“Watch this,” Kyle insisted, shoving his phone at her and Blake.
“Kyle…” Blake started.
“Just watch,” Kyle repeated.
Blake grimaced and punched the “play” button. An image of Alvarez climbing into a car had Kara sitting up straighter, her heart racing as Myla appeared behind him and paused to glance up at the flame-filled sky. She whispered something Kara couldn’t make out and disappeared into the car. “Oh my God,” Kara murmured as the screen went blank, her gaze lifting to Kyle’s. “She’s alive? Myla’s alive?”
“She’s alive,” Kyle assured her. “The explosion was a setup to make us think she and Alvarez were dead.”
“How’d you get this?” Kara asked.
“As soon as we arrived,” he explained, “I set up surveillance and one of the cameras wouldn’t download. Luke just got it to roll.”
Kara looked at Blake, a new kind of pain filling her. “What is it?” he asked, stroking her cheek. “What’s wrong?”
“She’s not a prisoner.” It hurt her heart to say it out loud. “Myla’s with Alvarez by choice. She told me she loves him. She’s alive, but I’ve still lost her.”
“No,” he said. “He’s brainwashed her. We’ll get her back.” He slid a hand to her neck and rested his forehead against hers. “You and me, sweetheart. We’ll find a way.”
***
The ringing of a cell phone pierced the silence of the dark hotel room and beside her, Blake groaned and reached for it on the nightstand. Two days had passed since she last saw Myla, and every clue to finding her again had come up empty. It was as if her sister and Alvarez had really died in that crash.
Kara sat up as Blake murmured, “Yeah,” into the phone and climbed out of bed. Now that she was awake, the image of the helicopter blowing up played in her mind again, as it had a million times over. It didn’t matter that Myla hadn’t been in the explosion. Kara kept reliving the moment she thought she was, the moment she was sure her sister was dead.
In nothing but Blake’s shirt, Kara stepped onto the chilly balcony and rested her hands on the rail, staring out at the twinkling lights of the Golden Gate Bridge without really seeing them. How could Myla put her through so much hell? Did her sister really love Alvarez that much and her so little?
The door opened behind her and Blake slipped a robe over her shoulders. “You’re going to freeze. What are you doing out here?”
Kara slipped her arms into the giant terry garment and turned to let him tie it, noting he’d thrown on nothing but a t-shirt with his boxers. “You’re going to freeze, too.”
“I’m not worried about me,” he said, wrapping her in his arms. “I’m worried about you. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Who called at whatever ungodly hour this is?”
“Two o’clock,” he supplied, “and it was Royce. The Coast Guard picked up Ignacio off the coast of Mexico on a boat full of drugged women. He’s singing like a bird. The feds are raiding Mendez’s operation tomorrow and closing down the entire restaurant chain.”
“And Alvarez won’t be anywhere near here when it happens.” Which meant neither would her sister. “I don’t know how I’m going to find Myla, and do I keep trying? She doesn’t want to be saved.”
“You save her anyway. That’s what siblings are for. They look out for you, when you don’t look out for yourself. And I would know, since mine live in the same building with me and never let me forget it.”
“You live in the same building as your brothers?”
“Separate units, but the same building. Walker Security is on the bottom floor.” He stroked a hand down her hair. “Kara, I want you to come to New York with me and consider working for Walker Security.”
“Work for you?”
“Work with me. Live with me.” His eyes softened. “Marry me.”
Her eyes widened with surprise. “Marry you?”
“I know we haven’t known each other long, but I know all I need to know about you, Kara. But if you need time, you have it. I’ll ask you every day until you say yes, starting with today.” He went down on one knee. “Marry me, Kara.”
She smiled. “That sounded like an order.”
He smiled, a devastatingly sexy smile, and stood up, pulling her hard against him. “To hell with asking. I’m going to make you my wife.”
Kara wrapped her arms around his neck. “You know I don’t take orders well.”
“Take this one, Kara.” His voice was husky, roughened with emotion.
And once again a Walker brother made her eyes burn. “Yes,” she whispered. “Yes, I’ll—” He kissed her and Kara melted into this man who’d changed her life. This man who would never let her be alone again. This man who would be her husband.
***
Kyle had promised Kara he’d find her sister, and he’d meant it. Now, after two days of trying to decipher the audio on Myla’s video, he’d given up and called on his buddy, Jason, a twenty-seven-year-old tech genius who worked at the FBI lab, for help. Now, only a few hours after he’d handed over the tape to Jason, he was standing in Jason’s Virginia apartment, waiting for the playback.
“I’ve got visual and audio,” Jason explained. “I zoomed in on the woman’s face so you can get a better look at her eyes when she says the words. You know, the eyes are the windows to the soul.”
“Just punch the damn button,” Kyle ordered.
Jason hit a button and Myla’s image appeared on screen, zoomed in on her face, as promised. There was a look of complete anguish Kyle hadn’t been able to make out on the fuzzy video before this any more than he could her words. But this time he not only saw the pain in her face, he heard her words as she whispered, I’m so sorry, Kara.
“I’ll be damned,” Kyle muttered, scrubbing the light blond stubble he’d let sprout on his jaw. Could Myla be protecting Kara from Alvarez? Was she a victim in survival mode? Was this how she’d kept from being one of the women sold off to the highest bidder?
He glanced at Jason. “Replay it.” He watched it again. And again. After a half dozen views, with the tape in hand, he headed to his rental car. Once he was inside, he sat behind the wheel and stared ahead before he turned on the engine. “Hang in there, Myla. I’m coming for you.”
Kyle and Myla’s story coming soon. And want more Blake? He’s featured in BEING ME and REVEALING US.
Visit Lisa for updates on the show here:
www.lisareneejones.com
And now a look at IF I WERE YOU....
Book 1 of THE INSIDE OUT SERIES
OPTIONED TO STARZ for cable TV with
Suzanne Todd(Alice in Wonderland w/Johnny Depp) producing
Excerpt:
We begin our walk, faster this time, and the cold wind has nothing on the chill between us. Conversation is non-existent, and I have no clue how to break the silence, or if I should even try. I dare a peek at his profile several times, fighting the wind blowing hair over my eyes, but he doesn’t acknowledge me. Why won’t he look at me? Several times, I open my mouth to speak but words simply won’t leave my lips.
We are almost to the gallery, and a knot has formed in my stomach at the prospect of an awkward goodbye, when he suddenly grabs me and pulls me into a small enclave of a deserted office rental. Before I can fully grasp what is happening, I am against the wall, hidden from the street and he is in front of me, enclosing me in the tiny space. I blink up into his burning stare and I think I might combust. His scent, his warmth, his hard body, is all around me, but he is not touching me. I want him to touch me.
He presses his hand to the concrete wall above my head when I want it on my body. “You don’t belong here, Sara.”
The words are unexpected, a hard punch in the chest. “What? I don’t understand.”
“This job is wrong for you.”
I shake my head. I don’t belong? Coming from Chris, an established artist, I feel inferior, rejected. “You asked me why I wasn’t following my heart. Why I wasn’t pursuing what I lo
ve. I am. That’s what I’m doing.”
“I didn’t think you’d do it in this place.”
This place. I don’t know what he’s telling me. Does he mean this gallery? This city? Has he judged me not worthy of his inner circle?
“Look, Sara.” He hesitates, and lifts his head to the sky, seeming to struggle for words before fixing me with a turbulent look. “I’m trying to protect you here. This world you’ve strayed into is filled with dark, messed up, arrogant assholes who will play with your mind and use you until there is nothing else left for you to recognize in yourself.”
“Are you one of those dark, messed up, arrogant assholes?”
He stares down at me, and I barely recognize the hard lines of his face, the glint in his eyes, as belonging to the man I’ve just had lunch with. His gaze sweeps my lips, lingers, and the swell of response and longing in me is instant, overwhelming. He reaches up and strokes his thumb over my bottom lip. Every nerve ending in my body responds and it’s all I can do not to touch him, to grab his hand, but something holds me back. I am lost in this man, in his stare, in some spellbinding, dark whirlwind of…what? Lust, desire, torment? Seconds tick eternally and so does the silence. I want to hold him, to stop whatever I sense is coming but I cannot.
“I’m worse.” He pushes off the wall, and is gone. He is gone. I am alone against the wall, aching with a fire that has nothing to do with the meal we shared. My lashes flutter, my fingers touch my lip where he touched me. He has warned me away from Mark, from the gallery, from him, and he has failed. I cannot turn away. I am here and I am going nowhere.
Buy it here:
http://www.amazon.com/If-I-Were-You-ebook/dp/B0095VKZUK/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1364279383&sr=1-1
Visit Lisa for updates on the show here:
www.lisareneejones.com
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