Mr. Dixon leveled a glare on him as he said, “You know exactly what that means the same as I do.”

“Apparently not. So, why don’t you do us both a favor and explain it to me,” he demanded through clenched teeth, because if there was one thing that he wouldn’t take, it was someone bashing his family.

Whether they deserved it or not.

“I’ve lived in this town my entire life, son, and I’ve seen what you Bradford boys are capable of and if you’re not to the point where you’re willing to risk everything for my granddaughter,” Mr. Dixon said softly, taking him by surprise for a second time that night, “then I’m going to need you to leave her alone, because she won’t be able to handle getting her heart broken by you.”

“I’m not going to break her heart,” he swore even as a small part of him had to wonder if that’s exactly what he was going to end up doing.

He was a Bradford after all and he was nowhere near the point of losing his fucking mind in order to keep her.

*-*-*-*

Tuesday, December 15th.

“Oh, my God,” she said, slowly rolling over and wincing when the effort caused her burnt hand to sting, “I am never drinking again.”

When she realized that she was now face to face with a black leather seat and that the seat was also moving, she realized something was off about this situation. Then of course came the reminder that she didn’t drink, not since high school when she stole one of Grandpa’s beers and after he’d caught her, he’d made her drink the entire six pack until she swore that she was going to die.

It was not an experience that she would ever willingly go through again.

So, that made her wonder how she’d got here in the first place and why she felt so damn groggy. She tried to sit up, but there was a dull persist headache that was making that damn near impossible, that and apparently her hands and feet were tied together.

Either she was twelve again and her grandfather was trying to teach her a lesson on what could happen if she answered the door unprepared or she’d been kidnapped by someone who really liked food. Sighing, with a bit of a wince because of that persistent, dull headache that she couldn’t quite explain, she carefully rolled over, noted the brown bags of food that were on the floor and the empty food wrappers strewn about, the hint of smoke and the cologne that drove her crazy and sighed.

“Why exactly am I tied up?” she asked Duncan, grateful that it hadn’t been her grandfather who’d tied her up, because she really hadn’t been looking forward to following through with her threats of having him committed.

Something about the man just told her that he wouldn’t go down without a fight.

“Oh,” Duncan said, looking back with the sweetest smile, “you’re awake.”

“And apparently tied up,” she said, raising her hands pointedly.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” he said, not really sounding all that sorry about tying her up. In fact, his tone suggested that it was really no big deal, which kind of freaked her out a little bit.

“T-that’s okay,” she said, admittedly a little nervously since she’d just realized that her boyfriend, the guy that she was sleeping with or whatever he was to her, had just kidnapped her.

This wasn’t exactly a relationship building moment.

“How’s your head?” he asked, bringing this moment to a whole new level of disturbing.

“Fine…why?” she asked hesitantly, narrowing her eyes suspiciously on the large bastard and wondering if he actually had the balls to drug her fo-

But, when he rolled his eyes and sighed heavily in that way of his, she wasn’t exactly surprised when he said, “You fell off the bed while I was gone.”

Oh, well, sadly that made sense since she did have a tendency of falling off her own bed, which was sadly, often. Something he said, brought her attention right back to him.

“Why were you gone?”

“Because your grandfather kidnapped me at gunpoint,” he said with another one of those shrugs that was actually starting to creep her out.

Chapter 29

“Do you think that you could untie me now?” Necie asked with a hopeful expression as she held up her hands so that he could free her, but…

“Sorry, but I don’t think that I can do that,” he admitted.

With another one of those confused frowns, she dropped her hands and asked, “Why not?”

With a frown of his own, he said, “Because I think it’s against the rules.”

“What rules?” she asked slowly with that look that told him that she was starting to question his sanity when it should be more than obvious what he was doing.

“It’s not important,” he said, instead of explaining the rules since there was a good possibility that they could come back and bite him in the ass at a later date.

“Okay,” she said much more slowly this time as she slowly sat up and moved closer to the passenger door, but he was prepared for this possibility.

“The child safety locks are on,” he said, loving her adorable little disappointed sigh that escaped her lips when she realized that he’d thwarted her one and only means of escape.

“I see,” she said absently as she looked around his SUV, looking for another means of escape, something that her grandfather had warned him of, so of course he’d prepared for every single escape possibility.

The ones that he’d missed, Mr. Dixon had found, so he seriously doubted that he was going to have to worry about this sweet little thing getting away before he could figure out if she was the one.

*-*-*-*

“Necie!” he screamed a bit hysterically as he ran past her hiding spot, again.

Shaking her head, because seriously this had just been way too easy, she held her bound hands in front of her and bit a small cut into the blue painter’s tape that he’d used, which of course was telling. He hadn’t wanted to hurt her, which was why he’d used tape that was easy to rip off and wouldn’t hurt as much as duct tape. For future kidnappings he might seriously want to reconsider his choice in tape, she thought as she pushed back on the branch, using the snow dusted branches and twigs as cover while she watched him.