Gus’s team had found a disturbing scrapbook of Adam’s life in Thomas’s apartment, but other than that he seemed relatively normal. There was no history of violence or mental illness, nothing to indicate why he suddenly went off the deep end. He was a rich brat that had inherited an obscenely large amount of money a decade back and certainly had the resources to pull this off, but something just didn’t add up.
Less than a week after Leah was taken, they discovered that one of his childhood friends had recently purchased an island off the coast of Brazil. Adam thought it was all going to be over but there was literally nothing when they got there, not even a building. After that the trail went cold. There hadn’t been any activity on his accounts since the abduction.
Adam offered him money every time he spoke to Leah. But Thomas had always had an endless supply of that, so it wasn’t very surprising that he didn’t bite. At this point it seemed like he was doing this for revenge itself and seeing Adam watch Leah and their baby die was all he desired.
Gus had convinced him to show no emotion during the video chats. It was excruciating to keep a straight face. That bastard holding a gun on Leah only ever seemed to talk about the baby, and Gus’s theory was that he was focusing on that for a reason. Thomas probably assumed that Leah didn’t really mean that much to him and if he started to suspect otherwise, things could get much, much worse for her. So even though he was desperate to scream out how much he loved her every time they talked so she would at least know that in case they never saw each other again, Adam sat there stone faced and watched.
It was nearly impossible when Thomas had the goon beat her, but Gus told him that was probably a test. Adam hoped that Leah knew how much he cared, but there was no way to tell. Her misery was palpable and she was obviously trying to hide it, which just made him worry more.
Adam sat at the desk, staring at the blank screen waiting for the call. It would be any moment now and he summoned his resolve to look stoic and unmoved. Despite her rapidly deteriorating condition, it was so refreshing to see her face and know that she was still alive. Adam accepted the chat request and fought to keep the wave of nausea from showing on his face. She looked really bad today.
“It’s been fifty one days since I’ve had anything to eat and I’ve lost 23 pounds.”
It was a punch in the gut like it always was when she read those statistics. The first part couldn’t actually be true, the new doctor assured him, because if it were she’d be dead by now. All of the sudden there were strange sounds happening off camera and Leah’s face was frightened. Then the gun was gone from her head and she mouthed something to him.
No one had stopped her, so her captors must have been too busy dealing with the commotion. Adam mouthed an apology back and gave her as much of a smile as he could muster.
“Walker.” The name cut through him like a knife. She looked as surprised to hear it as he was, like she hadn’t meant to say it aloud. “Thomas is dead. I love you.”
“Leah, I-”
There was a flash of white blonde hair and then she was gone. Adam could hear her screaming, hear Walker’s fist connecting with her fragile bones as he pummeled her mercilessly. Adam was yelling for him to stop so loudly that the security team was rushing toward the house, guns in hand.
Walker. Now that was someone he recognized immediately. He had pulled Leah up by the hair so Adam could get a better view of the gruesome scene. She was flopping around like a ragdoll, thankfully unconscious, but Walker didn’t stop. As weak as she was, Adam knew she would survive this for much longer and had to do something.
“Graystone!” He cried out. “I’ll give you Graystone!”
Walker hesitated for a moment and looked at him before letting Leah crumple to the ground as Adam winced. Without giving her a second glance, Walker flopped into the chair and put his heels up on the desk, stroking his chin as he stared into the camera.
“Are you serious?” he inquired.
“Absolutely.”
“Now that is quite an offer, isn’t it? So generous I would have never thought to ask.” There was an unreadable look on Walker’s face.
“Money obviously isn’t what you’re after, Charles. The only thing I have left to give is power.”
Walker raised his transparent eyebrows. “The only thing I was ever really after was your suffering. But to be honest, it hasn’t been nearly as exciting as I’d hoped.”
“If you think it will be easy to give up a controlling interest in my life’s work and one of the most profitable companies on the face of the earth, you’re wrong.” Adam did his best to breathe evenly.
“Yet it didn’t take much thought to offer it up. The brat inside your incubator here must mean more to you.”
“I won’t insult you by denying that.”
“So, then, I suppose I should just make you watch while I cut it out of her if I really want to see you squirm.”
Adam suppressed a shudder and kept his shaking hands under the desk. “And then what will you do tomorrow? I’m recording this, Charles. Do you really think I’ll just let you step back into your old life?”
“But you will let me just step into yours,” Walker responded, clearly not convinced, “if I give your slave back?”
Bile rose in Adam’s throat. “Yes. Besides, I thought my suffering was boring you.”
“Well, you’ve given me a lot to consider.” Walker rose to his feet. “And I’d like you to consider this until I get back to you.”
He whistled and the man that usually held the gun on Leah appeared at his side. They grabbed her by the arms and shoved her bloody face into the camera, holding her head up by her hair. Her eyes fluttered but didn’t open and Adam could see that she was already starting to swell up from her injuries.
“One more thing, Adam,” Walker hissed. “I have to know. Is it the girl or the baby?”
Adam hesitated, unsure of how to answer. Gus was staring at him blankly with nothing to offer. “Well, I want the baby to have its mother, so I suppose it would be both.”
Walker’s brow furrowed.
“In any case, if you don’t give them back to me alive, you’re ruined. If you do, you’ll have everything you ever wanted.”
“I’ll get back to you in the morning.” Walker flashed him a devious smile and ended the call.
His body shuddered as he tried to get up to make way for the security techs that were eager to descend upon the computer. Gus helped him to his feet but Adam threw up on the floor on his way over to the couch. The image of Leah’s battered face was burned into his vision and he could still hear the sickening crunch of Walker’s fist connecting.
Charles Walker. At least this made sense and there was a possibility to make a trade. Unfortunately, Adam knew Walker a lot better than he did Thomas and discovering that he had Leah only made this more excruciating. According to Patricia, Walker was a textbook psychopath. They had dated for several years in college and he was the one that convinced her that she would go farther in life if emotions weren’t involved in her marriage. He was cold and calculating, but extremely ambitious. His family was much less well off than hers, which gave her the upper hand because he needed her more than she did him.
Despite his shortcomings, they would have probably gotten married if Adam hadn’t come along. Patricia saw her opportunity to secure a better mate and she took it. From his perspective, Walker had been robbed of the rung on the ladder he so desperately needed to climb to greater heights. As Patricia got older and looked back their relationship, she could see how abnormal he was. She felt as if she had really dodged a bullet because who knows what sort of children they would have had. Looking at life through a rational lens was one thing, but Walker was completely dead inside, unable to take joy from the simplest things. All he had ever wanted was power over others.
And that was the man who had Leah. Adam’s mind was spinning as he struggled to recall everything Patricia had ever said about him, desperate to come up with something else he co
uld use against him. The more he thought about it, the more Adam realized that he needed to tell her what was going on so she wouldn’t be caught off guard if Walker decided to use what he knew to destroy Patricia’s political career. Why he hadn’t done so already was a mystery, but Adam suspected that he still held out hopes of marrying up in the world. Since he hadn’t exposed her marriage for a sham, he was probably going to blackmail her somehow. This was going to be a very difficult phone call.
“She’s on a ship,” one of the computer techs proclaimed. “That’s what she said.”
Leave it to Gus to hire a lip reader. The techs were instantly buzzing around the property, shouting in advanced jargon about new ways to trace the signal. Adam couldn’t actually understand what they were talking about, but their excitement gave him hope. After weeks at a standstill, suddenly everyone was busy putting this new intel to use. It was starting to look like finding Leah was a real possibility again.
Adam tried to shake off the memory of Leah being brutalized, but the best he could do was push it into the background and use it for motivation. He got up off the couch and headed toward the stairs.
“Where are you going?” Gus asked. “I need you to tell me everything you know about Walker.”
“I know,” Adam responded coolly, still making his way up to his office. “I need to make a few phone calls first.”
“Who on earth do you need to talk to?”
“My lawyer,” Adam snapped. “Do you have any idea how much paperwork will be involved in this trade?”
“There won’t be a trade.” Gus sounded so convinced. “This was a major breakthrough. In a few days-”
“She doesn’t have a few days!” Adam stormed. “Gus, we go back a long time, but I’m afraid I don’t share your confidence. It’s starting to look like this is a little out of your league.”
Gustavo looked wounded. “We’re very close, sir.”
“I need Walker to know that I’m serious when he calls tomorrow. Did you even see what he did to her?”
“I suppose you’re right,” Gus said. “Adam. If we get the name of the ship, we’ll probably need to you call in a favor from that friend of yours.”
Adam’s head whipped around, his jaw clenched. “You know what I’m saving that favor for.”
“I do. But that ship is a needle in a haystack out there,” Gus explained. “We’ll need a live feed from military surveillance satellites. He’s the only one that can do that.”
“He’s the only one that can do a lot of things.”
“I know. But I’ll be able to take care of that other issue, when the times comes.”
“Are you sure?”
Gustavo nodded. “It won’t be as clean as the way he would have done it. But it can be done.”
15
Leah’s eyes fluttered open. Her vision was blurry but she could tell she wasn’t in her normal room because the lighting was too dim and it was quiet except for the ringing in her ears. Her head jerked to the side, startled from movement in the corner of her eye. She let out a gasp from the pain.
“Oh good. You’ve finally regained consciousness.” Walker’s voice was fuzzy.
Leah started to ask him where she was but her mouth wouldn’t open. A sharp pain ran from her ear down into her neck from the attempt. She reached up to feel her jaw, her eyes widening as she felt how swollen it was. Her fingers lightly searched the rest of her face, finding her features unrecognizable and incredibly tender.
“Yea,” Walker sighed, inhaling sharply. “It’s probably not a good idea to try to talk. The medic was barely able to set your jaw and its wired shut. Your nose is broken to by the way, if you’re wondering why it’s hard to breathe.”
Leah glared at him.
“Don’t look at me like that. Aside from your face, you’re feeling a lot better. Aren’t you?”
Leah nodded.
“That’s because I’ve let you sleep, not that there was much of a choice with you on the verge of death and all.” Walker was eerily cheerful as always. “And you’ve been hooked up to a feeding tube for the past two days.”
She sat up slowly and looked around the room. It was filled with natural sunlight, something she had feared she would never see again. Her vision was beginning to focus on various objects around the room and she determined that she was in the ship’s medical facility. The bed wasn’t exactly comfortable, but it was a big improvement from the mat and it was a nice change to be off the floor. Walker gestured to the side of the bed to a glass with a thick liquid that resembled a milkshake and tasted almost as good.
“They fixed you up pretty good, considering. However, do try to keep away from reflective surfaces for a while. I’m sure Adam will fit the bill to put you back together.”
Leah’s eyes widened and she raised her eyebrows as much as possible.
“Yes, it looks like you’re going to be returned to your master, Leah.” Walker paced to the other side of the room and started inspecting an unidentifiable steel medical instrument. “I know that you’re literally starving to death, but don’t drink that too quickly. I would imagine that vomiting would be particularly torturous when it can’t come out of your mouth or nose.”
Almost on cue, Leah began to feel nauseous and slowed down, even though her body was screaming for nourishment.
“It’s ironic isn’t it? I’d cook you a steak dinner myself to celebrate, but I beat you to the point that you wouldn’t be able to eat it.” Walker took a seat at the end of her bed. “It’s also ironic that I’ve been waiting patiently for you to wake up so I’d have someone to talk to, but you can’t speak. The men have all been avoiding me since I had three of them executed for that little brawl.”
Leah stiffened and looked downward.
“Oh, don’t worry. I’m not mad anymore about that little stunt you pulled.” He patted her on the knee and went back to pacing back and forth. “That was very brave, by the way. And incredibly stupid, as I’m sure you figured out. I didn’t think you had it in you.”
She tried to flash him a sarcastic smiled, but her mangled features couldn’t form the expression.
“But it worked out so perfectly!” Walker exclaimed giddily. “Well, for me anyway. Not so great for you I suppose. Though you will soon be reunited with your baby’s father and I’m sure that pleases you.”
Leah finished the shake and started to feel sleepy, her swollen eyes becoming difficult to stay open.
“Oh, don’t get drowsy now, you just woke up and I’m terribly bored.” Walker flopped down on the end of the bed again and flashed her a wicked grin. “Adam must be quite eager to have you back if he’s willing to pay as much as he is. You must be one hell of a ride, Leah. I’ve heard redheads are absolute demons in the sack, but I’ve never found that to be the case.”
Her heart started thudding in her ears.
“That woke you up, didn’t it,” he laughed. “But don’t worry. I’ve kept you as pure as you were when I found you for a reason, and it’s paid off handsomely.”
She fidgeted anxiously with the end of the thin white sheet.
“I’m sure you’ve been wondering why I haven’t forced Adam to watch while I let the men gang rape you. It’s obviously the first thing to do when you kidnap someone’s concubine, isn’t it?”
The topic of conversation made her lightheaded as the protein shake curdled in her belly.
“Oh, don’t look so horrified. It would probably kill you at this point and I can’t have that. Plus you were so hideous and pathetic even before I nearly pummeled you to death that the guys probably wouldn’t have gone for it.”
Leah winced and realized she was biting her lip, drawing blood from a scabbed over wound. Walker leaned forward and dabbed it with a piece of gauze.
“But in the beginning, I couldn’t be sure how he’d react. You see, it’s still unclear to me if he cares about you because you’re you, or simply because you’re incubating his spawn.” Walker yawned. “If it was all about the baby, then
it probably wouldn’t bother him that much, so what was the point. And even if the bastard did actually like you, he might not want you back afterwards, which, again, would make this entire abduction completely pointless.”
Tears filled her vision and she refused to look in his direction.
“I’m sure you’re just as confused about his feelings as I am, but at this point I couldn’t care less. Because as I said, it all worked out so wonderfully,” he beamed. “Truth be told, torturing him via torturing you wasn’t panning out to be nearly as much fun as I had expected. I was just starting formulate a plan to force him into divorcing Patricia and blackmailing her into marrying me, but now we get to skip all that messiness.”
He clapped his hands together and stood up excitedly.
“Graystone! Do you have any idea how much money I’ll be controlling?” Walker proclaimed. “You’ve been unconscious for the last two days, so you haven’t heard our conversations, but Adam has seen that you’re alive and sends his regards. At first I didn’t believe he would do it, but I’ve spoken to my lawyer who has talked to his, and it’s all going through very soon.”
She shuddered as Walker kissed her on the top of the head and skipped toward the door.
“I’ll let you know when it’s all said and done. Good chat, Leah. Get some rest.”
As soon as she was relatively sure Walker wasn’t coming back, Leah struggled to get to her feet. She made her way over to the supply closet and got a length of gauze, then grabbed the largest scalpel she could find. Jumping back into bed quickly, she tied it to the inside of her thigh as she heard footsteps walking down the hallway. Walker stepped into the doorway, a pair of handcuffs dangling from his finger.
Captured by the Billionaire (Omnibus Edition) Page 10
