Silent Witness

by Aurora Rose Lynn

  He slipped on pants and shirt, barely tied his shoes then shifted, attempting to keep his pounding heart under control. At the Outpost’s bay, he demanded to see Vossler, a known slaver. Unable to curb his impatience and fear threading through him, he pushed past the guards and into the office area.

  Vossler, a man built like a barrel and with no handsome features, greeted him with a perfunctory nod.

  Daniel didn’t waste time. “Where is she?”

  Vossler, unaccustomed to being questioned, shrugged. “Which she are you referring to?” His voice was emotionless.

  Daniel grabbed him by the collar. “Don’t play stupid with me, man. Where is my wife?”

  Vossler didn’t blink. “I don’t have your wife, Harmon.”

  “Then who does?” Daniel bashed his head against the wall. One time, two times, about to go the third.

  “I swear,” the other man choked out, “I don’t have her.”

  “Then who does?”

  Vossler held up his hands in an attempt to force Daniel to stop. “I have no idea. But hey, I’ll help you find her. ‘Kay?” His eyes widened hopefully.

  “How you going to do that when you don’t know where she is?” Daniel growled, ready to kill the man.

  Vossler’s eyes bulged. “I’ve got contacts,” was all he said.

  Daniel glanced at his wristwatch. “I’m going to give you fifteen minutes. If I don’t have an answer by then, I’ll kill you.”

  The trader nodded. “You know you’re committing suicide, don’t you?”

  Daniel knew that in these offices guards lurked, ready to leap into action at a simple, one syllable command. But what was the use of living without Lia? “Fifteen minutes,” he ground out.

  Vossler inclined his head. Reluctantly, Daniel let him go and paced the small office from one wall to the other like a madman. The trader appeared well before the fifteen minutes would have elapsed.

  “No one we know has her,” he said barely above a whisper.

  Harmon wrapped his hands around the other man’s throat. “If you’re lying, I swear I’ll kill you.”

  As he left, he wondered what options he had. Whoever had Lia hadn’t given much information as to where they’d hidden her.

  Vossler came up behind him outside where the late evening sun cast long shadows. “I’ll help you.”

  With that, he dug out his Texxter, and began to rapid-fire messages. Daniel could do nothing more than pace frantically and hope to hell the man had the right answer before Lia was transported or, worse yet, killed for being a part of his world.

  * * * *

  Lia awoke to find her hands tied behind her and Mel’s face pressed against hers. Groggy, desperately trying to remember what had happened, Lia asked her, “What in the hell?”

  Mel’s expression was long. “I thought I was doing myself a favour,” she whined. “But look at us!”

  Lia ran a dry tongue over her parched lips and tried to take a calm breath. “What do you mean?”

  Mel wriggled around on the cold stone floor. Her hands were tied behind her, too. “Do you think you can reach these and untie me?”

  Lia slumped back against the wall, trying to regain her equilibrium. Then she shouted, “Daniel Harmon, you rat’s ass! Let us out of here!”

  Mel shook her head. “This had nothing to do with him. Nothing at all.” Tears glimmered on her cheeks.

  “The bastard kidnapped me again!” Lia yelled. Daniel had inhibited her freedom twice before, and she’d made it known she disliked his method of foreplay.

  “How many times do I have to tell you I hate being kidnapped? Get in here and show your face, Harmon!” How could he truss her up like this? With Mel? The girl was frightened, judging from the pallor of her cheeks and her wide, disbelieving eyes.

  “It’s Paul and Roberts,” Mel whispered. “I wouldn’t bring them in here if I was you. They might do things to you.”

  Her lower lip was bloody and raw where she’d chewed through the skin.

  Lia didn’t need to know what kind of things. Her heart somersaulted. “Did they hurt you?” she asked her one-time friend. Odd how times changed but faces, and memories rarely did.

  Mel shook her head. “No but—”

  “But what?” If it wasn’t Daniel who’d done his usual kidnapping routine, for more sex of course, then why would Paul and Roberts have Mel and herself trussed up like this?

  “They’re traders.” Mel began to weep, huge choking sobs. “If I’d known, I’d never have—”

  Lia sidled closer. The stuffy room spun for a seconds before righting itself. “It’s not your fault, Mel,” she consoled soothingly. “Really.”

  Mel gave her a withering look and burst into louder sobs. “Yes, it is. If I hadn’t wanted to pretend I was you, then they wouldn’t have captured us.”

  Lia wasn’t sure she understood. “You were pretending to be me?”

  Mel nodded, her face tear-stained. “I wasn’t pretending to be you. I wanted to be you. I wanted those men in the class to want me as much as they wanted you. To make love to me.”

  Lia was beginning to understand. Jealousy usually led to situations one couldn’t easily wiggle out of. “Paul and Roberts? They came onto you after Daniel and I left?”

  “Yeah. We have to get out of here. If we don’t, they’ll do things to you.” Mel started to sob louder. “All because of me.”

  Puzzled, Lia shook her head. “I don’t understand what this has to do with you, but we’ll get out of here. I promise.”

  “Can’t you shift or something?”

  “And leave you here to fend for yourself? And who knows what they’ll do to you if they find me missing. Uh-uh.” Lia would never leave her friend, no matter how much she wanted to. There was a time for teaching lessons and a time for forgetting.

  “You need to leave,” Mel urged, quelling her tears. “If you don’t—”

  She didn’t get to finish her sentence. The heavy, steel door, the only means in and out of their prison, opened. Paul towered above them with a black, leather whip in his hand. He licked his lips as if in anticipation. “Which of you lucky ladies would like to be first?” He looked from one to the other, appraising and demeaning.

  “Why not just let us go?” Lia leaned against the wall and laboured to her feet. The room reeled then steadied.

  “Let both of you go? Now isn’t that funny?” Paul shook his head as if in amazement. “Why are you protecting her after she practically handed you over to us?”

  Roughly, he seized Mel by the hair and began dragging her outside. “You’re next so listen to her screams and imagine them as yours.”

  “No, no!” Mel shouted, struggling to free herself.

  Lia could do nothing to help, but as soon as the door closed, she shifted. Daniel would know what to do to save Mel.

  * * * *

  Lia grumbled when she didn’t find her husband in their bedroom. Had he left a note as to his whereabouts? She searched for what seemed several wasted minutes before she heard the barely there whisper of someone shifting in behind her.

  She whirled around, afraid Paul or Roberts had found her. Daniel faced her, his eyes stone cold and his hands scarred and bleeding.

  “Lia,” he whispered, evidently surprised to see her. “I thought you were—”

  “Kidnapped by the traders?” she asked, rushing forward to throw her arms around his neck.

  “Oh my God,” he muttered. “They did get you, didn’t they?”

  He trapped her in a bear hug and lightly kissed her uplifted face a hundred times. “Are you all right? How did you get away?”

  She shook herself free of his stranglehold. He looked like hell. Where had he been? In a fight? “Mel needs our help. I was able to shift away when Paul took her out of the room they were holding us in. But she’s still there, and they might be hurting her.”

  “Paul?” Dazed, Daniel examined her. “Did they hurt you?”

  “No, but we have to free her now. She’s
not that kind of woman to go through the hurt and pain they’ll inflict on her.” Like rape, torture and mind washing.

  Daniel kissed the top of her head. “No matter what happens, I love you, Lia.” Their lips touched, and the hunger for each other built again.

  Lia touched her forefinger to his lips. “We have to go, but tell me one thing first.”

  He nodded curtly.

  “Were you ever a slave trader?” She waited breathlessly, suspecting she knew the answer.

  “Yes. Long ago in my crazy teenage years.” He wrung his hands. “I’ve regretted it every moment since then. Please, Lia, forgive me?”

  She reached up and caressed the hard line of his jaw. “I forgive you. Don’t you want to know how I found out?”

  His lips puckered, and he nodded again.

  “The chamberlain’s records.”

  “I see, but you forgive me, don’t you?”

  His whispered words echoed in her head. She stood on tiptoe and kissed his lips. “It’s in the past, isn’t it?”

  “Yes. And no. Lia, I do everything I can to save those women.”

  That explained his absences from time to time. “We need to get to Mel now,” she said gently, reminded she’d made mistakes of her own.

  Daniel made a quick call, getting directions from Lia to the place Mel was being imprisoned. After one last kiss and holding hands, they shifted together.

  Apparently, Paul and Roberts were expecting them. As was Mel, who stood tall and elegant.

  And free.

  “So nice of you to drop in,” she said with an insincere smile.

  “Mel,” came as a haunted whisper from Lia. Her hand and Daniel’s were still intertwined. “You tricked me.”

  Daniel snorted in disbelief.

  “I didn’t do anything of the sort,” Mel replied. “You heard what you wanted to hear. Nothing more, nothing less.”

  “Why?” Lia asked, knowing as she spoke that an invisible restraining device had wrapped around her husband and herself. No shifting out of here now.

  “Why not? Look at the constant fools you’re making of yourselves. Lovesick, pathetic. Shameful.”

  Lia’s pulse quickened. “There isn’t anything pathetic or shameful about love—just because you haven’t known what it is—”

  “That’s right, Lia. Just egg her on. Like she’s not mad enough already,” Daniel chided cheerfully.

  “It’s not me who’s mad. I’m not Celadian yet your Authority asked me to spy on you and your lovesick antics. It was like watching a sex circus. Really.”

  Lia couldn’t help it. She giggled despite herself. “A sex circus? What do you mean by that?”

  “Oh!” Mel waved a hand in the air, as if to sweep the erotic images from her mind. “All that kinky stuff you do.” She clapped her hands together. “It’s pathetic how lovelorn the two of you are. But it will soon be over. Where you’re going, there is nothing but quiet stillness.”

  “My dear,” Daniel began. “Is she talking about the state of death perhaps?” he asked, imitating the snobby accent of a British peer.

  “Oh my lord, but she must be!” Lia quipped, angered that she’d fallen for Mel’s heartless trick.

  “Perhaps when this is over, she’ll get a beating on her bare ass for her efforts.”

  Lia glanced up at her husband. She didn’t need to look at him to see that he found humour in the situation. “Oh my, and the cavalry is on its way. Perhaps they’ll give her a whipping, too!”

  Mel interrupted. “Cut that out! Both of you!” Her lips quirked upwards in a cruel smile. “Death means finished. Forever. No more lovemaking for either of you. Ever.” She waved towards Robert and Paul. “Take them outside and kill them. Quietly.”

  Daniel gave a tiny sigh. “That death thing again. What do you think, my dear wife? Should we give Mel a taste of her own medicine?”

  Lia tilted her head upwards and gazed lovingly into his eyes. “Oh yes, dear husband.”

  Mel shrieked with fury. “How dare you mock me!”

  The room suddenly became very crowded with a phalanx of soldiers, guards who were always at the ready to serve their lord and his wife. Amidst angry and shocked expressions, the guards unbound Daniel and Lia and trussed up Mel, Roberts and Paul.

  “Do you think, dear, we should lock them up in the same cell so they might enjoy each other’s company?”

  Mel’s tousled hair hung over her reddened face. “Don’t you dare!”

  “But they might be able to show you what love is,” Lia intervened. “Like this.” She stood on tiptoe and kissed Daniel full on the mouth.

  Mel screamed as she was led away with the two complacent men.

  “Will she suffer enough punishment in that cell with those men?” With the room now empty and ringing with silence, Lia pressed her body against Daniel’s and the flat of her hand against his burgeoning cock.

  “I’m sure they’ll be gentle with her.”

  Questioning, she surveyed his face. “What do you mean ‘they’ll be gentle?” Was he being facetious?

  Daniel nuzzled his chin against her forehead. “My dear. Two can play at the two-faced game, can’t they?”

  Lia started laughing. Daniel was always full of surprises. He’d set Mel up by settling her in the same jail cell as Paul and Roberts. Mel was bound to find pleasure in the two men who would be extremely attentive to her every sexual need.

  “I never thought about how dismal a dungeon really is.” Daniel tipped Lia’s head upwards. “Why don’t we head back to the classroom on Outbay 33 and give a few more lessons on intimacy?”

  Lia wound her arms around his neck and gazed into his eyes. “Why don’t we go home?”

  Epilogue

  They ended up in their bedroom in the castle. The sun dappled the walls, and they lay entwined in each other’s arms. Their slow, exploratory lovemaking had been the best.

  Several days later, feeling sore from their lovemaking, she left Daniel to his ever-present work in his study overlooking the shimmering, sunlit lake well below the castle and strolled through the gardens. A bevy of roses in every pastel shade imaginable lifted their blooms toward the sun. Lia breathed in their fragrance and settled down on a marble bench to simply enjoy the late afternoon. The sun warmed her skin and pretty butterflies flitted over her head and beside her.

  She didn’t know how much time went by as she dreamt of Daniel and ran over the last few days in her mind. She forgave Mel for her betrayal and found herself looking forward to more of Daniel’s ministrations in bed. When he came and sat beside her, she soaked in his heady, male scent and leaned her head on his broad shoulder. In a slumberous voice, she whispered, “Did you lose your job on Outbay 33?”

  He shook his head. “I received a message from the faculty a few minutes ago. They deemed it highly unwise to kick out a Celadian noble for bonking his wife during school hours.”

  Lia pressed her lips together in a grim smile. “Am I still in danger from the slave traders?” Not that she’d thought for an instant she had been. She could take care of herself if she had to. And Daniel did more than an adequate job.

  “You don’t need to worry ever again. Paul and Roberts have been put away behind restraining walls for a good, long time. They were the ones sending the messages to me.”

  “And Mel? What will happen to her?” Lia asked quietly, a shiver running down her spine. She wanted Mel to be happy, too, to find the right man and to have a life she was proud of.

  “She’s been returned to the government for discipline.”

  Lia snorted. “Which means nothing. She’ll be right back at spying on others before you can count to three. Maybe even on us.”

  “Spy work doesn’t agree with her, but it seems she likes kicking slave traders’ asses.”

  Lia’s eyebrows shot up. “What? Mel isn’t cut out for that sort of thing.

  “That’s the last I heard, Lia. She’s out there in the big, wide galaxy catching the bastards.” Daniel nodded as if
to emphasize his words.

  “I’d never have thought that of her.” Lia could just see in her mind’s eye Mel quelling a slave trader with her sharp and caustic remarks. But Mel was from the past, and this was the present. She unfastened the buttons on her blouse and gazed into Daniel’s handsome face. “I’ll never get enough of you.” She gave him a blatant, sexy wink. “Welcome to your version of Outbay 33. Suck my tits, Professor Danny.”

  And did he ever.

  About the Author

  Aurora Rose Lynn, a bestselling erotica author, lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and conure. She enjoys writing romance with a sensual twist but first and foremost, her stories must be about love. When she isn’t writing romance, she writes young adult and fantasy stories under a pen name.

  Email: auroraroselynn@yahoo.com

  Aurora loves to hear from readers. You can find her contact information, website and author biography at http://www.total-e-bound.com.

  Also by Aurora Rose Lynn

  Blue Dragon Challenge

  Lust or Go Bust

  Heatwave: Vampire’s Captive

  Shotgun Bride

  Wanted

  Brits in Time: To Conquer a Lady

  Fantasies

  Wild Ride

  Call Number

  Lonely Hearts

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