The Taken Series Read online

  Taken

  By

  Nikita King

  Copyright 2016 by Nikita King

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  Proofed by: Greta Maloney

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  Grammar Edited by: Jennifer Moorman

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  Warning: This story contains graphic violence and sexual situations. All characters are eighteen and older. Adult content! This book is not intended for and should not be viewed by anyone younger than the age of eighteen.

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  Lulu 2015

  “If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.”

  Toni Morrison

  Taken

  Chapter 1 – Beth

  Okay, you need to smile this time, dumbass.

  I felt nervous while standing in line to meet the band Phantom. This was my second time meeting them backstage. This time my picture would turn out good unlike last time. Shit, I didn’t realize I looked so fat that day. I’d lost twenty-six pounds before that concert, but people could hardly tell. But this time, I had more time to prepare. We’d bought these tickets five months ago, and I’d lost an extra thirty-five more pounds. I had to admit, I was pleasantly surprised at how good I looked. Being a housewife, I didn’t have much inspiration to motivate me to go on a diet, but when my girlfriend suggested that I should go see my favorite band in concert, it seemed to be the perfect motivation for me to lose weight. Everyone who goes to a rock concert wants to look badass.

  “What’s wrong, Mom?” Joey asked.

  “I’m just nervous, baby.”

  Eve laughed out loud like the evil whore she was.

  “Easy for you not to care. You don’t even like the band,” I growled at her.

  “True.”

  “I’m surprised that you came.”

  “Me too,” Eve said. “You better be glad the concert is in Tennessee. I personally wouldn’t have left the state like you did last time.” She smiled at me and then winked.

  “Thanks, Eve. I know you really don’t like them, but I appreciate your help.”

  “Look, stop thanking me. You needed help with Joey. That’s what friends do. Besides, I know you have a big boner for Roman Reed.”

  “Eve! Little ears, little ears. Joey doesn’t need any more help with his vocabulary.”

  “Aunt Eve just said boner.” Joey snickered.

  “Thanks, Eve. You just proved my point,” I said as I punched her on the arm.

  I was so lucky to have a best friend like Eve. Eric and I had purchased these concert tickets before we separated, so there were three tickets and three backstage passes. Eric was nice enough to offer the extra ticket to Eve because he knew I would need help with Joey. Joey was everything to Eric and he knew that Joey would be a handful at this concert. Although Eric was a great dad and husband, when it came down to our relationship, we just couldn’t make it work. Now here I was at the concert trying to make sure that Joey had a great time.

  “I hope they sing ‘Going to the Grave’ tonight, Mom.”

  “Joey, I don’t think that they will sing that one. It’s from their first album, and it’s kind of old. Besides, they are mostly going to sing their current hits.”

  “I’ll ask Roman if he will sing it.”

  “You do that, Joey. I am sure Roman will do whatever you want since he is the lead singer of the band.”

  I couldn’t help but grin. Joey and I had really bonded since my favorite band Phantom became Joey’s favorite band too. I have been a huge fan of Phantom for five years, but Joey really started loving them when our family went and saw them in concert about a year ago. Eric had bought Joey and me backstage passes. It was a sweet gesture for Eric, especially since he knew that I had a huge crush on Roman Reed. It was one of those celebrity crushes. During an episode of Friends, they asked the question: if you could sleep with any celebrity and it not count against your relationship, who would be your top five celebrities? Well, that was easy for me. Roman Reed, Charlie Hunnam, Channing Tatum, Henry Cavill, and Alex Pettyfer. Okay, I had to admit the last one was a little bit creepy.

  Roman and I were the exact same age, forty-one. Hell, the other three were in their thirties, so that’s not that bad. Alex Pettyfer, on the other hand, was born when I graduated high school, but he was legal. I usually kept that one to myself. What did it matter anyways? It wasn’t as though I would be able to sleep with any of them anyway. I mean, I thought I was pretty enough but not movie star pretty.

  My brown hair fell past my shoulders, and I’m told I have a nice smile. I am a size twelve and I’m five foot five. Believe it or not, I felt sexy. I looked good and felt confident! I’ve always had curves in the right places, but I was less curvy now. Men had started checking me out again, but those were regular guys.

  Even Eric had been eyeing me lately. I hadn’t seen that look in his eyes in a while. Even though we were separated, he tried to talk me into a quickie two weeks ago. I guessed some habits were difficult to break. I’d thought about it because it had been awhile since I’d had sex, but I was worried that it would only confuse the situation. Since then Eric and I had filed divorce papers, and he had even started dating. Nothing serious, but it hurt a little. It wasn’t as though he was cheating on me. I was the one who asked for the separation. I didn’t want to start dating other people, but I didn’t want to walk on egg shells anymore either.

  “Mom, look they are going to start the photos in a minute.”

  “This time Mama’s going to look good in the picture,” I said as I adjusted my outfit.

  “Why is it so important for you to look good in this picture?” Eve questioned.

  “Eve, don’t you remember the last picture I had taken with Phantom?”

  “Oh…yeah. No offense, but you did look really bad. But hey, Joey looked great.”

  “Yeah, I know. That’s why this time we’re getting separate photos. I don’t want to ruin his picture in case I look bad again. It’s sad because he wants to show the photo to everyone, but I won’t let him because I looked so fat.”

  “I don’t blame you. I mean, you did look pretty plump. To be honest, you looked kind of pregnant.”

  Eve’s honesty was something I could always depend on. People had to have friends like that. Ones who would tell me that my butt looked really big in a pair of jeans. Because that kind of friend, when she told me that I looked great, I did, in fact, look amazing! Some people would pay for that kind of advice. I was lucky enough to get it for free.

  “I know.”

  “To top it off, Roman didn’t even smile in your last picture,” Eve said. “He looked bored. You know that blows when you pay more than three hundred dollars to get a picture made with your idol, and he looks put out.”

  I had thought the same thing when I got the picture back, but what could I do?

  “Well, you look fantastic tonight, so I am sure you will make a good picture this time. Besides that shirt you’re wearing makes your boobs look huge and perky.” Eve winked at me.

  “They might ‘look’ perky, but let’s just be glad a bra can give a nice illusion,” I said as I looked down at the girls.

  “Next,” the guy behind the camera called.

  “Go. Joey, and smile big for Mama.” I really wanted Joey’s picture to be great.

  Joey went up to the band, acting as cool as a ten year old could. The five band members posed with silly expressions on their faces. I thought they looked stupid that way, but if I had to take sixty pictures a night, every night on tour…yeah, I guess I would be pointing and sticking out my tongue too.

  “Next.” Crap, why was I so nervous? Roman Reed was human just like me, dumb ass. Don’t act like the rest of the stupid girls here. “You go next, Eve. I’m nervou
s.” Why was I so freaking nervous? I put my fingers in my hair and tried to make it have a little extra body. I checked to make sure just enough cleavage was showing and that my shirt was pulled down over my stomach. There.

  “Your dime, hot mama.”

  Eve walked up to the band, and she stuck out her pierced tongue, making some kind of cool symbol with her fingers. Eve had confidence. With her long black hair, Goth makeup, and her eyebrow pierced, she was a total badass.

  Must be nice not to care how the picture comes out.

  “Next.”

  Shit, my turn. Okay…remember to smile, stand up straight, and suck in. I hope Roman at least smiles in this picture.

  I walked up to the band and went to stand right beside my man, Roman. Damn, he was a gorgeous man. He was even better looking up close. Absolutely beautiful with those piercing emerald eyes and shoulder-length dark brown hair. Roman didn’t look like those drugged out rockers in their forties. He was in his prime like Jon Bon Jovi or Jared Leto. He was older, sure, but deep down, he was still thirty with a bad-boy image that just grazed over his edge for Rock ‘n’ Roll.

  Well at least he looked friendlier this time around. Maybe he was sick last time, who knows?

  I smiled my most dazzling smile and said, “Boys, let’s go with a smile for this picture.” Everyone smiled, and Roman Reed put his arm around my waist. My inner fangirl rejoiced. I was thrilled, but then again, he did that to all the girls—not because I looked awesome or because my boobs looked fabulous, but because I paid $350.00 to go backstage. It was his job, duh! The camera man counted to three, and my best smile froze on my face as the flash went off. That was the moment all our lives changed.

  Someone yelled, “Don’t move a muscle or we shoot.”

  Holy fuck!

  Well, to be honest, I did as the guy said; I didn’t move a muscle. My arm was still around Roman’s back and his around mine. Nobody moved. Nobody. I automatically scanned with my eyes for Joey. He was the only one who mattered in the whole fucking place. I loved Eve and I was crushing on Roman, but Joey was the only person in that room whom I cared about at that moment. My eyes landed on his and his on mine. He didn’t know what to do and neither did I. None of the parenting books had a chapter on this.

  Eve and Joey stood over to the side of the room with all the people who’d already had their photos taken. She slowly slid her arm around Joey’s shoulders. It was so subtle that I could have kissed her. Her eyes met mine, and in that moment, she let me know that Joey was her top concern too. Eve didn’t have any children, but she sort of adopted mine whenever she got a wild hair up her ass and decided that she wanted to play mommy. Apparently, a wild hair just grew and that was one wild hair I didn’t want to pluck.

  I could hear someone, probably a young girl, crying from somewhere in the crowd, and I saw some of the girls try to crawl away. Who could blame them? Not me, but I had to play this smart.

  “I said don’t move and I’m not fucking around!”

  Shit, there were three guys wearing all black with black ski masks. This wasn’t a bank, so what were they wanting at a rock concert? Shouldn’t there be security people? But I didn’t remember seeing any. These men couldn’t be here to steal music—hell, anyone could do that from a smart phone. I looked at each of them. One approximately 6'1" and muscled, another one who was approximately Roman’s height at 5'10" and skinny, and then there was the last one who was average. Average height and average build.

  The tallest of the three walked over to the band. He looked right at Roman and said, “You think you’re just hot shit, don’t you?”

  I cut my eyes over at Roman to see what he would say, because he was hot shit in my eyes. Roman gave him a quizzical expression. He had a look in his eyes like…recognition?

  The man pulled Roman’s upper arm toward him, and I guess that Roman forgot that he had his arm around my waist. So when he pulled Roman Reed over, I was pulled too.

  Awkward…

  All three…what could I call them? Robbers? Nope. Bad guys…yep, that fit for now. All three looked straight at me. It reminded me of that time when I walked into a party late and all the people were snorting coke. I remembered they stared at me with expressions that asked, Should we kill her? She knows. Was she going to tell? That’s how I felt now.

  “Uh…I can go stand with the rest of the fans. Cool?”

  “No!” Someone grabbed my upper arm aggressively. I turned around to see who grabbed me. It wasn’t the man in charge. It was the skinny guy. “I like her.” He pulled me against him and licked the side of my face.

  Holy fuck! Who the hell does that?

  Creepy men who lived in their mamas’ basements, that’s who.

  “It never hurts to have another hostage.” He spoke to the tall man.

  Creepy asshole.

  The leader looked at him as though he wanted to bitch slap him, but I didn’t think he wanted others to think this was a disorganized hostage situation.

  “Fine.” The leader spoke to him like a mom would speak to a disobedient child at the supermarket.

  No! No! No! Not fine!

  I was sure a lot of women would have loved to be kidnapped with Roman Reed. I mean, he was gorgeous, but I didn’t have time for this shit. It was clear that he was the target, not me. What good was I—a forty-one year-old woman in the middle of a divorce with a ten-year-old son? Shit, what the fuck was I thinking? Being kidnapped anytime would not be fun. I’d never read a book where a person was kidnapped and they had a good time. Never had someone kidnapped another with the intent on playing a game of Monopoly. Kidnappings were bad and lots of bad stuff happened while people were held captive.

  “But…” I spoke up.

  I was going to say all the words that ran through my head and then the logical side of my brain caught up. I can’t tell them I’m a mom. Most likely, they would think it would be a good idea to bring my kid along. Wouldn’t a kid be great leverage in a hostage situation? I had to keep Joey safe. The best way to do that was to act as if I were alone. I sneaked another peek at Eve. She had Joey under control.

  “Come on. We need to book it!” the tall man said. He leaned over while still holding Roman’s upper arm and looked me directly in the eyes. “Are you here with anyone else?”

  “No, I came alone.”

  “Good,” he whispered more to himself than to me, and then he put his gun to Roman’s head and said, “We need to go, now!”

  The skinny guy had a hold of my upper arm in a freakishly tight grip. I thought his finger purposely grazed my boob. I had never been one to tell if that kind of stuff happened on purpose or by accident. He also had a gun so I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.

  There was one thing I couldn’t figure out; why were they taking only Roman? Why not the whole band? Was it too difficult to kidnap four more men? I looked over at the band, and they looked scared and shocked. I wondered if they were scared for their buddy or if it was because their meal ticket was being ushered out of the arena?

  We started walking, and I looked back at Joey and Eve. Joey looked horrified, and Eve didn’t look much better. I tried to convey to Joey with my eyes and the tilt of my head that I loved him. I don’t know if he got it, but I had given him this look enough before that it should have clicked with him. The third guy covered us with his gun as they took Roman Reed and me to a black SUV waiting on an empty side street.

  Chapter 2 – Beth

  “Get in!” the leader said as he opened the back door to the SUV. Surprisingly, there was no one in the alley, so nobody noticed us. We were on the side of the concert hall. I guessed most people were in the front, trying to get into the concert. Little did they know that there would be no show tonight.

  “Cell phones now!” the leader commanded. Roman and I both reached into our back pockets to dig out our cells. We handed them over and he dropped them on the pavement and crushed his boot onto the screens.

  Shit! There goes three hundred dollars.
r />   “You get in first.” Sleazy guy pushed me into the backseat. He scooted in after me, and then the leader pushed Roman into the backseat after Sleazy and slammed the door. The average guy got into the driver’s seat, and the leader sat in the passenger seat. I don’t know what came over me, but I quickly tried to open my door to jump out of the vehicle. The door was locked.

  Fuck!

  “Child safety locks. You got to love it.” The leader smiled at me through his ski mask. The driver started the vehicle and drove.

  Finally, Roman spoke. “What is this about, money?”

  The leader turned around and pulled off his ski mask. Roman’s eyes widened and he said one word. “Tate.”

  “Yeah, bet you never thought you see me again, huh? Rock star?”

  “What do you want?” Roman stated calmly.

  Hell, I was shocked he was so calm. I wasn’t calm. I thought I was having my very first panic attack. I started hyperventilating. The guy sitting in between Roman and me looked at my chest. What the…oh. I was displaying a very nice heaving bosom for his benefit. I should have worn a different shirt. His left hand slid over my thigh slowly, as though we were on a date and he was making a subtle move. His hand then curved around my thigh, like a man staking a claim.

  Again, I don’t really know what I was thinking, but I reflexively elbowed him in the ribs. Truly, I wasn’t thinking. Big mistake because that sleazy little man moved as fast as a striking snake. He yanked off his ski mask and then his hands closed around my throat, and he started choking me. He was…well obviously, he wasn’t good with rejection. He stared into my eyes and choked me. He had dyed black, greasy hair and dark soulless eyes. I could tell he wasn’t really even seeing me. It was as though he’d checked out—checked out and choking, not a good combination. I was going to die.

  “Jason, stop!” The leader hit him on top of his head with the butt of his gun.

  Jason let go immediately and stared at the leader. The hit had jarred him, but he didn’t pass out. He looked kind of stunned. I slid over as far as I could and put my back up against the SUV’s door. It was the farthest point I could be from the demented man. My hands wrapped around my throbbing neck. I looked over at Roman and his mouth was hanging open with surprise. Shit, couldn’t he have tried to pull him off of me or something? I looked at the leader for something.