by Juniper Bell
Get You Back
Part Three: Redemption
Juniper Bell
Contents
Foreword
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Also by Juniper Bell
About the Author
The Get You Back Serial
Part Three: Redemption
Everything has fallen apart. Rye McAllister is gone, kidnapped off the island. Bliss just told me things about myself that blew my mind. I know she’s trying to manipulate me. She wants something from me, but I don’t have time to figure out what. The only thing I care about is getting Rye back. I’m terrified that he’s in danger. That I’ll never see him again. Never tell him how much I love him. I don’t know who took him or why. To get him back I’ll have to take the biggest risk of my life. Can I trust myself to be the person Rye needs me to be?
Unbelievable. I’m being held hostage at an estate in Vermont belonging to someone I thought I knew. I’d find a way out, except for one thing. Threats are being made against Lauren. I can’t allow anything to happen to her. So I’ll go along with these ridiculous demands. I’ll pretend to be engaged to a drug-addled heiress. I’ll bide my time until I find out all the secrets being kept from me. Then the tables will turn and all hell will break loose. I’m a McAllister and no one messes with the woman I love. I just hope to God we both live to see each other again.
1
Lauren
As the adopted daughter of a master con artist, I was accustomed to living on the edges of wealth. Other people had it, and Bliss Blakewell, the woman who raised me, craved it. Me, I wanted something else. I wanted to be free. I wanted to love and be loved. I'd come so close to achieving that dream, so close I could feel it in the deepest part of my soul. But it had all been snatched away when Rye McAllister, the man I loved, disappeared from the little tropical island beach where we were hiding out.
Ever since that day, one purpose had consumed me. I had to find Rye, no matter what it took. Now that I knew what love felt like, I'd do anything to get it back.
That was why I'd come back to the States, even though I could be arrested if Bliss chose to report me. For years, she'd held incriminating evidence—a videotape—over my head like a guillotine. She'd used it as a bribe, promising to hand it over after I was done with my fake engagement to a senator's son.
That job had been ruined by the appearance of Rye McAllister and the inconvenient circumstance of my falling in love with him. I fled the United States so I could be free from Bliss's threats. Rye came after me, but our tropical idyll lasted barely a week before he was snatched away.
For Rye, I'd risk arrest and worse. For Rye, I’d returned to America, to this soaring glass-and-steel structure in downtown Houston.
Now I was about to knock on the door of the penthouse loft where the three McAllister siblings lived.
I wiped my hands on my cotton skirt. Butterflies were dancing a frantic rhumba in my belly. I hadn't seen Elijah or Annabelle for almost thirteen years. Would they remember me? Would they hate me the same way Rye had at first? Would they associate me with bad memories from those last days of their father's life, when Bliss had been their stepmother and destroyed their family?
I felt the pulse of money all around me as I knocked on the door. The front door of their loft was crafted from hammered copper. The door handle was a unique work of art, iron twisted into two long horns. I reminded myself that I didn't want Rye's money. I just wanted to find him and make sure he was safe. Keep your cool.
But when the door swung open and I faced a hulking, towering version of the kid I'd known back in Chicago, my dignity vanished. "Elijah?"
Elijah had always been a dreamy, quiet boy, one year younger than me. He still had that offbeat quality, but he'd grown into a gentle giant. He had dark hair like Rye's, but he wore his long. It reached nearly to his shoulders, giving him a piratical look. His eyes, on the other hand, were a soft gray-green, as if he spent hours gazing at the horizon. Right now, he was looking at me in shock.
"Lauren?"
"Hi. Yes, it's Lauren. You remember me." I stuck my hand out nervously. I really didn't know how he was going to feel about me showing up after all this time. If he felt the same way Rye had, he might toss me back into the elevator.
Automatically, he took my hand, then frowned, as if just remembering that I was the enemy. "What are you doing here?"
"It's kind of a long story. I'm here because of Rye."
He looked even more alarmed at that. "Rye isn't here. He's been looking for you. After that," he turned scarlet, which was kind of sweet to see on such a big guy, "photo came out. And your TV interview."
I felt my own face burn at the mention of that humiliating episode in my life. Rye and I had been caught on camera in a very compromising position. Basically, I was nude and his hands were all over me. Then I'd gone on national television to explain that I loved him. Then I'd …
"Anyway, he said you disappeared," Elijah was saying. "He's been trying to find you ever since."
"He did find me. In Thailand. We were together there for a short while. The thing is …" I hesitated, trying to read his expression. Just how much did he hate me for what Bliss had done? Did he blame me for her actions?
Then again, did it matter? I had to find Rye, and I needed help from Elijah and Annabelle. They might hate me, but they loved their brother. "Rye disappeared from the island. I'm almost completely sure he was kidnapped. I'm trying to find him and I need your help."
"Kidnapped?" His face twisted with suspicion.
Rye was a tough guy, a fighter and a cowboy. I knew from very intimate experience how powerfully strong he was. So I understood Elijah's doubt.
Even though he didn't look convinced, he opened the door all the way. "Not saying I believe anyone could get the drop on Rye, but you'd better come in."
Relief flooded me as he let me into the loft. Maybe I wouldn't be searching the world for Rye all on my own. Maybe my former stepfamily didn't completely despise me.
The McAllisters' space was open and airy. One side was made up of floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out over the urban sprawl of Houston. On the opposite wall, someone had painted swirling patterns of cobalt and sunflower-yellow and deep umber.
"Annabelle?" I guessed, gesturing at the mural. Rye's younger sister held a special place of affection in my heart. She'd followed me around like a little lamb when I'd been their stepsibling. She and I shared a love of art. We used to steal away with our watercolors and sketchbooks and paint different parts of their estate.
"Yeah. She should be here for this." He raised his voice and called into the shadowy reaches of the loft. "Annabelle! Rise and shine, honeybee."
He gestured me toward a collection of overstuffed couches at one end of the loft. They were oriented around a large flat-screen TV mounted on the wall. As we walked toward them, he shoved his hands in his pockets.
"To be honest, Lauren, I don't know if I should be yelling at you or offering you a drink. You look like you've had a long trip."
"I have, and I wouldn't say no to some water. But if you need to yell at me, I can handle it. Don't hold back. Rye sure didn't."
His mouth curved and suddenly he looked so much like Rye that my heart ached. "I'm not much of a yeller," he admitted. "I like to keep things peaceful as long as I can."
I smiled at him. "I remember you were always the peacemaker. Rye was the fiery one, and so was Annabell
e. You were always trying to keep harmony in the family."
"Right." The way his face closed off, I knew that mentioning the past was a mistake. He waved me toward the couches then veered off toward an open-plan kitchen. As he poured me a glass of water, I cursed myself for bringing up Chicago. I had to convince him to help me. Reminding him of how Bliss had crushed his father's heart was probably not the best strategy.
When he offered me the glass, I was ready. "Elijah, I am deeply sorry for everything Bliss did to your family. The time that we lived with you was the best of my life and I was so sad when we left. I didn't really understand what she was up to. I still don't know the full story."
He settled into the opposite couch, dwarfing it with his big frame. "I never blamed you for anything, Lauren. At least not until you got tangled up with Rye in Washington. Now I don't know what to think."
I knew one thing he must be thinking. Like mother, like daughter. But in Thailand, when I'd been beyond Bliss's reach for the first time in my life, I'd made a vow. I wasn't going to be her puppet anymore. I was going to be an honest person who didn't pull cons on anyone. Let alone the man I loved or the members of his family.
"I get that, Elijah. You're right to be cautious. I figure the best thing I can do is tell you what I know. I'll be as truthful as I can, but if you know Bliss, you know she's pretty cagey."
He leaned forward, elbows on knees, his dark hair falling in his face. "I don't care about that right now. I just want to know one thing. How do you feel about my brother? Be careful how you answer. If I think you're lying, we'll have a problem."
I didn't hesitate for a second. "I love Rye. If you watched that interview I gave, then you know how I feel. I had a crush on him when I was thirteen, and I never really forgot him. When he showed up in Washington, I fell right back in love with him even though he was out for revenge."
Elijah watched me closely as I talked. "But then you vanished. Talk about a hit-and-run."
"I had to. It was the only way I could be free of Bliss. It was the only way I could get control of my life. If I was still Bliss's tool, I'd be no good for anyone. Especially Rye."
He nodded slowly, mulling that over. He'd always been a guy who thought deeply about things.
"I wasn't sure how Rye felt about me, to be honest. When he first came to DC, he hated me. It wasn't until he showed up in Thailand that I realized he might care for me. That time was …" I swallowed. The pain of missing Rye was a constant ache. "It was amazing. I never thought I'd be happy like that. Like he knew everything about me—well, most things—and still wanted me. He even said he wanted to marry me. But I said no."
"You said no?" Annabelle's shriek made me jump. She came hurling into the room like a demented fairy, all flying hair and long legs. She jumped onto her knees on the couch next to me. "We could have been sisters! Again!"
I took her in with wonder. She'd changed just as much as Elijah had. I remembered a skinny toothpick of a tomboy. She still looked like a wild child, with plucked eyebrows setting off her shiny silver-moon eyes, and the remains of glittery face paint on her cheeks. But now she wore her wildness like a flag, inviting people in for the party. I bet she had boys falling at her feet.
"Annabelle, you look …" I shook my head. "I can't believe how grown-up you both are. In my mind, we're all still kids playing badminton and Spades."
"Speaking of which! Fess up, L. Did you cheat at Spades?"
I laughed, remembering when Rye had asked me the very same thing. "No. I had a very good teacher, that's all."
"Okay, back to that proposal. If you love my brother, why did you say no?"
"I had my reasons, and trust me, they're good ones. I found out some things about myself, my background. It's a long story …" I hesitated. "I had to say no."
"Tell it," Elijah ordered me, jaw flexing. "Or we're done."
He had a point. I had to stop keeping so many secrets. But God, this was hard to tell. I hadn't even told Rye everything—but maybe that was part of the problem. I rallied my courage.
"When I turned eighteen, I intended to leave Bliss. I had big plans about maybe working with refugee children, doing some good in the world. But Bliss stepped in. She informed me that I wasn't her real daughter and if I wanted to know who my real parents were, I had to help her with one more con. I did it, but it turned out she only booked that job to give her incriminating evidence of an adult crime to hold over my head. If I left, she threatened to go to the police and have me arrested."
Annabelle gasped. "She'd do that to her own daughter?"
"But I wasn't, you see. I wasn't her daughter, and knowing that filled me with so much relief, you have no idea. It gave me a sliver of hope that I wasn't irredeemable. Bliss agreed I could leave for good after I'd put in a few more years helping her accumulate a nest egg. My fake engagement to Brian Clayton was supposed to be the last job I did for her. After that, she promised she'd hand over the evidence she had against me and tell me about my true origins."
I drew in a long breath. What a crazy-ass story this was. I could barely meet Elijah and Annabelle's eyes as I told it.
"Then Rye showed up in DC and that changed everything. After the scandal broke, I went to Thailand, where no one would care about a case of fraud committed in the States. And I let go of the hope of finding out about my parents. I just wanted to be free from Bliss. But she found me. And she told me something terrible. She said I was actually her sister's daughter. All that relief I'd felt about not being her blood daughter evaporated. Not only that, but she told me that my real mother is in a psychiatric ward."
"Holy shit." Annabelle breathed. "Did she say anything about your father?"
"No. Not sure I want to know anymore." Secretly, I still held on to the tiniest sliver of hope that my genetic makeup wasn't a total disaster. "But you can see why I can't marry Rye. He deserves better. The McAllister family deserves better."
Neither of them answered. I figured they agreed.
I took a long sip of the water Elijah had brought me. I wished it was vodka or anything that might take the edge off. This was every bit as tough as I'd thought it would be.
"So let's get back to Rye. You were both in Thailand. You rejected his proposal. Maybe he just left," Elijah said after a long silence.
"No. Rye and I were planning to leave together. But then Rye went to get his phone and never came back. I went looking for him. The office at the health resort where I worked was a mess, as if a struggle had taken place there. I saw blood, and I found his phone wedged under a cushion."
Annabelle hissed in a shocked breath and went pale. "Blood?"
"Just a smear," I told her quickly. "I don't think he's hurt, or at least the intention wasn't to hurt him. I think Gunther, one of my coworkers, was spying on us. Spying on me, then Rye as well after he got to the island. I think he stole Rye's phone and saw some texts from Rye's investigator."
"Doug Berkowitz?" Elijah asked.
"Yes. The text made it clear that Rye was very close to finding out that—well, that your family trust is still intact. It wasn't emptied by Bliss. You were all lied to."
"What?"
I felt as if I'd set off a bomb in their loft. Both of them surged to their feet, Elijah exploding with questions. I held up both hands in self-defense.
Annabelle whirled on her brother. "Let her talk."
Elijah, both hands planted on his hips, stared me down. "So talk."
"When Rye came to me in DC, I was shocked when he told me that you lost everything. I had no idea. But I knew we didn't have it. After we left Chicago, we lived in a dump in Florida. So he apparently started investigating. He put Doug on the hunt."
"So we had money all that time and we didn't know it?" Annabelle shook her long curls with a bewildered look.
"Sort of."
"Go on," Elijah said grimly. "You're saying Bliss knew all this?"
"I don't know what she knew, or when she knew it. I do know that she came to me in Thailand—secretly, behi
nd Rye's back—and told me that the trust was still there, and that Rye was the principal beneficiary. You both are named as well, of course, and so is Bliss, since your father never divorced her."
"Let me guess. She wants her share." Elijah shook his head with disgust. His jaw worked for a moment. "Getting back to the main point, how did all of this lead to Rye getting kidnapped? It's quite a tale you're spinning here."
"I know it sounds crazy. Do you think I could make this up?" I let that sink in for a moment, then continued. "I knew that Bliss wasn't telling me everything. She never does. She wouldn't tell me who was behind all the scheming over your trust. But I could tell that she knew. So after I found Rye's phone and knew he'd been grabbed, I called Bliss. I made a deal with her so she'd tell me the name. I figured the same person had most likely kidnapped Rye."
They were both utterly silent now. Only the low hum of the refrigerator disturbed the quiet. I hated the fact that I still owed Bliss something for this information. No doubt it would cost me dearly someday. Probably soon.
I stiffened my spine and delivered my news. "Here's what Bliss told me. She said your uncle, Christopher McAllister, hired her to seduce and marry your father. She was given one job to complete. That was to convince your father to make Christopher the executor of the trust. Once that was done, she got her payment, which she socked away and we left. It was a condition of her getting hired that she leave. Christopher threatened to expose … well, various things if she tried to stay with Ian."
I sneaked a glance at Annabelle. Her face had gone stark white, making the leftover glitter paint even more prominent. "That bastard!" Annabelle cried. "He was always poisonously jealous of Papa. No one ever liked him the way they liked our father."
"If it's any comfort, and it probably isn't, Bliss really liked your father too …" I trailed off. Nothing I could say would make them feel better about my heartless aunt. Even I had a hard time believing that Bliss's marriage to Ian was such a cold-blooded sham.
