Last Chance

by Christy Reece

  “Did she say anything?”

  “She tried. Figured it was best to keep the tape over her mouth until we got her to you.”

  “Did you touch her?” He asked the question mildly, but it was the most important question of all. And the man knew exactly what he meant.

  “Of course not. Only to subdue her. She’s yours. I know she’s not one you’d share.”

  He was right about that. Damon was known to be a generous employer. Other women he’d shared, given away, sold at below market value. He wasn’t in the human trafficking business, but when he had some tasty merchandise he knew his friends and employees might enjoy, he’d always been generously accommodating.

  But not McKenna. She was his. Had been his from the moment he saw her. Anybody who got in his way, who tried to take her from him or dared to touch her, would experience an instant and painful death.

  No longer able to wait, Damon scooped her into his arms and lifted her from the trunk. He looked at the man beside him. He owed him a debt of gratitude. Money was a no-brainer, but Carlos had been wanting something else. Though he had never asked for it, Damon had seen the fire in his eyes.

  “The guesthouse is yours for the night. As is Lilly.”

  A wide grin covered the man’s big face. “The whole night?”

  Damon nodded. “Yours to do with as you please, my friend. Enjoy. You’ve earned it.”

  Carlos needed no more information. He turned and started down the path to the small guesthouse on the other side of the estate. His giant body moved faster than Damon had ever seen it move. The man was so eager, he wondered if Lilly would even survive the first hour.

  Lilly had been a tasty treat he’d planned to enjoy a few more months before he offered her to a friend in Spain. Delicate and lovely, she had been a little something he’d purchased at a bargain price the last time he was in Mexico; she had provided him with hours of immense pleasure. But he’d seen Carlos eyeing her more than once. Now she was his for a short period.

  Damon turned away from watching the eager man head for his reward. If Lilly made it through the night, he knew of an older couple who’d been seeking a companion such as her. Perhaps he would offer her to them.

  Business decisions could wait. What he held in his arms couldn’t. He’d waited too long already. Tightening his arms around his prize, Damon carried her into his house. He had so much time to make up for; he couldn’t wait to get started.

  London

  Lucas hadn’t taken her inside his home yet. Stupid, but he felt if he pushed her, she’d try to run. How the hell had he come to this state? He’d killed more than his share of evil men, helped bring down insane dictators, prevented terrorist attacks, and once went through a weeklong bravery test in a culture few people knew existed. And yet never once had he felt the fear that he did when faced with this one small woman.

  “Your grounds are beautiful. How many acres?”

  Gazing around the estate that had been in his family for seven generations, he tried to see it through her eyes. It was nice, but he took it for granted. Gently rolling hills, meandering brooks and bubbling springs, large expanses of woods, and two giant lakes. His father had loved the untamed, less manicured look, and Lucas had wanted to maintain it the way his father would have wanted. To Lucas, though, this was a place where he entertained friends and had sometimes played football on Sundays. “I think it’s about five hundred acres, give or take a few.”

  “Wow.” She shot him a small smile. “Bet it takes you days to cut the grass.”

  He grinned. “Yes, but I have a riding mower, so it doesn’t take so long.”

  She wrapped her arms around her body and gave him another tight smile. “I’m nervous.”

  “Would it help if I told you I am, too?”

  Cocking her head slightly, she squinted into the sun to look up at him. Lucas moved so that the sun wasn’t in her eyes. “Better?”

  “Yes, thanks…but why are you nervous?”

  “Because I’m afraid if I say the wrong thing you’ll leave.”

  She looked up at him for several long seconds, and Lucas was beginning to think that had been the wrong thing to say after all. Finally, with one of the most vulnerable expressions he’d ever seen on her face, she whispered, “I shouldn’t have come.”

  “Why did you?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “If I invite you in, will that make you more nervous?”

  She gave a small little laugh. “I don’t know that I can get any more nervous, so I guess the answer is no.”

  “So you’ll come in?”

  “Yes…for a little while.”

  Holding out his hand again, Lucas led her down a brick sidewalk to the back patio of his home. So odd to be holding her hand again. He’d never been a hand holder, had actually thought it a somewhat odd custom. Now, with the feel of her delicate hand in his, it conveyed something. Trust, friendship…a need to be close.

  He opened the back door and pulled her inside. She stopped abruptly and looked around.

  “Oh…wow.”

  Again, Lucas tried to see through her eyes. One of three living rooms in the house, it held four sofas, several chairs, two tables, and a grand piano. Expensive Persian rugs covered the hardwood floors; bright chandeliers hung with regal splendor from the sixteen-foot ceilings. To him it was a room he went through to get to the side patio. He rarely came into the room for any other reason.

  “Mr. Lucas, do you or your guest need anything?”

  Lucas swallowed a chuckle. Conrad. No matter where the man was in the house, he somehow always knew what was going on.

  “McKenna, I’d like for you to meet Conrad. He’s been with my family for years.”

  McKenna stuck her hand out. “Nice to meet you, sir.”

  Conrad didn’t blink an eye as he shook McKenna’s hand and returned the greeting. He looked at Lucas again, and though the man’s stoic expression was often impossible to read, Lucas saw a spark of approval in his eyes.

  “Think the kitchen can put together a tea for us?” Lucas asked. “Perhaps in the north parlor.”

  “I’m sure we can arrange that.” With another nod to McKenna, Conrad walked in his usual silent way out of the room.

  Thinking to use McKenna’s healthy appetite to his advantage, he’d ordered the tea before he asked her. But since politeness was written in the DNA of his family, he asked, “Are you hungry?”

  And as before, she couldn’t give a verbal answer before her stomach growled. “Seems like you’re always feeding me.”

  Telling her that watching her eat turned him on might be the truthful response, but damned if he’d say anything to scare her off. He could barely believe she was here. It was a challenge to avoid any verbal trip wires. If nothing else, this woman definitely kept him on his toes.

  “Let’s go to the parlor and get comfortable.”

  Her heart pounding with a dozen different emotions, McKenna followed Lucas as he entered a giant marble foyer; she swallowed another gasp. The house she grew up in would have fit in the foyer, with room to spare.

  Gawking was rude and she tried her best not to do it, but Lucas’s home made her realize just how out of reach he was. Their differences probably should have made her feel awkward, and in a way they did. But she also felt relief. Lucas wouldn’t be interested in someone like her. Humble background notwithstanding, their worlds were on different spheres, which made him even safer. She would stay for a quick visit and then be gone. He need never know that her heart was thumping so loudly in her chest, she feared he would hear it. Or that in the deepest recesses of her mind, the only place she allowed unrealistic fantasies to exist, he was the man of her dreams.

  Lucas led her into a small, cozy room with a sofa, two chairs, a table, and a roaring fire. She could imagine him coming in here after a long day at the office, putting his feet up, sipping a brandy, and staring into the fire. Her imagination went further than it should have when she pictured herself sitting in a
chair beside him, holding his hand and gazing at the fire, too.

  Such a stupid dreamer, McKenna.

  “Have a seat.”

  Lucas’s voice jerked her out of her idiotic fantasy. She dropped into the closest chair. Nerves were attacking her limbs, and she needed to get control of herself before she either ran from the room or kissed him again.

  “Are you here on a job?”

  She shrugged. “Not really. Just had some free time on my hands.”

  “I’m glad you came.”

  “Me too.” She didn’t add that she hoped she didn’t regret it.

  The silence that followed should have been awkward but it wasn’t. There was peace in being here—a dangerous peace, because she couldn’t stay. The longer she was here, the longer she would want to stay. She would enjoy the meal with him and then leave.

  A distant sound drew her attention. She looked up to see Conrad open the door and push in a tea trolley laden with enough food for a half dozen people. Apparently Lucas had somehow shared the information that she had the appetite of a teenage boy.

  “Thanks, Conrad,” Lucas said with a smile. “I’ll take it from here.”

  “Very good, sir.” He went through the door, closing it behind him and leaving Lucas and McKenna alone again.

  A delightful fragrance wafted through the air and her stomach growled in welcome.

  Lucas smiled and said, “Let’s eat.”

  Oh man, this was a full-fledged meal and looked delicious. McKenna had never been shy about food before and she wasn’t about to start now. She dove in, prepared to enjoy every bite.

  Lucas couldn’t eat. Hard as hell to eat when one was as hard as hell. McKenna ate with the same gusto as she had before. And once again it turned him on.

  She looked up at him, gray-blue eyes wide and guileless as a doe’s. “Aren’t you hungry?”

  Oh, the answer he would love to give her, but she would run and he’d do just about anything to keep that from happening. So he shook his head and said, “Had a large lunch.”

  With a small grin, she looked only slightly embarrassed as she said, “I did, too.”

  He smothered a laugh; he loved her honesty. Hoping she wouldn’t mind talking while she ate, he asked something that had been on his mind since they first met. “When we were together in Paris, you said you’d worked undercover before and helped some people escape from Victor. How did you get in with Victor in the first place?”

  She swallowed a bite of turkey and answered, “Coincidence, mostly. I saw him carry an unconscious man into a house. That was odd enough; I knew something was up. So I followed him around for a few days. Talked to him in a bar he liked to hang out at…got to know him. Victor was careless about stuff like that. He hired local people and didn’t check them out thoroughly. I lucked out when he asked me to work for him without needing to know me better.”

  “How many jobs did you do with him?”

  “Four or five.”

  “And those you helped escape…he never caught on?”

  Her eyes took on that faraway expression, and Lucas suddenly realized how she’d kept Victor from catching on. “You slept with him.” The words came out before he could stop them.

  She got to her feet. “I think I’d better go. It’s getting late.”

  “McKenna…” Hell, what could he say? The fact that she’d had to lie under the sweaty, barbaric body of Victor Lymes sickened him to the point of nausea. But to know she’d done something like that to save a life? Hell, there was courage and then there was courage. McKenna’s kind of courage wasn’t black and white, nor was it pretty. She had done things she wasn’t proud of and hadn’t wanted to do. But she’d done those things to save lives.

  “Thanks for the tea…I’ll—”

  He caught her by the upper arm before she could turn away. “No. You’re not running away when things get uncomfortable.”

  Whirling, she shot her fist toward his face. He caught it with his hand and brought it to his mouth.

  She looked stunned. He didn’t know if it was for the kiss or the fact that he could move faster than she could.

  “I can’t believe I almost hit you.”

  Ah, another reason. She was surprised at her anger toward him. “Anger and passion have much in common.”

  Turning away again, she avoided his gaze and said, “So you don’t think I’m a slut for sleeping with Victor?”

  Suddenly angry himself, Lucas pulled her around to face him. “Do not put that word and your name together…ever. I think you’re incredibly brave.”

  “I’m scared most of the time.”

  “That just means you’re smart. Being scared keeps you alive.”

  “Were you scared when Victor kidnapped you?”

  “I think I was too furious to be frightened. I’m sure if you had been the crazed lunatic you pretended to be and managed to cut off my fingers, I would’ve changed my attitude.”

  Instead of smiling at his teasing words, she whispered, “You need to be careful. There are more people like Victor out there than you might think.”

  Hoping he wasn’t making a mistake, Lucas drew her into his arms. She didn’t resist as he had feared. Instead she leaned her head on his shoulder as if it belonged there.

  “I promise to be careful, but will you promise me something in return?”

  She tilted her head to look up at him. “What?”

  “You’ll be careful, too?”

  “Always.”

  “Good.”

  He leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to her mouth. Her gasping sigh was captured and treasured as he slowly and carefully showed her what she was coming to mean to him. She moved more fully into his arms, her fingers weaving into his hair as she pressed deeper into the kiss. His body demanded that he take things further; his conscience and brain told him something different. If he pushed, she would run. He couldn’t take the chance.

  With a regret-filled sigh, Lucas lifted his head from her sweet lips. Her eyes had been closed. She opened them and, just for an instant, he saw what he longed to see. McKenna was beginning to feel the same things. Damned if he’d scare her away.

  “Want to take a walk?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Good. Then we’ll watch a movie in the theater room. I have a popcorn popper I’ve never even tried out.”

  Not giving her time to answer, Lucas took her hand and pulled her with him. If she had time to think, she would leave. He knew she would at some point, but he wanted to delay the inevitable as long as possible. There was no trickery involved in trying to keep her. She could say she was leaving and he wouldn’t try to stop her. But he was beginning to see that McKenna’s need was almost as strong as his own. There was something between them, but he knew damn well she would deny it. Until the day came that she accepted and acknowledged that, he would do his best to create a sense of safety for her. If she felt she could come to him at any time, chances were that at some point she would begin to trust him with everything.

  And when that day came, he would get her to tell him what she was so terrified of, and he would do everything within his power to eliminate the threat.

  eight

  Palm Beach

  Terror and fury gleamed in her eyes as she stared up at him. Tears poured down her face, and his heart ached for her. If her hands weren’t tied to her chair, Damon knew, she would be clutching her throat. That always seemed to be the first place people touched when given the drug.

  Damon pulled up a chair to sit across from her. “Don’t be afraid that you can’t speak. While you were sleeping, I gave you an injection. Your vocal cords have been disabled for a few hours. I have several business associates in the medical profession. One of them supplied me with the drug. Quite a breakthrough, really, since it doesn’t impair breathing. Though it is quite expensive.” He gently caressed her arm. “But when it comes to you, I spared no expense.” When tears continued to well in her eyes, he said, “Don’t worry, baby, it’s not perm
anent.”

  And just like most people, she opened her mouth to speak anyway. When no sound emerged, she sobbed silently and the tears fell harder.

  “Now, darling McKenna, I know you have things you want to say to me, but I felt it necessary to get a few of the most important things out of the way first. You have the ability to nod your head to tell me you understand.”

  More anger emerged through her tears. He had expected that. His McKenna was a fighter. One of the reasons he loved her was the incredible spirit she had within her. But that spirit needed to be contained, then shaped and molded. Otherwise their relationship would not succeed. Damon had worked too hard, waited too long, to fail. This time she would succumb, become what he needed her to be. It would just take some time.

  “Acknowledge what I told you with a nod, McKenna.”

  A mutinous expression, and then she glared at him.

  Rising to his feet, he got in her face, leaned his forehead against hers, and shouted, “Nod your damn head!”

  Her head jerked with a quick nod, and Damon felt as if he’d won a small victory. Taking a breath, he seated himself again and said in a more even tone, “I don’t want cross words between us. When I say something, I want you to acknowledge your understanding with a nod. If there’s something you don’t understand, then shake your head and I’ll explain further.” He raised a brow. “Understand?”

  She nodded again. He was pleased to see that fear had replaced the earlier anger. Once she was trained, he wouldn’t have to use harsh words with her. With a touch or a mere look or gesture, she would be able to understand and do what he asked. Until that happened, he would use a firm but controlled hand.

  “Good. Now, this wasn’t the way I envisioned our reunion, but you really gave me no choice.”

  She continued to stare at him with those accusing, terror-filled eyes. The fear was good; it would help her focus. The accusation would fade once she accepted the way things would be.