Queen Her

by Laine, Terri E.

  Queen Her

  Terri E. Laine

  First Edition

  Copyright 2021 Terri E. Laine

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used factiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. The scanning, uploading and distribution of the book via the Internet or via any other means without permission is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchased only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support for the author’s rights is appreciated. For information address to SDTEL Books.

  Michele @ Michele Catalano Creative - cover design

  Author’s Note

  If you want to know when my next release will come out, please sign up for my newsletter. https://www.subscribepage.com/terrielaine

  If you are a fan of this series or me, make sure you join my fan group. Terri’s Butterflies

  And you can join my reader group to talk books. Terri E. Laine Reader Group

  Contents

  THIS IS NOT A STANDALONE -

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Epilogue

  Thank You

  Rook to Ruin

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Also by Terri E. Laine

  THIS IS NOT A STANDALONE -

  This CANNOT be READ as a STANDALONE.

  You MUST READ King Me FIRST.

  One

  Natalie

  My heart raced with every conscious step toward the door. I’d left a man I had deep feelings for in a cozy warm bed. Tears spilled from my eyes as I forced myself to open the door and step out into the hallway. I held the door so it was closed with a quiet click. I couldn’t believe he hadn’t awoken from the thunderous sound of the blood racing through my veins.

  Somehow I made it out to the street without passing out. I drifted to the subway. The feeling of loss was so overwhelming, I could have glided out into the street without noticing.

  I couldn’t say for sure I was in love with Liam. He would be the only person I’d loved beside my mother and Jody. I didn’t have the means to quantify a romantic love. But there was something that had rooted itself inside me for the man I couldn’t shake. If I didn’t yet love him, I was well on the way.

  Back at Ms. Allen’s house, I crept through the house like a thief and got my packed bag. I dumped it on the back step and hoped it would be there when I came for it. If Dad had someone watching, I didn’t want them to see I didn’t plan on meeting Dad here later that night.

  I left out the front of Ms. Allen’s house, eyeing the street for the limo. It wasn’t there. Call me crazy, I still felt eyes on me. I walked in the direction of the subway. Once I rounded the corner, I turned and jogged behind the houses to get my bag from her back porch where I’d left it. I hadn’t decided if I would run from what Father wanted, but I wanted the option to leave town without him knowing.

  I made it to work on time. The ward was busy when I walked in. Any idea of quitting before my shift ended was out. It was an all-hands-on-deck situation. It hadn’t been this busy since my first shift on the job.

  I caught up with Ms. Allen before she left. “I just wanted to say thank you.”

  Her motherly smile almost pushed me to tears. “No need to thank me. We should have dinner tomorrow. Aren’t you off?”

  “That’s the thing. I have a family emergency. I notified my agency that today will be my last day.”

  “Oh no! Is everything okay?”

  Her kindness nearly broke me. I hated lying to her. “It will be fine.”

  She nodded and didn’t press. “Well, you’ve paid through the end of the month.”

  “Keep it.” No matter what I chose to do when the night was over, there was no way I would put her in harm’s way.

  She took my hands in hers. “If you come back, you can stay with me.”

  I patted the back of her hand, willing myself to keep it together. “That’s kind of you. I don’t think I’ll be back.”

  “Know you are always welcome.”

  Gratefully, the nurse that I was replacing flagged me over. “I have to go.” I rushed away, knowing I was going to have to work through the day somehow.

  Christy wasn’t there. She could be working the overnight shift. I considered leaving her a note with Liam’s number. When he called me his replayed in my mind, I couldn’t do that. Not to him and not to me. I wouldn’t diminish that moment. I wasn’t that altruistic. If they got together after I was gone, I didn’t have to know.

  Halfway through my shift, I got a text from Doc Love with his address and directions. He offered to send me an Uber. Some woman would be lucky to get him. I really believed that. I texted back an apology with the same white lie. I had a family emergency and would be leaving town. The statement wasn’t a total lie. What it implied was the lie, and I felt like such a fraud.

  I’d considered writing that same half-truth in the note I left for Liam but decided not to. I gave him all the honesty I could without telling him the complete truth.

  When my shift was over, after trading notes with the oncoming nurse, I got a few hugs from people I was starting to really like.

  I had my head down, debating my next move. I nearly smiled with the memory of meeting Liam outside the door. I glanced up to where his truck had been and there he was. Like a vision out of a dream, I smiled. He hadn’t given up on me.

  Then, as if I hit a wall, my father materialized in front of me. Fear clutched me like a villain and not for myself. Liam wasn’t the type of man to stand back. He’d rescued me that first night. If he thought I was being taken against my will, he would come to my rescue.

  Whatever my father was saying didn’t penetrate the panic that overtook me. I schooled my features and allowed my father to usher me inside his awaiting car without looking at Liam again. Better him think I’d betrayed him than to have him killed.

  I silenced my phone as my father barked orders to his driver. I wiped away a stray tear I couldn’t hold back, hoping he hadn’t seen. He would think himself victorious for breaking me. And for the moment I was. That didn’t mean I was giving up completely. I sat back ignoring the man next to me and mentally created a list of demands I would have for this fictitious marriage.

  On that list, I wished that Liam didn’t hate me. And in time, I hoped I could wish him happiness with someone else in the future. But not yet. I still held onto the incredible time we spent together as I walled off my feelings. I would need to have a stone heart to survive my future.

  “Where are we going?” I finally asked as we pulled into a residential area.

  I didn’t think he would answer, so when he said, “Riverdale, specifically Fieldston. I would have preferred the Hamptons, but this will have to do.” I was surprised.

  The name Ri
verdale sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place where. Still, it wasn’t the destination I expected. “I thought we’d be going to Chicago.”

  From the news, airlines were cancelling flights left and right. Though I didn’t think my father was flying commercial. The likely scenario was a charter flight. Those could be harder to come by as well.

  He clasped his hands together. I didn’t know what to make of that. “We are.” Instead of continuing he went another direction. “I think your mother would have gotten a kick out of this place. I would have bought her something like it in Chicago if she hadn’t run. Instead, she ended up with that little two-bedroom shack in Hart’s Falls.”

  It annoyed me that he considered the town I grew up in unworthy. I loved our little house there. “You expected her to stay after finding out on the news you were married,” I fired back at him.

  He chuckled. “Isn’t that interesting that she found that out on the news, yet somehow didn’t know before.”

  Without moving my head, I took sight of his ringless finger out of the corner of my eye. Mom told me he’d never worn one and that she didn’t regularly pay attention to the news, between working full time and school.

  “You just assumed she’d be okay being your mistress,” I scoffed.

  “She would have been well taken care of. So would you. The best schools…”

  “My life turned out pretty fantastic without you.”

  “Yet you called me. Besides, who do you think funded your little life?” I stopped short of saying anything else. “Your mother and I came to an agreement.”

  “But she worked her ass off,” I spluttered.

  “She didn’t have a choice when I bought that little house she rented. As the new owner, I could have raised her rent.”

  I wanted to punch him in his face but didn’t think it would end well.

  “She didn’t tell you that?” he asked.

  I chose not to comment as I gritted my teeth. I hated him. I hated him so damn much.

  He got a call shortly before we pulled into the driveway of a sprawling house. I couldn’t hear what was said to him. The only thing he said in reply was, “Let him come.”

  Did that mean my future husband was also in town?

  Two

  Liam

  Late winter snow was a blessing and a curse. Hopefully, it masked me trailing the car Natalie was in despite fewer cars on the road. It also made driving trickier. I had to keep my speed slower and not knowing the area also hampered my ability to be stealthy.

  When we pulled into a residential area, I had to hang back farther, risking not seeing what house he pulled into and if that was their destination. For all I knew, I’d been spotted, and they were going to lose me in the tangle of streets.

  About a block and a half ahead of me, they turned into a circular driveway of a house that could have doubled for a small medieval castle with a turret and all.

  I pulled off to the side in front of another mini mansion. Thankfully, it was dark. If the homeowners weren’t home or asleep, they wouldn’t notice a truck that most likely would have belonged to a caretaker or handyman rather than a resident of this neighborhood.

  Foolishly, I’d kept my eyes on the house ahead, planning my next move. A tap came at my window. A man was standing beside my car with a gun pointed at me. I hadn’t paid attention to see if someone had been trailing me.

  The guy did a circular motion with his free hand. I rolled down my window slightly.

  “Turn off the car and get out.”

  I owned a gun. Most did in my community and not for safety against man but wildlife, as we lived close to it. I hadn’t brought it with me because I didn’t have a license to carry outside of Maryland.

  “Okay, okay,” I said as the man got impatient.

  As I moved to open the door with my left hand, I dropped my phone to the floor kicking it under my seat as best I could. Then, as I angled to get out, I removed my wallet and did the same.

  I lifted my hands and another man appeared, closed my door, then zip tied my hands behind my back. Whoever had taken Natalie had a well-coordinated security detail. What had I stumbled into?

  They weren’t nice as they herded me back towards a car parked not too far behind my own. I was shoved face forward into the back seat. The door closed and two opened almost immediately. The doors locked and I didn’t try to get out. I banked on them taking me exactly where I wanted to go. To Natalie.

  I’d adjusted my position in time to see them turn into the circular driveway but follow a path straight to the back. I wasn’t surprised they didn’t plan on bringing me through the front door.

  They parked in front of a shed. A slightly larger, more sophisticated one that fit more with the structure of the house. I didn’t make it easy for them to take me inside. The fact that I wasn’t going into the house likely meant I wouldn’t see the light of the next day.

  I was pushed into the open area inside the shed. A light snapped on, and I spotted a chair that was already in the center of the room. Either they’d turned up another person before me or I’d been spotted long before we’d gotten into the neighborhood and they’d prepared for my arrival.

  The pat down came next. “No wallet or phone,” the second guy said after.

  I was thrust into the chair where the second guy secured me to it with more zip ties.

  “What’s your name, Romeo?” the first guy said, with a gun pointed at me.

  I laughed. Somehow, they’d guessed I was here for Natalie and not for the man that had taken her. “Funny enough, Romeo will do.”

  The blow snapped my head to the right as the second guy stood from binding me to the chair.

  “Is that all you got?” I said, egging them on.

  It might have seemed counterproductive, but the angrier someone was, the more likely they’d make a mistake. All I had to do was survive the punishment headed my way, awaiting an opening to present itself.

  “Name?” the first guy asked with the same level of calm.

  “Would you prefer Joe Shmoe?” I asked flippantly.

  The next blow split my lip and I spat out the blood that filled my mouth.

  “How about John Doe?” I asked and braced myself.

  The punch rang my bell as it caught my left eye, leaving my ears buzzing.

  “I got all night,” the second guy said in a way that suggested he was delighted to do just that.

  Pain was universal and I felt it. Yet I opened my mouth and said, “Maybe Johnny B. Goode,” knowing a world of hurt was coming.

  The next hit was likely the blow that broke my nose, as the world turned black around the edges until it was all black.

  I awoke to another voice in the room and didn’t know how long I was out. “You didn’t think to take his picture before you bloodied his face.”

  “Sorry, boss.” I thought it was the second guy, but I was floating in pain, so I couldn’t be sure.

  I kept my eyes closed and controlled my breathing with hope they wouldn’t know I’d regained consciousness.

  “He had no ID on him.” It could have been the first guy who spoke.

  “Did either of you think to check his truck?”

  Nobody said anything, so I guessed they shook their heads no. If they’d checked the car they would have had it.

  “I’ll do it now,” one of them said.

  “No. I’ll have Shawn do it. We have guests and I need you inside. Is he secure?”

  “Yes, boss. We’ll lock up on our way out.”

  Great. Locked in and zip tied to a chair. I had one play literally up my sleeve. Sewn in at the hem of my right sleeve was a one-inch razor blade. It wasn’t there because I feared anyone in my hometown or even here in New York. But my top-secret airman black ops-like training was hard to shake. I’d been on missions where the likelihood I’d end up in a similar position I was in now was an almost certainty. Something like a razor, small nail, or even a hair pin could save your life. It was a habit to have something I co
uld use. One I hadn’t broken.

  They switched off the lights before they stepped out into the night. After they left, I fought the nausea and dizziness to work at my sleeve to remove the razor. One mistake and it could fall to the floor where it would be out of my reach. As thin as the razor was, I would be hard pressed to find it in the darkness, especially since my vision was blurry. At one point I was close but had to stop as I retched. The symptoms of a possible concussion were all there, but I couldn’t give in.

  Time was important but impossible to count in my state. I focused on the razor and getting it out. When I had it in my left hand, the next troubling task began. I needed to saw through my binds without cutting my wrist. The razor was sharp and could easily cut a fatal wound if I made a mistake.

  Moisture dripped down my eye. I didn’t know if it was sweat, blood, or both. I could have an open cut above my eye where I’d been nailed by a skilled fighter.

  Just as I was about to make the first attempt to cut, there was a rattle at the door. I had no choice but to palm the blade and fist my hand, hoping like hell I didn’t slice anything in the process.

  It was a minute longer before the door opened as if the person struggled with the lock. Then, the room burst with light. Without a free hand to shield my eyes, I had to close them against the brightness, leaving me blind to my attacker.

  “Oh my God.” The voice was soft, and it took me a minute to process.