Prologue
Cooper Devlin wasn’t supposed to be kidnapped. Wrong place, wrong time had never been more evident than when he found himself bound and gagged in the back of a van next to Grayson, a boy he’d just met at spring break in Florida.
What followed were two weeks locked up in a room with Grayson Montana and Liam O’Rourke, both boys with fathers richer than anything Cooper could begin to imagine. From the best they could determine, Grayson and Cooper were being held until their fathers paid the ransom demand.
What did it mean for him that not only did his father rarely have more than pocket change, but if the men demanded a ransom for his release, his father would laugh in their faces and then find the nearest bar to see if he could talk someone into buying him a beer.
He knew both boys were worried about him. Grayson had even begged their kidnappers to pass a message from him to his father. The message being to ask his father to pay the ransom for Cooper so he would be freed with them. Grayson swore his father would do it. Whether the kidnappers passed that message on, they didn’t know.
Liam told the kidnappers to give his father that same message but later admitted that he doubted his father would fork over any money he didn’t have to. Sounded to Cooper like Grayson had the better father.
He’d like to believe that Grayson’s father would get the message and would pay his ransom. If he did, Cooper would spend his life paying the man back. It was a bigif, and he just didn’t see it happening. Why would anyone hand over a fortune for someone he’d never met? Cooper kept his fear to himself, but his chest was heavy and his stomach sick with dread that he wasn’t going to walk out of this room alive.
The kidnappers were ripping his dreams right out from under his feet. He had a full scholarship to Vanderbilt University in Nashville, a school with one of the top-ranked baseball programs. Cooper’s goal, his dream, was to pitch for his home-state Atlanta Braves.
He was supposed to meet the Vanderbilt coach this week, a meeting he would miss and couldn’t call to cancel. The coach was going to think Cooper had blown him off, never considering the possibility that he’d been kidnapped.
The kidnappers were stealing his chance to escape the hell that was his homelife. Even worse, he’d worked hard so that he’d be able to get his sister away from their father and into a life where he’d see her smile again. They had stolen that, too. He missed her sweet smile, her laughter.
He wasn’t even supposed to be in Florida. It had been a last-minute thing, an impulsive decision to tag along with two of his teammates when they decided they wanted to go to spring break. He was only supposed to be gone for two days, and he tried not to think about his sister being alone with their father for two weeks without him there to protect her from the old man’s rages. If he was alone, he’d curl up in a ball and cry, but he refused to cry in front of his two new friends.
“I don’t understand why they haven’t released us yet,” Grayson said. “My dad would’ve paid the ransom the minute they contacted him.” His gaze fell on Cooper. “As long as they passed my message on, he’ll pay it for you, too. I promise.”
“It’s okay if he doesn’t.” It really wasn’t, but he’d learned early in life not to expect good things to happen.
“Maybe my dad called the police, and now any chance of getting out of here has gone to shit,” Liam said. “I wouldn’t put it past him.”
Cooper didn’t know what to think. It seemed like Grayson and Liam had very different fathers, and he felt like he had more in common with Liam. In his wildest imagination, he couldn’t conceive of having a father like Grayson’s. The man sounded almost too perfect, like he couldn’t possibly be real.
He liked both boys and wished he’d met them under different circumstances. The three of them had grown close since being thrown in this room together, but desperation hung heavy in the air between them. There was no laughter, no teasing, no telling bad jokes like there would have been if they’d become friends outside this room that was their prison.
They were huddled in the corner of the room, as far away from the bucket that was their bathroom as they could get. Their jailers weren’t so good at emptying it. There wasn’t any furniture, no pallets to sleep on, not even a thin blanket, and no pillows to rest their heads on, but worst of all, no privacy. They were fed once a day, two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and a bottle of water each. When…ifhe got out of here alive, he was never eating another peanut butter and jelly sandwich. And if they were released, he was going to take the longest shower ever.
Out of boredom, they’d played Never Have I Ever, Twenty Questions and Truth or Dare, although it was hard to dare anyone to do anything in what was essentially a jail cell. There probably wasn’t much they didn’t know about each other now. He’d even opened up and told his new friends about his homelife, something he never shared with others.
“I’m worried about my sister,” he said. “She’s going to think I ran away and left her to face our father alone.” Emmie oftenbegged for both of them to run away, but as much as he was tempted, they were too young to be out on their own. They’d probably end up living on the streets, and he’d never allow that to happen to his sister. He had a plan, and in the end, he’d be able to take her away and give her the life she deserved. If he could survive this and make things right with the Vanderbilt coach, that was.
“I’m going to ask a big favor,” he said. “If I don’t make it out of here and you both do, will you try to get my sister away from our father? I don’t know, maybe call someone and report him? I’ll give you a list of things about him that should work to make that happen. Without me there to take care of her, Emmie would be better off in foster care.” He hated that it might come to that, but it would be best.
Grayson pressed his shoulder against Cooper’s. “You have my promise, but man, don’t talk like that. You’re leaving with us.”
“If the unthinkable happens, and they free us and not you, we’ll come back for you,” Liam said. “We’ll bring an army if we have to.”
“Thank you.” He managed to get the two words past the rock lodged in this throat. For as long as he could remember, he’d had to go it alone, and now here were two boys who promised to have his back. It was the first time in his life he didn’t feel so alone.
Both boys held up their fists, and he bumped each of theirs with his. “The only good thing about this is I met—”
“Freeze, asshole!”
The loud, commanding voice filled the air, and Cooper froze, even though he wasn’t the asshole in question. He hoped not, anyway. That wasn’t the voice of one of their kidnappers. He exchanged glances with Grayson and Liam, who appeared as startled and wary as he did.
“Do you think it’s the police?” he whispered. It was almost too much to hope they were being rescued.
“He didn’t say he was the police. Don’t they have to identify themselves?” Liam said.
When a shot rang out, the three of them flattened themselves on the floor. Cooper dared to hope. “I think we’re being rescued.”
A body hit the wall outside their room, and the sounds of grunts filled the air.