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She told herself she was imagining things. But deep down she knew she wasn’t. Liam was attracted to her. No, it was beyond that. He was becoming territorial where she was concerned.
Vishenko had been territorial, keeping her for his exclusive use for two nightmare years. Putting her on display in his Long Island mansion for certain of his associates who came there to meet with him. Glorying in his power over her. Knowing she was frighteningly aware of the punishment he would inflict once they were alone if she repulsed him in front of his men. However she fought him in private, he didn’t care. In fact, he enjoyed it. But she was not to cause him to lose face.
Cate had learned that lesson the hard way. And to her shame, she’d eventually complied. Letting him control her with threats instead of beatings after the first few months when she’d literally been his prisoner. Letting him control her...in front of others. Conceding him the power he insisted on...in public.
Then...pretending to concede even in private after the first year. She’d fought that battle with her self-respect, but Vishenko had broken her resistance enough so that she knew the only way to escape was to pretend. To loosen the stranglehold he had on her. To lull him into a false sense of security where she was concerned. Hating him, despising him—and herself—she’d submitted. Then she’d escaped. She would never submit again. Not just to Vishenko, but to any man.
Liam wasn’t like Vishenko. She knew that. In her heart she knew that, but...she didn’t want him to think she belonged to him, either. She would never be a man’s possession ever again. Even if she died for it.
* * *
After they found D’Arcy in the living room and told him Cate’s decision, Liam watched Cate walk away from them without another word, up the stairs to her bedroom, quietly but firmly closing the door behind her.
“Did she take much convincing?” D’Arcy asked him.
Liam dragged his thoughts away from Cate and turned to the other man, shaking his head. “Not really. She’s smart enough to know what’s best for her. It’s just been a lot for her to take in. Including everything that happened yesterday.”
D’Arcy’s face reflected his regret...and his frustration with himself. “I should have expected something like that...and have been prepared for it. Especially after the other witness was killed. But I’ll be honest. I thought she was safe in the courthouse. Which just proves I can make mistakes—bad ones—like every other man out there. I just don’t happen to like it.”
One corner of Liam’s mouth curved upward in a half smile. “Baker Street. Isn’t that what Keira and Cody call you? And McKinnon, too? Because you’re so omniscient?”
“Yeah, I have that reputation,” D’Arcy said, returning Liam’s partial smile. “But maintaining it takes constant vigilance. And this proves I’m not really omniscient—otherwise Vishenko would never have been able to get this close to taking her out.” He sighed, looking his age for once, before his face hardened. “Don’t let anything happen to her, Jones. I know I don’t have to tell you that—you and your brother did a damned fine job in the courthouse yesterday, and you got her safely all the way here. But this case now rests on the slimmest of threads. Without Cate...forget it. Vishenko and his cohorts walk free. Again.”
“What about the extradition to Zakhar? Cate told me Vishenko is facing unrelated charges there, as well.”
“Yes, and the US has an extradition treaty with Zakhar. But Vishenko’s lawyers will fight it. It could drag out for years. And Vishenko will be free on bail in the meantime, just as he is now. Do you really think he’ll meekly let himself be dragged off to Zakhar for a trial that will be little more than a formality given how the Zakharians feel about the monarchy?” D’Arcy shook his head. “I don’t think so. If this conspiracy trial tanks, Vishenko will fight extradition all the way, and in the end I’ll bet he skips bail rather than go to Zakhar, extradition or no. He has the money...and the connections, to go anywhere in the world. There are countries without extradition treaties with the US and Zakhar that would harbor him as a refugee...for a price.”
* * *
Liam stood just inside the closed door to his bedroom, with his back to it. At first he thought about what D’Arcy had said about Vishenko. Then his thoughts moved inevitably to Cate, and the need to keep her safe. Not just for the trial...for himself, as well. And wasn’t that a kick in the teeth. He hadn’t seen it coming. Not at all.
He needed to get himself under control. Cate wasn’t his woman, and he had to stop the damned knee-jerk reaction every time she mentioned Alec’s name. So she had a thing for Alec. So what? Alec was a prince of a guy, and she wouldn’t be the first woman attracted to him. What the hell business was it of his anyway?
