That only set her off again.
“Well you can’t do this!” she squealed. “Seriously, this is so wrong!”
Derek jumped in now.
“It’s wrong baby girl, but oh so right, because you’re the woman we’ve been waiting for.”
The brunette lashed out.
“Don’t even start with that. Don’t even go with that bullshit story he was telling me,” she said, shooting daggers my way. I had to admire her verve. The girl was luscious and totally nude, handcuffed in a strange man’s office and yet she was sassy and independent, making her views known. Another woman in her place would have been cowering and crying, begging for mercy, but not our little wildcat. Katie was one of a kind, and I could feel the fire in my gut beginning to burn.
“Don’t worry pretty girl,” drawled Derek. “All that bullshit he fed you? Yeah, it’s real. Unfortunately,” he continued. “But for better or worse, we need a fiancée. We need a girl to show that the family line’s been carried on before they’ll release the money.”
Katie snorted again.
“I dunno what kind of plan this is, but can’t you find someone else? Someone you know? Why do you have to pluck some random girl off the street?”
Derek turned to me eyebrows raised.
“You didn’t tell her?”
I held up both my hands.
“I told her everything, but she wouldn’t listen. This sassy filly has been doubting this and that, telling me I’m crazy. Why don’t you give it a try?”
And with a low rumble in his throat, Derek sat down on the couch about two feet from where Katie was shackled.
“Stop looking at me!” she squealed. “What the hell, what the hell? Who are you, anyways?”
The blonde giant’s smile grew deeper, the gleam in those blue eyes hungry.
“I, my dear, am your captor. Along with this jerk here,” he said, nodding at me. “We’ve decided to find a woman in the name of business and money,” he added mildly.
“But why would you help your friend?” she asked plaintively. “Can’t you tell this is against the law?”
Derek merely gazed at her, those lush lips slightly parted, the heaving breasts.
“It’s definitely against the law, but we have our ways of making things legit,” he remarked casually. “Trust me, you’ll end up liking it.”
“Bullshit,” she spat.
Derek merely chuckled.
“Anyways, I’m the President of Major. Mason and I are like brothers, we run this place together, and his problems are my problems. So when dude found out he needed an heir, I decided to help,” he said simply. “We thought up this plan together. We needed a girl, and we were gonna find her, keep her, and get that money.”
“Do you hear what you’re saying?” Katie panted then, eyes wide. “Do you hear how crazy this is? You’re executives of a Fortune 500 company, how can you think this is okay at all? How can you be so cold and calculating? This is crazy! Life’s not all about money!”
I shrugged.
“Call us cold, call us calculating, but this is how business is done and it’s worked for us for years now. We’re forty-five honey, we’ve been running this outfit for twenty years. It’s worked so far, why wouldn’t it work now?”
“Because finding a fiancée isn’t like running a company!” she goggled at us, eyes wide. “Can’t you see that? Or am I in some kind of Twilight Zone?”
I shrugged.
“Why can’t a fake fiancée be planned? Why can’t every step be planned carefully and then executed with precision? It’s worked for us in the past, why can’t it work now?”
Katie looked at me, big brown eyes round. But then she got a hold of herself.
“It can’t,” she said firmly. “Trust me, I’ve never been engaged, but it’s just not the same.”
Derek swooped in immediately.
“Exactly,” he said in a reasonable voice. “You’ve never walked in these shoes, so how could you know?” he asked. “How do you know that a fake marriage can’t be planned precisely, every twist, every wrinkle anticipated and ironed out before it even appears? We’re men who control, honey, and trust me, it’s worked for us so far.”
“Except for the will,” she said woodenly, refusing to look into our eyes now. “That part hasn’t worked out so well.”
Touche. But Derek shrugged his broad shoulders.
“No, we weren’t able to get the will thrown out. But whatever. We’ll work around it, and so far, the plan’s working,” he tossed off casually. “You’re here, at Major Corp., after all, ready to do our bidding.”
Katie’s jaw snapped shut.
“Unlock me and I won’t say a word,” she said in a low voice. “Unlock me, let me out of here, and I promise, I won’t say a word to anyone. You can do whatever you want afterwards, but just let me go.”
I threw my head back and roared with laughter then.
“Haven’t you heard what my partner said?” I asked gently. “You’re already here. We’ve already spent a year tracking you, studying you, measuring everything about you, even things you couldn’t possibly imagine. You’re it, baby girl, you’re it.”