Kidnapped (COBRA Securities) Read online

  Kidnapped

  By Velvet Vaughn

  Copyright

  Copyright © 2017 VELVET VAUGHN LLC

  This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Visit Velvet's website at: www.velvetvaughn.com and her Facebook Fanpage HERE.

  Dedication

  This book is dedicated to the fans who have sent messages or emailed me telling me how much they love Kai Costa. This one’s for all of you!

  Acknowledgements

  I would like to sincerely thank the members of my Velvet Vaughn Street Team who help spread the word: Cindi R., Debbie M., Gary A., Karen D., Karen J., Lisa B., Tammy T., Lisa B., Sharon W. and Paulyn A. I’m so thankful for all of you and truly appreciate your support! I would also like to sincerely thank my new social media guru, Kristy O!

  And as always, a huge thank you to my mom. I couldn’t do this without you!

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Acknowledgements

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Epilogue

  Notes

  About the Author

  Prologue

  Kai Costa let out a giant whoop as the water flume spit him out and he careened through the air, his arms plastered against his sides and his feet locked together so he knifed into the glittering blue pool like a fired bullet. He sank to the bottom and pushed off to break the surface. Man, that was a killer ride! He couldn’t wait to do it again. Maybe he’d go head-first this time. He stroked to the side of the pool and heaved himself out in a mighty gush of water. He turned and watched as Tiffany Mullins came shooting out next, her girly squeal echoing throughout the park. Her arms and legs flayed about ungracefully as she hit the water with a giant splash. Either Tiffany’s twin brother Sean would be coming out next or his little sister Gracie. They’d played Rock, Paper, Scissors to see who got to go down first and he’d won. He didn’t like to brag, but he was king of Rock, Paper, Scissors.

  He cupped his hands around his mouth. “Hurry up, Tiff, so we can do it aga—oof!”

  Something slammed into him and the next thing he knew, he was airborne, his arms and legs windmilling uselessly as he hit the water belly first. Argh! That smarted. He hadn’t had time to tuck or dive or heck, anything since he hadn’t been expecting the hit. His tummy burned as he sputtered to the surface.

  “Oh, ouch,” Dan Bradley winced, rubbing his own stomach in mock sympathy. “That had to hurt.”

  Kai slapped the water. “You big bully!”

  Dan ticked a finger at him. “Now, now, Little C, is that any way to talk to the star of the weekend?”

  Kai rolled his eyes dramatically. Star. Ha. They were at the water park to celebrate the upcoming nuptials of Dan to Kaitlyn Colton, as well as Kaitlyn’s brother Luke to Layla Brooks, Tiff and Sean’s sister. His dad’s coworkers were big on multiple weddings. When his dad married his stepmom Taylor, Dorian Demarchis and Kendall Buckley had married at the same time.

  The women had planned a trip to the resort’s spa the day before the wedding to pamper themselves, they’d said. Not to be left out, the men and kids tagged along to spend the day at the enormous indoor pool.

  “I’m telling Kaitlyn on you.”

  Dan waved a dismissive hand. “Please, she’s completely smitten. She knows how awesome I am.” He puffed out his chest. “She thinks I walk on water.”

  “Did you hear that, Kaitlyn?” Kai said sweetly.

  Dan spun around, his eyes comically wide. “Kait, baby—hey!” He turned back to Kai with a pointed finger. “Very funny, Little C, you got me. Just remember, paybacks…”

  “That’s not fair!” Kai protested. “I was getting you back for throwing me in.”

  “I didn’t just,” he made air quotes, “throw you in. I was performing a service for all the visitors to this fine facility.” Dan waved a hand in front of his face and wrinkled his nose. “You smell like a garbage truck.”

  “I do not!”

  “Later, Little C.”

  Kai climbed the rungs and lifted his arm, taking a whiff. Chlorine. The soap he’d used in the shower this morning. He didn’t stink. “I don’t stink!” he yelled to Dan’s retreating back. Dan threw his hands over his head in double vees, the universal sign for whatever. Kai planted his hands on his hips and groused in frustration. And what the heck was taking Gracie and the twins so long? He turned to see what was keeping them when movement caught his eye. A man was walking casually along the edge of the pool, but he was dressed in grubby jeans with a hoodie covering his head. He didn’t look like he was here to swim. Kai’s eyes widened when the man grabbed a girl and raced for the door that was conveniently right behind him.

  Kai didn’t even think, he just reacted, taking off at a dead run. There was no one to stop the man, so he was getting away.

  “Kai, where are you going?” Tiffany shouted.

  “Get my dad,” he yelled over his shoulder. “And call the cops.”

  He exploded out the door marked emergency exit only. No alarm sounded, but the door crashed back in a loud bang. He didn’t spare a glance to see if any of the glass had shattered. A rock bit into his bare foot but he ignored the pain. The man had shoved a bag over the girl’s head. She was struggling, but with the cloth binding her arms, she couldn’t fight back. The man jerked open the door of a beat-up pick-up truck and tossed the girl inside before leaping in after her. The engine started up and Kai did the only thing he could think of. He dove head-first into the bed of the truck.

  Chapter One

  Man, his dad was going to be so pissed at him. Again.

  That was the main thought running through Kai Costa’s head as he scrambled for purchase in the rusty bed of the truck he’d stowed away aboard. The truck took off in a screech of tires and he barely managed to cling to the edge of the bed liner and hang on. Thankfully, there was no tailgate, so he’d been able to launch himself inside without being seen. Unfortunately, that meant there was nothing stopping him from being hurtled out the back and becoming a messy splotch of roadkill. He chanced a look over his shoulder to see Sean yelling and waving both his arms over his head. Gracie came running out, the terrified look on her face making Kai wince. He hated worrying his little sister. She’d finally stopped having nightmares of her own abduction. This might bring them rushing back since he was doing pretty much the same thing he did when she was taken.

  It wasn’t as if he had a choice. What was he supposed to do? Let the girl be snatched when there was a chance he could stop it? He’d never be able to live with himself if he didn’t try to help. When Tiffany had been grabbed, Kai had given all he had to stop the man and it hadn’t been enough. He lived with that failure every day, even if Tiffany was now safe. He didn’t know the girl who’d been snatched this time, but she had family, people who loved her. How would he face them if he hadn’t tried to intervene?

  The vehicle barely slowed as they turned this way and that, repeatedly slamming Kai into the sides of the truck. He was going to be a bruised mess when this was over, but hopefully he would be alive. He didn
’t think the man knew he’d hitched a ride since he hadn’t stopped to toss him out.

  What he wouldn’t give for his cell phone right now. He’d been swimming, so he didn’t have the watch his dad made him wear all the time. It was equipped with GPS and a panic button. Even though it was waterproof, Kai had banged it against the side of the first waterslide he’d ridden and he was afraid he’d break it, so he’d taken it off. Dad would be doubly pissed.

  Since he’d been swimming, all he had on was a pair of rapidly-drying board shorts. He wasn’t crazy about going up against a kidnapper half-naked, but he didn’t have a choice. He’d have to manage.

  Something smacked him in the face and he sputtered, trying to dislodge it. The road was straight for the moment, so he let go of the bed liner with one hand and swiped it over the offending object. It was a fast-food bag. He realized the back of the truck was littered with garbage and he fought the urge to gag. The man was a pig. He let go of the sack and it sailed out the back. Hum. An idea struck.

  #

  Harlow Duquesne glanced up from the magazine she was reading to check on Zoe. Her sister was having the time of her life at the water park, free of the ever-watchful, ever-vigilant eyes of the Secret Service. When you came from a long line of politicians on both sides of the family tree, the security was inevitable. Harlow had been stifled by the restrictions growing up. She didn’t want the same for her younger sister.

  Though she’d never been under the protection of the Secret Service herself—she turned it down—her parents had employed private bodyguards the entire time she was growing up. They even chaperoned her date to the prom. That had gone over well. She’d been so excited when Johnny Pierce, captain of the basketball team, had asked her to the dance. She’d spent hours getting ready and had found the perfect blush-colored dress to wear. Johnny had been all cocky smiles and teenage swagger when he arrived to pick her up, but he couldn’t ditch her fast enough once they arrived at the gymnasium. She was sure it was the stoic behemoth who had accompanied them that had Johnny running scared. She didn’t blame him. Harry, her ironically-named bodyguard since he was in fact, bald, stood seven inches over six feet and was as wide as a tank. The fact that he never smiled didn’t help. But looks could be deceiving because Harry was one of the sweetest, gentlest men she knew with a heart of gold. She still kept in touch with him and his family.

  With an age gap of almost eighteen years, she and her sister didn’t get the chance to spend time together very often. Zoe and her parents split time alternating between their homes in Savannah and Washington DC. Harlow currently lived in New York City, teaching yoga and painting. She was glad she’d been able to make the trip to the small resort town in southern Indiana where her mother served as keynote speaker at a conference of governors. It was the perfect opportunity to take a small vacation at a resort famed for its spa and golf course, and to hang out with her little sister. They’d spent the morning shopping and indulged in matching mani/pedis, but Zoe had wanted to go swimming. She’d been told by her bodyguards that the park was too large and it couldn’t be secured, so Harlow had offered to help her ditch her protective detail.

  Harlow had been the troublemaker growing up. As the only child at the time of two influential politicians, her life was lived under a microscope. She was always bucking the rules and pushing the boundaries. She’d like to think she had a hand in both of her parents’ luxurious heads of gray hair.

  She was the only one in the family who’d eschewed tradition and chose not to go the political route in one form or another. Even her cousin who was a stay-at-home mom served on the school board and city council.

  Politics bored Harlow. Always had. Though her parents supported her no matter what, she knew she’d disappointed them when she chose a major of art history. She wanted to paint. That’s all she’d ever wanted to do since the first time she’d dipped her index finger into a jar of flamingo pink paint and drug it across the watercolor paper in kindergarten.

  She was a dreamer, an artist. She practiced yoga and aromatherapy. Zoe was her opposite. She was smart and focused, even at ten years old. Though she hadn’t said anything to Harlow about her future ambition, Harlow knew she’d toe the line and end up in the political arena.

  During her teenage years, Harlow secretly wondered if her mom had an affair with the lead singer of a grunge band or something. How else to explain her black sheep status, and when she said black sheep, she meant literally. With a family of blondes and browns, her inky black hair stood out like a beacon in family photos. Her grandmother assured her that her hair had once been the same color before it went gray but still, Harlow wondered. It was disconcerting to realize she didn’t fit in with her family.

  She glanced up at Zoe again, smiling at the wide grin on her sister’s face. She’d help to put it there. Every child should have the chance to just be a kid. Play in the mud. Skip stones across a lake. Swim at a public pool. Zoe’s life was rigid and filled with structure. For once, she looked her age.

  Harlow started to look away when movement behind Zoe had her jerking her head back up. A man lurched into the building through a side door. He was fully dressed, a hood covering his head. Totally out of place.

  Her magazine hit the deck and she was out of her chair before she realized it. Fear bubbled up her throat when the man grabbed her sister and drug her out the door.

  “Zoe!”

  Harlow ran as fast as she could, dodging little kids and their parents in her haste. She inadvertently barreled into a middle-aged man and he went sprawling into the pool. She couldn’t even manage to yell she was sorry. Fear was choking her, making breathing difficult. There were too many people in the way. She couldn’t get to Zoe in time. She burst through the door in time to see a truck disappearing down the road.

  “No!”

  Panic welled inside her like a tsunami. She didn’t know what to do. Fear clawed at her, followed by a desperation she couldn’t tame. She didn’t have a vehicle so she couldn’t chase after them. She spun around in panic, not even noticing all the people who had filed outside with her. She ran to a tall man and grabbed his arm.

  “Please, help me,” she pleaded. “I need to follow that truck.” She pointed down the lot. “That man took my sister.”

  “Ma’am, wait.”

  She stumbled when the man jerked to a stop. She hadn’t even realized she’d been tugging him down the sidewalk.

  She bounced on her feet. “I can’t wait. We need to follow the truck. Come-on,” she urged. “He’s getting away.”

  The man grabbed her shoulders and turned her to face him. Somewhere in the deep recesses of her brain that weren’t overcome with fear, she registered that he was devastatingly handsome with golden blond hair and piercing blue eyes. “Listen to me. Our vehicles are in a far lot. The truck will be long gone. We’ve got a description and the authorities have already been notified.”

  “But, my sister…” Fear bubbled up inside her and spots swum in front of her eyes.

  “Ma’am, you need to breathe.”

  Harlow barely heard the words as her chest heaved in rapid pants and her fingers tingled. Darkness closed in.

  “Purse your lips, come-on, that’s it,” the man instructed. “Good. Now breathe in slowly. Exhale. Let’s do it again. Breathe in.” The man coached her through her panic attack, his hand stroking her back in comfort. She’d never hyperventilated in her life.

  When she felt in control again, she nodded. “I’m okay now.”

  “Good. Come with me.”

  He led her to a group of people surrounding a man who was doubled over, breathing heavily, much as she had been doing a few seconds ago. Another man had his hand on the guy’s back. When the man stood, his hand covered his chest. “My own son is trying to kill me,” he gritted out.

  “Daddy?”

  A redheaded girl ran for the man. He bent down and scooped her up in his muscular arms. She buried her face against his neck, her tiny body racked with sobs. It was
all very touching and she might’ve even teared up if her sister hadn’t just been kidnapped!

  She turned to find someone else to help her. These people were too involved with their own drama to be of any assistance. All these people, surely there was someone who would help her, but the man she’d originally approached grabbed her arm stopping her. “Wait.”

  “I don’t have time to wait. My sister’s been kidnapped!” Didn’t he understand simple English?

  “Yes, I understand simple English,” he replied.

  Oops. She hadn’t meant to say that out loud.

  He towed her to the distressed man. “Dante, her sister was the girl who was kidnapped.”

  The man swum out of focus as tears flooded her eyes. Zoe was gone. Kidnapped. Suddenly, she felt a small hand in hers. It was the little redheaded girl. “My brother saved me. He will save your sister, too.”

  Chapter Two

  Sawyer Oldham was having a hard time pulling air into his lungs, so he couldn’t imagine how Dante Costa felt right now. Again. Jeez. How could this have happened a second time?

  The first time Kai disappeared, Sawyer had been an agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, brought in to help find Gracie Costa after she’d been kidnapped by escaped convict Patrick Sweeney. Kai had witnessed the abduction and at only nine years old, had managed to spirit Gracie away from Sweeney. During the subsequent ordeal, Sawyer had been shot by Sweeney. In the months since, he’d healed, quit his job with the Bureau and joined COBRA Securities. In that time, he’d become close friends with the Costa family. Knowing his little buddy had just risked his life again to save another girl had a boulder lodging in his throat.

  “It’s all my fault.”

  Sawyer glanced down at the petite dark-haired beauty and his heart knocked against his rib cage. She was stunning, with long, dark hair and light green eyes, currently swimming with tears. It spoke to his state of mind that he hadn’t taken the opportunity to appreciate her fit, tone body blatantly displayed in a red bikini. She looked vaguely familiar but he was having a hard time concentrating. “It’s not your fault,” he objected.