Tall, Dark & Heartless

by R. L. Mathewson

Page 26

 

  The night they'd fallen into this damn trap he'd seen her grabbing her head again and popping aspirin like it was candy. She'd done her best to be discrete about it, but he hadn't missed it. That was why he put an end to Greg's bullshit and moved to get the mission over with. She was ill and too damn stubborn to keep her ass in bed where it belonged.

  He'd wondered about the migraines for a while, but figured that if she was sick, she wouldn't be working. Then again this was Danni, he thought dryly. She'd probably climb out of her deathbed to kick someone's ass. When she wasn't struggling to breathe or looked like she might be sick, he planned on asking her.

  Of course he could simply taste her blood to see if there was anything wrong with her, but he knew that he wouldn't be able to stop after just one taste. He wondered if she suffered migraines like his aunt used to, understandably so with a cottage full of children and a farm to run. She'd lived to a ripe old age and if he had a say in it, then so would Danni.

  They just needed to figure out how to escape, he thought with aggravation as he carried the tense woman in his arms to the mattress, trying to ignore just how good she felt in his arms. It had been so long since he'd held her in his arms and he was a little dismayed that it didn't feel as good as when she was a little girl curled up in his arms, demanding that he carry her around because she was concerned that all the blood he drank was going to make him fatter than Santa Claus. She'd been a sneaky little thing, he thought with a sad smile.

  She shifted in his arms, pressing her face against his chest and he barely fought back the urge to groan. Danni sure as hell didn't feel as good as the little girl he'd used to allow to boss him around, she felt better. A hell of a lot better and he realized that he wasn't really thinking of her as that little girl at the moment. He was thinking about how her warm body felt against his, the way her ass felt against his arm as he held her and how badly he wanted to trace her curves with his tongue. The realization that he was starting to feel attracted to her startled him out of his thoughts and forced him to focus on their escape.

  They needed to get out of here before the ass**les that were holding them realized that he didn't plan on f**king or turning her. When it finally dawned on them that their plan wasn't going to work, they would either go after Danni or kill her off and try this sick plan on a new woman. He wanted to get them both out of here before it came to that.

  He wasn't worried about himself. If he didn't have Danni to worry about he'd tear his foot off right below the cuff and make his escape. It would hurt like hell, but he'd done it before and his foot grew back within an hour or two. He hated the pain and the disturbing sounds the action made, but he would do that before he allowed anybody to keep him locked up like an animal ever again. The only thing that prevented him from doing it now was Danni.

  He considered ripping Danni's cable in half, but he wasn't sure if he'd be able to tear through all the wires before it could send a surge strong enough to kill her before he severed the connection completely. Then he'd have to worry about getting his cuff off and he knew he wouldn't be able to pull it off before vampires made it through the door. They had no weapons of any kind and were locked in a room with a surveillance camera watching their every move.

  That was their biggest obstacle, he realized. They needed to get rid of the camera and then figure out the next step without an audience. He laid Danni gently on the mattress and pulled the blanket over her, keeping his back to the cameras. Before he did anything he had to talk it over with her, because she was going to be the one to pay for his actions.

  "Danni?" he whispered, wishing that he could put this off, but he couldn't. He wanted to get her out of here before they decided to torture her, or worse. He wouldn't put it past that sick f**k to suggest to the Master he worked for that the vampires under his command f**k Danni to see if one of them could manage to get a child on her. It was rare, very rare for a vampire to get a human woman pregnant, but it did happen. That's exactly how he came to be. His father was a vampire living the life of a Lord and his mother was nothing more than a maid serving in his home. His father used her, impregnated her and discarded her and her husband, who also worked for him at the time.

  "What?" Danni asked weakly.

  "I need to take out the security cameras so that we can start working on getting out of here," he said softly.

  "Do it," she mumbled, turning to bury her face against the mattress and he had to wonder just how badly her head hurt.

  "They'll punish you, Danni. I need to be certain that-"

  "Just do it, Caine. Don't worry about me," she bit out tightly as she curled into herself.

  He opened his mouth to tell her that he wasn't worried about her, but that would have been a lie. Of course he worried about her. He'd never stopped. Pushing her out of his life had been for her own good. At least he thought it had. Now he realized what a big mistake it had been to simply pull away from her.

  As soon as he realized that he could no longer be near her without putting her life in danger he should have done what he was planning on doing now. He should have dragged her kicking and screaming if necessary, out of the compound, thrown her stubborn ass in the back of a van and taken her somewhere far away from all this bullshit. He should have set her up with a new life, somewhere safe where she could live her life in peace.

  At least now thanks to her little confession about patrolling, and what the hell was wrong with the woman, he knew he would have to hire extra guards to keep her safe. It was either that or put her out in the middle of nowhere in a house with nothing around her in a hundred miles radius. Actually, he might just do that. At least he'd know the damn woman wasn't putting herself in danger that way.

  "Just do it," she muttered, reaching out blindly towards him. Thinking that she needed him, he moved closer only to find himself shoved back. "Hurry up," she snapped, not even bothering to open her eyes.

  It was nice to know that some things hadn't changed, he thought dryly. She was still a bossy little thing and why that knowledge made him smile he didn't know, but it did. He stood up and walked over to the far left corner where the camera was positioned so that it didn't miss a single thing. When he was about four feet from the corner his chains pulled tight.

  He forced himself not to look back, knowing this could very well be the thing to push the prick over the edge and kill Danni, but he had to take the chance. Danni knew the risks as well as he did, but he still waited a minute before he did anything to give her a chance to change her mind. Unable to help himself, he looked back, needing to make sure that this was truly what she wanted.

  Of course he found her glaring at him and gesturing for him to get on with it, he thought with an inward groan. He turned around just as he allowed his body to float. When his head was about to touch the ceiling he shifted into a horizontal position that brought him up close and personal with the camera.

  He heard the electricity surge through the wire before Danni muttered a curse. It was a warning and one he had to ignore. This was their only chance to escape. Praying like hell that they didn't decide to kill Danni, he reached out, caught all three wires in his hand and yanked hard enough to take the camera, which were fastened into the wall, with them. He dropped the ruined camera on the ground and turned just in time to see Danni's back bow as a silent scream escaped her.