Through clenched teeth, Holly said, “I don’t need a bodyguard.”
“Darling, this is nothing you need concern yourself with,” Nik said. Talking to her as if she were still ten fricking years old.
She almost exploded. Right then. But she saw the fear and worry in her mother’s eyes. Against her will, she felt herself relenting.
“Holly, sweetheart, there have been threats against your father. And this last time—”
“Chelly!” Nik barked out his wife’s name.
But if he expected soft and meek acquiescence, he was way off base. Chelly rounded on him and gave him a furious glare. “Damn your thick skull, she’s got a right to know why she’s losing her privacy. Her freedom.”
Under her breath, Holly muttered, “What freedom?” Then, forcing her way between her parents before either of them could say another word, she asked, “What threats?”
Nik shook his head. “It is not your concern, Holly.”
“Not my concern?” she demanded. “I’m the one getting thrown into some kind of prison. I’m the one who can’t go any damn place without a bodyguard and you say it isn’t my concern?”
He waved a hand dismissively, as if nothing she said even registered.
But then her mother laid a hand on her shoulder and pressed gently. She turned to meet her mother’s gaze, hoped for some kind of support. It was there. She could tell by the look in Chelly’s eyes that her mother understood at least a little of what Holly felt.
Not enough, though, Holly realized, a knot taking up residence in her throat as Chelly said, “Holly, I know this seems terribly unfair to you. I hate that. But I hate even more to think of you being in danger.”
“In danger from what?”
“It is nothing you need—”
Holly spun on her heel, certain now that she would explode. She knew it. But her mother beat her to it. “Damn you, Nik, if you tell her one more time that she doesn’t need to concern herself with this, then you don’t need to concern yourself with sleeping in our bedroom for the next month!”
Startled, Holly glanced over her shoulder and watched as a soft pink blush appeared on Chelly’s face. But her eyes were snapping, glinting with fury, and when she opened her mouth to speak, Nik remained silent.
“It’s the renegades, Holly,” Chelly said, her voice flat and unhappy. “Apparently, attempted break-ins and vandalism just aren’t enough to amuse them anymore.”
Her heart sinking, Holly realized the gravity of the situation. The renegades had been a threat for as long as she’d been alive. No. Longer. Elves, with their long lives, were a patient race.
But everybody had an end to their patience. Apparently, the renegades had reached theirs.
Although little was discussed in public, every elf with half a brain knew about the threats and schemes to undermine the purpose of the Northern Reach.
They were zealots and they were a threat that the Council—that her father—took very seriously.
Very, very seriously.
And now the Claus had it in his thick skull that Holly might become a target.
Holly’s gut pitched with nausea and it got worse the more she thought about it. If he thought she was in danger, no matter how remote the chance, Da was going to do everything short of wrapping her in bubble wrap and locking her away in some dark, quiet cell to keep her safe.
Her mouth twisting in a bitter smirk, she acknowledged that other than the bubble wrap, he was getting ready to do just that.
This wasn’t happening. Damn it, this wasn’t happening.
But one look at her father’s stony face and she knew it was. Nik was king here. That might not be his official title but what he said went. If he decided she needed to be put into total isolation, there wasn’t a damn thing anybody would do but exactly what he said. From the corner of her eye, she saw Rhys leaning back against the table and an inkling of an idea formed.
Looking up, she interrupted her mother and said, “Rhys.”
“Yeah?”
But she hadn’t been speaking to him, she’d been speaking to her father. Meeting the Claus’ gaze head on, she said, “If you want to have somebody watching me day and night, then I want Rhys to do it.”
Something flickered inside Rhys’ eyes. A smile, there and then gone, appeared on his lips. Deep in her belly, something hot and liquid moved through her. But even before she had a chance to realize just how nicely this could work for her—for a while, at least—Nik shook his head. “No. Rhys will select your escort. They will be his men, trained and prepared. But I need Rhys to seek out this threat. He’s the one man I trust to find them and he cannot do that if he is watching over you.”
Holly clenched her jaw. Tightened her fists until her nails tore into her skin.
Back under her father’s watchful eye, she’d have even less of a life than she had now. Without them even saying it, she knew that until Nik was satisfied with her safety, there would be no more classes. And if Rhys was out trying to catch a couple of zealots, he’d have little time for her.
Tears burned her eyes and she turned away, grabbing her bag. Without even changing, she headed for the door. Her father called out behind her and as she left the workroom, one of her father’s recently assigned escorts fell into step behind her. Holly didn’t look at the bodyguard and she didn’t look at her father as she headed toward the elevator. The doors slid closed behind her and from the corner of her eye, she saw the elf temporarily stuck with guarding her off to the side.
When he felt her eyes on him, he opened his mouth to speak and she lifted her head, glaring at him. “Don’t speak to me.”
He fell back into silence and, shutting him out of her mind, Holly started to brood.
Chapter Three
Rhys dragged into his rooms, exhausted, worn to the bone and frustrated.
It had been four weeks since he’d been reassigned to the task force formed to find the zealots who had been making threats to the Claus and his family.
Four weeks since he had seen Holly. Since he’d made love to her.
And while little else was clear at this point, he knew he needed her with him.
What had happened between them on a physical level had only intensified his feelings toward her. They’d been strong before, not as clearly defined, but now he couldn’t even think of her without being struck by a bout of longing so intense that he almost buckled under the weight.
He wanted to go to her.
It would take little effort, just a few seconds of concentration and then his magick could reunite them in the privacy of her rooms.
Except that privacy was an illusion. Holly had indeed been forced back into the main wing of the familial Claus home and Rhys knew the details of how her room had been wired for both sound and video. Even her bathroom had a sensor on it. It wasn’t an audio/video feed but when she was in there, the sensor lit up. Rhys had objected to that loudly but Nik had overruled him.
That was what Nik did best when it came to Holly. He ran roughshod over any and all opinions not his own. Holly was probably feeling pretty damn battered at this point, considering how her father had mowed her under this last time.
But it wouldn’t last. Not if Rhys could help it and he was knew he was damn close to finding the men he sought.
He’d know for sure that night and once he had them, he was going back to Holly. He was taking Holly, and if Nik didn’t like it, the bastard could exile him.
But first, the homeland terrorists who were causing so much trouble in the Reach. Just a few more hours…just a few.
* * * * *
Four and a half long weeks but it was finally over. Rhys stared down at the men bound on the floor in front of them and watched as two of the elves working with him cast a truth spell.
The four of them weren’t all. Two were little more than foot soldiers but the other two were important pieces in this mess. Pieces who knew names and dates. Loyal ones too, and if Rhys and his men had been forced to rely on munda
ne methods to get their information, they’d still be in the dark.
But all it had taken was a couple of elves with the right psychic skills and all the information the renegades tried so hard to withhold came pouring out. Already two units had been dispatched to find the traitors and bring them to headquarters.
It was over.
Some paperwork, a few quick trials. But these men—their fates had already been sealed. All that remained was seeking out the few remaining rebels and Rhys had already selected a task force for that. It sickened him to realize that two of the names he’d been given were men he knew, men he trusted.
Already the Council had signed warrants on the capture of those men. If they wouldn’t come willingly, then they were to be eliminated on the spot.
Blood had been spilled. Although the woman they’d injured in their recent attack on headquarters hadn’t died, they had spilled blood. They knew the consequences and they hadn’t cared enough about life when they had used physical force to keep the woman from sounding the alarm. They had been callous enough to use physical force to keep her subdued as they hacked into the mainframe, trying to find a place to plant a bug that would wipe out the Claus’ entire system.
Blood had been spilled and now theirs would be as well.
Elves were notorious for their swift and decisive punishments. Jails worked poorly on their kind and without some reliable way of keeping the offenders contained, it was too easy for them to slip out into the mortal world and disappear among the millions.
Come nightfall, these men would be dead, their bodies returned to the earth and soon, Holly and her family would be safe.
More than anything, Rhys wanted to go to Holly. But he knew she’d still be under the watchful eye of her parents and he didn’t wish to see her where some electronic eye saw everything they did and said. That he’d designed the surveillance system made little difference to him now.
So he would wait. Realistically speaking, he needed several days of rest and recuperation. The injury in his side pulled as he dragged into his bathroom and started to strip. The rebels hadn’t kept their base of operation in the Northern Reach. Tracking them would have been too easy, though they risked exposure each time they returned home. Enough elves came and went through the Reach’s borders that they had some level of anonymity for a time.
No, the rebels had developed some fairly decent surveillance of their own and after days of attempts, Rhys and his team had cracked the electronic signal’s code and managed to track them back to a luxurious villa in Rome. They had already abandoned that base and moved on to their next but they’d left enough of their presence that Rhys had been able to track them the next time they’d used magick.
A magickal bloodhound, so to speak, that was Rhys. It was one of the reasons he’d ascended so quickly through the ranks. It was also probably one of the reasons Nik had been chosen as the successor over him. Rhys’ talents were better put to use elsewhere.
The rebels hadn’t taken kindly to being apprehended and it had resulted in the deaths of two of their number, and sadly, one of Rhys’. Teodor had been a longtime companion of Rhys’. Together, they had convinced the previous Claus of the necessity for some sort of law enforcement among their own ranks.
The elves weren’t so different from their mortal cousins, whether they wanted to admit it or not. They suffered the same losses, the same worries, the same weaknesses, just as they had the same need for love, companionship and acceptance. Having the same weaknesses meant they were prone to the evils that befell mankind. Greed. Hate. Selfishness. As long as that remained true, then they needed to prepare for the outcome of such inner urges.
The loss of three lives and the woman who still recovered from their attack a month earlier, all because a handful of elf kind couldn’t accept that their place in the world had changed from what it had once been. And no matter how hard they struggled, it would never be as it was. They were too few now and most mortals simply didn’t believe. Wouldn’t understand. What wasn’t understood was feared and Rhys had no desire to see his brethren end up on an exam table as mortal physicians played science lab.
He escorted the captured rebels to the Council and left them there in capable hands. They’d most likely be dead before Rhys even got home. Under normal circumstances, he would have stayed and seen it through but now he was too damn tired and all he wanted was his own bed—and Holly.
Focusing on memories of her, he teleported home. Alighting in the middle of his living quarters, he kicked off his shoes, dealt with the various weapons hidden on his body, leaving them carelessly on the bar as he headed toward his room. A T-shirt, a sweater, he left them in a messy trail on his way to his bed. Wearing nothing but his jeans, he flopped down face-first onto the mattress. It was as soft as a cloud and a sigh of satisfaction escaped him as he rolled over to his back.
Rhys was weary. Of death and from the expenditure of his own magick to find the zealots before they caused more harm. It had taken far too long and, though he was exhausted and ready to crash for a week, he had already sent a message to the Claus manor that he’d be ready to resume Holly’s lessons tomorrow evening.
Lessons—a smirk curled his lips. There wouldn’t be any lessons tomorrow night, at least not if things worked out the way Rhys had them planned. It had taken some thought, coming up with a plan that would deal with the cameras in the workroom but Rhys excelled at planning.
He’d spend a little while tomorrow seeing to those plans and fine-tuning any last-minute details—their meal, a gift perhaps. Yeah he needed a gift. Just because he wanted to give her one, to see her smile as she opened it.
Flowers…maybe some candy.
As he drifted into sleep, he mentally counted the days. It was January 29. It hadn’t quite been New Year’s when he was called away to deal with the rebels and now, New Year’s had come and gone and January was all but gone. A smile curled his lips. Valentine’s Day was coming. Usually the only holiday that mattered to Rhys was the big one, Christmas. It was the most important holiday for any elf in the Reach and Rhys was no different.
But Valentine’s Day, this year, was going to be different.
* * * * *
Holly accepted the message from Josiah, one of the men whom her father had assigned to guard her but she didn’t bother reading it.
It didn’t matter what it said.
“Holly—”
Flicking Josiah a glance, she said in a bored tone, “I have no desire to join my parents for a meal and I have no desire to take a walk in the courtyard for a breath of fresh air. I have no desire to speak with you or try to understand why Da is so damn overprotective.” The past month had destroyed something inside her.
If she had thought she lived in a prison before, it was nothing compared to how she’d spent the past four and a half weeks. She hadn’t been allowed to leave the manor to go to a bookstore. She wasn’t allowed out in the inner courtyard where it was ridiculously secure unless she went with her armed retinue.
She wasn’t allowed to ride her horse and she wasn’t allowed to walk along a balcony.
Her mother had tried to explain but even Mom hadn’t been able to penetrate Holly’s misery. It worsened a week after she’d been forced to move back into the main wing of the manor, because she realized that even in the privacy of her bedroom, she had no privacy.
Humiliation had nearly sickened her as she tore her rooms apart, finding all the surveillance devices. Only one room had been free of them and that had been her bathroom. Although situated just outside the door had been another recorder that had monitored each and every time she went into the bathroom. Worse—there was even a sensor inside the bathroom that no doubt alerted security every time she went to go pee or take a shower.
The cameras that had been placed in her sleeping chamber, she’d requested be removed. A woman should be able to sleep without having some watchful electronic eye. But oh no, her father hadn’t been able to understand that. So Holly had removed them and st
ormed into his home office and slammed the recording devices down on the long wooden table and smashed them with her fist.
She wasn’t as strong as a purebred elf but she was strong enough to smash the devices into smithereens and leave some impressions in the polished oak. “I will not have men watching me while I sleep.”
It had taken two hours of arguing and her mother’s intervention before Nik had given in. Her sleeping chamber would have to be moved, of course. Her father decided it wasn’t secure, not with all the windows and the balcony, so it was moved into the room that had once been her playroom, then in her teens, had been outfitted to be a library.
It had taken two additional days to set up everything and that one night between, Holly hadn’t slept. She was too afraid to sleep. When she closed her eyes, she dreamed of Rhys and at least once before she’d discovered the recording devices, she had woken to find herself masturbating, plunging her fingers in and out of her pussy and sobbing for him. She’d be damned if some faceless man of her father’s saw that again.
At least that once, she knew she had been recorded.
Since moving into the redecorated library, she’d thought she had a bit more privacy. Granted, she had been shut off from even the altered light that filtered through the windows, away from any and all sights of nature but at least she had privacy.
But last night, she’d realized that she had been wrong.
The one small victory she’d thought she’d won had been a sham. The single recording drone was small, so innocuous that, if she hadn’t accidentally knocked over a vase of flowers, she never would have seen it.
It had been rigged onto the lamp near the base, a small thing, hardly larger than a bit of dust. But there had never been even the smallest bit of dust in her rooms. She had touched it, felt the pulse of energy inside it and she had known.
That had been early yesterday and since then, she hadn’t slept. She hadn’t eaten. When her parents had come to see her last night, she had refused them admittance. Naturally, that hadn’t stopped Nikolai. Nothing stopped the Claus. So when he had used his master code and entered her rooms without her permission, she had walked past him without speaking and gone into the bathroom.
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