“What are you doing?” Gabe hissed.
“Getting his attention.”
“Fuck,” he ground out. Then he and Meghan slid out of view to move into their designated positions.
Harrington was walking directly toward her, and as he got closer, she backed slowly out of the ballroom and through the exit. An empty patio opened onto the entrance to the secluded park that Penelope had cleared for her guests. She could see her breath in the frigid air as fear of the man striding purposely for her threatened to overwhelm her.
She had learned at a young age how to compartmentalize the horrors of her youth. Visage had only intensified that skill. Survival. She knew how to function when survival was her only option, and she put those skills to good use for what was to come.
Harrington cleared the doorway and followed her into the cold.
“My little queen,” Harrington said in his lilting voice that made her teeth grind, “you have come home.”
That fucking nickname. If she never heard it again, it would be too soon.
She saw the chessboard before her and made her move, praying no one would beat her.
“I’m here.”
“Very elaborate attire for such a thing,” he said casually as if they were back underground and she had to listen to his insufferable chatter. “I do prefer you in white, though. Much more angelic.”
“Black suits me,” she said.
“Not in the slightest,” Harrington said, taking another step forward. He swung his cane in circles. She had been right. He still didn’t need the damn thing. “You are innocent and soft and so very human.”
Reyna clenched her jaw and released it. She hated the way Harrington’s words mirrored what Beckham had said to her earlier this week. How could both men enjoy these qualities in her and be so utterly different? Want such different things from her?
“However, you could have simply walked back into my life. You didn’t need such a dramatic entrance.”
“You like dramatic entrances.”
He smiled. “You know me so well.”
If she didn’t know better, she would think William Harrington was infatuated with her. She knew he was not. He wanted something from her, and he was a master manipulator. He would play whatever game was necessary to get her to come to him of her own free will. That would be easiest for him. Kidnapping was an extra step. He preferred to cut out the middleman.
A shuffle from behind Harrington drew both of their attention. Reyna stiffened when she saw Roland exit onto the patio. Then Cassandra. Then Beckham.
“You know my colleagues,” Harrington said, gesturing to Roland, Cassandra, and Beckham as they followed him outside.
“Yes,” she squeaked out like a mouse.
She was prepared for the possibility of facing all of them, had even hoped that Beckham would be in attendance to protect her. But her preparation didn’t meet with the reality of their horror. Harrington with his lethal calm. Roland, the devious sexual predator. Cassandra, the deranged sadist.
“Mr. Anderson is in a mood,” Harrington said with a wide smile for Beckham. “He’s not pleased that we turned his girl.”
She finally steeled herself to glance at Beckham. He was not her Beckham. He was the senior vice president of this deplorable organization. He was a vampire lord. A murderer, a killer, a monster.
“Ruined her,” Beckham spat instead. His arms were crossed, his eyes flat and lifeless.
“You’ll find another O negative beauty. You always do, my boy,” Harrington said dismissively.
Reyna couldn’t believe Harrington still addressed Beckham as if he were a treasured son. A prodigy. They’d suspected Beckham was on the outs. Had they been wrong? What was an act…and what wasn’t?
“We wouldn’t risk you that way, though, dear Reyna,” Harrington said. “You are much too valuable. But I see that I did it wrong the first time. You can come back and live a normal life. Come and go as you please. We’d be more careful with the blood donations. I’d negotiate to once a week, even.”
He was…negotiating with her. She hadn’t expected that. Truthfully, she hadn’t expected any of it. Harrington was acting as if her presence was totally normal. What he had always expected.
“A normal life?” she asked, hoping she sounded earnest.
