ROMANCE: Badass Boss (Billionaire Alpha Bad Boy Romance) (Western Mail Order Bride Calendar Contemporary) (36 page)

Chapter 3

Kidnapped

Lori worked with her sister at a boring office job in a boring little cubicle. Their cubicles were adjacent to one another. Her bosses had thought they were doing her a favor, putting her cubicle so close to her sister. They weren’t that far apart in age. They had spent their whole lives together, grown up together, and even now lived in the same apartment complex. The thing was, though… Lori hated her sister.

It wasn’t one of those familial situations where you swore up and down you hated your family member but still loved them, because: Hey, they’re still family. Lori hated her sister because she was the worst human being that she had ever had the misfortune of meeting.

Her name was Linda. Linda was only about a year older than Lori. They had the same red hair and the same gray eyes. They had similar patterns of freckles. They wore just about the same size in clothing, though Linda would swear up and down that they didn’t even while stealing her younger sister’s clothes.

Linda was, widely considered, to be the prettier sister. She had always been more popular than others, but not because she was particularly friendly. Linda was one of those people that others seemed to innately try to impress. She had an aura of superiority that others believed. She lied, she manipulated, she took advantage. She would smile and apologize and then do it all again. She would shower you with compliments while ruining your career and reputation behind your back. And that was if you were lucky.

If you were unlucky, she’d do the same thing, just right in front of you. She’d bad mouth you to your face, and there was nothing you could do about it.

Lori would have said that making her little sister miserable was Linda’s favorite hobby, but that felt like it would be giving herself too much credit. In all likelihood, she didn’t matter all that much to Linda, not in the grand scheme of things.

This weekend had been a team building retreat. Work paid for them to spend the night out in the wilderness together. It was miserable but mandatory. Lori didn’t much care for her coworkers. Linda had bad mouthed her to nearly all of them. They were civil with her, but that was about it.

She was paired with Chet for trust exercises. She’d been sleeping with Chet… until he slept with Linda. Then he’d slept with Linda until she had moved on to the next man Lori had her eye on. It made things awkward. Still, they did their trust exercises and made forced small talk.

After that there was dinner and then a campfire. There was singing and s’mores no one wanted to eat because most of the workers were on some new fad diet and the rest were too ashamed to be the only ones eating s’mores. After that, everyone gradually retired to their respective tents.

Lori was sharing a tent with her sister. At first, she was only all too happy to have it all to herself. She read and then, when she was tired of reading, tried to sleep. She couldn’t sleep, though. She was too curious. Finally, she left the tent and went looking for her sister. She checked the showers and the latrines and the fire pit that was now extinguished and empty. She was about to start asking around at tents when it happened.

Lori was kidnapped by a murderer.

It all happened very fast. Someone grabbed Lori from behind, covering her mouth and nose as they did so. She remembered collapsing but there was a giant gap in her memory after that.

When Lori woke up, she found her sister. It was hard to miss her. She had her by the shoulders, their faces mere inches apart. Linda was shaking her screaming her name.

“Lori! Wake the hell up! Lori! Wake up! Lori!” There wasn’t really concern in her voice, just alarm. She was terrified, and who could blame her?

Their hands were bound with stretchy, bungee like material. There was plenty of slack, but between them was a tree. There would be no running off, not unless one of them was untied… or happened to lose a hand. Lori wouldn’t have put it past Linda to volunteer her own sister for the latter.

“W-what-” Lori looked around, blinking in the darkness. She saw him almost immediately. There was a silhouette in the woods, a lantern at his feet. The frame was male, but there was little else there to recognize. “What’s going on?” Lori asked, looking back at her sister. She hoped this was some sort of sick prank. It felt unlikely, but still. She hoped.

“Help me,” Linda demanded, shoving her bound hands in Lori’s face.

Lori looked from Linda’s hands to the mysterious man in the woods. “I don’t understand.”

“Untie me,” hissed Linda, keeping her voice down. “Quick. Untie me.”

There was a faint light near the man in the woods. It was a soft glow. Lori realized that, of all things, their kidnapper was checking his phone.

“Now,” Linda urged. “While he’s not looking. Untie me.”

Lori’s mind was still reeling, trying to process what was happening. She did as she was asked, though. Lori untied her sister. She held up her hands for Linda to return the favor. Free from the bungee that had bound them, Linda took off. Lori really should have seen that coming.

“Wait!” Lori begged, without really thinking it through.

The man in the woods looked up from his phone. He saw Linda fleeing and took off after her. Lori squealed and ducked down to avoid being trampled. It was only then that she realized, without her sister tied to the tree, there was nothing anchoring her there. She still had her hands tied, but their ends just dangled.

Lori ran for it.

It wasn’t until the second time she tripped, that Lori heard the screaming. The man in the woods had caught up with Linda. It wasn’t until the third time she tripped that she took the time to free her own hands. After that it was back to running and running and running… Until she heard a car…

Chapter 4

No Family, No Friends

“Geez,” Vince said, turning on his blinker. “Your sister sounds like a bitch.” Vince realized what he had just said. “God, sorry. Really bad timing, huh? Sorry. I’m not great with… people.”

Lori shook her head. She had her gaze turned to the car window, her eyes scanning the side of the road. “It’s fine,” she said. “She was… A bitch, I mean. My sister was a bitch.”

“But she was still your sister.”

“Yeah.”

“Are you even sure she’s dead?” Vince hadn’t heard any conclusive evidence that she was. He was beginning to just suspect Lori hoped she was dead.

“You didn’t hear the way she screamed.” Lori turned away from the car window and closed her eyes. She looked miserable, as if hearing the sound in her head all over again. “I’ve never heard someone scream like that before. And the way it just cut off. There was this wet gurgling sound like… like…”

“I get it,” Vince said quickly. He found the main road. “Do you know where the nearest police station is?”

Lori knew the area pretty well. She gave him instructions. Now that her adrenaline had stopped flowing and she had gotten some sleep, she seemed like a new girl. Tearful, quiet, reluctant to do what had to be done. When Vince parked, she just sat in the passenger seat.

“We should probably get a move on,” Vince said, giving her an awkward nudge. “We… ya know… Have a killer out there to catch and all.”

After some additional prodding, Lori went inside. There was more for Vince to do than he had anticipated. He had to give statements to multiple people. He had to sit around in a waiting room, where it was demanded he turn his phone off. Vince tried explaining to them the business risks he was taking if he turned his phone off, but they didn’t seem to care. In the end, he sat there, arms crossed, casting the occasional forlorn look at the deactivated cell phone resting on his knee.

He’d never seen it turned off. It looked… wrong.

When he finally got to leave the police station, it was to lead the police to where he had first come across Lori. After that, he got to stand around while they searched. He wasn’t sure why they kept him around but, after much loitering, they escorted him back to his car.

Vince turned his phone back on as soon as he was able. He had, roughly, twenty missed calls. Fantastic. He started the arduous process of calling them all back as he drove to the cabin only to realize he didn’t get service out here anyway. So, instead of driving back to the cabin, he drove around, aimlessly, searching for a sweet spot in which to get signal.

He ended up finding one back near the police. He was in the process of returning the first call when he glimpsed the ambulance. They were loading someone into it, someone covered in a sheet. Vince only made one more call after that. He got in touch with his assistant and told him he needed a few days to himself.

Suddenly, his finances didn’t seem so pressing an issue. Vince drove back to the cabin. Much like the coffee supply, the cabinets were stocked with some canned nonperishables. That was a relief. There were no take out places within a reasonable distance and, apparently, Vince was hardly self sufficient without them.

Night was closing in again. Vince was trying to sort out how to heat up a can of soup in his darkening cabin when he heard a distant roar and lights flickered to life.

“What the hell?” Vince made his way to the door in time for it to open.

Lori stepped inside. “You have a generator. I was too freaked out to notice last night. What’s your excuse?”

“What, uh… What do you do with a generator?”

“I guess, that’s a pretty good excuse. Can I come in?”

“You already have.” Vince motioned her into the living room anyway. “Have a seat.” He didn’t want to be too short with her. He’d be more annoyed with most people, just barging in like this. Lori, though… Lori was having a pretty bad day. “What can I do for you?”

Lori took a seat on the sofa. She looked up at Vince, her gray eyes red-rimmed. “You can let me stay the night.”

Vince stared at her. He wasn’t sure what he had expected. “Don’t you have… I don’t know… Family or someone you need to be with at a time like this?”

Lori shook her head. “Linda was it. Our parents… our parents aren’t really in the picture. They haven’t been in the picture for a long time. Linda was… she was all I had.”

“Don’t you have any coworkers… friends… something?”

Lori shook her head, slowly. “Not really. Linda kind of had a tendency to ruin my relationships with people. I’ve got people in my life, but they’re really torn up about her right now, and… I feel weird. It’s awkward. I don’t feel like I’m as sad about this as I should be. Does that make sense?”

Vince sighed. “Yeah, I guess it makes sense.” And, really, there was no reason why she couldn’t stay. If anything, the company would be nice. He already couldn’t stand how quiet it was out here. “I guess you can stay. It’s fine.”

“Wanna give me the grand tour?”

“Honestly, I’ve spent about as much time in this place as you have now.”

Lori raised her eyebrows at that. “You know, you’ve gotten the crash course on me these last twenty four hours. Maybe I could stand to learn a little more about you?”

“Give me a hand with this delicious dinner of canned soup here and I’ll regale you with the tale.”

Chapter 5

The Unhappy Past

Vincent grew up well under the poverty line. His parents weren’t particularly ambitious people. He was the youngest of three. His birth had been an accident. By then, his parents had had their fill of making an effort in the parenting department.

They fed Vincent, they clothed him, on Christmas and his birthday, they gave him an inexpensive gift or two. They didn’t do much besides that, but they did enough to keep social services off their back. That was about the best you could say for Vince’s parents. They did the bare minimum.

Vincent wasn’t very close to his brothers either. The age gap was too large for them to spend much time together but too small for his brothers to feel terribly protective of him. Instead, they would take him along on outings and either tease or ditch him in the process.

All in all, Vincent’s childhood was pretty uneventful. He grew up knowing that he wanted a better life for himself. A better life meant money, so that was Vincent’s aim.

Vincent started working for money at the age of eight. At first, he just mowed lawns. He did chores around the neighborhood that no one else wanted to do. The neighbors thought it was cute and endearing, in reality Vincent was saving his pennies. All of them.

Unfortunately, his parents had a tendency to “borrow” his earnings when they got too substantial. Vincent learned how to hide his profits. When he got his first honest to goodness job at a fast food place, he learned how to put just enough aside so that his parents wouldn’t demand more from him. When Vincent turned 18, that was all over.

He started calling himself Vince. He went into stocks and real estate and answered not a single call from his family after that. They could fend for themselves, for all he cared.

One of his brothers OD’d on drugs, another got in with a bad crowd. Vince let it roll off his back. He only wished to move forward now. Concerning himself with his family would be a step in the wrong direction. As far as he was concerned, he owed them nothing.

Chapter 6

Investigation

“You’re kind of an asshole,” said Lori, seated at the table across from him.

Vince shrugged and stared down at his soup. Maybe he was, but being an asshole had served him pretty well so far.

“That’s your business,” Lori added, quickly. “And it seems to have worked out pretty well for you in the long run, huh? Maybe I would have been happier had I left my sister behind and gotten on with my own life. Probably would have.”

“Sometimes you just have to know when to move on.”

“That’s the truth… So, I’m thinking of going out in the woods in minute to look at the murder site.”

Vince nearly choked on his soup. “What? Why?!”

“Because I don’t like the way the police were going about it,” Lori said, simply. “They didn’t look in the right places for long enough. They didn’t question the right people.”

“And who are the right people?”

“Our coworkers.” Lori gave him a look like that should have been obvious. “She slept with a ton of guys.”

“Good for her.”

Lori snorted at that. “Some of them she stole from me…”

“Well, maybe they were guys you were better off without if she could come along and just ‘steal’ them from you.”

“That’s beside the point!” Lori snapped.

“Then what is the point?”

“Well, some of them were bound to get jealous, right? That’s a common motivator for murder.”

“I’m sure the police are investigating that angle.”

“But they won’t let me help!” Lori slid back her chair and stood. “I just… I just want to look for myself and maybe ask a few questions. Is that so much to ask?”

“It, uh, might be illegal… We can’t just wander into a crime scene.”

“I’m going either way,” Lori announced. “You can come with me or just stay here. Up to you.”

“I could stay here and call the cops,” Vince muttered. “That would be the right thing for me to do.”

Lori had seemed sure of herself until just then. Her face fell. She sat back down and gave him a downright pathetic look.

“Please? I need this. If I can’t feel sad enough, I at least want to try and find out what happened to her - What happened to both of us.”

Vince had never been one to really play by the rules - especially not if his own colorful past legally questionable stock trading was any indicator. Besides, ever since nearly running this girl over with his car, he felt oddly responsible for her. “Fine,” he sighed. “But if we see any police tape, we’re not climbing over it… And if we run into any actual police, we’re going to listen to them. Deal?”

“Deal.” Lori stood and headed for the door.

“We’re going now?” Vince sighed and went to the kitchen to retrieve a flashlight.

Chapter 7

The Crime Scene

It was pitch black out. It hadn’t seemed so bad when they were driving. Vince had pulled off the road near the spot where he first saw Lori. The police had already gone. As they walked into the woods, that’s when things got exceptionally dark.

There wasn’t much to see outside of the cones of light from Vince and Lori’s flashlights. Minimal light coming down through the branches only cast unnerving shadows. Sticks and leaves snapped and crackled beneath their feet. Similar sounds came from deeper in the woods. It could have been animals or even another person. Whatever it was, it set them both on edge.

Vince wished the redneck he’d bought the place from had been kind enough to leave a gun behind. That, of course, had been too much to hope for. Though, it was probably for the best. Vince had never used a gun in his life.

“Do you even know which way?” Vince asked.

“Sort of,” Lori said, going on the defensive a bit. “Just worry about which direction we came from, all right?”

Vince was already trying very hard to. He had no intention of getting lost in these woods… Though, it seemed like a distinct possibility.

Something howled. Lori stumbled back toward Vince and grabbed him by the arm. “Sorry,” she whispered without letting go.

“It’s fine,” he whispered back. He was trying to act tough, but he was probably even more out of his element than she was. Her clinging to him actually made him feel marginally safer. At least it was unlikely that there was a killer still in these woods. (Unlikely but not impossible.) That was a very small comfort.