by Katie Ruggle
The two strangers eyed Alice with a similar expression: smarmy avarice tinted with lust.
“Miss Blanchett,” the older man—the one Aaron had called Judd—said, his voice low and smooth and much too slippery. “What a pleasure to meet you.”
“Hello.” Alice managed a slight smile as she shook his hand. “Please call me Alice.”
The courtesy slipped out almost of its own volition. Manners had been drilled into her from the time she could speak, and it was as easy as breathing to go through the motions, even with Jovanovics. Then she turned to Logan, and the gross way he flicked his eyes up and down her body immediately made her stiffen. It wasn’t even the rude, sexual perusal that bothered her. It was the possession in his gaze, as if he’d already paid the asking price and she was being delivered for his pleasure, that truly made her skin crawl.
After she shook Logan’s hand and greeted him politely, her smile slipped away. He pulled out her chair, and she sat at the very edge of the seat, hoping to avoid any accidental touches. Logan slid the chair beneath her, brushing his fingers along her arms and shoulders as he straightened. Even through the fabric of her dress, Alice felt the sticky heat of his caress long after he’d moved back and taken his seat again.
“Any news on the case?” Aaron asked as soon as they were seated and a discreet server poured their wine. Alice was careful not to let her interest show. There had been a few whispers about a raid on the Jovanovics’ place—one that had led to several arrests—but this was the first time she would hear any of the details.
Judd made a face. “Nothing good. For the amount we pay the attorneys, you’d think they would’ve made these charges go away by now. Noah and Martin are getting…antsy.”
“I’m sure they are.” Aaron lifted his wineglass. “Here’s to a quick dismissal of all charges, so that things can go back to business as usual.”
The others lifted their glasses in response, and Alice followed suit, pretending to take a sip afterward. She’d always hated wine, but she knew better than to refuse with Aaron watching.
“Business as usual can’t come soon enough,” Judd agreed, sounding completely sincere. “I’m ready to hand the reins back to my nephew and brother.”
Aaron raised his brows slightly, as if the idea of giving up power was inconceivable. “Any luck finding the witness?”
If the dinner continued to be this interesting, it would almost make up for the way Logan was staring at her. His gaze felt as if it left a sticky film on her skin wherever it touched. She felt a rare moment of appreciation for her Aaron-chosen, not-at-all-revealing dress. At least she had that thin layer of protection between Logan’s slimy gaze and a good portion of her body.
Judd cast a quick glance at Alice, and Aaron waved a hand. “Don’t worry about her. She’s family.” He gave Judd a knowing glance that Alice wasn’t sure how to interpret before continuing. “She’s aware of what the consequences would be if she ever even thought about betraying us.”
The threat made Alice shiver, but his words seemed to convince Judd. “We’re working on it. The witness met Noah in Denver, but she could’ve flown in from anywhere. Our guy in WITSEC can’t find any mention of her, which is strange. Since the FBI was involved, we assumed she was in witness protection, but we’re starting to wonder.”
Aaron made a small, skeptical sound. “Isn’t she just some nobody that Noah hooked up with a few times? How hard could it be to find one woman?”
“Harder than you might think.” Although Judd’s voice was still mild, he’d stiffened at the implied criticism.
“I’m sure it is,” Aaron agreed quickly. “It’s just surprising that a person without any connections can disappear so completely.”
Although his frown remained, Judd settled back in his chair, partially soothed. “Even Logan hasn’t heard anything.”
Alice shot Logan a curious look.
“I’m a police officer in LA,” Logan said, catching her glance. He brushed at the front of his jacket. The motion reminded Alice of a puffed-up rooster. “The information I collect is invaluable for the family.”
With a small bob of her head, Alice searched for some way to respond. “I’m sure it is.”
Leaving him to his preening, Alice turned her attention back to Judd. “We’re watching a friend of hers,” he was saying. “With Noah and Martin in jail, we’re hoping she will relax and possibly contact her friend.”
Noah and Martin Jovanovic are in jail? Alice felt her eyes widen. As hard as she tried to keep her face blank, this news was just too amazing. She sent a mental message of thanks and good luck to the missing witness who’d apparently had a hand in getting those monsters locked away.
“Alice.” Hard fingers grabbed her chin, jerking her head around until she was looking at Logan’s annoyed face. “Quit ignoring me.”
His touch was so sudden, so rough, that she tried to pull away before she caught herself. “I wasn’t ignoring you.” Her voice sounded strained, and she tried to soften it. “I’m just…shy.”
Still gripping her face, Logan studied her for a long moment. Alice stared back, clinging to her most earnest expression, not daring to let her fear show. Finally, he released her and sat back in his chair. “No need to be shy with me.”
As he looked away, reaching for the bread basket, Alice risked darting a glance at the other two men. They were both watching, but their silence told her that there would be no help from Aaron or Judd.
“Bread?” Logan asked, low and intimate. He leaned toward her, bread basket in hand.
“No, thank you.” Despite her best efforts, her polite smile was stiff around the edges. All she wanted to do was listen to Judd and Aaron’s fascinating conversation, but now she was afraid to take her eyes off of Logan.
“No?” He placed the basket back on the table. “That’s probably for the best, anyway. As small as you are, you probably can’t eat too much without tubbing out.”
“Tubbing…out?” she repeated, blinking at him.
“You know.” Logan blew out his cheeks. “Getting fat.”
“I knew what you meant. I just couldn’t believe you said it.”
“Alice,” Aaron snapped, making her jump and turn toward him. “Don’t be rude.”
A rush of righteous indignation crashed through her, nearly burying her fear. She opened her mouth to protest, but the warning narrowing of Aaron’s eyes made her close her mouth before she said anything at all.
“Apologize to Logan,” Aaron ordered, as if she were a five-year-old who’d just kicked a fellow kindergartner in the shin.
She turned a blank face toward the man sitting next to her. “I apologize if I seemed rude.”
“Alice…” Aaron said, low but sharp, and she had to hide a wince.
“I don’t think you were rude,” Logan said. “You just didn’t understand what I said.”
Forcing a smile, Alice said, “Thank you, Logan.”
With a pleased grin, he reached over and patted her back. As he withdrew his hand, his fingers lingered, stroking down her arm. Clenching her teeth, Alice took back everything she’d thought about the dinner not being so bad. It was going to be horrid.
* * *
“That was disappointing,” Aaron said after a chilly two minutes of silence.
“What was?” A cramping stomach told Alice that she knew perfectly well what was disappointing Aaron—she was. After he’d rebuked her, the conversation had taken a more general—and less interesting—turn. Alice had endured three hours of pretending to drink wine and eat overpriced, badly cooked food while attempting to evade Logan’s groping hands. It had been hard to put him off when every movement had been monitored by Aaron. After Judd and Logan had left the table, Aaron hadn’t said a word or even looked at her until they were in the SUV, heading toward home.
Aaron reached out, as quick as a striking snake,
and backhanded her across the face. Her head jerked to the side, and she heard the slap of skin against skin before the pain registered, sharp and horribly familiar. “Don’t play stupid. You know how to behave. You just chose not to.”
Pressing her hand against her stinging cheek, Alice said nothing. Any attempt to defend herself would just enrage her brother more. Instead, she watched him warily, fighting the urge to press against the door. There was no way to escape. She was trapped. Her gaze met Chester’s in the rearview mirror. The helpless fury in his eyes made her want to reassure him. If the driver tried to defend her, it would just make things so much worse for all of them.
“This is my chance,” Aaron said, jerking her attention back to him. “The Jovanovic family is in chaos right now. Eight people—eight!—were arrested, including Noah and Martin, and they’ll be locked away for years. Judd is no leader. That’s obvious. There’s a huge power vacuum, and I’m going to fill it.”
“So fill it!” Alice burst out. Enough was enough. Being stuck in the middle of Blanchett family power games was one thing. She was born into that. There was no way that Alice was going to get involved with the Jovanovics, though. Let Aaron wallow in all the power he could grab, but Alice didn’t want any part of it. All she wanted was the freedom to do normal things—to choose her clothes and friends and meals and job and…everything. “What does any of this have to do with me?”
He grabbed her, his fingers wrapping around her throat, forcing up her chin so she had to meet his eyes. Alice’s heart thundered in her chest, her breaths coming in short gasps. Although Aaron’s grip wasn’t tight enough to cut off air, the threat was there, that he could close his fingers and end her if he wanted to. His eyes were the exact same dark brown, same round shape as hers, but they were as cold and hard and pitiless as marbles. Alice tried to swallow and choked instead.
“This has everything to do with you,” he said, fingertips digging in just a little more until Alice knew he was leaving small, round bruises. He’d put them there before. “You’re my in.”
“Me?” she tried to echo, although no sound emerged. All she could do was mouth the word.
“You.” Aaron tightened his grip just enough that Alice couldn’t breathe. She tried to hold back the panic by pretending she was underwater, that she was perfectly safe, that she could surface for air at any time. Eventually Aaron would let her go. He’d just said that he needed her. If he killed her, he wouldn’t succeed.
Even so, she felt the panic rising as her lungs pinched, desperate for air. Her thoughts went fuzzy, fear creeping in until she couldn’t focus on anything else.
She grabbed his wrist with both hands, instinct forcing her to fight. His arm was rock-hard under her grip, solid and unmovable. Despite knowing that it was futile, she yanked and pulled, trying to pry his hand off her throat. Maybe he really will kill me this time.
Just as her vision started to go dark around the edges, Aaron let go of her throat. Bending at the waist as far as her seat belt would allow, Alice sucked in deep breaths that rasped her throat and made her cough.
“What do you mean?” Her voice was hoarse and breathless as she forced herself to straighten, and she wished she were better at faking nonchalance. It felt like weakness to show her brother how much he’d hurt her.
“According to my sources, Logan is gaining something of a bad reputation with the California ladies.” His mouth curled up at the corner—a mouth that looked just like Alice’s. She hated that they looked so much alike, hated seeing bits of him when she looked in the mirror.
“What kind of bad reputation?” Her hands wanted to rub at her aching throat and rest against her swelling cheek, but she forced them to stay in her lap. This was important. She had to get all the information she could from Aaron. The more she knew, the easier it would be to figure out how to avoid falling in with his plan.
He waved a hand in a dismissive gesture, and Alice flinched before she could catch herself. “That doesn’t matter. What does matter is that his dad—Judd—and the rest of the Jovanovics are sick of spending money paying off these women, not to mention the doctors and judges.”
“Paying off doctors and judges?” Her stomach twisted as she tried to process his words. “Why? Did he hurt those women?”
“I said it doesn’t matter.”
Alice dropped her gaze, trying to force her brain past the idea that Logan—the same creep who’d just sat next to her all through dinner, who had touched her multiple times—had abused women in some way. He’d done something awful enough that the Jovanovics had been willing to pay off his victims and bribe the authorities. She swallowed, her sore throat complaining. “What do Logan’s…issues have to do with me?”
“The Jovanovics are hoping he’ll settle down with a nice woman.” He smiled, and it was terrible. “Someone that will keep him home, away from opportunistic whores.”
Her pulse was going wild again. Aaron’s plan was a simple one, but Alice was still having a hard time putting it together in her mind. It was just too horrific. “You…” she finally stammered. “You want me to date Logan?”
“No.” For a second, his answer made her sag with relief, but Aaron wasn’t finished. “You’re going to marry him.”
Chapter 2
Ever since that night, Alice had been waiting for rescue—hoping for it, praying desperately for it even as she searched for another way to escape. The days ticked by, and she fought to hold on to hope, keeping alert for any hint that her unknown friend had finally come through. When the first sign of rescue came, however, it took a form she hadn’t expected.
She never dreamed they’d blow up her house.
The explosion knocked her out of bed, startling her out of an uneasy doze. Her insides felt battered, hurting more than her elbow or head where they’d connected with the hardwood floor. Her brain ran through crazy, illogical explanations—it had been an earthquake or a kick from Aaron or a poltergeist that had sent her flying.
She pushed up to her hands and knees while trying to sort out her thoughts. All the chaos made it hard, though. Alarms blared, shrill and ear-piercing, competing with shouts and heavy, running feet. Suddenly, it hit her—was this it? Was this the escape the note had promised?
Even as Alice climbed to her feet, she hesitated. What if this wasn’t part of the plan? What if the house was on fire, and Alice was about to be burned to death because she’d waited for some mysterious savior to arrive? She sniffed. There was the smell of smoke hanging in the air, but it wasn’t heavy—not yet, at least.
Either way, if it was a disaster or if someone had come to help her escape, she needed to be ready to run. Alice hurried over to the closet. Ever since she’d found the note, she’d been preparing for this. Shoving aside designer dresses hung on satin-lined hangers, Alice grabbed a full backpack and the stack of clothes that were sitting at the very back of her enormous closet. She yanked on jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt, topping it off with a black hoodie while jamming her feet into hiking shoes.
Heaving the pack onto her back, she hurried out of the enormous closet, not feeling a single pang for all the expensive clothes she was leaving behind. They’d been chosen for her by her father and, over the past few years, her brother. To her, the clothes were just costly prison uniforms.
Back in her bedroom, Alice hesitated again, still not sure if she should try to escape or wait for someone to arrive. The smoke was thicker, and the voices were more urgent, although still muted, blocked by at least one level and the heavy door to her room. She moved to try the door, but it was locked from the outside, as always. Every night, from ten until six in the morning, she was bolted into her room.
Her already thrumming heartbeat picked up even more. What if her unknown friend didn’t realize that she was locked in? What if they’d only been offering a distraction, an opportunity, and this was it? She could be missing the only chance she’d have to slip away
, to escape from her brother and Logan and a future that was heartbreakingly close to her present.
Someone knocked.
Dropping her hand from the handle, Alice backed away, staring at the door in horror. Who was it—friend or foe or, even worse, family? The knock came again, a sharp tap-tap-tap, and she realized with a jolt of surprise that it wasn’t coming from the door.
Whirling around, she stumbled back a step, swallowing a scream. A dark silhouette filled the window. Someone was outside, their dark-clad form just a few shades blacker than the night sky.
The lurker leaned closer, the dim light from the room illuminating his harsh features, and Alice recognized him. Shock gave way to disappointment mingled with fear. It was Mateo Espina, one of her brother’s colleagues, a man who was as firmly entrenched as Aaron in their criminal empire. Alice berated herself for building so much hope on the shaky foundation of an anonymous note. Of course there was no one willing to help her, not in her tiny world of liars and thieves and abusive assholes.
Mr. Espina tapped again. Outside her room, the alarms still shrieked, and the shouts were getting closer and louder. The man outside the window watched her, still and serious, and Alice tried to figure out what was happening. Why was he outside? If he was on her brother’s side, why sneak into her bedroom? She wondered if there was a chance, even a slight one, that Mr. Espina could be there to help her. Although she quickly shut down that thought, she moved toward the window. Mr. Espina, dressed all in black, stood on the ledge outside her window, over thirty feet from the ground.
“What do you want?” she asked.
“Didn’t you get my note?”
With the window closed and the alarms blaring, she could barely hear him, but that didn’t stop her heart from taking off at a gallop. She’d thought she’d beaten down all hope, but there it was again, trying to break through her doubt. With enormous effort, she kept her expression blank. “What note?”
