Blood Script

by Airicka Phoenix

  De Marco nodded to his wife when she glanced at him questioningly. “Get me my usual.”

  James motioned the other man ahead of him, giving himself ample room to reach into his pocket for the ear piece connecting him to the microchip on Cora. He slipped it casually into his ear as he followed De Marco to the bar.

  “How are you? Really?” Elise was asking as the men walked away. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

  “I’m okay. It’s been a very long week.”

  Background noise, the clatter of dishes, the hum of chatter, all echoed twice as loud between his end and hers, but he picked up their voices perfectly.

  He blocked out the remainder of their chatter, occasionally tuning in to make sure Cora kept her end of the bargain, but kept his focus on his own task.

  De Marco claimed a table rather than take a stool at the bar. It was discreetly tucked into the corner of the long, oak counter, nearly concealed in shadows. He removed his coat and draped it over one of the extra seats.

  James kept his. He undid the buttons and sat.

  “I haven’t yet decided whether you’re incredibly brave, or remarkably stupid, Captain.” De Marco broke the silence. He motioned to the waiter, but kept his eyes on James. “But what I’m really trying to figure out is what the angle here is. What are you hoping to gain by all this?”

  “At the moment, a drink.”

  He needed one. His conversation with Cora had left his nerves prickling and his temper on edge. He couldn’t fathom what she was getting at, what it was exactly she was trying to tell him. That if he didn’t love her, have babies with her that she’d find someone else? The very thought of her with another man, doing whatever it took to have a baby made his pulse scream. It made him want to kick the table over. What the hell was she thinking?

  “You look like you could use six,” De Marco remarked, eyeing him.

  The waiter brought over two glasses of whiskey. The amber liquid glinted mockingly in the lights. But James didn’t touch his. Maybe it was paranoia, but he didn’t know the waiter, didn’t know if he was in De Marco’s pocket, didn’t know who could have handled it from the bar to the table.

  De Marco snorted as if reading his thoughts. He reached over and downed his, then James’s. Then he motioned for the waiter to bring the entire bottle and leave it at the table.

  “I may want to kill you, Captain.” He poured himself a third glass, but sipped this one. “But I have better manners than to do it where my wife and daughter can see.”

  James waited for the man to keel over and die. When he didn’t, James poured himself a glass and threw it back. The rich burn of fine whiskey trickled down his esophagus and pooled in his empty stomach.

  In his ear, their waitress had arrived at the women’s table. A tiny redhead named Sienna, if James heard correctly. She was rattling off their evening’s special.

  The microchip Nicholas had planted in the small, inner pocket of Cora’s jeans broadcasted much better than James had predicted. Every voice, every movement, resonated perfectly in the earbud tucked inside his ear. He hadn’t been sure it would work long distance given that it was so low on Cora’s body. The ones he usually used needed to be higher up towards the mouth area. But the chip was getting everything as if he were at the table with them.

  “We’ll have the usual, please,” Elise was saying.

  But it was the booming male voice that joined the conversation that had James’s head pivoting around. A burly man with thick black hair and an even thicker, darker mustache ambled up to the table, arms extended as if expecting a hug.

  “Elise. Cora.”

  “Raj!” Elise rose and pressed air kisses on either side of the man’s round cheeks. “It’s so wonderful to see you again. How’s Dayeah?”

  James guessed that this was Raj Singh, the owner.

  “Growing.” Raj dug into his pocket and returned with a phone. “She’s almost holding her head up now. Aaminah sends me pictures almost every hour.”

  While he showed off his pride and joy, Cora seemed more preoccupied in her water glass. The smile she’d worn while talking to her mother was replaced with a deep look of contemplation. Every so often, she’d cast a glance in the direction of the door, and James wondered if she would actually run. He didn’t think so, but he was curious to see what her plan was exactly.

  “If you wanted to keep an eye on my daughter, we probably could have just stayed at the other table,” De Marco cut into James’s woolgathering.

  James glanced at the man.

  “Am I taking up your time, Mr. De Marco?”

  De Marco sipped his drink. “In a manner, yes. You sent directions to a location three hours out of the city, only to bring us back here, and now you’re not saying anything at all.”

  James smothered his annoyance with a cool mask of irrelevance. “I would think the prospect of seeing your daughter would trump mild hindrance.”

  “Captain, I would bury this city in a crater to keep my daughter safe. That doesn’t mean I appreciate the needless runaround.”

  James refilled his glass. “Believe it or not, Mr. De Marco, the runaround wasn’t for your benefit. It was to protect Cora.”

  “The only person she seems to need protecting from is you, Captain.”

  James didn’t deny it. He took a sip and nodded slowly, eyes fixed on the woman in question.

  “You’re not wrong.” James sighed.

  De Marco eyed him, his expression wary. “So, what’s stopping me from shooting you and freeing my daughter?”

  “You won’t shoot me. You can’t.”

  De Marco got to his feet, gun steady. “You’d be wrong.”

  “No, because, unfortunately for you, I’m the least of your problems. In fact, I may be your only solution.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  James finished his drink and struck the table a bit harder than necessary with the empty glass.

  “I’m talking about being the one and only person on this planet who’s capable of keeping your daughter from getting taken again, or worse, killed.” He leveled his gaze with the other man’s. “There’s a target on your back, Mr. De Marco, and because of you, there’s one on hers. The people who took her the first time aren’t going to stop. They want you to suffer and they have their eye on Cora.”

  De Marco’s mouth was a thin, white line of barely suppressed rage. “Who are they?”

  “Are you sure you’re all right?” Elise’s voice cut into the conversation.

  It pulled James’s attention to the other table where she was rubbing lightly at Cora’s arms and looking anxious.

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” Cora whispered, but even with nearly fifty feet between them, James could see the lie on her face, see it in the smile she was poorly keeping in place.

  “Listen, why don’t we go out tomorrow, hmm? We can go shopping, have some lunch.”

  The smile left Cora’s face entirely. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to. James might...” she broke off, but she didn’t need to finish it. He knew exactly how that sentence was supposed to end — James might not allow it. “It’s complicated.”

  “I’ll talk to him,” Elise insisted. “He seems reasonable.”

  Cora burst out laughing, but the sound was all wrong. It was filled with tears and bitter loathing.

  “He really isn’t.”

  Not reasonable? He’d given her everything she’d asked for. He’d been more patient with her than anyone his entire life. How was he not reasonable?

  “Captain!”

  “What?”

  His snarl snagged between them, a vicious growl that startled several of the people around them. He’d completely forgotten about De Marco and their conversation. He couldn’t even remember what his last words were.

  “Who’s after Cora,” De Marco demanded.

  James reached for the bottle, half tempted to just drink straight from the neck. But he pulled back at the last second. He’d already had too many glasses.
He needed a clear head, not just to deal with De Marco, but to drive home.

  He bunched his fingers and pulled them under the table, away from temptation.

  “A man I have every intention of putting down the first chance I get.”

  De Marco shook his head. “Not good enough. Give me a name.”

  “No. All you need to know is that they’re dangerous. The kind even you can’t touch. They’ve been wanting to get to you for years and this was how they were going to do it. They hired me and my crew to grab Cora and take her to them.”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  James hesitated. The answer should have been simple. He knew what it was, yet it was all tangled up with a million other reasons he couldn’t sort out.

  “I miss my apartment,” Cora’s voice intruded into his thoughts. “I miss my things. My bar ... has anyone...”

  “Sal’s been running it for you,” Elise assured her. “He says it’s been going great.”

  Cora exhaled. “That’s a relief. Tell him thank you for me when you see him, will you?”

  Elise chuckled uncertainly. “You keep talking like this is the last time we’re going to see you.” Some of her smile dimmed. “It’s not, is it?”

  Cora’s mouth opened and closed several times, but nothing came out right away. Finally, she shrugged and shook her head.

  “I don’t know.”

  James heard the tremor and it was all he could do to keep from ... fuck if even he knew what.

  “Are you in love with my daughter, Captain?”

  James turned his head slowly and fixed the other man with a look of absolute indignation. “The only reason I never handed her over was to save my crew. Nothing more.”

  De Marco hummed quietly.

  James chose to ignore that.

  “But I will tell you this,” James pushed to his feet. “So long as I’m with her, no one’s going to come near her again. I’ll make sure of it, or die trying.”

  He left the man there and made his way back to the women. He pulled the earpiece from his ear and tucked it into his pocket before reaching the table.

  Cora spotted him first and quickly wiped her face. But there was no hiding the blotches or the red circles around her eyes.

  Christ sakes.

  What the fuck was it about her tears that made him want to skin a man?

  He took his seat without commenting.

  “Mr. Crow ... or do you prefer Captain?” Elise smiled sweetly at him.

  “James, please.”

  Elise’s smile widened. “I never got the chance to thank you for bringing Cora back. It means the world to me.”

  James inclined his head. “I’d say it was nothing, but seeing as how I’m the one who took her in the first place...”

  Elise nodded. “I know, but you didn’t hurt her and you brought her back—”

  “Temporarily,” James interjected. “We’re only visiting.”

  The smile on her face wobbled and didn’t return no matter how hard she struggled with it. “Mr. ... Captain, I’ve been around this block many a times before. Granted, it was never my daughter, but I understand the process. I’ve already asked Cora to stay, that her father and I will do everything in our power to destroy you, and believe me, Captain, when I tell you that I am much worse than my husband. I will burn your entire world to the ground. But Cora has insisted that she wants to stay with you. I personally don’t believe her. I think you’re using something against her. I think it might be us, her father and I. Maybe I’m wrong. But what I do know is that you’re not taking my daughter.”

  “Mom—”

  Elise set her small hand over Cora’s. She must have squeezed, because Cora flinched. But Elise’s cool, hazel eyes never left James’s.

  “I don’t care if you did marry her against her will. I don’t care if you kill me right here at this table. I will find a way to end you if you think for even a moment that I will—”

  “Elise.” De Marco appeared at the only vacant seat at the table. His coat was draped over the back. “Easy, love. The Captain and I have already spoken.”

  Something in Elise seemed to catch, as she’d been running on pure adrenaline and it was wavering.

  De Marco took her small hand, the one not gripping Cora’s, and kissed the knuckles. “We’ve already decided a course of action to this situation.”

  James struggled not to narrow his eyes in suspicion. They hadn’t decided anything, because there had been nothing to decide. He’d stated his case. There were no other options.

  “You ... you did?” Relief glimmered in the older woman’s eyes. “What is it?”

  De Marco set her hand down gently and rounded brown eyes towards James. “He’s been very clear on the matter, he’s not letting Cora go, but,” he stressed, lifting a finger when his wife’s mouth opened in protest, “he’s going to buy the old Carmichael estate.”

  James had no idea what that was, or why on earth the man was claiming he’d buy the thing. But De Marco was still talking, slowly, carefully, like he was making sure James missed none of it.

  “He’s going to get it fixed up and furnished, and he’s going to move our daughter into it. It’s a nice little house for a couple of newlyweds. A good starter home. And it’s right across the street from ours, which means we can see Cora whenever we want, make sure she’s doing okay, that she’s being cared for properly. That is, unless you’ve changed your mind?”

  Cora hesitated. Her wide eyes went from James to her father and back like a rabbit cornered by two wolves. She licked her lips and shook her head.

  “Then it’s settled.” De Marco sat back in his chair. “Cora and the Captain will move into the house and everyone gets what they want. In fact,” he fished into the inside pocket of his blazer. “I have Luann’s number on my phone. We can call her up and get that property right now. You can move in tomorrow.”

  “But Cora can’t stay married to him, Gio. No offense, Captain.” Elise offered him a polite smile.

  De Marco put up his hands. “She’s twenty-five-years-old, Eli. I can’t force her to leave him. But we can make sure he’s taking good care of her, because he knows that anything less than his absolute best could be the last thing he ever does.”

  Son.

  Of.

  A.

  Bitch.

  “Isn’t that right, Captain?”

  It dawned on James that he might have just been played. He would have been furious, except the man had such a way of spinning the story that even James had a hard time not believing it.

  The other reason he couldn’t bring himself to say anything was the woman on his right, the one with the big, hopeful eyes and desperate expression. He’d been very careful not to look her way.

  “It’s definitely something to look into,” he mused.

  De Marco raised an eyebrow. “Is there something wrong with the idea?”

  “A few things,” he confessed. “I don’t like buying things I haven’t seen, for one. I’m a sea captain, for another. My home is the ocean.”

  “But it’s not Cora’s home,” De Marco pointed out. “The estate would be a nice place for her to stay while you’re ... away. She won’t be alone. She’ll be safe.”

  In that regard, the idea was a reasonable one. James hated the idea of dragging Cora along on every voyage, always worrying about her, always locking her up in his room. A house on land would be a tangible solution.

  “Cora already has an apartment she can use while I’m away,” James replied. “I don’t see a point in buying a house when I won’t be there.”

  “Will you be gone often?” Elise cut in.

  “At least nine months out of the year.”

  De Marco’s eyes narrowed. “You plan on leaving Cora alone that long?”

  James realized what the other man was doing. It finally made sense why he was pushing James to buy a house; James had made a promise to keep his daughter safe. That was the only reason De Marco hadn’t tried to kill him yet. He could
n’t until he was certain someone really was after her. But in the meantime, he wanted to keep James close. Just in case the threat was real.

  “A ship isn’t like an airplane,” James said. “It takes longer to cross the ocean.”

  “But we discussed the necessities of keeping Cora protected,” De Marco stressed. “Who is going to do that if you’re not here?”

  The man had him. He couldn’t claim to be there to keep Cora safe when he had no intentions of staying there.

  “I suppose that’s something we’re going to have to talk about,” he said at last. “In the meantime, no house. You’re both welcome to visit Cora on the ship until we launch.”

  “Which is when?” Elise blurted.

  James paused, his paranoia rearing its head. “That’s still in process.”

  Their meal arrived then, interrupting further discussion. Cora and Elise picked up the conversation and kept it going seamlessly for the remainder of the evening. James listened with only half a mind. The other half kept drifting back to the case De Marco had made about Cora’s safety and what James would do with her when he left. He knew he wouldn’t take her with him across the Atlantic again. That had been a journey he couldn’t handle a second time. But he couldn’t leave her behind. Not alone. Not in that apartment of hers where anyone could easily break in. With Bishop on the loose, James couldn’t trust him not to try taking Cora a second time. That only left one other option, an option he didn’t want to think about.

  At the end of the night, once the dishes had been cleared, the check paid, and no reason to loiter, they rose from the table and made their way out into the freezing cold. Cora and Elise both looked on the verge of crying, even while they continued to chatter on about some luncheon a group of Elise’s friends were having in a few weeks. Even with the icy winds blowing around them, neither seemed willing to make a move towards the cars.

  “Ms. Harris,” James interrupted their babbling, because unlike them, he was freezing his ass off. “Would you happen to be free tomorrow? I have a shipment I need to prepare and the paperwork is an all day affair. Would you mind keeping Cora company?”

  Both women blinked at him like he’d inexplicably grown another head.