Into the Flames (Perilous Connections: Book Two) (3 page)
Read Into the Flames (Perilous Connections: Book Two) Online
Authors: Delka Beazer
She turns her face away from me, avoiding my piercing look as if the very sight of me so c
lose is too much for her to stand
.
“I don’t want you here. I want you out of my life. Go!”
This was beyond insanity
.
I toss caution aside and
advance
upon her. I bury
the
last dredges of sensitivity
which she has so recently
brought out in me.
I grasp
her
wrist,
the fine bones
are
small
and delicate
beneath my long
, thick fingers
.
But I don
’t give a damn about that now
. “List
en to me,
Daffee
,” her eyes beco
me murderous, I
smile
, exactly the effect I want
, “your senses may have taken a holiday in the last several minutes but if you
didn’t get it the first time,”
I
turn and jab
a finger towards Emmanuel’s still insensible form, “that man is a killer, when he wakes up he will not be pleased to find that I have escape
d yet again,” I shake her for emphasis, “
He will not ask you so nicely a second time to tell him where I have gone. In fact if he doesn’t get you to talk right away, your tongue will shortly be on the same floor he’s lying on now and you will still be compelled in even stronger terms to tell him exactly
where your new husband has vanished to
. Not knowing the answer to this question will not be an option.
You got that?
”
Her eyes glisten with frustrated tears as she
fights against it, tries to brazen it out
but her body gives her away. S
he
begins to shake
.
I want to gather her in my arms
, hold her close and never let her go again
but this is not the time for tenderness or mercy.
And I am not sure that I feel that way for her. I am not sure of anything anymore.
Aubrey chooses this moment to burst into the
room. Daphne yelps and
snatches up the remnants of the sheet I
had left on the floor. S
he hastily
wraps it around her naked body
, but not before I catch a glimpse of a small chocolate
colored nipple. I
swallow hard and
quickly look away towards Aubrey.
“Aubrey, go and
get your backpack and fill it
with several changes of clothes, your toiletries and any favorite toys
you
have.”
Aubrey stares wide-eyed at me
for several seconds
,
then
at Daphne and then he dashes out the room, past Elaine who is suspended in the
doorway. H
opefully
he at least
will do my bidding.
Elaine hesitate
s
and my dislike for her surges to the forefront.
“Do the same Elaine,” I order tersely,
“n
ot that you have any favorite toys beside yourself.” My brutal
words bring
her frightened gaze to my face and I see a flash of resentment and anger but she doesn’t speak. I am sure from where she is standing she can see Emmanuel’s bound form on the ground. It doesn’t take a genius
to figure out that danger has entered their home.
Elaine
shoots me a perplexed look then turns and follows her son from the
room.
“You can’t just order my family from their home” Daphne cries.
“I
won’t stand for it. We can call the police and have them take care of that man
,” she tosses
her head defiantly perhaps hoping to knock some sense into the crazy American tourist with her tremendous insight.
I grind my teeth in frustration at her obstinacy. Anybody who had spent more than a minute alone with Emmanuel knows that he is
barely human. T
he island’s police
forces, as stellar as they may be, are
no
match for the wiles and
financial reach of such a
creature
like Emmanuel
.
I’ve had enough of Daphne’s bullshit.
“Are you simply being stupid,” I bark at her, s
he bristles, opens her mouth to refute the truth, I hold up a hand
preemptively
. “If I hadn’t come he would not have killed you right away, only in the end after the pain had gotten so bad that you would have gladly walked naked throughout the island, begging for me to appear to save your life, because you can bet that by that time
also
Aubrey and Elaine would already have been dead.”
The
final traces of
color l
eaches from her face and I see
some
of the fight go out of her. She puts several more feet of distance between us, a feat in itself in her small bedroom, my lips firm into a thin line but finally she has stopped arguing and starting moving.
She pauses before Emmanuel who is prone beneath her dresser. “Move him.”
I obey and rat
her violently haul his body across
the floor and bundle him into a corner.
She yanks the dresser drawer
s
open and begins pulling out all sorts of clothing.
“Where are you taking us?
” Her back is resolutely turned to me but I can s
ee her expression in the mirror,
I look
away quickly from the sadness
and fury
etched
in her face
.
“I don’t know
yet
.”
She swings around to look at me, openmouthed.
Shame suffuses me.
She arches a mocking brow.
“In that case,
you will need this because I certainly don’t.
”
Something
comes
sailing through the air towards my face and I snatch it. It is the two wads of bills that I had left her in the wee hours of the morning.
Our eyes meet and there is a triumphant gleam in hers. “You can’t buy me,”
she says triumphantly
.
My entire body recoils from the loathing
and mockery
in her amber gaze.
Old hurts and my father’s strictures about my so-called depravities
come
hurtling back to me,
burning through my chest
. I can barely breathe for the hurt that floods me. Using every bit of control that I can muster I
submerge the
torment eating away inside me
,
cock my
head to
t
he side and stretch my lips
into a humorless smile.
“Really?
Tell that t
o the soreness between your thighs
.”
I ignore her outrage
d
gasp and turn from the room, flinging over my shoulder. “Two minutes. That’s all you have to get dressed and gather some personal items. Don’t make me wait.”
A venomous hiss
reverberates again
st the door as I step beyond it to wait.
Chapter Two
Daphne
I can’t believe that I am going along with thi
s plan. Why have I allowed Nate to
come back into my life
and take it over a second time?
Because I have no choice.
I had a choice
once but greed and stupidity has
caused me to go b
lind
ly to my doom and now there is no way out for me. Even if I hate him, even if I want with every fiber of my being t
o forget what has just happened.
I can’t. I sneak a peek at Emmanuel trussed into the corner like
a sack and I remember
the emptiness of his eyes as he’d stared at me and I know that I can never go back to my old life. I have thrown that away.
I sightlessly grab things and toss them into one of my o
ld backpacks from college,
then haul on some old jeans and a faded t-shirt both too tight but
as they encase my
body remind me of better, happier days in college when Calculus was all I had to worry about. I rush into the bathroom
and
gather the necessaries from the shelves.
Then
I
stick my nose into the air and
march
with
as
much
bravado
as I
can muster
into the living room.
Nate
is
standing beside the
couch,
Elaine and Aubrey ar
e huddled together on the couch.
H
is broad back
is facing me
but he turns the second I pause and a gasp gets caught in my throat, I bite it back.
His eyes are silver again, just
the way they
were as he towered above me, moved inside me. I blink away the image with
difficulty
,
will my
heart to stop its stupid thumping
. That had meant nothing.
To either of us.
His
ey
es
shi
ne fiercely as they glare into mine
. I glare right back, determined no
t to back down from the derision
in his gaze
.
Elaine and Aubrey
shift uncomfortably at the standoff between us.
Nate’s
hands are still empty and it strikes me for the first time that while we have packed to run off to
G
od knows where, he doesn’t have anything besides the clothes on his back and the piles of money secreted within.
My gaze runs over his
tall muscular frame
, I see the confusion in his eyes at my intent perusal, embarrassment burns in my cheeks.
I clear my throat. “Do you want an extra change of clothing?”
He cocks an impudent brow, “
charity from you?
I don’
t think so.
”
My temper burst. “When are you
going to stop behaving like an ass?
You’
ve dragged my family into your
mess, put our lives in dang
er and you have the nerve to scoff at a change of clean clothing?”
His
lips thin.
“My lack of clothing is none of your concern.”
A gray haze overcomes my vision, the backpack slips from my shoulders with a thump.
“
That’s it! I won’t take another damned step until you listen to reason.”
He turns to Elaine and Aubrey who
are
staring mesmerized at me.
They have never seen me so bitchy before.
“Wait outside” he barks to them. They scurry to obey.
He swivels to me, the muscles bunch in his long arms, his wide chest rises and falls beneath the thin material of his t-shirt but the worst part is his eyes. They are so
cold
,
it’s as if a
ll the
humanity has been drained from them. His gaze
pin
s
mine until I cannot look away, I gulp and lift a trembling chin in defiance.
He advances towards me. He must be moving in slow motion because I can see every ripple of the sinews in his body as it eats away at the distance between us.
He halts right in front of me, my forehead brushes his chest,
I
tip my head back and glare up into his face.
I ignore the sudden quiver in my knees. I will not let him intimidate me with his
closeness but
e
very
breath that I take caus
es my chest to brush against him
, my
nipples pucker at the fri
ction and I swallow a distress
breath at the bolt of sensations that are shooting through me with each breath that I take.
I struggle to contain my
inappropriate reaction
.
“In case you haven’t notice,” he bites out
above me, “you’re not calling the shots here. You will do what I say from now on.”
“Over my dead body, you’re not …”
“Your husband?” he mocks.