Over the heads of the people, I caught sight of Hannah on stage. She looked cool in a retro t-shirt with some band from the nineties scrawled over the front, her dark hair shaved in an under-cut, holding her guitar. She was far cooler than I could ever hope to be, and I wondered at times if maybe she thought having the daughter of a serial killer as her best friend added to her edginess.
We caught each other’s eye across the room, and she gave me a grin. I lifted my hand in a wave, and then wound through the people to find a spot at the bar. I ordered a bottle of beer from the bartender and perched myself on a stool to watch the rest of Hannah’s set. Several men scooted up closer to me, trying to catch my eye, most likely to offer to buy me a drink, but I relentlessly ignored them.
The band reached the end of their set, and everyone cheered, hollering and clapping. The band ducked their heads in thanks then lifted their instruments into the air before making their way off stage. Hannah disappeared out the back, taking her guitar with her. I figured she’d be freshening up and then would come and join me for a drink.
Several minutes passed with no sign of her. I spotted Jonny, one of the guys she played with, but couldn’t see Hannah anywhere around.
“Hey, Jonny.” I jumped down from my bar stool. “Where’s Hannah?”
He looked around and shrugged. “Hi, Jolie. I dunno. She was here a minute ago. She went out the back to grab her stuff from the office, but I thought she’d come back out with us.”
“Okay, thanks. If you see her, tell her I’m looking for her.”
I fished my cell phone out of my purse and checked it for any missed calls. The screen was blank. I fired off a quick text.
Where are you?
Weaving my way through the people, I spotted a doorway on the side of the stage. A black curtain hung over the front, but there didn’t seem to be any security around telling people they weren’t allowed through. I checked around again to make sure I hadn’t missed Hannah, and then pushed my way through the curtain and into the back passage beyond.
The lighting was brighter back here than it had been in the bar, and the place stank of stale beer and old cigarette smoke.
“Hannah?”
My voice sounded too loud in the sudden quiet, and my ears rang with tinnitus after the noise of the band. What was Hannah doing back here, if she even was here? A couple of doors led off the passage, and I debated taking one.
A muffled cry came from somewhere nearby.
“Hannah?”
Alarm ricocheted my heartrate, and I picked up my pace. Had that been her, or was it just a coincidence?
“Hannah?” I called out again, my voice louder this time.
A scuffle from behind one of the doors came in response. The door looked as though it led outside, perhaps onto the back alley at the rear of the building. A fire exit sign was positioned above it, and a metal bar across the middle of the door acted as a handle.
I didn’t even pause to wonder if pushing through the door would set off the alarms. If Hannah needed my help, I wasn’t going to worry about a little embarrassment. Hannah was always getting hounded by creeps after her gigs, and I was angry at Jonny and the others for not sticking with her and making sure she was all right.
I burst through the door to find myself in the alley outside. A couple of dumpsters were on the left of the dimly lit space, but I couldn’t see any sign of Hannah. Of course, I was now holding the door open, so there was a chance I’d find her on the other side of it.
I stepped farther into the alley, allowing the door to start to close behind me.
Movement came out of the shadows, and I stifled a scream.
It wasn’t Hannah who came into view, but the dark hair and square jaw of the suited man who’d questioned me earlier that night. Now he was standing, I could see my impression of him being tall had been correct. He was easily six feet two, towering over my tiny frame. His suit must have been made to fit him, as it hugged his massive chest and wide shoulders. But it wasn’t so much his size that stole my breath, but the beauty of his face. Even in the dim light, the color of his eyes—green with golden flecks around the irises—drew me in, and his mouth, with its pouty lower lip made me want to reach up and touch him.
Confusion threw my fight or flight instincts off base. “You?”
What was he doing here?
Then I noticed he wasn’t alone. Hannah was slumped against the wall behind him, sitting with her backside on the dirty ground, her chin against her chest as though she’d suddenly decided to take a nap.
“Hannah!”
The realization I was in a dangerous situation suddenly shot through me. Though I wanted to help my friend, I automatically spun back around, planning to lunge back through the door and into the bar.
But I wasn’t fast enough. The man jumped for me, his arm wrapped around my body, his other hand across my mouth. At first I assumed it was to stop me from screaming, but then I realized he held some kind of rag and then a sweet-chemically smell filled my nostrils.
I struggled against him, trying to cry out and praying someone would come out and find us. But even as I struggled, the world swam around me, and my limbs no longer complied with what I was telling them. My thoughts became muddled, and the fight seeped out of me.
“Don’t worry,” he growled into my ear as he pressed his rock-hard body up against the back of mine. “I’m not interested in your friend. It’s you I want.”
Chapter Three
She was already starting to piss me off, and we hadn’t even gotten out of the city yet.
My private jet waited for me at a small airstrip. I had enough people on my payroll to know when to turn their backs, and I’d bribed a number of officials, but I still had to be cautious. Once we were in the air, I could relax a fraction—as much as I ever managed to relax—but from here to the airport would spell disaster if I was pulled over.
Though a large sum of money was normally enough to get people to look the other way, sometimes you came across a do-gooder who couldn’t help but try to interfere.
I’d given the girl enough chloroform to have knocked her out for at least a couple of hours, and yet already the little bitch was coming around. I knew this from the way her feet kept kicking the back of the rear seats from inside the trunk where I’d thrown her. She was zipped up inside a suit bag, which was how I planned on carrying her onto the plane without anyone who wasn’t in my employment asking too many questions, and I knew she wasn’t getting out any time soon, but that didn’t stop me gritting my teeth every time her feet thumped against the seat.
I leaned over to raise the privacy screen between myself and my driver, Henry. The other man didn’t know what I’d thrown into the trunk, and he knew better than to ask questions, but I had enough respect for the man to not have to subject him to the telltale thuds.
With a sigh, I peeled off my leather gloves. It wouldn’t have done any good to leave my prints everywhere, not when they found the other girl. She wouldn’t remember what had happened, only a hand across her face, and then waking in the back alley. She wouldn’t even know Jolie had been there.
I was lucky Jolie Dorman was only a slip of a thing. It made it far easier to suppress her. I was physically strong, however—a strength honed by four weekly sessions in my home gym—so even if she’d been larger, I’d have still been able to subdue her.
There was still traffic on the road at this time of night, but it was less than it had been during the day. As we drove out of the city and toward the small airstrip, the traffic grew lighter still.
I was going to have to quiet the girl down before we even attempted to get on the plane, which meant stopping again before we reached the airport. That hadn’t been part of my plan, and I didn’t like to change my plans. It pissed me off.
Leaning across, I wound down the divider again. “Can you pull over? Make it somewhere away from prying eyes.”
Henry nodded. “Yes, sir.”
We entered a small underpass, a
nd he pulled the car over. Henry moved to open the driver’s door to come and open mine, but I was already climbing out. “No need,” I told him. “Stay where you are.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Pop the trunk for me, though, Henry.”
I rounded the back of the vehicle, and the trunk opened with an internal clunk. A quick glance to either side told me no one was paying us any attention. I just looked like a businessman who needed to get something out of the trunk. I’d done up the zipper of the bag with a small padlock, so I took the key from my pocket and undid it before I was able to unzip the bag. I already knew which end her head was located, so I didn’t need to unzip the whole thing. Just enough to get to her face.
I unzipped the bag to reveal wide, dark blue eyes staring back at me. She’d been crying, and her mascara had run, creating black tracks down her pale cheeks. She stared up at me in horror. I imagined she felt like shit. The chloroform had probably given her a killer of a headache. I’d had to tape her mouth, though I hadn’t wanted to do so in case she was sick. The last thing I wanted was for her to die on me. How was I going to use her if that happened?
From my pocket, I withdrew a small bottle of chloroform and the piece of cloth I’d used to knock her unconscious. Chloroform evaporated fast, so I needed to give her a fresh dose. Perhaps that was why she hadn’t stayed unconscious long enough—too much had evaporated before I’d had the chance to use it. It wasn’t as though I went around kidnapping women on a day-to-day basis. I’d done my research, but I didn’t exactly have experience.
Her eyes widened as I reached down and tore the tape from one side of her mouth. Before she got the chance to shout out, I covered her nose and lips with the hand holding the newly doused chloroform rag. She bucked and squirmed inside the bag, but her hands were taped behind her back, and there was nothing she could do to get free.
I held myself stock-still, every muscle in my body rigid as I stared down at her. She really was beautiful. I’d already thought so from the photographs I’d seen of her, but in the flesh she seemed even lovelier.
Or maybe it was that she was tied up and with mascara tracks down her face that made her more enticing.
My cock stirred in my pants, and I pressed myself closer to the edge of the trunk, increasing the pressure. There was nothing I could do about it now—I wasn’t about to get back in the car and start masturbating—but I couldn’t quite help myself.
Only a matter of a minute passed before she fell still again and her eyes slipped shut. I removed the cloth from her face and stared down at her for a moment. A lock of golden-brown hair had fallen over her cheek in the struggle, so I swept it away with the back of my fingers. Her full, pink lips were parted and, without even thinking, I found myself dragging my thumb over her bottom lip, tugging it down gently before releasing.
Did she look like her father? Was I attracted to her in the same way she’d been attracted to him? She was fifty percent his blood, after all. They were both like that type of mantis that looked like an orchid, luring in its insect prey right before it killed them.
Dragging myself away, I snatched my hand from her face and zipped the bag back up. It was dangerous to look at her too long.
I slammed down the trunk then slid back into the rear seat of the car.
“Everything okay, sir?” Henry asked, looking at me in the rearview mirror.
“Everything is fine,” I replied, giving him a curt nod.
I hit the button to slide the privacy screen back up, preferring to be left alone with the image of the pretty brunette I had tied up in the trunk of the car.
Within twenty minutes, we’d reached the small, private airstrip.
One thing plenty of money bought was privacy and an ability to skip regular protocol. I didn’t need to worry about going through security, but instead was able to take a different entrance to the hangar where my plane waited.
The car pulled up beside the aircraft. The steps were already down, waiting for me.
Henry climbed out of the driver’s seat and opened the door for me. I got out and went to the trunk.
“Allow me, sir,” he offered.
“No, that’s fine. I’ve got it.”
It was dark, though the airstrip’s flood lamps offered some light. Not that I minded the darkness. It meant that anyone who saw me wouldn’t get too much of an idea that the suit bag I was able to sling over my shoulder contained anything more than what it was supposed to. Of course, anyone who was close up would recognize immediately that it was far heavier than a regular suit, but I only allowed those on my payroll to get that close to me.
Leaning over the trunk, I slid both hands beneath where her torso would be, if it weren’t hidden by the bag. She barely weighed anything at all as I lifted her out and then shifted my hold on her to throw her over my shoulder.
Henry stepped forward to slam the lid of the trunk shut.
Leaving both the driver and car, I turned toward the plane. I didn’t want to waste any time moving her between the car and the aircraft. This was the point where I might be interrupted by someone who wasn’t so easy to bribe, and then things could get messy.
But all remained quiet. I trotted up the stairs toward the interior of the plane, balancing the girl over my shoulder. Once we were on the aircraft and in the air, I’d be able to remove the bag, if I chose to. It wasn’t as though anyone would be able to question me when we were forty thousand feet in the air.
“Mr. Vale.” The pilot, Javier, nodded at me as I boarded. “Good to have you on board.”
“Thank you.”
My driver, Henry, followed me up the steps, carrying the rest of my bags. He’d be traveling with us. I didn’t have quite as much use for him at home as I did here, but he made himself useful around the property, and it meant he was always on hand when I did need him. He’d sit up front with the pilot, however, giving me my privacy.
I had my name ‘Hayden Vale’ etched onto the backs of the wide leather seats of the aircraft. Vale Enterprises was synonymous for quality, and I was happy to be considered somewhat of a recluse. People put it down to my tragic childhood, and maybe it was in part due to that, but it was also because I was putting everything in place to do the one thing I’d planned for my whole life.
Revenge.
The money, the properties, the private planes—they all meant one thing. That I was able to do what I was doing now, and no one was going to question me.
My private jet. My private island. My private life.
See what I did there?
Everything about me was private, and I’d worked my ass off for the last ten years to make sure that was the case.
I carried the girl to the back of the plane and dumped her down in the rear seats. Once we were in the air, I’d look at undoing the bag, but until then, she could stay as she was.
“Ten minutes until takeoff,” Javier said, closing the door.
I took my seat. There were eight seats in total, each one made of the most expensive leather, with no concern for leg room or being forced to sit too close to a fellow passenger. Of course, the only fellow passenger I had was currently unconscious on the chair behind me, so I didn’t need to worry about making small talk.
The plane’s engine roared around me, and I buckled myself in.
There would be at least a couple of hours until we reached our destination, and I wondered if the girl would wake before we got there.
A part of me hoped she did.
Chapter Four
My head throbbed as I hovered somewhere between sleep and waking.
Pain pulsed in a steady rhythm behind my eyeballs. What had happened? I remembered being at the bar to watch Hannah’s band play, but after that...? I couldn’t put the pieces together. It felt as though I was trying to remember a dream that I should be able to recall, and yet the more I tried, the more it slipped away.
Had I gotten drunk at the bar? Was that why I couldn’t remember? I wasn’t a big drinker, but was happy to have a
couple. I’d bought a beer but didn’t remember having any more. Could someone have slipped something in my drink?
The idea made my stomach lurch, something about the possibility resonating with me.
The air around me was hot and stuffy, and I suddenly became aware of something over my mouth. Automatically, I tried to yank whatever it was off, but my arms wouldn’t move. Alarm spiked through me, and I shot from sleepy semi-consciousness to wide awake.
Darkness surrounded me. I thrashed and wriggled, but it did no good. There was tape across my mouth, and my hands were tied behind my back. It all came back to me in a rush, and I recalled seeing the man outside the back of the club, and Hannah sprawled against the wall. And I remembered a flash of lying in a car trunk with the same man standing over me, looking down at me with something unreadable in his green eyes.
Oh, God. I’d been kidnapped, and I had no idea why.
My breathing grew frantic, taking little snatches in through my nose, and my entire body shook in terror. I needed to get a hold on my panic to try and think clearly, but it was easier said than done. Was I still in the trunk of the car? An engine hummed around me, but it sounded too loud for a car. What else could it be?
I didn’t even want to think about the possibility I’d been put on a plane. But the longer I lay there, trying not to freak out, even though internally I was more than freaking the fuck out, I couldn’t help but acknowledge that was exactly what it sounded like. The ride was too smooth for a car—no swerves or bumps in the road—and it didn’t have the lift and fall of being on a boat. Not only that, I had pain in my ears from the change in pressure.
Tears slid down my cheeks, and I gave in to them, curling over and sobbing best I could with the tape still over my mouth. Snot ran from my nose, making it hard to breathe, and I didn’t even care. Whatever the man had used to drug me had left me nauseated, but I couldn’t succumb to the sickness. Doing so could end up with me choking to death on my own vomit, and I didn’t even want to think about what a horrible death that would be.
Shattered Hearts: A Dark Romance (Bad Blood Book 1) Page 2
