by Amy Kyle
“You invested quite a bit of money into my company six years ago, but I would not be here if it were not for Simon and Grant. They did more than give me money. They backed me one hundred percent of the way, and I will not betray them to you.”
The man dark eyes held a touch of sympathy. “I liked you, Marquis. I really did. The people that I work for aren’t just going to take no for an answer. O’Shea isn’t going to let you walk away. You will give them what they want, whether you do it willingly or not. You would make both of our lives much easier if you simply did what we asked of you.”
Cade yanked his arm away and stepped into the elevator. He held his hand out to keep the door from closing. “Tell me, O’Toole. You have all the money you could ever need. Why do you work for them?”
O’Toole stiffened. “Once you’re in, you never get out. Besides, I want for nothing.”
“Except for true friends. A family that loves you. Peace of mind. Integrity.” Cade stepped back and let the doors close. “I won’t turn into you.”
He had to warn Erin. As much as it would kill him to tell her the truth, it would be even worse if she were caught unawares. It would ruin her career if she ran the story without knowing all the facts. And who knows what O’Toole would do to get what he wanted.
He leaned back and hit his head gently against the elevator wall. He’d tell her tonight at dinner.
* * *
Erin’s hands shook when she saw the headline on the magazine. “Cade,” she whispered as she pressed herself against him. It had been three weeks since he’d told her the news. For three weeks, she’d spent every spare moment she had with him. He did things to her body that no one else had, but there was fear lurking behind every moment.
“The Irish mob? Cade, are you insane?” she’d gasped.
“I didn’t know,” he’d said as he shook his head. “What can I do?”
As far as Erin was concern, there was only one thing he could do. He could come clean. And she’d done just that for him.
New York’s youngest and hottest billionaire defies the Irish mob: Cade Marquis saves hundreds of thousands of jobs by saying no.
He put an arm protectively around her and steered her away from the magazine stand. The air was chilly, but it was nothing compared to the fear that iced over her bones. “What do you think is going to happen now?” she whispered.
Cade kissed the top of her head. “Don’t go anywhere alone,” he said softly. “And keep the gun I gave you in your purse at all times. More than likely, this will be too public for them to retaliate. They’ll simply deny it and move on. Timothy O’Shea usually keeps a cool head about him. But O’Toole is a loose cannon.”
Erin nodded her head. They’d talked at length about this, but she didn’t know what she would do if something actually happened. She’d just finally gotten Cade back. She couldn’t lose him now.
A month ago, O’Toole had revealed what he really wanted from Cade. It wasn’t his money. Cade now had inside information on Simon and Grant, and O’Toole’s boss, O’Shea, wanted to bring Simon and Grant down.
But it was more than just Cade’s loyalties to the company. Thousands of workers would have lost their jobs, and Cade wouldn’t have that on his conscience. But Erin wasn’t content with Cade just saying no. She wanted to protect him and reveal the dangers of the Irish mob. It wasn’t just violence. Businesses were at stake. People’s jobs were at stake.
He walked her to her apartment and pulled her close. “Tomorrow, we’ll tell our parents,” he said as he leaned down to kiss her.
She melted into his embrace. “Tell them what?” she teased. “That you give me three orgasms every night? That I strip naked for you and give you lap dances at the dinner table?”
Cade groaned. “Keep talking like that, and this block will see just how many orgasms I can give you,” he hissed.
What would he tell their parents? She was more curious about that than she was about their reaction. He didn’t talk much about their future.
“Stay inside today,” he said with another searing kiss.
“Keep doing that, and the tabloids will tell my mom before you do,” she said as she pulled away. He gave her one last longing look before he turned and walked away.
He made it two steps before the bullet rang out. “Erin,” he screamed as he turned, but the bullets weren’t for her. Fear forced her into action. As he fell to his knees, blood seeping through his shirt, she pulled the gun from her purse.
She couldn’t lose him. Not now. She didn’t even hesitate as he aimed the gun at the large man on the corner. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. She fired until she realized the gun was no longer spilling bullets. She fired until it was just a clicking noise. She fired until someone finally wrenched the gun out of her hand.
The man was on the ground, not moving, but she didn’t give a damn about him.
“Cade,” she screamed. The world stilled as she spun raced towards him. He reached up to touch her cheek, but the blood was coming out too quickly. “Hang on,” she muttered as she stripped off her jacket and pressed it to the wound on his side.
“I love you,” he whispered.
“Shut-up,” she snapped. “You say the worse things.”
He managed to laugh, and she smiled. “You can tell me how you feel when you’re not bleeding out on the side-walk. And when that happens, I’ll tell you exactly how I feel about you.” Tears were flooding down her cheeks, and she leaned down and pressed her lips to hers. “If you die, Cade Marquis, I will tell your father that you took my virginity when I was nineteen.”
But his eyes were closing, and she began to rock back and forth. He would live. He had to live.
Please.
* * *
The response was overwhelming. She’d wanted to keep it a small affair. Cade wanted it that way, but more than just family and friends wanted to come out. Business associates from all over the country demanded to be there, and before she knew it, the whole thing was just out of control. Every seat in the church was taken.
She couldn’t believe that it would end like this. She’d been in love with him ever since she met him, and it took a bullet for her to realize it. For her to realize how much time they had wasted thinking they knew what the other was thinking.
Cade had only wanted what was best for her, and Erin thought he was ashamed of her. Instead of embracing the unexpected love, years of silence and heartbreak had separated them.
Too late now, she thought as she walked slowly down the aisle. She couldn’t go back and change the past.
But as she saw his eyes light up with love and awe, she knew that their future was going to be filled with love.
O’Toole was dead. O’Shea put as much distance between him and the investor as possible, and they hadn’t heard more than an apology from him in the past year. Apparently he realized that the printed word was more powerful than money and blackmail.
Cade had pulled through with surgery. Rather than finding out over dinner, her mom and his dad had learned the entire truth of their affair at the hospital. They’d surprised her with a roll of their eyes.
“It’s about time,” her mom had snapped. “I thought I was going to have to lock you two in the room together to get you to admit your feelings.”
Three weeks later, he’d slipped a ring on her finger. She’d glared and grumbled. Of course they loved each other, but that didn’t mean they could make it work. He was neat. She was messy. She wanted a smaller house and dogs. He wanted a bigger house and another car. She wanted two kids. He wanted five.
But he refused to take the ring back, and she realized that she was never going to take it off. Cade Marquis was hers. And even if they bickered and fought for the rest of their lives, he belonged to her and her alone. Just as she belonged to him.
Her dress trailed behind her as she finished the walk. Her stepfather leaned over and kissed her cheek. “I thought it would be weird to give you away to my son,” he admitted with a smile. “Bu
t there is no one else I’d rather see you with.”
She blushed and reached out to take Cade’s hand. Breaking tradition, he leaned over and kissed her gently on the lips. “I love you, Erin.”
“I love you, always and forever, Cade,” she said honestly.
Twenty minutes later, she was Erin Silva Marquis. And she was the happiest woman in the world.
THE END
Kiss by the forbidden vampire
The light of the moon rippled on the surface of the black water as Nera kneeled by the river bank and washed her clothes. The water was cool on her white skin, and she enjoyed the sensation and the low bubbling, sloshing noises as she dipped the clothes and took them back out.
When she was finished washing, she beat the garments with loud slapping against a large stone in the riverbank to get the heaviest of the water out of them. She would hang them to dry as much as possible in the night air and then tomorrow she would have to find somewhere that would see the sun but from where they were unlikely to be stolen from. She slapped the clothes down hard once more, but suddenly she was aware within the loud smacking noise there was another noise, something moving nearby. She turned to face the oncoming threat too late, and she was bundled to the ground by two heavy men who carried a net between them. There was nowhere for her to go, and she was quickly wrapped up in the net until she felt so constricted that she could not move.
“Got her,” one of the men laughed triumphantly.
“What are you doing?” Nera demanded angrily.
“Be quiet,” the man said, “You are going to start a new life in the court of His Majesty, Crown Prince Hassan.”
“What are you talking about?” she spat at him. The two men laughed and ignored her.
“Bring up the wagon,” the second one called out to someone unseen.
“Where are you taking me?” she asked as they lifted her and bundled her into the bed of a tired looking wooden wagon that was dragged to where she was by an older looking man with sad eyes, whom Nera took for a slave straight away, and in doing so felt she knew the fate these men had in mind for her. They didn’t answer her. She struggled against the ropes and threads of the netting but seemed only to become more entangled and enraged.
They traveled overland and soon met up with some more men with wagons. In each wagon, there was a woman, sometimes more than one, lying or sitting and sad. Some were in netting like her, and some showed the bruises of resistance on their arms or faces. None of the women would return her gaze, and none of the men would answer her questions; they would look at her appreciatively and say something like, “The Prince will be happy with this one!”
It was clear that all of the women were attractive and would be used for the personal pleasure of the Court. This was not a new occurrence, but it had been a while since she had heard about it, and never this far from the Capital.
Nera looked around as they moved into some sort of caravan and saw that they were taking the coast road. No doubt there would be a boat waiting for them at the harbor and then it would be a few days in the crossing of the sea. If she didn’t escape before they put her on the boat she wouldn’t be able to try again until they landed- and over there she would have no idea of the land or how to get back home.
At the ship, they were all loaded on as they had been on the wagon. Nera’s net was torn slightly as she was carried aboard but it was such a small rip, and in a place that made it almost impossible for her to get at that she didn’t get excited about it. They were all put in a large hold with burning lanterns hanging from wooden beams and from hooks hanging from the ceiling. It was so bright in there that it hurt her eyes in contrast to the darkness of the night outside. Some of the women were crying, but no one said anything to their captors.
A stocky man with a whip coiled at his hip came into the hold and looked over them all.
“Very good haul,” he said salaciously, “His Majesty will be pleased.” Then to the assembled women he said, “You should all be very proud of yourselves. You have been deemed to be the most beautiful women in your region. The great honor or becoming part of Crown Prince Hassan’s harem will now be yours!” He spoke as though he expected a ringing round of applause, and she laughed at the silence that greeted him instead. He looked over them all once more and then left.
One of the men who had captured Nera then came forward and said loudly,
“You now have a few days to reverse your sleeping patterns! You will not sleep tonight but will be permitted a few hours come sun up.”
“What is this?” Nera found her voice say before she had any control over it. The man looked at her and walked over. “Prince Hassan likes to sleep during the day, so from now on you too will like to sleep during the day.” He pointed a dirty stubby finger at her, and she was afraid of saying anything more to him.
“What will he do to us?” another woman called out, the fear evident in her trembling voice.
“Shut up!” the man barked at her, “You are not permitted to speak!”
Nera looked at the woman who had spoken and saw her convulse in tears. Some of the other women looked about to one another in confusion, but Nera knew what she had been so fearful about. She had heard the rumors of the Prince’s appetite for human blood; something that up to this very moment Nera had believed for even a moment. She had always thought this was some propagandist story to scare his rivals and enemies, but, now they were putting these women on a sleeping during the day routine she was not so sure. Could it be that the Vampire of folk tales and stories actually existed?
The crossing took several harsh days, and there were many times when the wind was up, and the boat would toss and tilt in the squall so much that Nera feared she would never see dry land again. When not killing themselves with work to keep the boat afloat the crew used all of their time into adapting us to the reversed routine that we would now be living. It wasn’t hard to stay awake with the level of fearful adrenaline that ran through all of the women’s veins, but there were severe punishments meted out for those who did not sleep when the sun could be seen through the boards above us. One woman was thrown overboard as a lesson to the rest of them, but Nera thought this act had the hallmarks of something planned and staged- that they had brought one extra woman on board just so as to make an example of her to scare the rest of them.
They were fed decently enough and were given plenty to drink and twice a day, or should that be night, they were all paraded around the deck to get both exercise for their stiffened limbs and muscles and for some fresh air. They were, after all, going to the Harem of the Crown Prince and had to be in the best condition possible for this position.
Finally land was reached. Those who were asleep were woken by the bustling cacophony of the dock they had arrived at. There was a market just inland, and they could hear the hawkers yelling and the general bustling sounds of barter and trade. They could see that the sun was shining outside, and its heat seemed to permeate the wood around them, and they all ached to stand up and be allowed to walk on dry land once more. It was a wish that was to go unfulfilled as it soon became apparent that they would not be leaving the ship until night fall.
“You should all be sleeping now!” the lead guard roared at us from the door above them. Nera went to the hull and looked out through the cracks at the town. It was not a big place, but it was very busy- the people must come from the surrounding areas to use the market here she thought. That could be to her advantage if she were to escape, there would be many people travelling the roads at the end of the market and it would give her more opportunity to escape. She could only hope she would be able to undo her binds in time. She set about this task and all afternoon she sweated in her labours as she ground the ropes against the edge of the wooden ribs of the hull. It was very slow progress, and she seemed to be doing more damage to the wood than to the rope but by evening fall she could feel a slight loosening at her wrists and she knew her work had not been in vain.
When it was full dark, the
lead guard appeared with some minions who lighted the lamps about the hold. The sounds of horses and carts being readied filtered in from the land.
“I’ve been in this business for a long time,” the guard said, “And I know all the tricks so it would be in your best interest not to try to pull anything.” He looked about him menacingly. “Tie them all up with fresh rope!” he called out to his men, and he laughed heartily. Nera’s head sank with the wasted effort of her afternoon, and her spirits sank to their lowest ebb yet. She looked quickly around the room, and she saw that there was no way she was going to be able to escape with all the guards around and the layout of the boat was against her too. She sat resignedly as she was retied; she would have to escape at some other time.
They walked through the dark in a single file of five caged carts with five guards around each carriage and some men both fore and aft of the convoy. Nera looked up to the high mountains where they headed, the blue night and the light of the moon made everything seems so clear and sharp. They could see the Royal Palace for many hours before they finally came to a magnificent stone bridge that held high over a deep chasm. At the end of the bridge was the rough, thick wood of the drawbridge that was open to their arrival.
Despite her misgivings and abject fury at her abduction, even Nera could not help but be impressed with the high towers and walls of the palace. It was like nothing she had ever seen, or even dreamed of before. She could only imagine how amazing it must look in daylight. She looked down deep below and saw that without the drawbridge been down there was absolutely no means of either entry or escape. This was going to be even more difficult than she imagined.
A guard walking along beside her pointed to the highest tower from which light emitted even at this very late hour and said,
“That will be your new home.” He smiled with a sneering twist on his face as she looked up at it. She didn’t have long to look up, however, as the ear shattering creak of the drawbridge being pulled back up called all of their attention to them. Nera looked through the gap as it dwindled and wondered would she ever see the outside world again.
