Savages Recruit (31 page)

She looked far less sure of herself after his little speech. “How did you find me?” She had to have known the question wasn't going to get an answer, much like he'd known she wasn't going to tell him how she'd escaped.

“I have my methods,” he said, keeping the illusion of near omnipotent power as intact as possible.

She was about to argue, but she was interrupted by his phone ringing. Savage checked the device and saw that it was Brian calling. He held his finger to his lips at Zora, then answered it.

Once again, Brian didn't bother with pleasantries. “Uh Sir, are you in the Mattrion hotel?”

Puzzled at how Brian could have possibly deducted such a thing, Savage confirmed that he was. “How did you know?”

“Just a hunch sir,” Brian said quite calmly. “There are two police choppers being scrambled to that location, not to mention at least ten ground units.”

Savage hung up and grabbed Zora. “We have to go.”

She predictably started fighting him, futilely attempting to pull her arm out of his grip. “What? No! I'm not going anywhere with you.”

“Zora!” He yelled urgently. “They're coming. They're coming now. You understand me?”

“No!” She shouted back. “I don't believe you!”

He took a breath to calm himself and modulated his voice. This was not the time for a screaming match. “We don't have time to fight about this. Come with me. Now.”

“No!”

They could have argued like that until they were caught, if not for the sound of a distant chopper drawing steadily closer lending some credibility to his argument. Savage pointed out the window. “They're coming for you. If you want to stay here and wait for them, fine. I'm leaving.” He let Zora go and made his way quickly towards the door. He was out of the suite and on his way to the emergency stairwell before Zora came racing after him. She'd grabbed a backpack and looked ready to move.

“I don't trust you,” she said, “but I trust them even less.”

There was no more time for discussion. Savage lead them both into the stairwell. The warning had come just in time, but not quite soon enough to make a completely clean getaway. They managed to descend several floors before the clanging of metal stairwell doors and the sound of heavy boots on the stairs below announced the arrival of the cops.

Wordlessly, Savage pushed the door to the nearest floor open. Zora followed him without complaint. Fortunately for both of them they were dressed casually, Savage from his civilian flight, Zora from her recent shopping spree. In spite of her new-found wealth, she'd still elected to buy jeans and a hooded sweatshirt, though they'd probably cost five times as much as anything in a department store.

He reached for her hand and she laced her fingers with his, playing the role of adoring partner perfectly as they strolled down the rabbit warren like corridors of the hotel. They couldn't even hear the police officers anymore, the place was well equipped with soundproofing that allowed guests in one room to have a reasonably loud gathering without disturbing those staying next door.

They stopped to wait for a passing waiter pushing a dinner cart covered with a glistening white cloth and Zora took the opportunity to stand on tip toes and place a kiss on Savage's cheek. It was not a gesture of affection, it was just a way of getting close enough to whisper a dire promise. “You better not fuck me on this Brett,” she breathed.

He chuckled. “Last time I checked you liked it when I fucked you.”

She gave him a dirty look, but was not given the chance to respond. Behind them they could hear doors slamming open as the police began searching floor by floor.

“What the hell did you do?” Savage muttered to Zora, dragging her through the halls more quickly.

“What do you mean what did I do?” She injected just the right amount of righteous indignation into the question.

“This isn't us,” he growled. “You've managed to piss someone else off.”

“What can I say,” Zora said, tripping along after Savage as he tugged her in his wake. “It's a talent of mine.”

The officers were drawing closer, they could both hear them as they shouted back and forth. The situation was getting desperate, and witty banter aside, they were going to need a miracle to get out of this without being caught. Glancing at the waiter ahead of them, Savage hatched a plan.

***

Zora repressed a giggle as she crouched on her hands and knees, working hard to keep her balance as she was trundled along in the base of the dinner cart. Savage sure looked funny in the waiter's outfit. It was a little too small for him, the jacket not quite broad enough across the shoulders. There weren't many men on the planet built along Savage's lines.

The real waiter was stuffed inside a closet in one of the suites, tied up with bedsheets. They'd find him soon enough. He'd been compensated for his troubles with five hundred dollars in clean bank notes, which might mollify him somewhat. Maybe he'd even keep his mouth shut. Probably not.

Savage had been correct. The police weren't looking for him and they weren't working on behalf of Hurtzwald, who ever the heck that was. They were after a bank robber. She knew that because they'd told Savage as much when they'd questioned him after mistaking him for a waiter. Had he seen a blonde woman? Did he know where she might be?

She still wasn't certain that he wasn't going to try to take her back to the compound, but for the moment she had to trust him. He'd cleared most of the officers and steered the cart into the elevator, then subsequently into the parking lot. Peeking out from under the white cloth, she could see dirty concrete and car wheels.

“Right,” Savage said, pulling the cart to a halt and helping her out from under it. “Get in the car.”

It was no surprise to Zora that Brian had the car ready to help them escape. Brian was like a silent Jeeves, always there when you needed him. She eyed the vehicle suspiciously. “If you try to take me back there...”

“I'm not going to take you back there,” Savage sighed, finally running out of patience. Before she could argue any more he grabbed her by the back of her sweater and tossed her bodily into the back of the car. “Now shut up and hide down low whilst we get out of here.”

The police were checking cars as they left, but Savage ditched the waiter's jacket and Brian flashed his military ID and they were waved through whilst Zora took refuge under a blanket. She continued to hide until they were out of the city and whizzing along the gorgeous curves and lines of the PCH. Then, throwing back the blanket, she emerged to see the sparkling waters of the Pacific Ocean smashing merrily against rocky cliffs.

“We did it!” She announced gleefully. Her enthusiasm was not shared by the other occupants of the vehicle.

“I'm going to drop you off in one of the smaller towns off the highway. Keep your head down and for god's sake, keep your nose clean,” Savage growled at her. “If you commit a single crime I'm going to come after you and beat your ass until you can't sit for a month.”

“Oh yeah? Well...” Zora was going to come up with a counter threat, but the glare Savage gave her from the front seat was enough to make her shut her mouth.

The next few hours passed in something of a whirl. She didn't know how, but Savage had been busy, real busy. It was almost as if he had a contingency for this sort of situation already planned out. They turned inland and drove through the countryside until they reached a town so small she could hardly believe that it was a town at all. The bright blue sky was wide open and tall pine trees dotted the land at regular intervals, breaking up the valleys and ridges. There were a handful of houses and barns and she was sure she spotted a small general store, which struck her as very quaint indeed. She commented as much, but received no reply. Savage was not in the best of moods, so it was in silence that they drove through the center of town and down a couple of side roads to pull up in front of a small, but tidy house.

“Where are we?” Zora inquired cautiously.

“Iron Horse,” Savage said. “Population 300. Somewhere quiet you can keep your head down.”

She looked around and saw absolutely nothing of interest. “I'm supposed to stay here?”

“Damn right you're supposed to stay here,” he growled at her. “You even think of moving without telling me and I'll have your hide.”

Zora wrinkled her nose as she stepped out of the car. He really had dumped her right in the middle of nowhere. It wasn't quite as remote as the compound, but it might as well have been. The next house was barely in view across dusty paddocks fenced by shaky wooden struts. “Seriously? Here?”

“Here,” Savage said firmly. He took her by the shoulder, turned her around and slapped her ass hard. “Now get inside.”

“Ow!” Zora complained.

“Ow? You've got a lot more than just that coming to you girl,” he growled. “I cannot believe you actually robbed a bank. You were out for less than a day and you robbed a bank.”

“I needed money,” she explained.

“What you needed was a good thrashing,” he replied direly. He was in full blown angry Savage mode and she didn't like her chances of ending their encounter without feeling the palm of his hand again.

With a growing sense of despair, Zora traipsed inside the house. The kitchen she walked into was decorated with faded floral wallpaper and furnished with a rickety old table and three chairs. She dumped her backpack in a corner and frowned. “This isn't my idea of freedom,” she complained over her shoulder.

“It's here or the compound, your choice,” Savage snapped.

She was tired of being growled at. It was time the man lightened up a little. “What's the matter Bretty?” Zora smirked cheekily, throwing caution to the wind. “You seem tense...”

It was the final straw. He'd been patient with her escape, he'd been patient with the discovery she'd robbed a bank, he'd even helped her run from the cops, but she'd finally made the smart ass comment that broke the camel's back. She knew this because he roared as much as he grabbed her up to punish her. Try as she might to thwart his efforts, she was still no match for him. Setting his foot up on the seat of one of the kitchen chairs, he pushed her over his thigh and began slapping her ass with gusto. “Tense! Girl you don't know the half of it!”

See-sawing back and forth over his leg with her ass very quickly feeling like it was under attack by napalm, Zora felt that she probably did know the half of it and that she was being treated very unfairly indeed. Escaping wasn't a crime, and okay, maybe bank robbery technically was a crime, but she'd only stolen from a bad guy. She communicated precisely none of those thoughts because she was too busy yowling and trying to save her ass. Savage was whaling away at her behind with the sort of enraged strength that she always seemed to bring out in him.

“Goddammit stop it!” She screamed, thrashing about wildly in a way that did nothing but put her more off balance.

“I will not stop it,” he bellowed. “You are the most incorrigible, lawless brat I've ever known and you need a beating more than you need anything.”

“It's never stopped me before,” she screeched over the loud thwacking of his palm meeting her ass. “What makes you think it will work now?”

The logic was sound, but it didn't stop him from spanking her until she felt tears springing to her eyes. He'd wasted no time in building a deep ache in her ass that was being topped off with fiery blows that just kept coming, over and over again.

“Why are you doing this?” She tried a question, desperate to end the spanking. “It's just pointless!”

“Because I love you dammit!” He yelled. He stopped hitting her and just held her there, his palm laid across her blazing bottom. She could hear him breathing hard, perhaps from the exertion of the spanking, perhaps from something else. When he spoke again, his voice was quieter and more controlled. “I love you and I'm scared as hell I'm going to watch you die and I'm not going to be able to do a damn thing to stop it.”

He stood her up and Zora saw that she was not the only one with tears in her eyes. Savage's own dark gaze was glistening with emotion. She realized with a start that his pain was her doing. She never really thought of him as having actual feelings, everything always seemed so contrived with him. Maybe he did care after all. Certainly he'd risked his life and he was probably still risking his life in helping her escape. “I'm so sorry,” she whispered as guilt washed over her.

“No, I'm sorry,” he said, holding back his emotion with supreme effort. “I should have never brought you into this life.” He stiffened with resolve. “But now that I have, I'm going to make damn sure you're safe, and if that means beating your ass until you can't sit so you think twice before pulling one of your little stunts, then so be it.”

He reached for her and gathered her to him and she melted against his body, taking comfort in his strength as she dried her eyes on his shirt. It was a soft, tender moment she wished would last forever, but it barely lasted a minute before footsteps on the porch got their attention. They both turned as the screen door of the kitchen opened. It was Brian. “Sorry to interrupt sir,” he said. “Our window is closing. We have to get going.”

“I will be back,” Savage promised. He kissed her deeply, all his love and passion in the embrace as he wrapped his arms around her as if he never wanted to let her go. She breathed deeply, taking in his scent, making it a part of herself.

“I don't want you to go.” Zora felt as small as she sounded when she realized that he was really going, leaving her alone in the remote town. She'd escaped the compound without giving him much of a second thought, but now she really didn't want him to leave.

“I don't want to go either, little girl,” he held her close and dropped a kiss on the top of her head. “But we can't be together until this is resolved.” He pulled away, giving her a final kiss that held so much longing it almost made her choke with emotion.

She watched him walk towards the door and her voice was plaintive as she rubbed her ass, hating the fact that the burning ache was going to stick around longer than Savage was. “What now? What do I do now?”