SUMMARY
Being the son of the famous Senator Rhodes thrust Blake into the limelight from a very young age. After surviving a kidnapping when he was eight years old, he knew that he wanted to follow his father into the political arena. But bumping into a beautiful starlet at a charity event turns his life upside down, all because of a stolen kiss.
Robin is at the top of her career. So it’s only natural that she wants to enjoy her success. But with that success come the standard creeps and stalkers. After rumors of a relationship between her and a young congressmen go public, things take a much darker turn.
PROLOGUE
Blake tried not to make a sound as he cried in the darkness. He’d peed himself some time ago and now his wet pants were cold, making him shiver. He’d been knocked out for a while and had lost track of time, so he wasn’t even sure it was still the same day.
The last thing he remembered was his father’s driver picking him up from school. By the time he realized it wasn’t Carl, the normal driver, and that another man was sitting in the back of the limo with him, it was too late for him to scream. Then everything had gone dark. He had no idea where they’d taken him since they’d blindfolded and gagged him.
Now, his eight-year-old body was no match for four grown men. When he’d cried out, he’d been kicked in the gut, which had caused him to cry even more.
“Shut up, kid,” someone had said in a deep voice. But he hadn’t listened. He’d just kept crying.
He’d fallen asleep crying and woke when he was picked up, carried, and then tossed on a hard floor.
The gag had been removed, and he cried out. When he noticed that the blindfold had been removed as well, he looked around and saw that he was in a very dark room. Alone.
He thought about his parents, his older sister. Of how he would probably never see them again. He’d never get to go to school again. He cried for all of the things that he’d miss. His home, his family, and his friends. He’d dreamed of becoming a superhero. How was he going to do that now if he couldn’t even save himself?
After that, he was left alone for a long time and fell asleep again.
The next time he woke, four men were standing over him, yelling at one another. He thought to sneak away since they weren’t paying attention to him, but they kept pointing at him and yelling.
He didn’t understand everything they were saying, but two of them weren’t happy they weren’t asking for more money.
He’d watched a movie with his older sister, Ann, where someone had been kidnapped and the girl’s parents had paid a ransom. Were these men wanting his father to pay to have him released?
He knew without a doubt that his father would pay whatever the men wanted. After all, he was Senator Kenneth Rhodes, one of the most powerful men in the world. Or so Blake thought. That was, until the four men stood over him.
The leader was a short, balding man that the others called Miles. Blake jumped when he slammed his gun down on the table that they’d put him on and told everyone to shut up.
Instantly, the room grew silent. Miles picked up a cell phone from the table and dialed a number as he walked towards the back of the house.
Blake was the only one in the room that noticed a fifth man appear from the shadows in a full GI Joe commando outfit. Blake’s eyes were glued to him as he moved silently and started picking off each of the three remaining men. The man rushed behind the first bad guy and snapped his neck before the other two could respond. Blake listened for the sound he’d heard in the movies, but instead of a bone-crushing sound, he heard the man’s breath whoosh out quietly.
The second bad guy went down as quietly with a quick punch to the throat. The third man got a knife in his throat and went down in the pile.
Miles continued to talk on the phone as GI Joe guy picked up the gun he’d set down on the table and pointed it at the back of Miles’s head.
“Move and you’re dead, just like your buddies,” GI Joe said. Blake couldn’t have imagined a cooler line. Just like in the movies. Miles tensed as he held the phone up to his ear.
Blake rolled slightly on the table to see what would happen next.
“Commander here, the room is secure,” GI Joe said to the room as Miles slowly dropped the phone to the floor in shock.
Blake gasped slightly. GI Joe had come to save him. See, he knew his dad would do anything to get Blake back. Even hire GI Joe.
Then Blake watched in horror as Miles spun around and hit GI Joe on the side of his ear. GI Joe didn’t even flitch. He chuckled as he wiped a trickle of blood from his ear.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” GI Joe said as he used the butt of his gun to make a dent in the man’s forehead.
Once Miles was on the floor in a heap of unconscious bad guy, the man turned towards Blake.
“Are you a GI Joe?” Blake asked him, totally forgetting about the past twenty-some hours of fear and hell. He was meeting his hero. Scratch that—his hero was rescuing him. The past few moments had been better than any he’d ever imagined. Better than any video game or movie he’d ever seen.
“Sure, kid,” GI Joe said as he walked towards him. “Let’s get you home to your dad.” The man lifted Blake from the table and carried him out into the night.
He couldn’t remember the car ride home, except that he kept asking questions of GI Joe, whose real name was Ethan Knight, a much cooler name than GI Joe, at least in Blake’s mind.
The man personally handed Blake over to his father and mother. That would have been cool, except his mother made a mess and cried on him and hugged him so tight, Blake couldn’t say goodbye or thank you to Ethan.
That night Blake’s entire world changed. He was no longer an eight-year-old ready to conquer the world. Instead, he was a boy who knew that bad guys were just around the corner and that heroes did exist.
He spent years in counseling that he believed at first that he didn’t need or want. He had no scars from the time, other than the ones on the inside. Years later, he would be thankful for those hours and the help he’d received. From that night on, Blake Rhodes didn’t trust easily.
CHAPTER ONE
Twenty years later…
* * *
Robin Stein slid on the pale-colored lipstick and glanced at her reflection one more time in the small compact before stuffing it into the clutch that matched her soft cream dress perfectly.
Tonight, she was wearing Rubio’s latest diamond-encrusted nude cream design. Rubio was one of her go-to designers for events like this. Rubio’s designs were a little less… Hollywood.
Since this event, a charity ball, coincided with her shooting schedule, her agent Amanda Hughes had arranged for a ticket and had set up the gown, jewelry, hair, and makeup that went along with all her very public events.
Robin liked to be pampered, but she had been looking forward to a night in. She had planned on ordering the largest steak the Ritz Carlton could give her from room service and pig out in her deluxe suite.
Instead, the moment filming had finished for the day, she’d let Carlos and Carmen, the husband-and-wife team that took care of her hair and makeup, into her suite.