Tara Read online

  Standing slowly Tara went to the bars and looked at the open doorway as panic took flight in her chest. Her heart fluttered like a wild bird until she took control and snagged it, clipping its wings and locking it away. She hated feeling trapped. Even a large cage was still a cage, but none of it really mattered. No matter what, she would have a new master soon and fear wasn’t going to help.

  She didn’t even hear the footsteps of the man that appeared at the bottom of the stairs holding a long gun. No, not long, there was a silencer on it. His breathing was steady, the dark clothes he wore covered in clips and pockets – everything about him screamed ‘soldier’.

  His mouth opened like he was about to talk, but then he just stared at her. He was handsome, and really young. Had he come for her, or was she a surprise? Was this about Gianni’s less than reputable business connections?

  Releasing her fingers from the bars, Tara showed him her palms coaching her voice to be soft and calm despite the gun he had pointed at her. “Please, don’t hurt me.”

  A flicker of shadow moved across his face before he spoke. “I won’t hurt you, but I need you to come with me.” He dropped the gun to his side and turned to look back up the stairs. She was surprised by the smooth Italian since his voice told her he was British, but his accent had clearly been muddled by speaking a multitude of languages.

  His head whipped around as she responded in English, “I’ll come with you, but you’ll have to unlock the door.” Tara pointed at the cell door and he cursed before moving up the stairs quickly and silently. In his absence she grabbed the iPod and wound her headphones around it before tucking it into her bra. She glanced over at the four-inch heels, debating whether to put them on, but decided she’d do better barefoot.

  Maybe her new master had decided he’d rather just take her than pay for her - that had happened in the past. Or perhaps this man was working for someone new, someone striking at an opportunity. Either way her time with Gianni was over and this guy probably wouldn’t hurt her without permission. Soldiers tended to be obedient like that.

  He reappeared at the bottom of the stairs with the gun in his holster, a small key ring, and a syringe filled with blue liquid in his hand. Tara stepped back from the cell door at the sight of the Dreamland, her stomach doing flip-flops. “You don’t need to use that, I’ll come with you.”

  His eyes came up to hers as the door swung open on the hinges, they were brown, or green, or both. “I can’t have you running off, too many people with guns, and we need to move fast.”

  “So your plan is that it’s easier to carry an unconscious girl around?” Tara asked the question bluntly, but tempered it with a playful smile, hoping she wouldn’t make him angry. Pushing her hand through her hair she continued, “I promise I’ll come with you. No fuss.”

  He looked up the stairs again and then muttered something under his breath as he tucked the syringe back into a pocket. “If you try to run, I’m using it. Understand?”

  Tara nodded and walked forward through the cell door, folding her hands behind her back. He was forced to step out of the way as she exited, and he just stared down at her, blank. He was like being around a wall. No expression on his face, no emotions.

  Be careful.

  She made her voice light and calm even though he made her nervous towering over her, she’d never had the best experiences around soldiers, and the fact that he had Dreamland in his pocket made her queasy. “You really don’t need to use that, and it’s a lot easier to move me conscious.”

  Tara thought she saw the edge of a smile before he turned around and drew his gun, moving to the bottom of the stairs. How he took the steps so quietly in boots, she wasn’t sure, but it was easy for her to be quiet in her bare feet. They ascended and at the top of the steps there was a body lying in a pool of blood. The soldier turned to look at her but she didn’t react, keeping her face calm and smooth, which wasn’t hard since the guy on the floor was Sebastien.

  No more favors for you, asshole.

  “You okay?” His accent was stronger when he spoke English. He had a nice voice, soft but serious, even though he seemed cold and distant on the surface. He could have easily been asking her about exchange rates and not whether or not the sight of a dead body was bothering her. It almost made her smile for real.

  “I’m good.” Tara shrugged and she watched as his mouth twitched in response but then stayed flat.

  “We’re going out the front door. They already know I’m here so there’s no need to take the long way out.” He leaned his head out of the hallway, and then turned back, his eyes assessing her for a moment. “Stay here while I clear a path.” Taking off in quick steps she barely heard him moving.

  It was impressive.

  He’d also trusted her to stay still. Dumb, or maybe she was already making an impression. Tara leaned against the wall and listened to the nothing. If he wasn’t the one laying the claim, he was going to take her to whoever wanted her badly enough to kill off the household. She hated new masters. New rules to learn, a new personality to figure out, a new person to be. Hard to be perfect when you didn’t know what they even wanted. And they always wanted to hurt you for it. For not being whatever they had pictured in their head.

  “Tara!” A voice hissed off to her left and she turned. It was one of the security detail, Tony, and he had his gun out, pointed down at the floor. His eyes widened as he caught sight of Sebastien’s body at her feet.

  Time to look terrified, Tara.

  She caved her shoulders forward and the tears came on command. He waved her over and she stayed right where she was. With wide eyes, she shoved her hands into her hair and let out a quiet sob. Gianni and his men had already lost, they just didn’t know it yet. She wondered if Tony even knew Gianni was dead. Either way, she couldn’t go with him, the Brit with the gun was her best bet, and he at least wanted her. Gianni had sold her. Bastard.

  She heard Tony curse and stomp towards her. Good, predictable man. Damsel in distress over here! Time to come save the day.

  “Tara-” he hissed as he moved closer, stepping over Sebastien’s body to grab her arm. Off balance and just where she needed him. Grabbing the chamber of the gun she bent it up and his hand twisted sharply, he started to shout and she threw the gun to the side. Covering his mouth with one hand she pulled him forward towards her, driving her knee up into his stomach so he’d bend over, and then it only took a sharp yank of his chin towards the ceiling.

  Snap.

  Dropping him to the floor she felt herself thaw a little on the inside, her body and her mind working in perfect sync. For a moment she was Faeoihn again, a daughter of Eltera, a warrior. The smile that spread across her face was finally real, because she felt real in that moment for the first time in centuries.

  I don’t want you anymore – I want someone real.

  Gianni’s words kicked her in the stomach and overwhelmed her thoughts – the chill coming back into her chest like the tide returning to the shore. She was just a commodity, she wasn’t a warrior anymore. She hadn’t been worth the blood in her veins for millennia. She felt herself pull away again, numb again, just in time to hear that British voice echo across the marble floor from the foyer, “Come on!”

  Right. It would be such a waste to kill all of these people and not have the prize.

  Stepping over the bodies she moved into the foyer on swift, silent, padding steps. The soldier was at the front door looking up the stairs and scanning the halls around them. He tugged the door open and shoved her through it and to the side, sweeping that gun left to right on the empty driveway. His hand stayed gripped around her upper arm, but he didn’t hurt her.

  “Do you know how to get the gate open?” He spoke quietly and when she looked up at him his eyes struck her again, in the streetlight they were almost the color of amber. “Hey! The gate! Do you know how to open it?”

  “The security detail always has the remote. I don’t know where it is.” She heard herself respond automatically,
and he just nodded.

  “Stay here.” He took off across the open driveway and crouched in front of the gate, digging in the bag that had been on his back. He was completely unprotected except for the shadow the gate threw across him. Standing by the place where the gate joined the stone wall. He was doing something for a minute or so and then came back across to her. He put his hands on either side of her, his body almost touching hers as he leaned close to her and she pressed herself back against the house, waiting for him to make contact.

  “Cover your ears.” His voice sounded like a command, but the request confused her, even more so when his vest brushed against her chest and she became extremely aware of just how tall he was, and how broad his body was. All muscle by her estimate. She lifted her head again and saw his fingers pressing into his ears.

  Suddenly there was a blinding light all around him and an ear-shattering noise that left her head ringing. When her eyes finally squeaked open she saw a cloud of dust in the street lamps over the man’s shoulder. His eyes were open and boring into her own, and his lips were moving but she just shook her head, she couldn’t hear anything he said. Just a painful ringing.

  His jaw clenched and he grabbed her arm, harder this time, and started pulling her to the gate that was now detached from the stone wall and hanging at an angle, almost touching the ground. When they got to it he lifted her by her waist like she weighed nothing, and she finally got with the program. Climbing over the broken pieces of wall she hit the sidewalk and realized there were car alarms going off, and the smell of smoke in the air was from a bomb.

  The bomb he had set off to get them out of the driveway.

  Then he was next to her again, pulling her after him as he took off down the street. She could run, she was good at running, and she kept up with him enough that he let go of her. The flashing rear lights of a car signaled where he wanted her and he wrenched open the passenger door and pushed her inside before slamming it shut. He was around and in the driver’s seat in a moment, and then the roar of the engine brought sound fully back to her. She could feel the pulse of it in the seat as he put it in gear before looking over at her.

  “Seat belt!” He turned and shouted at her, and her hands responded before her brain had fully processed the demand. He tilted the rearview mirror and let out a torrent of curses that made her eyes widen. She turned and saw several of the security team in front of the ruined gate talking through the window of a car on the street, and they pointed after them. The car accelerated towards them fast, and the man next to her took a deep breath. “Hold on,” he growled and floored it out into the street ahead of the car.

  Tara was instantly slammed back into the seat as the car roared off, quickly taking a turn that had her bracing herself against the door and the dash. Her bearings were coming back steadily, but the headache that had taken the place of the deafness would probably last until morning. Another sharp turn down a narrow street would have thrown her at the man driving if she had not grabbed onto the handle of the door.

  When the car steadied again she turned to see not one, but two, black cars take the turn behind them. In the straightaway their car leaped ahead, accelerating much faster than theirs, but they weren’t giving up.

  “So, do you know who they are?” The guy’s voice was calm and steady, despite the car chase and the occasional click of him changing gears.

  “Either Gianni’s men, or whoever Gianni sold me to… or whoever tried to buy me and couldn’t.” Tara spoke loud enough to be heard over the roar of the engine, and the side-glance the guy gave her showed his confusion for a moment.

  “Sold you?” He braked hard and sent them right, up a larger street that had more space between the cars for him to weave through.

  “Yes.” Tara watched his face as he seemed to process that information, his brows coming down low over his eyes before he flicked his gaze back to the mirror and swerved to cut off an SUV to their right.

  “Listen, I don’t want the details, I just need to know if they’re going to back off.”

  “Probably not. People don’t really give up when it comes to me.” Tara watched the cars behind them maneuver dangerously through traffic as they tried to get closer. One of the pursuers swiped a car and sent it careening into a parked car on the street, the sound of the crash fading fast as they accelerated away.

  His grip tightened on the wheel as he cut left through an active intersection, barely missing an oncoming car and leaving the other two cars scrambling to turn around and catch up. He didn’t wait for them though. He pushed the car hard, putting kilometers between them, yanking the wheel to move down side streets, onto different main roads. “Well, I don’t want to know anything. I don’t need to know anything. I’m going to find out where the client wants you, I’ll deliver you, and I’m out.” He spoke into the windshield and didn’t even glance over at her.

  Why would he though?

  She wasn’t anything to him. She wasn’t human, wasn’t even a real person. Real people didn’t get sold. She was an object and he was clearly just the delivery method. That comforting numbness inside her spread further, leaving her mind floating somewhere where she didn’t have to pay attention to the cat and mouse game being played with metal and rubber on road. Who cared which of them won? Her fingers dipped into her bra to check on her iPod – still there.

  Yes, she was fine. Just fine.

  Chapter Five

  The girl next to him was completely calm, and she hadn’t spoken since he’d made his statement about delivering her. It had been a little harsh, but she hadn’t even reacted. Glancing over, Alaric saw that her blonde waves were hanging over her shoulder, mostly obscuring her face, as she stared out the window.

  Eyes on the road, idiot.

  At the speed he was moving through the city he was lucky the police hadn’t noticed, but checking the mirrors he was pretty sure he had lost the tail. To be sure he did a large circle around the hotel, tracking the movement of the cars behind him before he actually drove towards it. Slowing down to a normal speed Alaric merged the small Maserati between a delivery truck and another sports car behind him, flowing with traffic once more as the hotel came into view.

  As he pulled into the car park he remembered what her eyes had looked like staring up at him when he’d shielded her from the blast that took out the gate. Blue ice, cool and calm and distant. Her mouth had parted like she was going to ask him a question just before the blast, and he had wanted to touch her lips to see if they were as soft as they looked. Fortunately, the bomb had gone off and he hadn’t done anything so impossibly foolish.

  What he should have been focusing on was making her cover her damn ears. After that blast he wouldn’t be surprised if they were bleeding.

  Looking at her now though, he still couldn’t figure out why she’d walked out of Gianni’s house like it was of no concern. Those pictures of them together had made them look so happy. She’d had a gorgeous house, she was living in the lap of luxury –

  Well, no, she wasn’t.

  He had found her in that cell downstairs, fitted out like a dorm room, with bars on three sides and concrete on the other. That had shocked him, to see someone so beautiful, so put-together, locked up in what amounted to a cage.

  He was suddenly glad he’d killed Gianni.

  Because like he’d thought before, looks could be deceiving. No family or relationship was what it seemed to be on the outside.

  With the car parked he grabbed his pack and tugged out his coat and began to pull it on to cover the weapons. The girl turned to look at him, those blue eyes locking on and evaluating him. He felt like he had to talk and explain what he wanted next. “We’re going inside, but if you draw any attention to us I’m going to sedate you.”

  Alaric palmed the small syringe and she just stared at him for a moment before she spoke, “You don’t need to worry about me, I know my place.” Turning away she opened the door, stepping out smoothly, her long legs shifting under the spectacularly short sk
irt. Alaric jumped out of his side, but he didn’t need to rush because she simply walked around to his side and waited.

  What in the bloody hell was going on in this girl’s head?

  Pressing the lock button the car beeped its affirmation, and he took her arm to lead her into the hotel. He was listening for screeching tires, the roar of an engine, or rapid footsteps approaching, but there was nothing but the night-time traffic. The front door of the hotel was pushed open by night security and as they stepped onto the tile of the lobby he heard a wet sound.

  “Signorina! You’re bleeding!” The panic of the security guard behind them made the girl at the front desk stand up, looking alarmed. He shouldn’t have brought her in through the front door. He should have found a way through a back door. This was suicide, or rather homicide, since he’d have to silence them if they made this an issue. Then he’d have to find a new hotel. Shit.

  A loud, girlish laugh erupted next to him and the blonde socialite suddenly tugged on him, leaning against his body heavily. “I can’t find my shoes!” Her words slurred in Italian so dramatically he wondered if he had accidentally stuck her with the sedative. She sounded drunk. “We were walking, and my shoes are gone! Sweetheart, do you know where my shoes are?” More giggling, that big smile when she turned her face to look at him made her breathtakingly beautiful, and he was keenly aware of how she pressed herself against his side. As stunned as he was he still caught on quickly.

  “Dolcezza, I don’t know where you took them off, but it’s time to bandage you up and then get to bed.” He turned on his own smile and wrapped an arm around her to support her. Looks of sympathy came from the front desk girl and the guard, the latter shaking his head a little and laughing. “Good night!” Alaric called over his shoulder as they moved to the elevators, the girl stumbling a little on the way as she left a trail of bloody half-foot prints across the pristine tile.

  Hopefully they wouldn’t want to charge him to clean it up.