“What did you say?”
“He’s—”
“No, I heard you.” Deidra cut in. “Are you serious? He kidnapped you.”
Cora nodded. “He did.”
“He’s an asshole!”
Cora nodded again. “Yeah, he is.”
“Why would you marry him?”
“Because I told her to.” James stepped forward. His bulk moved into Cora’s path, blocking her from Deidra. “Now get that fucking gun off her.”
Both Cora and Deidra blinked at the snarled request. Neither had noticed the weapon Deidra still had aimed at the middle of Cora’s chest. But it was quickly lowered. As an afterthought, she holstered it.
“She’s still coming with me,” Deidra declared. “De Marco knows where she is. He’ll send every guy he has until she does, so—”
Cora scrambled out from behind James. “Dad knows where I am?”
Deidra’s cool gaze shifted from her to James, a narrowed look of amusement darkening them. “You didn’t tell her?”
“She’s my prisoner, I don’t have to tell her anything,” James stated simply.
“But you talked to my dad?” Cora rounded on him. “When?”
“He made a deal to meet him this afternoon,” Deidra volunteered, with just a hint of arrogance.
“Which we’re going to be late for if you don’t get dressed,” he told Cora.
Cora remained frozen beneath the slip of sheet swaddled around her. She stared at the man towering over her, and making no sense of his actions. But she did understand why he’d bought her new clothes and why he’d told her they still had a few hours before taking that nap. Was it supposed to be a surprise?
No. James wasn’t capable of that.
But what other reasoning was there?
“We’re seeing my parents?”
His answer was an unexpected flick of his gaze to her mouth. They lingered there a full heartbeat, long enough to make her lips tingle and part slightly.
“I promised you soon, didn’t I? Get dressed, sweetheart,” he murmured, before turning on his heels and leaving her alone with Deidra.
“Are we going to see my parents?” She spun to the woman, hope a tight knot in her chest.
“That’s the plan.”
That was all the assurance she needed to stumble to the bundle of clothes someone — most likely James — had folded and placed on the desk. The sheets were dropped without hesitation and she reached for the garments.
“Jesus!”
Cora jolted at the cold prod of Deidra’s fingers on her shoulder blade, nudging her forward.
“Are those ... handprints?”
She turned her head over one shoulder to find her friend gawking at her ass. Cora hadn’t had a chance to admire James’s handiwork from earlier, but she twisted her neck down now to see what had the other woman’s eyes bulging and her jaw unhinged.
The pale skin was a fierce pink with long, visible finger prints spanning towards her hips. There was no mistaking them for what they were, and no way to deny it.
“It’s nothing.”
“Looks like you got your ass tanned,” Deidra muttered.
If only she knew how spot on that was.
Jesus, she still couldn’t believe he’d spanked her. She had no idea how she was supposed to accept that, or act. It seemed like the most insane thing in the world, yet her ass tingled at the memory, a prickle that sent little electric ripples up her spine.
She dressed quickly.
The outfit fit beautifully. It complimented all her features and clung comfortably to her skin. Plus, it was nice getting out of James’s worn, shapeless attire and feeling like a woman again, opposed to a prisoner of war.
“How did you find me?” she asked while in the process of brushing out the knots in her hair.
One shoulder propped against the doorframe of the bathroom, Deidra rolled her eyes. “Not fucking easily. Been halfway around the world ... twice, looking for you. I was on my way back from New Mexico when your dad called to say douchebag called him about you.”
Cora paused and glanced back. “James called my dad?”
“Last night, apparently. Gave De Marco his name and everything like he wanted to get caught.” She crossed her arms. “He’s clearly lost his touch.”
“Or he wanted to get caught,” Cora murmured.
Deidra shrugged dismissively. “Still stupid. I would have been here sooner, then maybe I could have stopped you from making the stupidest decision of your life.”
“It’s not ... okay, it was mildly stupid. I’m not exactly thrilled about it myself.”
She returned to facing the mirror and the beehive she almost had contained.
“Then let’s get out of here.” Deidra stepped into the tiny cubical of a bathroom. “I can take all of them. We’ll be home within the hour.”
Cora shook her head, and winced when the brush caught a thick knot. “I made a promise.”
Deidra growled low in her throat. “This isn’t one of those promises you take seriously, Cor.”
Her arm dropped and she met her friend’s furious glower in the mirror. “I’ve never broken my word, D. I’m not going to start now.”
“You and your fucking word!”
“It’s all a man has. My dad told me that. He’d understand.”
Deidra scoffed. “I highly doubt that, not on this. Besides, you’re not a man.”
She shot the woman a dry frown. “Exactly, which makes keeping my promise all the more important.”
Deidra shook her head and took a step back. “You’re fucking crazy. I don’t even ... like, what’s the matter with you right now? This isn’t the Cora I know. Did he brainwash you? Because I know a guy who can reverse that shit. What does he have on you?”
“Nothing!” She slapped the brush down, no longer capable of winning the war with her hair. “But we made an agreement and so long as I hold my end...”
“What?” Deidra straightened, almost took a step forward. “So long as you hold your end what? Is he blackmailing you? Threatening you? I can put a bullet in his head and solve that right now.”
She spun to her friend, eyes flashing. “No! You’re not going to hurt him!”
Deidra blinked. Perfectly tattooed eyebrows lifted.
“Are ... are you in love with him?”
Cora recoiled. “What? No! of course not. He kidnapped me.”
Long, slender arms folded. A hip thrust out with a glorious display of disbelief.
“Were you here just now?”
“I told you, we have an agreement.”
“Uh huh.”
“Stop it!” She turned away with the pretense of rifling through her makeup bag. “He’s insufferable, if you must know. He’s arrogant and demanding, and outright infuriating. Half the time, I have to restrain myself from stabbing him with something. He drives me crazy. And!” She grabbed a clump of her hair. “He cut my hair! That in itself, any other time, would deserve death, but I have this under control.”
She finished her hair and makeup without another word from the other woman. She donned the boots. The coat was tossed over one arm as she made her way to the door with Deidra right on her heels. Nicholas was absent from his post. James had replaced him keeping up the wall. The change was surprisingly pleasant.
“Decided to stalk me yourself?” she offered, joining him in the corridor.
He straightened off the wall and took her coat. “I never stopped.”
She slipped her arms through when he held it open. “Are we going now?”
He glanced sideways at her, answering without opening his mouth, and the excitement she’d been suppressing for most of the hour came rushing back.
She was going to see her parents. It had only been a week, but the gaping hole their absence had left inside her seemed so infinite, spanning years rather than days. She didn’t know whether to laugh hysterically or cry uncontrollably. She settled on fisting her fingers inside her coat pockets and maintaining
control until she actually saw her parents. Until then, James could change his mind. Things could go wrong. Any number of things could happen. That was a chunk of hope she couldn’t lose if her parents weren’t at the end of that meet.
“Cora’s driving with me,” Deidra took Cora’s elbow the moment they hit the docks together.
James took her other arm and tugged her free. “No, she’s not.”
“It’s okay,” Cora cut in when Deidra’s jaw clenched. “We’re all going to the same place, right? Maybe you could come with us.”
The suggestion was met with a repulsed glower from her friend, and a frown from James. But Deidra seemed to think of something and jutted out her chin.
“You know what?” She smirked. “I’d love to.”
Waiting for neither of them, she marched to where Nicholas stood next to a parked town car and yanked open the side passenger seat. She climbed in and shut the door behind her.
James looked down at Cora, his expression a full, angry volume of his displeasure.
“She’s family,” Cora reasoned.
His fingers found her chin. The pinch was remarkably gentle when he lifted her face to his. He kissed her once. Hard.
“You’re going to have to start paying back all these special favors, sweetheart. They’re piling up.”
He left her standing there with a head full of fog and an odd tingling in her fingers. She shut her eyes and swayed as all the sensations in her entire body slowly seeped back from that single kiss alone. She was still trembling when she ambled after him.
The back door was opened and he motioned her in, but it wasn’t as simple as that. Her ass still smarted and her vagina still throbbed, and the tight denim wasn’t helping.
“Need help?”
He didn’t even bother concealing the self-righteous glint turning up the corners of his mouth.
“No!” she muttered tersely, struggling between gripping the top of the door and the top of Deidra’s headrest. “Stop smirking.”
He didn’t, but she ignored it as she finally squeezed herself into the seat with only minimal grimacing.
The drive was done in silence, eerie when there were four, fully grown adults crammed in the car and miles of highway. It spanned the length of her entire city in a direction she’d never taken.
They left towering skyscrapers for the flatlands of the outskirts and endless wilderness. She watched one hour slip into two, into two and a half on the dashboard. It was only when the three hour mark finally loomed into sight that she couldn’t take it anymore.
“Where are they?”
“Patience,” James murmured.
It was on the tip of her tongue to point out that she had been patient ... for a week and three hours, when she caught sight of the back end of her father’s parked Lincoln just up the road. She only knew it was his, because Bruno stood tall and handsome next to the trunk. His dark shades concealed his eyes, but she could feel them watching as the town car drew closer.
Deidra turned in her seat. “Let me talk—”
Any thoughts of listening vanished the moment the back door of the Lincoln swung open and Giovanni emerged.
All sounds dissolved behind the erratic clapping of her heart.
Her senses numbed.
Her world shuddered.
She couldn’t breathe.
He unfolded himself into the late afternoon, a stunning sight in his dark suit and firm expression. Large hands twisted the buttons on his coat into their proper holes. Dark eyes squinted in their direction for just a moment before his head turned to the dark interior of his Lincoln. His lips moved.
A pale arm poked out. It braced on the open door, and was stopped with a shake of his head. But the owner of the arm wasn’t having it.
Elise pushed out despite her husband’s protests and turned to the approaching vehicle, ignoring Giovanni’s hand trying to force her back in.
The sight of her mother was the breaking point for Cora.
It was past the limits of her control.
It snapped the final tether restraining her.
“Cora!”
James’s shout never registered.
Never even made struck a chord.
It meant nothing to her.
Nothing compared to the sight of her parents.
She shoved the door open, moving car be damned.
Nicholas slammed on the breaks, pitching them forward, but Cora was already out, already running, running faster than she’d ever run in her life. Thirty feet stretched into hundreds, but she pumped like her life depended on it.
The crack of her feet had Elise turning, had her gaze landing on Cora. Hazel eyes widened. Her mouth moved, forming Cora’s name. Even Giovanni’s hold wasn’t strong enough to stop her when she tore free and ran.
They collided halfway between the two cars. Cora was already sobbing, heaving wails that sounded inhuman even to her own ears. Elise clutched her, hands fisting into hair, fabric, wherever she could reach.
“Okay, baby, it’s okay. I’ve got you.” Her voice choked against Cora’s shoulder. “You’re home. You’re safe.”
“I’m sorry.”
Elise shook her head, fingers skimming through Cora’s hair. “No, you have nothing to be sorry about, do you understand?”
Then why did it feel like she had everything to be sorry for? Like the pain she’d caused her parents, would continue to cause them was her fault? Why did it feel like she’d brought all this on them?
Elise pulled back first. Her warm fingers took Cora’s face in hand.
“You okay?” Elise brushed back wet strands off Cora’s cheek, red rimmed eyes searching. “Are you hurt?”
But there was no time to answer. The figure behind Elise’s shoulder drew Cora’s attention. The modicum of control she’d managed to pull around herself crumbled. It shattered in glittery shards to nothing.
Giovanni offered her a small smile that might have been comforting if his eyes weren’t bright, if his jaw wasn’t tense.
“Daddy.”
He caught her when she threw herself at him. Both arms wound around her middle and practically lifted her off the ground. His face burrowed into the side of her neck and inhaled deep. His familiar scent of spices and rich wood encircled her, a comforting blanket she could have clung to forever.
“My sweet girl,” he breathed, voice muffled by her shoulder, but thick with emotion. “I was so worried.” He stamped a kiss into the side of her head and pulled back to take her tear stained cheeks between his hands. He searched her face, his thumbs gently wiping the moisture. “Okay?”
She nodded, the motion jerky and erratic with the force of her uncontrollable tremors. “I’m okay.”
He pressed another kiss to her forehead. “Get in the car, baby.”
But the interrupting scuffle behind her brought the rest of the world back into focus. It reminded her of all the things she’d forgotten at the sight of her parents.
James, Nicholas, and Deidra joined the group. Neither man seemed to be in a hurry as they approached, like it was an everyday kind of afternoon, but Cora could sense the tension stiffening Nicholas’s muscles.
The man was coiled like a snake.
He stopped a few feet behind James, eyes fixed on Bruno, who was doing the same from behind Giovanni.
It was a Mexican standoff without the pistols.
But the only party that mattered, the only one who held her focus, her fascination, was James. The silver pools of his gaze bore into her with every graceful stride, like they were the only two on that whole stretch of highway and his only purpose was reaching her.
Only, he never made it to her.
Never even made it close.
Bruno moved when Giovanni did, shadowing his employer until both stood between James and Cora.
“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t shoot you where you stand, Captain.”
James lingered in his answer, still too focused on her, too intense in his stare. It was just lon
g enough to make Cora’s stomach seize and her heart pick up pace.
“James...”
His name was no more than a subtle, pleading movement of her lips, but it reverted his reluctant attention from her to her father with a disinterest, an annoyance that would have gotten a lesser man shot.
“Shoot me.”
Not a flicker, not a shift in his features.
He was cold.
Indifferent.
Arrogant.
Inconvenienced.
“James!”
No one paid her any attention.
How could they when Giovanni had unearthed a gun from the inside pocket of his coat and had it leveled with James’s face.
“No!”
Cora moved to put herself between the two.
Elise grabbed her before she could even take a step.
“You don’t think I will,” the cool statement washed over the crowd with the same intensity as the barbed air around them. “I wouldn’t put money on that.”
Those beautiful, gray eyes narrowed. They slid away, drifted to the woods around them with a nonchalance of someone admiring the view, someone who didn’t have a Colt aimed at their head.
“Have you ever been out this far before?”
Even Cora blinked at the question. But James was still speaking.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it? Quiet. Empty.”
“Are you crazy?”
James’s features softened into an actual smile. He chuckled.
“Sometimes, yes.”
He was going to get himself shot. Cora could feel it.
“Dad—”
“Quiet, sweetheart.” The command was given by James without a single glance in her direction. “This’ll be over in a minute.”
Giovanni nodded slowly. “Yes, it will be, because I’m going to kill you and hang your dead body from Main Street as a warning to all other fuckheads who think they can come near my family.”
“I have eight men in the woods,” James interrupted evenly. “You have six, plus your man there,” he nodded in Bruno’s direction. “And Ms. Donavon, who I’m assuming would take your side.”
“Damn straight,” Deidra muttered.
“That gives us both an even eight,” James continued. “Not including you and me. With fire power like that, Cora and your wife wouldn’t make it to safety fast enough. No one would. Now, I’ve promised Cora that I wouldn’t hurt you. I would really appreciate your help keeping that promise.”
Blood Script Page 19
