by Ava Benton
“Damn it. We were too late.”
For what, I didn’t know. To anticipate what Davison might do. To get her out of there in case he decided to tear the place apart, brick by brick. Not that Mary would ever allow that, but she didn’t need a new war to fight. There was already enough of that in her life.
“You’d better go in with your mother,” I advised Martina. “Or make sure none of the girls come out.”
“I will.”
She hung back while I continued across the lobby and out the door to join Gate and the rest.
I got there just in time to watch two long, black cars glide down the wide, gravel driveway and into the circle which surrounded a grand, marble fountain. Gate shot me a knowing look, which I returned. We both knew what was at stake in this.
The hair on the back of my neck stood up, and the dragon waited, watching, ready to burst out and wreak havoc at the slightest sign of danger. Not just to myself—I could deal with that—but to her.
What if he tried to take her back? What was she trying to tell me before Martina came in? Something terrible had to happen to push her as far as she’d gone. She’d lied because she was afraid of being sent back to him. When I thought of that and the photos in that file of Mary’s, I could understand why.
The lead car stopped first, the doors opening.
Three men in black suits stepped out, scanning the area from behind dark sunglasses. Did he need this much protection? Probably, considering the things he’d done and how many enemies he had. His wife had learned about that the hard way.
One of them men opened the back door to the second car, and a tall, thin man stepped out. In contrast to his men, he wore a white suit.
And he was much too young to be Richard Davison. A representative? Perhaps a man as powerful as him didn’t have the time to fetch his things in-person.
He approached us, peeling off his sunglasses to reveal eyes which at first glance reminded me of cold, lifeless marbles. He looked us up and down, then took in his surroundings.
The way his mouth curled up into a slight sneer told me all I needed to know about his opinion.
“Good afternoon. I’m looking for a young woman who went missing several days ago.”
I looked at Gate, who looked at the others.
We shrugged.
“This resort isn’t open for business, you see,” I explained, the lie rolling easily off my tongue. For the first time, I felt comfortable while making up a story. “We’re performing renovations at the moment. The only people here are people we know.”
He looked around again, the sneer on his thin mouth spreading.
I detested him, the rattlesnake.
My dragon stood on-guard, all instincts warning me to keep my distance. Whoever this guy was, he was bad news.
“In a place as big as this, you don’t think it possible to lose track of a young woman?”
“Who is this young woman, exactly?” Gate asked, positioning himself between us. “So we know who to keep an eye out for.”
Our visitor waited for a beat, holding my gaze in a steel grip before turning his attention to Gate. “My fiancée, to be exact.”
Disgust hit me like a ton of bricks, threatening to crush me under the weight.
Don’t show it, don’t show it.
My hands curled into fists, something I could only hope wasn’t noticeable.
Her fiancé.
She was engaged to this piece of shit in his linen suit, with his crew of bodyguards around him and an air of untouchability following his every movement. She had agreed to marry him? It hardly seemed possible. She wasn’t the type. Or was she? How would I know?
My dragon insisted she wasn’t his, she never was, she didn’t belong to a man like him.
The dragon was right, as always.
I wondered if his hands had touched her, if he had used her for his pleasure. I would tear those hands from his wrists and make him eat them while I watched.
“What’s her name?” Tamhas asked.
“Savannah Davison. Twenty-five, dark-haired. We found her Jeep not far from a cliff several miles down the beach and have been searching the area for her.”
“A cliff?” I winced. “That doesn’t sound promising.”
“Just the same,” he muttered, nearly snarling at me.
If only he knew who he was playing with. He’d stain that suit in the blink of an eye.
He raised a brow. “Search crews never found a body, so there’s still hope.”
“And we hope she’s found safe,” Gate replied. “Is there a way we can contact you if we see her?”
Rattlesnake’s gaze lingered on me for a beat as he pulled a card from his pocket. “Here you go. My private number.”
“Thank you, Mr.—”
“Please. Just call me Antonio,” he said, flashing Gate a tight, perfunctory smile before turning away. His men made it a point to stare at us a few extra moments before they, too, returned to their cars.
“By the way,” he called out, stopping just before ducking inside. “I’ll have to come back and check out your renovations when they’re complete. I’m sure it will be beautiful.”
“Do that,” I replied.
He snickered, shaking his head before disappearing behind the car door.
The energy among the four of us was high as they pulled away.
“How did he not know?” Tamhas muttered.
“Know what?” I asked, staring at the retreating vehicles.
“That we were about to tear him apart.” He turned to me. “There’s something very wrong with him.”
“You noticed, too?” Gate snarled as he turned to go inside. “Of course, you did. Any animal senses a dangerous presence.”
We followed him.
I was the last to go. I wanted to be sure Antonio and his lackeys did indeed leave.
Klaus and a few of his men were waiting just inside the doors, and all of them looked poised and ready to go on the offensive. “I don’t like him,” he growled.
“Join the club.” I looked down the hall, toward the room in which Savannah waited.
She didn’t know he was looking for her. Or perhaps she did. Perhaps that was why she didn’t want to speak. The truth was unspeakable.
“And there we were, thinking her father was the threat.”
Gate watched me as he spoke, I felt his eyes on me.
“We got rid of him,” I reminded him, though I knew as well as he that it didn’t matter.
Antonio was suspicious. Men like him had to be, didn’t they? Or else they might end up dead. And he didn’t like us, which was another reason for him to pay attention to our doings. He sensed the threat from us as we sensed it from him. He was an animal, too, if not in the literal sense. A creature who survived on instinct.
“Do you think he’ll return?” It was clear from the way he gritted his teeth that Tamhas was ready for a fight. Always a hotheaded one.
“There’s no telling,” Klaus decided, “but we’ll keep a watch for him, nonetheless. It would be wise to keep two sentries on-duty at each entrance. I’m sure Mary would agree.”
“She would.” The woman herself strode toward us, suddenly looking older than she had only an hour earlier. We had brought the devil to her door—or, rather, I had. “I had no idea we were dealing with him, too. She said nothing about him?”
I shook my head. “I didn’t exactly get much of a chance to ask questions before he showed up. But I will now, you can bet.”
“Do, please.” She held out her hand, and Gate handed her Antonio’s card without being told to. She had that sort of command. “I’ll see what I can find on him.”
And I’d do the same. I went back to Savannah with a resolve I hadn’t felt before. Because after meeting him, it was serious. It was real. He wasn’t a photo of a man or stories of who’d died as a result of his violent temper. He was flesh and blood, and he thought she belonged to him.
He was wrong about that.
I took a
deep breath and willed the dragon to quiet down as I approached the room. I’d only overwhelm her if I let him take control. She’d had enough of men like Antonio. If I pushed too hard, I’d only push her away. I reminded myself of this as I reached her door
It was open.
The bed was empty.
She was gone.
My shoes slapped on the floor as I ran to the game room, hoping against hope she’d be in there with the girls.
She wasn’t. None of them were. Maybe they had taken her to their rooms, which sat on the other side of the building.
Gate caught up with me. “What is it?”
“She’s not in her room.”
“Shit.” He ran to Mary’s office while I continued down the corridor, my heart racing as I sprinted through otherwise empty passageways.
Images flashed through my mind as I ran. Had someone snuck in somehow and taken her? Had she tried to run away and gotten herself caught? Anything could’ve happened, especially after Mary had left her office and, therefore, the security feed. I should’ve stayed with her. I should’ve protected her. I had failed.
“Have you seen her?” I barked after nearly colliding with Leslie.
“What? No. What’s wrong?” She ran after me, but I didn’t bother explaining.
I didn’t have anything to explain. All I knew was Savannah was missing, and it was my fault because I should’ve guarded her room. I should’ve known better than to trust anyone else with her.
Leslie sprinted to Ainsley and Isla as we passed them, and all three ran off in search of our missing guest.
I burst outside, looking in all directions as one after another grisly situation played out in my mind.
What would he do to her? What would he make her do?
The dragon raged and thrashed and demanded vengeance even without knowing for certain what had transpired. I was tempted to let him loose, because I couldn’t stand the strain as a thinking, rational man.
“Miles!” It was Ainsley, coming back from the beach. She was pointing, jumping up and down.
I flew down the path and found the wheelchair sitting on its side, with Ainsley scanning the water.
“Where the hell did she go?” I shouted, hands on top of my head.
“There!” She pointed to what looked like nothing but a speck on the water, far out.
“Damn her.” I didn’t hesitate to run for the water, then dive and swim as hard as I could.
My legs pumped for all they were worth and my lungs were fairly ready to burst each time I came up for air.
She was still there, closer now, floating on her back.
“Savannah!” I gasped, hoping against hope that she would come to her senses before the current pulled her much farther out.
I could feel it tugging at me as I continued my swim, arms, and legs working in tandem, my heart close to exploding from the exertion. Or the panic. But I was getting closer. I was almost at her side.
“Leave me alone!” she cried as I approached, waving her good arm as though that could keep me away. “Please! Don’t make me! Don’t!”
“Don’t make you?” I gasped, treading water. “Don’t make you what? Come on, we have to get back.”
“No! I won’t go back to him. You can’t make me! Please, just let me die. Let me die, Miles. It’ll be easier this way.”
I had never in my life heard a more heartbroken plea, or one which tore at me so.
“Savannah, nobody will make you go back to anyone. I promise you that.” I took hold of her waist, pulling her body closer to mine.
She trembled, muscles jumping.
“I swear to you on my life, Savannah Davison. I will not ever make you go back to him—not I, nor any of my kin. I swear it.”
“You swear?”
“I do. And I will not let you end yourself this way, or any way. You will not die, and you will not come to any harm while I’m with you. But you need to let me stay with you. You cannot leave me the way you just did. Don’t ever do this again.”
Her wide, deep, tear-swollen eyes searched my face for some sign of truth. She must have found it, because she nodded before winding her good arm around my neck.
I swam us back to shore, ignoring the wheelchair in favor of carrying her back inside.
The soaked dress clung to her as tight as she clung to me. As we clung to each other.
She rested her head on my shoulder. “I need your help,” she whispered, sounding for all the world like a lost little girl.
“I know you do. And you’ll get it,” I promised, even as I was unsure how I’d follow through.
12
Savannah
I couldn’t stop blushing as Martina and Ainsley bustled around, drying and helping me dress.
“I can do this myself,” I reminded them more than once, though we all knew that wasn’t true. I was helpless—and, thanks to my swim, both of my casts were soaked through and heavier than ever.
“They’re useless now,” Ainsley mourned, shaking her head. “But all is well. You wouldn’t be needing them for long.”
I looked up at her in time to see Martina’s sharp look.
It was Ainsley’s turn to blush. She turned away.
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know what I’m talking about. You know me. I prattle on and on without thinking.”
That was a load of bull, and I knew it.
Martina glared at the back of her head.
“Sure,” I mumbled, trying like hell to work myself into a dry dress. My hair hung in snarls down my back, which Martina tried to work out. “It’s okay. I can handle a hairbrush,” I assured her as she pulled at a particularly tough spot hard enough to make me wince in pain.
Once I was dressed again, they left me on my own.
I settled against the pillows and cursed myself for being so stupid. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, wheeling myself out while nobody was watching me and I could get to the beach unnoticed. Wheeling myself with one good arm, using my good leg to steer when necessary, dragging myself across the sand. I had been so sure they were going to lead whoever had come looking for me straight to the bed in which I was waiting.
I was wrong about them. Wrong about so many things.
Like Miles. I was very wrong about him. I should’ve known he was too kind, too protective to send me back to my old life.
I’d mistaken his intensity for the possessiveness I had struggled under for so long. He deserved more credit than that.
I closed my eyes when the memory of him carrying me to my room teased the corners of my mind. It wasn’t right for my heart to pick up speed when I recalled his unyielding chest, his bulging arms. They’d held me so close, but there wasn’t a hint of roughness in them. He was strong enough to keep me safe, even if he was protecting me from myself. I had nothing to fear.
For once, there was nothing to fear. I didn’t know what to think about that. There had always been something—at least, ever since Mama died.
I’d lived in a state of oblivion up to that point, a spoiled little girl to whom nothing was denied. She had listened to my stories, painstakingly written in notebooks, and had always gasped at the suspenseful parts and applauded at the big, heroic climaxes. She had encouraged me, even pushed me in the direction of my little-girl dreams. I was fearless then. I could conquer the world.
“Can I come in?”
I hadn’t noticed Miles’s knock at the door.
I should’ve been expecting him. He had to come to me, didn’t he? There was too much left unspoken. I put down the hairbrush and hoped I didn’t look too terrible, the mirror was out of range, so I couldn’t possibly know.
He sat—this time, he ignored the chair and perched on the edge of the bed, instead, near my knees. “How are you?”
“Feeling sheepish,” I admitted.
His smile was mercifully small. And kind. “You had your reasons. I’m sorry for them.”
“You risked yourself to pull me out. It was quit
e a swim. If you had drowned…”
“I’m a strong swimmer, and it was a calculated risk. Besides, you’re worth it.” He stared at me with an intensity that took my breath away.
I told myself I should look away, that it was too much. Only I couldn’t. I couldn’t even close my eyes to break the connection. What was he doing to me?
My laugh was weak, uneasy. “How can you say that, when I’ve been nothing but trouble since you first spotted me?”
“You think you’ve been trouble? Perhaps we need to get that out of the way now. You’re no trouble. Just the opposite.”
“How can you say that, after everything I’ve put you through so far?”
“I can. That’s all.”
It made no sense, but I knew he meant it. I knew it the way I knew he wouldn’t hurt me, that he’d meant it when he said he would always protect me—so long as I didn’t do anything to hurt myself.
“You never told me who was out there. Who came for me.”
His eyebrows shot up. “Who told you?”
“Nobody had to. I just… knew it. That was when I knew I had to get out of here.”
“Do you realize how dangerous it was for you to leave your room? What if he had seen you?”
“Who?”
His face darkened. “Your fiancé.”
“Don’t call him that.”
And in the blink of an eye, it was like the storm clouds parted and the sun came shining in.
“Really? Isn’t that who he is?”
“Technically. According to him and Papa—my father,” I amended.
“But not according to you.”
“No. Definitely not.”
“Why was he looking for you, then?”
“You know why. Because he’s a monster and a pig and he thinks I belong to him, all because my father likes his father and likes whatever work Antonio’s done for him. I shudder to think what that work entailed.” I looked down at my hands, my vision blurring thanks to the tears which threatened to spill over.
Miles’s hand closed over mine, and it felt right. It gave me the courage to keep going.
I took a deep, tearful breath. “He’s terrible.”
“I got that feeling about him. And you were forced to become engaged to him.”
