AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Calliope’s trail ran cold after her high school graduation, but Manhattan is a small town. If you ask around enough, you can find out anything about anyone. Including information about the girl that ran away from home at seventeen and spent the last eight years living in poverty or just above it.
She might not have any communication with her father, but I bet that’s because he pulled the same shit with her that he did with his ex-wife. Her mom left when she was five years old and that certainly fucks a person up. But being beaten and verbally abused certainly leaves its marks. There’s no way Calliope Jackson, spelling bee champion of her sixth-grade class, went to junior high and suddenly started rolling with gangbangers for fun. Something changed during the summer because it wasn’t until fall that her rap sheet started collecting incidents.
For the past year, she’s been working on getting her real estate license. Calliope had a friend in the business that was willing to front her the money for classes and exams if she paid her back from her future commissions. I found the friend a few weeks ago and paid off Calliope’s debt. She’d barely entered the business, but I wanted her to start out with a clean slate. Not to mention the fewer people who came looking for her, the better.
Getting her in the right place at the right time became crucial. I had to set her up in a quiet little neighborhood where no one would be peeking through their curtains and find me carrying her off. That’s when Christopher Ray’s name came across my desk.
Christopher Ray was a high-profile lawyer in Manhattan that dealt with estate planning and administration. Two years ago he’d fucked one of my friends out of their inheritance due to a loophole in the law. While I made sure my friend received financial compensation for her loss, I kept Christopher’s name in a book. One day I’d bring him down.
You know what they say about two birds and one stone. My ‘in’ was the Ray family. All it took was a few chats with the neighbor to convince her to hit on Chris. She said they already flirted over yard work anyway. I watched from down the street as he impaled her on the kitchen island right in front of the living room window. Perhaps if it hadn’t been dark outside and he hadn’t turned on all the lights, I wouldn’t have been able to see him fuck her like a bitch in heat.
The pièce de résistance was Sharon coming home early and walking in on them. When she found the neighbor with her tits pressed against their marble countertops, she lost it. It was almost funny to see plates fly and shatter when they hit a wall. I bet the inside of that place was covered in glass and ceramic for weeks.
But Sharon was easily led to Foundation Realty. Her listing fell in Calliope’s hands and therefore the open house fell in mine. Three months of planning went into being in the right place at the right time.
“This is your room.” I tuck the gun back into its holster at my waist. “The door locks from the outside. Eventually, you’ll be allowed to roam the house on your own, but not right now. You’re a flight risk.”
Calliope was quiet the entire drive here. I’m certain she was trying to figure out a way out of the car. I was waiting for her to try and open the door and tuck and roll at a stoplight, but she never did. “What am I doing here?”
God, she asks the same question over and over again like a broken record. It’s like she can’t function without an answer. “I told you.” I walk around the room and start flipping on the lights, showing her where her closet and bathroom are.
“Revenge,” she responds in a dull sort of way. “But I don’t know what that means.”
Just tell her,the little voice in my head insists. He must be the angel that sits on your shoulder and tells you right from wrong. “You are Grant Jackson’s daughter, correct?”
Calliope walks over to the window and takes a seat on the padded alcove. I watch as she takes the hem of her dress and plays with it between her fingers. “Are you a pissed off criminal or something? Because I don’t talk to my dad. If you think you’re going to use me for revenge, you’re wrong. My father would rather watch me rot than save my life.”
“I think you’re mistaken. He’ll come around when he knows that it was me who kidnapped you.” Even if the only reason he tries to save Calliope is to send me to prison, he’ll show up for his daughter.
My captive leans forward to look at the gardens beneath her window. “This is a nice home,” she comments quietly.
Considering she’s been sleeping on a friend’s couch for the last three weeks, this is probably the nicest place she’s stayed at since she lived with her father. “Enjoy the view, you’re going to be looking at it for a while.”
She sighs before turning her head to look at me. I get a glimpse of her emerald eyes when she meets my gaze. The framing of her dark, brunette locks around her face makes her skin look porcelain in this light. “How long am I going to be here? I’d like to adjust my expectations to match yours.”
Calliope is very well-spoken and I must admit that I expected more of a fight from her. But she’s probably just biding her time before she plots her escape attempt. She can attempt to leave all she wants; I will find her and I will bring her back here every time. “You’re going to be here for the rest of your life.”
Her brow furrows in confusion. “I thought you were waiting for my father to come around.”
A smile touches my lips and it’s a struggle to keep from revealing my entire plan to her right here, right now. “Yes, to come around to being my father-in-law and the grandpa to our children.”
She grows pale and those emerald eyes practically double in size. It gives her a childlike appearance when her nose starts to turn red. Calliope opens her mouth to say something but struggles to find the right words. Like a fish gasping for water, her jaw moves up and down on a hinge.
“You should make yourself comfortable. You should have plenty of supplies in the bathroom, as well as clothes handpicked for you by my personal designer. I believe she got the right size, but if not, let me know and we can replace anything.” A few pilfered clothes from her friend’s poorly locked home were all that I needed to get her measurements. “There’s a mini fridge in the closet along with a shelf full of snacks. You will have food and drink available to you at all times, but you’ll dine with me for all meals.”
It took me three months to make this happen. Three months to have this room outfitted with the appropriate clothes, food, and supplies that Calliope would need. Three months to ensure that every weapon she could possibly create was removed. Three months to get everything in place.
I told Grant to protect his family and he didn’t listen to me. Now his daughter is my captive and soon to be my wife.
Maybe he’ll listen now.
4
CALLIOPE
It couldalwaysbe worse.
Three years ago I had to bear down under an overpass and wait for the tornado sirens to stop going off. The wind was whipping around like crazy throwing dirt and rocks at my face and I was there with half a dozen other men and women. The weather people said the wind gusts got up to eighty miles per hour. But luckily, the threat of a tornado passed. They said one never touched down, but curled up in a little ball under that overpass, I beg to differ.
