Collared (Captured by the Billionaire #6)(2)
Author: Julia Sykes

And then she was tearing down the drive again, headed for the highway.  She tried her best to swallow her panic down as she raced towards Jake, slowing only when she glanced at the directions that the kidnappers had sent her.

I don’t know what I’ll do if anything happens to him, she thought desperately.  I can’t let anything happen to him.

In that moment, she realized the depth of her feelings for Jake.  I love him, she thought in wonder.  She had never really been in love before him.  He had opened a whole new world to her, and her life was better for having him in it; she couldn’t imagine her life without him now.  She was wracked by guilt as she thought of how she had hurt him the last time she had seen him, refusing his offer to collar her.  But now she would do anything to erase what she had done.  She hadn’t wanted to be owned, but now she saw that Jake already possessed her heart.

And why was she realizing this just now, when it might be too late?  What if the kidnappers had already killed him?  What if they realized that the necklace wasn’t worth what she claimed it was?  But there was nothing else she could do; she couldn’t abandon Jake.  She knew that a part of her would die along with him.

Following the directions that had been texted to her, Mallory pulled off of the highway onto an old dirt road that was barely discernible.  She plowed ahead regardless.  Someone had clearly already driven through here, breaking through the brush that would have otherwise destroyed the Jag.

A few miles later, she arrived at an old shack, a moonshine distillery that had clearly been abandoned for some time.  The sun-bleached grey wood was rotted, and the tin roof was rusted a reddish-brown color.  Mallory shivered as it reminded her of dried blood.  Dark was falling now, and she had to pick her way carefully through the brush that had grown up around the building.

Suddenly, a strong arm snaked around her waist, pulling her back up against a hard torso.  Mallory’s scream cut through the silence of the wood.  There was something cold and sharp at her throat.

“No one can hear you, bitch,” said a soft, cold voice in her ear.

Her heart was in her throat, beating wildly.  “Please,” she whispered.  “I have your money.  Please let Jake go.”

But the man just chuckled, his breath hot on her neck.  The knife moved away from her vulnerable throat.  But Mallory didn’t have time to breathe a sigh of relief; it had only been moved to press against her ribs.  She was trembling now.

“Move,” the voice commanded, increasing the pressure of the knife.  An involuntary whine escaped Mallory as terror washed over her.  She did as he bade her, moving slowly as the man kept a grip on her shoulder while he prodded her forward, his restraining hand keeping her from running.

When they reached the door to the shack, he called out: “I’ve got her.  Open up.”

The door creaked open, and Mallory gasped when she saw who was standing in the threshold.

“Got you, bitch,” Celeste smiled triumphantly.

Chapter 2

Mallory was shocked, dumbstruck.  Celeste stepped out of the way, and the man prodded her forward into the shack, the tip of the knife pressing through her thin dress, cutting shallowly into her skin.  She hissed in pain and quickly walked through the door.  He guided her to a rusty metal chair in the center of the otherwise empty room and shoved her roughly down onto it.  She heaved a sigh of relief as the knife was drawn away from her, but the man had only released her momentarily.  His hands were around her arms, jerking them behind her and securing her wrists together with a cable tie.  He pulled it so tightly that the hard plastic bit into her skin.  She winced, but didn’t allow herself to make any other show of discomfort; she wouldn’t give Celeste the satisfaction.

The bitch was looking down at her now, her face twisted into a leer.

“Where’s Jake?”  Mallory asked, suddenly panicking as she realized that he was nowhere in sight.  “What have you done to him?”  She felt sick as a series of gruesome images flashed before her eyes, images of Jake, broken and dead.  No, they couldn’t have killed him; she had brought them the ransom within the timeframe that they had demanded.

“I brought you what you asked for,” she said desperately.  “Please.  Wherever he is, let him go.”

Celeste laughed, a cold, cutting sound.  “You really aren’t the sharpest tool in the shed, are you?  Honestly, I don’t know what he sees in you.”

“Where is he?”  Mallory demanded, trying to match Celeste’s cold tone.

“He’s probably just landing at Charleston airport,” she answered coolly.

“You’re lying to me,” Mallory insisted.  “I heard him.”

Celeste’s smile widened.  “Did you now?  Did it sound something like this?”  She pulled something small and black from her jeans pocket and pressed a button on the side.

“Mallory!”  Jake’s voice groaned.

“It’s from the tape, you stupid bitch,” Celeste explained, gloating.  “Of course I had a backup.  Did you really believe that I would have given the only copy to Charlie here?”

Mallory was stunned, at a loss for words.  God, she really was an idiot.  She had walked right into Celeste’s clawed clutches.  Her cheeks heated in shame and anger, and she pulled at her restraints.  She was only rewarded by the bite of the plastic as it tore her delicate skin.

“So what is it that you want, Celeste?”  She spat out.  “Do you think that getting rid of me would possibly make Jake fall for you?  I know you want him, you gold-digging whore.”

Celeste moved so quickly that her arm was a blur.  Her hand cracked across Mallory’s face, her long nails raking across her skin.  She felt the skin tear on the inside of her cheek and tasted blood.  Her head spun so hard that she felt sick for a moment.

“How dare you?!”  Celeste asked angrily.  “We both know that you’re the money-grubbing slut here, waitress!”  She pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes, making a visible effort to calm herself.  When she opened them again, she was glaring at Mallory.  “But now thanks to you I’ll never have him.  So I’ll have to settle for his money.  I’m going to get rich and then get so far away from here that they’ll never find me.  No way am I going to jail.”