  “Suit yourself.” He shrugged and turned his attention to Dane.

  “I guess I don’t need to make introductions, since Tobey seems to remember you.”

  Dane’s voice was calm. “I don’t know who you are.”

  “Viktor Kulakov.” Viktor held out his hand to shake, then chuckled as if only then realizing Dane couldn’t oblige. Viktor liked to play with his prey. It was possibly his worst feature.

  When the color fell from Dane’s face, Lena knew Dane recognized the name.

  Crossing his legs, Viktor brushed a piece of lint from his slacks. “I’m a man of business.”

  Business was an apt description. Though drug smuggling and human trafficking didn’t get people mentioned in Forbes.

  “I heard you’d been arrested.”

  Viktor steepled his fingers and let out a breath. “It was an unfortunate misunderstanding.”

  She was sure that meant some slimy lawyer had gotten him off.

  Dane said nothing.

  “Your son is a smart lad, Deputy Marshal Ryan.”

  She shot a surprised look at Dane. He was a U.S. Marshal? Her actions suddenly took on a whole new dimension of punishment. Great. Because she hadn’t been in enough trouble as it was.

  Dane didn’t rise to Viktor’s bait regarding his son. He remained calm, though she could tell he was seething with controlled anger. She admired his strength, but knew it wouldn’t help him. At one time she’d been strong, too.

  “I understand it’s been some time since the two of you have been together.” Viktor looked up at the rest of the group. Weller and Butch loomed over Dane, muscles bulging. “Let’s give the father and son a moment alone to catch up, shall we?”

  Lena knew the gesture was not from the goodness of his heart. Viktor Kulakov had no heart. This was a tactic. Viktor was setting the hook, to ensure the deputy marshal’s cooperation.

  Dane spared another glare for her as she left the room. She wanted to apologize. She wanted to tell him she hadn’t known who he was. Hadn’t known this was going to happen. But she was worried if she did, he might actually forgive her.

  The last thing she deserved was forgiveness.

  She was just outside the room when Viktor nodded to Weller, and the behemoth smacked her across the face. The fiery crack dropped her to the floor as she blinked the stars from her vision.

  “Don’t ever question my actions again. You put me behind schedule, and I hate when my schedule is disrupted.”

  She nodded, and the mouse retreated to the corner once again.

  Chapter Seven

  “Dad?” The word burned through Dane, along with a torrent of emotions. Love and fear being the most prevalent. “Am I dead?” Tobey asked while looking around the room.

  “No.” Dane reached for the boy, but his arms were still bound.

  “But you’re in heaven, and now I’m with you.”

  Dane smiled, realizing why his ten-year-old was confused. At another time, it might have been funny that anyone thought Dane would have ended up in heaven.

  “I’m not dead, Tobey.”

  “But mom said—”

  “Your mom thinks I’m dead. Everyone thinks I’m dead. It’s a long story, and I’m so sorry I had to leave you, but I did it to keep you and your mother safe. I love you, and I didn’t want to leave. Do you understand?”

  “I didn’t want to leave, either, but a man walked up to me at the park and grabbed me.”

  Caroline must be losing her mind. And rightfully so. Tobey was in the worst kind of danger. None of the men wore masks. That meant they weren’t planning to let him walk out of this, even if Dane cooperated. The only way to guarantee survival was to get them out of there.

  He tugged again at his restraints which were securely tied to the cold steel chair. The muscles in his injured leg spasmed in reply to the movement. Even if he could manage to free himself, he wouldn’t be able to run fast enough to carry Tobey away. He didn’t know where they were or how far he would have to run to get help.

  Basically, he was screwed. Unless…

  As much as he would gladly rip Lena limb from limb for her role in this, she might be his only hope. She’d seemed genuinely surprised to see his son brought in. He knew better than to trust her. She’d played her part perfectly and could still be manipulat
ing him by playing good cop.

  Even so, he was too desperate to give up the thought.

  “Are we going to die?” Tobey asked.

  The last time Dane had spoken to his son, Tobey had been almost five. He’d chattered about kindergarten and counting to a hundred. That was the Tobey in Dane’s mind. At the soccer field, he’d seen how much his son had grown physically, but he wasn’t prepared for the maturity and directness of his questions.

  He’d never had the opportunity to be a father to a ten-year-old. He didn’t know what to say.

  “No,” Dane answered, hoping like hell it wasn’t a lie.

  “If we don’t die, will you come live with us again?” He frowned. “Mom is married to Randy now.”

  Right.

  “I don’t think that will work. But I am going to get us out of this, and we’ll figure something out, okay?” No need to worry about how to get out of an uncomfortable reunion with his wife at this stage of the game.

  “Are you a super hero?” Tobey asked.

  “No. If I were a super hero, I would have used a super power to break us out of here, and we would be chatting over a bowl of ice cream.”

  Tobey smiled slightly, and Dane felt like maybe he did have some super powers, after all. He’d been able to make a scared little boy smile in the middle of a crisis.

  “Look, I don’t know what’s going to happen next, but I want you to know this. I love you. You are the most important thing in my life, and everything I’ve done and will ever do is to keep you happy and safe. Okay?”

  Tobey nodded. “Mom told me you died because you needed to do the right thing.”

  Dane swallowed so he could speak. “It was something like that.”

  It was good to know Caroline realized it had been the right thing. She hadn’t agreed with him when he’d wanted to go to the FBI to blow the whistle on his employer’s illegal activities.

  She’d wanted him to stay out of it so it wouldn’t disrupt their perfect world. She hadn’t realized their perfect world was already crumbling under their feet.

  When Dane’s employers threatened his family to keep his mouth shut, he knew he had to do something. Unfortunately, that something had led him to faking his death and walking out on his strained marriage and his only son.