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“You’re here,” was all she could say as she backed from the kitchen into the family room.
“I am,” he whispered. “Did you think that I’d never find you, Tilly?” She didn’t think that he’d find her. In fact, she was trying to think of a way to convince Owen to lighten up on his security measures around her and let her go back to work. She missed being a part of the outside world after being cooped up for six months now. But there was one problem with wanting to get back to the real world—Nate was till going to be out there and now, having him standing in front of her, she suddenly realized that fact to be true.
“I was hoping that you wouldn’t,” she whispered. “I was hoping that you would figure out that I’m not a threat to you, Nate.”
“Not a threat to me?” he questioned. “How can you say something like that to me after you went to the police and told them that I was the one who knocked you out at that bar?”
“You were the one who knocked me out, Nate. I know that six months have gone by, but you have to at least remember that far back, right?” she taunted. “And I’m the one with memory issues from when you gave me a concussion.”
“I’d apologize for that, but I’m not sorry. You needed to learn a lesson, Tilly,” he spat.
“Oh, and what lesson is that Nate? I should be careful who I work for because my boss could be a snake in the grass?” Yeah, maybe taunting him wasn’t her finest decision, but she honestly didn’t care.
“You needed to learn to keep your hands to yourself and not take things that don’t belong to you,” Nate insisted. “You took my hard drive, and I couldn’t allow you to keep it. I have too many important things on there.”
“Yeah, like what?” she asked. Tilly had no idea what was on that hard drive. She never even opened it. She just knew that whatever it was, it was enough for Nate to knock her out to take it back.
“Good try,” he mumbled under his breath. “How about we get you settled and then we can have a little chat? Have a seat in that chair,” Nate said. He wasn’t waiting for her response, but she still felt the need to give one.
“I’m good with standing,” she sassed.
He walked across the room and shoved her into the chair that sat behind her. “You’ll sit,” he shouted. Nate dropped the black duffel bag that he had on his shoulder. She hadn’t noticed it before he tossed it to the floor with a thud.
“What’s in there?” she asked. Nate didn’t answer her as he pulled a handgun from the bag and laid it on the floor next to his leg. He then grabbed out some rope and started wrapping it around her ankles. Panic welled up inside of her gut as he tightly secured the ropes. If he tied her to the chair, she might never get out of this mess.
“Is that really necessary?” she asked. “I promise to behave.”
He looked up at her and rolled his eyes. “Like you’ve ever behaved,” he said. “I just need to make sure that you play nicely while I decide what to do next.”
“You don’t have a plan?” she taunted.
“Whether or not I have a plan isn’t your concern,” he insisted. “Now, shut the fuck up or I’ll gag you.” Tilly sat back in the chair and felt as though she was pouting, but what good would that do her? Nate didn’t care if she was unhappy with this whole situation. He probably didn’t care if she was ever happy again as long as he got what he wanted. The question was—what did he want from her? Tilly was sure that she wasn’t going to like the answer to that question, so she refused to even ask it. Right now, she needed to concentrate on talking Nate out of whatever he was planning to do to her. Then, she’d find a way to get to Owen. All she needed to do was keep a cool head and stay one step ahead of her ex-boss.
* * *
“Nate, you don’t have to do this,” Tilly whispered. “I’ve already told you that your secret is safe with me.”
“Yeah, you’ll forgive me if I don’t believe you, Tilly,” Nate grumbled. “I mean, you did steal my hard drive and begin this nightmare. I’m just finishing the mess you started.” He tightened the ropes around her ankles and stood in front of her. Nate didn’t look like the kind man who had hired her all those years ago. No, he looked deranged with his hair standing on end as though he had run his fingers through it worrying. He used to be her friend, but now, all she could see when she looked into his eyes was the lunatic that he had turned into.
“Please,” she begged again.
“You know what—just save it,” he shouted at her. She didn’t want to wince or shy away from him as she did, but Tilly couldn’t help but be afraid of him. She knew that he had an end game in mind, and it probably involved killing her. There was no way that he’d let her go again.
“You thought you could hide away over here, but you were wrong. You didn’t believe that I wouldn’t be able to find you over here at your new boyfriend’s place, did you? I mean, sure, it took me some time to track you down, but hiding in town, in plain sight wasn’t your best idea, Tilly. I thought that you were smarter than that, but I guess that the company that you’ve been keeping has really brought you down.”
“Owen hasn’t brought me down,” she whispered more to herself. “You don’t know him. You don’t even know me anymore, Nate. It’s been almost six months since I took that hard drive. You can’t possibly think that you’re still being investigated.” Tilly knew for a fact that he was still being investigated but telling him that wouldn’t help her case. The only way out of this mess was to hope that Owen came back early from his club’s meeting, or she’d be able to talk herself out of it. She had always been a good talker—her mother used to tell her that it was her best attribute. In fact, her mom used to joke that if someone took her, she should just start talking and they’d turn around and bring her right back. It was a joke at the time, but now that she was in this situation, it was possibly the best advice she had ever gotten.
“You’ll forgive me if I don’t buy into the whole, ‘They aren’t looking into me anymore,’ routine. You and I both know that corporate espionage doesn’t just disappear.” She knew part of what he was up to, but Owen and Mav weren’t able to put all of the pieces together.
“I’m sure that it’s not as bad as you think it is,” she lied. It was probably worse, but she didn’t want to make Nate fly off the handle and do something even more stupid than just kidnapping her. She needed time to figure out how to get out of this trouble and talking to him might buy her that time.
“You really have no idea just how bad this whole thing is, do you?” he spat. “I will lose everything if you have your way.”
“This isn’t my way,” she countered. Fighting with him wasn’t a good look, but she wasn’t sure what else to do. “I never intended for you to lose everything, Nate. We’re friends.” Appealing to his sense of decency was probably a long shot, but she knew that her friend had to be in that madman, somewhere.
“But that’s exactly what you did when you took my hard drive. Why couldn’t you just keep your hands off my things, Tilly?” he asked.
“If it helps, I never even saw what was on that hard drive,” she admitted. She hadn’t either. She had taken it on a whim. She knew that Nate was up to something, and she was pretty sure that the hard drive would have some answers for her, but she had no idea that it would be enough to destroy his entire life. She would have probably taken it knowing that, but she might have thought things through a bit more. Heading straight to a biker bar to, “Think things through,” wasn’t the best plan. Plus, she never imagined that Nate would be tracking her car to find out where she went. But then, if none of this ever happened, she wouldn’t have met Owen, fallen in love with him, and dreamed of a future that she wasn’t sure he wanted with her. Did Owen want her long-term, or was she just his pet project, protecting her until this nightmare was over? That was a good question and one that she hoped to be able to ask him once she got free from the rope bindings that Nate had haphazardly tied around her ankles and wrists.
