Into the Flames (Perilous Connections: Book Two) (3 page)

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.