HEAT Vol. 2 (Master Chefs: HEAT Series #2) Read online

  I turned to the warehouse and waited. Was I expected to go inside?

  A large sliding door creaked and screeched open and a tall, good looking young man with jet black hair to his shoulders, mysterious dark eyes and a strong physique took a solitary step out. In black leather pants tucked into black riding boots and a black leather vest over a pristine white long sleeve shirt, he was an impressive and imposing figure. Okay, not just imposing, downright sexy. He looked more like the type of man who could model for GQ rather than make threatening phone calls.

  “Let’s take it inside,” he called out.

  He looked nothing like a thug or maniac. Then again, what did I expect a thug or maniac to look like? I walked up to him and he moved aside to let me in. From close up, he was even better looking. His eyes were hard, but smoldered with something intensely sexual, intensely untamed. Though he didn’t smile, his lips turned up slightly at the corners, giving him a constantly amused expression.

  Once inside the empty warehouse I was flanked by two large men who each took a firm hold of my elbows.

  “There’s no need for that,” I complained as I tried to pull away. “I’m here, aren’t I?”

  The sexy, dark haired man nodded at the two goons who sat me in a hard, straight backed chair and released me, though they remained close by.

  “You grew up prettier than I’d imagined, Lilly.”

  I frowned, and when he took a slow, long look at me, pausing at my breasts and hips, I had to look away.

  “Yeah, you grew up nicely. You were kind of gangly the last time I saw you.”

  “Saw me? When did you last see me?”

  “You don’t recognize me, do you?”

  “No. Should I?”

  He puckered his lips in thought. “I guess I’ve changed a lot over the years, too. I’m Rial. Does that ring a bell?”

  “Sorry, but no,” I said matter of factly.

  He smiled. “I guess it’s just as well.” Passing in front of me, he was silent for a while. “I have to admit I didn’t know you were in France. All this time, right under my nose. Then again, I never would have thought you’d end up in a convent.”

  His knowledge of who I was and where I’d been made me increasingly uneasy.

  “I have to hand it to your father… very smart. Putting you in a convent. Of course he had to know I wouldn’t think to look there. Then again, he made a good show of letting us think you were in the States. I don’t know how he did it, but…” He tipped an imaginary hat in honor of my father. “But leave it to the media to uncover your whereabouts.” He grinned and peered at me from under his thick brow. “Fame has its disadvantages, doesn’t it? You come up with a great food item and the next thing you know your name, face and whereabouts are plastered all over a glossy magazine. Congratulations. I read that article and know everything you’ve been up to; a scientist… impressive. Smart and pretty.”

  I nodded, but had little desire to thank him for the compliment. “So now you know, and I’m here, face to face. What do you want?”

  “Right. Why reminisce when we can get straight to business?” He came to stand directly in front of me.

  I had to tilt my head straight up just to look up at him.

  “I need to contact your father.”

  I let out a mocking little laugh. “Then you need to have a séance.”

  “Come again?”

  “You didn’t do your homework as well as you thought. He’s dead. My father died the year I went into the convent. Why do you think I went there to begin with?”

  “Nice try, Lilly. Your father would be proud. Now let’s have it. Where is he?”

  “He’s dead. Don’t you get that?”

  Rial clamped his hands together in front of him and stood looking down at me. “You’re a good little liar, just like your father. I would have thought all those years in a convent would have straightened you out a bit; made an honest woman out of you. Or was the convent and that postulant business all a charade?”

  “Nothing about my life has been a charade, and I’m telling you the truth. I saw him with my own eyes. I went to the funeral service. He was there in the coffin. He’s dead. No matter how much you might want to find him, he’s still dead.”

  “Oh, he’s very much alive. I know all about that funeral service. Very convincing. Your father did always have a flair for the theatrical. He’s always very smart, always a step ahead. You know, there’s a part of me that would like to give you the benefit of the doubt. It’s conceivable.” He looked up at the ceiling. “Yeah, it’s possible he deliberately left you in the dark about all this. It’s possible he wanted to protect you, keep you away from all the danger that surrounded him.”

  “What are you talking about? What danger? My father was an accountant for an architectural firm.”

  He let out a sharp little laugh. “An accountant. That’s a good one. Yeah, he was an accountant all right, money laundering, blackmail, extortion, off shore banking… yeah, he was good when it came to dealing with money.”

  I stared at him, trying to digest what he’d just said, but none of it made sense. “I think you have the wrong person. I think you’ve mistaken my father for someone else.”

  “Oh, it’s your father all right. Anthony Cooke. I remember him very well and I remember you.”

  “My father would never hurt anyone. He would never do anything illegal.”

  “Your father wouldn’t stop at anything to hurt someone, and all he knows is illegal.”

  “You're wrong.”

  Grinning, he looked at me, proud of having shocked me. “My dear Lilly, sweet innocent Lilly. Your dear old dad is one of the most notorious gang leaders in all of Europe. Yeah. A leader who cheated the wrong guy.”

  I stared at him as he patted my cheek.

  “A man who cheated me.”

  Chapter 9

  “How many years were you at the convent?” Rial said as if chatting with a long lost friend.

  “Over twelve years.”

  He cocked a brow. “Twelve years. That’s a long time.”

  “I guess.”

  “So who contacted you while you were there? Who sent Christmas cards? Who called to wish you a happy birthday?”

  Was he trying to rub in the fact that I had no one all that time? “No one ever contacted me. I never knew my mother, I have no siblings, and before going to the convent, all I had was my father.”

  “Twelve years in a convent, and you never had contact from anyone… anyone from the outside world? No uncles, no aunts, no grandparents? Forgive me, but I find that hard to believe.”

  “You can talk to the Reverend Mother, soeur Anne, soeur Beatrice… ask any one of the nuns and they’ll tell you I never so much as got a birthday card.”

  “I know your father can be a heartless piece of work when it comes to business, but I don’t believe he’d completely abandon you like that, but I can understand your reluctance to share that information with me. After all, we’ve just met, right?”

  I shook my head, but said nothing.

  “So, look what I’ll do for you. I’ll give you a few minutes to think about it, a few minutes to consider the consequences of your decision. Who knows? Maybe you’ve blocked it out. Maybe you’re angry with your father for not visiting, so you’ve shut him out completely. Hey, I know these things can happen sometimes. So, take some time to think it over. Then I’ll come back, and hopefully you’ll have a better answer for me; a more satisfactory answer. You got that?” He clapped his hands and looked at the goons still at my side. “Take her to the storage room.”

  “What?” I screeched as the men grab my arms and dragged me away. “Wait. What are you doing?”

  One of the men opened a heavy metal door and shoved me inside. I fell to the hard stone floor, and before I could get back on my feet, they slammed the heavy door shut, leaving me in the dark.

  The chill of the room quickly wrapped around me, leaving my skin goose bumped. I pulled my arms to my chest in an
attempt to retain what little warmth I had, but before long, I was trembling from the cold. I had no idea how much time passed. At times I bundled up and sat on the floor, at times, I leaned against the door listening for signs of life and for a solid ten minutes, I felt my way around the room, hoping to find some outlet.

  But when the door finally opened again, I was blinded by the light that flooded in. All I saw were the imposing silhouettes of the two goons as they walked in. I cowered back into the corner.

  They disappeared in the shadows, but I could hear them approach. I wanted to scream, if for no other reason than to release the growing sense of panic that overwhelmed me. A hot stale breath brushed my cheek and as I turned to it, a firm grip took a hold of my hair and jerked my head back.

  “Has this past hour helped you remember any contacts?” Rial’s voice was more menacing than before and I knew my answer wouldn’t please him.

  “I was never contacted by anyone,” I said.

  The fist on my hair tightened and jerked me forward before pulling me back up again.

  “You know why I don’t believe you, Lilly?” Rial whispered in my ear. “While we haven’t found Anthony Cooke, we did find his cell phone. Does that surprise you?”

  I shrugged. “What makes you so sure it’s my father’s.”

  “Because, I know.” He chuckled into my ear. “You see, the thing is, when we looked at his contacts in the phone, guess what we found.”

  Again, I shrugged.

  “The number of the convent. Now, why would he have the convent’s phone number in his contacts if he never called you?”

  “Maybe he just spoke to the Reverend Mother to make sure I was okay,” I offered. In the back of my mind I still refused to believe my father was alive, but a part of me began to wonder.

  “Nice try. You really have an answer for everything, don’t you? You know, I was really hoping I wouldn’t have to have you slapped around a bit. These guys can be a little heavy handed sometimes. You’re so pretty. It would be a shame to ruin it, don’t you think?” He stepped back.

  I cringed in anticipation of a blow, but none came. Instead I was released and the men walked again, once again closing the door behind them.

  Hours passed and when the door opened again, I was cold, tired and dizzy with hunger. I wanted to go home. I wanted to put an end to this.

  “Lucky girl,” Rial said, seemingly in a good mood. “We’ve had a change of plans.”

  His goons came in and pulled me to my knees while Rial came to stand in front of me.

  “We were fortunate enough to get a call from a… let’s say, an associate of your father’s.”

  “Good, so now you have him. Now you can let me go.”

  “Not so fast. His associate wasn’t very talkative and refused to give your father’s location, but…” He nodded at his men who brought me to my feet. “I did tell this associate that I had Anthony Cooke’s lovely daughter.”

  “So what are you going to do with me now?”

  “Well, I guess we just have to sit and wait it out, don’t we?” He turned to his men. “Bring her to the Bonne Nuit hotel. Make her comfortable… secure, but comfortable.”

  “Wait, you can’t hold onto me indefinitely. People are waiting for me to come home. They’ll be looking for me.”

  “Relax. You’ll be home soon enough… if your father comes through.”

  After being blindfolded and shoved into the back seat of a car, I was taken to a nearby motel. With the blindfold off, I looked around at the room. While it was better than the storage room at the warehouse, it was still dingy and smelled of unspeakable things. It was disgusting and I just wanted to leave, but Rial’s men were parked right outside the door.

  Sitting on the bed, one wrist handcuffed to the bedpost, I watched television. The news was on, and I hoped there would be mention of my missing, but there was nothing. Was Bobby worried about me? Was he looking for me?

  The door opened and Rial came in. Had I met him under different circumstances, I might have been attracted to him. There was something so mysterious about him and he exuded the kind of sensuality that probably drove all the women wild.

  He closed the door and came to sit on the edge of the bed. Despite my fear of him, my body had a strange and unexpected reaction to him.

  “Are you coming to release me?” I said, hoping beyond hope that he would put an end to my ordeal.

  “Not yet.”

  “What are you going to do with me once you find my father?”

  “I’ll let you go.”

  “Just like that? You’ll let me go?”

  “Yeah. Once I get a hold of your father, I don’t need you anymore.” He set his hand on my thigh. “Unless you want to just hang around.”

  I jerked my leg away and he laughed.

  “Oh, right. The good little Catholic girl. Tell me, are you still a virgin, Lilly?”

  “That’s none of your business,” I spat.

  He grinned and his eyes narrowed. “Fiery. I like that.”

  “You know, if what you say is true, and my father is alive, and he finds you, I hope he shoots your head off.”

  He exploded with laughter and when he brought his eyes back to me, there was a strange, almost hypnotic gleam in his eye. “Funny, you never would have said that all those years ago.”

  Intrigued, I wanted to ask him how we knew each other, but I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction.

  “Don’t you remember, Lilly? Don’t you remember the crush you had on me?”

  It was my turn to laugh, but he wasn’t amused by the sound of my laughter.

  “If you’ve known me since I was a child, if you’ve known my family for so long, why are you so angry with my father? What do you want with him?”

  “Our families were once close, very close. So close, in fact, that your father agreed to an arranged marriage… with me.”

  “He agreed to what?”

  “You heard me.”

  “No. Now I know you're crazy. My father would never…”

  “You and I are engaged, Lilly. Your father thought our union would be beneficial to both our families.”

  “Then why all this animosity? If our families are so close, how come you don’t know where he is? Why this race to find him?”

  “Your father brought an abrupt halt to the agreement when he killed my father.”

  Shocked, gaping and glad I was already sitting down, I stared at him.

  “Don’t look so shocked. Your father wasn’t exactly an angel.”

  Chapter 10

  Bobby

  “Bobby,” Taryn said as she opened the door. “What are you doing here?”

  “Have you seen Lilly?” I said, trying to keep my calm.

  “No. Isn’t she at work?” She headed to the kitchen where she was making tea. “Want a cup of tea? It’s a nice spice tea. Perfect for a nice afternoon such as today.”

  “No. Taryn, I’ve looked everywhere for her.” Clearly she wasn’t getting the urgency of the matter. “Seriously. I looked everywhere.”

  “Bobby. Calm down. I’m sure she just went on a great shopping spree looking for the best ingredients for her next project. Come on. Sit down and have some tea.”

  I threw myself into a chair and plopped my elbows on the tabletop. Was I making a big deal out of nothing? No. I knew something was off. “She was supposed to meet me when I finished class.”

  “So she got a little caught up in the excitement of picking out the best sausage, or pepper or pastry.” She smiled over her cup of tea. “Wow. You must really be in love with this girl. I’ve never seen you so upset.”

  It wasn’t working. I tried to find comfort in what she was saying, tried to convince myself I was overreacting, but I knew something was wrong. Trying to find a suitable reason why Lilly hadn’t met me after class, I stared into the tea cup Taryn had put in front of me.

  “Bobby?”

  “Yeah,” I muttered. Looking up at her, I saw the first sign of concern
in her eyes. “Have you tried calling her?”

  “Dozens of times. I know she doesn’t always have her phone on her. She doesn’t like being that connected, but it’s been four hours.”

  “Four hours?” Taryn bolted out of her chair. “Four hours? My God, Bobby, why didn’t you say so?”

  “I told you we were supposed to meet after class.”

  “I thought you’d just gotten out of your last class barely an hour ago.”

  “I didn’t have any classes this afternoon. My last class let out just before noon. We were supposed to have lunch and then go looking for a throw rug for her apartment.”

  “Hey, what’s going on?” Errol said as he came in. “I can hear you guys way out in the hall.”

  “Lilly is missing,” Taryn said. As calm as she’d been a minute ago, she was now bursting with urgency.

  Errol’s face was grave as he nodded. “She left work early this morning.”

  “To go where?” Taryn said.

  “I don’t know. I thought she went to see the doctor or something. She just told the supervisor she wasn’t feeling too good and wanted to go get some cough syrup. When she didn’t come back, he just assumed she’d gone home.”

  “Okay, so what do we do now? Call the police?”

  Errol walked around the kitchen table and put his arm around Taryn’s shoulders, as if to protect her from whatever fate Lilly might have met. “Give me a minute,” he said. “I have a friend. Let me see what I can do.” Errol kissed Taryn then pulled out his cell phone and walked away as he made the call. “What’s Lilly’s cell number?” he called to me.

  I gave it to him and waited as he continued the call. The minutes ticked by and my patience grew thin. “This is nuts. The woman I love is out there somewhere, possibly hurt, possibly injured, possibly in trouble, and I’m just sitting here sipping tea.”

  Taryn offered me a sympathetic glance just as Errol finally hung up.

  “Okay, let’s go. We were able to triangulate where she is, or at least where her cell phone is. Let’s just hope she still has it with her.”