Her Guardian Angel (Fire and Snow) (5 page)

The smoothest voice she had ever heard pulled her out of her thoughts.

"So Adele, I noticed the Victorian plates on your car. You visiting our fair island for a holiday?"

Dominic White. The man was truly sent just to test her commitment to no men. She was going to have to be careful to keep her distance from him if she was going to stay in this part of Tassie.

"Nope, no holidaying for me. I guess you could say I'm embarking on a sea-change." As she responded she realized how quiet it suddenly was. Everyone's attention was now firmly on her. Adele lowered her eyes and stopped talking. She really didn't like being the center of attention.

Kit grabbed hold of her arm, like she thought Adele was going to run away--to be honest she had thought about it briefly.

"You looking to stay around here? You may have noticed, we're kind of short on paramedics as we only have one so whenever he's off duty, like today, us fireys get stuck with the job and I for one am getting sick of cleaning up after Jake. The damn man gets sick whenever we have to deal with blood and gore." She winked over at the captain who was shaking his head at her like he wanted to reprimand her, his sly grin and the spark of amusement in his eyes gave him away as to how much he was enjoying her ribbing. Adele really liked how they all carried on together. They were more like a big family, rather than workmates.

"Funny you should mention that Kit. I actually already know about the shortage, I knew before I even stopped at the accident today. That's why I'm here. I'm looking for work as a paramedic. I had an interview this morning in Devonport, one tomorrow in Strahan, one here on Wednesday. Then another in Hobart on Friday."

As Adele looked up she caught Dominic give the doctor a strange look. He seemed to sense she was looking at him. His expression smoothed over to a smile so quickly she couldn’t work out what he was trying to tell the doctor.

"Well Adele, we haven't officially been introduced; I'm Dr. Clint Maynard, the one you were going to meet with on Wednesday. I think I can safely say the job is all yours if you want it. You more than proved yourself out in the field and at the hospital today, I'm certainly convinced you know what you're doing, and you've struck up friendships with most of the town's emergency response teams already. We've been down to one paramedic for quite some time now, so we really do need you. How would you like to blow off those other interviews and hang around Rosebery with us?"

Adele nearly choked on her drink in shock. Clint was the Dr. Maynard she was booked in to meet on Wednesday? She planned on attending all the interviews before making a decision about which position to take. She took a sideways peek at Dominic while taking a sip from her drink. He really was handsome, not that she wanted a man, but if she did...hmmm. Dominic aside, there was something about this town that pulled at her to stay. Before she changed her mind, she put her drink down, swallowed her mouthful, looked up into Clint's face and made one of the biggest decisions of her life.

"Dr. Maynard, I think I may just do that. I'd like nothing better than to hang around here and be your paramedic.
Merci beaucoup
."

"The pleasure is all ours, Adele. I, too, am sick of cleaning up after Jake and his reactions." He said while flashing her a wink.

"Now, since we're going to be working together, please, call me Clint. I'm only Dr. Maynard in front of patients.
Merci beaucoup
is French right? Are you French? You don't speak with an accent, never would have guessed."

"My mother immigrated over when she was pregnant with me. We always spoke French to each other. It helped with her homesickness I think. But I'm as Aussie as Mick Dundee." She finished with a thick Aussie accent she hoped would cover the grief currently ripping at her from thinking of her mother. It worked. The twins took her words and ran with it. Joel and Jordan grabbed their butter knives and with his own exaggerated thick Aussie accent Joel started off "That's not a knife,
this
is a knife." The men all spent the next twenty minutes doing impersonations of Mick Dundee until they were all laughing so hard, tears ran down their cheeks. Adele couldn't remember a time when she'd ever laughed so vigorously.

~ * ~

Adele thought she would end up staying at Top Pub but Kit had insisted her spare room was more comfortable. Until her first pay came in she couldn't really afford to be staying at a hotel at any rate, so she had accepted Kit's offer. As Adele lay in bed drifting off to sleep, she thought back over her day. She couldn't believe all she'd accomplished in just one day.

This morning she'd been alone and homeless. Tonight, she'd sat surrounded by people she already liked. People so generous that she was starting her new job in the morning and knew where she'd be living for the foreseeable future. She couldn't wait to tell her
chaton
about all of it ...and about the man she was going to have to be very, very careful around, Dominic White.

As soon as Adele arrived in their field, she looked around for her
chaton
--she had so much to tell him. She saw him behind her. He was all low to the ground, stalking toward her slowly. He was purring loudly so she wasn't worried about his intent. She smiled slyly. Her playful
chaton
was back. She giggled as she sprinted away from him across the field toward the trees. She only managed half a dozen steps before he caught her. He took her down gently and she lay on her back with him framing her body between his four legs. The soft fur of his front paws caressed her shoulders, while he swished the tip of his tail back and forth over her ankles, tickling them. He gave her a lick across the side of her neck before he bounded off her to sit waiting for her to arrange herself in front of him. Once she managed to contain her giggling, she looked up at him and noticed he was watching her with his head cocked to the side.

"You want to know why I'm so happy, my
chaton
?"

He gave her one of his little nods. She proceeded to tell him about her life-altering day.

"So, I've found my new start." She sighed. "But I'm worried. There's a man, Dominic White. He is so handsome and the way he looks at me, the way his deep, smooth voice slides up my spine--it makes me shiver ..." She sighed again, then shook her head.

"I can't give in." She watched as he cocked his head to the other side.

"You want to know why?" He nodded his massive head slightly.

"Because of what happened to my mother. She fell pregnant with me when she was quite young. When she told her boyfriend, he ran for the hills. According to my mother 'he ran fast enough to leave a vapor trail in his wake'. He broke her heart; she never recovered. To make it worse, her parents' reaction was to send her away. They shipped her off, from the only home she had ever known in Lyon, France to live with an elderly relative she had never even met before in Melbourne without a backward glance."

She took a deep breath before continuing.

"I am twenty five years old and have never met either my father or my grand parents. My mother died having not seen her parents for over twenty years. So you understand? I can't let a man get close. I can't stand to be hurt like my
Maman
was. My heart isn't strong enough. It's still healing from loosing
Maman
. I'll be fine on my own. I don't need a man."

She finished more to herself than to him.

He nuzzled her cheek, alerting Adele to the fact she was crying. She wrapped her arms around his neck sinking her fingers into his thick coat, laid her head against his, and allowed the vibrations of his purring to soothe her.

Chapter Three

Damn it! Cole had lost himself. He'd become so caught up in the moment he'd pushed her too far. So intent on releasing his anger, he hadn't been paying attention like he should have. He began pacing back and forth across the cold concrete floor, running his hands through his hair and pulling at it. His slave was dead. His lousy day just kept getting better and better. After a massive fuck up with paperwork he'd unloaded and reloaded a ship of logs, while putting up with the Captain and officials fighting over whose fault it was and who was going to pay for it all every step of the way. He really needed to work off his anger and frustration tonight. He hadn't even played his usual mind games with her; he'd simply grabbed her and dragged her down here as soon as he'd arrived home. He'd tied her up, whipped her raw, then fucked her hard. It was a thing of beauty, she had screamed so nicely, and the way that woman bled...got him hard every time.

He stopped pacing and rubbed his hands over his face, examining her hanging from the hook: her head sagging forward, her long black hair hanging over her tits soaking up the blood from the welts he'd put there. Her arms where stretched straight as the full dead weight of her body pulled on them. Her knees had bent a little and her blood was slowly dripping from them to the floor. Damn, she looked sexy. If only she were breathing. He cursed and screamed out loud to vent some of the frustration he had building up inside. How was he going to bring himself down now? To top it off, now he had to deal with the body. The last few he'd dumped over a cliff into the ocean--that seemed to work. The water soaked away any evidence that would tie him to them and the current took them far enough away the cops didn't know where to start looking.

Before he got stuck into the messy job he needed a stiff drink. He headed up the stairs to the kitchen. As he poured himself some Jim Beam in a glass tumbler he heard a noise; a door quietly closing. He grinned as he threw back the cheap alcohol, enjoying the burn it left in its wake on the way down. The Brat. He still had her to ease his needs. He planned out what he needed to do on the way down the stairs.

He would wrap the body up in a tarp then tie it up good and tight. He'd place her in the tray of his pride and joy, his jet black 2009 Holden VE SV6 Commodore Ute with the hard cover closed. She would keep in his garage until he finished with the brat, then he would take her up to the cliffs and dump her over into the ocean. He'd hose out the tray with the high-pressure hose at work early tomorrow, when no one was around. No one would ever know, just like the last time, and the time before that. Oh tonight was starting to look up after all.

~ * ~

Kelly let her body sag against the door as she heard him go back down the stairs. Something was wrong, different than normal. He'd been in a worse mood than usual when he'd come home for starters. As soon as he'd stalked through the front door he'd been on her mother, dragged her down the stairs by her hair. Kelly's body shuddered with revulsion. She'd run to her room and stayed there--leaving the door open just a crack so she would know when they returned. But her mother hadn't returned. Her screams stopped suddenly short minutes before he stormed up the stairs wearing just an old pair of jeans--that were splattered with fresh blood. His bare chest was also splattered. Ice ran through her veins as he prowled over to the kitchen and poured himself a drink...something he normally made her mother do for him, if it was anything other than beer. Kelly had closed the door at that point.

She stopped breathing as she realized her mother must be dead. The bastard must have finally pushed too far and killed her. She sobbed as grief for her mother overwhelmed her. As her body shook from the force of her grief, a more frightening thought entered her mind. Her mother was gone, no longer useful to him, but she was still here; she had no delusions about the fact he would happily begin to use her. She cried harder, for her and for her mother, as she curled up on her bed. She knew, deep in her soul, her already crappy life was about to take a drastic turn straight over a cliff.

Kelly jumped in fright, quickly curling herself into a tighter ball, pushing her back up against the wall as she heard him crash through her bedroom door so hard it must have come off it's hinges. She peeked through her fingers at him: he was stalking toward her, grinning a horrible sinister looking smile she new meant evil bad things would be happening to her soon. If the grin didn't give his intent away, the glint in his cold hazel eyes certainly did. She cringed as he ran his hand gently through her black curls. He roughly grabbed a handful, yanking her off the bed to her feet. As she gasped in shock and pain he grabbed the front of her thin shirt in his fist and ripped it from her body. He repeated the performance with her thin cotton shorts and undies.

"You won't need them where you're going." His voice was hard, dripping with venom.

Through her tears Kelly watched him look over her body, making her feel dirty and violated.

As he dragged her out of her room, her heart pounded hard. He opened the door to the stairs and dragged her down; she couldn't hear anything other than the loud rapid beating of her heart. At the bottom he thrust her into one of the rooms. She stopped short, frozen in horror.

Blood. So much blood. It was splattered all over the wall and had pooled on the floor. There were older dark brown stains and fresh bright red ones. Her mother must be dead, surely no one could lose that much and survive. While she stood there frozen, he let go of her and moved away from her for a minute. When he returned he was standing in front of her with the collar he'd kept on her mother. She saw all the stains, both old and new, left by her mother's blood.

"You are mine now little slave. I am going to train you to be the perfect slave and you will be perfect and strong and you Will. Never. Leave. Me."