by Dena Christy
“Reggie.” Her voice echoed against the walls, and she received no reply. She paused for a moment as a strange feeling prickled the back of her neck. She took a few more steps inside, trying to push down the instinct inside her that was telling her to get out of the apartment. “Reggie are you here?”
There was still no reply, and she couldn't smell his distinct cologne that usually followed him in a cloud everywhere he went. Maybe he was in the bedroom, on one of his business calls while he waited for her. That was typical Reggie, and she stepped further into the apartment and into the living room.
A gasp ripped out of her throat as she stopped dead in her tracks, and her mouth went dry as her heart pounded in her chest. Colonel Dawson stood in the middle of the living room, his face calm as he stood facing her. He had a laser pistol trained on her, and a cold, shark like smile stretched across his mouth.
“Hello Collette, we have so much to talk about.”
“Keep your hands where I can see them and step closer to me,” Dawson said as he waved the pistol to beckon her forward.
Collette did as she was told, despite the blood roaring in her ears. She should have listened to her gut, which had been telling her that coming here today had been a bad idea. No amount of money, or even the promise of money, was worth tangling with this bastard.
“I don’t know how you got in here, but you better leave. Reggie will be here at any moment,” Collette said, and hoped her words were true. Although what Reggie could do against a man in his prime like Dawson, especially when he had a pistol, she didn’t know. He didn’t know that. And while he might get away with murdering a nobody like her, there was no way he could kill Reginald Carstairs III and get away with it.
Dawson gave a bark of laughter, and she wondered what she’d said that was so funny.
“Do you think I would be in here without Reggie’s knowledge? Once he learned the extent of what you’d done he was more than cooperative.”
His words stabbed Collette in the gut. She was trapped here with Dawson because Reggie had tricked her into coming. Had she meant so little to him that he was willing to throw her in the path of this psycho? She hadn't fooled herself into thinking that her relationship with Reggie was anything more than a business arrangement with him, but she would have thought that at least he would have the decency to not arrange her murder.
“So are you going to kill me then,” she asked as a sense of calm came over her. Hysterics wouldn't do her any good, and besides she wouldn't give him the satisfaction of begging. She clasped her hands in front of her and squeezed the tight together to hide their shaking. There was no way she was going to let this bastard see how much he frightened her.
“I have plans for you, but I won’t be kill you yet. I want the alien that you helped break out my prisoner, and I want him and any other ones lurking about. And once I dispose of them, I will finish what I started last night before you drugged me.”
Collette’s stomach dropped, and she felt like she was going to be sick. She couldn't turn Ryce over to him, even if it meant saving herself. Why hadn’t she agreed to let Evie come upstairs with her? Two against one would be better odds, then just her against Dawson alone.
The thought of Evie waiting for her in the parking lot sent the spark of an idea through her. If she could get a message to her somehow, maybe she could alert the others and get help to her.
“Are you going to stand there looking stupid,” Dawson shouted and she could see that he run out of patience with her. Soon he would kill her if she didn't talk. “Where are the aliens?”
There was no way she was going to take him to Evie’s place, but perhaps she could get him somewhere away from here, where she would have a better chance of getting away from him.
“I can’t tell you,” she said, and he rushed over to her with a snarl on his face. Her heart pounded as he raised the pistol and pushed it against her forehead. She must be a magnet for being held at gun point since this was the second time recently that she’d been at the mercy of a mad man in this apartment. And with that thought she knew where she would take him. “But I can show you.”
He looked at her for a long moment as if debating whether to trust her. The aliens he sought weren’t here, and she hoped it would be enough to persuade him to leave. She knew she was taking a risk, leaving the relative safety of the apartment, but she needed to let Evie know she was in trouble. She didn’t want to risk Evie coming up here and being surprised by the pistol wielding Dawson. It would be better if she could get him to another location, and she had the perfect one. She would get him to take her to the abandoned laboratory where Dr. Avery had held her hostage only a short time before.
“This better not be a trick,” Dawson said as he nudged her with the pistol toward the door. “It doesn’t fall in with my plans to kill you but I will if I find out you’re fucking with me.”
Well that was reassuring that he wouldn't kill her yet. All the more reason to get away from him.
She nodded and walked toward the apartment door. Her legs were shaky, and she was amazed that she could move at all. Having a pistol aimed at her provided all kinds of motivation. She hoped that perhaps there would be someone in the hall to see her walking out at gunpoint, but the building was disgustingly quiet.
She searched her mind for a way to convince Dawson to go out the back of the building since that was where Evie was parked and would see her. Her plan would fall apart before she’d even set it into motion if he took her out the front.
They rode down the elevator, with the pistol buried deep in the flesh of her side. Dawson stood so close behind her that she could feel his hot breath on the back of her neck, and she longed to take a step away from him, but didn’t dare. She didn't want to give him any excuse to use violence against her.
When she got off the elevator, she made as if to go toward the front door, hoping that Dawson would think she was up to something and steer her toward the back door.
“We’ll go out the back door,” he said as he jabbed the pistol in her side. “Don’t think I’m not on to you. Did you think I was going to let you walk right by the security desk and take the risk of you alerting the guard?”
“Obviously you’re too clever for that,” she said, with a hint of sarcasm in her voice. She knew she should keep her mouth shut, since he held her life in his hands, but she couldn't help it. Nerves made her run her mouth, and she usually regretted it.
“Just shut up and walk,” he said as he prodded her forward, and she walked toward the door, hoping against hope that Evie could observe them leaving. Evie was the key to her getting out of this since Dawson had no idea that she was waiting in the parking lot for her.
They walked out of the building, and Collette cast her eyes toward Evie’s car, and made eye contact with her friend. She saw her friend’s mouth form an O shape, and a moment of relief swept through her. Evie had seen Dawson, and while she may not be able to the see the pistol buried against the soft flesh of Collette’s side, her friend would be alarmed by Dawson’s presence. As she went by, she avoided looking directly at her.
“Where’s your car,” she asked, hoping to distract Dawson enough that he wouldn’t see a lone woman sitting in her car, observing them.
“Just ahead, it’s the black one,” he said as he steered her toward it. They walked in front of Evie’s car, out of the corner of her eye she saw her friend had ducked down out of sight. At least now Dawson wouldn’t see her.
Dawson walked her over to his car and used his free hand to disengage the lock. They went around to the passenger side, and he jabbed her with the pistol to encourage her to get in the car.
“I’m going,” she said as she slipped into the car and rubbed the sore spot that was developing in her side. Hopefully all she would have to remind her of this encounter was a bruise, and not a burned out hole from his pistol. She had to keep faith that Evie would alert the others, and that they could take care of this asshole.
“Where is the alien,
” he said, and he was careful to keep the pistol pointed at her. He kept it below the level of the window so they would be unobserved.
She closed her eyes for a moment as she drew a blank on the address of the laboratory. Fuck, she was just there not that long ago, surely she would remember where the hell it was.
“Where is he?” Dawson said as a flush creeped up his face, and she could see he was losing patience. The urgency of the situation freed up her memory, and she provided him with the address.
He turned on the car and gave the address and the car slowly pulled out of the back of the parking lot. She risked a quick glance in the rear view mirror, and saw Evie was a safe distance behind them, with her car moving in tandem with them.
She also thought she saw her friend talking in her communicator, but couldn’t risk a longer look to confirm. She didn’t want to do anything to draw Dawson’s attention to Evie’s presence behind her. She could only hope that her friend was summoning the Ryce and the others since Dawson’s patience would not hold him back once he realized that there were no aliens where she was directing him to.
Chapter Seventeen
Ryce paced the confines of his room, his anger bubbling over. He was such an idiot. How could he have let her go like that when it was the last thing he wanted? After she’d walked away, he replayed their discussion in his head, and he could see that she’d been defensive over his accusation that she was going back to her ex. Why couldn’t he think before speaking?
A hot burning feeling developed on the skin of his chest over his heart, and he staggered over to the bed as a deep burning pain branded itself on his skin, ripping the breath from him. He focused on maintaining his breath, and he knew what was happening. He was being marked, and that meant that Collette was his true mate and he’d ruined his chances with her because he was a jealous dumbass.
He pushed his shirt aside, and there it was, a mark in the shape of her hand branding his skin.
Fuck. He could only hope that she would come back here and listens to what he had to say. He hoped that she hadn’t meant it when she said she wanted to move on with her life. He couldn’t blame her if she didn’t want to build a life with him. He had nothing to offer her; he didn’t even have a home at this point. All he’d brought to her life was trouble, and if she didn’t want to have anything more to do with him it was what he deserved.
Ryce walked into the common room. He threw himself down in the sofa that stood in the middle of the room. Cynric looked up as he walked in, and a frown tugged at his face.
“You look like you lost your best friend,” he said as he came over and sat on the coffee table directly across from him.
“I’m fine,” Ryce said. He didn’t want to get into it with Cynric. He didn’t want to hear from him how stupid he was to throw away his true mate over something as dumb as her going back to her old apartment to collect money due to her.
“You don’t look fine,” Cynric said as his eyes probed him.
“Well I am. How are you doing,” Ryce said, hoping to take the focus off him and turn it onto Cynric himself.
“I’ll be glad when we find a way home,” Cynric said, his voice bitter. “I don’t feel welcome on this planet, but at least things have worked out well for Synn.”
“Did I hear my name,” Synn asked as he walked into the room with Miranda at his side.
Ryce glanced over at them, and while he was happy that Synn had found his mate, he couldn’t help the short stab of pain that lance him. The mark on his chest said that Collette was the one for him, and he’d blown it with her. He should have told her how he felt before the mark appeared, because if he told her now, she would think that it was only because the mark was there that he was spilling his guts to her.
“Where is Collette and Evie?” Miranda asked as she came over and sat down on the sofa a short distance away from Ryce.
“Collette has gone back to her apartment, and I don’t know where Evie is. Maybe she went with her.”
“Why did Collette go back to her apartment, did she forget something there,” Miranda asked as a puzzled frown puckered the skin between her eyebrows. Bitterness flooded Ryce’s body at the reminder of where she was and he couldn’t keep it to himself.
“Yeah, she forgot Reggie’s money.”
“What are you talking about?” Miranda asked.
“He called her, said he had a settlement for her, and she went back,” Ryce said, hoping that would be the end of it.
“And why would you be pissed about that?” Synn asked as he came over to sat on the other side of Miranda and take her hand in his. It was hard not to notice the devotion between them, and it only furthered Ryce’s bitterness.
“Never mind,” he said. If he said it out loud, it would only show just how stupid he was being. And he knew in his head that she deserved some settlement from Reggie, it was just his own insecurities that were making him such a jerk.
“Have you told her how you feel,” Miranda asked, and Ryce glanced sharply at her. How could she know how he felt? “You two haven’t exactly been discreet. I’ve seen the way you look at her, and I’ve seen the way she looks at you. I’ve known Collette for a long time, and I’ve never seen her look at a man the way she looks at you.”
“Well if her feelings are so plain to see, why the hell did she go to him then? I tried to talk to her this morning, and she blew me off, said she didn't have time because Reggie was waiting.” There it was, the crux of his problem. He didn’t like the thought that she hadn’t dropped everything because he wanted to talk, and it wasn’t lost on him on how arrogant that was. His only excuse was that he’d never been in love before, he was navigating into the unknown. Miranda may be right, that Collette had feelings for him, but then again maybe she didn’t. No discussions about the future beyond Cynric’s rescue had taken place between them.
“Perhaps she went because she needs the money? In case you haven’t noticed, this place doesn’t run by itself,” Synn said and Ryce glared at him. “Maybe she wanted to give the money to Evie to repay her for helping all of us. Maybe she wants to start a life with you and to do that you need money.”
“I don’t need his money.” That was another bone of contention. He was too proud to take money that had come from another man, especially a man as distasteful as Reggie. “I know I’m being an idiot.”
“The first step is admitting you have a problem,” Synn said with a grin as Ryce turned back to face him. “Love does crazy things to all of us. Has the mark appeared yet?”
Ryce nodded his head as he opened his shirt to show his friends Collette’s brand upon his chest.
“Then tell her, and apologize for being such a stupid ass, and hold her close to you and never let her go,” Cynric said with a sober look on his face.
Ryce hoped that it would be as simple as that, but when had anything in his life ever been that easy.
Miranda’s communicator rang, and she pulled it out of her pocket and looked at the screen.
“It’s Evie,” she said as she swiped her finger across the screen. “Hey Evie, what’s up? We were wondering where you and Collette went off to.”
A feeling of dread unfurled in Ryce’s stomach as he watched Miranda’s face turn as white as parchment. His heart picked up speed while he waited for her to get off the phone. Her lower lip trembled as she disconnected the call.
“What the hell is going on,” Ryce demanded as he came to tower over her. Cynric pulled him back a little as Synn glared at him.
“Back off,” Synn said as he pulled Miranda close to his side. “Baby, what’s wrong?”
“It’s Collette,” Miranda said as she gave Ryce a look of stark fear. His heart beat roared in his ears, and his body went cold. “Dawson has her.”
Of all the things he’d expected to hear, that wasn’t it. Fear, the likes of which he’d never experienced, ran through him. Collette had walked into a trap laid by Reggie and Dawson, and he’d been so stupid focusing on her going for the money, that
it hadn’t occurred to him that Reggie wanted her at the apartment for a more nefarious purpose. If he hadn’t let his pride get in the way, if he hadn’t let his foolish jealousy eat at him, he could have gone there with her, and prevented Dawson from getting his hands on her.
Ryce was already walking toward the door when Cynric caught him by the arm.
“Let me go,” he shouted, as he wrenched his arm away from him. Couldn’t he see that his woman was in danger, in the clutches of their enemy, who’d already tried to rape her once? His stomach tied itself in knots at the thought of what Dawson could be putting Collette through at this moment. “I have to get to her.”
“We don’t even know if he still has her at the apartment, and we have only one shot at getting her back and we need to be smart about it.”
Ryce knew he was right, but that didn’t stop his mind from screaming in protest. She was his, and he needed to get to her. He’d failed to keep her safe, and if something happened to her, he didn’t think he could live with himself. Why hadn’t he at least insisted on going with her?
“Did Evie say anything more?” Synn asked, and Ryce forced himself to calm down. He wouldn’t be any good to Collette if he let his emotions get away from him.
“She’s following them and based on the directions they’re going she thinks they are headed to the abandoned lab where Dr. Avery held her captive.”
“Okay,” Ryce said, and he moved toward the door.
“You stay here,” Synn said to Miranda as he drew her to a halt.
“No way, I’m going,” Miranda said as she got a stubborn look on her face.
“I know you’re worried about Collette, but I don’t want you in the line of fire,” Synn insisted, and Ryce’s patience was at an end.
“We don’t have time for you two to argue about this,” he said with an edge to his voice. “Miranda it would be better if you stay here, since Synn will be of no help to me if he’s worried about you getting hurt.”