by Amber Lynn
“The horse,” Willow said.
Brayden didn’t doubt that was the statue that caught Connor’s eyes. He loved looking at the bronze sculpture of a horse in the lobby. He always said he wanted to ride it, but the ropes barring anyone from touching it kept him away. Brayden had friends back home with horses, and once things had settled down a little with Willow’s new disguise and his scheduled, he’d decided to see if Connor liked horses in real life.
Of course, any plans he’d been making were all up in the air. He still wanted to do all the fun things he’d dreamed about sharing with Willow and Connor, but a Pauline-sized road block stood in his way.
“What?” Pauline asked. “Oh, yes, I suppose it was a horse. It doesn’t matter. We need to get going if we’re going to make that interview in time. I just got a call that they’re sending someone to pre-tape segments before the sit-down interview tomorrow. I’ve got a stylist waiting at the hotel. We have to do something about that dreadful haircut and color. I’m still trying to decide if we want to hide the damage on your face or leave it to garner sympathy.”
She’d already turned and started walking down the hall, like her words would be followed without question. Brayden had positioned himself in front of Willow slightly, allowing her mom to see she was there and fine, but not grab her and run. Apparently, the woman didn’t stoop to the grabbing and run level.
She clearly didn’t know anything about her daughter, which pissed him off. She’d had zero social interactions over the years, so while she learned more from books, what she did and why she did it was how she’d more than likely always been. She didn’t rush to do anything, especially not if someone commanded it. He’d learned that the hard way.
Willow needed to analyze the situation and decide for herself whether a course of action made sense. The whole world was a puzzle to her, and while Brayden would never see it the same way she did, it had only taken him a few days to figure out she did.
Did her mom really think that had changed over the years? He wished he could figure out what Pauline was thinking, because he didn’t understand her. She had her daughter back. She should be throwing her arms around her and holding her tight, not ordering her to get made-up for some interview.
The touch of Willow’s hand in his kept Brayden from demanding the woman show her daughter some sympathy. As much as he wanted to butt in, it probably wasn’t his place and he worried there’d be a restraining order slapped on him.
“You should go with her,” Brayden said reluctantly. “For now. I’m sure you’ve memorized my phone number. If anything happens you don’t like, call me and I’ll be there.”
He didn’t go into the fact that his plane left early in the morning and he couldn’t leave her and Connor there without someone to protect them. While the kidnappers were gone, he didn’t know that he trusted anyone else with the pair. He hoped his gut feeling about her mom was wrong, but she’d already told him to back off. Or at least that was how he took the “she’s not going to let anyone take Willow from her” comment.
Pauline was halfway to the elevator before she turned around with an exasperated look on her face. Her gaze floated down to where Willow’s hand held onto his for dear life. The exasperation quickly changed over to anger.
“But she said she’s taking me to Henderson. I don’t want to go there.”
Brayden hadn’t liked that comment either. He expected it, but it rankled hearing Pauline make that decision for Willow. And if he knew anything about Willow, if she didn’t want to go, Pauline was going to have one hell of a fight on her hand.
“Call me tomorrow and we can talk about it,” he whispered. “For now, keep an eye on Connor and don’t let them force you to do anything you don’t want to. You and I both know you’re an adult, but I think she sees you as her little girl still.”
He hoped her mother didn’t treat her like that as a child, but he had a feeling that’s how they decided to deal with Willow’s genius. Pauline was in for a fight if they thought the same treatment would work with adult Willow.
“I can call you anytime?”
Willow’s eyes moved from him out to where her mother waited, her hands on her hips like the stance would make anyone move faster. Brayden had to shake his head as he followed Willow’s eyes to her. The woman was on the road to lose her daughter again. This time it wouldn’t be someone taking her. Once things settled down a little, he’d explain the facts of life as he saw them.
“You can, but during games and practices you’ll probably have to leave a message. As soon as I can, I’ll get back to you.”
He wished he had a regular job where taking time off for personal matters wasn’t frowned upon. For illness, deaths and babies, the team was lenient on when and how long time off was granted. As much as he wanted to try to convince someone that his current life required some time away, he knew the request wouldn’t go anywhere.
“Okay.” She nodded before squeezing his hand. “I’ll go check on Connor.”
While Pauline’s eyes burned holes in him, Willow stepped away and followed her mom. Brayden did not want to watch her go, but the pain in his chest was dull compared to what he’d felt when he thought he’d never see her again. The slow grinding of a vice around his heart was livable. At least for a little while.
Chapter 35
“Why are you two not packed?”
Willow’s mother’s voice didn’t lose an ounce of the shrillness Willow remembered growing up. The sad fact was that her mother seemed to love hearing herself speak, so after eight days together, Willow was ready to jam something in her ears to permanently render herself deaf.
She knew there were better, less permanent, ways, but the point where she cared was fast approaching. She’d done what her mother had said for those eight days, getting primped and prodded, thrust in front of cameras and driven around town in a fancy car. Willow figured if she followed directions for the time being, when she stopped, it wouldn’t hit as hard. She’d talked about it with Brayden, and he seemed to think otherwise, but she was focused on the path in front of her.
Pauline looked around the room and focused on the open suitcases she’d left for Willow to pack. With how big the room was, she was surprised her mother could focus on anything, Willow surely couldn’t, even after being in Brayden’s grand places.
Her mother had commandeered the penthouse suite, which had multiple bedrooms. Willow and Connor shared one and her parents another. Willow figured that was to keep her under lock and key, since getting two separate rooms would’ve been more cost effective. Of course, her parents hadn’t worried about the cost of things for years. Knowing how much lodging and basic necessities cost and how hard they were to get when you had nothing, Willow hated thinking about how much all the stuff thrown at her probably added up to.
She kept a guessing total and was up to one thousand three hundred and fifty dollars. She rounded everything up, so she didn’t have to keep track of the change. She still had some of the money Brayden had given her. Well, most of it, and she figured five hundred would be a good down payment on what she owed her parents. The other four hundred she needed to make sure she could get back to Brayden’s house.
With Pauline knowing where he lived in the city, Willow wasn’t about to head there. It would be easier, but she’d found a train that would take her and Connor to Martinsburg. Then they just needed to find a ride from there. She didn’t think that would be too hard. She’d done it before over a longer distance, with less money.
This time she wouldn’t have to pray someone would help buy her tickets. Along their whirlwind tour, a camera followed them while Willow received a government issued ID with her name on it. She’d brought up the idea to have something official with her name, and her mother ran with it. Willow didn’t explain how the little plastic card made what she was about to do easier.
“Connor isn’t feeling well. I don’t think he should get on a plane.”
Willow glanced over to where Connor stayed hudd
led under the blankets on the bed they shared. Pauline had offered to get them to bring in his own bed, but both Willow and Connor had put a stop to that idea immediately. It was almost as bad as the original idea that Connor would have his own room. The two had been sleeping together since the day he was born. Neither of them wanted that to change.
Connor had come up with the idea to pretend to be sick. They’d stayed up the night before, after they’d both spent time talking to Brayden on the phone, and came up with the idea. When Connor heard they were moving away from Brayden the day before, he’d thrown the temper tantrum Willow couldn’t. She’d somehow managed to keep her laugh away when Pauline had looked at her like she should somehow get him to stop crying.
Pauline had no idea how Connor showing his emotions made Willow feel. While she still kept most things bottled in, he was ready to let out everything he’d kept in for the last four years. She was proud of him and hoped one day she could do the same. Her problem was the keeping things in had started long before she’d been kidnapped.
There were no actual rules or punishment if she didn’t do something her parents wanted, aside from banishment to her room, but her mother wanted her daughters to be like her. Her sophistication had been passed down from a long line of aristocrats, if the family lineage could be believed. Willow always glossed over when Pauline started talking about the family tree, which said something about how dull the conversations were. Willow wanted to know everything about everything but hated those talks.
She didn’t blame her mother for being what some would call cold. Willow’s brain flowed in a way that made emotions feel useless. If anything, they hampered her progress.
Meeting Brayden had changed that. Even before that, working with Rachel and the other folks at the diner had shown her not everyone closed up like her family. But it was Brayden who made her feel things, and she wasn’t about to let that go.
“Let me call a doctor. I’m sure they’ll bring something to make him feel better.”
Before Willow could reply, her mother’s phone was to her ear as she turned back to her room to make the call. There wasn’t even a question of what was wrong. Thankfully, there wasn’t anything, made clear when Connor’s eyes peeked open to see they were alone again, and he threw off the blankets.
“Let’s go,” he said as he sprang up and started for the door, running as fast as his little legs would take him.
One thing Willow knew from growing up was that both her parents hated germs. If anyone sneezed, they’d bring in a full cleaning crew to disinfect the whole house. She’d probably have the doctor there within ten minutes, but the chances of anyone else coming in were finally zero.
She and Connor had discussed whether they should take anything with them. Her parents had bought them enough clothes to get them back to Nevada and some toys for Connor. And yet they had both put on the last clothes they had on before ending their trip on the run. Clothes Brayden had bought for them.
It wasn’t so much the person who did the buying, although to Willow it made a tiny difference. Truth was, the fancy expensive clothes made Willow itch, and Connor preferred his jeans to the trousers and button-downed shirts her mom insisted he wear.
Willow quickly counted out the money she decided to leave and pocketed the rest. She thought about leaving a note, but she really didn’t have anything to say. Her earlier sentiments about not wanting to go were being ignored. And her assertions that her and Connor belonged with Brayden received every bit of distain her mother could offer. Her father sat quietly, only tsking when he thought a statement deserved it.
Pauline and sitting quiet didn’t belong in the same sentence. She’d gone on and on about how Brayden’s backwoods pedigree wasn’t good enough. It didn’t matter that he’d pulled himself out of the mud and made something of him. They’d set Willow’s sister up with a proper husband, and they’d do the same for her.
Marriage wasn’t something Willow had even considered. She supposed that seemed backwards since she hoped she was pregnant with Brayden’s child, but in her mind the two things didn’t have to equate. Her examples of marriage, her parents and Greg and Gayle, didn’t lead her to believe walking down the aisle made the world a better place for you.
All she knew was Brayden was the only person she felt safe with. It didn’t matter that she’d been taken a second time with him around. That wasn’t his fault. Trevor had distracted him, and Brayden had apologized every night since then.
Willow would never blame Brayden for that. If Gayle hadn’t reached her then, she eventually would, and chances were she would’ve hurt someone to do it. Willow didn’t want to think about Connor or Brayden being hurt because of her.
Hopefully, that was all in the past and they could move on with their lives. Willow’s hand caressed her stomach as she closed the hotel room door with the other. Maybe it wouldn’t be just the three of them.
Chapter 36
Looking down at his phone, Brayden cursed. It was the third time an unknown number had tried to call him in the last five minutes. Since he’d seen Megan’s number pop up on his phone a couple of times during his road trip, he assumed it was her, but he couldn’t chance it. At least not if the person thought it was important enough to call three times in a row.
“What do you want?”
The greeting could have been nicer. If he thought for a second it was Willow calling, he would’ve toned it down, but he had her hotel room number saved in his phone. He’d missed her call the night before, which had worried him, but he figured she and Connor had conked out after a busy day. She’d mentioned her mother running them around everywhere.
“Is this Brayden Ritchie?”
He recognized the harsh female voice instantly. He’d never heard a voice so shrill, and he’d heard plenty of voices in his life.
His mind quickly went through all the reasons Pauline could want to talk to him, and none of them were great. Willow already explained to him that her mother wanted to marry her off to someone she thought was worthy. That contradicted what Brayden hoped Willow wanted her future to look like, but he’d only told her that she should do what was best for her.
Granted, if she really was pregnant with his child, what was best for her would have to include him. There was no way Brayden would let his baby grow up not knowing him.
“What can I do for you Pauline? I’m getting ready to get on a plane.”
Trevor and he had been moving to board when the call came in and Brayden decided he couldn’t wait to answer. The look Trevor leveled him with told him it was his own funeral for holding things up, but they had at least ten minutes before the plane would take off.
“With my daughter and grandson?”
Brayden had started to spin around and pace, but the words stopped him in his tracks.
“I’m in Montreal on my way back to D.C. Are you telling me Willow and Connor aren’t there?”
It had been a surprise Willow’s parents hadn’t already jetted them back to Nevada, like Pauline had promised. Willow had explained there were more interviews, so they’d be sticking around a little longer. She’d hoped to see him when he got home. He’d be there in about two hours, and it sounded like she wouldn’t. His heart sank as he hoped he’d misinterpreted her words.
“Are you saying you don’t have them stashed somewhere?”
Answering a question with a question had always been one of Brayden’s pet peeves, unless he was the one doing it, of course. It just became the thing he hated most in life.
“Where are Willow and Connor, Pauline? If you don’t know, you should call the police, not me, since I’ve been out of town for a week.”
She laughed. The woman actually laughed at him.
He pulled the phone away from his ear and looked down at it. He wanted to throw it across the runway, but he needed answers.
“You think I haven’t called the police? After we checked the phone logs from Willow’s room, we found out she’s been talking to you for hours every ni
ght. The only thing she left that I didn’t know about in the room was five hundred dollars. If she planned on running away, I’m pretty sure she would’ve taken that with her, unless she had you sending her money. So, where is she, Brayden?”
That was a question Brayden very much wanted an answer to. He assumed they’d already checked his apartment. He hoped the manager let them in, instead of them kicking down the door.
He didn’t want to think about Willow and Connor wandering around D.C. without someone with them. Her parents should have had someone guarding her door. They walked around with a security squad from what he’d seen on TV. Why didn’t someone have Willow in their sights at all times?
His phone buzzed, indicating an incoming call. He looked down at it again to see it was his mother. That was a little strange. His parents had been on a cruise but had gotten back two days ago. His dad called to let him know both of them were safe and looked forward to showing him all the pictures they’d taken when he came home in the middle of the week.
The reason Brayden loved his parents so much was that they didn’t generally butt in or call all the time to check on him. Since he planned on seeing them the next day, the only reason for a phone call was an emergency.
“Look, Pauline, I have no clue where they are, but you better believe I will find them when I get back. And you better get it through your thick skull that Willow isn’t a little girl anymore. She’s a grown ass woman who can control her own life.”
With that, he hung up and switched over to his mom. He had to take a deep breath before letting out the yell festering in his lungs.
“What’s wrong, Mom?”
His voice sounded calmer than when he’d answered Pauline’s call, but his tone was off. He knew it and he knew she’d know it.
