Take Me - A Bad Boy Steals a Bride Romance

by Layla Valentine

  Jack shifted onto his side, tilting his head enough to catch a glimpse through the windows. They were still on the Interstate, but then they’d driven hours away from the city to get to Riley.

  “He’s a scumbag,” Jack told her. “A real rat. I know Riley turned out to be a pretty decent guy...” Jack paused and considered for a moment. “But Lenny is a total bastard. He told me when I was bringing him in that he’d do whatever it took to get back at me.”

  “But you’ve got to hear that all the time,” Cassandra insisted.

  “You get it a lot of threats, in my line of work,” Jack agreed. “Nobody running away from the law wants to be caught, and they run for all kinds of reasons you wouldn’t want to hear about. But Lenny…he had a history of his enemies conveniently ending up either dead or having the dime dropped on them.

  “After I handed him over, they took him in, but he was out again real quick. Fancy legal team or something—justice works if you can pay for it. But I heard through the grapevine that he’s fallen on hard times since then.” Jack shrugged, bringing his arm up to cushion his head. “Even if he could have walked out of that courtroom a free man, he’d want me dead, just for fucking up his escape. Now that he’s out, and not doing well, he probably blames me for screwing his life up, and wants to get even.”

  Jack pressed his lips together, thinking back to hunting down Lenny; taking him down where he’d hidden—in a church, for crying out loud.

  “Where did you hear about him being on hard times?”

  Jack smiled bitterly. “Prison. Where else? A ton of his associates are in there. That bunch might not be the most reliable source, but they were the best one I had available to me.” Jack rubbed at the stubble on his cheeks and jaw. “They told me he’s holed up somewhere, doesn’t get out much nowadays. Like I said, he’s not smart. I can bet he’s lying low in the hole he was living in before his life went to shit. Finding him shouldn’t be too difficult.”

  “Well, you’re in charge,” Cassandra said nervously.

  Jack looked up into the driver’s seat and watched her in profile for a few moments. “I’d bet good money that Lenny was involved in this somehow,” he said. He snorted, remembering the payout he’d gotten for Lenny, back when he’d captured the scheming, thieving rat. “I don’t know if he was the one who actually killed Laura, but it’s good odds that he had something to do with framing me.”

  “If he’s on the list, you do what you need to do, I guess…”

  Jack smiled to himself, turning his face towards the seat cushions to hide the expression in case she decided to look into the back. She’s tougher than she seems, he thought. In a different situation… He let the thought break off, suppressing even the slightest hope that if they’d met in different circumstances, something could have happened between them…

  Keep your head in the game, Jack. Focus on what you need to be doing here. She’s hot, she’s capable, and she knows the facts. She’s not your girlfriend.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Cassandra looked up at the enormous buildings that surrounded them, forming a canyon of concrete, steel and glass. The building Jack had guided her to was not at all the sort she would expect someone to be “holed up” in—it was one of the grandest high-rise residences in Manhattan.

  As they walked toward the entry, Cassandra could see guards dotted around, at the door and stationed around the lobby. It definitely wasn’t a promising situation; she couldn’t imagine that there was any decrease in security in the rest of the building.

  “What are we going to do?”

  Jack smiled slightly, leading Cassandra passed the entrance, toward the next building down, before turning sharply down the adjoining alley.

  “They always forget about the roof,” he said simply, gesturing to the fire escape ladder system along the exterior of the neighboring building. The area near the dumpsters was deserted. Cassandra wrinkled her nose at the stench coming from the garbage nearby.

  Jack reached up, jumping slightly to catch the bottom of the ladder to tug it down to the ground. Cassandra looked up at their route doubtfully; if she had been fleeing a fire, she was sure it would seem a lot safer than what was behind her, but from the stability of the street, it looked rickety and dangerous. Nonetheless, as Jack started climbing, Cassandra followed, telling herself that if nothing else, it would make for some excellent details in her article.

  She lost track of the number of ladder rungs she climbed; a few of the levels had slightly rusty stairs instead of a ladder, which at first seemed more comforting until the wind came up as they got above the fifth floor, and the whole fire escape seemed to tremble.

  She looked up ahead and caught sight of Jack’s muscular legs, his firm ass, several feet above her, and as her palms went slick with sweat she told herself to focus; it was not the time to let her mind wander. Falling from the tenth story to crash onto the street below was not the kind of headlines she wanted to make.

  “You okay back there?”

  “Yeah,” she called up, wondering when Hardy had started being concerned about her welfare.

  Cassandra’s mind began to wander again. If Lenny was on Jack’s list, wouldn’t it be a natural thing for the police to stake out the building? Then there was the matter of the security force she had seen on the ground floor—what if they needed to get out in a hurry?

  She lifted herself onto a landing and saw that they were nearing the top of the fire escape. Jack had come to a stop, and Cassandra peered up to see what the cause might be, noting that he didn’t seem to be the least bit fatigued by the exercise.

  “The last part is going to be tricky,” Jack told her, looking slightly amused.

  “What do you mean?”

  Jack pointed upward, and Cassandra followed his gesture. Above the stairs, there was a gap, and then a final ladder leading to the roof of the building. Cassandra’s mouth fell open as she took in the size of the gap.

  “That can’t be safe.” She glanced down at the corrugated metal beneath her feet and looked through the landing at the ground below.

  “They don’t really plan on people being on the roof,” Jack pointed out. “Besides, if you’re going down it’s not nearly as dangerous as trying to get up.”

  Cassandra took a slow, deep breath, biting her bottom lip.

  “You’re sure this is the best way?” she asked.

  Jack nodded. “You should go first,” he told her. “I can help you onto the ladder that way.”

  Cassandra looked at him doubtfully for a moment longer, then shrugged. I’m already way too deep in this. It’s not like I can really back out now. She started up the steps, aware of Jack behind her. She thought fleetingly that she could feel his gaze on her back, feel it shifting down to take in her legs, and—for just a moment—her ass.

  She put the thought aside. Her throat felt dry and tight, and her heart had begun beating faster in her chest. She turned around carefully, and saw Jack step onto the landing with her.

  “Okay,” he said, looking at her intently for a moment. “I’m going to need you to trust me.”

  “Oh? Only now? Because this has been such an easy situation so far,” Cassandra said, shivering as her mind played images of her missing the bottom rung and plummeting down countless floors.

  “I haven’t killed you yet, have I? Trust me, Cass.”

  Cassandra started to tell him not to call her by that nickname, and then decided that it wasn’t the moment for an argument. She was on the last landing before the roof; she might as well get it over with.

  “Okay,” she said, exhaling in a gusty sigh. “How are we doing this?”

  “You’re going to turn around, get close to the edge, and reach as far as you can. I’m going to boost you up and hold you there until you can get a good grip on the ladder.”

  She glanced at Jack doubtfully.

  “If you can’t manage it I’ll get you back down onto the landing and we’ll figure something out,” Jack told her firmly. “But t
his way is easiest.”

  Shaking her head, Cassandra turned her back on him. She stepped cautiously towards the edge of the landing, right below the bottom of the ladder, with only a tiny margin of error preventing a long drop to the ground. She gathered up her courage and half-crouched, pushing up on the balls of her feet in a quick jump.

  Cassandra’s heart skipped and stuttered in her chest as her feet lost contact with the metal landing. Before she could scream, Jack’s strong hands grabbed at her hip and thigh, holding her in the air. Cassandra forced herself to take a slow, steady breath, and reached up for the third rung on the ladder with both hands. Jack gave her another push, and Cassandra’s foot tapped the bottom rung of the ladder. She pulled her other leg up, reaching for the next rung as she maneuvered into the right position to continue climbing.

  Clambering over the edge, Cassandra sank down to the gritty, sandy concrete of the roof, panting slightly. A nagging thought—What about Jack?—entered her mind, but in the very next moment she saw his head pop up above the ledge, saw him pull himself up and over, tumbling to the dirty surface next to her.

  “Okay, so we’re up here,” Cassandra said, brushing her hands off on her pants. “How do we get next door?”

  “We jump,” Jack said. He grinned as Cassandra stared at him, open mouthed.

  “All this just to jump between two buildings and risk smashing ourselves to pieces?”

  “I told you, they never think about the roof,” Jack said, lifting himself up onto his feet.

  Cassandra looked across the gap between the buildings, her heart starting to beat faster in her chest.

  Jack half-smiled, his brilliant eyes glittering with amusement. He reached out and touched her shoulder. The contact sent a little jolt of electric heat through Cassandra’s body that she tried and failed to suppress. She looked out over the edge, thinking she should have known that they would have to jump. Somehow, in the stress and fear of climbing the fire escape, she hadn’t considered it.

  “It’s not that far,” Jack added.

  “It’s far enough,” Cassandra countered, crossing her arms over her chest as a chill worked its way through her spine.

  “I’ll go first,” Jack told her. “Watch how I do it. When you follow, I’ll catch you.”

  Cassandra still felt the tingle at her shoulder where Jack had touched her a moment before. She took a deep breath, and finally nodded her acceptance.

  Jack stepped away from her, moving back several feet from the edge. He frowned, then took a few more steps backward. Cassandra saw his chest rise and fall with a few deep breaths.

  A moment later, Jack took off, running towards the edge of the roof. In seconds, he reached the edge and launched himself forward, arms outstretched. Cassandra’s throat tightened with fear as she watched him travel through the air; everything seeming to slow down. In the next instant, Jack was on the other side of the gap, tumbling a little as he landed.

  He stood and brushed himself off, and Cassandra swallowed hard.

  Don’t look down. You’ll choke if you do.

  Cassandra walked to the spot that Jack had taken off from. Her palms were slick with sweat, her stomach in knots, and her heart pounding in her chest. She saw Jack waiting for her, watching her intently. Cassandra inhaled slowly, closing her eyes as she attempted to suppress the nervous panic welling up inside of her, images of plunging down toward the ground playing through her head.

  It’s maybe four, five feet. You can jump that far.

  Cassandra took another breath and forced herself forward, starting at a jog and speeding up to a run. She kept her gaze straight ahead, keeping track of the edge of the roof in the bottom of her field of vision.

  Reaching the edge, she pushed off, propelling herself forward and biting back the yelp of fear that rose up in her throat. Glancing down for a fraction of an instant, she saw the ground far below her. The next moment, she was nearing the opposite roof and Jack’s hands closed on her waist, his arms coiling tightly around her, swinging her the rest of the way onto the stable concrete. Her heart thundered in her chest, her blood roaring in her ears, as she took shaky breaths to try and clear the adrenaline out of her system.

  “Holy shit,” she said finally, realizing she had made it over safely.

  “See? You were made for this,” Jack said, giving her a quick smile.

  “No. No I wasn’t,” Cassandra said, clenching and unclenching her hands to try and get the feeling back into them. “What happens now?”

  “Now we break into the penthouse suite.”

  Jack let go of her, and started towards a staircase that led from the roof to the top floor balcony. Cassandra took a moment to gather the tattered remnants of her nerves and followed him onto the stairs, hurrying down behind him.

  Jack’s heavy shoes thudded onto the balcony and Cassandra reached the dubious ground a few moments after him, watching as the fugitive looked around for a way in.

  “Door’s locked,” he murmured, and Cassandra wasn’t sure whether he was talking to her or to himself.

  He stepped to the side and tried the window a few feet away, blocking it with his body so that she couldn’t quite see what he was doing. A moment later, the window opened with a squeal of protest, and Cassandra winced, looking around in the sudden fear that someone must have seen them, that they must have someone on their tail. She looked around, but there was no one on the roof opposite, no one coming down the stairs behind them.

  “Here we are,” Jack said. “You go first, I’ll boost you through.”

  Cassandra pressed her lips together. “I’ve gone from being a kidnap victim to an accomplice in less than twenty-four hours,” she said, shaking her head. She approached the window, seeing the sill was just below her underarms. “Let me try on my own first.”

  I can’t avoid being involved in this debacle, but I can at least try and do it on my own terms.

  Cassandra could still feel the parts of her body where Jack had caught her, where his arms had wrapped around her. She planted her hands on the windowsill and pushed herself up. She propelled herself head-first through the window, and brought her knees up to push herself the rest of the way through as she took in the room ahead of her: it looked like some kind of dining room, she thought—though there was no table to prove it.

  She started when she felt a pair of strong, rough hands on her ass, pushing her up and over the obstacle. Part of her mind rebelled, thinking she should be shrieking at Jack to take his hands off of her. But the warm, firm grip on her buttocks sent a shock of heat through her body, making Cassandra think back to her dream earlier that same day. She tumbled forward onto the floor with a yelp and immediately clapped her hand over her mouth, looking around and listening to make sure no one had heard her.

  As she struggled to her feet, hoping there wasn’t some resident hurrying into the room to investigate, Jack launched himself through the open window, landing lightly on his feet a few feet away from her.

  “Show-off,” Cassandra muttered lowly. Jack smirked back at her.

  Cassandra would have expected the penthouse suite of the huge, grand building to be lushly furnished, with thick rugs and heavy furniture—at the very least she would expect the place to be clean and neat. Instead, as she followed Jack out of the dining room area, through the kitchen, and into the living room, Cassandra took in dingy walls, threadbare rugs on stained wooden floors, no artwork, and almost no furniture.

  A faint smell of mold greeted her as they opened the door to what seemed to be the main living area. Off in one corner, a stained mattress had been propped against the wall; next to it Cassandra could see a small baggie with some white powder in it.

  “So this is the drug baron’s hideout?” Cassandra looked at Jack in disbelief as she looked around the barren, filthy apartment.

  It amazed her that someone could possibly live in such a place without having the kind of money it took to maintain it; the apartment’s interior looked like something she’d see in the seedi
er parts of the Bronx, where she’d keep her keys in her hand to make a weapon out of them if need be.

  “Last time I heard,” Jack said with a slight shrug, but Cassandra could see the disbelief in his eyes as well. Jack shook his head, and Cassandra could tell that he was just as shocked at the state of the expensive apartment as she had been.

  Cassandra opened her mouth, intending to ask Jack what the apartment had been like before—by the fact that he knew how to get in, she guessed he must have been to visit the first time he’d had to track down Lenny. But just when she would have asked, she heard a scratching sound near the door, along with the clink and clatter of metal keys.

  Cassandra looked at Jack, eyes widening. She heard the lock turning over and froze; there was nowhere to hide in the echoing, unfurnished apartment. As the door started to open, Cassandra was shocked to see Jack immediately move in front of her, positioning himself between her and the door, taking an unmistakably defensive posture.

  He’s defending me?

  Cassandra’s mind reeled.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Jack

  Tension rippled through every muscle in Jack’s body as the door to Lenny’s apartment opened. For a moment, he considered the possibility that he’d been fed false information about his one-time bounty; that Lenny might have skipped town, and someone else had moved into the apartment. After all, after the debacle with his drug arrest and the way things had gone down with Laura, it would have been smart for a man like Lenny to find a new place to live, even if it meant starting over.

  The sight of the man who shuffled through the door, looking at his feet and wiping them on the doormat as he came in didn’t help Jack’s anxiety. There was no way that the man in front of him could possibly be the well-dressed, fit but heavy drug lord; he was emaciated, his skin covered in sores, pale and sickly-looking, wearing clothes that looked more thrift store than the designer showroom.