CHAPTER 42
Kenzie
The next evening, I was still stuck in the tiny, dirty bathroom. I’d worked on getting the door open until my fingernails were bleeding, and then I’d finally collapsed in the bathtub, unable to stay up any longer without any sleep.
I’d heard my father return in the morning, then leave again this evening. I was assuming he’d slept. He certainly hadn’t let me out of the bathroom, even when I’d screamed at the top of my lungs to get the hell out.
I wasn’t sure how long I’d slept, but I’d just been awoken by a noise coming from the bathroom door.
It was still dark, so I probably hadn’t been asleep for long.
Jumping out of the tub half awake, I stood near the door, hoping I could escape if my father needed to use the restroom, or if he was coming to kill me.
There was no way I was going to let him shoot me dead while I slept in a bathtub.
I held my breath as he fumbled with the lock, hoping I could slip by him before he turned on the light.
Jesus, I really wasn’t ready to die. Not now. Not yet. Not when I’d discovered the most amazing man on the planet, and he cared about me.
After thinking about my situation and Dane’s, I knew there was no way my father was going to be able to actually capture Dane. The only reason Victor had been able to conquer me was because I was unaware.
By now, the Walkers probably knew everything about me, and Dane would be on high alert. More than likely, security and police would be everywhere around the Walkers, or at least I hoped they would be.
I was ready to push my way through the door when it opened, but rather than moving forward, I was pushed backward by a very solid form before the door swung shut again.
I stumbled from the weight of the body that crashed into me, trying to keep myself from flying back against the bathtub—again.
Victor hadn’t even turned on the light, so I squealed in the darkness as the unknown form stepped in behind me, keeping me from taking another tumble into the porcelain tub.
“Kenzie?” A familiar voice said into the darkness.
“Dane?” I couldn’t believe he was actually here with me.
I flipped on the light as soon as I regained my balance.
It was Dane, and he looked much worse for wear. “What in the hell did Victor do?”
I was furious. Dane looked like he’d been beaten up, his face sporting some fresh bruises and a few lacerations that were still bleeding. His arms were bound in front of him with some kind of cheap twine, and I debated about whether I could get it undone.
“It’s nothing,” he grumbled. “But it looks like that bastard hit you.”
Dane was angry, an emotion I didn’t see from him that often.
I shrugged. “I’m used to him hitting me. What did he do to you?”
We were stuck in a small space together with very little room to move. Since the room was so small, I hopped back into the tub. “Sit down,” I demanded. “You don’t look very steady.”
He sat, resting his back against the wall next to the tub as he asked, “Can you get into the pocket of my jacket? I have a knife to cut this rope.”
“Why in the hell did he hurt you?” I said angrily.
“I called him several names he didn’t like,” Dane said, sounding more satisfied than regretful. “I would have killed the bastard if I’d had the chance. But I didn’t. I needed to get to you.”
Dane was sporting a light leather bomber jacket, an article of clothing he hardly needed in a tropical climate. I didn’t have to reach far to get inside the garment. “How did he get to you? I was hoping you’d be protected. I didn’t want him to take you.”
I found the jackknife in his pocket and started cutting the twine from his bound hands.
“I wanted him to take me,” he answered matter-of-factly.
I looked at him in shock. “For God’s sake…why? Do you have a death wish? Victor doesn’t let any witnesses live. He’ll kill you, Dane. He’ll kill both of us.”
Finally, Dane’s hands were free, and he tossed the rope underneath the sink before he dug into his jacket pocket again. “Nobody is dying.”
“You don’t know Victor—”
“He’ll be leaving soon. And then we can get the hell out of here.”
I watched as he pulled out a small object that looked like a remote and switched it on. “Is that a tracking device?” I asked, still flabbergasted that Dane was here with me.
“Yes,” he answered simply.
He put the small tracker back in his pocket.
“I don’t understand.” Maybe I still wasn’t quite right from the blow to my head because I didn’t get why Dane had let Victor take him.
Dane moved onto his knees and put his hands on my shoulders. His tone was a husky whisper as he said, “My brothers will lure Victor out of here with a promise of money. Then somebody will come in and let us the hell out of here.”
“You set all this up?” I frowned at him, not happy that he was risking his life.
We kept our voices low. Victor wasn’t far from the bathroom door, and if he knew Dane had tricked him, he’d shoot first and never ask questions at all.
“Did you think I’d ever leave you here alone?” he asked, his mouth close to my ear.
“You should have,” I answered honestly.
“Not happening. I just found you. I’m not losing you now.”
Tears leaked from my eyes as I answered, “I don’t want you to get hurt. What if something happens to you?”
He pulled back and our eyes met and locked. His gaze was turbulent. “How in the hell do you think I felt? You were there one moment, and gone the next. I almost went fucking crazy. When my brothers and I found out about your father, we knew there was a chance that Victor would come after me or at least call to try to get something from us so we could get you back if he couldn’t get money any other way since you and I were connected. I made sure I was prepared just in case, and I made myself available. Luckily, he showed up.”
My tears were pouring down my face without stopping. “You’re crazy,” I accused, my heart clenching hard in my chest.
Even after I hadn’t told him the truth, he’d still made himself a sitting duck to rescue me.
His stare was intense as he whispered, “I’m insane when it comes to you. I’d rather fucking die trying to save you than to live without you, Kenzie.”
His mouth enveloped mine before I could blink, his embrace rough and urgent.
Winding my arms around his neck, I sighed into his mouth, trembling with fear for him, and the emotions coursing through my body.
I needed him.
But I wanted him safe.
The last thing I’d wanted was to have him anywhere near my crazy father.
When he finally lifted his head, I stumbled to my feet. “You’re bleeding,” I said.
“It doesn’t matter.”
I reached over him and swiped a thin washrag and got it wet in the sink. I crouched back down and started to wipe the blood from his face tenderly. “It matters to me.”
Once the blood was removed, I could see the lacerations on his face, and the swelling near his eye. “Why did you let this happen?”
“I couldn’t fight very hard,” he replied. “I wanted him to take me to wherever you were.”
“You shouldn’t be here at all.” I was suddenly confronted with the fact that Dane knew everything. “He’s my father. My problem.”
The outside door slammed shut, and I realized that Victor had finally left.
He took the rag from my hand and tossed it under the sink. “He’s not your father, Kenzie. He’s a goddamn monster. And he used to be your problem. He’s not anymore. He’s our problem.”
Even if we escaped, Victor would never stop looking for me. When he had a vendetta, he never gave up. He was crazy that way. “He won’t go away, Dane. He’ll never go away.”
“He’s going to meet up with my brothers for ransom. The cops will be there. He’s going back to jail, Kenzie.”
“It doesn’t matter. He’ll get to me somehow,” I answered. Victor had always found me if he wanted to, whether he was incarcerated or not. He had too many outside contacts, too many affiliates in organized crime. Maybe they’d all lost track of me for a period of time, but if my father got sent back to prison, he was going to do anything to get his organization back on track to kill me.
Victor was going to be pissed when he got caught so soon after he’d gotten out of prison. He’d reach out to somebody from the inside who could kill me. Maybe he’d gone on to other things when he hadn’t been able to find me before, but now, he’d never stop looking for me.
I’d be running.
Always running.
My life would go back to the way it was before I’d moved in with Paige.
I flinched as Dane put a finger on my face, tracing the mark where my father had belted me.
“Does it hurt?” he growled, the muscle in his jaw flexing, his expression angry.
“No. Not anymore,” I answered honestly.
“I could kill the bastard myself. Believe me, I wanted to, but I wanted to find you more.”
“You’re crazy,” I told him again. Who did that? What man would let himself be kidnapped just to find somebody else?
He shrugged. “I’m not crazy. I love you.”
My breath seized in my lungs as I looked at the sincere expression on his face.
He did love me. I could see it in his eyes.
I thought of all of the things I regretted not telling him as I answered, “I love you, too. Which is why I don’t want you here putting yourself in danger.”
“There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you, baby,” he said. “Nothing.”
I felt like my heart was being torn from my chest. After all of the years I’d spent running alone, his words and actions nailed me. “I feel the same. Dane, you have to get out of here.”
I was terrified that Victor would come back, that he’d hurt the man I loved more than anything or anyone else in the world.
“We have to get out of here,” he corrected. “And I expect our rescue any minute now. You promised me a birthday cake and dinner, and I’m going to collect.”
“Today is your birthday,” I said remorsefully, having thought about it being Dane’s date of birth several times before I finally collapsed in the tub.
“Actually, it’s after midnight. It’s actually your birthday.”
I squeaked as he wrapped his arms around me and bodily hauled me out of the tub, dropping me on his lap.
My arms went around his shoulders, holding on as he settled me comfortably.
My beautiful dress was pretty much ruined, the fabric bunched around my thighs.
“How did you know he’d come for you?” I asked, my fingers pushing his hair back from his face gently.
“I didn’t. But if he did, I was going to be ready. I figured he was desperate for money, and I have a lot of it. When we didn’t get a ransom demand, I assumed he’d found another plan. I just hoped he didn’t kill you before we found you.” His muscular body shuddered.
“I told him you wouldn’t care about me. That I was just an employee. Even if you paid him, he would have killed me. He wants me dead.”
“Jesus! He’s your goddamn father.”
“Doesn’t matter,” I replied. “He’s so twisted that he doesn’t even recognize the connection. I was never anything except an inconvenience to him and my mother. I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you. I wanted to, but I was afraid.”
“Yeah, some day I’m going to make you tell me why you didn’t think I’d understand,” he warned. “But right now, I’m just fucking relieved that you’re okay.”
There were a million reasons why I didn’t want to share all of my past.
My shame.
My embarrassment.
My fear.
My hang-ups.
But none of them seemed to matter now. “I do love you, Dane. Maybe I have for quite some time, but I didn’t want to admit it.”
“Why?”
“Because nobody has ever really loved me except for Paige. I don’t do relationships. I don’t know how.”
“We’re going to learn, baby. I don’t know how to deal with loving a woman like this either, but I’m not letting you go. Ever. I just went through two days of hell. I’m going to make sure I protect you from now on.”
I wasn’t quite sure how to handle that. Nobody had ever cared enough to protect me, even when I’d been an innocent kid.
So I kissed him, trying to relay to him everything I was feeling.
Dane took control, his hands on both sides of my head to hold me in place.
It was the last bit of intimacy we had before the troops arrived to let us out of our makeshift prison.
When we finally got outside, my knees collapsed as I realized that Dane and I were safe. Neither one of us was going to die.
Dane lifted me up and put me into the police car as I sobbed against his shoulder all the way back to the resort.