by Cali MacKay
Pacing the floor, his nerves jagged and raw, he hung up with the police and got ready to call Wyatt—when he thought twice about it. Wyatt had a lot on his plate, and at this point, Keane still had to wait for the cops to show up. There was little Wyatt could do to help at the moment, so Keane would leave it for a little while, at any rate.
Hadley…hopefully she could find something out. He placed the call, trying not to fucking lose it, trying not to put his fist through a wall. She answered the phone immediately, and listened to him as he told her everything he knew in a panicked ramble. “I know…stay calm. Easier said than done. Yeah, I’ll have the cops call you. I appreciate it…I can have a car waiting for you at the airport.”
Hadley was going to fly in to help hands-on, while her team tried to circle in on Sirius’s location. Maybe see if he’d rented any vehicles, or homes, or if he’d booked a room somewhere. With him being overseas, he might make mistakes, might have less options available to him, since he was away from what was familiar.
Keane tried to think of what he could do next, and was at a loss, his mind racing and refusing to settle. He felt so helpless, and it was killing him. He didn’t even know where to start looking for her. Didn’t even know how the fuck that bastard had managed to take her away. Sirius’s information—he quickly jotted down everything he knew about the fucking bastard, so the cops would have it. He couldn’t afford any delays, couldn’t afford any mistakes.
By the time the two cops showed up, he was climbing the fucking walls with worry. There were two of them, a man and woman, both looking serious. The woman made the introductions and seemed to be the one in charge. “Name’s Burke, and this is Ward. May we come in?”
He let them in and showed the cops to the living room. Ward wandered about the room, while Burke took a seat and urged him to do the same, since he was pacing the floor. “I’d gone down the road to get us fish and chips and when I returned, she was gone. They took longer than I’d hoped to get the food cooked, but even then, she was only left alone for about forty minutes.”
“And you said she has a stalker? And there’s a good chance he—is it a man?—managed to track you here from overseas?” Burke pulled out her notepad and jotted down some notes, glancing over at her partner, as he checked the windows and then continued wandering around the room.
“She’s a well-known author, and though she writes under a pen name, the guy found out her real name and where she lives. He was in her home, and it was too risky for her to stay there, so she moved in with me. But when he eventually tracked her to my place, we decided to come here to Dublin to stay with my brother.” He ran a rough hand through his hair, wondering what he could have done differently to keep her safe.
“And your relationship—you’re a couple?” When he nodded, she continued. “Have you been together long?”
“Yes—and no. We’d been together in the past, and recently got back together. But I’m not the one you need to be looking at. Her stalker is obsessed with her. His name’s Ash Sullivan, although he also goes by the name Sirius. He’s some sort of computer whiz and has managed to cover his tracks fairly well.”
Keane handed the cop Hadley’s business card and the paper with the info he’d jotted down on Sirius. He then forced himself to take a deep breath, trying to calm himself so he could keep a clear head, so he could focus on the task. “I’ve been working with a security company to try to track him down—that’s everything I have on him so far. The security company might have more details, but hopefully this will be enough to get you started. And spare no expense. I’ll pay for whatever you need, whatever it takes, to make sure we find Lilly safe and sound.”
Burke had him run through the details of the evening, and he explained how he’d returned to find the shower still running, the rugs messed up, and Lilly gone. While they talked, Ward went through the rest of the home and then returned to join them. “There doesn’t appear to be any visible point of entry. You said the security system was turned on?”
Bastard… He must have found a way to override it. “Yeah, I know for a fact that it was turned on, because I waited to hear the beep of the alarm setting. But the guy’s good with computers, some sort of hacker…”
“It could be simpler than that. The front door is fine, but the back door has plenty of glass surrounding it—and the security keypad is visible from certain angles. No dead bolts on the back door either. If this guy’s been watching the house, then there’s a good chance he saw one of you punch in the code when you used that door, and then just picked the lock open.”
“Fucking hell…” Something so stupidly simple. They hadn’t even thought of it, and since Wyatt’s car was usually parked back there, it was definitely an entrance that got a bit of use. “You need to help me find her. She’s in danger. You have to do something.”
“We’re going to do all we can.”
***
After several attempts to contact Wyatt, Keane opted to just go to the club to let his brother know what was going on, especially since he was going to fucking lose it if he was forced to just wait at the loft alone. He should have never left Lilly alone. Not for a goddamned fucking minute. And he should have done more…gotten her a security detail…some sort of panic button…a GPS tracker. Fuck!
Luckily, Keane knew one of the managers at the front of the club, and was immediately told to go through and that Wyatt could be found in his office at the back of the club and up the stairs. In the state Keane was in, he barely noticed the thumping of the music or the scantily clad attendees as he found his way to the stairs and took them up to Wyatt’s office. He quickly knocked, and then went to let himself in, too impatient to wait, but found it locked. He pounded again, fighting the urge to kick the door in, just to try to vent some of his anger—when it opened.
Wyatt stepped out into the hall, and pulled the door closed behind him. Keane immediately knew that something was most definitely wrong despite the tense smile on Wyatt’s face, which was fooling no one. “Hey. Glad you could make it. I’m just wrapping up some business, but I can meet you guys downstairs in the executive lounge. Where’s Lilly? Is she downstairs?”
“No. Sirius has her. He’s fucking taken her, Wyatt. I spoke with the police and they’re going to check security cameras and try to find him, find where he’s taken her, but fuck…I can’t just sit there and do nothing.” It was killing him. The thought of losing Lilly was doing him in, though worse still was imagining what that fucking bastard might be doing to her.
“Fuck, Keane…” Wyatt shook his head and glanced over his shoulder at his office. “Go home, and as soon as I’m able, I’ll head over.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Something was definitely up. “What the hell’s going on, Wyatt?”
“Fuck, I’m sorry—but I can’t talk right now. Just go back to the loft. I swear, I’ll be there shortly. I just can’t…” The way Wyatt’s gaze kept shifting only added to the worry, stress, and anger raging through him.
Keane didn’t know what the fuck was going on, and at this point, if Wyatt didn’t want to tell him, then he didn’t care. Lilly was his priority. “I’ll be at your place—or fucking wandering the streets looking for Lilly—not that you can be bothered right now.”
“Keane.”
But he’d already turned around and was jogging down the stairs, even as his brother continued to call out to him.
Lilly…she was all that mattered.
Chapter 23
“I need to go to the bathroom. You need to uncuff me. Now, damn it.” Lilly knew she should be scared, but instead she was incensed.
“You know, Princess…the thing I like most about your characters is that the women are always so feisty. I wondered if you would be too—if they were just a reflection of you—and now I see that I was right.” Sirius ran a finger down her cheek as his eyes went wide with excitement.
“What? And you think you’re up to the challenge of being one of my heroes?” She threw her head back an
d laughed. “Not even close. Only a coward kidnaps a woman, stalks her, threatens her—doesn’t let her go to the goddamned fucking bathroom.”
When she glared at him, holding his gaze and refusing to show any fear, he looked away. “Fine—you can go to the bathroom.”
Sirius stood and pulled the key out of the back pocket of his jeans, and then straddled her as he unlocked one handcuff and then the other, though it left her pinned and struggling under his weight. “Get off me.”
He grabbed her face, squeezing her cheeks hard enough for the soft flesh to dig into her teeth. “Princess…let me make something clear. You are not the one in control here. I am. And I may be in love with you, but I’m not an idiot. Far from it. So it’d be in your best interest not to piss me off or try anything stupid. You won’t like the consequences.”
Furious, she shifted her head and bit down on the fleshy part of his hand between his thumb and forefinger, sinking her teeth in as hard as she could. He screamed out and yanked his hand away, but as he did so, he shifted off her just enough for her to sit up and head-butt him with all her might, aiming for his nose. The pain from the collision nearly had her blacking out, stars and white light shooting across her vision, along with a pain she’d never felt before.
But she had to act now, had to get away while she could. Shoving him as hard as she could, she fisted the loose cuff, the other side still attached to her wrist, and swiped at his face, ripping a gash open across his cheek with the metal.
And then he punched her, his fist catching the side of her head so it snapped to the side, her vision going black and her head swimming. The next punch landed in her gut, doubling her over as she gasped for breath and nearly vomited, her ribs feeling like they were broken into pieces. Her head was still reeling when he cuffed her back to the bed.
“You forget—I met your ex while I was in prison, and managed to make it out of there in one piece. So if you think I don’t know how to take care of myself, you can guess again.” He touched his fingers to the gash on his face and then glared at her, his eyes narrowing with anger. “I was hoping we could go about this the nice way, but now I see that I was mistaken. So we’ll try a different method.”
“You’re fucking insane.” The metal cuffs cut into her wrists as she futilely struggled against them in her frustration. “Keane’s going to rip you to pieces when he gets here.”
“The only way he’ll find us is if I let him. But trust me, Princess—you don’t want him to come sniffing around. Not if you have any feelings for him. It’ll be much safer for him if he just stays away and forgets about you. If not, I’m liable to make you watch while I gut him open like a fish.” The menace in his voice sent a chill down her spine, because she had no doubt Sirius was crazy enough to hurt Keane.
“Please…don’t do this. Just let me go.” She hated having to plead with him, but she had to get free before he did something to Keane or hurt her far worse than he already had. The thought of Keane coming to harm because of her left her feeling shattered.
“Why would I do that when the fun hasn’t even started?” Propping himself up with a hand on either side of her, he lowered his body to hers as he shifted between her legs, forcing her to fight back her panic as she felt his arousal through his jeans, pressing against her core.
She was still naked below the blanket he’d tossed over her, and with her struggles, it had shifted so it barely covered her, her situation even more precarious than before. When he leaned in to kiss her, she turned her face away, repulsed at the thought of sharing something so intimate and loving with someone who was terrorizing her. But she had to pull it together. She couldn’t panic, or let her fears and emotions get the better of her.
Fighting him hadn’t worked, and she knew she needed to try a different tactic before things got a hell of a lot worse. “I don’t even know your real name… How do you expect me to feel comfortable around you when you haven’t told me anything about you?”
He looked at her with a curious smile, his mood shifting to something just a little more amiable. And if she could just keep that up, if she could get him to lower his defenses, then maybe it’d buy her enough time for Keane and Wyatt to find her. “I suppose it can’t hurt to tell you now. My real name is Ash. What else did you want to know, Princess?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know anything about you.” And maybe if she got him to open up to her, he’d be kinder. She had no doubt which direction things were heading in, but if she could get him to slow down, she might be able to keep him at bay. And just maybe, she’d get lucky and find a way out of there, especially if he intended on harming Keane. “Where did you grow up? What do you like to do?” When not stalking poor women.
He pursed his lips in thought, as if wondering if she really cared. “I grew up in California, but ended up heading east to New York for college. As for what I like to do, I suppose I’ve always been a bit of a loner. Like to fix things and take things apart. Computers, primarily. And of course, I love reading your books.”
She didn’t dare ask how he ended up in prison. And frankly, she wasn’t sure if she could deal with it if he’d been locked up for something violent. It would undermine any courage she might be able to summon. “What about your family? Any brothers or sisters?”
He scowled at her as he sat back, kneeling between her legs, and leaving her grateful for the distance he’d just put between them. “There’s nothing there that you need to know about. Am I making myself clear?”
“Yeah…of course. Believe me—I get it.” It wasn’t as if she’d had an amazing family life, save for her stepmom, but she was also happy to exaggerate her situation if it got him to somehow relate to her. “Being abandoned by one parent, and then the other, wasn’t exactly my idea of a fun childhood. It sucked to know no one cared enough to give a shit.”
He must have seen the truth in her eyes, because his anger with her dissipated and his shoulders relaxed. “I didn’t realize… You feel so alone with that sort of thing, you know?”
“Yeah, I do know. You grow up holding onto your secrets, not wanting your friends, your classmates to know that your life is nothing like the perfect life they’re lucky enough to have.” Lilly let out a sigh, not really wanting to discuss her crappy childhood. Her stepmom had done the best she could—and she’d truly loved her like her own—but there was always the feeling that she hadn’t been good enough, and that’s why her own flesh and blood had left her behind.
“Don’t you see, Lilly? We’re meant to be together—and I’m sorry I hit you. That was inexcusable.” He ran his hand down her cheek as she tried not to cringe at his touch.
But when his hand continued down her neck and over her chest, she had to force herself not to scream. He hooked the blanket with his fingers, pulling it down as his hand trailed between her breasts, until she was fully exposed from the waist up. “Please, don’t, Ash…not after what Dylan put me through…”
“I’m nothing like Dylan, Princess. But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to make the most of the time we have together.” Ash cupped her breast and pinched her nipple as he trailed kisses down her neck, her tears escaping as she struggled to get away from his touch and shake him loose.
“I fucking hate you—and if you touch me against my will, then you’re exactly like Dylan.” She had to find a way to stop him, had to find a way to keep him from raping her, because she swore she wouldn’t survive it. Maybe if… “Where the hell is the romance? What happened to being wooed? To getting to know each other first?”
He wiped her tears, looking like he was mulling over her words. “I hate to see you crying, Lilly…and you may hate me now, but I promise you, you’ll come around. I’ll make sure of it—and then…maybe then we’ll have time for a bit of romance. Once you no longer have the will to fight.”
Chapter 24
Keane was climbing the walls of the loft, the holes in the wall bearing the evidence of his frustration and helplessness. He couldn’t stand to think of what Lilly
might be going through, and the thought of that fucking head-case touching her was doing him in. He was a fucking mess, furious and ready to tear the bastard to pieces with his bare hands. If only he could find him.
The cops still didn’t have anything, though they reassured him that they had a few leads they were tracking down, and Hadley was en route while her team coordinated with the Dublin police. He grabbed his laptop and a stiff whiskey, and sat down to see what more he could find out about this guy, his hands all but shaking with the tension of his anger and worry.
By the time Wyatt walked in a half hour later, Keane was on his third whiskey, and had found little to make him feel better about Lilly being with Ash Sullivan. The guy had a troubling history of stalking and assault, and Keane was damned if he knew where to find the bastard.
Wyatt dropped his keys on the counter as Keane stood to get another drink. Wyatt’s eyes shifted to the new holes in his wall, but he was smart enough not to say anything. “Hey—any news on Lilly?”
“Now you fucking care?” Keane was pissed off at Wyatt, even if he knew Wyatt probably had a lot going on with the club opening. And that would have been fine if it was just him who’d needed him. But it wasn’t. It was Lilly.
“Fuck, Keane… You know Lilly means the world to me and I’m worried to death for her. But I swear, I couldn’t get away—and believe me when I tell you that I would have if I could. But…there have been some…complications with the club.” If Keane hadn’t been so pissed off, he might have noticed for more than a second that Wyatt was looking truly stressed out and worried about what was happening, and that really wasn’t like his calm and collected brother.
“I get it, Wyatt. Something’s up with your business. But for fuck’s sake…this is Lilly’s life. Her well-being. That fucking psychopath stole her out of the goddamned shower, and I don’t know where the hell she is. I don’t know what the fuck he’s doing to her.” He paced the floor, resisting the urge to put his fist through the wall again.
