Page 211 of A Matter of Time

I exhaled deeply as he smiled into my eyes.

“Gimme a kiss.”

I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him down for a kiss that I wanted him to remember while he was talking to his ex-girlfriend.

“Maybe I should come up first,” he said when I finally pulled back, his voice gravelly. The way his fingers were digging into my back, the way his lips were sliding down the side of my neck let me know that I’d got the reaction I’d been looking for.

“No,” I said, looking up at him. “Go and see Maggie. Just get back as soon as you can.”

He nodded, staring at my mouth. “I’ll be back soon. Don’t go to sleep.”

I chuckled. “I won’t. I’m starving anyway. Bring me food.”

“Oh yeah, I have to throw away those sandwiches, and I’ll stop and get⁠—”

“Throw them away at Maggie’s house,” I said, smiling.

“Mean. You’re just mean.”

I pulled him to me, and he gave me a final kiss on the forehead before he darted back to the car. I smiled when he peeled out. I was almost to the door when I heard my name called. Dominic Kairov was the last person I expected to see, but there he was, stepping out of the shadows by the side of the building.

“Dom? What are you doing here?” I asked, standing my ground. The last time I’d seen him, he was very angry with me and my relationship with Sam.

He smiled sheepishly. “I wanted to talk to Sam and tell him I was sorry about everything. I wanna see if he can forgive me.”

“Of course he can,” I assured him, gesturing for him to follow me inside. “C’mon, it’s freezing out here. We can wait for him together.”

“What’d you do to your ankle?”

I chuckled. “Racquetball with Dane.”

He grunted behind me. “I guess you’re not so lucky after all, huh, Jory?”

“No, I think my luck only runs to evading contract killers.”

“Maybe not.”

And I had a sudden chill, as I understood that maybe being alone with Dominic Kairov was really stupid.

“I think your luck’s done, Jory.”

When I looked over my shoulder, he grabbed the back of my coat, and he covered my face with a cloth. I couldn’t breathe, and the smell was awful, and then there was nothing but darkness as I felt my body turn liquid.

TWENTY-THREE

The rocking woke me. The room was light and then dark, and the third time it lit up I realized I was in a van. I had to work to get my mind to focus so I could figure out what was going on. What I did know was that Dominic Kairov had taken me. For what purpose, was the question.

I could tell from the speed that I was on a freeway, but there was no way to gauge a direction. The fact that I was freezing didn’t help my focus one bit. I realized my coat was gone. All I was wearing were my corduroys and the sweater I’d put on that morning. My hands and feet were tied behind me, and I was bent backward in an arch. It was uncomfortable, but not painful. I was afraid of what my ankle would feel like, though, once I was released. Would I even be able to stand on it? And then I wondered if I would be released. How did kidnapping work? What could I expect? Having never been kidnapped before, I had no idea. For some reason I thought about my brother then. What would Dane say if he could see me now? It would be one more stupid mess that Jory had gotten himself into. And then I thought about Sam and how much I loved him. Funny all the things that swept through my brain.

The van stopped, and I could barely breathe. The door slammed open, and I was faced with Dominic and a man who looked familiar but wasn’t instantly recognizable. He was dressed well, in a three-piece suit, topcoat, and a long scarf.

“See?” Dominic gestured at me. “You send me and the job gets done.”

The other man nodded. “I do see, very good. Now I want him shot and⁠—”

I gasped, and he scowled before he turned sideways and saw what I did—Dominic holding a gun to his head. He reached for the gun at the same time it went off. There was blood everywhere, and I screamed.

“Shut the fuck up,” Dominic yelled at me as two other men came to stand with him.