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Her abductor managed to leave the busier streets behind and gain a long stretch of road with less traffic. He glanced into the rearview mirror and frowned. “What the heck?”
Shakarri wanted to look too, but she couldn’t get her muscles to cooperate. Maybe someone called the police, and they were in hot pursuit. There could be hope for her escape after all.
The man sped up and cursed. Something bumped the car from behind, and it swerved. Shakarri cried out. Another bump and metal ground against metal. The ditch and a row of trees came hurtling toward them. Shakarri screamed.
Chapter 5
The shaking wouldn’t stop. She wasn’t in any kind of pain because the hospital had doped her up. The aftereffects of the fear took hold, and while she hadn’t broken any bones—a miracle since she wasn’t wearing a seatbelt at the time of the accident—her mental faculties had taken all they could handle.
She lay in bed, clutching her pillow like a lifeline because she had refused to stay much longer in the hospital. Ezio had brought her home. He hadn’t said much since he arrived to pick her up, but his face showed a storm of rage. She didn’t know if it was directed at her because of the inconvenience.
The bedroom door opened, and Ezio walked in caring a tray. He set it down on the nightstand and pushed the hair out of her face. She shook even harder. He made a sound in his throat she couldn’t identify. The next thing she knew he had lifted her up and lay down with her on top of him, snuggled in his embrace.
“You’re safe now, Shakarri,” he said in a gruff tone. She couldn’t help clinging to his shirt, wrinkling the material in her fingers. “I’ve fired your bodyguard and made sure he won’t work in his field again.”
She gasped. “My what? I don’t have a bodyguard.”
“I had a man watching over you from the beginning. He was to stay close enough to keep you safe but not so close you would notice.”
This was news to her.
“Needless to say he failed.” The rage she’d seen previously resurfaced. “I should have broken him in two for the risk he took running you off the road.”
She tried to sit up, but Ezio wouldn’t allow her to move. The truth was, she did feel safer in his arms, and the tremors had eased a little. “My bodyguard made us crash?”
“It was the only recourse he felt he had, but he shouldn’t have allowed you to be taken in the first place. From now on, you will know you have a bodyguard because he will be so close to you no one can get near to you.”
She groaned. Before this incident, she would have fought him over having someone watching her. That was probably why he didn’t tell her she had a bodyguard in the first place. Yet, after being kidnapped, she was almost too scared to leave the house again.
She shut her eyes and absorbed the warmth of Ezio’s body and his strength. “He said he was going to use me to get a ransom and that if you didn’t pay he would kill me.” Her voice caught in her throat, and fresh tears spilled onto her cheeks and soaked his shirt.
“Don’t think about it. Something like this will never happen again.”
She sniffled. “But if it did…”
“It won’t.”
She raised her head to look into his eyes. They were stormy as they became when he was angry. She had learned that much and found it interesting. “But if it did…”
“Are you asking me if I would pay?”
She wanted to forget it, but she couldn’t.
“You’re my wife.” He ran a thumb over her lower lip. “I would pay and then make the person sorry he was born.”
Not very loving, but what had she expected? Ezio liked to be the one to manipulate, not the other way around. He pressed her head to his chest again, and she concentrated on relaxing. His hand skimmed her back.
“Shakarri.” His voice was gentler than she ever remembered hearing it. “I will keep you safe. I don’t want you to be afraid of anyone. No one will ever hurt you again.”
She clung to his shoulders and cried and cried. He held onto her, stroking her back until she calmed down and drifted off to sleep. Sometime later, when she opened her eyes, the light had faded from the room, but Ezio still held her. She squinted up at him, and he lay asleep his breathing deep.
Shakarri watched her husband for a few silent moments. He’d had business to take care of that day and had said he wouldn’t return until just before the party. Yet, after she had been abducted, he had stayed with her the rest of the day. His patience and attempt to comfort her went a long way to calming her down.
Don’t get caught up, Sha.
She sat up on his lap, and his hands shot out to keep her there. Shakarri twisted around to try to see his face. “I’m okay now.”
