Merger: Takeover Duet #2 Read online

  The only way I’m getting out of here is if I play by his rules and let him chain me up. But giving myself over willingly isn’t something I’m used to doing, especially when everything inside me is already screaming for me run.

  I roll to my back and stare up at the rustic beams above the bed, still unable to look him in the face. I take a deep breath and close my eyes. “I would rather stay out here with you.” The lie leaves an acidic taste in my mouth.

  Trent doesn’t speak as he lifts my arm toward the headboard. When he locks a cold, metal handcuff around my wrist, I refuse to make any noise.

  “Don’t worry, Lulu. It won’t be like this forever. Soon we’ll both be free.”

  Delusional doesn’t even begin to describe Trent, and I fear I have to let myself spiral into his insanity before I can make it out of here alive.

  I glance at him.

  Big mistake.

  Gone is the handsome, put-together man who wooed me years ago. He’s been replaced by someone else with so much darkness in his eyes that it chills me to the bone. There’s a wildness I haven't seen before. As if something in him has shifted into this savage creature before me.

  The fear that had been simmering inside, barely kept at bay, starts to creep into every fiber of my body.

  Chapter Three

  ANTONIO

  As the jet starts down the runway, Maverick unpacks a duffel bag full of weapons, placing them on the table between us. Less than an hour ago, Maverick’s man in Canada called to verify that there has been activity at the cabin near Windsor, Canada. We’re certain it’s Lauren and Trent. Without hesitation, I readied the jet and left Carlino and Josh to hash out the future of our companies.

  “We’ll be on the ground in thirty minutes, sir,” the pilot announces before the wheels lift off the ground.

  If the merger deal falls apart, so be it. My heart isn’t in it anymore. I have enough money in the bank to last me twenty lifetimes. I’ve achieved almost everything I wanted to in life, all but one…finding someone to call mine. Now that I’ve found her, I don’t care about anything else other than bringing her back safely and shielding her from anything like this ever happening to her again.

  Maverick sets a small black handgun in front of me, turning the grip in my direction. “Only use this if necessary, sir.”

  I stare him down, running my finger over the edge of the armrest. “I’ve fired a gun before. I think I’d surprise you with my accuracy.”

  A smile pulls at the corner of his lips. “I’m sure you’re quite the Rambo, but the last thing I need is for you to kill the man. Dealing with the Canadian officials when there’s a murder committed by a high-profile person would be a nightmare.”

  “Who says they’d find a body?”

  Maverick pinches the bridge of his nose and shakes his head. “If the animal needs to be put down, please let me handle it, sir.”

  “If I have a better shot and Lauren’s in grave danger, I won’t hesitate to pull the trigger.”

  “Clusterfuck,” he mutters. “Let’s go over the terrain and area surrounding the cabin. I want to make sure we’re on the same page before we go in there, guns blazing.”

  He pulls a folded piece of paper from his back pocket and smooths it out in from of us. He points at the small building in the center. “The cabin is located near the coast of Lake Erie with no inhabitants for at least one mile on each side.”

  I nod, studying the map as his finger slides across it. “Are we going in by sea or land?”

  Maverick holds back a laugh. “By land, sir. We’ll be taking this route through the forest from the side road.” He taps the paper. “Then we’ll take this path through the dense woods until the cabin comes into view.”

  “Then?” I lean forward, studying the image.

  “Then we wait for night.”

  “Unacceptable.” It’s a little after two, and there are too many hours until darkness descends. I’m unwilling to leave Lauren in the hands of the madman for that long.

  “Darkness will give us the greatest cover and our best chance to rescue Lauren without anyone getting harmed.”

  “We’ll discuss timing after we land and have the cabin in view.”

  Maverick nods, knowing I’m not one for waiting, especially when something this important is on the line.

  “We need to change,” he says, lifting a second duffle bag onto the tabletop. “You can’t go in there in your suit. We’ll be spotted from a mile away.”

  I grab the clothes from his hands and quickly remove my business suit and slide on the camouflage pants and shirt. “It doesn’t matter what I’m wearing as long as we get the job done.”

  He lifts a holster in my direction. “Do you know how this goes on?”

  Without hesitation, I take the leather holster from his hands and fasten it around my body. “I have more experience than you’ll ever know.”

  But I know Maverick knows everything about me. The man didn’t agree to be number one in security at Cozza without finding out every little thing about my life. He knows I’m an avid outdoorsman and love to hunt. I spent much of my twenties traveling the world and taking part in hunting expeditions in some of the most remote terrain on the planet. As I grew older and wiser, I no longer found hunting as thrilling, and my moral compass had shifted.

  “I think we’re ready.” He grabs his outfit, excusing himself to the bedroom in the back of the plane.

  I take the few moments alone to stare down across the landscape as Lake Erie comes into view. I’m not a patient man, and sitting here, knowing she’s down there scared and alone has my insides turning. There’s no way I can wait until the veil of darkness gives us enough cover to storm the cabin.

  “Let me handle customs when we land,” Maverick says as he walks back into the main cabin in full camo and face paint. “They’re aware that we’re coming, but sneaking in to Canada isn’t an easy task and costs a lot of money.”

  “Pay them anything they want. I want to have that cabin in my sights within the hour, Maverick.”

  “Phone off, Mr. Forte. No more communication with the outside world, and I want no evidence we were ever here in case everything goes to shit.”

  Doing as he asks, I turn off my phone and put it in my pocket. There’s very little talking as the jet descends through the clouds, finally touching down at a small airport outside Windsor. The customs officials are waiting for us at the gate.

  Maverick cuts them off, walking with them about twenty feet in front of me. I can’t hear what they’re saying, but when Maverick hands the man a thick envelope and we’re quickly left alone, I know we’re in. Now there’s nothing stopping us from getting to Lauren.

  We climb into the black Durango that is waiting for us on the tarmac and take off toward the cabin. The last thing I care about is my life or going to jail; my only concern is getting Lauren away from Trent by any means necessary.

  LAUREN

  Trent sits next to me, holding a gold ring in front of my face. “Do you know what this is?”

  I’ve been on the bed for hours, handcuffed to the headboard, unable to move. My arms are numb to the point of pain, but he’s refused my every request to remove the restraints.

  “A ring.” I wiggle my fingers and wince as it feels like shards of glass are being dragged down my arms.

  “Your ring,” he whispers.

  “My ring?” The pain is pushed to the side by the dread that instantly fills me at his words.

  “Do you know why we’re here?”

  I glance up as his eyes dip to the ring, and he turns it in his fingers. “This is your wedding ring, Lulu. Isn’t it beautiful?”

  Shock.

  Horror.

  Numbness.

  So many emotions churn through my body that it’s hard to breathe.

  I want to spit in his face and tell him that he’s clearly crazy, but I know it’ll do me no good. I’m his captive, chained to a bed we once made love on with no rescue in sight.

&n
bsp; There’s only one thing I can do to possibly get out of here…I have to play along. Placating Trent and joining his crazy fantasy is the only way I can gain enough freedom to escape the cabin and maybe even with my life.

  “It’s beautiful,” I whisper, almost choking on the lie.

  But much like in the boardroom, I have to become a different version of myself. I push aside the little girl who wants to curl into a ball and cry to become someone who steps over the line into his insane fantasy. “I’ve waited years for you to ask.”

  A smile flashes across his face, but it quickly disappears. “But what about Antonio?”

  I swallow down the bile that’s rising in my throat and smile up at the man who deserves nothing short of death. “I was trying to make you jealous, Trent.”

  It’s lunacy, but Trent isn’t working with a full deck. Maybe he’ll buy the lie and has lost enough rational thought to believe it’s true. It’s my only hope, and I’m going to stick to the story even if it kills me.

  “You’ve achieved your goal.” He reaches down, placing the golden ring on my bare stomach before the palm of his hand rests next to it. “I’ve been waiting for you to come back to me. I couldn’t stand by another minute and watch you drift away.”

  My bottom sinks into the bed, wanting to escape from his touch, but I go stiff, trying to remain still. “I was never going anywhere. My heart has always belonged to you.” The lie comes out easier this time.

  He leans forward, pressing his lips to mine. At first, I don’t kiss him back, but when his fingers curl painfully into my flesh, I open for him. I almost gag as his tongue sweeps inside my mouth, but the drive to stay alive kicks in and I overcome the sickness.

  When he backs away, he smiles as his fingertips caress the tender flesh near my navel. “Tomorrow we’ll say our vows before everything ends.”

  Before everything ends?

  “What does that mean?”

  He rises from the bed and starts to pace at my side. “We can’t go back, Lulu. Our lives there are over. We’ll say our vows and enter into the afterlife together.”

  Every muscle in my body seizes, and I suddenly feel like I’m drowning. His life may be over, but mine has barely begun. I just need to buy enough time for Antonio to find us, if he’s already started looking. Even though sometimes I think Antonio’s playing me, if he doesn’t rescue me, I’ll know for sure.

  Someone has to have noticed by now that I’m missing. My purse was still in my office when I left to meet Trent. Normally, I would have taken it with me, but I ran out of there in such a hurry, I left it behind. Cassie would have known when she locked up my office at the end of the day. If there’s no one else I can count on in my life to realize I’m missing, I still have her.

  “We can go back,” I whisper, trying to find a way to reason with him.

  He walks in longer strides, moving from one end of the cabin to the other like a trapped animal. “We can’t. After we say our vows, we must end everything in order to be together forever. I promise to make it painless and easy.”

  How thoughtful of him to think that I’ll be okay with ending my life as long as it’s painless. The one thing I know about death is it’s never easy. The body fights against the darkness even with no escape. There’s nothing easy about it. I’ve watched someone die before my eyes, and the process is the most horrific thing I’ve ever witnessed.

  “How?” I don’t really want to know how he plans to take my life before ending his own, but I need to buy enough time for someone, anyone to find us.

  He stops at the foot of the bed and looks down at me with an unnatural calmness. “We’ll both fall asleep in each other’s arms and never wake up. I can’t think of a better way to go. Can you?”

  I look down the length of the bed at the man I once thought to be the most brilliant mind on the planet. How easily his genius has transitioned into irrational is absolutely shocking. I should’ve known something like this could happen after he tried to force himself on me in my office. But who really believes someone could go off the rails in such spectacular fashion as quickly as he did?

  “Trent,” I whisper, already trying to piece together a way out, but coming up with nothing. “Can you remove the cuffs?”

  His fingers curl around the wrought-iron footboard as he gazes down at me. “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

  “But I want to touch you. I’d rather spend tonight making love to you if it’ll be our last one together. Can we have one happy night in each other’s arms before we die tomorrow?”

  He slides onto the bed next to me. “Tell me you love me,” he says.

  “I love you.”

  The lies come out easier knowing my life is on the line.

  “You promise to be mine forever?”

  “I’ve always been.”

  I didn’t repeat the words he wanted, but I answered in a way that would make him happy. I already said the worst thing I could by saying that I loved him when all I wanted to do was claw his eyeballs out with my bare fingers.

  He gazes at me, and neither of us speaks. I pray I’m able to hide my hatred of the man enough so he believes the lies that are falling from my lips on command. When he reaches up and starts to unlock the first handcuff, I take a deep breath and ready myself for what’s to come next.

  The joy of freedom is quickly replaced by the searing pain as my arms slip downward. I can barely move my arm when the metal slides free from my flesh. I let out a strangled cry as I wiggle my fingers. Trent doesn’t respond to my whimpers before moving to the next handcuff and repeating the process.

  Even if I wanted to run this very second, I can’t. My arms ache with even the slightest movement. I wouldn’t make it off the front porch before he’d pull me back in.

  “Better?” Trent asks, tossing the key onto the nightstand next to my head.

  “Thank you,” I bite out through the tears.

  He leans forward, brushing his lips against my cheek. “I love you so much, Lulu. I’m sorry if I hurt you, but I didn’t know what else to do. I can’t lose you.”

  With my newfound freedom, the lies come easier. I’m one step closer to escaping him. “You could never lose me. I understand why you did what you did. I’ve been playing hard to get for far too long, and the game’s exhausting.”

  Unable to move my arms, I lie still, letting him touch me even as my skin crawls underneath his fingers. He climbs over me, settling between my legs with the weight of his body on mine and the ring digging into my flesh. “This is all I ever wanted.”

  “Me too.”

  We’re not talking about the same thing. I want my freedom and his complicity in making it happen. The first chance I have, I’ll run for the door and pray I have enough speed to outrun him through the brush that he knows better than I ever will.

  Maybe there are campers nearby who will hear my cries before he has a chance to drag me back into the cabin, sealing me away in darkness again.

  The pain in my arms starts to wane as the tingling gives way to a dull throb. I wiggle my fingertips, willing the blood back to the very reaches that have been denied circulation for hours. I don’t speak as his lips trail down my neck, hovering near my bra strap in a slow, lazy motion.

  “You smell just as I remember,” he murmurs against my skin. “I need to be inside you.”

  Tears slide down the side of my face as the realization hits me that no one is coming in time to stop what’s about to happen. Maybe asking for my freedom so early wasn’t the smartest plan. The very thought of letting Trent inside me, violating my body, has me almost hyperventilating.

  “Don’t cry, baby. I’ll be gentle,” he whispers before pulling my bra strap down, exposing my breast.

  There’s no escape and no pleasure in what’s to come. I let my mind wander to Antonio and our time on the island. My mind drifts away to the beach, the water lapping at my feet, and the feel of his skin on mine.

  Chapter Four

  ANTONIO

  My bod
y almost vibrates across the ground as we approach the cabin. We covered the few miles from the main road to the cabin in under a half hour and barely broke a sweat in the damp, cold spring air of Canada. Maverick has stopped speaking, opting for hand signals so we’re not overheard by Trent.

  He’s in full-on commando mode, harkening back to his days in the military, and has his gun out in front of him ready to shoot anything that walks in front of us. My finger is itching to pull the trigger, but I’d prefer to hit Trent right between the eyes so Lauren never has to look over her shoulder again and wonder if the madman is after her.

  Maverick uses his two fingers to motion between his eyes and the cabin. I haven’t a clue what he means, but my limited knowledge from action movies leads me to believe he’s going to check the surroundings. He holds his palm out to me and points to the ground.

  I nod because I don’t know what else to do before he wanders off. I suppose he wants me to stay put while he checks out the cabin and searches for any sign of Trent and Lauren. I keep track of his movement as he blends in with the brush and moves through the woods, circling the perimeter of the cabin. Every few seconds, I let my eyes drift toward the windows, praying for any sign that Lauren’s alive.

  Within a minute, Maverick’s back at my side. He starts motioning with his hand, but now I can’t even fathom a guess at what all the little movements mean. “Speak, Maverick,” I whisper. “I don’t know what this means.” I repeat his finger motions, or as near to what he had done as I can, back to him.

  He stands as close to me as he possibly can without becoming physically attached to me and places his mouth next to my ear. “I got a visual from the side window. They’re in there, sir.”

  I squint, trying to see anything through the front windows, but it’s just a wall with a window to the back. “What did you see?”

  “They’re on the bed.”

  I turn my head slightly, and my lips tighten along with every muscle in my body. “Is she hurt?”