by Josie Litton
“A little respect, if you please.” He flicked a non-existent mote of dust from his shirt. “I’m familiar with all that America’s Princess crap but the fact is that you’re nothing but my cousin’s whore.”
He closed the distance between us until he was standing directly in front of me, so near that I could see the flare of his nostrils. Despite the coolness of the room, he was sweating. When he reached out toward me again, I needed all my strength to stay still. His fingers twined around a strand of my hair, pulling it taut enough to hurt.
“How did you enjoy your time in the tower on Malta, Grace?” he asked, bending closer. His breath smelled of alcohol, cognac, I suspected. I wondered how much he’d had to drink.
“Did you find it…pleasurable?” he went on. “When this is over, I’m going to take you back there. We can experience it together.”
The thought of being touched intimately by him sent a tsunami of revulsion through me. I swallowed hard against the nausea rising in my throat.
Sebastian glanced at a guard standing nearby. “Bring him in.”
A blade of ice cold fear cut through me. Please God, not Adam! It couldn’t be him. No…
My heart clenched. I couldn’t breathe or think, couldn’t do anything except stand frozen as a man was dragged into the room and thrown onto his knees in front of Sebastian. He, too, was wearing fatigues but his were matted with blood and dirt. He’d been beaten so badly that one of his eyes was sealed shut and his nose broken.
As horrified as I was by his appearance, relief flooded me when I realized that he was a stranger. But that faded quickly. Rolf’s warning that the man who had shot Adam would pay with his life roared through my mind in the instant before Sebastian drew a gun from the holster on his belt.
“Don’t look away, Grace,” he chided. “I want you to see this.”
Without the slightest hesitation, he cocked the gun, aimed it, and blew the back of the man’s head off.
Blood and gore exploded outward, striking me. I screamed in horror. Black spots swirled in front of my eyes. The room was closing in from all sides. I had to escape but there was no way out.
The man lay motionless face down on the floor. Blood poured from the gaping wound. One eye was still open, staring sightlessly at me.
This couldn’t be happening! I was living a nightmare but not one that I had any hope of waking from.
I doubled over, racked by dry heaves that left me gasping. Tears of terror and revulsion poured down my face.
“Put her back in the hole,” Sebastian ordered. Returning the gun to the holster, he smiled as I was jerked upright and forced to face him. “Think about this while you’re in there, Grace: The next time you have someone’s brains sprayed all over you, they will be Adam’s. You’ll watch him die, I promise. But not until you’ve begged me to kill him.”
His eyes glittered with a light as mad as any I had seen in Grandmother or anyone else. Running his gaze over me, he said, “I won’t do that until you’ve pleased me. In all manner of ways.” His lips curled into a sneer. “We’ll have to get you cleaned up before then. At the moment, you’re rather disgusting.”
Chuckling, he turned and walked out of the room.
I was still sobbing when the heavy hatch of the oubliette slammed shut, plunging me once again into darkness.
Chapter Three
Adam
Gritting my teeth, I said, “Just do it, all right?”
Rolf frowned. We were standing in the gym, formerly a salon, of the Paris residence built for one of my ancestors in the 17th century. From the windows, I could see beyond the Ile St. Louis to one of the handful of bridges that connected it to the rest of the city. Homes on the small island in the middle of the Seine were few, discreet and ultra-luxurious, occupied by people like myself who valued their privacy and had the means to protect it.
We’d arrived after dark from the clinic in Switzerland. I’d slept a few hours, waking in a cold sweat from nightmares about Grace. The details were mercifully obscure but that made no difference. With every passing moment, my fear for her grew.
Only the raging hunger of the monster inside me surpassed it. I’d had a chance to kill Sebastian on the field of honor in Malta and I’d let it go, fearing that Grace would turn from me in revulsion. I would never make that mistake again. In a choice between my needs and her life, there was no choice at all.
Rolf finished injecting the steroids into my shoulder and stepped back. “That’s it. Any more and you’re asking for trouble.”
I knew he was right but I didn’t care. The steroids, along with the pain killers I was taking, meant that I could function at a far higher level than would have been possible otherwise. At least for a short time. After that it wouldn’t matter.
I flexed my arm, noting objectively that the doctor was correct, there didn’t appear to be any tendon or nerve damage. Still, it was just as well that I was right handed.
Nearby, my trainer was waiting. Jacob had made his own assessment of my condition and was prepared with fighting strategies to get around it. In the event that it came down to hand-to-hand combat, I’d be as ready as humanly possible.
Gunther had also flown in from Malta the night before. The weapons master was devising his own solutions for the attack that I had to believe would happen soon.
In the soundproofed basement of the house, a handpicked team was preparing to assault Sebastian’s location as soon as we knew it. Every part of Paris that my cousin had ever been associated with was under scrutiny. Allies inside the Sûreté--the French police force--and other security branches were cooperating fully. However unhappy they were about being the host city for a full-blown battle between rival factions of the Falzon dynasty, they weren’t about to get in our way.
Yet still the moments wore on and all I felt was the dead weight of silence. Finally, it was too much.
“What if we’re wrong,” I said, “and he isn’t here?”
What if he was hundreds of miles away, even thousands, in a place I hadn’t anticipated and wasn’t preparing for? What if we had to go in blind when the time came? What chance then of saving Grace?
Fear filled me. The monster ate it with relish, turning it into fuel for rage.
“Your cousin isn’t a blank slate,” Rolf said quietly.
He was still being careful of me, trying to gauge how far over the edge I was likely to go. More than anyone else, he’d seen what that could mean. Not that he would think of attempting to stop me; Rolf was far too loyal for that. But he would try to limit the carnage as much as possible.
I had no problem with that, not so long as the one person I had to kill was no longer breathing by the next turn of the sun.
“Sebastian is a man like any other with a personal history that makes him at least somewhat predictable,” Rolf went on. “It stands to reason that he’s gone to ground where he feels strongest and most secure. That’s right here. He’s nearby. I’m sure of it.”
I took a breath and let it out slowly. Rolf was right but he was only reminding me of what I already knew. As much as weapons and training, victory in battle came down to human psychology. The master of the art of war, Sun Tzu himself, wrote: If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.
My father had taught me that. Now was not the time to forget it.
More calmly, I said, “Then what’s he waiting for? It’s been almost forty-eight hours.”
“He knows that you’re wounded. If he acts too soon, he could face an attack that doesn’t include you. Instead, he’ll wait until he thinks that you’re just strong enough to come yourself.”
Unstated, but nonetheless understood, was that Sebastian intended to lure me out while I was still too weak to defeat him. The only question was how he meant to do it.
Meanwhile, Grace was at his mercy. Fury burned in me, pure, cleansing, bringing me back into focus. I stood and flexed my shoulder, pleased that it responded to my commands.
&nbs
p; “Do we know where Eloise Utzinger is?” I asked. A man made use of the tools he had, whether he wanted to or not.
If he had any concern about what I intended, Rolf didn’t show it. “We can find her.”
“Good, bring her here.”
I had no illusion that Sebastian could be coerced into trading his fiancée for Grace. Their relationship was strictly one of mutual self-interest with no hint of deeper feelings. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t make use of Eloise.
After all, I was very good at using women. I’d done that to Grace from the first moment we met.
~~~~~~~~~~~
A string quartet was playing something by Mozart. People were chatting and smiling. The scents of the lush floral arrangements on each table wafted on the air.
I scarcely noticed. All my attention was drawn to the man who stood before me.
His features were beautifully male--a wide, square jaw balanced by a full, sensuous mouth, broad cheekbones and the slashing blade of a nose set between eyes that were a startling arctic blue. He might have been too perfect to be real but instead he appeared stunningly, even savagely human. The living, breathing, essence of masculinity.
“I didn’t mean to startle you.” The deep warmth of his voice curled through me. I felt delight at his presence but with it came a dark undertow of concern.
“What brings you here?” I asked.
He raised a brow, as though surprised that I didn’t know. “Penguins, of course.”
Just as he spoke, one of the fussy little birds waddled past, followed quickly by a dozen more, all hurrying along. The last of them was clutching a pocket watch and muttering, "Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!"
That was wrong, surely? It should have been a white rabbit, not a penguin. I wasn’t Alice and there was no looking glass but something was badly off all the same.
“Don’t you like penguins?” Adam asked. That possibility seemed to concern him.
“Yes, of course I do. Who doesn’t…”
My gaze trailed after them. Through a gap in a wall, I saw into another room. The people there were writhing naked in a pit. Nearby a man lay unmoving on the ground. The back of his head was missing.
Feared curled around the edges of my awareness. “I have to go,” I said.
“Wait.” Adam stepped closer, shrinking the distance between us to almost nothing. His touch was cool and light but it sent a bolt of heat through me. I had to fight the urge to bend closer into his hand, silently pleading for more.
“Don’t be afraid,” he said. “It won’t be much longer now.”
Far from being comforted, I felt only terror. Not for myself but for him. Bright red drops were falling on the floor. They crept over my feet and ankles, up my legs until they became a bloody wave, pulling me under.
My lungs were empty; I couldn’t breathe. Adam was gone and without him, I was lost. Salt mingled with the taste of iron on my tongue, in my throat, choking me. My struggles grew weaker until finally, stripped of will and hope, I surrendered to the darkness.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
A fine mist of water touched my face. Slowly, painfully, I opened my eyes.
Shapes swam into view. With them came the realization that I was no longer in the oubliette. Instead, I was being dragged along by two men who were holding me upright. In the near distance, I heard what sounded like waves splashing and a strange, thumping rhythm that I couldn’t identify.
Darkness exploded suddenly into harsh white light. The glare sent waves of pain crashing through my head and temporarily blinded me. When I could finally see, Sebastian was standing in front of me.
“How are you, Grace?” he asked with faux solicitude. “You look a little worse for wear, frankly.”
I cleared my throat, fought for strength and said, “You know that you’re crazy, right? I’m an expert on that and trust me, you’re textbook.”
“Really? Yet you’re the one who’s been spreading your legs for the man who kidnapped you. Honestly, Grace, I worry that you may have psychological issues.”
A chill ran through me. He knew how Adam and I had begun? If he also knew the motives behind Adam’s actions and he informed my family of them, the results would be devastating. Even if Adam defeated Sebastian, he could still be doomed.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said, hoping against hope that he would believe me.
He laughed. “Do you honestly think that I would go up against my cousin without first discovering everything I could about his weaknesses? While I was rotting in that hospital--”
His index finger fluttered over the scar on his face. “--recovering from what he did to me, associates of mine persuaded one of the servants on Malta to talk. I was genuinely amazed by what that woman, Maria revealed rather than let her daughter and grand-daughter die.”
Maria! So far as I knew, she and Rolf were the only other two people who knew the truth of what had happened on Malta. But the woman who had brought me food and otherwise tried her best to take care of me while I was in the cell was utterly loyal to Adam. Or at least she had been until forced to choose between that loyalty and her loved ones.
My throat clenched. I could hardly manage to speak. “Are they…?”
“Dead? No, not yet, I kept them alive on the chance that they could still be useful. But once this is over--” He shrugged. “I don’t see any real purpose for them.”
Especially not when they could testify to the lengths that he had been willing to go to in order to usurp Adam’s position. At least some members of the global ruling elite--the people Sebastian considered his peers--would be wary of a man whose actions were so blatant that they could taint by association their own pose of righteous superiority. There would be events to which he would not be invited, discussions from which he would be excluded, and opportunities forever barred to him.
I wondered how he intended to avoid all that if he did succeed in becoming head of the Falzon family through treachery and murder. But really, it wouldn’t be difficult. As a Delaney, I’d seen firsthand how people could be tricked into believing a completely false narrative. Assuming, that was, that no one remained alive to call out the lies.
“They’ve served your family for generations.” My throat clenched painfully. Deep inside, a felt a wave of despair building remorselessly.
“It’s a new world,” Sebastian said, dismissing centuries of tradition with a flick of his hand. “There are new priorities. You, on the other hand, still have a definite use.”
His eyes narrowed. He studied me with the intensity reserved for the rarest and most exotic of specimens. “Adam has never been other than casual about any woman. But you…he kidnaps you, keeps you in the tower on Malta that is dedicated to erotic excess, then follows you to New York. Let’s hope that his devotion proves equal to the task of saving you.”
“He’s still alive?” I could barely give voice to the question, tormented as I was by fear of what had happened after I risked all to save him. Had it been in time?
“I certainly hope so. I’ll be quite annoyed if I’ve gone to all this trouble for nothing. Speaking of which, we really must move on.”
He stepped to the side, revealing what was behind him. I stared at the large metal frame standing in the center of the room. At least five feet wide and twice as long, it held a vat made of thick glass and filled with water deep enough for a person to drown in.
That would have been ominous enough but when I raised my gaze and saw what hung above the vat, partly submerged in it, terror ripped through me.
“I did say that we’d get you clean, didn’t I?” Sebastian said just before he drew a knife and began to slowly, methodically cut away my clothes.
Chapter Four
Adam
“Miss Utzinger.” I inclined my head slightly as I observed the woman being shown into my study.
With her blond hair tightly wound in a chignon, her pale skin, her rigorously toned body, and her untouchable air, Eloise had all the frozen
perfection of a life-sized ice sculpture. Only in her case, I doubted that anything could ever melt her.
Certainly not Sebastian, in whom she had shown nothing other than the most pragmatic interest. My cousin was young, rich, good looking, presumably virile and the bearer of an ancient name. That was enough to persuade her to accept when their union was proposed. By a team of lawyers, as I recalled, representing our two families.
At the time, I found no fault with such a cold blooded approach to matrimony. But then I’d been completely ignorant of what it truly meant to care for a woman.
“I was on the way to my hairdresser,” she said, taking a seat across the desk from me. Eloise showed no sign of nervousness. Her principle emotion appeared to be mild annoyance. Calmly, she smoothed her skirt and crossed shapely legs.
“Your men were rather rude,” she added.
With no attempt at sincerity, I said, “My apologies. A situation has come up.”
I knew that she had visited Sebastian once while he was in the private clinic outside of London. What she made of the wound I had inflicted on him or the permanent scar it would leave, I had no idea. But I was certain that she knew about the duel, even if he hadn’t told her himself. The world of families at our level of wealth and power was simply too small for any such event to be kept secret.
Whether she was also aware of this new challenge from him, had perhaps even conspired to advance the status of the man she was shortly to marry, remained to be seen. But whatever the case, it made no difference. If she had information that could help me find Grace, she was going to provide it.
“When did you last see Sebastian?” I asked.
Her perfectly threaded eyebrows arched. “Surely, you’ve been keeping track of him?”
“I was until he vanished from the clinic. Two days ago, he reappeared. In the course of launching an attack against me, he took a hostage. I want her back.”
Surprise flashed behind her eyes. “A woman? That’s what this is about?”
