Trapped Read Free

works, and Dalilah’s, too. And Paris was just a train ride away. “London,” I said. “I love that idea. But what if Nottingham tracks us down there? I was actually thinking of something more like Siberia or Bora Bora.” I was only half-joking, really. London sounded like a heavenly idea, but it wasn’t exactly the most inauspicious place. Nottingham Industries was international, which meant that Nottingham would be doing business in London. The chances of us running into him would be slight, but still a problem. And if he runs into us and sees that there’s a child…I shuddered to think such a thing.
    “No, Luke,” she said. “We’ll just have to do a good job of covering our tracks. Living like two people in the witness protection plan. I don’t quite know how we’re going to be able to change our identities, but perhaps that won’t even be a problem. London is a big place, Luke. We could get lost in there. Nottingham won’t know to look there for us, either. And, best of all, we’d both have a fresh start with our art. I’ll be sad to leave my family, of course, but Nick owns a house in Italy, and my dad has a winery there, too. They go to Europe all the time. We’ll still be able to see them.”
    Was this going to work? It didn’t matter, it had to be done. Even if it didn’t work, we had to at least try. It was a plan, which was better than the other plans that we managed to cook up. It was infinitely better than terminating the child, and also infinitely better than letting the child be ruined by Nottingham. Of that, I was sure.
    Of everything else, I was less sure.

Chapter 2
    Dalilah
    So, we were going to run. Was it the ideal situation? Hell, no. The ideal situation would be that there wasn’t a baby at all. But it did seem to be the best solution, considering the circumstances.
    I really didn’t see any way around it. That I would be charged with possible kidnapping if Nottingham ever found out about the baby and the fact that I ran to keep it from him, was not even on my radar. Luke and I were going to have to take a chance that we would never be found.
    But, deep down, I knew that it was fruitless. Nottingham was going to track me down. If he had to send private investigators to every part of the globe, he was going to do it. Even if he didn’t know about the baby.
    I had to try, though. At the very least, I had to give Luke and me some distance from the whole Nottingham situation, so that I could think about my next move. There was a way out of this, I knew it, that didn’t necessarily involve Luke and I running from place to place for the rest of our lives, like fugitives. I just didn’t see it, but it would come to me.
    In the meantime, though, I had to tell my mom and dad about all of this mess. Like it or not, I was going to have to tell them. If nothing else, dad might be able to contact Liam and see if I could stay with him. I didn’t know much about Liam, except that he was some kind of mogul over in London, and was very wealthy. He was young, only 27, and had made a fortune in the music business, representing some of the hottest acts in the world, before establishing his own record label. Last I knew, he was literally a self-made billionaire.
    I personally had never met the guy, which made it strange that I was going to try to see if I could stay with him for the time being. But he was the only relative that I knew who lived in London. All the other Gallaghers were scattered around Cork, Drogheda and Dublin. As much as I had always wanted to live in Ireland, secretly, I knew that London had a much hotter art scene. This would give both of us a fresh start, which Luke was desperately needing after the apparent rejection from all of the people he met at his premiere. I looked forward to getting a fresh start, myself.
     
    So , a few days after Luke and I had made our tentative plans to run away from the whole Nottingham situation, I found myself waiting for my mom, dad, Nick and