Secret Seduction (Secret Series Romance Novels)

by Jill Sanders

  They stopped and ate breakfast and had some coffee at one of the street cafes. Watching people walk by was one of the normal things Katie missed about being in larger cities.

  When they were done eating, they still had an hour before the meeting, so they spent the time walking around the stores and enjoying the scenery. Then they started heading to the larger office building they could see in the distance. The tall glass tower was a beacon in the older city with its large, bright sign that hung above the rest of the shorter, older buildings. The closer they got to the building, the more nervous Katie felt. She actually felt her hands sweat and they even shook a little.

  She knew Jason understood her and he tried multiple times to keep her mind off the meeting. He joked with her, trying to get her to think and talk about other things, but nothing was working. He’d always had a knack of keeping her mind off impending doom. Back in high school, he’d joked and made her laugh right before every test she’d had. Then he’d been there to help pick her up if she had failed, or help her celebrate if she had passed. He, of course, had always gotten A’s, no matter what class. She had struggled a little more in school. It didn’t help that she had no clue what she wanted to do after school. She’d gone through multiple career plans. Doctor, teacher, architect, lawyer, and even, at one time, a zoologist.

  Jason had always known what he wanted to be; law had been in his blood. All his hard work at school was paying off. When she’d left, he was on his last year of college.

  Now, however, she couldn’t stop thinking about what was about to happen. They were just across the street from the large building. She wanted to turn and run, with or without Jason, but then he reached over and grabbed her hand and she felt her nerves disappear.

  “I’ll be right here with you.” He smiled over at her just as they heard the squeals of tires.

  “They are at New Edges, you fools. How could you let her get this close?”

  “We know, we’ve been waiting for her here. We’re right outside; don’t worry, we’ve got her.”

  “Fine, just take care of it, and don’t mess up this time.”

  The line went dead, and he cursed and tossed the phone down. “Okay, Raul, we need to do this quick. Don’t screw it up or we’ll be out of our money.”

  Rodrick Derby sat in the lobby of New Edges next to his son, Ric. The fact that he was on enemy territory didn’t escape his attention. But he’d do anything for his kids. And no matter what Kathleen had said or done, nobody and nothing could take Katie away from him.

  She was his daughter. After all, he’d been the one who had picked her up after a spill on her bike, he’d been the one who’d been there for her her whole life, whether she’d been ill, sad, or happy.

  It had cut him deep, at first, when Katie hadn’t called him this last year. But he knew his daughter, knew that she needed time to heal. He couldn’t blame her for taking off. After all, it’s what she’d been taught to do. Every time he and Kathleen had problems in the past, they would retreat to different corners of the globe. He to Alaska on his extended fishing trips and her to Italy. Now he knew now why she had always frequented here. The two main reasons were walking towards him now.

  Seeing Damiano and Dante Cardone walk out of the glass elevators did little to calm his nerves as he waited for his daughter. The lobby of the building was fairly packed, since there were small shops on the first two floors.

  They stood and Ric shook both men’s hands, though Rodrick did not. Ric had been the first to figure out his connection with Dante. They’d worked together in Portland and he had noticed the resemblance. The connection hadn’t come to light until Ric’s had confronted his mother and forced Kathleen’s hand. Then she had called him to confess when he was on vacation in Alaska. It had been a call that he had thought had ruined his life.

  But being afraid for Katie now had made Rodrick realize he didn’t care if she wasn’t his biological child, she was his in many more ways. He’d never been more afraid than when he’d received the ransom call at his new apartment in Portland. He’d moved there to be closer to his son. After all, he’d kind of been leaning on Ric for moral support in the last year. It had been a hard blow for them both to get over. Now Rodrick didn’t give a damn about what Kathleen had done.

  Looking across the room, he noticed how Katie resembled both men and his heart sank a little. It was true. Looking at them, he could tell that his daughter was a perfect match to their gene pool. She had her father’s eyes, nose, hair, and coloring. Rodrick no longer cared about what his ex-wife had done to him, but he wanted to get his hands on her for all the years she had lied to his daughter.

  He thought of Katie, how she’d always been a daddy’s girl. Looking over at Damiano, he wondered what her life would have been like with him. Would she have been a daddy’s girl with him, too?

  “I understand that under the circumstances this is a very unusual meeting,” Damiano said in a very thick accent. “Our only concern is for the girl’s safety. Kathleen has decided to stay at home for this meeting. I’m sure Katie would like to meet her in a more private setting.”

  Rodrick almost laughed. If he knew his little girl, Katie would see her mother again when hell froze over. Then he realized, she truly was his girl; her feelings and attitude matched his so closely. She may not be his biologically, but she was his in every other way. He smiled to himself, knowing that he had made the best part of his daughter. He had actually been surprised that she had agreed to meet the Cardones at all. But he supposed she couldn’t hold her mother’s past transgressions against someone she didn’t know, much to his own thinking.

  “I trust your trip was pleasant.” Dante motioned for them to all sit again.

  Just then there was a commotion and they watched in horror as a small truck crashed through the front doors, shattering glass, and sending people scattering in all directions.

  Rodrick looked at the man driving the truck and recognized with horror that it was Jason slumped behind the wheel. Glass shards were everywhere around him and he was bleeding from the cuts to his face and hands, as the horn blasted continually. He looked around for his daughter as he rushed to Jason’s side.

  “Jason!” He shook the boy until he saw with relief that his eyes opened.

  “They grabbed her, in the white van.” Jason said.

  Ric and Dante both looked up as a white van turned the corner at a very high speed. Then they looked at each other and took off running in the same direction.

  Dante yelled, “I’ll drive.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Katie was fighting for her life. She remembered being grabbed off the street. The van hadn’t even slowed down when arms had reached out and plucked her from the sidewalk. Jason’s hand had been ripped from hers, almost yanking her arm out of its socket. She was pushed into the van and held down with a vile smelling white cloth over her mouth until darkness overcame her.

  This time she didn’t think she’d been out very long because she felt the vehicle jolt. Then she heard metal on metal and heard a horn blowing in the distance as they continued to drive.

  The men didn’t pay her any attention after the loud sounds so she lay there unmoving with her eyes closed, thinking. She hoped they assumed she was still unconscious and listened for her opportunity, any opening she might have to jump into motion. The van traveled so fast that with every corner they took, she rolled with the motion.

  They must have driven for half an hour before she felt the van slowing down. She lay there, unmoving, until she heard the door open, then she cracked open her eyes and kicked the first person she saw in the groin. When he toppled over, she jumped from the van and started running away from the vehicle. She made it a few steps only to be grabbed from behind and tossed against the back of the van. Her head snapped back against the side of the van, causing her to bite the side of her mouth so hard that she tasted blood. her head hurt.

  She faced the man whose nose was still crooked from the break Jason had given him
over a week ago. Mikolas.

  “What do you want?”

  “Well, now, looks like she played opossum on us,” he chuckled at the man who was still hunched over, holding his crotch. “Get up Raul, we have a job to do.”

  Katie watched in horror as the big man walked towards her with the same white cloth from earlier. Knowing that if he got it over her face again she might never wake up, she shouted,

  “I can pay you!” She held herself ready for a fight.

  The man stopped. “We are already getting paid,” he said, and he started walking towards her again.

  “I’ll double it,” she blurted out. Knowing she was just stalling, she tried to look around for any help. It looked like they were in the industrial part of town. She could see large warehouse buildings, and unfortunately there wasn’t anyone in sight. She knew that if she tried to take off on foot, they would just jump in the van and grab her again. She needed to get back to where there were people and she could only think of one way of doing that.

  “Well, now,” the man scratched his chin and looked down at his partner, “that would make our take four hundred thousand each.”

  Katie tried not to show the shock on her face. Someone was willing to pay these men four hundred thousand to kidnap her? And do what? Kill her? Who wanted her dead or out of the way that badly?

  She remembered the call from her family. Someone had demanded a ransom of ten million dollars. She knew that her father’s business easily made that much. Even her biological father was probably worth that much, though she didn’t know if they had called him and demanded money, as well. So whoever wanted her was trying to bleed her family out of their hard-earned money and she knew that her dad and brother would have gladly paid any price for her.

  She had never really thought about her family’s money that way before. Sure, growing up she had everything she ever needed, driven the nicest cars, had the finest clothes that she could ever possibly want, gone to the best schools. But she had her own money she had always used. For the past ten years, she’d only used her inheritance from her grandmother. She had invested it herself and she’d been smart enough with it that she had easily tripled the amount given to her.

  But in the last year, she had hardly been spending any money at all, just paying for hotels and travel.

  Now, after living the way she had been, she doubted that she would ever go back to the way she had lived before. There was something to be said about the simple life, and she’d grown accustomed to enjoying the simpler things in life.

  She knew that her only possible chance of escape would be to get them to a very public place, so she took a chance.

  “Yes, I can easily pay you double.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out her credit card. “Just get me to my bank.”

  Dante and Ric drove across town at high speeds, following the van. Ric was impressed at his half-brother’s driving abilities.

  “Don’t worry, we will get her back. I know these streets very well,” Dante said, as Ric held on to his seat. Dante took a turn quickly, trying to keep the van within sight.

  All Ric could focus on was his sister -- seeing her again, hearing her laughter, having her joke with him. He just had to get her back. Images of her flashed before his eyes. Her as a child, with no front teeth, sitting in front of the Christmas tree. Her on her horse during a riding lesson. Her in her gymnastics outfit, bending and twirling her teenage body around. Her in her Prom dress as their mother took countless pictures. Then his mind flashed to the last time he’d seen her. She’d retreated to his place in Portland for spring break. He knew she’d been hiding from someone, most likely a boy. She’d nervously been checking her phone all week for messages. Then she’d left his place early to meet up with her girlfriends in Mexico. He’d never figured out what she’d been anxious about; he’d been too busy with his own problems then.

  Now, he’d do anything to get that week back, to get his sister back. He didn’t give a damn if she was his half-sister. He’d grown up with her under his heels his entire life. All he could remember was her being there.

  He didn’t want that to change, no matter what.

  They followed the white van for almost twenty minutes before they lost it on the outskirts of the industrial park.

  “Damn it!” Dante slammed his hand against his steering wheel. “Did you see where they went?”

  “No, let’s keep looking. They have to be here somewhere.”

  They looked around, scanning the small streets as Dante slowly drove by the last place they’d seen the van.

  Dante could hardly breathe through the worry and fear he had for a sister he hadn’t even met yet. Looking over at Ric, he knew the fear in him was most likely doubled, since Ric and Katie had grown up together.

  “Go back down that last street. I think I saw something.” Ric pointed down a side street.

  Dante turned his small Audi around in one quick turn, and headed slowly back down the narrow street.

  “Stop!” Ric shouted. Dante stopped the car and they both noticed a large, empty parking lot next to an old building. Katie and two large men stood just outside the white van. One of the men was hunched over on his knees, holding his crotch.

  “That’s our sister, kick them where it counts,” Ric said, smiling.

  Dante felt an enormous sense of pride knowing that his sister had probably kicked the man in the groin.

  “I’m getting out here. I’ll circle around and try to help her. Call the cops and tell them where we are. I don’t know if they have weapons, but I need to stay out of sight until I do. I’ve been shot at once in my life and I don’t intend to let that happen again. You need to come around and try to block that gate somehow.” Ric pointed to a large fenced area. Dante noticed that the van would have to pass through it in order to leave the secured parking area.

  Ric jumped out of Dante’s car, shut the door quietly, then he ran off to circle the building.

  Dante grabbed his cellphone and quickly called his father, relaying where they were and what was going on.

  He watched as Katie argued with the larger man, and he hoped that she could keep them busy as he slowly moved his car to block the driveway with it.

  He watched as the larger man grabbed Katie’s arm and started walking her around to the front of the van, where he shoved her into the large door. Then the two men argued as the larger one pushed the smaller against the side of the vehicle. He watched as finally they started to get back into the van.

  The van pulled away and turned towards him. Dante sat there behind the wheel of his car and watched them drive closer. Where was Ric? What would he do if they stopped? When they were closer, the larger man finally saw Dante’s car blocking their way out. In the split second before Dante realized what was going to happen, he braced himself for the impact.

  Ric got out of the car and started to sprint towards the side of the large brick building.

  It seemed like just yesterday that he and Roberta had been the ones people were after. Now someone was after his baby sister and he damned well was going to make sure he got his hands on whoever was trying to hurt her.

  Just then he heard a noise and watched the van start to drive away. Rushing back over towards the gate, he watched in horror as the van crashed violently into Dante’s small Audi. It hit the driver’s side with a loud bang, and glass and plastic flew into the air. The van backed up and proceeded to ram the small sedan until the roadway was clear, then it took off down the street. Knowing the Audi was beyond drivable, he watched in horror as his sister’s face appeared in the back window. She did something then that surprised him; she held up her bank card in the back window and pointed to it.

  Rushing over to the car, he silently prayed that his half-brother was still alive. The car was mangled beyond recognition. He rushed over to the driver’s side and noticed that Dante sat with his seat belt still on. His head was rolled back and his eyes were closed. Screaming his name, he opened the door.

  Dante
woke up to Ric yelling his. His left hip and shoulder were screaming with pain and his left leg sat at an odd angle.

  “Did you get her?” Dante asked Ric.

  “Oh, thank God! You’re alive! No, damn it, they took off in the van after ramming your car out of the way, but I think I know where they’re going. Katie held up her bank card in the back window as they drove off. I think they’re taking her to the bank.”

  Dante watched as Ric reached across him and grabbed the cell phone that was sitting in the seat next to him.

  “Dad?” Ric yelled while holding his hand on a large cut on Dante’s leg, trying to stifle the bleeding, “No, they’re heading to the bank. Katie held up her credit card. I think it was her International Bank Card. She was trying to tell us where they were going.” He waited. “Yeah, okay, send an ambulance to our location. They rammed Dante’s car – No, he’s awake – broken leg, possibly his shoulder.” His conversation was choppy, as he answered his father’s questions.