by Mari Carr
“Rose?” Tess whispered. “I didn’t recognize you at all.”
Rose rolled her eyes. “Sort of the point, right?”
They headed for the bank manager’s office. The Grand Master’s advisor had discovered Tallulah did indeed have access to a safe deposit box at this bank and, upon her death, ownership of the box transferred to Rose.
Rose showed her identification—no one questioning the difference in hair color, since going from brunette to blonde was hardly uncommon—and then they were led to a small, private room to await the arrival of another bank employee and the box. While they waited, the bank manager told them that Rose was actually in possession of the oldest safe deposit box the bank possessed, the account opened in the late eighteen-hundreds.
When the other employee arrived, he placed the suitcase-sized metal box on the table, and then he and the manager excused themselves.
“Moment of truth,” Rose murmured as she gestured for Tess to do the honors. Tess put the first key into the lock, then the second, turning them both at the same time. The box opened with a soft snick.
There were only two items inside—a diary and another smaller lockbox.
Rose reached for the diary, recognition dawning. “This belonged to my mother. I remember watching her write in it when I was little.”
Tess pulled the lockbox out. “Wow. This is really old. This must be the Hancock safe.”
“I’m surprised it’s remained safely closed all these years,” Rose said. “It’s obvious people have had it in their possession, moving it around. As the manager said, this bank has only been in existence since the end of the nineteenth century, and my mom has clearly seen the box. She put her diary in with it. Why hasn’t anyone opened it before?”
“They can’t,” Tess said, carefully lifting the box to study it more closely. “It’s rigged.”
“Rigged?” Rose said, her voice rising in alarm.
“Not with a bomb,” Tess hastened to explain. “What is it with you and bombs?”
Marek snickered.
“Without the proper combination, the box can’t be opened without destroying the contents. Listen.” Tess lightly shook the box, the swishing sound of liquid coming from inside. “If the box is forced open, that vial of liquid bursts and ruins whatever it’s concealing. It’s pretty ingenious, really.”
“Yeah, brilliant.” Rose had the same sarcastic doomsday tone Tess had become accustomed to in Caden. “Do we know the combination?”
Tess shook her head. “I don’t. But lucky for us, we have lots of clever minds all waiting for us at headquarters. Why don’t we head back there and see if we can figure this secret out once and for all? We’re close,” Tess said with an excited grin. “I can feel it.”
Marek smiled. “I can too.”
Rose looked less convinced, and Tess noticed the other woman had a viselike grip on her mother’s diary.
They left the room, returning to the lobby. Marek slowed down. “Please wait inside the bank where it’s safe. I’ll grab the car and meet the two of you out front.” The other trinity had been warned of the attacks on Caden and Tess, and Marek was taking the threat to heart.
Rose nodded, clearly distracted by the diary in her hands.
Tess wrapped the ancient lockbox in some bubble wrap she had tucked in her large purse for safety. Rose gave her an amused look, but let whatever joke she might have planned slide by.
As soon as Marek was gone, Rose slipped the diary open. “I never thought I’d see this again.”
“You loved your mom.”
Rose frowned. “Of course I did.”
Tess quickly raised her hands. “I didn’t mean to insinuate that you didn’t. I just meant…you must miss her.”
Rose, like Caden, was very good at masking her feelings. Good. But not perfect. Tess caught the slightest glimpse of pain in Rose’s dark eyes before she shuttered the emotion away.
Tess recalled all the things they’d learned from Mary, about her mother’s lover and the evil sister. “I don’t know what you know about our trip to Las Cruses.”
“Very little,” Rose said. “Just something about me owning a B&B and the fact my mother was in possession of some of the stolen artwork.”
“Yeah. The hotel manager, Mary, was very fond of your mom. She mentioned that she spent a lot of time there with a man named John.”
Rose’s forehead crinkled. “My father’s name is Jayce.”
“I know.”
“Did Mary mention Priscilla?”
Tess shook her head. “No. Just your mother’s lover John, who apparently had a sister who didn’t like Tallulah.”
“It’s funny. I always assumed that my mom and the Hancocks met there…in secret.”
Tess pointed to the diary. “Maybe the answers will be in there.”
Rose’s grip on the book tightened. “Come on. Marek will probably be waiting for us by now.”
The street was fairly crowded, the fact not a coincidence. They’d chosen to hit all the banks at lunchtime on a Monday, thinking there was safety in well-populated public areas.
Marek had double-parked in proper Boston style across the street from the bank. When he saw them, he got out, glancing left and right as he waved for them to proceed.
Tess saw a car zoom out of the alley beside the bank the second they stepped off the curb. It was a nondescript gray car, with a rental sticker in the window, but something about it set off her alarm bells.
She grabbed for Rose’s arm, intent on pulling her back, just as shots rang out. Tess couldn’t tell what direction they’d come from, but their target was apparent as Marek fell to the ground, the bullets ricocheting off the driver’s door of his car, smashing the windshield.
People on the street began running, screaming, crying, ducking for cover, knocking into each other in their attempts to escape. The safety in numbers they thought they’d find turned into a liability as the area in front of the bank became a mob scene.
Rose screamed Marek’s name as Tess was knocked down by a mother racing by her, her baby tucked tightly in her arms. The gray car pulled up right in front of them, blocking their view of Marek as more shots rang out. The only thing Tess knew for sure was that the driver of the car wasn’t doing the shooting. It was coming from one of the surrounding buildings.
Before she could push herself up, strong arms grabbed her roughly, tossing her into the back of the vehicle. She tried to climb out the other side, but Rose was dragged in and shoved down on top of her. They wriggled for freedom, working against each other in their desperate attempts to get away, but the car had taken off, the acceleration tossing them against the backseat. She finally managed to grab the door handle and pull. It wouldn’t open. Child locks.
That was when Tess realized someone else was in the back of the car with them. She felt the prick of something in her arm and the world went dark.
* * *
Tess had no idea how much time had passed when she woke up. All she knew was two things. One, she was out of the car, and two, she was bound to a chair.
“Shit,” she whispered into the pitch-black room. She heard a slight stirring behind her and a soft moan. “Rose?”
“It’s me. Where the hell are we?”
“No clue. Are you tied up?”
“Yeah. They’ve got me strapped to some chair.”
“This isn’t good. This is actually really, really bad. My head is kind of swimming from whatever drug that guy shot us up with. Wonder where we are. Did you see his face?” Tess didn’t wait for answers. “This is super uncomfortable. Dammit. My nose itches.”
“Tess,” Rose said.
“Yeah?”
“Breathe.”
Tess sucked in some much-needed air and realized she’d been rambling. She was on the verge of outright terror and it was making its way out in nonsense babbling. “Thanks,” she said after forcing herself to take three more deep breaths.
“How tightly are you tied? Any chance you can get free?” Rose asked afte
r giving her a few more minutes to compose herself.
Tess tugged against the ropes tying her hands behind her back. They were tight…too tight. Her circulation was cut off and her fingers were numb. “No. I’m not getting out of these on my own. How about you?”
“Me either. The space feels big, doesn’t it?”
Tess considered that. “Yeah. Our voices are sort of echo-y. It’s cold in here. Really cold.” Her hands started to tremble, her head going fuzzy. She was sure she’d never felt so terrified in her life.
“Keep breathing, Tess. In and out.”
“Aren’t you scared?”
Rose didn’t reply immediately. “I am. But for a different reason.”
“What do you mean?”
“Did you see Marek? After the gunshots were fired?”
Tess had been so preoccupied by her current state, she’d forgotten about the shooting. The last time she’d seen Marek, he’d dropped to the ground. Problem was, Tess had no idea if he’d fallen because he was hit or because he’d been ducking for cover.
“I saw him,” she hesitated, then chose the more hopeful word, “duck down behind the car door.”
“He ducked?” Rose whispered.
Tess didn’t want to lie, but she also didn’t want Rose to freak out. Because right now, her calmness was the only thing keeping Tess from screaming her head off. “Yeah.”
“Okay. Good. That’s good.”
“Can you see anything at all?”
“No,” Rose said. “I’ll admit it’s sort of unnerving. Usually in situations like this, my sight has been hindered by blindfolds and hoods, not complete and utter darkness.”
Rose’s mention of blindfolds reminded Tess of the other woman’s relationship with Caden.
“You’ve been tied up before.” Tess didn’t ask it as a question. She knew the answer.
“Yes. Lots of times.”
“Caden had told us about Darling. Then after we met, he told us that was you. You were Darling. His submissive.”
“Breathe, Tess.”
“Right.”
Rose laughed softly. “At least this time, I’m dressed.”
“Rose?”
“Yeah?”
“Were you scared? All those times you were naked and tied up, helpless?”
The silence in the room grew tenfold as Tess’ question hovered in the air.
“Yes. I was scared, especially at the beginning. The first few times the loss of control, the vulnerability of being naked…it’s crippling.”
Tess bit her lip, trying to imagine the horror of that. When her breath started to come in panicked pants, she decided to stop imagining a situation worse than her current one.
“But you can’t be scared all the time,” Rose continued. “At a certain point you become…not quite immune to the fear, but you know you’ll survive it, because you’ve survived it before. You ask yourself what you’re afraid of—physical pain? Bodies heal. Emotional pain? Time will heal that. You’d be surprised what you can survive, what becomes normal after enough experiences.”
“I’m sorry,” Tess said.
“And if you’re asking if I was scared when it was Caden who had me tied up, then no, I wasn’t scared.”
“You weren’t?”
“No. I was never scared of him. I dreaded it sometimes, and as we got older I hated the destructive spiral we were caught in. But I wasn’t scared of him. Despite what he may think of himself, Caden isn’t a sadist. He didn’t hurt me because he liked to see me suffer. He used pain because it was a tool he’d been trained to use. He never left scars, at least not on my skin. Emotionally, we cut each other to ribbons.”
Tess knew how much guilt Caden suffered because of Rose, because of all the pain he’d caused her. While it was an odd conversation to strike up at a moment like this, Tess suspected this might be the only chance she’d ever have to ask Rose about her past. Partly because she’d never have the nerve to ask these things in broad daylight when they could see each other’s faces, and partly because there was no guarantee they were going to see tomorrow.
“I’m not afraid of him.”
Rose sighed. “That’s good, Tess. He needs you, you know. I know I’ve only met you once, but you’re the kind of person he needs. Someone who can love him.”
“You…didn’t love him?”
“I couldn’t. I was in love with Weston. And Caden…when he collared me…I realized there would be no escape. I hated him for that, even though he was as trapped by his fathers as I was.”
“How could they do that?”
“I will never understand them,” Rose admitted quietly. “He saved me from the hell of being abused and raped by his fathers. But you asked about being afraid. I was never afraid of Caden because as much as I hated being Darling, I trusted him.”
Tess cleared her throat. “You know, I saved myself until the binding ceremony. Came to the altar room a virgin.”
“Oh my God,” Rose said, though Tess could hear the smile in her voice. “I bet Cade hated that.”
“He did. Because he was afraid he would hurt me.”
“If you want it, he could hurt you and make you enjoy it. I shouldn’t…I don’t want to change how you see him, Tess. I’m not sure I want—”
“I know,” Tess interjected. “I’m sorry. I don’t know why I started this conversation. Maybe it’s because I’m scared that I won’t have a chance to say this to him. He’s never hurt me. He’s gentle and caring and kind.” Tess had no idea why she’d felt the need to say that. Perhaps because she needed Rose to know Caden wasn’t the monster she believed him to be, that there was a good man inside him. “And I’m in love with him.”
Rose hesitated just a moment before saying, “I’m glad.”
Neither of them spoke again for a long time. Rose was the one to break the silence.
“We were both kids when all the abuse started. We were scared. Weston disappeared, and we knew they’d killed him. The stuff we went through…it messes you up, blurs the lines between right and wrong until you forget there even was a line to begin with.”
“He hates what he did to you. It tears him up inside.”
“I know.” She was silent for only a moment. “Caden saved me. I should have told him that when I saw him, but it wasn’t until that moment in the hotel lobby that I could get past all the other feelings I have for him, about him. I was dying when he collared me. Maybe not my body, but my spirit. He saved me, but he scarified his own soul to do it. He deserves to be loved.”
Rose fell silent again and this time, Tess let the conversation go. She wasn’t sure what else there was to say. She hoped that Caden was on the path to forgiving himself, at least enough that he could move on and build that future she wanted so badly for him and her and Isaiah.
There was a quiet groan somewhere to their left. Rose muttered a curse. “Someone is in here with us,” she whispered.
“Hello?” Tess called out.
The other person didn’t reply, didn’t make another sound.
The heavy feeling pressing on Tess’ chest grew worse when footsteps sounded outside the door and she heard the lock thrown open.
Tess blinked rapidly, blinded temporarily when the room was suddenly awash in bright light. It took nearly a minute before she could squint her eyes open enough to see it wasn’t the entire room that was lit up. The painful brightness was created by a bare lightbulb dangling above her head, just in front of her. She lowered her head to block out the painful brightness. Then she turned to look over her shoulder and found Rose, bound to a chair facing the opposite direction, just a few feet behind her. She was illuminated by her own single bare bulb.
When Tess looked beyond Rose, she saw a figure standing in the doorway. A silhouette backlit by the light from the room or hallway beyond. The woman walked into the room, continuing until she stood in front of Rose, sharing the light from that same naked bulb.
And that was when Tess was able to make out Priscilla Hancock, dre
ssed in head-to-toe black leather, holding a wicked-looking whip.
* * *
Caden slammed his hand down against the conference room table. “Where the fuck is Devon?”
Isaiah sat in a chair, looking so calm and steady Caden wanted to punch him in the face. “Take it easy, Caden. It’s only been a couple of hours.”
“Two hours? Two whole fucking hours?!” Caden’s stomach lurched, the same nausea he’d felt since Marek had shown up at headquarters without Tess and Rose.
Caden had been waiting with Devon for the others to arrive when a disheveled and stricken Marek showed up alone. Devon had asked Marek several detailed questions, then headed for the Grand Master’s office, intent on placing some calls and using his CIA connections to find the gray rental car.
“I swear to God if anything happens to Tess,” Caden’s voice broke. “I’ll fucking kill somebody.”
“They’ve got Rose too.” Weston looked like he was ready to do violence as well, but he was better at concealing it. Probably because his husband, Marek, was devastated as well as injured, and Weston didn’t want to add to his pain.
Marek had been grazed by two of the bullets fired in his direction, one in the upper arm, the other running just along his scalp. Franco had patched up both, but even now Caden could see blood seeping through the head injury.
Apparently, Marek had watched, dazed and helpless from the ground, as both women were tossed into the car that went screeching off down the street. Rather than stick around, he’d managed to get up and wave down a taxi that brought him back here.
No doubt the cops would be looking for him, wondering why he’d left the scene.
“Rose,” Marek whispered. “It’s my fault.”
Weston sat next to Marek, his gaze fixed on the head wound. “You could have been killed.”
It wasn’t the first time his brother had made that statement. Hell, it wasn’t even the second or third. Since Marek had addressed the concern several times already, he ignored it this time, simply squeezing his husband’s hand.
“I shouldn’t have left them alone. I thought the less time they were out in the open, on the street…” Marek struck him as a pretty steady guy, which made Caden’s distress even worse.