Billionaire Undaunted: The Billionaire's Obsession ~ Zane (18 page)

T
he impromptu family gathering went on for hours, with plenty of laughing, eating, and drinking while the whole clan was together catching up. Aileen was happy, saying that it was rare for them all to be in Rocky Springs at the same time. She’d also implied that she was happy that Zane had somebody to pull himself out of the lab from time to time.

It was late by the time Ellie got the phone call that was about to make her entire world come crashing down on her.

Most of the family had settled into the family room because it was bigger, when Ellie heard the telltale sound of Zane’s ringtone sounding on her cell. Springing to her feet, she scrambled out to the kitchen and quickly rummaged in her purse for the phone.

“Hello,” she finally answered breathlessly.

“Ellie?” The voice wasn’t Zane’s. Ellie was confused for a moment before she recognized it.

“Sean? What’s going on? Where is Zane?” Her heart started to beat rapidly, knowing that if Zane let Sean use his phone, something was wrong.

“He’s here, but he’s tied up. Literally. I couldn’t say whether he appreciates me holding a gun to his head, but I don’t give a shit.”

Ellie’s heart fell as she sensed Sean’s mood, the sound of mania in his voice. She’d experienced this before, and it hadn’t turned out well. “Why? Sean, why would you do that when he was the one who chose you to be in charge of the research lab? He hired you, he was your mentor after he put you in a position of power at the lab.”

“You think I’m a boss? Hell, no. I don’t have the money Zane has, and I never will unless I make my own luck. Your boyfriend was born with a platinum spoon in his mouth. I wasn’t. The only thing I ever wanted was Elena, and she left me for a wealthier man. I want her back. In order to do that, I need money and a way to become wealthy enough to get Elena back. And you’re going to get it for me.”

Ellie walked into the family room, every member of the Colter family going quiet as they looked at her pale complexion. She put a finger to her lips as a sign to stay silent.

“I’ll bring it to you if you just promise me you won’t hurt Zane. Please.”

Tate got up and came over to where she was standing on the phone, turning it so he could listen in with her.

Sean grunted. “That’s not all I want. Zane’s been doing some private research, an independent project that doesn’t belong to the lab. I want the research.”

“I-I don’t even know where it is. What is it?”

“He has an underground lab there. I need the laptop he keeps down there.”

“I don’t—”

Tate quickly put a finger over his mouth and shook his head.
Was he telling her not to let Sean know that she didn’t have access to the lab?
Evidently, that was exactly what he seemed to be saying.

“I don’t know exactly where it is, but I’ll find it,” she told Sean adamantly, realizing Tate was right. If she admitted she couldn’t get what Sean wanted, he might kill Zane.

“Make it fast. I want you here by ten o’clock tomorrow morning or I’ll waste your boyfriend. Then you can see how it feels to lose somebody you love. Maybe then you’ll understand,” Sean rambled.

“It’s the weekend. The money may not be accessible,” she stalled.

“They’re Colters.” Sean spit out the name like it was vile. “Those bastards can get anything they want. I want a million dollars in unmarked bills,
and
the laptop from Zane’s home lab.”

“Is anybody else there in the lab with you?” Ellie saw Tate nodding at her out of the corner of her eye.

“Nope. Everybody took the weekend off. It’s just me and the asshole who distracted my woman, turned her head with money.”

Ellie’s hands were shaking, so Tate took the phone from her, keeping it in the same position. She wanted to argue with Sean, tell him Elena had never been worth all of this, that Zane had never had the slightest interest in her, but she didn’t. Zane had never encouraged the woman. Ellie had seen that firsthand. But it was impossible to reason with a man who had gone off the deep end. Unfortunately, she’d learned that the hard way.

While she was grateful that Sean couldn’t hurt anybody else in the lab, she was terrified for Zane. “I want to talk to him. Put Zane on the phone so I know he’s still alive.”

She heard a scuffle and then Zane’s desperate voice. “Ellie, don’t come here. Call the police and let them handle it. He’s not going to let either one of us go. He’ll just kill us both.”

Sean must have gagged Zane again, because it was quiet as he came back on the phone. “He’s wrong. If you follow my instructions, I’ll let him go. I’ll have the means to become a very rich man with the money and his research. If you bring in the police or I see one police car sitting in front of this building, it’s over. Bring the stuff by morning and come alone. If you don’t, your boyfriend is dead.”

Ellie panicked as she heard the distinctive sound of a dead line. “Sean! Wait! Please!”

Tate clicked out of the call and put her phone down on one of the tables in the family room.

“Disgruntled employee, I take it?” Tate asked.

Ellie quickly explained everything she knew about Sean and Elena to Zane’s family, which was really very little. Then, she shared everything that had happened on the phone call.

“So it’s some fortune-seeking bitch who isn’t even worth it,” Marcus commented disgustedly.

“I don’t know what to do,” Ellie admitted. “I don’t even know how to access Zane’s lab here. He always meant to take me down there, but we never got a chance before we left for Denver.”

“You know the project he’s working on?” Blake questioned.

“Yes. Not in depth, but he said he’s been working on some vaccines for some worldwide diseases. Since it was going to take years, he started the project on the side. I don’t know how close he is to being finished, but I know that putting that research into the wrong hands could be disastrous if making money is the only objective to wanting the studies. Zane didn’t want pharmaceuticals. He wanted prevention. That’s why he kept it a secret. He wanted to take the research all the way to vaccines, and he’s meticulous about thorough research and replication before he acts on a discovery. He probably felt he could share the project information with Sean. He’s the director at the Denver office. Zane’s information should have been safe with Sean.”

“Where’s his lab?” Tate asked urgently.

“Underground. But it has security.”

Tate grinned. “Not a problem. Just lead me there.” More seriously, he asked, “Marcus, can you round up the money?”

The eldest Colter was already texting. “I’m working on it.”

Ellie led Tate to the entrance of the underground lab and slid the front panel aside. Tate gently pushed his way in, looking at the security device on the door.

“It’s a fingerprint scanner,” he observed, playing with a few of the mechanisms on the heavy door.

“So we can’t get in without Zane’s print?”

“Generally, no. Not unless he reset the door to accept your prints, too.”

“He didn’t,” Ellie said sadly, wishing she had pushed more to see what Zane was doing in the lab. “I don’t think he wanted me down there alone. He said there were too many harmful substances there.”

“Don’t worry, Ellie. I can breach the system. I just need to get some tools, and it might take me a while. But no security system is unbreakable if you know enough about them.”

Ellie knew that Tate was probably one of the best people to have around if she needed somebody to break and enter. “Okay. What else can I do? Should I report this to the police?”

“Hell, no,” Blake commented as he came to check out what Tate was doing. “They’d have police swarming the building. The minute this asshole sees a cop car, Zane’s chances of getting out alive aren’t good.”

“He’s right,” Marcus remarked, having followed Blake into the hallway. “The cops are going to do what they’re trained to do. That means SWAT teams, hostage negotiators, and all of the other things that will get Zane killed. Once Tate breaks into the lab, we’ll handle this.”

“I’m going with you,” Ellie said stubbornly. “He told me to bring it, and if he sees you guys, it could turn out badly. Besides, I know the building. I know how to get in without being detected. I have the codes for the alarms, and I know where the lab area and offices are located.”

“You’re not going,” Tate said flatly. “Zane would never forgive us if something happened to you. Christ! You’ve just recovered from being kidnapped.”

“If you don’t take me with you, I’ll show up there anyway,” Ellie argued. There was no way she was staying behind.

“I’m going, too,” Blake insisted.

“Neither one of you are trained in hostage situations. Just let Tate and I deal with it so nobody else gets hurt,” Marcus said gruffly.

Ellie crossed her arms and glared at all three men. “I have to go. He’s expecting to see me. How do you think you’re going to explain when I don’t show up? If you catch him off-guard, we might have a chance.”

“She has a point,” Tate ventured. “But you know Zane’s going to be pissed.”

Blake shrugged. “Better angry than dead.”

“I don’t like it,” Marcus rumbled. “It’s too dangerous for Ellie.”

Frustrated, Ellie turned around and went back into the family room, hoping for some backup. All three men followed.

“It’s not that we don’t think you can do it, Ellie,” Tate said as he entered the family room with the others right behind him.

“Then tell me what it is, because I’m going to be there whether you like it or not. It’s Zane’s only hope right now. If he sees you two, he could kill Zane.” She took a deep breath and tried to calm down.

“You have to understand that we can’t put your life in danger. I would kill anybody who let Lara come to any harm, including one of my brothers,” Tate answered irritably.

“I’m going, too,” Lara informed her husband matter-of-factly. “You could use another skilled professional with a gun.”

“Like hell you will,” Tate argued angrily, giving Lara a warning glance.

Ellie saw Chloe sitting on the couch with a crying Aileen, trying to comfort her mother. All this arguing wasn’t making this any easier on Aileen or the rest of the family.

“Stop!” Ellie raised her voice to be heard over all the noise. Now wasn’t the time for debating. “I think all of you need to understand that nothing will keep me from being in that building tomorrow morning. Zane saved my life. He never gave up on me, even though he should have.” She hesitated before adding, “Since he never gave up on me, I’m never giving up on him. I’d rather die trying than live in this world without him.”

Tears were streaming down her face as she finished her speech.

“We know you care about him,” Blake said quietly.

“I. Love. Him.” Ellie put emphasis on each word. “I love him more than anything else in this world.”

God, she wished she had told Zane how she felt. Now, it seemed so petty to be worried about his reaction.

“Are we going to make a plan, or are we going to sit here and argue?” Marcus asked drily.

They all decided that a plan was the best option.

Z
ane knew he was going to die. It was just a question of
when
Sean decided to off him. The only consolation he had was that at least Ellie wasn’t here with him, and he knew his brothers would keep her safe.

It had been a long night, Sean keeping Zane in a state of semi-consciousness so the guy could sleep.

Like it wasn’t enough that he was tied to a chair in Sean’s office with so much overkill that Zane couldn’t possibly get loose. And dammit, he’d tried. Over and over again. The moment he started making too much noise, Sean would wake and bash him over the head again. Thankfully, Zane could hear his employee snoring from his office chair behind him now.

Really, he found it pretty ironic that he was being held captive in an office he owned and had given to Sean when he’d hired him not all that long ago. It was a damn nice office, too. Now, he regretted not putting his director in some crappy cubbyhole somewhere instead of granting him an executive office as nice as his own.

Zane tried not to make a sound as his head began to clear. He wanted to be awake and conscious in case the police arrived, to see if he could do anything to help keep himself alive. Honestly, he’d expected police intervention way before now. It was definitely morning, and by looking at the sun rising through the window, it was well beyond dawn.

Fuck!
He hoped to hell that Ellie wasn’t planning on carrying through on Sean’s demands. The bastard would kill them both in a heartbeat if she came walking into the building with the stuff Sean wanted. Zane’s heart chilled.

Whatever Sean’s issues were, they weren’t with Zane. He’d just become his employee’s fixation, a target that didn’t really exist.

Why did I never see the signs? How was he able to hide this side of himself for so long?

Zane knew it happened. Hell, he’d just seen a news story about a father, husband and seemingly normal man with no criminal record who just went off one day, killing multiple people in a mass shooting.

Maybe Elena’s apparently final desertion had set Sean off, but Zane had no doubt that Sean’s mental issues had always existed and had been hidden away, just waiting for the right reason to go psychotic. The guy might have a brilliant scientific mind, but in other areas of his brain, there were definitely some major problems.

Turning his head slowly, he looked at the clock.

Almost nine!

He was getting nervous, worried about the fact that the police still hadn’t showed. Was Ellie really going to try to bring what Sean wanted?
Please God, no!

Not possible. I never got her access to my lab in Rocky Springs.

However, Zane knew that Ellie would have needed to work with his family if she wanted the money Sean wanted, and his brothers could be downright dangerous. With Tate and Marcus’s skills, Zane didn’t doubt they might try something themselves. It was the only explanation for why the police weren’t here.

God dammit! The last thing I want is for any of them to get hurt.

He would probably have a better chance of getting out of this alive if Tate and Marcus were planning something together. Truth was, he wanted to live. Zane didn’t want to leave Ellie on this Earth alone, and he wanted to be around for her. They hadn’t had enough time yet. He wasn’t ready yet.

I never told her how much I love her.

That was Zane’s deepest regret. Maybe he wasn’t a romantic guy, and maybe he hadn’t been all that good at telling Ellie exactly how he felt. But damn! How hard was it to tell her that he loved her, that he’d do damn near anything to see her smile?

Obviously, it was difficult or he would have already told her. He hadn’t wanted to scare her off by pouring his heart out all at once. Now, he wished he would have just taken the chance.

Sean’s snoring suddenly stopped, and Zane quickly closed his eyes. Better to look like he was still unconscious until something happened, and he knew something would. He knew his brothers, and they weren’t going to leave Zane’s fate to the police, especially when Sean had threatened to kill him the minute he saw a police car.

Something was going to happen. He knew his family was up to something. He just wished he knew exactly what they had planned.

Ellie waited long enough for Tate, Marcus, and Lara to gain access to the ventilation system. She’d let them into the building through the delivery entrance with her key before coding in the numbers that would stop the alarm system in the area, and relocking the back entrance after the three of them were in place.

Once their plan had been worked out the night before, Blake had been excluded because what they were doing wasn’t exactly the way the government would approve of handling the situation, and Blake had a senator’s seat to consider. He hadn’t been happy, but he’d finally bowed out, mostly because he didn’t want to be a hindrance since he had no experience in law enforcement.

I have to be patient. I have to give them time to get through the ventilation system.

Ellie hadn’t slept, but she was far from tired. Her nerves were on edge, and her hands were shaky as she made her way to the front entrance of the building. She knew she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t afraid, but it was Zane’s life she was afraid for right now.

What if he’s already dead?

She had to stop and take a deep breath, clear her mind of negative thoughts. There’d be no functioning the way she needed to if she panicked.

A cold chill ran down her spine, and she instantly knew she was being watched. The window in Sean’s office looked over the entrance, and Ellie was positive he was scrutinizing her every move.

Hefting the duffel bag over her shoulder so he could see that she was carrying a bag and a laptop under her other arm, she unlocked the door of Colter Labs and stepped inside.

With a glance at the alarm panel, she noticed that the system for the main building was off. Sean had either never reset the office and reception alarms, or he’d just shut them off before she entered.

Her phone rang, and she startled, nearly dropping Zane’s laptop. Hurriedly, she sat the bag and the computer on the receptionist desk and pulled her phone out of the pocket of her jeans.

She looked at the caller ID before she answered. “I have what you want. Now I want a trade.” Her voice was surprisingly firm. Anger that Sean had brought Zane into his crazy game was fueling her courage right now.

“Come up to my office alone,” Sean warned.

“I
am
alone,” she shot back at him. “I’m on my way, and I want to see Zane.”

“He’s here, and he’s not very happy right now,” Sean replied cheerfully.

“What did you do to him?” Ellie asked furiously, only to find that the line was now silent.

“Dammit!” She shoved her phone back in her pocket and gathered up the items on the desk, and then made her way to the elevators that led to the offices.

By now, Tate, Lara, and Marcus should be in position. Ellie wasn’t sure what had finally made Tate relent and bring Lara along with him. But Ellie had heard him remind his wife of her promise before he’d gone into the building, so Ellie knew Tate didn’t believe Lara should be anywhere near the dangerous situation.

Ellie took some deep breaths before the lift stopped at the floor where Sean’s office was located, trying to keep as calm as possible. Her greatest fear was that she couldn’t save Zane.

He never gave up on me. I won’t give up on him.

The words had become her mantra, her strength. She’d give her life in exchange for Zane’s in a heartbeat; she was just afraid that she wouldn’t have the chance.

Sean’s office door was open, and Ellie felt her heart hammering against her chest as she walked into the space slowly, frantically looking for Zane. “Where is he?” she asked, feeling like she wanted to smash the evil smile off Sean’s face as he greeted her at the door.

“I’ll take those,” he growled menacingly, snatching the duffel bag and laptop from her arms.

Her eyes caught sight of one of Sean’s office chairs moving, a pair of hiking boots flat on the floor. “Zane!” She ignored Sean, who was rifling through the bag to make sure it contained real money, and ran to the chair.

Fury coursed through her body as she saw how he was literally tied from neck to knee into the chair, blood streaming from his head, his face bruised. “You bastard,” Ellie turned and cursed at Sean. “You hurt him.”

“I didn’t say I wouldn’t have a little fun,” Sean answered nonchalantly as he pulled his handgun from his waistband and pointed it in their direction.

“You said you wanted a trade.” She tried not to flinch as Sean carelessly waved the gun in the air before retraining it toward her and Zane. She kept Zane’s back to Sean while she faced him, her body beside Zane’s chair. If Sean was going to shoot Zane, he’d have to come through her first.

“Surely you aren’t that ignorant, Ellie,” Sean answered. “If I let you go, then what? I’d be on the run for the rest of my life. That’s not the way I have things planned. I kill both of you, and by the time they find your bodies, I’ll be on my way out of the country. I have a charter waiting, and I can sell scientific discoveries anywhere. A million dollars can go a long way to setting me up where I’ll be safe.”

“Zane’s family will hunt you down like a hound dog on the scent of a rabbit. They’d chase your ass to the end of the Earth if they had to,” Ellie hissed.

“There are places that even the Colters can’t reach. Besides, they can’t prove that you two didn’t have a little domestic dispute and ended up with a murder/suicide situation. I can make it look that way.”

“They already know you have him as a hostage.”

“They’d have to prove I killed you both. Believe me, I’ll cover my tracks.”

Sean raised the gun to follow through on his murderous intentions. Then, everything happened at once.

Ellie slammed into Zane’s chair with her body, pushing it so hard that they both landed on the other side of the room as Sean’s gunshot exploded, hitting the area where she and Zane had just been positioned, shattering the glass in the office window in the process.

From her vantage point on the floor, Ellie tried to take in the situation. Evidently, Marcus must have let go of the heavy metal grille to the vent system, the hit to the head disorientating Sean, before Marcus came down right on top of him and subdued him. Tate followed, dropping into the fray. Lara swung off to the side, landing on her feet on the carpeted floor, and drew her handgun.

Not having a single doubt that Marcus, Tate, and Lara could handle Sean, Ellie turned her attention to Zane, finding some scissors and a pocket knife in Sean’s desk drawers to start cutting the bindings.

She pulled the tape off his mouth first, which, in hindsight, was a big mistake.

“What in the fuck did you think you were doing? I told you to call the police. You had to have known he wasn’t likely to let either one of us go. Why did you do this, Ellie? I asked you not to do it.” Zane was furious, but there was also fear in his eyes.

Ellie had cut through the substantial twine and rope around Zane’s body and worked through some of the knots. “I swear if you say another word, I’ll put the tape back on your mouth again,” she warned as she put some muscle into cutting one of his ties.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see that Marcus and Tate had easily subdued Sean. Police officers barreled through the door, and she heard Tate mumble, “Right on time,” as the officers took over custody of the struggling madman.

“Just tell me why? I could fucking handle that asshole killing me, but not you,” Zane growled.

Ellie sawed and jerked on a particularly tight piece of rope as she answered, “Well, I
couldn’t
handle him killing
you.
It would have been like he killed me, too. Even though you aren’t being particularly pleasant right now, I love your stubborn ass, Zane Colter, and I wasn’t about to give up on you. You never gave up on me.” Ellie spoke her mantra again, hoping it would be the last time she needed to say it.

The rope finally gave, and she was able to finally free Zane from his prison. He had to be sore. He hadn’t been able to move all night.