Page 22 of Forbidden Captor

Suddenly, I felt a cold hand over my face. My breath was ragged, and I felt the cold shiver of fear down my spine. I couldn’t move. I could still see Jack, so I began to struggle with my captor. I elbowed whoever had a hold of me as hard as I could and heard a soft grunt. I shoved him off of me and bolted towards Jack, who immediately sprang into action. He ran past me, and I looked back to see a dark shadow running off into the distance.

When Jack returned, he was red in the face. “What did I tell you?” he yelled.

The man Jack had been talking to shook his head. “No good!”

Jack fumed at that. “Yes, she is. . She won’t tell anyone.”

“Won’t tell anyone what?” I asked. I was frustrated that Jack wasn’t telling me anything, and I just wanted to understand what he was doing.

“Exactly,” said the man, who then handed Jack a small bundle of money. “If she says anything, you’re both dead.”

Jack nodded, then pocketed the money. He rushed past me, grabbing for my arm.

“Excuse me,” I interrupted, annoyed that he would just leave me without saying a word. “Aren’t you going to tell me what’s going on?”

He whipped around. “Why don’t you tell me? You just jeopardized both of our lives!”

I could feel hot tears welling up. Jack seemed to soften up at that, because he put his arms around me.

“I can’t tell you everything because I want to keep you safe,” he said.

“But what about whoever just tried to kidnap me?” I asked. The man had simply run off, and Jack didn’t seem to care that I had almost been abducted.

“Gustavo didn’t see him. We're good.”

I was furious. “That’sit?Don’t you care about me?”

“OfcourseI do,” Jack said. “But if Gustavo had seen that guy running off, you and I would be in much hotter water.” Jack pulled out the money. “This is our safety net. We need to get out of this city. Did you think about where you want to go?”

I shook my head, dumbfounded that Jack would even bother to ask me this after I had just been assaulted.

“I know the perfect place. But it’s a long flight from here. You’ll love it, it’s exotic.”

“Whatever.” I didn’t care where we were going; I was ready to just storm off.

Jack took my hand however,and said, “Baby, I did this all for you. Come on, we’ll go get some rest before we get a move on. Something tells me you’re being watched, so the sooner the better.”

I couldn’t believe myself, but after being manhandled by some stranger I didn’t want to stay. “How about tonight?”

Jack smiled.

10

JACK

She sure was something else—I saw the way she handled that goon, knocking him right in the gut with her elbow. I’d recognized him. It was one of Reed’s henchmen; the look of fear when he made direct eye contact with me was more than enough to give him away. Gustavo had known who he was too, but he didn’t know Emma.

I was still fuming that she didn’t listen to me. She could have gotten herself killed.But she wants adventure…

There was nothing like being on edge, and even after well over twenty years of constant danger, I wouldn’t trade it for the world. But factoring in a young beauty into the equation made me nervous. I couldn’t bear the thought of something happening to Emma.

It was going to take some getting used to.

She really surprised me, in many ways. On the one hand, she terrified me with her brash decisions, but on the other…she was brave, even if she was sometimes dumb. However, her wanting to leave Frankfurt was a good idea. After we got our stuff from the hostel, we headed towards the airport late that night and I knew exactly where to take her.

“You ready for an exotic world where you can live like a queen?” I asked her.

She smiled. “It depends on whose queen I am.”

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