A few cold words to a rushing nurse promptly produced her doctor. Jay was able to ascertain the extent of her injuries and obtain her release. The doctor assumed Jay was her husband. Jay did not correct the man. Jay asked the doctor if Allie was well enough to fly, his hand tightening on her arm when she gasped in surprise. The doctor confirmed that her wounds weren’t serious and would mend with a few weeks. The butterfly stitches could be removed in 10-14 days if they didn’t come off on their own.
Before Allie could protest his actions, Jay gathered her bag and the jacket that had slid from her shoulders during their prolonged hug.
"Anything else?" he asked.
"I'm not going with you," Allie said, her voice higher than normal as he took her good arm and began steering her back through the busy corridors toward the emergency exit.
Jay took a breath of fresh air once they were outside. He didn't like being cooped up in any building, but he especially hated hospitals. He led her toward a waiting car with tinted windows. A huge man wearing sunglasses and looking extremely out of place in a hospital parking lot opened the door for them and smiled gently at Allie. She stared in open mouthed astonishment at Jay's burly, tattooed associate.
“This is Greg,” Jay introduced as they approached the car. “He’s been waiting a long time to meet you, Allie.”
“Ms. Klassen,” Greg greeted her with a quick grin. “It’s nice to finally meet you. Sorry to hear about your injuries.”
“Uh… nice to meet you too,” Allie said faintly.
Greg looked like he should be someone’s stunt double on an action movie with tons of explosions and shooting. He was likely in his fifties, classically good-looking and muscular in a way that pointed to a man that probably did too many steroids in his youth.
Allie stared at Jay in disbelief as he gently pushed her into the car and climbed in behind her. He stopped her before she could slide across to the far seat and latched her into the centre seatbelt. He did the same for his seatbelt and told Greg to take them to the airport.
"Jay!" Allie gasped. "I'm not going with you."
He took her hand in a gentle but firm grip and squeezed it. He ignored her outburst and asked Greg in a low, authoritative voice, "Everything go okay at the house?"
Greg nodded at his boss in the rear view mirror. "Vic texted while you were inside, he's on his way back to the airport with the things you wanted. He’s going to stay in town for a few days like you said.”
Allie looked between the two men and shook her head. She tugged on Jay's hand, which still held hers in a possessive grip. He looked down at her, but didn’t release her hand.
"No," she said to him, shaking her head in denial. "Jay, take me home."
His eyes hardened. He didn't say anything. She knew what he was doing. Deep down inside she knew her clock had run out. She always vaguely wondered if he was keeping her on a leash. One that he could tug at any time. Maybe a tiny part of her hoped. Though time, distance and marriage to another man had dulled her girlhood love, she never truly stopped caring. Well, today she found out the truth. He had finally come to collect.
"Please don't do this," she whispered desperately. "Don't take me away."
His eyes remained hard and he still didn't answer. He didn't need to. His fingers flexed, caressing the skin of her wrist. He wouldn't let her go this time. She wanted to argue, but Jay was not the type of man to argue with. He was ruthless when crossed. Though Jay had protected her from his street image as she'd grown up, she'd heard whispers. You only disagreed with Jay Le Croix once. Because you never got a chance to do it again.
They arrived at the airport several minutes later. The black rental car stopped beside a light aircraft on a private runway. Allie thought about screaming for help, but she couldn't see anyone near enough to help, even if Jay didn't stop her. She didn't want to get him in trouble, but she also didn't want to be kidnapped from the city she'd lived in for the past ten years of her life.
He didn't give her a chance anyway. He unbuckled her seatbelt and then, mindful of her injuries, whisked her out of the car and into the airplane within seconds. Allie's feet barely touched the ground. Jay's hands slid around her waist and splayed across her stomach and hips as he held her against his body, moving easily with her in his arms. When they reached the plane, hands reached out to take her.
"Watch her fucking arm," he growled, relinquishing her for the seconds it took to haul himself up into the plane behind her.
He buckled her into a seat on the plane and took the seat next to hers. Greg came in next and raised a brow at Jay. The boss nodded toward one of the seats at the front of the plane. Clearly, Jay was used to the pilot or co-pilot seat. Allie watched in shocked silence as several boxes were loaded into the back of the plane behind their seats and secured.
When she turned questioning eyes toward Jay, he said, “Some things I knew you wouldn’t want to leave behind.”
Allie’s mouth dropped as she stared uncomprehendingly. She felt Jay’s eyes on her face, but she couldn’t tear her eyes from the boxes. She tried to get her brain to understand the implications of his knowing what items would mean something to her and how he could possibly have them packed up and moved in the time it took him to come pick her up from the hospital. She didn’t bother trying to figure out how his guy got into her locked and alarmed house. She’d known Jay for long enough to know exactly what he was capable of.
Within minutes the plane began to move. Allie turned to plead with Jay in one last attempt to get him to leave her behind. His face remained unyielding as he stared into her tear filled eyes. Her lips formed the word ‘please,' but he only shook his head once in denial. His eyes reflected only satisfaction with a hint of pity. Tears trickled freely from the corners of Allie's eyes. She turned her face away and huddled against the corner of her chair. She clutched her purse tightly in her lap and stared down despairingly as Regina, the prairie city she had grown to love, disappeared below her. She knew if Jay had his way she wouldn’t be back.
***
"Where are we?" Allie asked. Her voice sounded hoarse and dim to her ears after an hour and a half of flying noise droning in her head.
The plane had landed on a private runway in the mountains. Jay took her good arm in a firm grip and helped her from the plane. Weariness settled over Allie as warm afternoon sun shone down on her dark head. She looked around her in tired curiosity as Jay ushered her into the back of a waiting vehicle.
"We're just outside of Kelowna," he said.
"Near mom's place?" Allie asked in surprise.
Jay smiled fondly. "I bought a small vineyard in the area not long after she married Rob. It's only a few hours from Vancouver making it an easy weekend home for me."
"Why didn't she tell me?" Allie asked. He’d been in the area for years and she hadn’t known.
"I asked her not to," he said, his eyes piercing hers. "I knew it would spook you to have me nearby when you visited. You might have come less often."
Allie opened her mouth to deny his words, but then stopped. He was right. If she'd known he was so close then she probably wouldn't have flown to Kelowna as often as she'd done in the past few years. Kelowna wasn't a big city. She could have easily run into him.
He smiled grimly. "Transparent as ever."
She looked over at him, so many questions hovering on the tip of her tongue. He shook his head. She understood. Now was not the time to do battle with Jay. Part of her wanted to defy him, wanted to demand he give her the answers she needed. Instead she remained silent. He didn't have a reputation as one of the most ruthless gangsters on the west coast for no reason.
Jay’s vineyard was twenty minutes outside of Kelowna, nestled just above the valley on a private estate with enough security that even Allie, with her penchant toward naivety, could easily identify. She turned toward Jay and raised an eyebrow in question as they passed through the guarded security gates. A high wall extended most of the way around the property.
“Are you expecting intruders?” she asked.
He looked down at her seriously and shook his head. “A special addition.”
She frowned. “What do you mean?”
He remained silent as they pulled up to the house. Allie wanted to insist he tell her, but then she caught sight of the house and all thought fled along with her former tiredness. When Greg opened her door she climbed out in excitement, forgetting for a moment that she’d been kidnapped and simply taking in the beauty of the house.
“Oh my goodness,” she breathed, reaching out to take Jay’s hand easily as she used to do when she was young. “It’s so lovely, Jay!”
It was a sprawling house that, despite its cottage-like appearance, was deceptively modern. There were doors and windows everywhere, washing it in light and openness, which would make it more of a home for Jay who tended toward claustrophobia. But there were also castle-like elements of stone pathways and turrets that would appeal to the romantic in Allie.
“I’m glad you like it,” he said quietly. “Let’s go inside.”
Jay placed a hand at her back and ushered her into the house. Allie’s mood began to descend once more as he showed her around his home. She felt like a yo-yo. One moment elated to see the person she used to care so much about, a man that had practically saved her and her mother’s lives, and then upset with the way he was now controlling her. She turned to him as he showed her into the master suite, a massive open concept room with huge glass windows and doors along two walls.
“Stop, Jay,” she said quietly. “Just stop pretending for a minute.”
He stopped moving and stood still, watching her sharply. He nodded slightly not saying anything. She realized she must look pathetic next to him. He wore an expensive suit which, though somewhat creased after two flights, still looked incredibly good on his lean, muscular frame. The juxtaposition between the suit and the tattoos that snaked down his hands and fingers and up his neck appealed to her. When she was a kid he used to dress rougher, more like she did now. In jeans, T-shirts and running shoes. Allie dressed down so her clients would feel more comfortable with her. She kept her hair long and free so she would seem more disarming. Now she felt like a tangled, dirty mess. Her shirt was torn and bloody where she’d been knifed.
“How long are you going to keep me here?” Allie finally decided to brave the questions she knew needed asking.
His eyes sharpened on her face. “You’re here to stay, Allison,” he said implacably using her full name, which he did when he wanted her to know he meant what he was saying.
She shook her head. “No, I’m not.”
“This isn’t a negotiation.” His voice was hard, his eyes harder.
Anger and a dose of panic rose up in Allie. She knew when Jay decided something he was immovable. “Jay, I can’t stay here with you. I’m still married to Derrick. I still have a job. I have to go home. I can see exactly what you’ve done. You’ve built this beautiful home and filled it with things that you know I love. But its too late for us, Jay. Even a beautiful prison is still a prison. You can’t just keep me here forever!”
Something frightening flared in Jay’s eyes, stopping the flow of Allie’s words. He stepped toward her. Allie stepped back. He stalked toward her until only inches separated them. She felt the electric attraction jump between them, stronger than ever, and gasped. He didn’t touch her, yet every part of her felt alive from his nearness. It had always been there, the thing that lay between them, but Jay had suppressed it before, sending her away. He was doing nothing to hold himself back from her now. Her head spun from the knowledge that he was done hiding his attraction.
“You’ve always belonged to me, Allison,” his quiet voice sounded guttural with need. “I should have taken you when you were eighteen, but I didn’t. For better or worse, I sent you away instead.”
She nodded mutely, eyes wide on his face.
“I let you go once.”
Her lips parted and her breath escaped in a shudder.
“It’ll never happen again.”
Allie whimpered, half in fear and half in arousal, as he pinned her with his possessive grey eyes. He looked as though he wanted to reach for her, but was ruthlessly holding himself back so he wouldn’t hurt her. His long fingers curled into fists and his cruel lips compressed into a line. Allie shivered as he stepped away from her. Some of the tension diffused.
“Get some rest,” he said.
He turned and left the room, locking the door behind him.