“It’s not what you think. Wasn’t there audio?” he asked, hopeful.
“No, just a visual feed.”
“Damn it.” Noor cursed underneath his breath.
“Son, whatever went on, Allura sobbed for about an hour, and then she said some very strange things. What does hog tied and whipped mean?”
“Form of Texas torture method. Can you connect me to Allura?”
“You might want to present your apologies in person.”
“I will do that, but I’m about thirty minutes out. There’s a traffic jam up ahead and the freeway is blocked.”
“Hold on a minute.”
Noor waited for what seemed an infinite minute before he heard the bleep that connected him to Allura. He knew she was there. He could hear her breathing.
“Sweetie, it’s not what you think.”
Click.
Noor reconnected. “Don’t you hang up on me. Listen to what I have to say.”
Click.
“Damn it.” He slammed his hand into the console. “Command center, reestablish the link, and I want visual this time.”
“I’m reconnecting, sir.”
Noor drummed his fingers over the console, waiting. Finally, Allura came into view. His stomach grumbled seeing her eyes were red and swollen. “Sweetie, it’s not what you think. I know what you saw, but it’s, ah, complicated to explain.”
“Go to hell.”
“Allura, don’t make this more difficult than it already is. Allow me to explain what you witnessed, and then I think you will understand what took place.”
“You had sex with that woman. What more is there to know?”
“I didn’t sleep with her. Well, yes, I did, but not for the reason you believe. It was work and a necessary evil, if that makes any sense.” It didn’t seem logical hearing the excuse aloud, but it was too late to retract the numskull statement.
“Jesus, I may not be from your world, but that doesn’t make me stupid. How could you do it?”
“It was an assignment. I had to get information out of Denny, and sometimes it’s necessary for me to do things I’m not proud of. If there was any other way, don’t you think I would have done it? The last thing you can expect from me is to be unfaithful.”
“Unfortunately, my expectations of you are at the lowest level,” she said tersely.
“I can respect that. For what happened, you shouldn’t give me any slack. You are everything to me, Allura, and the last thing I would do is intentionally hurt you.”
Allura glowered at him. Cynicism rolled from her lips. “Well, you have a funny way of showing you care for me. God, what would you do if you actually loved me, sleep with a harem?”
“That is bullshit and you know it,” he snapped, angrier with himself than her.
“In the scheme of things, it really doesn’t matter at this point.”
Noor’s eyes darkened. His body stiffened. He spoke with forced inflection and said, “Explain what you mean, but think about what you say before opening your mouth.”
“Believe you me, mister, I have had plenty of time to think about what I would say to you when we were face to face. Honestly, I’m happy you aren’t anywhere near me. My son and I are leaving Magnus, so you go ahead an-an-and ‘conduct business’ all you want. I just will not be here when you get finished with your deceitful, immoral behavior.”
The threat was empty. Allura had nowhere to go. That didn’t mean her words didn’t rake Noor raw and put him in a testier mood than he already felt. He was pissed off for the stupid blunder with Denny that never should have happened. Foremost, the fear of Allura’s intimidation tactic weighed heavier in his mind. Whom could he blame but himself? Overall, he tried to focus on that fact and not go off on a tangent, which he sensed frothing on the cusp as his temper rose.
“Don’t. We will discuss this when I get home,” he stated.
“Sure, I will just sit here and twiddle my thumbs and await your arrival. I will be on pins and needles until you get here.”
He ignored her sarcasm. “What do you want me to say?”
“For starters, you can apologize.”
“I’m sorry—damn it, things got out of control.”
“You know what? I feel so much better.”
“I don’t appreciate your flippant attitude. This is serious.” His voice held a slight edge.
“And you, Noor Rynoir, can go to hell,” she bristled.
Noor sounded wary. “We will talk when I get home.”
“I won’t be here.”
The line severed. Noor contemplated, trying to relink, and then didn’t bother. No matter what he said, Allura was furious with him. He would wait until she had time to cool off and maybe, just maybe, when he came home, she might be in a better position to listen to reason. All he could do was hope. Okay, and pray a little. What he wouldn’t do was allow Allura to continue and force an intense argument. He understood her anger—he just wasn’t accepting it long term. Perhaps for a measurable amount of time, but then his expectations would be for them to put this nastiness behind them.
Yeah, right. Of all things, he had to remember whom he was dealing with.
* * * *
Noor bound down the hallway to his suite and entered, expecting to find Allura ready for a fight. One glance around, and he abruptly halted, realizing the apartment was empty. Striding to the back rooms, it was apparent Allura had vacated the premises. It was obvious she had fled and took Zephyr with her. He checked anyway. The nursery was empty. Seeing her pistol was gone solidified in his mind that she considered herself on the run. But the Rynoir compound was huge and there weren’t many options for her to escape to except maybe if she went to Pulura’s housing. The last thing he wanted was a confrontation with Channing.
Pulura answered her interlink on the first connection. He didn’t bother with a greeting. “Is Allura there?”
“No, I haven’t seen her since this morning when we went shopping. Why?”
“It seems my wife has taken a leave of absence and neglected to inform me. I will talk with you later, Auntie.” Noor made a call to the ground security center. “Do you have a visual of Allura anywhere in the compound?” He didn’t like the man’s response. The only way Allura’s presence wouldn’t have been detected would be if she went beyond the monitored perimeter. Unsure how she managed that, not that it made any difference, there were things outside the gates that could be dangerous. He activated Allura’s honing device in case she materialized within frequency.
He went on the search for his wife. He felt the best-case scenario would be if she went into the wooded area at the edge of the gardens in hopes of finding some solitude. On more than one occasion, she expressed an interest in visiting the vast terrain to explore. Determined, he would try to seek her out there first. What he wasn’t sure about was what he’d do to her when he found her. He had bluntly forbidden Allura to enter the woodlands without him or an escort. If he didn’t miss the hell out of her, he might strangle the hot-blooded minx when he found her for disobeying him
Chapter Forty-five
Allura wandered around with Zephyr bundled in her arms and considered the situation facing her. At the present, she was not only furious with Noor, but she was also lost in the untamed wilderness that surrounded the Rynoir backyard. Normally, she relied on a decent sense of direction, but the overwhelming landscape that made up the Rynoir compound wasn’t easily managed. The direction of the sun would have helped her judge how far she had gone. Two suns, both high in the sky, one east and west, left her facing the possibility, like with everything else on this blasted planet, she couldn’t put her faith in judging her location by using tactics she would in Legend. Never would she find herself aimlessly walking around, probably in idiot circles, having no idea which direction led home.
Home? The sense of the word seemed foreign to Allura now. Home was where she found joy with Noor and Zephyr, a place of comfort. Knowing she had a lying, cheating husband exhausted that w
himsical dream she foolishly allowed to take hold.
Everything inside hurt. Seeing Noor with that woman made her feel smacked upside the head and stomped on by a team of wild stallions. It hurt to breathe. Having a discussion with Channing might have helped if she felt like hearing his lecture, fury, all the above, but her brother would have exacerbated the tumult of emotions that already simmered on the surface. Isolation was what she needed most. To think, not feel, or attempt to reason out the possibility that Noor didn’t love her after all. She mustn’t forget that with everything else, she had been an assignment to begin with, and no more than a task to him. The culpability she felt solely weighed on her head for foolishly falling in love with Noor.
Was she so mistaken in reading him wrong? In her heart of hearts, she knew Noor loved her. If nothing else, her keen sense of intuition spoke volumes, and until she saw the image of him with that woman, no one could have convinced her differently.
Perhaps, because she wanted something so desperately, she allowed her mind to play mean-spirited and devastating tricks on her. Certainly, she felt bamboozled because she had hopelessly dropped her guard and succumbed to Noor’s lure because it was what she wanted. Easily, he reciprocated her affection, but she suspected it was a pretentious farce to gain his way seemed more suspect given what happened. Infuriated by Noor’s action, she felt repulsed with outrage and equally saddened that she knew when he returned she couldn’t face him.
Morose, solemn, and feeling bitter about her circumstances, Allura was out of character. She felt deprived of the gumption required to stand up to Noor, knowing perhaps that it was a futile battle she didn’t care to attempt. She couldn’t take his lies. Her heart was destroyed. The preference now was for him to simply drive a stake through it and allow her to bleed out—in hindsight, much easier to deal with than hearing Noor’s admission that their entire life together was merely a pretense.
Zephyr wiggled, signaling for attention. Allura whispered to him softly, assuring him his meal was coming. Settling against a large tree trunk that offered shade and a place to rest, she fed her baby. Putting off the daunting truths, focusing on the important matters, she hugged her son to her breast, covered him from the elements with a wrap, and closed her eyes.
Surrounded in harmony, peace might ease her temperament.
Chapter Forty-six
A fit of nerves didn’t describe Noor’s present state when he circled, backtracked, and searched the same locations it seemed a hundred times, finding no signs of Allura. Not given to panic, he felt the adrenaline pumping through his veins like venom, burning him with reality. She was gone.
He connected to the family network, scanning all frequencies until he picked up every one of the Rynoir male members. He broadcast his message collectively. “Allura and Zephyr are missing.”
Within minutes, four figures materialized and stood before Noor.
Tier Rynoir said, “I’ve already sent out a search party to scout the area. More eyes and ears might help.”
“How long has she been gone?” Angel asked.
“Too damned long,” he said.
Aris said, “As soon as you called, I contacted Solomon. He has a wide reach outside of Magnus, and if Allura possibly entered into one of the surrounding cities, he will keep an eye out.”
Noor knew Solomon had resources, and it brought him comfort to know his brother-in-law would be on alert for Allura if she made it into Sanguine. She’d have to transport to manage it, but Allura being Allura, he had realized early on not to underestimate her. He nodded agreeing with Aris.
Vale’s spirit seemed upbeat, and he patted Noor on the back. “We will find her. She couldn’t have gotten very far.”
“I searched the area for hours with no indication of her whereabouts,” Noor said, grimly.
“This area is vast, Noor, and you could have overlooked something,” Tier Rynoir said.
“There are a ton of nooks and crannies that Allura could be housed in,” Angel said.
Noor appreciated that his family attempted to ease his discomfort with reassurances. It was too bad that the unsettling feeling inside him escalated as each second passed that something was terribly wrong. “You have anything, Father?”
Tier Rynoir had the most sensitive empathetic ability. If there was any indication Allura was about, he would sense it.
His father frowned, meaning the outlook seemed grimmer by the minute.
“Just how sharp is Allura?” Tier Rynoir asked.
“She is resourceful when she wants her way,” Noor mumbled, disgruntled.
“Is she stubborn and determined?” Tier inquired.
“With all due respect, Allura equals mother in that instance,” he said dourly.
“I think I see where you are going, Father,” Angel said. He looked at Noor. “We probably should search the oceanfront, just in case. With the numerous amounts of people who use the water for sport, it would be easy enough for Allura to catch a ride inland. Once docked, the transportation opportunities are many, dependent where she cares to go.”
Dismay registered on Noor’s face. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
“That’s why you need me,” Angel said, grinning.
The area seemed serene, but on the horizon, Noor noticed the formations in the sky that indicated the weather was about to change. Softly, he said, “We should get moving. I suspect this moment is a lull before all chaos ensues.”
Chapter Forty-seven
Allura huddled Zephyr close to keep him warm. The temperature had dropped substantially, and she cursed her own foolishness for bringing him with her. He was warm and napping cuddled in her arms, but the drips of rain that splashed her cheek signaled she needed to find a dry place to rest before they were caught in a torrential downpour. She’d never forgive herself if Zephyr took ill.
Suddenly, hearing the voice behind her startled Allura and she whirled around and came face to face with a squat, thick-necked, bulldog-featured man. He smiled warmly and bid her hello pleasantly. He was dressed in slacks, a white-collared shirt, and knee-high boots. His appearance wasn’t a cause for alarm. She fingered the pistol that lay heavy in her skirt pocket anyway.
“Can I help you with something, ma’am?”
He had a dialect of southern hospitality that eased her suspicions. “I’m looking for a place to rest and get out of the weather for the evening.”
The man removed his hat and revealed a flock of mousy brown hair graying at the temples. “There’re one or two hotels on the waterfront, but I wouldn’t recommend either. You look like a lady that is accustomed to finer accommodations than the places can provide.”
“I just need a nice bed and heat.” Allura realized she didn’t have a penny to her name. She smiled apologetically. “And some place that is free or can wait for payment. I’m afraid I just realized I took off unprepared.” She had only meant to walk around the forest, but the more she wandered, she found herself farther and farther away from the Rynoirs’ dwelling. Frustrated to no end, she decided the best course of action was to follow the embankment of the water edge. In Legend, where there was water, people were nearby. One thing led to another, and she found herself at what appeared to be a small community of vacationers that she thought she could enlist to get her back to Magnus. Not even sure if she remained there, Allura scanned the location for signs she hadn’t crossed any boundaries. The boat ride hadn’t been long. The cove was wide and lengthy and took many turns. Lord have mercy, she could be anywhere.
“Are you traveling alone?”
“It’s just me and my son.”
The man offered his arm as if they were about to stroll in the park. “I know a man who will allow you to stay with ’em for free,” he chuckled. “Well, ain’t actually no cost, if you know what I mean. You’re purty enough. I’m sure my employer, Mr. Cowl, be more than willing to let you bed on his yacht while he’s docked.”
“Mr. Cowl must be extremely gracious.” Allura took his arm. They walked toward
where a huge luxury craft bobbed and shifted slightly in the water.
“Yep, my employer likes his ladies purty, and you ’bout as adorable as I’ve seen around the cove. If he’s pleased, he might even keep you around a bit. Of course, he pays handsomely for services.”
Allura stopped cold. The reality of what he said…what he meant became transparent. The man intended to trade her like barter.
“You unhand me this instant. There has been a mistake. I have a child.”
“Mr. Cowl has a few of his own offspring. I haven’t known him to be choosy with women with a babe or two. With your looks, I’d bet he would take on a houseful without blinking.”
The man rapped on the door of a cabin before Allura could escape.
Mr. Cowl turned out to be as dark as sin, a stocky, built man who wore his stylish custom fitted suit elegantly. He had dark brown hair neatly cropped, warm brown eyes, and a gorgeous smile that softened the structured lines of his face. Dressed immaculately in the obviously tailored suit that hung comfortably on his expansive shoulders, Allura had a hard time believing this man needed a ruffian to find him women.
“You are splendid.” Mr. Cowl observed Allura with an appeasing eye.
“And you seem like a gentleman, so let’s dispense with the mistake your man has assumed. I’m not for sale. Not only is the notion ridiculous, for god’s sake, I have a child with me…my husband would be greatly displeased to learn my whereabouts.”
“I tend to be a reasonable man, Mrs.…” Mr. Cowl suspected but had to be sure. The missing Mrs. Rynoir was broadcast all over the frequencies he monitored.
Pure Desire [Pure 3] (Siren Publishing Allure) Page 35
