Paying Their Piper with Passion and Love [Loving in Silver 6] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (3 page)

Right now, however, he represented everything she hated about her life. If she spoke to him she was afraid she would take her frustration out on him.

* * * *

Jace was good at reading people. Piper Barrows was no different. He recognized the signs of frustration, anger, and despair. The only time he saw any pleasure in her life, any kind of happiness, was when she was playing with her quirky pets.

Douglas Barrows wasn’t the only one whom had done background work. Jace made a point of knowing about his employers. Piper Barrows had nothing but a privileged life from the moment she was conceived. At that time her father had only been a millionaire. During the past twenty-six or so years he had multiplied that many times over. The man provided everything for his daughter, but gave her nothing. She was like a tiny jeweled bird flapping her wings against the bars of a golden cage.

The woman possessed an education she couldn’t use. She had an imagination she couldn’t apply. And she had a passion she couldn’t express.

He had seen the little glances she threw in his direction. He wouldn’t be male if he didn’t realize what was behind them. Miss Piper Barrows was curious about him, was probably doing a little fantasizing.

If the woman wasn’t his job, he would be more than willing to satisfy her curiosity. As it was, she was as off-limits as a woman could be to him. It was probably for the best. What did a man like him have to offer other than a hard-driven lust?

After going around the house, locking doors and checking windows, he went to the room he had chosen to use. It had been designed as a downstairs master suite. He left the door open so he could hear movement in the house. There were no alarms on the house and he was going to suggest changing that. He would also suggest perimeter alarms, though he was loathe to do so. He knew she had finally spotted the camera in the tree in the backyard. He could almost feel her combined outrage and heartbreak. It was yet another bar in the cage holding her.

Jace pitied Piper. He wondered about Douglas Barrows. The man had everything. He was wealthy beyond belief. He could understand the man’s desire to keep his only child safe from the dangers of the world, but there had to be a way to do it without caging her in, without taking away the most basic freedoms.

From what he’d been told, Piper’s last freedom had been taken away after she had been attacked by an unscrupulous stock contractor at a small county rodeo. After that Douglas Barrow had basically placed his daughter on lockdown.

A smile tugged his mouth at one corner. Jace thought there was a bit of spitfire in the tiny woman. He could see fire in her silver-gray eyes. He’d like to have seen her before she had been attacked, when she had been taking on a cowboy with no scruples. The woman probably had some of her father in her, whether she wanted to admit it or not.

One thing he could see happening. There was going to come a moment when everything Douglas Barrows had done to protect his daughter was going to come back to bite him.

Piper reached her limit five days after discovering the camera, when she made plans to go to a rock concert with a friend and her father nixed them. He told her it wasn’t safe for her to go into such an uncontrolled situation. Even telling her father she would take extra bodyguards hadn’t convinced him to allow her to go.

The news had come to her through Jace, of course, whom had spoken with her father about her plans. When she had gone to supper that night she had cornered him, asking him why she couldn’t go. It was only a concert. A few hours of fun. She hated sounding like a petulant teenager. He had stared at her as if he didn’t know the meaning of the word and he probably didn’t. Douglas Barrows was all business twenty-four-seven.

As she stared up at him, wondering why he hated her so much, Piper felt the last of her spirit wither within her. After the “emotional” moment he had readily excused her from having to participate in the rest of the evening.

Piper made her escape, as relieved as always. She ran across the lawn and into the house. A few minutes later she was playing on the lawn with her pets in the last rays of the evening sun. As she did so her mind was working furiously, making plans, and asking herself if she could really be so bold.

Could she do it?

Feeling the beginning of rebellion welling up from deep of inside her, Piper spent the next few days working over the details of her escape in her mind. She didn’t dare write anything down. She couldn’t leave a clue, wouldn’t leave a hint of what she was going to do.

When she implemented it she realized she was more terrified of being caught by Jace than she had been of the bull trying to crush her into the ground. One thing she had learned from that experience was that there was always hope. All she needed was one opening, one opportunity, and she could get away, just as she had when she had pushed herself between the rails of the pen just before the bull crashed into them.

Yes, there was hope. After putting Sparkle into a heavy canvas bag, she tucked Mindy and Charm in their cloth carriers, slinging the long straps over her body. She looked around her room one last time before she left carrying a large suitcase her friend had left behind months before. On the desk was a letter to her parents, all her credit cards, her cell phone, and the keys to her house and the car she was rarely permitted to drive. Everything else of importance was tucked in the pouch around her waist.

With her heart pounding in her chest Piper was afraid to breathe as she moved through the house. There were no squeaky floorboards or stairs to worry about. But the shadows and dark corners filled her with trepidation. She expected Jace to step out of any one of them as she did her best to move stealthily to the front of the house. She wouldn’t risk going out the back, which would take her too close to the room he used.

The door latched silently behind her. Once she was outside she didn’t waste time. She kept to the shadows, hoping her black clothing helped her blend in. She had covered her hair and face with a black mask she had bought for a skiing trip years before. It suited the purpose admirably, as did the black carriers and suitcase she held her most precious possessions in. They were flat black with nothing on them which would reflect light.

She was just one more shadow in the moonless night as she moved as quickly as she could toward the northeast corner of the property. Her load was weighing her down significantly. She was heading to the one point of weakness she knew of in the outer defenses of her father’s little kingdom. It was a narrow gap in the wrought-iron fence where it joined the brick wall of the disgustingly large garage.

The streets were quiet as she hurried along them, hoping as she did so that a police car didn’t come along on patrol. That would be awkward and downright embarrassing. When she was six blocks away she saw the dark sedan idling at the curb. With her heart jumping up in her throat she hurried toward it.

A tall, elegant man got out when he saw her. He took the carriers with her pets and the large suitcase, all without a word. He didn’t speak until she was in the car beside him and they were underway.

“How are you, Piper?”

“Other than terrified, I’m good. How are you, Colt?”

“I’m good. I haven’t gotten to do anything to piss your father off in ages. Do you think this will do it?”

“When and if he finds out? I’m sure it will.”

Enlisting the help of Colt Redford, a man her father despised, had been pure genius on her part. She hadn’t done it to anger her father. She was doing that just by leaving. But she knew Colt would help her. They had become friends on her visits to his hometown of Silver a few years before. The family had gone there to enjoy the excellent skiing the area had to offer. They had gone four years in a row before Colt and her father had gotten into an argument. She didn’t know the details, but whatever had gone on between the two men, it had brought to an end trips to the charming town. It hadn’t, however, ended their friendship. They had continued it by way of disposable cell phones. She had felt she was being deceitful, and maybe she had been, but it was the only way for her to have a friend her father couldn’t take away from her. She doubted anyone had ever intimidated Colt.

Piper felt no remorse for involving Colt in her escape. The man was several years older than she was and was probably as wealthy as her father. He was from old money, which he had built upon with several business enterprises. No, he was her father’s equal in every way and the perfect person to back her when the time came.

If she hadn’t grown a backbone of her own by then.

The trip to Silver was interesting, if not direct. Colt made a point of causing confusion, knowing there were literally thousands of cameras along any route they would take. They were at banks, restaurants, nightclubs, gas stations, and dozens of other businesses wanting to at least provide the minimum of security. Her father would have them all checked, to find the smallest clue as to how she got away and where she was going.

It took several hours longer than it normally would, making car changes, enlisting carefully arranged decoys, but they finally arrived at a small airport near Las Vegas in a beaten up minivan. She was snuggled down in the back with her pets and didn’t get out until Colt pulled into a large hangar and the huge door was closed.

There was more than one animal anxious to relieve themselves and since Piper didn’t want them doing anything in the small plane waiting for them, she made due with sheets of torn newspaper in a cardboard box for Charm and spread out paper for the other two. Mindy was quick about it, but Sparkle was very particular. She finally relieved herself after some gentle cajoling and the promise of a treat. After cleaning up after them she loaded them back up into their carriers.

The small plane didn’t seem like it was big enough to stay in the air on its own. Or, perhaps, it seemed way too big to
stay
in the air. Piper didn’t know which. She had never been on such a small plane before and it was more than a little unnerving. Though her pets snored away as if everything was right in the world, and maybe in theirs it was, she couldn’t relax her white-knuckled grip on the pouch at her waist.

“Hey, sweetheart,” Colt said after they’d been flying for about an hour. “I’ve got something to keep your mind off the flight.”

Piper turned her head reluctantly away from where it had been fixed on the blur of the propeller to look at the handsome, completely competent and confident man beside her. “What’s that?” she asked in a strained voice.

“I was wondering if you’d let me tie you up and fuck you later, after you’ve had time to relax.”

Piper blinked. There had never been anything remotely sexual between the two of them. She swallowed hard. “Okay. Maybe. We’ll have to see.”

Colt’s laughter was so unexpected it startled her pets. Charm yowled loudly in protest, Sparkle squealed angrily, and Mindy whined and barked unhappily. She really didn’t like loud men. It didn’t matter if it was laughter.

Piper didn’t know whether she should be amused or insulted. She chuckled and punched her friend in a muscular arm. It felt really good, so she reached out a tentative hand to stroke him from shoulder to the crook of his elbow.

“Careful, baby girl. I’m really the big, bad wolf in disguise.”

But Piper was shaking her head and smiling as she removed her hand. “Nah, you’re my best friend and I love you.”

Colt’s handsome face softened as he looked at her. “I am. And I love you, too.”

* * * *

Jace tossed his bags into the back of his truck. It was a badass-looking thing from its flat black grill to the big tires and rugged black rims. Out of a job, he was on his way to track the wayward heiress and general pain in the ass. Though he suspected Piper was just fine, he wanted to confirm it.

What he felt over losing his job because she bolted didn’t compare to the pride he felt in Piper growing a backbone. Jace smiled as he climbed in his truck and started it. He stared for the last time at the beautiful cage Douglas Barrows had built for his daughter. It was another thing the man should learn to regret. If he had wanted to give her a house, he should have let her pick the place for it and allowed her to freely leave it whenever the mood struck her. Barrows shouldn’t have tossed her inside and locked it. The moment he had done so he had killed one of her precious dreams.

Leaving the Barrows estate was rather like shedding the weight of a full pack. Jace felt relief and put a little more pressure on the gas pedal as he drove along the exclusive, tree lined street. It was all too prissy for him and he was glad to be leaving.

Now all he had to do was track down one hot little bundle of trouble and show her just how much he had wanted to satisfy the curiosity he’d seen in her beautiful, silver-gray eyes.

Once Jace was ten miles away from the Barrow’s estate he stopped at a fast food joint, parking his truck in a rear corner where it couldn’t be easily seen from any angle. When he was certain he wasn’t being watched he got down and began looking under his truck. A smile curved his mouth as he spotted the GPS tracking device attached to the frame. It only took a moment to remove it. As he walked through the parking lot he noticed a car from Alabama which was loaded with an assortment of luggage, blankets, and what looked like camping equipment. After another glance around he tucked it away in the very bottom of the pile, behind the rear seat. Hopefully that would give Barrow’s people something to follow for a while, long enough for him to get away from the city.