Stranded with My Stepbrother Chapter 131

Will

I hoped I wasn’t doing something stupid. Well, I knew I was doing something stupid. And not thought out. And dangerous. But at least I hoped it wasn’t going to get us killed.

McKenzie kept giving me a what the fuck?! look. I didn’t blame her. How could she know I’d stashed money away in a private European bank?

I almost laughed at the hubris of the twenty-something young man I had been who decided he was going to stick it to Grandfather for taking football away by starting a new life in Spain. It was also a kick in the gut about how privileged I’d been that I’d moved fifty-million dollars to a foreign country and basically forgotten about it.

Still, Spain! Of all the places we could have ended up….

McKenzie was put in a different black SUV than mine, which irked me, but they had fifty million reasons to give her back, so I decided to bide my time. They weren’t going to hurt her. Or me. Money made things easy that way.

“El Banco Palacios in Madrid,” I said tersely to the main guard. I frowned at him. “And I don’t think I caught your name.”

“You didn’t. And you’re not going to,” the guard replied conversationally. But there was a layer of steel to his words.

“I’ll call you MacDuff,” I decided.

He laughed. “As in ‘lead on’?”

“Yes.”

MacDuff nodded. “I like it. Okay, guys, you heard the man. Let’s get his rich ass to Madrid.”

I glanced through the back window, but the vehicle behind us had tinted windows, just like ours. I couldn’t see McKenzie, but I knew she was there.

MacDuff patted my shoulder. “Don’t worry. She’s just fine. If she puts up too much of a fuss, my guys will just drug her, and she can just sleep the whole way there.”

I grimaced. “That’s… disturbing.”

“Better than her trying to do something stupid like jump out while we’re speeding down the carretera,” he pointed out.

I winced. “Good point.”

“I knew you’d see it my way.” He offered me a bottled water.

Suspicious, I took it and examined it. The seal was unbroken. “What’s this for?”

“Truce. As long as we get our money, you two are off the hook. You can fly off free as birds. I mean, I can’t guarantee there won’t still be people coming after you, but the boss is dead, and your grandfather’s back in the United States, so… I’m thinking your odds might be a little better here,” he said.

I eyed the bottle, then cautiously twisted the cap off. Sniffing the water within, I finally took a sip.

“Don’t trust me?” he asked.

“No,” I replied, taking another cautious sip. “I don’t.”

“Good. You shouldn’t.” Then he pulled a syringe from his jacket.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I growled. I went for my seat belt release.

MacDuff grabbed my wrist. “If you make me chase you around this car, you’re not going to like the consequences. Now, that nice young Killeen girl—nice going, by the way, she’s hot and what, half your age?—is getting the same treatment. It’s just going to make the ride a little shorter. And less stressful for the rest of us.”

They want the money. They want the money. No need to make trouble. Besides, how would I get to McKenzie anyway? “I really hate you.” I moved my hand away from the seat belt release and offered my arm instead. “And she’s not half my age.”

“Riiight.” He injected me with whatever was in the syringe.

I was out in seconds.

***

A slap-slap-slapping sound pulled me from a groggy fog. I realized, once I became aware of my cheeks stinging, that I was getting lightly slapped across the face.

“Could you stop?” I grunted, peeling my eyelids open with effort. “I’m awake.”

“There he is! I think I gave you a little too much. But we’re here,” MacDuff said.

A little too much? My attention snapped to the vehicle parked behind us. The black SUV’s windows were no less tinted than they had been before. If they’d given ‘almost too much’ to a grown, fit, thirty-year-old man, what would the same dose have done to McKenzie?!

“Relax. Hers was calibrated better. She’s been awake for a while. Mouthy little thing, too.” He chuckled as though reading my mind.

I looked out the side window at el Banco Palacios then back at him. “I’m not doing shit until I see she’s okay.”

He held up his hands. “Peace, my friend. I knew you were a smart man and weren’t going to just give us the money without guarantees.” He pulled out his phone.

“A video won’t suffice,” I argued.

“Of course it won’t. But I do need to make sure she’s calm before we go over there. Witnesses and all that. You understand,” he said.

“Ah.” That would be a consideration.

MacDuff barked some orders into his phone in a language I didn’t understand then turned to me. “No scenes from you, either.”

“No scenes,” I promised.

He got out of the SUV then came around and opened my door.

I stepped out into the sun, my eyes burning at the sudden flash of light, and quickly shielded my eyes.

Very calmly, he put a hand on my back as though escorting a celebrity. The back door of the other SUV swung open, and McKenzie was sitting there, looking frazzled but intact.

I couldn’t say the same for her captors. All three were sporting bites and scratches. It made me smile. “How are you doing?” I asked her calmly. I needed to make sure the situation stayed as peaceful as possible.

“They drugged me.” McKenzie scowled at the three men in the SUV.

“Me, too,” I responded sympathetically. I started to reach out to her, but MacDuff caught my arm.

“That’s enough for now,” he said. “We’ve got an appointment at a bank.”

I swore under my breath. “Unless you did something while I was out, I didn’t make an appointment.”

“That kind of money? You probably don’t need one.” He ushered me away from McKenzie. The SUV door closed with a thunk of finality behind us.

“Lead on,” MacDuff grinned, gesturing.

I crossed the busy street, congested with both vehicle and foot traffic, and walked up to the bank. I looked at the ornate metal double doors, thick enough to stop a tank, and wondered if they’d even take a guy dressed in a wind suit. I was dressed like the quintessential American tourist and certainly not like anyone with money.

Plus, there was another problem.

“I don’t have my ID,” I murmured to MacDuff as the doors swung wide, opened by very professional employees who, to their credit, did not bat an eyelash at my attire.

He grinned and pulled something out of his jacket pocket. “We did need to get you back to the United States. Masterson had these couriered pretty quickly.”

Damned if the man wasn’t holding a passport, social security card, and birth certificate for both McKenzie and me!

“I see,” I said. “Not a problem, then.”

“No problems here. Only solutions.” He walked right up to the main desk. “Hi, we’d like to see the manager.”

The woman behind the desk looked us over. “May I ask what this is concerning?”

“William Masterson the Third would like to make a withdrawal from his account,” MacDuff continued smoothly.

Something in her manner should have alerted us. Or at least him. He was a trained mercenary, after all.

But then, the woman only paused for the smallest of moments before picking up her phone. “Señor Palacios, Mr. William Masterson the Third is here. He is one of our larger account holders. He is asking to see you about a withdrawal.”

I couldn’t hear the other side of the conversation, but the woman nodded several times, then motioned to a guard. “Please get Mr. Masterson and his friend settled,” she told him.

“Mr. Masterson. Got it.” The guard turned to us. “Follow me, por favor.”

“Gracias,” MacDuff said and followed the guard. He must have been very distracted by the idea of fifty-million dollars because even I caught sight of other bank guards peeling away from their stations and following behind us.

It made me jumpy and suspicious. I wasn’t sure if I should say something to MacDuff so the two of us could try to make a run for it, or if I should let it be and let the chips fall where they may. Devil I know? Devil I don’t…?

In the end, I decided there were too many of them. I didn’t want anything to happen to McKenzie if we caused a scene. All I could do was hope and pray at this point that McKenzie and I would come out of this unscathed because I was certain now it was out of my hands.

I was not surprised at all to see Ike when they swung a door open and ushered us inside a small conference room. He was seated beside who I could only assume was the bank manager and had a bodyguard standing behind him.

“Will.” Ike smiled, standing. “You’re a hard man to find. Why don’t you sit down? Your friend here isn’t going anywhere.”

“He’s not my friend,” I said flatly. “I’m in the middle of a business deal. Do you mind?”

“Would that be a business deal where you drain your paltry little savings here in order to buy you and your girlfriend out of trouble? No need. I’d hate for you to waste your hard-earned money on something your grandfather and I can easily do for you. How much did he offer you, Mr. Ingram?” Ike asked.

MacDuff’s jaw dropped. “How did you know my—?”

“It’s not really that important, is it?” Ike crossed his arms over his chest. “I just need a number and a girl, and then you’re free to go.”

“A hundred million,” MacDuff lied, his eyes daring me to correct him.

“Oh, I very much doubt that. But let’s call it a hundred-and-fifty million, and I never see you or your colleagues again,” Ike replied smoothly.

“Done.” MacDuff, or Mr. Ingram, or whoever he really was, pulled out his phone. “Bring the girl to—”

“The front door will do just fine,” the bank manager spoke up.

MacDuff nodded. “Bring her to the front door and leave her there as soon as you see me walking out.”

“Will, please, sit. You look like you’ve been having quite a rough time. And those clothes!” Ike grimaced.

I gritted my teeth, but sat down. “Ike…”

“You can thank me later by being nicer to your grandfather. He’s been really quite worried about you.” Ike cut me off. Then, he turned to MacDuff. “Let’s conclude our business. I’ve got a jet burning fuel on the tarmac as we speak.”

The bank manager brought out some paperwork and an iPad. There was some mumbling between the three of them about the details, which made the time drag on even longer. I didn’t want McKenzie in Ike’s hands any more than I wanted her out there with a pack of mercenaries. But I did want her with me. As soon as possible.

Finally, the bank manager signed the paperwork himself, and it was a done deal.

“McKenzie,” I said gruffly when MacDuff stood.

“I’m getting her. Keep your pants on.” He chuckled. He shook hands with Ike then headed out.

I turned to Ike, feeling itchy under my skin. “What are you going to do with us?”

He leaned forward, steepling his hands in front of himself, a victorious smile on his face. “I’m glad you asked, Will. I have to thank you for running off and getting yourself all twisted up over a nice young thing. Your grandfather and I weren’t sure how we were going to get you back to work—how to get you to embrace your destiny. This was a lot bigger than that ridiculous football fantasy of yours, after all. I mean, I’d been prepared to have your leg broken in a mugging, but you saw sense. This time, though, you really went thermonuclear and made all the wrong choices due to some misguided sense of morality. Silly boy.”

Anger erupted in me, but I tamped it down. He could call me ‘boy’ all he wanted to as long as he got me McKenzie. I’d already realized what my situation had become, even without him finishing his explanation.

Ike was determined to have his villain’s monologue, however. Only this time, I didn’t think anyone was coming to rescue us at the last second. “Now that we have McKenzie, well, things have become so much easier. Wouldn’t you agree, Will? You get the love of your life. We get our figurehead back. In the public eye, all is right in the world.”

“Fine.” It was the only response to give, after all.