Chapter 13
Killian
“Did she really fallasleep?” Donovan asked from the driver’s seat. His voice was filled with disbelief. The same disbelief that I felt, but couldn’t deny when looking right at her.
She had been crinkling her forehead a lot while we packed up her shit. My guess is she had been fighting a pretty severe headache all the while dealing with the fact that she was about to be taken by two men she didn’t know. The adrenaline spike alone would have made her crash, but fighting a headache would make it worse.
“Yeah. She’s out of it.” I reached over and brushed my finger across her cheek. Her lips had tasted like pure honey. She was so damn sweet and innocent.
“How does someone fall asleep in the middle of being kidnapped?” He laughed quietly to keep from waking her up.
“I think she had a headache, and that’s why she came home early from work.”
“We should have put someone else on her to give us a heads up she was heading our way. We could have been better prepared for her arrival at the house.”
“No. The fewer people that know we have her, the better. Ro has already remoted into her computer and purchased a plane ticket to Atlanta. That tied with her stuff missing... People will think she took off. Her timely quitting at the restaurant also helped.”
Donovan huffed out a grunt. “It really couldn’t have worked out better.”
“No. The only thing I’m worried about is her friend making trouble. She said they were planning on going somewhere tomorrow, something they had been planning for a while.”
“You don’t think her friend will buy into her taking off?”
“I doubt it. If it were me or Ro, would you believe it?”
His eyes met mine in the rearview mirror. “Good point. How do you want to handle this?”
“Not much we can do until we have her cooperation,” I muttered and leaned my head back against the headrest as we drove farther away from Houston toward the lake house in Livingston. “You got everything covered until we get back to Houston?”
“Yeah. I know what to do. You could use a break after all these years.” Donovan grinned.
“This isn’t a vacation, Dumbass.” I rolled my eyes and shook my head. Going to the small lake house with Zoey would not be a walk in the fucking park at all. In fact, it was going to be torture.
I wanted her. That much was fucking obvious, but fuck if I wanted it to be like this. Both times I kissed her, she responded to it like a cat in heat, but when I took her to my bed and claimed her, I didn’t want her having any doubts or regrets afterward. If she thought I was sleeping with her for any reason but because I wanted her, then she would end up regretting it.
When I made her mine, there would be no room for that. I would have her complete submission and all her desires. She would have my loyalty and my protection, but there would be no doubts between us.
Us.
I said that as ifweever even had a fucking chance at any kind of future. Frustration built inside me because I knew this was the closest I would ever get to this woman, who invaded my senses and got under my skin so damn quickly. I knew that day at the damn restaurant she was going to be trouble for me, but could there actually be more between us? I had to kidnap her to keep her safe. Would she ever be able to see it that way?
I doubted it. Nobody could forgive that. The few kisses I had from her would have to last me a lifetime because there was no way in hell she would give me a chance when I’ve taken her and made her disappear for however long this shit took. She wouldn’t understand that it had to be this way until I had the proof to present her about what kind of danger she was in. Hell, even when I had the fucking proof, would she believe her uncle capable of this?
Her words played back to me. ‘You took the wrong girl. My uncle won’t pay to get me back.’
She really believed he wouldn’t do everything in his power to protect her? She was family. But who was I kidding? Blood meant nothing to me, either. Donovan and Rowan were my family. Family I chose—bonded by loyalty and trauma.
“She said she feels safe with you,” Donovan said softly, invading my thoughts as if he could read them. He turned off the highway and headed toward the neighborhood tucked near the lake. “That counts for something, Killian.”
#
One of the shell corporationsI owned purchased the lake house. I bought it mostly as an investment property, meaning to fix it up and eventually flip it for a profit, but I never got around to do that. It was dated with everything about it screaming nineteen eighties, but the bones of the house were good.
Several times I’d had someone reach out through a realtor trying to buy the property that sat on the inlet of Lake Livingston. It had its own boat dock and sat on a two-acre lot. It was prime property, and I should have done more with it than let it sit here.
“I’m surprised this place still looks this good,” Donovan muttered as he pulled up in front of the half circle drive.
