“What is it?” she asked. “Did something happen? Is everyone okay?”
She hadn’t even thought to turn her phone on after the plane landed. Getting home and resting had been the only objective on her mind.
His expression didn’t soften. “Viv, I have to leave town.”
“O-kay.”
She pressed her lips together, heart racing. Something definitely wasn’t right. He’d never been this serious.
“For how long?” she asked.
His eyes flicked behind her, at the parking lot, then settled on her face again. “I don’t know. There’s no way to ease you into this, but I’m in trouble, Viv, and I want you to come with me.”
She stiffened, face stinging as if he’d slapped her. “What kind of trouble?”
His throat rolled with a swallow. He opened his mouth, but then just clamped it shut.
“Trouble with the law?” she whispered through tight teeth.
“No. Trouble with other people.” He reached a hand out to her. “Please. Come with me, and I’ll tell you everything in the car.”
His wide eyes implored her to listen, and half of her heart wanted to. But the other half had her looking at his hand like it was a snake.
“Tell me now.”
His face fell, and his fingers curled slightly in. “I can’t. There isn’t time.”
“What if I don’t want to go with you?” She stepped back, folding her arms over her chest.
If it came out as a threat, she didn’t mean it. She only wanted to pester him enough to get the truth out.
“You need to.” His eyebrows locked together. “The man after me, Viv, once he can’t find me, he might come after you.”
“What man?”
“Viv.”
“Why would I go anywhere with you?” She did her best to keep her voice steady, but it was no use. It shook worse than a sapling in a hurricane. “You’ve clearly been keeping something big from me.”
“Only because I didn’t want to hurt you.” Again, he looked at the parking lot. “We can’t stay here. It’s not safe.”
“This is where I live.”
“Vivian.” The harsh, demanding tone made her freeze. “My mother has already left town. Now it’s time for you and me to do the same.”
“Is this about the stuff above your fridge? The gun and cash? The burner phone?”
His eyelashes fluttered. A long moment passed, and then his shoulders dropped. “I have been… involved… in some things. But all of that is coming to an end. I swear it. This morning was my last job.”
“Job, huh?” She scoffed. Anger beat inside her chest, screaming to be unleashed. “Boy, something that vague must be a real doozy.”
Tears leaked from her eyes. “You know about my dad. I told you all about what he did. I don’t talk to him, Markus, because of that. But you know what? I’ve actually been considering changing my mind about that. After I found that stuff on your fridge, I was nearly done with you. Then I read these letters from my father, saying he was sorry, and I figured… I thought, hey, if I read him wrong, maybe I did the same with Markus.”
He’d gone pale. Standing there unmoving, staring at her, he might as well have been a statue.
“Now I see how stupid I was being.” She wiped the last tears from her eyes and rolled her shoulders back. “I had a hunch when I found that stuff. I should have stuck to it.”
She stormed out of the breezeway, suitcase rolling and bumping behind her, heading back towards her car.
“Viv!”
As much as she wanted to, she didn’t look back. Markus was bad for her. Bad for their baby.
The baby.
She’d been so stunned by Markus’ news that she’d forgotten about hers. Her step faltered, but only for a breath.
She needed to do what was right for her child. Even if that also meant doing what broke her heart.
“Vivian, please. I’m serious.” He caught up to her as she was opening her car door. “The people who are looking for me—”
“Maybe you should let them find you,” she spat. “That way, they won’t come after me or your mom. Or…”
Our baby.
“All the other innocent people affected by your mistake,” she finished on a whisper.
His head dropped. “You’re right. Maybe I should.”
She opened her mouth but faltered. It hadn’t been the response she’d expected.
“I really thought you were something special,” she said.
He looked so sad. It would have broken her heart if she wasn’t already halfway through boarding it up forever.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “Let’s forget about us for a minute. Come with me, because if you don’t…”
She kept the open car door between them, a shield. A shake began in her toes and traveled up her body, settling in her lips and hands.
Then what? She’d be killed? Pumped for information on where Markus could be?
“There’s no guarantee that if I go with you, I’ll be any safer than here,” she said.
His lips pressed hard together. “I promise you I’ll do everything in my power to protect you. I…”
She closed her eyes tight. He stopped talking. No “I love you,” if that had been what he was about to say.
“I appreciate the concern.” She opened her eyes. “But I can take care of myself. I have for most of my life.”
“This is nothing that you’re used to, Viv.” He grabbed hold of the car door.
“I’ll deal.”
She’d sleep in a hotel. Go to the police. Leave town on her own. Whatever she needed to do in order to keep herself and the baby safe.
Dropping into her seat, she took a long breath. Now came the moment where she told him about her pregnancy… or not.
“Goodbye, Markus.” Wrenching the door from his hold, she closed it and immediately locked the car.
His face turned red, and he said something, but she had her eye on the road. There still remained the chance that if she looked at him for too long, she’d be swayed, and that wouldn’t do.
She’d spent her whole life trying to leave behind the crimes of her childhood. She’d separated herself from the man who did everything wrong, and in the end, she’d ended up picking a boyfriend exactly like him. And she hadn’t even known she was doing it.
Tears stung her eyes and rolled down her cheeks as Viv drove. That really was the worst part of all this. Apparently, there had been some dangerous trait about Markus that had attracted her to him subconsciously. It wasn’t a secret that people often chose partners who mirrored one of their parents.
She pulled her phone from her purse to turn it on, then reconsidered it. Markus would probably call.
With a heavy sigh, she put the phone away and focused on driving. She’d done the right thing. Maybe if she told herself that over and over, one day soon, she would come to really believe it.
With the sun climbing, she drove around Jacksonville, not sure where to go or what to do. If everything Markus said was true, then someone could be following her.
The thought sent a shiver down her back. A glance in the windows didn’t reveal any cars out of the ordinary, but then again, what exactly was “out of the ordinary?”
She couldn’t go to Veronica’s house. Putting her sister’s family in jeopardy was out of the question.
After an hour or so of driving, she found herself at Birds and Bea’s. It had just opened, and a few cars sat in front of the shop.
Viv didn’t know why she’d driven there. It wasn’t her first day yet. Maybe she’d figured the place could offer a little comfort. It was a harbinger of good things, nothing like the past she was already working hard to shed—the past that only an hour ago had been her life.
Flipping down the visor, she checked her face. Nose only a little puffy. Eyes only a tad red. It was a look that could pass for seasonal allergies.
Purse in hand, she walked into the shop. Bea stood behind the counter, ringing up an old
er man. At the sight of Viv, she smiled.
“Have a wonderful day,” Bea told the man. “Tell Mary I said happy anniversary.”
The old man shuffled out the door, bouquet in hand. Viv stepped to the side, suddenly feeling awkward for having come.
“I was in the neighborhood,” she offered.
Bea came around the counter. “That’s nice. Wasn’t today your last day at HW?”
“Yesterday’s conference was. I guess I feel a little lost without work to occupy me.”
Bea pressed a finger to her cheek in thought. “If you like, we can get you started training now. It’s pretty slow at the moment.”
“Really?” Viv’s heart skipped. “That would be great.”
It wasn’t until Bea walked her around the shop to tell her all the different flower names that Viv realized she was probably something of a workaholic. She depended on focused, productive activity to stop her mind from being overactive.
And overactive it was. Any time she stopped listening to Bea explain the importance of inventory or how to close out the drawer, her thoughts drifted, and she invariably started thinking about Markus.
Maybe she’d been too rash.
No, she had definitely done the right thing.
But not telling him he had a child on the way? Even considering the danger his life held?
Yeah. She’d done the right thing. It was precisely that danger that her child needed to be protected against.
Except…
“I’ll take those out!” Viv nearly shouted when she saw Bea struggling to break down some cardboard boxes.
“Thanks, doll.” Bea patted her hair to make sure it hadn’t gotten out of place during the tussle with the boxes. “The recycling bin is out back.”
After breaking down the boxes so they were flat, Viv stacked them in a pile and carried them through the shop’s back door. The sun was in full blast, and the heat made her feel momentarily woozy. Pausing as the door swung shut behind her, she closed her eyes.
She probably should have had something other than yogurt. This whole pregnancy thing would take some getting used to.
Speaking of which… Nausea was bubbling up from her belly.
At the industrial recycling bin, she stood on her tiptoes and shoved the flattened cardboard through a slot at the top. The nausea was subsiding a bit, which gave her some hope. Maybe she wouldn’t be vomiting all the time, after all.
Footsteps behind Viv made her ears perk up.
“Bea?”
Dropping back on her heels, she started to turn. There was movement out of the corner of her eye, and a broad palm pressed against her mouth.
Viv started to scream, but the sound came out muffled. A sharp scent hit her nose. Someone had pressed a liquid-soaked cloth to her face.
The clouds spun. Viv thrashed, waving her arms and trying to kick backward to hit her assailant’s knee, but her strength was slipping away.
Everything was slipping… slipping…
Gone.
Chapter 16
Viv
Sharp pain pressed against Viv’s temples, and her shoulders ached. With her eyes closed, she didn’t know which way was up and which was down. All she understood was that she was moving.
That’s right. She was in a car. Judging from the sound of passing vehicles, they were on the interstate.
Her heart rate went from one mile per hour to a hundred. She snapped her eyes open, but everything was still dark.
Because there was a bag over her head, she realized. Even though it was loose, it made the air around her face hot and thick. Not only that, her wrists were bound behind her back.
Squinting her eyes, she peered through the fabric. Light from up ahead showed a window.
“Hello?” she croaked.
No answer. But someone was driving this car. Or van. Yes, it was probably a van. She was sitting on the floor and could stretch her legs out.
God, she was probably in one of those white predator-looking vans. Her mother used to get paranoid whenever she saw a nondescript van driving around, but Viv would only laugh.
Well, she wasn’t laughing now.
“Hello?” she tried again.
She hadn’t really expected an answer, but trying felt better than doing nothing. She’d been kidnapped. Officially, legitimately kidnapped.
Panic even stronger than the consuming nausea rose in her chest. Markus had been right. Whoever was after him had come for her.
Tears flowed like a river. She bit into her cheek to keep back the sobs. Over her dead body would she let her kidnappers know she was freaking out.
It did no good, but she couldn’t help but wish she had listened to Markus and gone with him. Even though he was the one who’d gotten them in the mess, he also knew his enemy.
Viv didn’t even know the name of the person or people Markus was running from.
The van slowed down, and she tensed. They were exiting off the interstate.
The hair on her arms and the back of her neck stood up straight. She hadn’t known until that moment that fear could be physically painful, like being shocked with electricity over and over again.
The van came to a brief stop before speeding up again. Based on the lack of any more stops, they were somewhere in the country. Whether that meant right outside of Jacksonville or eight hours away from home, she didn’t know. There was no way of telling how long she’d been knocked out for.
Various escape plans ran through her head. Making a run for it when the doors opened was out of the question. With hands bound and a bag on her head, she’d probably run right into the nearest tree.
She’d have to use her smarts. Befriend her captives, if she could. Gain their trust and pretend to have Stockholm syndrome.
Too soon, the van came to a halt and the engine cut off, making Viv’s heart climb halfway up her throat in terror. The back doors of the van creaked open, and someone grabbed her elbow.
“Out,” a man ordered.
She half stumbled, half fell from the van. Her sneakered feet hit hard dirt, and she had the brief thought that at least she’d worn sneakers and jeans home from the conference that morning. If she were going to be held captive, it would suck for it to happen in heels and a tight skirt. So comfort was on her side.
A weird thought, sure. Could be that she was already starting to lose her mind due to the stress.
The man’s hand remained on her elbow, and he guided her forward. There was the sound of a door opening right as sunshine struck Viv’s cheeks, and her knees started trembling.
They were putting her inside somewhere, away from the light of day and the fresh air. A new wave of panic came on, and she forced herself to breathe through it. It was her life on the line if she lost control and did something stupid.
“Please,” she said. “Tell me what’s going on. Why am I here?”
“Don’t say anything,” a second man growled. “Dagger will be in soon enough.”
Dagger? Under other circumstances, she might have considered it a funny name.
Their footsteps echoed in a large room, and another door opened. Viv was plopped down on a carpeted floor. One of the men reached behind her and cut the binds on her wrists. Off came the sack on her head.
She blinked her eyes into focus, but the two men were already leaving the room. The door closed behind them without her getting a look at their faces.
Jumping to standing, she threw herself at the door handle. It didn’t turn. They’d locked her in.
“Shit,” she said.
Spinning on her heel, she took in the room they’d left her in. A thin, narrow window at the top of the wall provided a bit of light but no chances of escape. Even if she had some way to get up that high—which she didn’t, since the room was empty—the window would be too small to wiggle out of.
Retreating to the corner, she pressed her back against the wall and slid down it. Her butt hit the moldy carpet. Drawing her knees to her chest, she buried her face into them.
/> Whatever plans this Dagger had for her, it couldn’t be good. If Markus had any brains, he wouldn’t take the bait and would stay away.
But then what would happen to her? Something told her these men didn’t see her as indispensable.
Pressing her lips together hard, she willed herself not to cry. These men had brute strength and were probably armed, but she still had her smarts and resolve.
Time dragged by. It was impossible to tell if minutes or hours had passed. At some point, there were voices on the other side of the door.
Viv stood, her hands curling into fists. She’d never been in a fight and didn’t know what to do if someone should try to hurt her, but she certainly wouldn’t go down without giving it her best go.
The door handle turned. Sucking in a sharp breath, she retreated as far into the corner as it would accept her. It was embarrassing to shrink in fear, but she was having trouble controlling her body.
A man stepped into the room, his bright eyes going straight to Viv.
“Mr. Romano?”
Her knees buckled, and she pressed a palm against the wall to keep herself upright.
No. Impossible. The short captivity had driven her insane.
“Viv,” he said, sounding tired and annoyed. It was then that she knew it wasn’t an illusion.
Her heart did a flip. Pushing off the wall, she stepped close to him.
“These men kidnapped me and brought me here,” she gushed. “It has something to do with my boyfriend. They’re holding me here—”
“Yes.” He nodded. “Markus.”
She faltered. How did he know about Markus? She never talked about her private matters at work.
Ice shot through her veins. She took a slow step back.
Of course. God, she was stupid. Mr. Romano wasn’t randomly there. He had something to do with the whole fiasco.
“You work for them,” she whispered. “Don’t you?”
His lips pressed together, making it look like he was trying not to frown.
“They got to you. They’re paying you.” She raised a hand to her mouth in horror.
She’d worked with Mr. Romano for years. This wasn’t the man she knew.
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