by Ally Vance
“Who are you?” I ask. There’s something faintly familiar about him, but I am certain we’ve never met. He’s… unforgettable. Intimidating. Scary as hell. There’s not a chance I’d bump into a man like him and simply forget the encounter.
“Name’s Hawk.”
“Hawk.” I frown. “Like a codename or something.”
He laughs. “No, that’s actually my real name. I think my dad was drunk at the time.”
The thought of this hulk of a man having parents just doesn’t sit right, nor does the idea of him as a small baby. It’s like he was born a giant and never went through the growing stage.
“Where am I?”
“My place in the Rockies. About four hours north of Denver.”
I now realize that he’s willing to answer my questions but won’t volunteer any information. If I want answers, I’m going to have to make sure I frame the right questions.
“Why am I here?”
He picks up a lock of my hair and feeds it through his fingers. I try not to recoil. He’s being kind right now, but at any minute, he might turn on me, and I fear the consequences if he does.
“I’m sorry about what happened to you.”
I squeeze my eyes closed as the image of evil crowds my mind once more. The idea of living with the memories of last night, knowing they have the ability to hold me prisoner at will, causes a tear to leak from the corner of my eye. When I open them again, he’s staring at me with an expression I can only describe as deeply sorrowful.
“It wasn’t supposed to go down like that. If I could have saved you from what he did, I would have.”
Anger and a terrible, crippling fear send my body shooting into flight mode, and I try to scramble away, but I can’t. I can’t because this man has me shackled to the bed.
“Let me go!” I scream, yanking on my restraints.
His large hands grip my shoulders, and he leans halfway over me, pinning me down with his huge frame. It’s like trying to throw off a slab of granite, and without hands to punch with or feet to kick out, he subdues me in seconds.
“Calm down, Calla.”
The use of my name makes me freeze. “You know my name?” I whisper.
He lifts himself off me, although his eyes are wary, on the lookout for another imminent meltdown.
“I know everything about you, Calla. I’ve watched you for a while now, but what happened last night was a mistake. You weren’t supposed to fall into their hands. The man who stole you from me and caused your suffering paid dearly for his error in judgment. No one takes what’s mine without there being deathly consequences.”
There’s so much to process that I find I can’t do much more than rapidly blink while my brain figures it all out.
“Who are you really? Who are those men? Please tell me. I have to know.”
He stands, and I think I’ve pushed him too far. But then he unfastens first my left ankle and then my right before moving on to my wrists.
He’s letting me go?
I don’t move. I lie completely still, waiting for… actually, I don’t know what I’m waiting for.
Fear and panic and hopefulness propel me to my feet, but I barely make it two steps before my legs collapse beneath me. Landing in a heap on the floor, I start to crawl toward the door.
He picks me up as easily as lifting a feather, and although I strike out with my fists and kick my legs, my blows bounce off him harmlessly. It’s like pounding on a rock face. The only person getting hurt is me.
I fully expect him to chain me up again, but he doesn’t. Instead, he sits on the bed with me in his lap and holds me. Confused by his actions, I don’t know what to think. He holds me, rocks me, whispers soothing words that I can’t take in through the shock of his gentleness. The small fightback has left me exhausted, though, and despite the fear simmering beneath the surface, I find I’m oddly comforted, too.
Once I’m calm, he lifts me off him and sets me back on the bed. Drawing my knees up to my chest, I warily watch him. He stands and holds out his hand.
“Let’s get you fed and sort out some medication for the pain, and then I’ll tell you everything you want to know.”
Chapter Six
Hawk
I sit in silence as Calla wolfs down a huge sandwich and polishes off a slice of pie. I don’t know when she last had some food inside her, but I’d guess more than forty-eight hours have passed since she’s eaten, given how fast she bolted that meal.
After she’s finished, she pushes away her plate and wipes her mouth with the back of her hand. Something about the simple action thickens my dick, but considering what she’s been through, and the fact that her eyes follow me cagily, it will be a while before I can touch her. Not that it matters. She’s mine for life. I can wait a few weeks to gain her trust. Starting with telling her everything about her journey from the safety of her own apartment to ending up in the middle of nowhere with me.
“Firstly,” I begin. “I fully expect you to try to escape the minute my back is turned. However, there are some things you should know before you try it. One, there is nothing else within a twenty-five-mile radius other than mountainous terrain and ravines that, if you fell into, you’d never be able to claw your way out of. Two, bears, mountain lions, and wolves freely roam these parts, and I don’t advise getting in their way. And three, I am the best tracker there is. I will find you, and when I do, you won’t like the consequences. Do we understand each other?”
She nods and pinches the skin of her throat, her teeth gnawing at that plump bottom lip I’m desperate to suck.
“Good. Now that you know the risks, if you still want to go for it, be my guest. The door isn’t locked, and I don’t plan to chain you up. You’re free to roam around the house and step outside for some fresh air.” I gently touch her arm and take a little comfort when she doesn’t recoil away from me. “You’re not a prisoner here, Calla.”
“Aren’t I?” she asks, nibbling on the side of her thumbnail.
“No. If I hadn’t rescued you, then you’d have been a prisoner.”
Her eyebrows shoot up. “You rescued me? Don’t you mean you abducted me?”
My jaw works, but I keep my expression open and nonthreatening. “I wasn’t the one who took you.”
Although I planned to. But not like this. Not to have her subjected to what Typhon will have put her through.
It’s a testament to her resilience that she isn’t a quivering wreck, and if one of the other trainers had picked her, she might have passed their tests after all. I don’t know whether to be relieved or sorry about that. Relieved because this way I get to keep her. Sorry because no one deserves what Typhon does to the girls.
“Then who did?”
I lean back in my chair and shift my body to the side. She follows the move, her eyes raking over me, and desire feasts on my insides. She really is exquisite.
I’m taking a risk by telling her everything, but if I’m to make her mine, then showing her I trust her is the beginning of that journey.
“The organization is called The Elite. It’s run by a group of very powerful men who traffic women for their sexual gratification. Those who pass the tests like the ones you went through last night are ensconced into a club where they enjoy enormous privileges, and in return, they are matched with two or three men whom they service. It’s a good life. Far better than the alternative.”
“The alternative was to leave them where they were. With family, friends, people who love them.”
It’s interesting she mentions friends and family, considering she’s an orphan who, until recently, lived in a foster home in Utah. Once she turned eighteen, she left and moved to Denver, possibly as a way of starting a new life and leaving the old one behind. Some foster homes are great, but others, not so much. My guess is Calla wasn’t exactly showered with love in hers. Hence, she left as soon as she graduated high school.
From my diligent investigations and the hours I’ve spent trailing her, she doesn’
t appear to have any friends yet, either. I don’t pull her up on it, though. I’m her family now, and I’m all she needs, even if she doesn’t yet realize it.
“Maybe,” I say. “But once they’re targeted and taken, out of the two possible futures, one is significantly better than the other.”
She glances around at my log cabin, taking it all in. “I take it I failed,” she states baldly. “And this is my punishment.”
“Yes, you failed, but no, this isn’t your punishment. Like I said, I rescued you. If I hadn’t, right now you’d be living in a brothel, servicing ten, fifteen, twenty men a day.”
She pales and starts plucking at the skin of her throat once more as the enormity of what could have been her fate hits her right between the eyes. Maybe I should have sugarcoated it a little more, but I find that bluntness saves the meandering, and both end up at the same destination anyway, so what’s the point in delaying the inevitable?
“So, who are you?” she whispers.
I lean back in my chair and cross an ankle over my knee. “I work for The Elite. I’m a tracker. My job is to source appropriate, innocent women who the trainers then put through the tests.”
“So you did take me?” she hisses, venom pouring from her ice-blue eyes.
I like this side of her. It shows passion. Passion is good. Especially between the sheets.
“No, I didn’t. Someone else did. And he paid the price for it.”
“How?”
I lock my gaze on hers. “I killed him.”
Her mouth falls open, and she gasps. “You killed him? Why? How?”
“Why? Because he took you when you were mine. And how?” I shrug. “I stabbed him. I find a knife far more personal than a gun.”
Her eyes dart about wildly as she processes my frank admission. “But how can I be yours? I don’t even know you.”
It’s a fair question, and one I’m not sure I have the answer to. I try to explain anyway.
“I’ve been a tracker for The Elite for more than a decade, and during that time, I’ve lost count of the number of women I’ve abducted. Yet none of them have ever touched me the way you did. You weren’t even on my radar. I snatch women to order, and when I first saw you, there wasn’t a requirement for someone of your description. But the second I watched you run down the street with your hair swinging in a high ponytail and wearing those pink athletic pants you favor, I knew I had to have you.”
She shakes her head. “You realize that’s wrong, don’t you? Women aren’t possessions to be owned.”
I shrug again. “They are in my world.”
The way she flinches is telling. She’s just so damned innocent it’s almost painful to watch that naivety be stripped away so swiftly.
“What about the other girls, the ones I was with last night?”
“Four made it.”
Her eyes fill with tears, which surprises me. I wouldn’t have thought she spent long enough with the women to form any kind of bond. Just goes to show that stressful situations can connect people in a way we don’t expect. I’m hoping the same happens with Calla and me.
“The redhead,” she whispers. “Was she one of them?”
I smile, pride swelling in my chest. Red must have shown that feisty side of herself to the other girls, too. “Yeah. She made it. I had no doubt. She was one of mine.”
Her lips thin, and a pulse beats in her jaw. “It’s nothing to be proud of.”
“It is in my world.”
She grimaces, then stands and begins to pace around the small kitchen, her hands on her hips.
“And this is where we’ll live?” She gestures with her arm. “Here, in the middle of nowhere. For the rest of our lives.”
I smile. “Hopefully not. I have a few places, and I’d eventually like to show them all to you. But for now, this is the safest place to be.”
She narrows her eyes. “Why? Shouldn’t I be safe with you?”
She’s astute, another quality I like.
“You are safe with me. It’s just… well, let’s just say I didn’t exactly ask for permission to take you.”
Horror steals across her face, slowly, like a shadow creeping across the room as the sun begins to set. “So they could still come for me? Drag me off to a brothel?”
It pleases me that she’d clearly rather stay here with me than face the alternative. Right now, I’ll take it.
“No,” I insist firmly. “That won’t happen.”
“Liar,” she snaps. “If you were so sure, we wouldn’t be cowering up in the mountains.”
The flash of anger comes quickly, and I don’t anticipate it. She picks up her empty plate and throws it at the wall.
“This is all insane. You’re criminals. Evil, vile criminals who should be in jail. I want to go home!”
She makes a dash for the door, and I let her go. She won’t get far. For one thing, she’s not wearing any shoes, and for another, the weather up here is significantly colder than back in Denver, and she’s only wearing a thin cotton dress. I’ll give her ten or fifteen minutes. If she comes back of her own accord, that’s a win for me. If she doesn’t, I’ll go looking for her and bring her back.
I’d really rather the former happens. It’ll make things easier from here on out.
Chapter Seven
Calla
I barely make it to the end of the narrow path before my feet are almost numb from the cold and sore from stepping over the sharp stones that are impossible to avoid. I don’t have a coat, I don’t have any means of communication, and I haven’t a clue where I am. And his warning about wolves and lions and bears keeps reverberating around my head like a pinball machine. I’m swiftly coming to the conclusion that there are worse things than Hawk in this world. He might have brought me here against my will, but until now he’s shown me nothing but kindness, and he hasn’t once tried to touch me inappropriately.
But he keeps calling you his. That’s weird right there.
I briefly consider that what he’s told me about The Elite are all lies, a ruse to make himself look like the good guy, but instinctively I know he’s telling the truth. I feel like I’ve had a very lucky escape, and that in itself is so fucked up I can’t believe I’m thinking it.
Hawk is not a good guy.
He takes women for a living and seals their fate—for some, a fate worse than death.
Yet he doesn’t scare me. I’m drawn to him in a way that I don’t understand, and I’m not sure I ever will. But whatever the reasons, a few minutes after I stormed off, I trudge back to his cabin. I’m surprised he never came after me, but as I push open the door and sheepishly enter, one look at his expression tells me the reason; he knew I’d return.
“Here, come and warm yourself by the fire,” he says, gesturing to a comfortable-looking chair.
I take a seat without argument and curl my legs beneath me. Hawk’s heavy feet pace over to the kitchen area, and he returns five minutes later with a steaming cup of cocoa. He hands it to me, and I take it gratefully. He sits across from me and folds his hands in his lap, but he doesn’t speak. I guess he’s leaving that up to me.
“So what happens now?” I ask.
“What do you want to happen?”
I arch a brow. That’s not a serious question, surely. “To go home.”
He sighs heavily. “We’ve established that can’t happen. I’m a patient man, Calla, but I won’t keep repeating myself endlessly.”
“You really plan to keep me, then?”
He nods.
“And what? We live happily ever after?”
“Perhaps. That depends on you.”
“Me?” My eyebrows arrow upward. “Why me?”
“It’s all about acceptance, Calla. The sooner you accept the direction your life has taken, even if it’s not of your choosing, the faster you’ll come to realize that we can have something very special.”
I snort a laugh. “An interesting story to tell the grandkids, you mean? How did you and Grandpa meet, Gran
ny? Oh, he stood idly by while I was brutally raped, and then instead of taking me to a hospital or to the police, he stole me away and locked me in a cabin in the middle of fucking nowhere and hoped I’d fall in love with him. Which I did, of course.” I snort again. “What a fucking fairy tale.”
His jaw tightens. “There’s nothing I wanted more than to stop what happened to you last night, but whatever you choose to believe, I was powerless to prevent it. What I can do now is take care of you from here on out and ensure you want for nothing.”
“Except my freedom.”
He shakes his head at the ceiling. “Another repetition, Calla.”
I’m about to continue the verbal sparring, partly because I find I’m enjoying myself, but then a dreadful thought slips into my mind, and I recoil in horror. “Oh my God. Last night with that… that… animal. He didn’t use protection. I could have caught all manner of diseases, or even be pregnant.” I get to my feet. “You have to take me to the hospital, Hawk. Right now.”
He stays seated, unconcerned with my outburst. “You’re fine,” he says.
“How do you know that? Are you a doctor?”
His lips quirk upward. “No. I don’t think I have the bedside manner for it.”
I glare at him, incensed. “You think this is funny? This is my health. My life. My body.”
Except it wasn’t. Not anymore. That man stole it from me, and I know Hawk is only biding his time until he can do the same. I doubt very much he took me so he’d have a bit of company out here. He wants to fuck me, to own me, to steal my independence. He’s just more upfront about it.
He folds his arms over his enormous chest, and his biceps bunch. I find myself staring at them, a strange warmth unfolding in my abdomen.
“First, you’re not pregnant. They’ll have given you an implant to prevent that. Second, the trainers are clean. You think the men who run The Elite would risk the women who make it through the program being riddled with disease? No, of course they wouldn’t. They carry out regular and rigorous testing to ensure everyone is clean.”