Authors: Kristen James
“Why, why did you have to come here?”
“I had to, Dad. You scared me.” Maybe she should have kept that to herself. Cora sat back in her chair and tried to pull in a few deep breaths before returning to her original question: why did Keith think Jerry stole from him? She knew her father would never steal.
She didn’t have much to go on here. Jerry made sure to keep her away from the men he worked for, and he never shared any details about his work. And though she’d always had the urge, she’d been afraid to dig into the Holloway’s affairs. Alexander visited her when Channel Eleven News hired her and told her to never, under any circumstances, to share any information about Keith Holloway, his hotel chain, his restaurants, or her father’s job in her reporting. Remembering the strange conversation chilled her and she shivered.
“Dad,” she whispered. He pulled his head up to look at her. “What are talking about out there? What’s happening?”
She hoped they were calling the police, even if it was to report her.
The door opened and Keith stepped in. “Young lady, get up.”
Jerry held his hand out to her, keeping her in her seat. He stood and turned around. “Please let her leave, I don’t want her involved in this. I’ll do whatever I need to if she can leave.”
“Dad!”
He held his hand out to silence her.
Cora saw Alexander standing in the doorway behind Keith, with that ever present, annoying smug smile on his face.
“Jerry,” Keith said and stopped to sigh. It was a long pause. “I wanted to keep things simple, but this has gotten too complicated already. I think it’ll help things move along if Cora is staying with us.”
Cora saw the life fall from her father’s face and he stumbled against the back of his chair. She sat still, looking between the three different men, and at that point she really felt afraid.
Keith looked down into her bewildered face. “My dear, it looks like you’ll be staying. Your father has a few things to work out.”
Jerry seemed to have no say in the matter as Alexander took her by the arm again and pulled her back into the hallway. “Dad!”
Alexander yanked her against his chest and trapped both her arms.
“If you’ll both cooperate, neither of you have anything to worry about,” Keith said, standing in the doorway so Jerry and Cora could both hear him. “Miss Evans, all you have to do is sit tight, be a good girl, and wait. Jerry, you just have to get my money back.”
Alexander tightened his grip on her arms.
“You can’t force me to go anywhere with you.” She wrestled back and forth, trying to kick his shins. He spun her around and brought her face right up against his.
The shuffling of footsteps coming down the hallway behind them stopped Alexander’s angry words.
“Hey!” The voice sounded familiar. “What’s going on?”
She wiggled loose enough to turn her head. Cora’s shocked stare stopped Nick a few strides away from them.
He knew about this
. Cora forced her mouth shut and looked away from him. The lying piece of crap!
Keith answered Nick’s question. “You apparently didn’t do a good job of distracting her. Ever heard of dinner and a movie?”
“Where are you going with her?” Nick demanded.
Keith looked at Alexander and held up a hand. “Hang tight for a minute.” He jerked his head for Nick to follow him into the study. The door snapped shut and she was left in the darkened hallway with Alexander’s hands wrapped around her arms again.
Low, rushed voices poured out from underneath the study door, but Cora couldn’t understand what they said. They sounded more like angry animals than people. She jerked when Jerry spoke, pleading for them to release her. Keith barked at Jerry while Nick tried to cut him off.
“Not Alexander!” She thought Nick spoke then. “I’ll do it. You have to let me do that for Jerry.” His voice softened and she got the feeling he was talking to her dad, maybe reassuring him.
A minute passed with Alexander’s fingers gripping harder and harder around her arm. As calmly as she could, she said, “You’re hurting me.”
She almost cried when she heard how scared she sounded. His grip loosened but he pulled her back against him. His breath fell on her neck.
She turned her head the other way and tried to keep her breathing under control, and her heart rate somewhat normal, so she could think. Without a weapon, she just had her brain to get her out of this.
Nick left the study and backtracked down the hall with only a short glance at Cora. It had been a meaningful glance, that said something, but she had no idea what. She tried not to watch him go.
Keith emerged and announced to Alexander, “He’s taking her up.” Alexander’s hands tightened on her arms again, but before he argued, Keith continued, “I need you here. You can check on them as soon as possible.”
Nick strode around the corner with a stuffed duffle bag and stopped in front of Alexander. He didn’t need words to explain what he wanted.
She felt like a piece of meat, and in the least flattering way.
With a penetrating stare at Nick, Alexander let go of Cora’s arm and took a step back. Cora looked at the closed study door, wishing to see her father, and then she gave Nick the coldest look she could manage. Keith stood watching her with cold eyes in his harsh, lined face of a lifetime smoker.
With strained and false control, Cora sighed and crossed her arms. Inwardly she prayed they didn’t see how small she felt, or how her hands trembled. The men around her seemed too large and threatening, and she knew they carried guns holstered under their suit jackets.
Leaning next to Nick’s ear, Keith said, “This is the last chance you get to redeem yourself.”
Redeem himself? She wondered about Nick, but then he glanced her way. She turned her head. Alexander stood by the study door, his arms crossed, and his robotic eyes watching them.
Thank Heaven Keith didn’t send her with Alexander. Nick, even if a liar, couldn’t be as evil and scary as that creep. If she told the truth, however, she knew her instincts on this weren’t working properly. She didn’t know what she thought of Nick.
“I want to see my dad.” She kept her voice level that time.
Keith’s face didn’t soften one bit. “You just did. Nick, you should be on your way.”
The way he looked at Nick seemed like a dare. There was the tiniest of pauses.
“Let’s get going then.” Nick took her arm and led her through the house and into the garage. His took care not to hurt her. Still, she seethed that he was telling her what to do. As soon as the door shut behind Nick, she whipped around and tried to throw her hand across his face with all her strength.
He caught her wrist.
“We’ll take the red Mustang over there.”
She didn’t look. “Will Jerry be safe?”
“I’ve done all I can for him.” Nick’s strange reply didn’t answer the question. “He wants me to keep you safe and get you away from Keith and Alexander.”
Jerry wanted Nick’s help? She felt tears forming in her eyes. “How could you just leave him in there with them?”
He tried to avoid her gaze at first. Sighing, he stopped and looked her in the eye to whisper, “This is the best I can do to keep you both safe. We have to get you out of here,
now.
”
Three
An icy chill ran through her at his words, followed by an involuntary shiver at the piercing determination in his eyes. She stepped back, suddenly lost in what was happening.
How
could this be happening?
Nick took her by one shoulder and turned her around, edging her to the vehicles.
“My car.” Cora stopped even as he nudged her forward. “Why is my car in your garage?”
Her tiny red Miata was parked on the other side of several huge SUVs. Someone had moved it inside and put the top down. Somehow that took her anger level over the top.
“Keith’s garage,” Nick corrected. “Alexander must have moved it in here.”
Cora shuddered again as the knowledge hit her. Alexander had probably watched her park her car and sneak across the lawn to the house. Nick seemed to be on the same line of thinking.
“He might have followed me to the restaurant. It’s a safe assumption to say he planned for you to end up here.”
She stared at the cement floor and wished she could slip right through it, away from Nick, away from this mess. Nick’s scent filled her nose, making her stomach do a small flip. When she glanced at his face, she thought she saw concern there, but she didn’t plan on trusting anyone who worked for Keith Holloway. The words
how could you?
almost came out, but saying that would show him that she felt stabbed in the back. That didn’t make any sense. Why would she feel betrayed after one short, mysterious if flirty, meeting?
Nick opened the passenger door of his Mustang for her, but Cora stopped short. The air felt full of static, ready to shock them at any second, as they both held their ground.
“Cora.” He stopped to grind his jaw. “I’m getting you out of this house to keep you safe, and I’m doing what they say for now to keep your dad alive. You’re leaving, and it’s either with me or Alexander.”
Each word came out slowly, like he was trying to control his temper. Or maybe panic?
Cora cast another look toward the door leading inside. “I want to know where Jerry will be.”
“Keith won’t tell me that.” Nick’s voice grew quiet, ensuring no one in the house could hear him.
So they don’t trust him, she thought, but Keith gave him the job of watching her. That didn’t make a lot of sense. Something seemed strange about Nick and his involvement in all of this.
She glanced down at her skirt and heels. “I have extra clothes in a bag in my car, can I at least get it?”
“I’ll do it.” He watched her the entire time he walked to car and got her bag. “Now if you don’t get in, I have a feeling Alexander is coming out and taking care of things.” He nodded back toward a security camera mounted in the corner. When she stopped fighting, he ushered her into his own vehicle, smelling of newness mixed with leather and fresh pine. Walking around, Nick slid behind the wheel but paused with his hand holding the key in the ignition. He stared at the wheel, and she saw him wrestling inside.
“This feels like the worse thing I’ve ever done,” she said. “I shouldn’t leave him there alone.”
His resolve cracked. She saw it, clear as day, in his eyes.
“Cora… this is the worst thing I’ve ever done, too, but if we don’t do things Keith’s way, he’ll kill your father.”
“No…”
It was more of a breath than a word. She stared at him blankly as he leaned over and grabbed her buckle. She didn’t move as he clicked it in.
The car engine roared in the garage before the door opened and Nick pulled out. She turned her head to see the house, and that one lit window in the dark.
It’s me and you. I’ll help you somehow, Dad.
Nick’s words registered now, that her dad would be leaving. But how could he find money he didn’t steal? She tried to think of any way she could get away from Nick and get help, if she could do it before he called Keith.
“I’m sorry they involved you,” he said a mile or so down the road. Thankfully he didn’t add that she should have minded her own business and stayed away from the house. Nick didn’t say a word about her following him. And she didn’t want to hear she’d put herself in harm’s way by snooping around the Holloway property, either.