Rescuing Rebecca

by Serena James

  Kane cut him short feeling impatient. “Who is Rebecca’s father?”

  Michael gave a sigh and ran his hands through his hair and sat up and back in his seat. His voice was raised, passionate, “I can’t. You have to understand I can’t.”

  Kane remained controlled. He leaned towards Michael, closing the space between them. Michael was clearly unnerved. Kane spoke quietly and made sure his feelings were masked. There would be no mercy. “I want you to tell me of your own accord Michael, or it’s simple, I will have to make you. I wouldn’t want Rebecca to lose her brother on this flight, not after everything she’s been through, even though you are a waste of valuable space.”

  Michael sat straight. Kane watched his eyes widen with fear and shock. “You wouldn’t dare. We are on a plane you can’t just shoot me. You’ll bring the plane down.”

  Stuart began loosening his tie and pulling it off. He said to Michael, “Yes, he’s more than aware of that fact but there are many more ways to kill a man without using a weapon.”

  Michael started undoing his seatbelt with panic as Stuart pulled his tie taut and looked at it with approval. “For instance, I could simply strangle you.”

  Kane sat back in his seat and feigned a relaxed composure once more.

  “You can’t let him kill me. That will be murder. She will never forgive you. You’ll never get her back.”

  Stuart smiled, lighting up his handsome craggy features. His fair hair was cropped short, close to his scalp. It gave him a cruel menacing look. Kane had always thought of him as his bouncer. He approached Michael. “What Rebecca doesn’t know, can’t hurt her. We can easily cover it up. You went berserk. You were a danger to everyone on the plane. We had no choice. Sir, do you remember that movie where they had to kill the horse because it went mad on the plane? I watched it with a girl friend once? What was the name?”

  Kane answered him, “International Velvet.” Michael’s eyes were wide with terror now. They were just bringing him to the boil. Kane continued, “I love horses. Do you ride Michael? I ride when I can, there’s nothing like it. The guy was really cut up in the movie when they killed his horse but it had to be done to save lives. He got over it. Just as Rebecca will.”

  Terror ripped through Michael’s voice, “I can’t tell you. He will have me killed.”

  Kane snapped. “I am not interested in whether he wants to kill you. I don’t care what he wants to do to you.” Selfish prick. “I am more interested in the fact that he wants to kill Rebecca. I want him stopped.”

  “You can’t stop him. I wanted to take Becca away. Hide with her. You can’t touch him, he’s too powerful.”

  “No one is above the law. Stuart, he isn’t going to give us what we want. Kill him. Let’s rid the world of one more monster.”

  Stuart moved fast. He wrapped his tie around Michael’s neck before he could utter another word. Kane was impressed. Michael fell off his seat onto the floor, on his knees as Stuart gave him a taste of how far he might go. Kane watched him claw at Stuart’s hands. He stood and replaced Stuart’s position in the aisle and glanced back to check Rebecca wasn’t looking their way. She appeared to be talking animatedly to Ramsay and Charles. He wondered what she was talking about.

  He turned back to the task in hand. He nodded at Stuart to loosen his grip on Michael who was desperately trying to breathe. For a brief moment Kane’s mind replaced Michael and put Rebecca in his place. He remembered seeing Tom strangle her. He thought of Srisai gripping her throat until she turned blue. He thought of her slender neck, the softness of her skin there, how fragile it was... Rage and pain returned and ripped at his heart.

  “Sir.”

  Kane’s eyes moved up quickly from Michael to Stuart. Stuart looked confused by his silence. He nodded.

  “Right, Michael. I hope that was enough to convince you that I meant what I said.”

  Michael was coughing.

  “All right. All right. Her father is Philip Traynor.”

  Kane stared at Stuart. Stuart’s face was a picture of disbelief and wonderment. Kane felt his brow crease into a frown as he let the name sink in. Michael continued to cough, milking the whole scene for what it was worth.

  Stuart said with a certain amount of incredulity in his voice, “You are telling us that Rebecca Eaton is the Prime Minister’s daughter?”

  “Yes. Not that he would ever acknowledge that publicly. It’s been hushed up for years.”

  Stuart still wasn’t convinced, “You’re kidding, right? The man portrays himself as a Socialist Saint. He’s put the country back on its feet again. I voted for him. I don’t believe you.”

  Michael’s voice rose with frustration, “I’m not lying. I am telling you the truth. Kane, why don’t you ring your client? Anna will confirm it. She knows who Rebecca’s father is, just ask her.”

  Kane thought about all that Rebecca had told him about that night when her adopted parents were murdered and what one of the men said to her. “I am guessing Rebecca wasn’t planned,” he stated. “He would have been, what, around nineteen or twenty at the time and in university. His grandfather was a Law Lord and his father sits in The House of Lords now. The Traynors have always been big in politics, I suspect they weren’t too pleased when they found out his girlfriend was pregnant. Who is Rebecca’s mother?”

  Michael looked up at him. He lowered his voice. He spoke with contempt. “She wasn’t his girlfriend. She was somebody he met at a party. Somebody who preferred the younger man and still does.”

  Kane felt his frown deepen. He knew exactly whom Michael was talking about. Funny, he wasn’t shocked. It was logical.

  Kane said, “Anna Harker, is her mother?”

  He heard Stuart say, “Shit.” Kane closed his eyes with pain and frustration. How the hell was he going to tell her that? He had a sudden compulsion to go to her and hold her close and not let her go. He looked back down the aisle seeking her out. As he suspected, she was looking at him. He’d felt her eyes on his back. Her gaze met his own.

  He tried to give her a small smile of encouragement to cover up his shock, but he was unable. He watched her bruised face pale as she took in his pained expression. He had never seen her appear so vulnerable, yet so beautiful as at that moment. His eyes stung and burned with the tears he’d held back for so long. One of them escaped and trickled down the side of his cheek as he turned back to Michael. He made no attempt to remove it.

  Stuart still held his tie around Michael’s neck. He gave Kane a sympathetic look. Michael was desperate, “Please, you can’t tell her. It will finish her. Anna is dying, let the past die with her.”

  Kane continued his questioning, hearing his hurt for Rebecca trip through his calm tone. “Did Traynor send the men to kill her as a child?”

  “His father sent men the first time. Harker had told Philip there was going to be a child but she was going to get rid of it. He thought she had done. Then he met a friend of a friend who told him Harker had lied. He told his mother and father. They had plans for him, his career and future marriage mapped out. They sent someone after Harker’s baby. But Anna foiled it. She hid Rebecca with her best friend’s family and told everyone the baby had died with illness. Rebecca was safe.”

  Stuart removed his tie and Michael raised himself back to his seat. He was visibly shaking. “I don’t know how Philip found out she was still alive but he did. This time his career was really starting to take off in politics. He took advantage of my parents’ story on the Mafia and sent men to kill her and wipe my family out. They were to make it look like a hit. You don’t mess with this man. He has power and I don’t just mean that awarded to him because he is PM. He has ties with people you don’t cross...”

  Kane interrupted. “You were both put with your Aunt in Scotland when your parents were murdered and he never tried again?

  “I don’t know. I think he was scared off by all of the publicity surrounding my parents’ murder.”

  “And now he wants to make use of Rebecca to
save his legitimate daughter?”

  Michael’s eyes were downcast to the floor once more. He nodded his reply.

  “How involved is he in your organization?”

  Michael looked up at him again. “He’s in it at the top. His family is rich; his wife’s even more so. He gave the go ahead for the operation and provided a lot of the funding. He’s been very influential in obtaining backing from worldwide investors. He’s not the only elected member in England or the rest of the world involved but he is chairman of the Board that presides over the whole operation. You might say he’s The Organ Grinder.” Michael half smiled at his own humour.

  Kane frowned.

  Michael became agitated, “He is a desperate man Kane. He’s already lost one child to suicide and had to hush it up. His wife is at breaking point and now he is going to lose his daughter. He dotes on her. He will do anything to help her survive and that includes killing Rebecca.”

  “Who told you all of this?”

  “I knew Rebecca wasn’t my sister since that night they came to kill us. She never thought I heard but I did. I never mentioned it to her. I thought I might lose her if I did. Quayle told me the rest. I don’t know where he got his information, maybe from being Harker’s surgeon, but the bits I was able to check out were true. The plan was to take Rebecca in London. She would have been taken to a hospital operated on and taken home. It would have been so much easier for them. But when the army caught her Quayle had to act. Despite our facility in South Bundhara the local instability and interference of Tasanee Somwan proved disastrous.”

  “I presume you mean taken to The Marsworth in London?” Kane knew by Michael’s silence that he was right. “How does Anna Harker fit in? There is too much of a coincidence given her link to Quayle.”

  “She has no involvement with the organ harvesting or the Board. Quayle used her contacts in South Bundhara to get support for our scheme and permission to build the facility there. She has always loved Rebecca. She gave her up to protect her. When she found out what Traynor was up to, she sought out Rebecca and took her under her wing. She’s been trying to protect her by threatening to tell the world about Traynor’s illegitimate daughter if he didn’t leave Becca alone. That’s why she sent you to North Bundhara after Rebecca. She knew you wouldn’t give up on her, that you would keep her safe from Traynor. She was wrong, Rebecca could only be safe with Quayle. I detest him as much as you do but Traynor wouldn’t have crossed him. She would have been protected.”

  Kane had heard enough. His fist swung out low and fast executing a tidy hard blow across the side of Michael’s face. Before he could recover Kane delivered a second, connecting with his nose. Then he pulled Michael up by his shirt collar. Kane could hardly breathe with anger as Michael bleated. Stuart stood back. Kane pushed Michael back against the partition wall.

  “You think it was safer to leave her with a man who stole her organ, sexually assaulted her and wanted to keep her in fear as his whore. You know what, Michael? You are a selfish bastard who never grew up. You’ve been hiding behind Rebecca all of your life, since the day you cowered in that vent. You’re still doing it. What you mean is that if Rebecca had stayed with Quayle it would have been easier for you and you wouldn’t have had to play the show of doting brother. Because deep down inside you hate her. You are jealous of her strength and the power it gives her. She makes you realise just how much of a weak bloody coward you are. This was your way of punishing her for making you feel that you fell short.” Michael’s startled red eyes confirmed the truth.

  Kane finished his eloquently passionate accusation with a punishing hard thrust of his fist into Michael’s stomach. Michael groaned and keeled over. Kane shoved him to the floor. He turned to Stuart. “Tie him up.”

  Kane turned away from them and straightened his attire and his mind before striding down the plane back towards Rebecca. They needed to talk and they needed privacy. Ramsay moved aside the moment he reached the table but Kane didn’t sit down. He took hold of Rebecca’s hand and gestured for her to rise. He tightened his hold on her hand as he led her back past Michael and his bleeding nose. He took her right to the back of the plane and took her inside the private bathroom. He sat her down on the small seat that came out from the wall and locked the door.

  He took a deep breath unsure of how to begin. He ignored her questions about her brother’s broken nose and pushed her back down on the seat when she tried to leave. He got down on his knees. He’d made a decision. He had to tell her everything. He had insisted she keep nothing from him. No secrets. She would find out one day, he knew that only too well. She would go looking and she would find the truth and find that he had been lying to her, keeping it from her. She would reject him, leave.

  Maybe it was selfish of him to tell her just so he could keep her. But he loved her and maybe that was a selfish emotion. He wondered if she would do the same for him. He would want to know. Her whole life was based on bringing the best interpretation of the truth to the ordinary person in the street so they could make their own mind up. He took another deep breath as he knelt on the floor beside her and held her arms as he told her everything.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Kane sat back on his heels. Rebecca hadn’t said a word the whole time he had been talking. She was staring into space. Her eyes had filled and brimmed with tears but she hadn’t shed any of them. He watched her fight to keep control of her emotions. She turned away and stared at the door. He could hear her breathing rhythm increase. Her chest started to heave. She clutched at her side, and gave a small sob. His reaction was to pull her into his arms, but she hit out at him with her fist. It landed hard against his arm.

  He looked at her confused and backed off. It wasn’t what he’d expected. He saw sudden affront in her eyes. “Don’t look at me with pity. What did you expect?” she said. Her voice turned fierce with angry pain and heavy sarcasm, “Did you want me to fall apart? Fall in a heap on the floor in a flood of tears and crawl into your arms? Let you play the hero. Forget it.”

  He bowed his head feeling some guilt. He told her quietly, diplomatically, “No. I just thought you would need comfort...”

  There was an angry sob in her voice. She hit the top of her chest with her palm to emphasise her feeling to him. “So I am supposed to feel... what? Shame? Guilt? Horror? Rejection? I feel all of those things. I always have done. Do you not think I haven’t wondered all of these years why my mother gave me up?” He reached out to touch her face, feeling her pain. But she hit his hand away.

  She shouted hard at him, “Don’t touch me. I need to be alone. I need to set this straight in my head along with the rest of the crap that’s in there. Get out.”

  She put her head in her hands and closed her eyes. Kane stayed put on his knees. He told her gently, “No. I am not leaving you.”

  Her head shot up. Her eyes were narrowed with dark anger. She said coldly, “I said get out. I don’t need your pity, your comfort or anything else you want to offer. I deal with this alone. It’s the only way I know how.”

  Kane stood his ground. There was no way he was going to let her push him away like the last time. “No. Not this time. We will deal with it together. I am not going to allow you to shut me out of your life again because you don’t feel you are worthy of being loved. I love you and you can’t stop me from feeling it and I consider you more than worthy.”

  He didn’t know how to convince her further. He leaned over her and took her hands when she tried to bar him from coming near. He pressed his forehead against hers and held on despite her struggles and angry, vicious rebukes. He gave her an urgent, desperate plea. “God, Rebecca, I would take on the whole world single handed to be with you. Please don’t shut me out.”

  She started crying then, despite herself. She still fought him but he held on tight and eventually she weakened and fell against him exhausted by her struggles and her pain. He quietly held her until her emotion subsided and she was silent once more.

  After a while
she lifted her head from his shoulder and stirred. She slowly sat up.

  She said softly, “Thank you. Thank you for ignoring me and staying. For making me feel truly loved and cherished for the first time in my life. Please don’t ever let me go.”

  Kane felt the pain that had tightly pressed down on his heart lighten its heavy weight. He smiled at her relieved. He nodded and kissed her forehead.

  She rubbed her eyes and looked around the bathroom. She grinned, “I can see no expense has been spared on this trip. Is that a shower I see?”

  He stood up. “It certainly is. All for you. I wanted you to have all of the comforts of home after everything you had been through. I wanted a bed put in. But everything was done at short notice and it wasn’t available. I would have had crew waiting on you hand and foot but it was too dangerous to bring any along. I even had to make sure the pilots were ex-military so they wouldn’t run out on us if the going got tough.”

  “I’m impressed. Thanks. So can I have a shower? I just want to get clean. I feel so grimy.”

  “Okay. Are you going to be able to manage? I mean...”

  “I’m fine.” She stood up.

  “Well I will stay with you. I don’t want you to slip or anything. You look ready to drop with exhaustion. I will just sit here.” He sat down on the seat and folded his arms.

  “No way. I need some privacy.”

  “Er, no way. You locked the door on me last time in the hospital. You need supervision. I stay here.”

  He caught the sudden fear in her eyes. She didn’t want him seeing her bruising, what they had done to her. He would at some point but she wasn’t ready. He added quickly keeping his humorous tone, “Don’t worry I won’t look. I will make sure you will get your privacy but I’m not moving.” To emphasise his intention to remain he lifted his leg across his other knee and sat back tapping his foot, arms still folded, comfortable with his position.

  She gave him an impatient look. “Is this how it is going to be with you now?” she asked.