Authors: Kelli Maine
Tags: #Mystery, #Romantic, #Romance, #Erotic, #Suspense, #New Adult, #Thriller
Chains (17 page)
Once upon a time, the king’s council rode up to the castle gate. Inside, there was a princess who dreamed of riding far, far away from her guardian, the evil Baron Striker. Upon seeing the council, she ran to find her loyal knights.
Sir Tyler was drawing in his room when she burst through the door. “The king’s council is here!” she cried. “Do you think they’re here to take us away?”
Sir Tyler shot to his feet. “Why are they here? I don’t like this, Princess.” He knew if the council was snooping around, it meant trouble. Getting away from the baron would be all of their dreams come true, but he knew it would come with a cost: he’d be separated from the princess and Sir Alex. It was a bittersweet moment of wishing and being terrified his wish might come true.
“Where’s Sir Alex?” she asked.
“Outside clearing brush.”
They paused, gazing at each other with questions in their eyes. Should they rush out to meet the council? Would Baron Striker want them to stay hidden in their chambers? And most importantly, should they tell the council how the baron treated them?
Sir Tyler, being the older of the two, knew it was his duty to take charge of the situation. “Let’s go meet them,” he said, swallowing back his apprehension.
Out in the yard, the baron greeted his guests with a wide smile and gracious welcome as they dismounted their horses. Sir Alex stood to the side, pale and trembling.
“I’m afraid there has been a report made to the king, Baron Striker,” one of the council members said “Accusing you of abuse of power over your young knights and the princess. We’ve been sent to confirm or deny the accusation.”
Striker’s brows arched into his hairline. A second of shocked anger passed across his face before being overtaken by a somber, serous expression as he bowed and swept his arm toward the castle doors.
The next thing Princess Danielle knew, she was being whisked away to the baron’s study while Sir Tyler and Sir Alex were taken to private rooms as well for interrogation regarding their treatment in the castle.
The council member, who introduced herself as Madame Stowe, proceeded to ask if the baron had ever harmed her. Had she ever had a broken bone or welts inflicted upon her person by the baron?
She never had a broken bone. Welts, yes. But she was afraid to confess the truth, so the princess answered no. But the worst thing the baron did was to make her uncomfortable in her own skin, forcing her to sit on his lap and patting her backside. She sometimes couldn’t say exactly how she was mistreated, but she knew she wanted to leave the castle and never return. The princess wondered what her knights were telling their councilmen, if they were confessing the truth.
Once the questioning was over, the council informed Baron Striker that they would send word if further investigation into the accusation was required. When they took their leave, the baron stood at the castle door and stared down the lane where the council had disappeared. He didn’t budge. Didn’t make a sound. It was more terrifying than if he’d set loose on a rampage, cursing and threatening their lives.
The princess retreated with the knights to their chamber. After the door was closed, the three of them whispered together. “Did you tell?” “No. Did you?” “No.” Sir Tyler only shook his head. None of them had told of the evils Baron Striker inflicted upon them. They would stay together. Now and always.
That night while the princess lay sleeping, a gunshot sounded outside her window. She threw back her blanket and ran to look down into the yard. Sir Alex stood against the wooden shed, back flat and eyes wide as plates. Above his head and to the left, a large bullet hole gaped in the moonlight. Baron Striker stood no more than twenty paces away aiming his pistol at Sir Alex.
“It wasn’t me!” Sir Alex pleaded.
Another shot fired from the pistol and struck the wood to Sir Alex’s right. The knight’s eyes were squeezed shut. His lips were pressed tight, and his chest heaved with sobs.
“Stop this! Stop!” Sir Tyler ran into the yard. “None of us told!”
Baron Striker drew back and cracked his hand across Sir Tyler’s face hard enough to knock him to the ground.
As he loomed over Sir Tyler, Sir Alex crumpled to the ground weeping, defeated. The princess couldn’t take one more second of watching her knights, her brothers, in jeopardy. She took a deep breath and shouted out her window into the cool night air. “I told the council!”
The baron looked up to where she stood tall and brave glaring down at him. “If anyone deserves your wrath, it’s me. Let them go.”
The baron stared at her for a moment. Then he laughed. He turned his head toward Sir Alex, then back down to Sir Tyler, all the while his laughter turning to hysterics. With a half-hearted kick to Sir Tyler’s leg, Baron Striker stepped over him and strode toward the castle.
“Don’t touch her!” Sir Tyler shouted.
The baron kept laughing. “Her day’s coming,” he called back, then lifted his chin and yelled up to the princess, “Your day’s coming, beautiful princess. I shall never let you go. I’ll lock you in the tower and you will be my treasure forever.”
“I’ll never stay with you!” she screamed. “I’ll die first!”
ELEVEN
“Danny!” Her name ripped out of my throat as I ran for the car. The door was unlocked. “Dan—”
“I’m right here!” she shouted, standing on the neighbor’s porch holding the dog by the collar with a woman who was probably in her early thirties. “The dog ran over here.”
I pressed my hand to my heart and did my best not to look like a deranged boyfriend who kept Danny locked in the bedroom and freaked out when she left the house. But that was how the neighbor was looking at me.
“Thanks for grabbing him before he ran off,” Danny said to the neighbor.
I turned around and waited for Danny on the porch, seething with anger. When she came down the sidewalk, I wanted to tear her head off and hold her so tight she could never get out of my arms again. I wasn’t sure which urge was stronger. “Why the fuck did you get out of the car?” I asked.
She stopped at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at me like a chastised little girl. “The dog. I—”
“I don’t give a shit about the dog. I told you to stay in the car with the doors locked until I came out to get you. Don’t you care that Striker was here?”
“We don’t know that he was here,” she said, reminding me that I was keeping a secret from her—the picture that was taped to the door. I knew he was here, but she didn’t. I had to tell her so she wouldn’t go wandering off again by herself.
“Let’s go inside,” I said. “I think I just had a heart attack.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, following me inside, “but what was I supposed to do? She was standing there with our dog staring at me. I couldn’t just ignore her like some crazy person who couldn’t get out of the car to fetch my dog. What? Was I supposed to tell her my psycho foster father was after me, so I couldn’t get out of the car because he might kidnap me?”
“There’s no
might
about it.” I pounded up the stairs. “Why didn’t you tell me he had you at gunpoint before?”
“It was a long time ago. It’s not like I’ve told you every single thing that’s ever happened to me since you left.”
“I’m sure there’s a lot I don’t know,” I said, feeling like an asshole for lashing out at her, but I couldn’t stop either.
“You know what?” she said, following me into the bedroom and slamming the door. “There is and it’s time I told you a few things, starting with Reno. Do you know why I was there, Ty? To get you to quit fighting. That fight—what Jose said to you and me being there at all—it was a set up.”
A blanket of confusion wrapped around me. “What do you mean, a set up?”
“Mike wanted to test you before you went pro. He saw what I see, Ty. How you lose control and can’t stop. So he set up the ultimate test. Me. He tracked me down and asked me to help him. It was the first time I was brave enough to go to one of your fights. I wanted to a million times before, but didn’t think you wanted to see me. You never tried. But it was you—I couldn’t refuse. I wanted to see you again, talk to you, tell you I was glad you got out and were making a life for yourself. But I saw you in the ring with Jose and the tiger came out. It was just like being back in the driveway the day you left.” She swallowed hard and rubbed her eyes. “Anyway, now you know. If you hate me and never want to see me again, I understand.”
My mind cranked, like an old rollercoaster car trying to make it up a hill. Her words played back, stuttered, stopped, restarted. The cold burn of betrayal slithered through me. “You and Mike set me up?”
“Yes,” she said, “and you failed, Ty. You shouldn’t be fighting anymore.”
“You played me for a fucking fool!” Anger roiled in every cell of my body. The room pulsed and throbbed, red. “You played me! You both fucking lied!” I turned and kicked out, crashing my heel into the wall. My fist hit above it, busting through the drywall.
“Stop!” she screamed. “Ty, stop it!”
I dropped my face into my hands and closed my eyes before I tore the entire room apart.
“We did it because we don’t want to see you kill someone. Could you carry that around on your conscience for the rest of your life?”
I had to get out. I couldn’t make this problem go away with my fists, and I didn’t know any other way of dealing. “I gotta get out of here,” I said, pushing past her for the door.
“Where are you going? You’re not going to talk to me about this?”
“Later,” I said. “Right now nothing good is going to come out of my mouth.”
I passed Alex on the stairs. “What the fuck was that banging?” he asked.
“I’ll fix it.” I hit the foyer and grabbed the front door knob. “I need some space.”
“Ty!” he called, making me turn to look back as I stepped out the door. “There’s a bar a couple blocks over in a strip mall. Have a few drinks and calm down.”
“It’ll take more than a few,” I said, pulling the door shut behind me.
The bar was inside a little bistro with tables out on the sidewalk. A baseball game was on the T.V. behind the bar, and the bartender kept bending over flashing me her tits. She was hot, but it didn’t help my mood. Maybe if I took her behind the building and fucked her brains out I’d forget that Danny and Mike screwed me over.
“Want another one?” the bartender asked, tapping my empty bear glass.
“Sure. Why the hell not?”
The place was deserted. People would be getting off work soon and heading home. I didn’t have a home anymore. Not back in Detroit living in Mike’s apartment above the gym. I couldn’t work at the gym anymore and have him as a trainer, not if I couldn’t trust him.
And what about fucking fight Reno?
“Looks like your brain’s running a mile a minute,” the bartender said, setting a full glass of beer down in front of me.
“You could say that.” I took a long drink. They were going down easy.
“The best way to ease your mind is to engage your body,” she said, leaning on the bar. “By the looks of yours, I’m guessing you’re a fitness trainer. Am I right?”
I felt the side of my mouth quirk up despite my shitty mood. “Not hardly.”
“Really? It might be worth looking into. Around here there are plenty of rich women looking for a hot trainer. You could make a killing.”