by Tawny Taylor
She heaved again. And again. Nothing came up. She sputtered and cried and trembled. Behind her, she heard him moving around. Water running. When he returned, he had a soapy washcloth in his hands. And he was shirtless.
He reached out with the washcloth, presumably to wipe her face, but she took it from him.
“Thanks.” She blotted her face. “I can handle this myself.”
“Okay.” Standing upright, he backed toward the door. “I’ll wait outside. If you need help, yell.”
She nodded and locked herself in her bathroom. She needed this time alone, to sort out what had just happened. It was all too much. Her system simply couldn’t handle it. Still trying to sort through the craziness, she cranked on the shower.
Had Tage just admitted to being wanted by the federal government? Had he?
Had her mother just been attacked or taken hostage? Had she?
And now the man who was responsible for all of it expected her to trust him with her life? Her mother’s?
This had to be either a really bad joke or she was sleeping and it was a nightmare.
She pinched herself. Hard.
Could she sleep through that?
She checked the water. It was hot. She stripped and stepped under the spray.
It stung.
Could she sleep through that, too?
She soaped up, rinsed off, and finally got out.
She certainly couldn’t be sleeping after all of that. She pressed her ear to the door. Maybe she’d sleepwalked into the bathroom and now was awake? Since becoming pregnant, she had had some really vivid dreams.
If Tage was on the other side of the door, then it couldn’t be a dream.
She put on her robe and opened the door.
Tage was sitting on the bench at the foot of her bed.
Damn. “Tell me this is a prank,” she pleaded.
He visibly swallowed. “I wish I could tell you that. But it isn’t.”
Reality hit her like a sledgehammer. She staggered.
Within a blink, he was at her side, steadying her. “Let’s get you dressed and somewhere safe. Their next move will be to abduct you.” He half-carried her to the bench. “Sit down.”
She sat. The next step would be to abduct her? That had already happened. But they’d let her go. Maybe the next time . . . they wouldn’t. “I don’t understand any of this.”
“I’ll explain it later. After you’re safe.” He hurried to her dresser and yanked open her top drawer. Grabbing a pair of panties and a bra with one hand, he pulled the third drawer open with the other. Within seconds, he had a complete outfit picked out, T-shirt, jeans, underwear, socks. He set the clothes down in her lap. “Please hurry.” He went to the window and peered through the blinds.
“Are they really CIA?” She pulled on her panties, then shrugged out of her robe so she could put on her bra.
Still staring out the window, he shouldered the wall. “Probably. They’ve infiltrated just about every organization in the government.”
“Who is ‘they’?” She hooked her bra.
“The Chimera.”
“Chimera?” she echoed, trying hard to comprehend whatever the hell she’d somehow fallen into.
She felt like Alice. She’d tumbled down the rabbit hole and had landed in a scary, dark place. And, the worst part was, she’d dragged her mom down that hole with her. She plopped back down on the bench and grabbed her jeans.
He explained, “They’re a secret organization.”
“Like . . . the Masons? But secret?” she asked as she stuffed her feet into her jeans and yanked them up.
“Yes. This group has been trying to kill me and my brothers since the day we were born.”
She grabbed her shirt, hugged it to her chest. “When you were children?”
“Yes.”
A chill buzzed up her spine. “They wanted to kill children? Why?” She pulled on her shirt.
“I can’t tell you yet.”
Rage blazed through her.
What?
Why couldn’t he tell her? Wasn’t she in deep enough? Didn’t he owe her an explanation? Didn’t he owe her something?
Her hand went to her stomach. “If those people wanted you dead when you were young, then . . . then . . .” Her stomach roiled again.
Still standing at the window, he flicked a look her way. “Yes. That’s why I was trying so hard to convince you to marry me. I need to protect you.”
Her child? They would try to kill her child? No. No one would want to kill an innocent child. That was inhumane. “This is crazy. It can’t be real.”
“It is. I’m sorry.” He turned to face her. “Are you ready?”
“I don’t have my shoes.”
“Where are they?”
“There.” She pointed toward her closet.
“Get them on. Let’s go.”
“Where are we going?” She grabbed the first pair she found, pulled them on, and tied them.
“To get the rest of the family. We have to relocate. As soon as possible.”
Her head was spinning so fast she could barely comprehend a single word he said. “Relocate? Like, move?”
“Yes. That’s the only way we can protect you.” He waved her toward the door.
She hesitated. Words were sinking in now. And those words were scary. “You’re a fugitive. If I go with you, I’ll be one, too. That’s no way to live.”
He caught her arms in his and looked into her eyes. “Michelle, I’m sorry I dragged you into this. I tried to stay away from you. I knew you weren’t the kind of woman who would choose a life like this for yourself. I hope someday you’ll be able to forgive me. Running is the only way for us to live. If they catch us, they’ll kill us. All of us.”
His gaze locked on her stomach.
A half hour later, Michelle was standing in the center of a whirlwind. It wasn’t a literal one, but it was no less terrifying. There were bags stacked up next to the back door. Rin and Lei would dump a couple more every few minutes, then scurry back upstairs. Tage, whom they called Talen, had left her in the midst of the melee, promising to return as soon as he could. She guessed he and his brothers were somewhere making plans for their big escape.
More than once she considered dashing out the door and never coming back. But when her mom’s face flashed through her mind, she couldn’t do it. For one thing, it was too late for that. If the CIA had gone after her mom, then Plan A, in which Angela married Tage and seduced him into giving her the information the CIA wanted, had been abandoned.
Her phone chimed.
Speak of the devil.
It was a text.
Your mother is safe. For now. Get us the information we want.
She texted back, I don’t know how.
Photos. Send us photographs.
She snapped a picture of the room in which she was standing and sent it to him.
Good. Photograph every room. Look for things that seem out of place.
Every room? How would she do that without getting caught? Her palms started sweating. She didn’t want to do this. Although she felt Tage wouldn’t hurt her, even for helping the people they called the enemy, she couldn’t be so sure about his brothers.
She glanced back toward the stairs. The sisters seemed to have stopped hauling stuff down for the moment. She headed toward the back of the house, where less action was going on. There she found the room with the indoor swimming pool. Visually scanning the space for anything out of place, she lifted her camera and took a shot. Everything seemed to be in order there. She sent the photo, then moved to the next room.
It was a bathroom. Sink, toilet, shower. She snapped a couple of shots but didn’t send them. This was silly. Surely nobody would hide a super-secret weapon of mass destruction in a bathroom. She quietly crept to the next room.
A library. She scanned the shelves of books. All the classics were there. Dickens, Twain, Austen.
She pulled out Persuasion. Jane Austen was one of her all-time f
avorite authors. How long had it been since she’d last read it? Ages. She flipped to the first page.
Sir Walter Elliot, of Kellynch Hall, in Somersetshire, was a man who, for his own amusement, never took up any book but the Baronetage; there he found occupation for an idle hour, and consolation in a distressed one. . . .
“Did you find something interesting?”
The book jostled in her hands, then dropped to the floor. It landed with a thump. She turned to face the speaker, standing somewhere near the door.
It was Tage.
“I apologize if I startled you,” he said from the doorway.
“I . . . guess all this has me a little jumpy.” If she hadn’t stopped to read, he might have caught her taking pictures. Moving her hand slowly, she slipped her phone into her pocket.
“That’s not surprising.” He stepped closer. His gaze meandered over her face, which was getting warm as her heart rate kicked higher. “You’re flushed. Are you feeling ill again?”
“Maybe a little.”
He stooped down, picked up the book. Straightening up, he handed it to her. “You should sit down. Rest.”
“I was. But then I got restless.” She lifted the book to return it to the shelf.
“Didn’t you want to read it? You’ll need a diversion while we’re traveling. Maybe it’ll take your mind off things.”
“I suppose.” She tucked the volume in her folded arm and nodded. “What’s happening?”
“We’re almost ready to go.”
“Where will we go?”
“I can’t tell you that yet.” He took her hands in his and led her to the big, cushy, oversized chair in the room’s corner. “Sit down. Please. I don’t want you passing out again.” After she sat, he knelt on the floor in front of her. “I know you’re terrified right now. Your mother is being held captive by people you don’t trust. You’ve learned I’m not exactly who or what you thought. And now I’m asking you to trust me to keep your mother safe.”
Yes, that pretty much summed things up. “I don’t understand what’s happening.”
He nodded. “I know. You’ll learn everything soon.”
“How are you going to save my mom?”
“We know whom we are dealing with. She won’t be harmed.” He was being so vague. Was it any wonder she was having doubts? “You aren’t convinced yet that you can trust us, I sense.”
“Wouldn’t you be dubious, too, if you were in my shoes? I’m terrified. I’m pregnant. Somehow I’ve dragged my mother into something bigger than either of us. I don’t know who the father of my child really is. What is your real name? Who are you? I’m watching you all prepare for whatever is happening as if it’s a regular thing . . .” Eyes burning, she blinked, sniffled. “I don’t know.”
“Not to add any pressure, but I need you to make a choice. Either you come with us, leave everything behind, and start new somewhere else, or you go home and live your life like we were never a part of it.”
Not to add any pressure.
She couldn’t think as it was. Her brain was short-circuited. How could she make a choice like this now?
“What about my mother?” she asked.
“If you stay behind, I believe they’ll release her the minute they learn you’ve lost contact with us.”
“I’m not so sure it’ll be that easy.” That sounded so simple. Let him go, and they would both be safe?
She could do that.
Couldn’t she?
Her insides twisted into a knot.
“I’m sure it’ll work,” he reassured her.
Could she say good-bye? Right now?
Sure, she could. She could say good-bye.
But what if it didn’t work? What if? “If that’s the case, and you know she’ll be safe, why did you bring me here, knowing you would keep her in danger? Why?”
His gaze dropped to the floor. He shoved his fingers through his hair. “I was—am—being selfish.” He lifted his eyes to hers. They were full of raw emotion. Sadness. Longing. Guilt. “I want you. I want our child.”
“And you’re willing to risk my mother’s life to keep me?”
“I’m willing to risk my life, and the lives of my brothers to keep you,” he said softly. “If you come with us, we will go after your mother. And we’ll be taking a huge risk to do it. That risk, we’re taking for your sake.”
“I don’t know.” She glanced down at the book, now resting in her lap. Persuasion. Wasn’t that title fitting right now?
He cupped her chin and lifted it, supporting it as her gaze wandered up, up, up to his eyes. They were dark, emotion still swirling in their depths. “If you don’t come with us, I will never see you again. I will never hold my child.”
Her heart jerked.
If she went with him, her mother might not be released safely. And yet, if she didn’t, who knew? Maybe the CIA or Chimera or whoever would kill her anyway?
Then she’d be alone, with no one to turn to for help.
Either way, she was going to be terrified.
Either way, she might lose her mom.
This was an impossible choice. How would she decide what to do?
25
What the hell am I doing?
There sat the most important woman in his life. Michelle meant more to Talen than anything, anyone. She was carrying his child, a child he needed. A child who might spare Lei from the pain of being tossed away.
And she held his heart in her hands.
Yet, he was about to set her free.
It was the right thing to do, the only choice he could make. He loved her too much to watch her go through another moment of pain.
He’d suffered a weak moment. That was why he’d brought her here. He’d thought for a short time that he might be able to go through with it, take her with him, marry her, despite the risk to her mother’s life.
But now that the moment was at hand, he couldn’t get himself to do it.
He studied each of her features, trying desperately to commit them to memory. Those full, plump lips, curved ever so slightly up as if she were hiding a naughty secret. The elegant curve of her cheekbone. The straight, narrow line of her little nose. The cool blue of her eyes. Still cupping her chin, he leaned closer, wanting to draw in the scent of her skin one last time. After today, the only thing he would have of her would be memories. He wanted them to be as vivid as possible.
Closer.
He inhaled deeply, listening to the soft sound of her little gasping breaths. She responded so strongly to him. Was that why he’d been so drawn to her?
One taste. Couldn’t he have one last kiss?
He drew closer yet. Now her sweet breath caressed his face. It felt as if a magnetic force was pulling him even closer. He couldn’t fight it. He wasn’t strong enough.
He had never been strong enough.
His lips made contact with hers, and he was swept away from the dark, depressing world of reality into a brilliant, beautiful place. There he was warm and alive. He didn’t want to leave. He didn’t want the kiss to end.
Gathering his sweet temptress into his arms, he deepened the kiss. His tongue stroked inside her mouth. She tasted decadent, like some kind of rare, luscious fruit. She sighed, trembled, then wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her soft body against his.
Ah, this was the woman who fit in his arms perfectly. No other woman would ever feel so right. He didn’t want to let her go. It was killing him to do it.
You must.
His hand slid down her back, over her round derriere. She whimpered and tipped her hips, pressing against his leg. A blaze swept through his body.
If he didn’t cut this off in the next second or two, it would be too late. He caressed her tongue with his once, twice. The hand not resting on her ass supported her head, fingers tangled in silken tresses. He could hold her there, kiss her until she couldn’t think anymore. He might even be able to convince her to go with him.
But he wouldn’t do it. He loved
her too much.
He would let her go.
But first, there was one last thing he had to do.
He pulled the scarf from his pocket. It just about killed him to break the kiss. It felt as if his heart had been ripped from his chest. He lifted the scarf.
“What’s that?” Her cheeks were flushed a pretty pink, her lips swollen.
“I need to blindfold you.”
“Why?”
“I don’t want you to see where we’re going.” He caressed one of her silken cheeks with a thumb. “Will you trust me? I’m thinking only of you. No one else. Especially not myself.”
She searched his eyes for a few heartbeats, then slowly nodded. “Yes, I will trust you.” She pivoted, turning her back to him, allowing him to tie the blindfold.
Once he had the blindfold in place, he brushed one last kiss across her lips. His eyes burned as he carefully led her to his car and helped her into it. As he was circling the front of the vehicle, Drako came out into the garage. They exchanged knowing glances. Drako mouthed, “I’m sorry,” to his brother. Talen nodded.
Off he went, speeding toward her home. He held her hand the entire drive, wishing he would never have to let it go. Tears gathered in his eyes, and he had to keep blinking them away. Who would have thought he’d ever feel so strongly for a woman? That he would ever shed a tear at the thought of losing one? Over the last five years, he’d walked away from so many. Never, not once, had he regretted it.
As much as he wished the drive would take a lifetime, it didn’t. It was over too soon, and he was parking his car, dreading the next moment. He’d prepared for this. Earlier, while she’d been waiting, wondering what was happening, he had put together a note, and a little something that he hoped would ease the pain and burden of raising their child alone. It probably wouldn’t be enough. But it was all he could offer.
This was it, the last time he would see her.
Twisting in his seat, he faced her. She was sitting there looking so beautiful. Although she said she trusted him, she was nervous. He could see the swift rise and fall of her chest. The hand he wasn’t holding was curled into a tight fist.