Page 1 of A Captive Situation

Chapter One

Sawyer

I was riding the subway in New York City for the first time, and a part of me was hoping the passengers around me would start singingThe Lion King’s “Circle of Life.”

Logically, I’m sure that rarely happened, but if there was a chance? I was down for it.

Hear me, Universe. Broadway rendition of any song. I’m not picky.

I waited, looking around. There were some people passed out. A bunch of college students. Other workers. I leaned back, eyeing a group of athletic-looking people. They looked like they could be dancers. Broadway dancers?

I was hoping for it, but then the next stop happened and they got off.

Okay. I deflated.

Maybe not.

The last guy I was holding out for was scowling to himself and was fixated on his phone. He had the build. Broad shoulders. He wasn’t slim, or he didn’t seem like it as he was sitting, but he had thelooks. And by that I meant that he was hot. Super hot. He was solidly built. There was no excess weight on him. All muscle. Fierce eyes. A clenchedjawline. Leather jacket, black Henley, and jeans. Dark hair that was cut short on the sides and left with enough to grab a hold of on top.

He looked as if he could handle himself in a fight, and in my mind, that meant he was made for Broadway.

His energy was all off, though. He seemed all growly, not as though he was ready to burst into song. Perhaps he was the Beast? Or no ... Gaston?

No. Gaston didn’t seem to fit either. Total Beast.

His phone buzzed and he answered it, turning away. I couldn’t make out his words, but his very gravelly and pissed-off clipped tones were now about to segue into the beginning of “Seasons of Love.”

I was waiting.

Expecting.

Sigh.

It wasn’t going to happen.

My phone buzzed at that moment, too, and I checked my text.

Mom: Hi honey! How is New York? Are you safe? Did you see the Wall Street bull yet? I know you were so excited to check it out.

My mom was under the impression I was here as a tourist. Which I was. I had an entire tourist checklist of things to do: See a Broadway show, go to a museum, maybe go nuts and eat at some fancy restaurant that only New York City seemed to have. I wanted to go to Ellis Island, tour the Statue of Liberty, find out what this Canal Street was all about. Then there was Times Square, though I was a bit iffy on this naked cowboy character.

The other reason I was here in New York and not back home was because of just that, I wouldnotbe back home. So since I was avoiding anything and everything that reminded me of Montana, I was going to skip seeing this cowboy person, naked or not. We had enough cowboys back home.

Another item I wanted to check off my list was to meet my cousin. I’d met his sisters a few times. They lived a few hours away, but not Graham. That was going to change on this trip. My mom was close to two of my aunts, but there was a rift between the three of them and Graham’s mom. I’d asked my mom what the issue was, but she never gave me a great answer. She liked to deflect. So while I was here, I was taking things into my own hands.

I’d cyberstalked Graham and he looked awesome. He was adopted, he and his two sisters. He was an architect. He had a husband. He liked to travel. I could get so many great tips on being the ultimate tourist from him.

I was hoping when I met Graham, and when he fell in awesome cousin love with me, that we could conspire on how to bring the sisters together.

That was the secret mission. That, and the whole “not being at home” because this was also the week that I was supposed to be getting married.

But I wasn’t, because Beck dumped me.

Beck, the same guy that I’d been with since college.

The same guy that I helped put through chiropractic school.

The same guy that wanted me to quit the receptionist job I loved to work for him, which I did.

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