Soraya
The man pulled up outside a small property that looked like some sort of fishing cabin. It was set on the end of a narrow, single car lane and surrounded by trees. Ray scanned the area, looking for neighboring properties or signs of life. There weren’t any. Unfortunately, the cabin wasn’t situated on one of the many fish camps in the area. It was way off the beaten track. There would be no one around to see her and worse, no one to hear her scream.
Her head was spinning as she tried to take it all in. She’d been kidnapped. Snatched. Grabbed from a public place and bundled into the back of some psycho’s car. How was this happening to her?
She supposed she only had herself to blame. After all, her father was a prominent billionaire, and that attracted all sorts of attention—and not always the good kind. He’d had been on her case for years to accept a security detail, but she’d repeatedly refused. She lived in Miami, for crying out loud. It was hardly the crime capital of the world. And everything took three times as long with a bodyguard, not to mention the total lack of privacy. She’d always viewed them as little more than an inconvenience, and certainly not a necessity. And this was the result. Go figure.
To add insult to injury, her father was a pig-headed man. He maintained he would never pay a ransom because he believed that would set a precedent for every Tom, Dick, or Harry to try to kidnap a member of his family in order to secure a large payout.
This man’s accomplice, who he’d so graciously punched in the nose earlier, was probably on the phone to her father right now, informing him of her capture and demanding a ransom. Well, they’d have one hell of a long wait, and Ray didn’t want to think about what would happen to her when they eventually realized her father wasn’t going to pay them a dime.
She heaved a sigh as the man cut the engine and turned to her.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” he said. “I promise you that. You and I, we’re just going to have a little chat.”
She tossed him another glare before turning her head away from him and pretending to sulk. Instead, she was scanning the trees and searching for the best escape route. There was no way she could fight this man off—he was built like a Mack truck with abs she could make out even under his thin white tee, and would overpower her in a heartbeat. Her only chance of getting away from him was to try to make a run for it as soon as an opportunity presented itself. She might not have been the strongest person in the world, but she was pretty fast, and he was heavily built. Maybe she could use that against him.
“I know what you’re thinking,” he said in a low voice that managed to be both appealing and sexy. Damn him.
Why were all the drop-dead gorgeous men either gay, married, or complete psychos? Ray turned back to him and stared into his soulful dark brown eyes. Her heart thudded for all the wrong reasons. There was something exotic about him, but she couldn’t put her finger on what that something was. He was tall, dark, and handsome, but he was more than that. There was something about him, something she couldn’t put her finger on. Whatever it was made him drop dead gorgeous. More was the pity. Why couldn’t her kidnapper have been an ugly beast? Although she didn’t suppose it mattered what he looked like. It didn’t change the fact that he was an asshole. An asshole who’d just said something. What was it…?
Dammit, Ray, get it together. Youcannotbe crushing on your kidnapper, for crying out loud.
It was a little early for Stockholm Syndrome to be setting in, even by her standards. And if she wanted to get out of here—which she most definitely did, abs or no abs, and there were definitely abs—then she needed to focus.
“Yeah, and what am I thinking?” she asked.
“You’re thinking that you can run from me, but it wouldn’t be in your best interests to try.”
“Why, cause it would ruin your chances of getting a nice fat payout?”
He frowned and shook his head, staring at her as if he had no clue what she was talking about.
“It’s because we’re as close as damn it to the everglades. This is gator territory, and it will be dark soon. Even if you managed to get away from me, you do not want to be walking around here on your own in the dark. You wouldn’t last an hour.”
She threw in another glare for good measure, then returned her gaze to the window, only this time she was looking down instead of out at the trees. Alligators. She barely suppressed a shudder. Of all the luck. She hated alligators. Well, she didn’t suppose anyone particularly liked them, but shereallyhated them. Ever since she’d been a kid, they’d crept her out something fierce. Her mom had taken her someplace when she was little where they let you hold a baby alligator and get your photo taken with it. Ray had screamed blue murder, getting into such a state that her mom put her straight back in the car and took her home again. She cried all the way back.
“Come on, let’s get you inside,” the man said gently.
Why was he bothering to be nice? He had her where he wanted her. He didn’t need to pretend to be a nice guy. It wasn’t like he had to lure her anywhere anymore. It served no purpose other than getting on her nerves because he wasn’t a nice guy, was he? He was a low-life criminal who would spend the rest of his days rotting in prison if Ray had anything to do with it.
He took the keys out of the ignition, then grabbed her hand and leaned over her to open her door before nodding for her to get out. She climbed down onto the ground, scanning in every direction for alligators, and when he climbed out beside her, she very nearly wrapped her arms around his middle in the hopes that he would protect her from them. And what a joke that was. He’d probably just throw her to the gators and take off running in the opposite direction.
“We should be okay now,” he said. “We just need to be cautious. It’s in the dark that we really need to watch out.”
That didn’t make her feel any better and as he strode up to the cabin, his long legs eating up the ground quickly, she practically ran along at his side, checking behind her every step to ensure they weren’t being followed. The cabin, with its surroundings, was Ray’s idea of hell on earth. She could never understand why anyone would willingly choose to vacation in a place like this, or even stay there for the weekend. How could you enjoy yourself when you were constantly worried about losing a limb?
When they got to the door, the man reached up to a little ledge, then came back with the key. Seemed like he wasn’t too concerned about the neighbors helping themselves. Of course, the fact that the only neighbors round here had four legs and scales probably helped. It didn’t helpher, though.
He opened the door and waited for her to enter before stepping through behind her. She blinked as her eyes adjusted to the interior of the cabin after the bright daylight, and then blinked again in surprise. She’d expected the cabin to be old and dirty, but the inside was surprisingly well-kept. It wasn’t decorated to her taste, but it was cozy. There wasn’t a speck of dust anywhere, so it had obviously been used recently. She wondered if the man had cleaned it himself or if he got someone to come around and do it. She couldn’t imagine there were many cleaning companies who would come to the middle of nowhere, but what did she know about it? Perhaps they did. And if they did, perhaps she could get a message to them. After all, her father might refuse to pay a ransom, but he would have no issue sending a heavily armed SWAT team to rescue her.
“Please, take a seat,” the man said, pointing to a large, comfy looking sofa.
Ray heaved a sigh but planked her behind down, then folded her arms and resumed her glaring routine. If he thought she was going to give him an easy time of it, or even play the victim, he could think again.
Because her father was so rich and influential, Ray had always gone out of her way to prove that she wasn’t just some poor little rich girl who had everything handed to her and could get whatever she wanted in life just by snapping her fingers, even though she probably could. She had always worked for everything she got—even starting her own interior design business—and the desire to prove that she was as capable as anyone else and didn’t need a free ride had made her steadfast and determined, even a little stubborn. And maybe this was the wrong time to display a trait like stubbornness, but it was so ingrained in her now, it was difficult to switch it off. The hostage seminar her father had made her attend as a teenager—yes, an actual seminar—said that she should make herself personable to the kidnapper, and try to be his friend, but to hell with that.
She glanced around the room, trying to get her bearings, but the cabin was tiny and there wasn’t much to look at. There was a small kitchen attached to the living room where they sat, and two doors beyond that, which she could only assume led to a bedroom and a bathroom. That was it. Perhaps the bathroom had a window she could climb out of? She couldn’t understand why the man hadn’t bothered to tie her up. Arrogance, or something else? But then she remembered the gators and pulled her bottom lip between her teeth.
