“Come on,” Marco stood and helped Cara to her feet. “You can do your work in my office for a while until you’ve calmed down.”
“Why are you being so nice to me?” Cara heard her voice, vulnerable and cracking. The entire thing didn’t make sense to her. It was one thing to keep the information from Dimitri it was another to outright defy him, Marco was creating an enemy of another very powerful man—and he was doing it only for Cara’s sake.
“Well, I can’t just hand you over to him, now can I?” Marco tried to sound light hearted but Cara could hear the seriousness underneath his words.
Marco watched over Cara for the next few hours in his office then made excuses for her to stay with him for dinner. He was sure that Cara could see through his excuses but she was too emotionally distraught to say anything or perhaps even to care. He could see that she wanted to be near him and some part of him wanted to be near her as well, to keep an eye on her, to make sure, with the solid knowledge that sight provided, that she was nearby and that she was well.
But something else surfaced with these feelings. He felt a new disgust for himself, a disgust at how protective he was being. He could protect her without pouring attention over her or seeing her every moment. It was unlike him to care so much what happened to one woman.
Not that he would hand her over to the likes of Dimitri but he knew of others that would help, other places where she might even be safer since Dimitri wouldn’t suspect them…but he couldn’t relinquish control of her safety, give the power over to someone else who might slip up. He didn’t trust Cara’s protection to anyone else.
That night Marco didn’t even let Cara go over to her own room.
“If someone snuck in looking for you, they would never go to my bed,” Marco said as he showed Cara into his room. “You can wear whatever you like to sleep in. I’ll just be in the adjoining room.”
“But no one would ever be able to sneak in here,” Cara understood the amount of security that was showered upon this property. “I think I would be quite safe in my own room anyway. I don’t sleep much as it is.”
"You'll sleep here," Marco said. It was a phrase that meant, end of discussion and Cara wasn't about to argue. She watched him walk through to the adjoining room then soon heard him leave the room and watched as he made a loop around the house. Could he really be this worried for her, a woman that meant nothing to him but a fuck in his office during a party?
Cara put her head down on Marco’s pillow. The smell of his musky scent was potent and helped her relax. Though she’d had trouble sleeping for weeks Cara closed her eyes and drifted off into an untroubled sleep. When she woke to find Marco seated in the small living space just next to the bed she didn’t think strike her for a second that he’d been there all night. She smiled at him and felt rested for the first time since she’d left Vegas.
“I moved my meeting here for this evening, then my business associate can just stay until the party,” Marco was fully awake and Cara had to focus to process what he was telling her.
“Oh, right,” Cara nodded. She was in Marco’s monogrammed pajamas that she assumed he never wore because they looked and felt brand new. Her hair and face must look like she’d just woken up…since she had. “I’ll just get up,” she rolled out of bed and tried to stifle a yawn. Marco was already showered and dressed for his day.
“You can work from the library and the kitchen and I’ll be in my office until lunch if you need anything,” Marco walked briskly out of the room as Cara watched him go.
Cara wasn’t sure what it was she was feeling this morning. There was something that felt pinched as she watched him move out of the room. She felt an odd longing to call him back, to ask him to stay a bit longer. She could imagine having coffee with him and knew that she was getting into dangerous territory. She was spending too much time around him and his stepping in as her protector wasn’t healthy.
He was just doing what anyone in his position would do and she was beginning to read things the wrong way, have feelings where no feelings belonged.
“Ok, new day,” She said as she looked in the mirror at herself. She would shower and change and then spend her day as if Marco didn’t exist. She would focus only on the party, only on the things at hand.
Chapter Seven
The party was an even greater success than the first. Marco delegated one of his men to watch over Cara for the evening but she noticed Marco searching her out regularly anyway.
Marco was feeling desperately ill-tempered with himself. The party was exactly what he'd wanted, debauchery in every corner. Women scantily dressed, his business associate was having no problem indulging in the women, the alcohol, and the atmosphere but Marco wasn't acting like himself. Normally he would be knee deep in his first woman of the night by now. Instead, he was checking on Cara who he'd already set up safely for the evening just so he wouldn't be tempted to check on her every few minutes.
“Martini?” A gorgeous blonde came up to Marco with a fresh drink for him and one for herself. “You throw an amazing party.”
"Thanks," Marco forced himself to look at the blonde. Her legs were long and perfectly sculpted.
“Is this your first time at the house?” Marco tried to look interested in whatever the woman was going to say.
“Yes,” The woman smiled and sipped at her drink. She had a plunging neckline and Marco let himself look over her young buoyant cleavage. “Who is she?” The woman asked looking at Cara.
“Why?” Marco lifted up taller, feeling the protective heat in him rise.
“You just keep looking at her,” The woman put up one hand and Marco tried to relax again but it was no use.
“Have a nice time,” Marco said in a deep growl. The woman practically ran away and Marco shot a quick look at Cara. Had he been looking at her that much? Marco was annoyed with himself and annoyed with Cara…for what he wasn’t exactly sure, mostly just for being here, causing an interruption in his normal routine.
Marco watched as Cara busied herself behind the scenes then turned back to the extravaganza of women in front of him. There ought to be some sultry woman here that would turn his attention.
But there wasn't…Marco had spent the night trying in vain to be interested in various women scantily clad in next to nothing but he just wasn't interested. Finally, after much effort, he gave up trying. A nagging thought tugged at the back of his brain. He didn't want these women because there was another woman he wanted.
To Marco, that line of thinking was unacceptable. He’d always made himself quite clear to both the women he slept with and to himself that he wasn’t interested in that sort of thing. He was a man that was destined to sow his wild oats all his life. Being trapped by one woman was not his destiny. This thing he was feeling with Cara was a minor lapse but that was all it was.
As Marco watched the leggy blonde leave with some other man, he decided that he would have to choose another line of action with the whole Cara and Dimitri thing.
Cara watched Marco as he moved around his guests and the women who were meant as entertainment for the party. There was something peculiar about his manners throughout the night. Maybe something had gone off during the business deal in a way Marco hadn’t wanted to happen.
The women that were paid extra to stay and give extras didn’t seem to tempt Marco and Cara wondered if she’d gotten his type wrong, he’d seemed interested in any woman that could breathe and walk before, but he was out of good humor during the night and didn’t seem to find anyone that struck his fancy at all.
A fleeting thought ran through Cara's mind but she pushed it away, she could not afford to fall for this man. He would break her heart into so many pieces she would never be sure she'd ever had a heart, to begin with. It would be best for her to keep her distance, emotional and physical.
The next few days Marco was quiet, perhaps even a bit secretive, but he would startle Cara by showing up unexpectedly in the kitchen or in the doorway of her bedroom, just to ma
ke sure she was ok.
On Sunday night Cara had just gone into the laundry room pulling out her own clean linens, towels, and clothes from the dryer.
“There you are,” Marco’s voice was loud and grumpy. Cara jumped from the unexpectedness of both him and his heightened energy.
“Marco,” Cara picked up the towel she’d been folding and subsequently dropped when Marco had surprised her. “Sorry, I wasn’t expecting you. I thought I was alone down here.”
Cara lifted the towel to her stomach, where she began to fold it again.
Marco stared at Cara for a long minute, “Take a walk with me?”
“Of course, I’ll just come back for these,” Cara settled her basket onto the nearby table and followed Marco out of the laundry room. “I’m surprised you even know where the laundry room is,” Cara’s voice was playful but Marco didn’t smile.
“I know where everything is, I designed the house myself.”
“Really?”
Marco looked at Cara, “Does that surprise you so much?”
“I just always assumed that some famous architect had done it,” Cara regretted her original surprise, Marco looked offended. “I had no idea that you’d done it yourself…you did an amazing job.”
Marco held the side door open and Cara walked through it. The house was quiet this evening. Most of the house staff went out into town on Sundays. Cara had been invited to go out when everyone else left but she’d always stayed in and eventually people had stopped asking.
Cara stopped.
“Is something wrong?” Marco looked at Cara’s face.
“I just need a second and I’ll be fine,” Cara felt like there was a tumbleweed inside of her. She let the night air and the smell of jasmine calm her body, “There is something I wanted to talk to you about.”
“What is that?” Marco looked sour. He’d obviously come searching her out for a reason.
“You go first, you are the one who had to go looking through laundry rooms for me,” Cara felt the flurry in her body pass and she began walking forward again.
Marco lifted his shoulders a bit then looked out over the water. The sun was beginning to go down and it was beautiful.
“I’ve made arrangements for you to leave,” Marco’s eyes didn’t search out Cara’s, he stared at a passing sailboat instead. Cara felt herself go weak.
“You want me to leave?”
“I have a distant cousin in Alaska, you should be safe there,” Marco finally turned his eyes to her and Cara saw a cold glassy gaze staring back at her. “It’s for the best.”
“You’re getting rid of me,” Cara could feel panic beginning to surge in her, a panic she hadn’t felt since before she’d told Marco everything.
“This arrangement doesn’t suit me, it will be better for you to go.”
Cara felt sharp tears sting her eyes but she forced herself to pull them back. She stopped walking and turned back toward the house.
“Where are you going?” Marco’s voice was impatient.
“To get my laundry,” Cara felt her own voice become as impersonal and cold as Marco’s.
How could he? He knew how ruthless Dimitri was, and he was just going to push her off on a distant cousin that he barely knew? It had taken Marco for her to feel safe, now she wouldn’t be safe anywhere.
“Didn’t you have something to tell me?” Marco’s voice felt like a hammer on her brain.
Cara stopped walking. Her body felt like it weighed ten tons. She thought about silence, she thought about a lie, but she chose the truth, “I’m pregnant with your child.”
Cara did not turn to see how her news hit him. She didn’t want to see his reaction, which was certain to be another disappointment. Her blood felt hot, her body was weak and she needed to sit down, have a cup of tea.
There was no call out to her, no cry for her to stop and stay. With every step she took toward the house, Cara’s heart broke a little more.
She didn’t sit down at the kitchen table but went right to the laundry room, she grabbed her clean clothes and took them upstairs to her bedroom then pulled out her weekender bag, filling it with the few belongings she owned. She left the boots and party dress since she didn’t imagine they would be very practical going forward.
Cara pushed a hand over her tired face, she inhaled as she looked around her little room. She’d become comfortable here. That was all over now.
She wasn’t going to go stay with his cousin in Alaska. All dragons were not alike just as all men were not alike and Cara knew she would be safer on her own. She had a child growing inside of her now, she had more than her own life to protect. She wouldn’t be able to stop anywhere for very long and she would never see Marco again.
Pulling out some estate stationary Cara wrote a note to Mrs. Caulfield. Marco had paid her in cash for her party planning and she could live on it for a quite some time if she was careful enough. Cara slipped on her hat and pulled her bag over her shoulder.
She looked around the room one last time then left.
I’ll head south, Cara thought. She could go to Cuba for a few days, then on to South America. She didn’t know any Spanish but there was no better way to learn than by experience.
The darkness was complete and Cara kept to the shadows. She needed to get as far away as possible under the cover of darkness. No more greyhounds, she would go to the large marina and try to get onboard a cargo ship, something that Dimitri wouldn’t be expecting or looking for. Once she was away from Miami then she would only have to stay one step ahead of Dimitri—one day he would stop looking, wouldn’t he?
Cara made it to the marina before sunrise but the ships and boats were already full of life.
The thought of spending out the rest of her days in Alaska, holed up in another man’s house was repulsive. She would have been passed around from man to man, because who would want the responsibility of her for more than a few weeks, months at the maximum. Until someday one of the men wouldn’t be so protective and she would have been given over to Dimitri. No, she was better off on her own, she only felt foolish for coming to Miami in the first place, for not seeing that Marco would get sick of her.
The sound of the water slapping the dock and of seagulls finding their breakfast made Cara feel safer. She looked down the row of ships and boats, finding one a few hundred feet away that seemed promising.
As she walked toward the ship her mind wandered to other destinations, there was always Europe, Africa, or Asia. Would Dimitri be able to follow her all over the world?
Her mind was so absorbed that she barely noticed the black SUV pull up until it was too late.
Chapter Eight
Marco hadn’t slept. How could he after Cara’s news?
He was going to be a father. Cara was pregnant. The prospect had never really occurred to him, perhaps in some abstract way but not like this. This was real.
Marco spent the night thinking. A part of him wanted to wake Cara up, tell her what he was thinking, but he could tell her just as well in the morning. So Marco stayed up, making plans, emailing people instructions, and calling his relative in Alaska.
By morning he was feeling antsy. He’d walked around the grounds, and under Cara’s window more than a few times. He’d been waiting to see her light come on but the sun came up first so he went inside to wait in the kitchen.
"Mr. Martinez, what are you doing here?" Mrs. Caulfield picked up an empty mug, filled it with fresh coffee, and handed it to him.
“Thank you,” He lifted the coffee in salute then took a long sip. Perhaps it was going to be a good morning after all. He smiled at the older woman, “I wanted to talk to Cara.”
Mrs. Caulfield’s face changed, “But she’s gone.”
“No, she was going to be leaving but I’ve changed all of that,” Marco felt a creeping sensation of misgiving begin at the base of his spine.
“Well she left me a note last night,” Mrs. Caulfield produced a piece of paper from a pocket in her sweater. “I ch
ecked her room this morning and she was already gone.”
“Gone?” Marco took the paper and unfolded it.
The note didn’t say where Cara was going or how she was going to get there, it only said that she was going and went on to thank Mrs. Caulfield for being so kind to her.
Marco put his coffee and the note down and ran out of the house.
How could he have been so stupid? He should have put a security detail on her the minute he’d talked to her. Had he really thought she would just prance off to Alaska after all of this?
So she’d left last night, at least some of her trip must have been made on foot, which gave him an advantage. How far could she have gotten?
Cara was sitting in the back seat of the SUV. Her head pressed against the glass of the window and her heart was thumping in her ears. The look on Dimitri’s face before his men had picked her up had been cold, cruel. Someone had hit her on the head before bringing her into the car and Cara was having a hard time focusing on anything.
He is going to kill me, the thought just kept running through her head. It was the only thing she really knew for sure. It had been in the look he gave her, in his voice. He knew it and now she knew it too. He had not been bluffing, he had found her and now he would kill her. Cara sucked air in through her nose, she had to make the pounding in her head stop. If only she could bring the world into focus around her.
Her wrists were bound with tape and there were two other men in the car with her and Dimitri.
She tried to think of every possible means of escape. If she could break the tape around her wrists, if she could get the door open and roll out—but what about the baby?
“I’m pregnant,” Cara’s words were loud and scared. She waited for a sound, some sort of confirmation to come from Dimitri. “Did you hear me?”
“Shut up,” the man next to Cara said harshly. He hit her hard on her upper arm and Cara’s body thudded against the side of the car.
“If you kill me, you’ll be killing an innocent baby as well,” Cara thought about telling Dimitri that the baby was Stavros’ but she was such a bad liar that she didn’t trust herself with the task.
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