That night, Kelly went up to bed early and started a bubble bath to soak in. There was nothing she loved more than soaking in water so hot it almost burned and she filled the tub with bath salts that smelled of jasmine and roses. Kelly stripped off her clothes and sank down into the heavenly mixture. She sighed as she felt her tension begin to melt.She had no one to blame for it but herself. She was tense because she felt like she had betrayed Jack by checking up on him and she was angry with herself for letting Aunt Mabry get to her. She knew better than to listen to that hateful old hag.Kelly sighed as she thought about Aunt Mabry. She knew that Jack didn’t want to confront Mabry because he and Chad had this overdeveloped sense of protection where Mabry was concerned and in many ways knowing he was like that made her care for Jack all the more. It wasn’t your average man that would put his family above all else, especially when that family member was attacking him at every turn.K

Kelly felt like she was walking on air the week after the party. She hadn’t spotted the car that had been following her all week and thought maybe Aunt Mabry was beginning to give up on having her watched.Kelly smiled to herself as she got ready to go to the clinic for the day. She replayed the week with Jack in her head and laughed as she remembered how he grabbed her in the shower. He had pressed her up against the wall and slipped his hands down between her legs to tease her. She thought he would drop her when he lifted her up, but he didn’t. She’d wrapped her legs around him and he’d entered her, making love to her as the water streamed down around them.Wednesday night, they skipped their usual movie and went straight up to bed after dinner, where Jack had stripped her of her clothing slowly, sensuously, kissing her as he went. Kelly had gasped with pleasure when she felt his mouth warm and wet between her legs and she never stopped gasping for breath as he sucked and licked unt

Chad drove straight to Jack’s house after leaving Andrew and Jack at the office. He pulled his Range Rover to the edge of the driveway and stepped out. Mrs. Poole answered when he rang the bell.“Hey, Mrs. Poole,” Chad said as he dropped a peck on her cheek. She had been a fixture at Jack’s for so long that both he and Jack had begun to treat her like an aunt more than an employee. “I’m here to see my Mom.”“Hi, dear. I’m not sure where she is. Would you like me to find her for you?” Mrs. Poole responded.“No, I’ll find her, thanks.”He wandered through the rooms looking for his mom and found her sitting in Jack’s living room reading the paper and drinking tea by the window. She spotted him and silently put down her teacup. She set the paper aside before looking up at him.Her expression was like that of an insolent little child who knew she was about to be scolded but she laid her hands in her lap and greeted her son, “Hello, Chad. What brings you here in the middle of the day?”Chad

Chad had set up shop in Jack’s living room and he, Jack, and Andrew were working every angle possible to locate Kelly and get her back but there were virtually no leads. Kelly’s family had been brought to the house and Mrs. Poole was doing all she could to comfort them but there was not much comfort for them – and there wouldn’t be – until Kelly was found. Her mother was as white as a sheet, sitting there surrounded by her husband and Kelly’s siblings but she was as strong as Kelly and was holding herself together as they waited for news.Jack didn’t think he had ever felt so afraid in his life. Or so angry. He had just found Kelly. They had just started their life together. He hadn’t even told her that he loved her or that he wanted their marriage to be real. He needed time with her. He needed her in his life. If he got his hands on the people who’d taken her from him, he really believed he would rip them apart with his bare hands. It was a level of anger and hate he never imagined h

Jack and Chad huddled in the stairwell of the third floor and watched the door to the apartment while they waited for the FBI to arrive. Without warning, they heard a door open in the hallway. Chad and Jack pressed their backs up against the wall. Chad leaned forward and peeked through the narrow glass window in the stairwell door and saw two men coming toward them. He held two fingers up to Jack who nodded and knelt down to cross under the window to the other side of the door. With Chad on one side of the door and Jack on the other, they could take the men down as soon as they entered the stairwell.The door opened and Jack and Chad acted quickly. Each of them struck one of the two men. It was a quick, silent takedown and they had the men subdued in under a minute. Chad pulled zip ties out of his back pocket and they bound the men’s hands behind their backs.“Let’s get them downstairs before they wake up. I don’t have anything to cover their mouths and the last thing we need is for t