by Tia Siren
I groaned. “What do I do?”
She sighed and headed for the living room, carrying the bottle of wine with her. I followed behind, knowing she would give me solid advice.
I sat down on the overstuffed couch while she took a seat on the settee across from me.
“I think—and don’t get mad at me for this—I think I believe Dylan.”
“What! You’re joking, right?”
She shook her head. “No, I’m not. I think he was looking out for you.”
“How can you think that? You don’t even know him,” I argued.
“You’ve told me about him, and I can tell by the way you talk about him that you tend to believe him too. You like him.”
“I do not.”
She laughed. “Whatever. We’ll worry about that later. Right now, let’s talk about what you’re going to do. I think you need to at least consider what Dylan said.”
“I can’t believe you! I can’t trust him. Be real.”
“Um, sweetie, you were the one who infiltrated his company and spied on him. You lied to him. You both lied. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t at least listen to him now. This is big. I don’t think he would make it all up. How does it benefit him to make up a story about your father? Seriously, Kendall, he’s at the top of the food chain in this equation.”
She had a point. “I cannot believe my father would do that. I don’t want to believe it.”
“I’m only asking you to take a step back and think about what he said.”
I shook my head, feeling betrayed by my best friend. “It doesn’t make sense. I thought you were my friend.”
“I am your friend, which is why I’m asking you to at least consider what he said.”
I opened my mouth to argue, stopping when I heard a knock on the door.
“Are you expecting someone?”
Vanessa shook her head. “No. Could it be Dylan?”
“No. Why would it be? He doesn’t know where you live.”
The person knocked again.
Vanessa got up and went to look out the peephole. She turned back to me and shrugged her shoulders.
“I don’t know who it is,” she whispered. “It’s some guy.”
I quickly jumped up and looked out to see if I recognized the man. I didn’t.
“Open the damn door!” the man called. “I want to talk to Kendall. I know she’s in there!” he shouted.
My eyes nearly popped out of my head. “What do I do?” I hissed.
“Hide!”
“Where?” I asked, my eyes darting around the room.
“Closet, in my room. Get behind the garment bags,” she said, waving her hand in the general direction.
I ran down the short hall of her two-bedroom apartment, racing into her room and throwing open the large closet. I shut the door behind me and pushed my way through the clothes to the row of garment bags that held some of her designs. I crouched low, pulling a suitcase in front of me, and held my breath, straining to hear what was happening in the living room. I hated leaving Vanessa to deal with whoever it was but hoped to God they weren’t dangerous.
I heard a man’s booming, angry voice and nearly screamed. Vanessa was saying something, but I couldn’t make out the words. The man yelled again, and I heard something shatter. I jumped up, prepared to run and help Vanessa, when I heard her shout at the man to get out of her house.
There were more sounds of things crashing to the ground and what sounded like things hitting the walls. The entire time, Vanessa was yelling in anger, which told me she wasn’t hurt. The man’s voice was coming closer. I heard her bedroom door open and was suddenly paralyzed by fear.
“I know she’s here! I saw her come in this place. Tell me where she is and you won’t get hurt,” he growled.
“Look, buddy, I’m sure all that meat on your head has probably resulted in some kind of brain damage, but pay attention: She isn’t here!” Vanessa snapped.
I nearly burst into laughter. In the face of horrifying danger, her smart mouth was still intact. I knew it was a defense mechanism. It seemed to be working because she wasn’t hurt—yet.
“You’re a lying little bitch. I know what I saw.” His angry voice was dangerously close to the closet door.
When I heard the door to the closet open, I couldn’t breathe. The light flipped on, and I heard the hangers slide over the closet rail. My mouth went dry and I squeezed my eyes closed, as if that would somehow make me invisible.
“Don’t mess up my shit, man! Those clothes aren’t cheap, and most of them are one-of-a-kind designs. I don’t typically design outfits for guys your size, but I’d be happy to have a pretty dress sewn up for you if you insist.” Vanessa’s voice was close.
I opened my eyes and, through a tiny separation in the garment bags, saw the back of her legs.
“You’re lucky I didn’t get paid to take you out. I might just do it as a freebie if you don’t shut your damn mouth.”
Vanessa chuckled. “Do you want me to practice my self-defense moves? I’ve always wanted to know what it feels like to hit someone in the nose really hard. Of course, that wouldn’t come until after I kicked you in the balls so hard that you’d welcome your nose being smashed into your face. I’ll give you a freebie facelift.”
I heard a sound and wasn’t sure what it was until Vanessa whimpered.
“You’re going to have to do better than that if you actually want me to shut up,” she spat out.
I saw red, knowing she had been hit. She had been hurt because of me. I couldn’t deal with the idea of her being beaten or worse because I had hidden like a coward. I took a deep breath, knowing what I had to do.
“I’m watching you. When she shows up, I’m going to get her, and then I’ll be coming back for you,” the man said before the sound of stomping receded.
“Stay. I’m fine,” Vanessa whispered before walking away, turning off the light, and closing the door behind her.
My heart raced as I debated what to do. I didn’t know if the man was truly leaving or if he was going to hurt Vanessa more.
I waited what seemed like forever before Vanessa returned.
“He’s gone.”
I pushed the suitcase away, threw the garment bags to the side, and rushed to her. “Are you okay?”
She nodded, holding a washcloth to her face. “Just a backhand. I’ve been hit harder by an angry twenty-two-pound supermodel,” she quipped.
“I’m so sorry!”
“It’s okay. You couldn’t have known.”
I shook my head in disbelief. Everything had felt wrong ever since Dylan had told me about my father, and now this. The man had clearly come looking for me. He had followed me. That was a hard realization to accept. Someone wanted to hurt me, and if I were to believe Dylan, that someone had been paid to hurt me by my own father.
“I’m sorry, Vanessa,” I repeated. “I didn’t know I was being followed. Dylan warned me I was in danger. I really didn’t believe him. I thought he was making it up.”
“Well,” she said, walking out to the living room, “I don’t think he was.”
I stood there, shell-shocked, in the space that had once been her pretty living room but was now a complete wreck.
“Oh God,” I gasped, my hand going to my mouth.
“Yeah. The meathead was fond of smashing the breakables. Bull in a China shop has a whole new meaning to me now. He was anything but delicate and took a great deal of pleasure in smashing the shit out of everything I own. He’s lucky most of it was replicas and not super expensive.”
I looked around the room, horrified by the scene. Her prized bells she had tediously collected from the many cities she had visited all around the world were in shards on the floor. She was being blasé, but there was no way she wasn’t upset by the destruction.
“I’ll replace everything. I know some of this is irreplaceable, but I swear, I will fly all over the world and do my best to find replacements,” I told her, tears welling in my eye
s as I stared at the broken glass coffee table. My half-filled wine glass was smashed, and the red wine had been dumped on her beautiful, pristine white carpet.
“Don’t worry about any of that. We need to get you out of here. I have a feeling my meaty friend is going to be coming back. You can’t be here when he does,” she said, her voice ominous.
“Where do I go?” I asked.
She shrugged a shoulder. “If I were you, I’d call the knight in shining armor. He seems pretty keen on keeping you alive. I think he’s going to be a bit scarier than I am. I may have a sharp tongue, but Meathead is only going to take that for so long.”
I groaned. “I don’t want to call him and tell him he was right. What if he sent the guy after me to prove a point?” I said, suddenly grasping onto the idea.
“Now you’re just being ridiculous. I guess you could call your dad then.”
“No!” I shrank back as if she had slapped me.
“Exactly. Call the hero. He needs to protect you, and even if you don’t trust him, I do. I trust him to keep you alive and in one piece. He might very well be a lying, conniving son of a bitch, but dealing with that is far better than dealing with a murderous supervillain.”
I shook my head, rubbing my hands over my makeup-free face, and groaned. “I feel like I took a wrong turn right out of my regular life and somehow ended up here. How is this happening!”
“Hon, I don’t know. I don’t think that’s what we need to worry about right now though. Right now you have to find a way out of here and a safe place to hunker down, like now. Mr. Meathead is watching the place if he was being honest, which I’m going to believe he was. He’s going to see you walk out of the building. We need help,” she said.
I could see the fear in her eyes. We were in deep shit, and there was no way I could dig my way out on my own.
“Fine,” I muttered, pulling out my phone to call Dylan.
“What do I say?”
“Say you need help. Stick with the truth,” she replied dryly.
I made the call only to get his voice mail. “Now what?”
“We hunker down. Help me move the couch in front of the door. We’ll figure something out.”
I was glad I was in deep shit with Vanessa by my side. I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Dylan
Monday
I managed to sleep maybe three hours the night before, and not all in one block. I couldn’t help but worry about Kendall. I had missed a call from her, and when I’d called back, she hadn’t answered. Her phone kept going straight to voice mail. I was feeling desperate, sensing something was wrong.
Sipping my strong black coffee, I debated whether or not I should try calling her again. It was just after six in the morning, and I knew it was early, but I had to know she was okay.
I hit the contact button for her and waited.
“Hello?” A soft voice answered the phone.
“Hello. I’m looking for Kendall. Who’s this?” I asked, a little worried she had been kidnapped and there was a female accomplice. I was half-expecting a ransom to be demanded.
“This is Vanessa.”
“Where’s Kendall?”
“She’s asleep. We had a bit of a rough night. Well, technically, it was a rough day that stretched into a rough night.”
“Rough?”
Vanessa paused for a second. “A man came to my apartment yesterday shortly after Kendall got here. He wasn’t a nice human. In fact, he was really quite nasty and pretty much trashed my place. He and his cronies are watching my building. We can’t leave. He wants her. I don’t know you and I don’t know what exactly is going on, but I’m worried about my friend.”
“Is she okay? Are you okay?” I asked, a cold chill running over my body.
“We’re fine. Kendall hid in my closet and he didn’t find her, but I’m sure he’ll be back.”
“I’m coming to get her,” I said firmly.
“My apartment building is being watched. He saw her come in and told me he was going to sit outside until he saw her come out. I tend to believe him.”
I let out a long sigh, putting my coffee cup on the counter and pacing across the cold tile of my kitchen floor. “Do you have a service entrance at your building? One where maintenance people would come and go?”
“Actually, yes, we do.”
“Good. Sit tight. I’ll send this number a text when I’m on my way,” I said and hung up the phone.
My heart was thumping against my chest as my mind whirred, trying to think of a way to get Kendall out of there. I had known she was in danger! Damn her!
An idea popped into my head. I quickly searched through my contacts, looking for Sergio, a caterer I regularly used at the office and whenever I hosted an event. I gave the guy a lot of business and hoped he would help me out. Within ten minutes, we had worked out a plan.
He was at my place within fifteen minutes, an extra uniform in hand. I quickly changed into it and climbed into the van where there was a female server dressed in the same uniform.
“Hi,” I said. “Thank you for doing this.”
She smiled, putting her thick, long brown hair into a knot on top of her head before sliding a hat on. “Of course. He’s paying me fifty bucks to walk out of a building. I can do that.”
I made a mental note to send him a fat check to cover his costs plus more for a nice thank you. I sent a quick text to Kendall’s cell phone, letting Vanessa know we would be there in about fifteen minutes. We backed up to the service entrance, where I hopped out and opened the door without any trouble at all.
So much for security.
The female server walked in with me, then stopped to pull off the white coat and pants. She handed me them and the hat and headed toward the front of the building while I went up the emergency stairs. I found Vanessa’s apartment on the third floor and knocked. “It’s Dylan,” I announced, knowing she was pretending not to be home.
I heard a commotion, and a minute later, her friend Vanessa was pulling open the door. I recognized the red hair from the restaurant that first day I met Kendall.
“Hi,” she said with a flirty smile. “You have your hands full. I woke the sleeping bear and she is not pleased with my plan to get her out of here.”
I grinned. “Then she’s really going to hate my plan.”
I walked inside and saw Kendall standing in the middle of a living room that had been cleaned up but still looked as if a bomb had gone off. The danger became very real.
“Let’s go. Put this on,” I said, tossing her the white catering uniform.
She looked at it as if it were a coiled snake ready to strike.
“I’m not putting that on and I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“We don’t have time for this. Get dressed. I have a catering van waiting at the back entrance. It’s the only way we’re getting you out of here without anyone noticing.”
She shook her head, her eyes puffy from lack of sleep. “No. I don’t trust you. You could have sent that man here to scare me.”
I rolled my eyes. “Why in the hell would I do that?”
She shrugged. “To be a dick.”
“Kendall, I told him to do this. You trust me, don’t you?” her friend said, walking toward her. “You have to get out of here. That guy is running out of stuff to break. What do you think he’s going to do if he thinks you’re here and I’m hiding you?”
“No! You can’t make me go with him. We can’t trust him!”
Vanessa looked back at me, then at Kendall. “You don’t have to trust him, but—and I say this with all the love in the world—you have to get out of my apartment. I’m officially kicking you out. Go.”
Kendall’s face dropped. “Vanessa! You can’t do that!”
“I can, and I did. You’ve got to get out of here, please.”
“Vanessa, you should come with us as well. It isn’t safe for you here,” I chimed in.
The fie
ry redhead lifted one shoulder. “I can handle the meathead.”
“Take your own advice and go with us. I can have you taken somewhere safe until all this blows over. I can’t leave you here,” I told her, being completely sincere. I would drag both women out if I had to.
Kendall sat down on the couch that was at an odd angle in front of the door, folded her arms over her chest, and crossed her legs. “I’m not leaving.”
I growled. “Get your ass up and change!”
“No!”
“Kendall!”
“Dylan!”
“Dammit! Why are you being so stubborn? Look around you! This guy isn’t joking. He’s going to keep coming back, and I have a feeling he isn’t going to be alone. He’s been paid to do a job, and I’m guessing he only got half the money. He doesn’t get the other half until he delivers you! Get your ass up and move!” I shouted, losing my temper.
She jumped off the couch, stalked toward me, and pointed her finger almost directly in my face. It was the last straw. I bent over, picked her ass up, and threw her over my shoulder in a fireman’s carry. She kicked her feet and pounded her hands against my back. I slapped her ass hard, ordering her to stop her struggles.
Vanessa stared at me, her eyes wide, before bursting into laughter. “I would have done the same thing. She is so stubborn.”
“Hey!” Kendall protested. “Put me down!”
“No,” I growled. “Vanessa, will you please go with me?” I asked as nicely as possible.
She smirked. “If I don’t, are you going to throw me over your shoulder and spank me?”
I grinned. “I could if you want me to, but I’m going to need to take her to the van first.”
Vanessa gave an exaggerated sigh. “Always the bridesmaid, never the bride who gets spanked by a yummy man.”
I chuckled before pulling the blanket off the back of the couch and tossing it over Kendall’s body.
“Put me down! I’ll walk!”
“I doubt it. You lost your chance. Let’s go,” I said to Vanessa, who grabbed her purse and Kendall’s along with two cell phones before following me out the door.
Carrying Kendall over my shoulder down three flights of stairs wasn’t exactly easy, but I managed. I gently put her in the back of the van, ignoring the look from Sergio, who was fighting back a smile. I climbed in front and pretended like I always carried bitching women over my shoulder.
