Seize me From Darkness (Pierced Hearts Book 4) (28 page)

The
high commission. Now that was serious shit. If she spoke to anyone there, we were in deep
kak
. I ran with him to the door that led into the garage. The big outer door was trundling up already. We slid into his jeep and rumbled out onto the road.

Once through the guard’s checkpoint, Glass
threw a querying look my way. “News?”

“
The guard says he’s talking to the taxi driver via text. The driver’s pulled over and he’s telling her he has a problem from base to sort out.”

“
I told him to get the driver to pretend he was going to the high commission. He’ll be going to a different address.” He spun the wheel and headed out along a straight stretch between suburban houses. “You need to be ready.” He glanced across. “I know you like her but this isn’t good and I have an email about who she is too. Read it. Top one in my Gmail account. Her name is...” He stopped at traffic lights. “Jazmine Foulkes, and she’s a journalist. Known for breaking some big stories. My guy did a shallow search for info on the net.”

I’d found the email.
She wasn’t a librarian. I sagged back into my seat. “Well, this is just
fokken
dandy, hey?”

“Surprised?”

“
Ja.
” I’d known, really, all along. In my gut. It still hurt. We surged forward. “I want to sit her down and lecture her and then...” Do something nastier that I should really be ashamed of thinking, outside of Gregor’s little dungeon. I wiped at my mouth.

“What?
You sound as pissed as me. Lecture her?” He chuckled. “Sure. We’re going to have to think hard about what to do with her.”

I checked his expression. I’d never thought Glass would kill to protect business interests
, but there was so much riding on this. “You can’t kill her.”

We drove to the next intersection and zoomed along a quiet street behind some warehouses, then up behind a tall office building, where there was an entry to a deserted car park. Glass cruised past that, stopping
alongside a section where there was only sidewalk and the flat walls of the office buildings rising up to both sides. At around seven in the morning, no one was at work.

“No CCTV here,” he murmured. “And no, we won’
t kill her, as long as you have an alternative, because there’s no way I’d trust her enough to let her go, not after this.” He regarded me steadily, like I was a magician about to pull a rabbit out of my ass.

The
way he said that made the possibilities obvious and after we’d just rescued her from Gregor it was ironic. I drawled out, “No killing. Which doesn’t leave a lot of options. You keep her somewhere. Someone else keeps her, or I do. Which are you thinking?”

“That you’re a kinky devious bastard
with the hots for her. That you want her. Wrong?” He cocked his eyebrow.

I shook my head.
“I never thought I’d ever think of doing this.”

“Sometimes fate takes a hand in our lives and we have to do what she asks us to.”

“Philosophy à la Glass?”

“Yep.”

“She won’t like my plan. But I will.” I nodded to myself. “Are you still having trouble with petty thieves taking fuel and supplies on Rakenest Island?”

“I am.”

“Let me be your solution for a month. Me, her, whatever I need for a month out there. I’ll make them rue the day they stole from you. I’ll make her wish she hadn’t run.” I ran through things in my head: pluses, minuses, how she might react. “You need to follow my lead when I talk to her.”

In the
mirror I spotted a white taxi overtaking us and it came to a stop just ahead.

“
Sure.”

I hadn’t been quite the model citizen for years, but with my hand on the door handle, I said the words that severed my connection to the
good, the sane, and the law-abiding world forever. “Let’s do this.”

I flung open the door, jumped down and strode to the taxi
, then opened her door. About the same time, Glass arrived on the opposite side. She was sitting forward, saying something to the driver. The moment she recognized me, the exact second those pretty green eyes focused, I registered it like a hit from a missile.

Baby, you
’ve done bad, bad things.
Seemed like Jazmine discipline was my number one addiction. I was looking forward to this so much I could’ve jerked off to it. My choice of words gave me pause.

Not hunting, discipline, because she was mine, by rights.

Her loud intake of breath warned me. When she didn’t actually scream, I guessed she wasn’t sure of our intentions.

If I could avoid panicking her, I would. Play it by ear.

I spoke quietly, ducking my head to address the driver. “Could you step out for a minute, please, I need to talk to her.”

“Yes, sir.” The man looked nervous but Glass had said he was a relative of the guard.

As he exited, I slipped in and sat beside her.

As long as I wasn’t arrested, I was making this happen.

“Don’t scream, Jaz. We’re not here to grab you.” Except we were. “Just to talk. You know what you’re doing is going to hurt me. Why are you doing this?”

“I...”

Her hands fidgeted in her lap and she looked from me to Glass, who’d slid in on the other side. So I put my hand over her small one and squeezed. Her perfume teased me, reminding me of her sexuality, her femaleness. As if I needed more reminding than the upper curves of her breasts where her bra pushed them above the dress’s neckline.

M
y new possession. My submissive girl, only she didn’t know that yet. What could I do to a woman who was utterly mine? For a dirty creepy sadist like me, the world was wide open. It was unsettling, in a way, yet such a fucking jolt to the system.

I had Pieter on one side and Glass on the other. Screaming and trying to get out was on the agenda, only I knew I’d never make it. My
one hope, if I struggled, was that a passerby would hear me, or the driver would grow a conscience. The latter seemed unlikely.

That Pieter seemed reasonable and not angry meant I could salvage this, didn’t it? Fuck, I hoped so. I wasn’t going to escalate this
situation. If anyone got hurt it would likely be me.

He’
d asked me why. For a last second, I tussled with what to do. A big man to either side, and Pieter’s disappointed gaze on me. The man could play the hurt puppy so well.

I actually felt guilty. What if they did plan to only help me? They’d staged a full
-scale assault to get me out. A man had been shot. Maybe I was stupid? And plain ungrateful.

“I’m sorry.
I had a brain spasm. I panicked. I thought you weren’t going to get me home.”

The crease between his eyes made me feel even worse. “You did?”

“Um. Yes. I did.”

“She doesn’t know me,” Glass murmured. “It’s understandable.”

The sad look on Pieter’s face shamed me.

I felt as small as a pebble between these guys. My thoughts of
running shrank to nothing.

“What can we do to make it up to you? You want to get home faster? Gl
ass?” He put his arm on the backrest and toyed with some strands of my hair where they’d draped across the upholstery then looked across me at his friend.

What was I supposed to do in the face of this? I’d betrayed the man who’d been my one reason for staying alive for the most terrifying time in my life.
On the other hand, if they were prepared to drop their quest for my name and address, I should grasp this opportunity with both hands before they changed their minds again.

“I’m sorry, Pieter. But...yes. I do want to go home.” Hope stirred.

Glass cleared his throat. “I guess I could do a flight tomorrow? I have got a job I need to do. A delivery. We’d have to stop at Rakenest Island though. I’ve had some islanders stealing fuel and equipment there. You cool with that, Pieter? You were coming on this flight to take her back?”

“Yeah, I was.” The low rumble of his voice settled into me, as comfortable and familiar as a rainstorm sweeping in on a day when you were snuggled in bed.

I hated myself in that moment. The least I could do was to let them do this the way that was safe, for them.

My memory jogged.
I’d heard Glass mention that he’d salvaged a hard drive from the office at the House. My name might be on that. They mightn’t know who I was yet, but it was possible they’d find out soon. “Is there any chance of this happening today? Or do you have to lodge flight plans?”

Glass guffawed. “Flight plans are the least of my worries. I don’t know. Maybe?”

“Tell you what.” Pieter opened the door at his back. “Give us some time to run around getting everything Glass needs prepared and I’ll see if I can get this expedited.” He slipped out and put a hand out to help me from the taxi. “How’s that?”

“Expedited?” I grinned. “That would be wonderful.” Glass slammed his door and came around to us. “Is it really do-able
?”

He gri
maced. “For Pieter, and for you, I’ll do my damn best. Main thing I have to do is make sure there’s someone to take you farther once you’re back on the coast of Australia. So it’d be best if you’re there anyway, Pieter, to keep her safe, get her to the nearest town. Once we land there, I can give you money, for food, a bus maybe, but you’ll be on your own. Okay?”

It was happening.
Ohmigod.
“Yes!” I squealed, just a little.

Pieter smiled
. “I can’t stay in Australia. Wish I could. How do I get back here, Glass?”

He wished. Once again I was torn by that attraction to this hunk of a man
, but I could see a strange glitter in his eyes, as if something disturbed him. He’d been a little obsessed with me. I heaved in a breath. For the best. Maybe I could contact him again one day. Make things friendly but not too close. Yeah, I could do that. I just needed to be a safe distance from him.

“
I can pick you up on the coast, a day later. I’ll show you on a map.”

My guilt swung back, full force
, and I swallowed, finding I’d teared up a little. “Thank you, guys.”

“No problem
.” Glass nodded. “Let’s get back to my house and do this.”

Which was how I ended up squeezed into a seaplane with Pieter, Glass and some supplies only a few hours later. Whatever checklist they’d run through
had been finalized in what seemed superhuman time, but Glass had been planning this for days, just not with me in mind. Whatever he was smuggling in the boxes he’d loaded, I did not want to know.

After my stupid debacle of trying to go to the high commission, I’d decided to be good, for once. I’d write up what had happened as best as I could, in a way that didn’t implicate anyone...or I wouldn’t do it at all. Likely, that meant a no. I’d wear it. I’d get therapy. I’d get over this, somehow. Criminals or not, Glass and Pieter had hearts.
I owed them.

We flew for over half an hour before t
he little island he was aiming for appeared on the horizon and slowly grew. It was late afternoon and it seemed he meant to arrive on the Australian coast around sunset. That meant instrument flying on the way back, I figured.

I’d told them over and over that I’d pay them back for fuel and other costs but Glass had only smiled and refused. I’d do it still, I vowed to myself. Somehow.

From the sounds of it, I’d be on the far north tip of the country. Catching a bus south would be the best idea. All the way to Brisbane, if I could, to make it less likely people would wonder how I’d ended up in far north Queensland.

Landing on the ocean in this plane must need low seas surely.
Despite Pieter taking my hand, and running through some spiel about safety, I worried. The palm trees on the island grew in size as did a small jetty on one side, and a collection of low dwellings. The island was crescent shaped and we were heading for the more sheltered concave part of the crescent. The plane tilted, angling in, the engine lowering then roaring in tone when Glass adjusted the throttle. I clung to Pieter’s biceps.