His for Now (His #2) (6 page)

Hayden was in the backseat next to me.  He held me as I struggled, trying in vain to sooth
e me.  I wasn’t exactly in any state to be comforted.  I’d just been
abducted
!  It was one thing for Hayden to act like a nutcase but now he’d involved his limo driver too.  What the hell was going on? 

“Daniella,” he murmured, his voice calm but his eyes looking panicked.  “Shh, it’s okay.  I’m
so sorry we had to do this but when you made it clear you wouldn’t come with me willingly there weren’t a lot of options left.”

I stared at him, wishing I could speak.

He was talking a lot more than usual, as though maybe if he said enough the words would gloss over what he’d done.  All I could do was listen as he explained, “I had one of my bodyguards keep an eye on you after I left but I just wasn’t satisfied it was enough.  I’m sorry we scared you.  I’m just trying to keep you safe.  I’d never forgive myself if anything happened to you.” 

He reached out and tried to stroke my hair but I jerked away
as best I could in my restraints.  He looked wounded by the rejection.  “Please,” he whispered, lowering his voice so the driver wouldn’t overhear.  “I know you don’t understand why I’ve done any of this.  To you, I must seem like a monster.” 

Our eyes locked and I silently pleaded with him to take my gag out.  He seemed to intuitively know what I wanted and he reached out to do it.  That’s when the driver interjected.

“Leave her as she is,” he ordered.  I could see his eyes trained on us in the rear view mirror.  We weren’t in a limo anymore, so there was no privacy screen.  I also had a feeling the limo driver wasn’t actually a limo driver, because Hayden immediately obeyed and pulled away. 

Since when did he take orders from his staff?

“We’ll be there soon,” Hayden assured me, looking mournful.

I didn’t answer him.  In fact, I didn’t even look at him.  Instead, I leaned my head against the window and pretended to doze
as we drove out into the country.  But I wasn’t sleeping – far from it.  I was actually doing everything I could to memorize the route we were taking.

Wh
en we pulled onto a gravel road, the limo driver stopped, got out and blindfolded me.  I kicked and screamed into my gag for all I was worth but it was no use.  I felt Hayden’s hand stroking my back reassuringly, recognizing his caress instantly.  But it did little to calm me down.  I felt like a caged animal.

“Is all this really necessary?” Hayden protested, sounding like he already knew the answer.

“Your father is angry enough that you insisted on going back for her,” the driver replied flatly.  “We have no way of knowing if she can be trusted.  She could endanger your life.  We need to take precautions.  You should have blindfolded her right from the start.”

“She c
an be trusted,” Hayden insisted as we continued to drive down the bumpy road.

“Didn’t you tell me that bandage on your hand is from where she bit you?”

“Yes but that’s different…”  Hayden sighed deeply.  “Okay, fine.  Let’s just get her inside.”

Once we reached our destination,
I was led inside some sort of building and laid down on a bed.  When my hands were untied I felt a glimmer of hope but then I felt cool metal on my wrists and heard the clink of handcuffs being snapped shut.  With mounting horror, I realized I’d been cuffed to a bed!

My mind began to entertain all sorts of awful scenarios and for a moment I felt myself on the verge of panic.  But then something inside me took over and I calmed down.  Neither fight nor flight was an option for me
at the moment…so I’d simply have to rely on my wits and wait for an opportunity to present itself. 

“Unless there’s anything else you need, I’ll be going now,” I heard the driver tell Hayden.  “As we discussed, I’ll be at the end of the road watching the cabin.  We have another agent staked out
at the back to make sure no one tries to get in from that direction.”

“Yes, good,” Hayden replied, sounding annoyed by the whole thing.  “Thank you.”

As soon as the driver left, Hayden pulled my blindfold off and removed my gag.  As my eyes adjusted to the light I looked around and saw we were in the bedroom of what appeared to be a rustic cabin.  The walls were made of wooden logs, which explained the faint and pleasant smell of pine I’d noticed upon entry.  The four poster bed I was handcuffed to looked antique and expensive, as did the rest of the furnishings.

Under different circumstances, I might be happy to be there.  It was like a luxurious wilderness getaway.  Except I was there against my will and
had no idea what was in store for me.  I looked at Hayden questioningly.  Part of me wanted to tear him a new one but now wasn’t the time.  First I needed to assess the situation.

“I’m so sorry,” he murmured as he propped a pillow behind me.  “Are you thirsty?” he asked, opening a bottle of water and holding it to my lips.  At that moment I realized I was parched, so I gulped it down gratefully.

Hayden sat at the edge of the bed tentatively, his eyes studying my face intently.  “I suppose you have all sorts of questions,” he said.  “And after what I’ve put you through, you deserve answers.”  He sighed wearily.  “I don’t even know where to begin.”

With a faraway look in his eyes, Hayden told me, “I always knew my father was an asshole, but I had no idea just how horrible he could be.  When I agreed to work for him I was young and naïve, fresh out of college
and with no direction in life.”

A twinge of nostalgia flashed in Hayden’s eyes as he recalled the life he’d had.  “I got in a lot of trouble in college, mostly for petty nonsense.  My father was convinced I was headed nowhere and I expected him to give up on me.  But instead he
offered me what sounded like a dream job, traveling the world and brushing elbows with the rich and famous.  How could I pass that up?  So I agreed to help him build his art empire.”

“On my first assignment, h
e sent me to Germany to pick up a new piece he was acquiring.  It was an original from the Omari Heath collection.  It was a lesser known piece, but even so – it was Omari Heath.”

When Hayden noticed the blank look in my eyes, he explained, “Omari Heath is a pretty huge deal in the art community.  The piece I picked up in Germany was worth millions of dollars.”

“Oh.”

“
It was a deal my father had already made before I came onboard; my role was just to facilitate the artwork’s transport back to his summer home.  So, stupidly, I did it.  Stupidly, I trusted him, without verifying any of the information I’d been provided with myself.  I only came to find out later that the piece was stolen.”

With a bitter laugh of a son betrayed, Hayden scoffed, “My father claimed he didn’t know
, but I find that preposterous.  He’s in the business of buying and selling art.  He’s a collector.  He’s an expert.  If he didn’t know what he was purchasing, then he should have.  He swears he had no idea the sort of trouble he’d gotten me into until the death threats started, but I find that hard to believe.”

I’d been
mostly silent until now, just trying to absorb what Hayden was telling me.  But now I had to speak up.  “Death threats – against you?” I asked, wide-eyed.

He nodded.  “I
got them for years.  At first, a small fortune was extorted from my father – millions of dollars, actually.  But it was never enough.”

“What do you mean?”

“Whoever was behind the threats kept demanding more, saying they’d slit my throat if they didn’t get what they wanted.  My father eventually decided he needed to take a stand against them, so he quit paying.  They didn’t like that so much…the threats just became darker and more violent in nature.”

I raised an eyebrow but kept my mouth shut.

“My father hired a private security firm to shadow me – that’s who my driver works for.  I’m told they’ve foiled a few attempts on my life, so I suppose it’s good to have them around even though it makes me feel like I’m in prison.”

I stared at Hayden, wondering whether I should believe the preposterous-sounding tale.

“My father also hired private detectives to try to find out who was sending the threats, but none of their leads have ever panned out.  The threats were against only me at first but then the people I was close to were also threatened.  I cut ties with my friends and stopped dating so no one would be caught in the crossfire.”

Hayden ran his hand through his hair.  I could see that his jaw was clenched in anger.  “The threats stopped about a year ago,” he said.  “Just like that, it was over.  It seemed
too good to be true at first.  But little by little, I let my guard down.  I was stupid enough to think that maybe I could lead a normal life.” 

He looked at me then, and told me with sincerity, “I never would have broken my rules for you had I known. 
My rules are designed to keep those around me safe.  My rules should have kept you safe.  If we’d just had a one night stand and left it at that…” he said wistfully, trailing off.  “I wanted to be with you so badly but believe me Daniella I wouldn’t have endangered you had I thought the threat still existed.”

“Was there another death threat?”  I
asked.  I still didn’t know if I believed him but I was going to give him the benefit of the doubt for the time being.  Right now, I decided, it didn’t matter what
I
believed.  What mattered was figuring out what Hayden believed.

“Yes.  That morning
at your house when I stepped outside to take a phone call…that’s what it was about.”

Thinking back to that awful morning, I remembered the way Hayden’s entire demeanor had inexplicably shifted.  One moment he’d been affectionate and flirtatious.  The next, he’d told me he wanted nothing to do with me, making me feel worthless and insignificant.  My temper flared at the recollection.

“Couldn’t you have just told me then?” I demanded.  “Did you really have to be an ass about it?”

The question, of course, was intended to be rhetorical.  But Hayden answered it.  “Actually yes, I did,” he said.  “I’ve regretted it every moment since, believe me.  But I was reckless that night.  I wanted to be alone with you.  Normally I have a security agent either driving my limo or tailing me, but that night…I just wanted you
all to myself.”

As Hayden paused with a look of melancholy on his face, I had a pretty good idea what he was recalling.  That night had been perfect in every way.  That night we hadn’t just shared our bodies with one another; we’d bared our souls.

“Leaving without security was stupid of me,” Hayden said bitterly.  “It left me vulnerable to wire taps, surveillance – whoever we’re dealing with is sophisticated, Daniella.  They must be if my father’s security team and private detectives haven’t been able to track them down.  So when I found out they might be watching me or even listening in... I couldn’t let them know I cared about you.  Otherwise you’d just become one more target for them to annihilate.”

“So you told me I meant nothing to you.  You said I was just a conquest.  You were only with me because you wanted to fuck me.” 

A pained expression came across Hayden’s face.  “None of it was true, of course.”

“Wasn’t it?” I said icily.

“Of course it wasn’t.  I’ve spent countless nights lying awake wondering how else I could have handled that,” he told me.  “Seeing the look on your face when I said those terrible things to you…God, Daniella, it killed me inside.  I could barely even look at you when I left.  But I couldn’t have you trying to contact me.  I had to do something that would make you stay away.  So I made you hate me.”

I said nothing.

“You do hate me, don’t you?”  His voice was just above a whisper, hoarse and tentative. 

Lowering my head, I remained silent.

“Please just know you were never a conquest to me.  In the beginning I spotted you across the bar, thought you were gorgeous and wanted to talk to you,” Hayden confessed.  “But I had no ulterior motive.  I just wanted to spend time with you.”

He silently pleaded with me to say something, but for that very reason I stayed silent.  He could abduct me and handcuff me to a bed but he couldn’t make me say or think the things he wanted.  Maybe I didn’t have my freedom at that precise moment, but I sure as hell still had an ironclad will.  He wasn’t going to defeat me.

When Hayden saw I was still unconvinced, he continued, “And then when I got to know you...you were so smart and interesting.  You were so different from any of the other women I’ve been with.  Daniella, I absolutely wanted to have sex with you but please know I wanted more than that…so much more.”

It was an interesting story but something wasn’t sitting right with me.  “These death threats you say you get,” I asked
, ignoring his plea, “Do they simply say ‘you’re dead’ or do they ask for something?”

“They demand the painting
,” Hayden replied.

“So, uh…give
it back?”  That seemed super obvious, but I had to say it anyway.

“Believe me, I would if I could. 
It was placed in my father’s private collection in his summer home,” Hayden explained.  “About six weeks after he obtained it, there was a burglary.  The house was sitting empty while he travelled overseas and there was an alarm system short circuit during a power outage.  During that time, someone broke in and stole the painting.”