A horrified cry left me and my body trembled uncontrollably as I scrambled to get farther away.
“Miss Holt, are you okay? I need to know if you are okay. Miss Holt, please say something. Miss Holt. Miss Holt!” The driver wrenched my face toward his, away from the dead man. “Have you been hurt, Miss Holt?”
I think I shook my head, but it could have been from the way I was already shaking so violently. “H-h-h-h-he . . . oh my—he’s dead,” I screamed.
The driver quickly pulled me toward the opening of the alleyway. Sirens could be heard in the distance, and the sidewalk that had been filled with shoppers was now empty.
A shuddering breath left me and I covered my mouth to mute my next scream when I realized it wasn’t.
The body of the woman who had stopped us to ask for directions lay unmoving on the sidewalk. Blood pooled from her head.
“She was a decoy, she tried to kill me,” the driver explained calmly. He sat me down on the sidewalk, facing away from the woman and alleyway. “Miss Holt, are you okay?”
“I don’t know, I don’t—people are dead!”
“Are you hurt?” he clarified, and breathed a relieved sigh when I shook my head vigorously. “I am so sorry I allowed this to happen. I will never forgive myself for—”
“Stop! Please stop,” I pleaded, and focused on breathing for a minute. Fighting to find the calm that Lucas exuded. “It’s not your fault. You and Lucas were right about everything. We should have never left the house.”
Fear flashed through his eyes. “I need to call Mr. Holt,” he said with a determination that didn’t match the resignation on his face. With a sigh, he helped me to my feet when police started pulling up, and led us over to where the first officer was getting out of his car.
A look of recognition passed over the officer’s face, and he walked up to us to shake the driver’s hand, as if there wasn’t a dead woman just a few feet away. As if the driver hadn’t shot her.
I had the urge to look at where the woman lay, to make sure I hadn’t made it up in my mind, but forced myself not to turn.
Because then I remembered what Lucas had said about owning the police, and I wondered how many times this particular officer had come in contact with Lucas and his driver—if that was the reason there wasn’t an ounce of suspicion coming from him.
They spoke quickly to each other, but I wasn’t able to focus on the words or most of what was happening around us. The only word I caught was when the driver said Holt, and the police officer looked down at me with fear and . . . was that awe?
“Please go with him while I handle this,” the driver said, and handed me over to the officer.
“Mrs. Holt, please, come sit in the car so we can keep you concealed from the public.” The officer’s voice wavered with fear, and his movements were jerky as he led me to the back of his car. “Anything you need? Water? It’s warm out, but do you need a blanket? You’re shaking.”
I was so thrown off by the way the officer was reacting and what he’d said, that I wasn’t able to answer right away, and I never corrected him on the Mrs. “Um . . .” I looked over to the driver to see him talking on the phone with his back to us then back to the officer. “It wasn’t his fault,” I said quickly. “He saved me.”
“Yes, I know. Can I get you anything, Mrs. Holt?”
I blinked slowly, trying to sift through the fog in my mind. My ears still had a dull ringing in them, and my mind was a blur of dead people, gunshots, and consuming fear of being taken again.
Lucas.
It would have been Lucas I’d been taken from. The thought of never seeing him again devastated me.
“I don’t know,” I finally said, my voice barely audible.
By the time the driver came to where I was sitting in the back of the police car, the area was flooded with officers and people trying to see what was going on.
I lifted my head off the back of the seat and took the food and bottle he handed me.
“Please eat, Miss Holt. We need to get something in your system. Mr. Holt should be here shortly.”
I stopped trying to open the bottle of water, and said, “He’s coming?”
My relief was met with worry from the driver. “Yes, Miss Holt.” He took the bottle from my shaking hands and opened it before handing it back.
“It’ll be okay,” I promised. “You saved me; it’ll be okay.”
He nodded but didn’t look convinced.
“I don’t understand, why aren’t they questioning you? Why aren’t they questioning me? Why wasn’t the officer suspicious of you or us when he pulled up? Why aren’t they—?”
The driver shook his head once, and gave me a look that made me stop talking. “Don’t ask questions you don’t want the answers to, Miss Holt.”
“But—”
“We’re fortunate which officers arrived today.” And I knew from his tone that he wouldn’t say any more.
The sound of screeching tires drowned out the noise from the crowd that had gathered, and I tensed in preparation for the impact that would follow. Officers turned, and the driver reached down to his hip as he watched for the threat. But the impact never came, and the driver relaxed his stance. I sat up to look through the back window, and saw the devil himself storming out of a car, barely taking the time to slam the car door as he tore onto the scene.
I scrambled to get out of the police cruiser but was stopped by the driver.
“Please, Miss Holt. You need to stay—”
Whether it was his fear of what Lucas would do if the driver actually used any force to keep me in the car, or if the look on my face made him relent, I wasn’t sure, and I didn’t care. I squeezed past him, and as soon as my feet were on the ground, I was running toward my devil.
His darkness cracked the moment his eyes found me, his body sagged with relief, and his pace quickened. For the first time since everything had begun that afternoon, a sob burst from my chest and tears filled my eyes.
I thought I’d never see him again.
Lucas caught me easily when I launched myself at him and crushed his mouth to mine in a searing kiss.
“I thought I’d lost you,” he said against my lips, and then kissed me again. “Damn it, Briar . . . what are you doing out of the goddamn house?” His voice was demanding, but his ragged breaths and the ache in his words softened his tone.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I was trying to get you something for your birthday, and—”
He barked out an incredulous laugh before his mouth was moving against mine again. “You stupid girl,” he gritted out, but the words were full of affection. “You stupid, stupid girl. I thought I lost you, I can’t lose you.”
“I know, I’m so—”
“I love you, Briar.” The words came out so suddenly, so effortlessly, that I was sure I’d heard them wrong until he repeated them against my lips.
Our next kiss was fire.
I forgot about the people, the officers, the death . . . all of it. I could’ve forgotten about the entire world in that kiss if an officer hadn’t come up and interrupted it.
I hadn’t heard whatever he’d said, but his hushed words made Lucas tense. His arms tightened around me as a curse slipped from his lips. “Briar,” he said so low I barely heard him above the ringing in my ears. “I’m going to put you down and walk you back to the police car.”
“Wha—”
“There are people taking videos of the scene on their phones. If you were just a girl who had been sold at an auction, I still wouldn’t be able to risk a video of you ending up online. But you and I both know there are a lot of people looking for you.” As soon as he felt me stiffen, he placed one more soft kiss against my lips, then let me slide down his body.
He curled his arm around my shoulders, pulling me into the safety of his body and allowing me to bury my head against his chest in an attempt to shield my face from any cameras or phones.
Once he had me in the police car again, his large frame block
ing anyone from seeing in, his haunted eyes locked with mine. “When we get home, we need to talk.”
I searched his expression, and asked, “Is everything okay?”
“After this, nothing’s okay. But we can’t talk here. I need to get you home right now.”
“But what about the police? Don’t I need to tell them what happened?”
“Blackbird,” he said in an amused tone. “You’re mine. They won’t ever need anything from you, and they’ll take the driver at his word.”
“The driver . . .” I mumbled, and looked around until I caught sight of the driver from out the back window. Looking back at Lucas, I said, “I don’t know what you’ve said to him, but you will not fire or threaten him.” I tried to have the same sure tone Lucas always had, but my words came out as more of a plea.
Lucas’s eyes were dark when he glanced back to the driver, but his tone was still amused. “Won’t I?”
“He saved me, Lucas,” I whispered. “I was standing right next to him when it happened. He did what he was supposed to.”
After a brief pause, Lucas nodded and blew out a harsh breath as the driver approached us.
“Mr. Holt, I am—”
“Take Briar home for me. Keep her in this car so she won’t walk in front of any more cameras. Make two officers check the house before you let her inside. I need to take William’s car back to him and discuss some things. I’ll be home soon.” When Lucas bent close to kiss me, my disappointed look had his eyes narrowing. He straightened out of the car to look at the driver, and his voice dropped low so it wouldn’t carry, but there was no mistaking the honesty of his words. “Thank you for saving her.”
The driver looked stunned. “Of course, Mr. Holt.”
Lucas was gone after giving me a short, passionate kiss, and within five minutes, so were we.
Once we were settled in the house and the police officers were gone, I turned to the driver. “I think I’m just going to go soak in the bath for a little bit.”
“Okay, Miss Holt.”
I stopped on the way to the stairs. “You know, after today I feel like I should be allowed to know your name.”
His head shook. “I am your driver, that’s enough.”
“Of course it is,” I mumbled.
“Miss Holt?” he called out when I was about to turn the corner. “I have never heard him thank anyone in the years I’ve worked for him.”
Why didn’t that surprise me? “Well, you’ve more than earned it.”
Chapter 35
Day 116 with Blackbird
Lucas
I stepped out of William’s car slowly, my face a carefully composed mask of peace that promised so many things that were far from that. Glancing at his house as I rounded the back of the car, I lifted the trunk and let my eyes roam over things that my mentor always kept in his personal car.
Golf clubs, blankets, water, baseball bat, shotgun . . .
I grabbed the bat and stepped around the car again, letting my gaze trail back to the house as I tested the weight of the bat in my hands. I knew he would be watching, because I knew he would have been waiting for me from the moment he’d had his driver bring him home.
At the last second, I dropped the hold on my façade and smashed both driver side windows, then the windshield. By the time I had rounded the car and was smashing both passenger side windows, the door to the house was thrown open and a handful of his women ran outside.
They yelled for me to stop as I dented the frame and hood of the car, but never made a move toward me. Smart.
I stepped back to look at the car, nodding as my calm slipped back into place.
“Done,” I told them, letting the bat fall to the ground as I headed back to the trunk.
I didn’t stop walking, only slowed enough to snatch the shotgun out as I headed toward the house. The rest of the women lined the entryway with looks of shock, disappointment, and fear.
“Lucas, stop this at once.”
“What is wrong with you, child?”
“What are you doing?”
“Have you gone mad?”
“Don’t hurt him.”
They all continued their yelling and questions, but I never stopped walking until I was standing outside William’s office doors.
“It would be best if you stayed out here,” I murmured in a bored tone.
I didn’t pay attention to anything else they said, I simply stepped calmly inside.
“That was quite a temper tantrum,” William bit out from where he stood at his window, overlooking the driveway.
“How brave of you to let your women try to stop me.”
He loosened a long, slow breath through his nose, and tsked. “That’s my favorite car, Lucas.”
“You won’t be needing it anymore,” I assured him.
He turned slowly and looked me over from where I stood with his own shotgun aimed at his stomach. The expression on his face was one I had seen numerous times since I’d bought Briar. He was disappointed.
I didn’t give a shit.
“One day you will thank me. You’ll realize it would have turned out badly. You were way beyond the bond the two of you were supposed to have. She would’ve become a ransom, or a target for a grave.”
I didn’t respond.
“Put the gun down, Lucas. You’re acting like a spoiled child who had his toy taken from him. You’re mad now, but it wouldn’t compare to the pain later.”
“Her name . . . how did you find it?”
The corner of his mouth twitched wryly. “I have my ways.”
I nodded absentmindedly. I should’ve never put it past someone like William to break every rule he enforced without a care for the consequences. Because he knew he was untouchable.
At least, he had been.
“I’ve let you get away with too much because of who you are,” I said darkly. “That ends today. If you ever touch, or try to take Briar from me again, I promise you won’t live another day.”
Shock flashed through his eyes, but he composed it quickly.
I smirked. “What is it we say? Oh. Right. Because she’s still breathing . . .” Dropping the barrel a few inches, I aimed at his right knee and shot.
Like for like.
Screams sounded from outside the room, but they didn’t compare to the blood-curdling cry that came from William. His knee was completely blown out, and he just continued yelling over and over again as I walked slowly up to him.
“It’s a good thing we have drivers to take us everywhere, isn’t it?” I sneered. “Looks like you’ll be needing one for the rest of your life.” I turned and walked over to open the doors and searched the horrified faces of the women who’d been brave enough to stay outside. “Call the driver, get William to a hospital. He’ll probably lose the bottom half of his leg, but he’ll be fine,” I assured them.
“Lucas, what is wrong with you?” one of them cried when I walked past them. “How could you do this to him?”
How could I not?
He’d tried to take Briar from me.
My hand twitched on the shotgun, and I had the urge to go back into the office and aim the next shot at his chest. But in this world, it was like for like. My girl continued to breathe, so the person responsible for her pain would as well.
I gritted my teeth and forced myself to continue moving. “Ask him yourselves.”
I walked through the house to the garage and took the keys to another of William’s cars.
He wouldn’t have use for that one either.
My driver had positioned himself so he could see the front, back, and garage doors, and was standing still as a statue when I walked in from the garage not long after that.
“Briar?”
“Upstairs, Mr. Holt.”
I thought about what that could mean. “And how is she?”
He thought for only a second before saying, “I believe she will be fine. She is strong where it matters.”
That she is. I nodded down the hall
and walked in that direction. “Come with me.” Once I was in my office, I went to the large safe in the corner and opened it while I waited for my driver to follow me in. I glanced over my shoulder as I pulled out a thick stack of cash, and smiled at the fear he was trying hard to conceal. “You have a protector, you know.”
“Mr. Holt?”
“I don’t think Briar would ever forgive me if I fired you—never mind hurt you—and I can’t have Briar mad at me,” I explained as I shut the safe and twisted the two-part lock.
Relief washed over his face, and he dipped his head in thanks. “She is a great first.”
She’s a great only.
I handed the cash to him when I reached where he was standing just inside the doorway. “For saving her today.” Reaching into my pocket, I grabbed the keys to William’s car and placed those on top of the cash. “Think of that as an apology from the man who caused all of this.”
The driver’s eyes widened as he took it all in. “Thank you, Mr. Holt . . . thank you.” He was barely hiding his shock when he asked, “You know who was behind this?”
“Yes, and I have no doubt it was the same man behind the messages to her. The threat’s gone . . . at least for now. You can go home for the night; your new car is in the driveway.”
He nodded again as he backed away. “Thank you again. Good night, Mr. Holt.”
I went looking for my blackbird as soon as the driver was gone and the house was locked up and found her walking out of her bathroom.
She was wearing that damn skirt again that made her look so pure and untouchable.
My fingers twitched with the need to touch her. Taste her. The need to hear her scream my name threatened to consume me.
She stopped walking abruptly when she saw me. “Hi,” she said softly, her tone almost reserved.
After the way she’d jumped into my arms earlier, it wasn’t what I’d expected. “How are you doing now that some time has passed?”
“Better,” she said after a second of hesitation. “How are you?” The way she asked was as if she was worried about my answer.
“I’m fine. What’s—?” The question died in my throat, my hands clenched into fists inside my pockets.
I should have asked the driver if any of William’s women had called.