One was lean, tall, and just like at the hospital, dressed in black from head to toe, his dark hair pulled back at the nape of his neck. He had the air of something ancient and deadly, his movements too smooth, his presence too silent. His sharp features were almost too perfect—cold and beautiful in a way that sent alarms screaming in her head. He was a stone cold killer. She’d run into enough of them to recognize the dead look in his dark eyes.
The other one was broader, built like a soldier, with pale hair and intense, ice blue eyes. He had the look of the north, of someone who enjoyed a good fight and a good joke in equal measure, but his gaze was just as watchful, just as dangerous.
“We need you to come with us,” the dark one, the assassin, spoke.
Raven’s throat went dry.
Everything inside her recoiled.No.“I’m not going anywhere with you.”
Neither man so much as blinked but it was the blond who answered. “I’m afraid, Miss MacInnes, this is not a request.”
Her pulse slammed into overdrive. They knew her name. Of course, they fucking did.
Her instinct was to run—but logic killed that thought before it could fully form. They had found her. Tracked her. Revealed themselves to her. That meant they had already decided she was a loose end.
Still—she didn’t move.
She met their gazes in turn, forcing steel into her voice when she spoke directly to the death dealer. “What do you want?”
The dark-haired one—the one who looked like he’d been cut from marble and brought to life with something colder than ice—tilted his head slightly. “There is someone who would like to speak with you.” He tilted his head, the smallest hint of a smile on his lips, as if her defiance amused him. “If we wanted you dead, you’d be dead already. There is no need to be afraid.”
“Said the spider to the fly,” Raven whispered. The man in black’s cruel lips widened into an actual grin.
The blond man—bigger, bulkier—gave her an unreadable look and no words of comfort.
Well, at least he wasn’t bothering to lie to her. She swallowed, her gut screaming that this was a mistake. But what choice did she really have?
A few minutes later she sat inside a Sikorsky S-92 VIP, a beast of a helicopter with a faint odor of fire and spice lingering in the air. Her father—God rest his soul—had loved everything that flew and been more than happy to share his love with his only daughter. So, Raven was familiar enough with aircraft to recognize the ultra-long-range helicopter often used by heads of state and royalty.Royalty.
Who the hell had she pissed off?
Her old piece-of-shit car was being driven to their destination by the dark-eyed man—the silent one who barely seemed to breathe––or so they told her.
The pilot, a huge man the others addressed as ‘Lorien’, sat quietly flying her to God only knew where. No music. No humming. No talking.
Ice blue eyes held her gaze in the rear view mirror. “He can put you to sleep, if you prefer.”
“No.” Her hands twisted into a knot on her lap as her blond kidnapper shifted in his seat beside her. He’d said his name was Talon. How was Talon going to do that? Land and punch her? Inject her with something? “Thank you.” She added the last because if she didn’t give her mouth something to do, she would have vomited all over her one decent pair of shoes.
Her heart had not stopped hammering since the moment the helicopter blades began to whir. She’d been so focused on figuring out the truth, she hadn’t even heard it land in the first place. She needed to start paying more attention to her surroundings.
They hadn’t restrained her other than to help her fasten the safety harness. They hadn’t made any physical threats. They didn’t have to.
The quiet power, the absolute control in their movements, was more terrifying than any direct threat could have been.
She tried to calm herself. Tried to rationalize. Tried to stop shivering.
Maybe they were going to make her sign some kind of non-disclosure agreement. Maybe they were going to intimidate her into silence.
Or maybe?—
Maybe she wouldn’t come back at all.
Talon noticed her discomfort and tossed a blanket on her lap. Grateful, she wrapped it around herself and tried not to let her very dark, very busy imagination run wild. They flew for several hours before landing to refuel. Maybe longer. She couldn’t be sure because they’d taken her phone. The blond man, Talon, was gorgeous, had the same vibrant kind of energy that made her skin tingle and her thoughts chase one another around inside her head like a bunch of two-year-olds chasing kittens. He exuded power and confidence, but not one damn word came out of his mouth. Not even when she asked him a direct question likewhere are we going?Orwho are you?
There was only one inquiry he’d responded to—whether or not the man she’d found on the side of that cliff was still alive. That had earned her a single word. “Yes.”
That one word shouldn’t have settled something fractured and broken inside her, but somehow, it did.
