“We’re taking you home.”
Chambers gave me a look which I ignored. I brushed by him and headed to the cockpit.
“We’re diverting,” I told the lead pilot.
“Our instructions are to return—” Chambers argued.
“I don’t give a damn. We’re taking those two to their father.”
“I’ll have to call this in.”
“Don’t bother.” I pulled out my phone and had another short conversation with Xavier. To my surprise, he didn’t resist.
“Put the pilot on the phone,” Xavier said.
I handed the phone to the pilot, then returned to where Clara waited. Plopping down beside her, I let out a sigh.
“We’re taking you home.”
Maceo glanced up. “Thank you.”
“What’s going on?” Chambers stripped out of his combat gear, pulling clips from belt loops and storing his weapons in a secure box. Abrams worked beside him, but said nothing the entire time.
“We’re making a short diversion.”
“Does Xavier know about this?”
“Of course, he does.” These men did nothing without express permission from Xavier. “Have you heard anything about the other kids?”
“Chad radioed in. They have them. Transportation is inbound.”
“Thank fuck for that.”
I could sleep well knowing Marcus and the others wouldn’t fall prey to other villainous men on the streets. Xavier’s team would take care of the kids.
At a signal from the pilot, Chambers and Abrams secured the plane for takeoff.
“You should get some rest.” Clara snuggled against me. “It’s been a long day.”
Adrenaline spiked in my veins and buzzed along my nerves. There was no way I would be sleeping.
“Lay your head on my shoulder.” I kissed the top of her head. “You were amazing.”
“No. You were. You’re a hero.”
I didn’t know about that.
Before we reached altitude, Clara slept soundly with her head on my shoulder. The twins spoke softly amongst themselves while Chambers and Abrams played cards. I sat and closed my eyes, unable to sleep, but needing rest.
I wasn’t looking forward to my upcoming meeting with Wu. If I brought his children home, I might live, but I doubted his promise. I had killed his eldest. In a culture where saving face meant more than forgiveness, he was obligated to take my life.
We landed a few short hours later and Clara stretched beside me. My chest tightened and I sucked in a deep breath. This next part wouldn’t be easy.
I had made a decision during the flight.
One Clara would not appreciate.
Chapter 53
“What do you mean I can’t go with you?” I stamped my foot and couldn’t believe what Josh said.
“You will return to Xavier’s island.”
“But I want to go with you.”
There was a look in his eyes, one which I didn’t like. It had the sense of goodbye and I felt as if I was losing him.
“Clara,” he placed a hand on my arm, “you can’t come with me.”
“Why?” I searched his expression, trying to decide why this felt like the end. “You promise you’ll come back, right?”
He never made a promise he couldn’t deliver.
“Please don’t make a scene, and don’t fight me on this. Wu is not a man I want you anywhere near.”
But he’d let me kneel naked next to Carson? Who was this Wu? Something in my gut said this was wrong, but the determined look on Josh’s face told me this wasn’t a conversation I would win.
We’d landed a few minutes ago and the plane had taxied off the runway. Soon, we would come to a stop. I was losing him.
He took my hands in his and leaned in, pressing our foreheads together. “I love you. Never forget how much I love you. You made me into a better man. You don’t know what that means to me.”
“Well, it means you better come back to me.” I squeezed his hands. “Promise me.”
He pulled back and took a moment to stare at me. It felt as if he were memorizing my face. Saying goodbye.
“No.” I shook my head.
“Clara…” he warned.
“I won’t go unless you promise.”
He leaned forward and brushed his lips over mine.
Chambers opened the door and lowered the stairs to the ground. Outside a sleek SUV waited and two men in black stood guard outside the car.
“I have to go.” He kissed me.
It was both far too short and yet felt as if it lasted an eternity.
“I love you,” I said.
“I love you more.” He turned and gestured to the twins. “Are you ready?”
The twins looked rough, battered, bruised and broken. They held each other’s hand as they walked out of the airplane. I stayed inside with Chambers while Abrams exited the plane behind Josh.
“He’ll be back,” Chambers said. “That man loves you.”
“Then why did that feel like goodbye?”
The twins climbed into the SUV. Josh stood with his hand on the door and looked back to the plane. I waved to him as he slipped inside and shut the door.
Tears welled up in my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. This wasn’t goodbye, and therefore there was no reason to cry. I had to believe that.
Abrams returned and closed the door to the plane, sealing us inside.
“We have a few minutes while we refuel,” Chambers said, “you should get some rest.”
My body had no idea what time it was. From the faint glow on the horizon, dawn was fast approaching, but I didn’t know what time zone we were in or what time zone we were headed to.
Less than an hour later, we were back in the air. I sat alone and stared out the window as the sun crested above the clouds. Sometime later, I was being gently shaken awake.
“We’re landing.” Chambers stood over me.
Abrams was asleep toward the front of the plane. After making sure I was up, Chambers went to wake his friend. We landed and taxied to a stop. The last time I had come here, there had been a blindfold over my head.
I guessed its absence meant I’d been welcomed into the inner circle.
But what kind of circle did that entail?
These were not Josh’s friends; therefore, they weren’t mine.
Chapter 54
The ride to Wu’s estate occurred in silence. Malee cried on and off. Maceo tried his hardest to remain strong for his sister, but I could see the cracks forming the closer we got. This boy had been forever altered by his ordeal. Not that his sister hadn’t suffered, but she had been a victim. Maceo was a victim too, but he had been presented with a choice.
Live or die.
And that did things to a person. I knew.
I lived it.
He would need to learn how to live with the truth within him.
When we approached the iron gates of Wu’s estate, I turned to Maceo. His outer shell was already beginning to crack. The two guards sat up front.
“You did what you had to do to survive.”
His glassy eyes turned to me with the precursors of tears. If this boy broke down in front of his father, it would be a mistake he would never recover from.
“Malee is safe because of you. She’s here…because of you.”
“I did nothing—”
“You did everything. She’s here, isn’t she?”
He looked at me. Stared at me. And slowly, he understood.
The fear and agony…the pain and suffering…he shoved all of it deep inside of himself, swallowing it down with a maturity he should never have found. It took a moment, but he found his center, then he looked at me with inquisitive eyes.
“Who are you?”
There was no reason to lie to the boy. He would know soon enough.
“I’m the one who killed your sister.”
My words were absorbed with a slow blink.
“What are you doing here?”
“Why aren’t you dead?”
“Because your father decided my life still had value.”
“You saved us.”
I had, but this boy didn’t need to listen to me preen.
“I was there for another reason.” My hand patted the pocket of my pants and the cellphone I hoped would help Xavier and Forest with whatever it was they had planned.
“But you saved us.”
“You saved Malee. I was just in the right place at the right time.”
“And yet you’re bringing us to our father? He will kill you.”
“He has that right.”
We said nothing further as the ornate wrought iron gates slowly drew open. The SUV pulled between the massive gates, and we slowly approached Wu’s estate.
He was not outside to greet us.
The guards opened the doors for us. Malee stepped out with her brother shielding her from pretty much everything. I think she was the only thing keeping him in one piece.
The thin robe covering her nakedness blew in the slight breeze and the faintest scent of tropical flowers filled the air, reminding me of Xavier’s estate and the garden guarding the border between his house and the beach.
I had freed Clara on that beach and found my peace there as well. Whatever my future held, I would always have that memory.
The three of us were instructed to head inside. I found that odd, considering this was the twin’s home. They proceeded me up the marble steps. Twin doors, sculpted by the finest woodsmiths, opened wordlessly as we approached.
Maceo held his sister as he ushered her inside.
Standing in the ornate foyer, Wu stood with his feet spread apart and his arms crossed over his chest. He said nothing, keeping his expression solemn, until the doors closed behind us. Then, it was as if a switch flipped inside of him.
The cold, calculating businessman and mob boss disappeared. Arms outstretched, he beckoned his children into his embrace.
I stood there with the guards, awkwardly trying not to intrude on what was a private moment, and unable to leave.
Malee buried her face against her father’s chest and sobbed. Maceo wrapped his arm around his father and placed his forehead against his father’s shoulder. They stood there for what seemed like forever before Wu whispered into his daughter’s ear and said something to his son.
Maceo looked to me.
Wu gave them a hug and then ushered them up the sweeping staircase. Maceo took his sister’s hand in his and slowly led her up to the private areas of the estate.
This left me, Wu, and his two guards flanking me with nowhere to run. Not that I would. My fate resided in this man’s hands.
“You brought my children back to me.”
“I brought Malee and Maceo back to you. Unfortunately, they are no longer children.”
“I understand.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You can’t be sorry for returning what is precious to me.”
“I wasn’t speaking about the twins.”
“I see.” He gave a slow nod, then gestured toward a study to his left. “Please, we have business to discuss.”
I didn’t want to discuss any business with Wu. He was my path to freeing the hooks Kate and Lily sank into me when they took my money. I didn’t want to exchange those for any ties to Wu.
Dammit.
I wanted the freedom to choose my path.
Lead a simple life.
I wanted to breathe.
When the guards tried to follow us inside the study, Wu waved them off and closed the doors himself.
“Please?” He gestured to a chair facing an ornate mahogany desk.
I took the seat and prepared for whatever might come next.
“I want to thank you again for saving my children.”
“I’m afraid I didn’t save them.”
“They will receive the best counseling available to deal with the aftermath.”
Of that, I had no doubt, but counseling couldn’t fix what those kids had endured.
“Which,” Wu continued, “brings me to what to do with you.”
“I told you I would bring your children back.”
“Because you wanted to erase your debt?” His brow lifted.
“I can never repay my debt. I took the life of your daughter. There is no payment which can erase that.”
“I agree. Which makes this an awkward conversation.”
Honor demanded he take my life. An eye for an eye and a life for a life. There was no way I was walking out of here alive.
“If I let you live, it will send the wrong message to my enemies.”
“They will think you’re weak.”
“True, and yet I find myself indebted to you.”
“There is no debt.”
“You say that, but you also once told me you sought redemption. Tell me, why should I allow a man like you to live?”
“Well…” I shifted in the seat and leaned forward. “I’d like to tell you a story.”
“A story?”
“About a man who had nothing to live for until he had everything to lose.”
“I’m listening.”
I began at the beginning, back in my high school days when Jake and Kevin and I had been the best of friends, before I met Wu’s daughter, and didn’t stop until I reached the end.
My voice broke when I recounted the night of my arrest; the night my father tried to force me to torture and rape Kate Summers, the night he told me to murder the woman my brother loved. I told him about my release from prison and the moment I first set eyes on Clara. I ended with three words.
“I love her.”
“I respect that.” Wu pinched at his chin. “But there’s still the matter of your death.”
Chapter 55
It had been three days without any word from Josh. My entire existence felt disconnected, like I was waiting in a bubble where time didn’t exist. Any moment, I expected Josh to turn a corner in one of the many endless halls of Xavier’s estate, or emerge from the tropical gardens and step onto the beach.
I would look up and he would smile. Then I’d be running. Flying into his arms. We would embrace. Our kiss would be epic. And he would twirl me in a huge circle. His eyes would light up and a smile would fill his face.
I thought about that at least a hundred times a day.
And I did run into him, or rather his identical twin. Each time, my heart did a double take once it realized the vision in front of me was not My Monster but rather another man.
Those moments inevitably drove me out to the cove. Which was where I found myself on whatever day of the week this happened to be.
I had a book in my hand and an umbrella shading my fair skin from the tropical sun. The slight lapping of waves as they washed up on the pristine, white sands of the protected cove provided a soothing backdrop to the romance novel I tried to read.
I hated everything about it. The beach. The sun. The waves. And most importantly, the love story I couldn’t seem to read.
There was no one to share it with.
Not that there weren’t people around me. Chambers, inevitably, hovered. Since I was no longer a slave, his duties as my guard had been lifted, but he always seemed to find a reason to be around me.
I ran into him nearly as much as I ran into Jake.
Jake with the same smoldering jade-green eyes as Josh.
Fortunately, Jake and Kate chose not to join me on the beach today.
Since I’d dressed Kate down, she hovered as well, constantly apologizing for what she had done. Forgiving her had been an act of kindness. I wouldn’t hold a grudge against the only family Josh had, even if his brother refused to speak to him.
We would have a conversation about that the next time I saw Jake. He needed to get his head out of his ass about the past.
Josh had suffered enough and gone above and beyond in seeking redemption. He’d never ask his brother’s forgiveness, but d
amn if I wouldn’t force Jake to do the right thing.
A gust of wind ruffled the mirror-smooth water as it blew in off the ocean. It lifted tiny grains of sand which covered me in a fine grit. I shook out the pages of the book and lost my place. Not that I’d been paying attention to what I read.
Chambers had set up his spot down the beach from mine. He said he was just kicking it on the beach. Raven and her two guards had joined me earlier. She invited me to go snorkeling, but I wasn’t interested. I didn’t want to be out there if Josh decided to show up.
The trio disappeared beneath the crystal blue waters, decked out in their dive gear, about half an hour ago, intent on exploring the coral reefs. I sat with my book, shading my eyes against the brilliance of the sun.
For the thousandth time, my thoughts drifted to Josh.
Where was he?
What was he doing?
Why hadn’t he come back?
A quick glance down at the page and I realized I had no idea what I had just read. It wasn’t a mystery thriller, but rather a romance; an entire genre I stopped reading while held as Josh’s slave.
What I wouldn’t give to return to that room. Things had been black and white. Rules were followed. Consequences enforced. There had been an incredible simplicity to my existence which I missed.
You don’t miss that room, idiot. And you definitely don’t miss those stupid rules.
You’re right. I miss him. But I kind of miss the rules too.
I didn’t care what path had brought us together. Josh did terrible things, but he wasn’t a horrible person. In him, I saw a man willing to put everything at risk to save others.
A shadow fell over the sand in front of me and someone blocked the sun. My heart did a little flip, at least until I stared up at the stranger.
“May I sit down?”
Holy Viking glory! The man was something out of Norse mythology.
Shock-white hair. Glacial eyes. Thighs the size of tree trunks. A neck stacked with muscle, and we weren’t even going to talk about the hardened planes of his chest and abs.
The man terrified me. At least until he smiled. No one deserved a smile that pure. It put me instantly at ease because I felt I could trust this man.
Embracing Fate: A Captive Hearts Novel Page 41
