"You look different."
She nodded, but her face was anxious and uncomfortable. "I am going to see my sister. I should be back in a couple of hours; mom has asked if you would like to come to a barbeque tonight. I did say you probably had plans."
Luke cut her off. "I would like that; it's been a while since I went somewhere to relax and didn’t have to worry. Tell me if this is overstepping the mark, but I have something for your sister."
From his pocket, he pulled out an IPod. "I don’t know if she is allowed this, but anyway I put some tracks on this for her, different songs that I find relaxing she might not though so if you want me to forget it…"
This time Ellie cut him off. "Thank you Luke, she will appreciate it." She wanted to add that she too appreciated it but didn’t.
With a deep breath, she lifted her shoulders and left taking the IPod with her.
Waiting for the elevator, Ellie tried to keep in check the magnitude of emotions running through her, Luke's thoughtfulness had surprised her, so much so that his words played through her head throughout the journey to the clinic.
******************
Trying to settle her emotions, she headed through to the reception of the clinic where it only took a minute to clear her credentials, except this time they took her into the garden where Claire sat in the sunshine. Looking at her sister from behind she took a moment to savour it, her previous dyed black hair was starting to fade leaving the soft brown strands to glimmer in the sun while her face was lifted to the sky in rapture.
"Ellie come join me."
Laughing she joined her older sister on a cold stone bench. "How did you know I was here?"
"You have the strongest protective instinct that tells me when you are near, sometimes I think you worry more than mom."
Claire was dressed in a surprising pair of beige pants, and Blue t-shirt which considering her sister was usually dressed in blacks this signalled a change.
"So how come you have been promoted to playing outside?"
Claire giggled. "Apparently I have been making progress so they feel I am ready to be part of the living again."
Ellie breathed a sigh of relief, she had hated the cold, sterile room that Claire had been in, a room devoid of everything except a bed, sink and toilet and reminded her of a prison cell.
"And yes I have a new room this one even has a window. I saw my counsellor today; he thinks that I have issues living up to my successful sisters." There was no malice in her words nor was there any resentment, yet Ellie felt her emotions rocket, how dare he? Claire's laughter surprised her. "I agree he is full of crap, but there may be an element of truth in there. I have spent most of my life trying to find out who I am; you guys have always known who you were."
"I am not sure I agree, I mean May was always going to do extraordinary things, Beth was always going to be stunning in whatever she did, but me, well I thought I knew who I was and where my life was going but now….."
Claire slipped an arm around her kissing the top of her head. "So who is he?"
"Why does it have to be a he?"
Claire squeezed her hard. "Because baby girl, you are always so controlled that nothing gets to you and when it does it makes you angry, and when that happens you plan. Today you are tense and confused; you are not sure what to do, or how to do it. If it were family you would be planning and angry, if it were business you would be in complete albeit cunning control, only a man would do this to you."
She groaned at how well Claire had read her. "He infuriates me, he is annoying and dominant and downright annoying and he makes me frustrated. He doesn’t listen when I tell him to do something, he is so stubborn, and his lifestyle just would not suit me at all."
"And…." Her sister waited in silence for Ellie to talk.
"Oh god, he makes me laugh, he is thoughtful and sweet, he is creative and so talented and seems to think I am as well, sometimes when I catch him looking at me there is this raw sensuality focussed on me."
"Ah so my baby sister is falling for a man."
"I AM NOT." Blushing when she remembered where she was Ellie kept her head down. "I am not Claire, I can't be it wouldn’t work."
"Why not?"
At this moment, she saw his face smiling at her causing her to forget why it couldn’t work before clarity hit. "Oh Claire, he's Luke bloody Drakos that's why."
She felt rather than saw Claire's surprise. "Wow that was not what I was expecting so now tell me why it won't work."
Ellie watched a woman walk around in a large space, constantly supervised by a large man in a pair of green pants. "They know she is going to run from here Ellie, so they can't let her go. Now answer my question." Her sister obviously had an idea of where her thoughts were heading.
Ellie thought about keeping her feelings hidden from her sister, but there was no point, Claire would know and call her on it. "Claire, I like my privacy and space whereas the whole world knows who he is. He needs someone like Beth, someone who enjoys the dress up, and the attention. I certainly don’t want people taking my photo every time I go anywhere, I don’t want my every move scrutinised."
"Now tell me the truth Ellie."
"I never wanted to have that relationship thing, I saw Vlad make Beth cry, I saw mom and dad divorce and it was hard for us all, love is hard and painful so I don’t want it."
"Ah Ellie, it might be hard sometimes, but what about when mom and Ben got married, when Beth and Vlad got married, what about how happy Imogen and Theo are, Nicky and Morgan, Leyland and Sylvia. It's a balance between the good and the bad; try it and see what happens."
Could she truly let him in? "He's a Jaguar, Claire."
As Claire shifted to look at her, Ellie waited. "Get out of here, he isn’t."
"He is Claire, but he hides it away even denying it the right to exist."
"So that's the problem. Ellie we all live life a certain way, before species lived openly shifters had to hide their alter ego, for some it’s the right thing. We can't judge him until we have walked in his shoes."
Claire had a point that Ellie was not ready to consider yet, this conversation was becoming too in depth and analysing Luke was stressful for Ellie. "I am sorry, but I told him about you. I wanted you to hear it from me, I broke my promise."
Claire stood and started walking, Ellie stayed at her side. "I think it is good that you spoke to someone, when I made you promise I knew you would stand by that, and in hindsight it was unfair of me to expect that of you."
Now Ellie felt humbled by Claire's easy acceptance. "Um, he put some music onto this for you, don’t ask me why or what music is even on it. Knowing Luke it probably contains only his songs."
Claire stopped her. "Stop this Ellie, take a nice gesture for what it is, a nice gesture."
They had almost done a full circuit of the grounds, walking past large daisies and ferns. The inside of the place may be stark and clinical, but the outside was warm and welcoming. A few people milled around some of whom Ellie didn’t really want to be near Claire.
"How come I visit to support you, yet you are comforting me?"
Claire stopped and led Ellie back to the bench where they had started. "Well little sister this is where I need your help, before I ask for it though I want to tell you that you can say no."
Ellie had a feeling that she would not like this so without speaking she waited for Claire to continue. "They are going to release me in two to three weeks."
Wrapping her arms around Claire, Ellie squealed excitedly. Claire didn’t reciprocate giving Ellie pause. "The thing is I am not ready to go home yet. I still have so much to deal with, I haven’t managed to control my empathic abilities for a start."
Without knowing Ellie interrupted. "But mom can help you; she is the best person to do that."
Claire sighed, her shoulders slumping with sadness etched across her beautiful brown eyes. "I need to do this alone Ellie, I don't actually understand why, but it is not right time for me to let family in
. I will know what I need to do when it happens. Until then I don’t want to go back to pack."
Family was what Claire needed to get through this, from Ellie's perspective it is where who you turn to when things go wrong, so to go against that went against everything Ellie believed in. The problem was that it wasn’t what Ellie believed in that was important; it was Claire's beliefs that were crucial right now.
"Can I just say that even though I don’t agree I will help you? When you get yourself discharged from here, I will arrange cover for Luke and set us up somewhere to live."
Claire laughed seeing through Ellie's plan. "I don’t think so; do not use me as an excuse to run away. Whatever happens you stay to complete the job you have been paid to do, think of another option for me."
Ellie was still thinking when she left Claire, so much so that she wasn’t genuinely taking in her surroundings, which meant that, she didn’t notice the person discreetly watching her.
Rather than get into another annoying interaction with the receptionist at the hotel, she called Danny to let her in. Without getting into a discussion with her right hand man in the business, she made her way into the suite. Not seeing Luke she flopped onto the couch, surprisingly she was disappointed to know that she wanted to see Luke even though she didn’t understand why.
Chapter 19
"Hey beautiful, you return to me, I am honoured." There was no sarcasm in Luke's tone just a playful comment, one that washed over her as her thoughts weighed on her.
"Penny for them Ellie, is your sister well, can I help?" Ellie was touched by the anxiety in his voice, he was concerned for her sister, and this was endearing for Ellie to see.
Dropping her head into her hands, she sat staring out onto the patio. "Claire is being released in a few weeks."
Luke came to sit on the small table in front of her. "That's good isn’t it?"
With a sigh, Ellie verbalised the request from her sister. "She wants me to help her find somewhere to stay; she doesn’t feel ready to go home yet."
Looking into her face he felt his own disappointment, from what he knew of Ellie she would prioritise family over everything which meant that he was going to lose her. Ellie continued talking, and his hopes rose a little as he reassessed his original plan. "The thing is she won't let me help if I walk away from…"
Luke watched her search for the words before she changed her sentence. "She will only agree to me helping her if I keep up with my work which means that I have to come up with a plan that does not interfere with my job, and so far I cannot think of one."
His brain had gone into overdrive with his Jaguar growling in agreement with his plan. "What if I have a solution, though you need to hear me out before you say no?"
She watched him with suspicion. "In four weeks' time I get to take some time off, as you are meant to be my pretend girlfriend for the next two months you need to know my plans, I had planned on a little trip where there will be no paparazzi, no business just a safe place to be. Considering you will be there with me, you could bring your sister too."
The only sound left in the room was the ticking of a nearby clock, it was as though time had suspended while they both waited for her agreement. Ellie was thoroughly confused, he had given her the solution to her problem, but it would mean that she had to rely on him. Looking into those large green eyes she wanted to trust him, she needed to trust him.
"Where will we be going, I would need to do a full security check on the place and check out all of the residents and ensure the security is up to scratch."
Luke was nodding enthusiastically. "I agree to all of that, and this is probably going to piss you off and insult him, but I need you to both agree not to give out the address to anyone."
Now Ellie was curious, this man lived his life in the limelight and nothing appeared to be off limits, until now. "Why, because if we end up in some sort of cult I will not be happy, in fact, I will be murderous."
Digesting her assumption Luke laughed, Ellie had a way of preparing for and thinking the worst. "No beautiful we will be visiting my mom. Now don’t get excited she knows that you aren’t my girlfriend, but I keep her separate from this life."
Recalling their conversation from the previous evening, Ellie knew there was a story about his mother, however now was not the time to ask.
"Agreed, now it is time to head home. A barbeque is being prepared and there had better be some steak with my name on it." Ellie stood to get changed out of the professional clothes only noticing the array of flowers when she turned.
"Wow, someone is popular." She raised her eyebrow in question.
Holding his hands up Luke shrugged. "Don’t ask me, some arrived at the hotel others were found outside by Eric when he was leaving."
All in all Ellie counted eight vases of various types of flowers, ones Ellie had no intention of leaving here. Opening the door she addressed Danny. "Let's get these out of here; unless their origin can be identified it doesn’t get past this door."
One by one she was plonking the flowers outside although she inspected each one first. Luke watched in amusement not entirely satisfied that she was doing it out of safety, he detected a hint of jealousy in there, a hint that he liked. Hence he kept quiet, watching intently.
When she was finally finished she turned on him. "Right let's make something clear I don’t care what gifts idiot women send you, unless you know where the hell they came from don’t take them.
Chapter 20
The man watched from a distance, this was one he needed to be careful with she was strong and suspicious. Before he could act he needed to know her precise movements which were proving difficult.
He watched as a small black BMW left the car park, she was driving which he didn’t expect and only noticed because the red sports car that came out first had drawn his attention. As the July heat soaked through his grey shirt, the rivulets of sweat dripped from his forehead to his eyes causing him to squint through his dark glasses. Taking a note of the direction the car was heading he waited for his colleague to meet him.
As the black sedan pulled up seconds later he jumped in, the relief he felt from escaping the heat turned his skin to goose pimples as soon as the air con hit him. Wearing a baseball cap, Mark was grinning.
"Warm enough for you Tom." The grin on Marks face pissed him off; he had been waiting in the blistering sun for over an hour while Tom idled away in the cool air of the car.
"Fuck you Mark, head west and if we are lucky we can catch them."
Luck was with them, when they arrived at the lights two cars in front of them they saw the BMW. Staying discreetly behind it they eased right and followed from a discreet distance for the next ten minutes.
**********
Looking out of the rear view mirror, Ellie muttered about the idiot of a man following. "There is a black Audi behind us, Luke's men and Jase are following them and they in turn are following us. Now turn left and then the next right."
As the realisation that they too were being followed dawned on Tom, he gave Mark directions to test his theory only to find that the Audi remained behind them. Actually the car continued following them which started to worry him a little, especially when a glance in the mirror let him see how huge the men in the car seemed to be.
Despite them making a series of ridiculous turns they continued following them. Mark was becoming sloppy, and started speeding up until he inadvertently turned off the highway when following the car with her in it. Tom started shouting at Mark to get back onto the road seeing how isolated this lane made them. Unfortunately, he failed to listen so within seconds the red sports car was racing alongside them; the road was becoming less populated until they hit a dead end leading into gated tracks. Before they could manoeuvre out of the way, the red car swung in front of them at the same time that a four wheel drive that he hadn’t seen blocked them to the side; Tom went into reverse only to be blocked by the BMW.
"Keep your mouth shut and leave it to me." Tom's voice w
as firm as Mark pulled open the glove box to remove his automatic pistol, Tom lost his patience.
"You idiot do you have a death wish? If you go out brandishing that they will kill us. Let's just pretend we are massive fans of Drakos and be done with it."
Even though he was muttering Tom knew that Mark would listen. As they stepped out of the car, they came to face five men and a woman. Two of the men had to be wolves, their sheer size and the scowls on their faces that seemed to be almost shifting to wolf features was more than intimidating, particularly the eyes. Waiting for the pummelling to start, Tom was slightly put out when they just stared at them before saying or doing anything.
It was the woman who addressed them, though initially she didn’t say anything she just looked and looked before nodding at one of the bigger men. Tom watched as the man searched Marks car, Mark must have moved an inch because she smiled before speaking.
"Please give me a reason." It wasn’t what she said, or how she said it, but how she looked that made him wary of her. Her face was naturally beautiful, with its oval shape, porcelain skin color, crystal blue eyes and blonde streaked hair. Those features when narrowed on Mark, made Tom cringe at the lack of emotion he saw in the woman's eyes, she was shrewd and calculating something he hadn’t expected to see when he had accepted this job.
Grabbing Mark before he moved to stop them searching the car, Tom prevented him from moving to attack them knowing that Mark was now anxious about the hidden weapon. The man searching the car didn’t take long before he returned smiling as he came back with the pistol, a bat and a fairly large knife. The knife was Toms and one of his favourites, he liked the carving and right now he could think of a few things he would like to carve into this bitch.
She walked around them, looking them up and down like prey. He felt a shiver run through him when she faced them. If he didn’t know better, he would have sworn that her eyes darkened to an almost indigo blue. Turning away from them as though they were nothing more than ants, she moved from their range of hearing pulling out her cell.
Taming the Warrior Page 10
