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I looked around. There was no one else here. Was this a prank? I spied a wisp of red hair in the hallway, four lean, pale fingers curled around the wall. Aoibheann peeked with one emerald eye around the wall that separated the upstairs residences from the opening of the grand foyer.
“Who’s that?” Rose followed my gaze.
I took her hand, and pulled her away, taking her out the double front doors onto the wrap around porch.
“Who was that?” She said as I tried to lead her down the front steps onto the main road. “Who was that woman?”
“None of your concern,” I told her. “She’s lost her mind. Don’t listen to her.”
She planted her feet and wouldn’t move.
“Are you keeping her captive?” She looked behind her again. “If she’s lost her mind, why haven’t you gotten her help?”
I stated plainly, “She has everything she needs.”
She looked at me skeptically, then glanced back inside. Was she thinking of rescuing her? What a noble little vixen.
“I’ll take you to the front gate, or I’ll get you in the car and drive you to safety. Either way, you need to go!” I warned.
“Where is LeBlanc?” She emphasized every single word of her question.
“I’ll take you to him.” I had forgotten about that part of our bargain. “You can’t move him.” I tried not to be exasperated as I ran my hand through my hair and tugged at the roots. “You move him, he will die.”
Her eyes widened. Then they narrowed again, and she frowned. “I don’t believe you.”
“I didn’t expect you to.” I let out a pained sigh, trying not to let my disappointment show. “We’ll work on your lack of trust later.”
I quirked a brow and tried to smile at her. She remained stoic.
“Come on.” I nodded to the side of the house. “Follow me.”
I trotted off the porch and deviated from the path, towards the woods.
She followed without question. She was hesitant in her step, looking around cautiously. It made me smile. She had some sense of self-preservation, after all. I was beginning to doubt that, considering her lack of reaction to Eoghan’s gun.
“Is this where you’re going to dump my body?” she sarcastically asked, though there was an undercurrent of true questioning.
We were far into the wood line. I could have taken her down the mud path that the cars had carved into the dirt. There were two parallel lines of tire marks that led to the back 40-acres, where the barracks and the medical clinic were nestled far from view. This was better, away from the cameras, camouflaged from any overhead imagery by the high, thick trees that obscured it from view even during stick season, when the leaves were bare. In the cool spring, like now, it was lush and full of flowers.
I took her straight through the woods because I wanted privacy. I wanted the feel of being alone in the wilderness, in the woods and animal trails that I knew like the back of my hand. In the woods that she’d be a stranger to.
Chapter 17
Rose
Hewasgloriousinthe moonlight. His hair was like spun gold and silver. His icy eyes were gray in the darkness, and his fair skin gave him an ethereal glow. He could have been something magical, from Shakespeare, coming out of the woods to ravage mortal women.
He stalked towards me, and survival instincts made me step back. He advanced, I retreated. I couldn’t turn my eyes away from him. I told myself it was because you never turned your back on an enemy. In truth, it was because I couldn’t turn even if I wanted to. His eyes drew me in.
I stumbled on the uneven ground, almost tripping over a root. I righted myself, twisting my ankle on a rock, until I fell into the rough bark of a tree. I looked left and right to see the best exit, but I took too long. He was on top of me, a hand on either side of my head, caging me in.
He leaned down, his breath warm on my cheek, sending goosebumps up my spine.
“Who do you work for?” He asked, his voice low, and deceptively soothing. “And don’t lie to me, or I’ll take it as an insult.”
I gasped, not from his question, but from the heat emanating from his skin. He smelled like leather and wood. I wanted to lean into his neck and place my lips on his throat to better experience that aftershave. To get high on it. But I stood still.
Numb. I am numb.I reminded myself.
