Chase You To The Sun (4 page)

“I won’t,” she stammered, shrinking away from him in terror.

“I’ve waited for this opportunity for years, you know,” he mused. “I found out where you were, despite your alias. It was too hard to abduct you from that fortified bubble they call New Berlin, but you shouldn’t have taken the DSD transport by checking in with your fake passport. John cracked that secure link to your dad’s office a long time ago. He probably found out where you were before your father did. He’s pretty good with computers.”

“You – you followed me all this time?”

“I would have chased you to the sun and back to get my hands on you,” Bruce said. “You’re here to stay, and there’s no escape.”

Lana wanted to know more – mostly, she wanted to know why this man hated her father so much. Bruce didn’t give her the chance to ask him any more questions, though. He grabbed her by the shoulder and marched her back inside. They crossed the sitting room and climbed the stairs. The second floor hallway had numerous doors on either side of the stairs. Bruce steered her left and opened a door leading to a large bedroom. “This is your room,” he said. “If you behave, I won’t shackle you to the bed at night.”

Her cheeks flushed red. “I’ll be good,” she quickly promised, turning her head to scan the room and hide her terrible, unbidden blush from Bruce at the same time. His words somehow sounded way too kinky. “Oh – that’s my suitcase.” She spotted the old travel bag she’d brought on her trip.

“Containing your clothes,” he added. “You won’t get anything else to wear, so take good care of them. Now follow me.”

A few doors down was a room crammed full of computers, scanners and monitors. John and Chester were both there, frantically hammering away at keyboards on the big table in the middle.

“Are you in yet?” Bruce asked cryptically.

“Almost,” John replied, looking up at them. “Hello, angel.” He shot Lana a lascivious smile, clearly undressing her with his eyes.

Chester snapped his fingers in front of John’s face. “Focus, mate,” he muttered.

“Sit here,” Bruce ordered Lana, pushing her down on a chair next to a big iris scanner. “We need those beautiful, hazel eyes of yours.”

“What for?” she asked in confusion.

He cocked an eyebrow. “To get into Ivanov Mining’s computer system, of course.”

“W
e’re in, Bruce,” John exclaimed. “Hooking up the scanner to their system.”

“But I...” Lana’s voice faltered. “I can’t get you in. I don’t work for them.”

“We’d like to see that for ourselves,” Bruce said icily. “And if I find out you’ve been lying...” His hand almost crushed the bones in her shoulder, making her cry out in pain.

The iris scanner fired up, automatically lowering itself to her eye-level. Lana held her breath and stared into it, trying not to blink. The device hummed as it scanned her iris from left to right and from top to bottom.

“Nothing,” Chester grumbled. “The system doesn’t recognize her eyes.”

“Is she wearing contacts?” John suggested.

Lana started when Bruce sat down next to her and forcefully turned her head, carefully looking at her eyes. “No. Let’s try her fingerprints.” He grabbed her hand and pressed it down on a different scanner on the desk in front of her.

Judging from John’s reaction to whatever was visible on his screen, this didn’t work either. “She was telling the truth,” he grudgingly admitted. “There’s nothing.”

Bruce let out a frustrated sigh. “Okay. Change of plans.” He looked sideways at Lana. “Let’s go. Back to your room.”

By that point, she was fed up with being ordered and dragged around without any explanation, but Lana didn’t think she should risk speaking up again. When Bruce brought her to her room and told her to go inside, she tiredly flopped down on the bed. This didn’t look good. He’d told her she would be his prisoner for a long time to come if she turned out not to have any power in her dad’s company. And she didn’t – he knew that now.

When the door opened again, Bruce stepped inside carrying a small pad. “Look this way,” he said, stopping by the side of the bed. Looking down on her, he took a few pictures of her sitting on the mattress staring up at him.

“What are those for?” she inquired when he put the pad away.

“To send to your father,” he replied. “To prove that you’re still alive.”

“Don’t you need me to hold up today’s newspaper or something?”

For a moment, he stared at her incredulously. “I think you’ve watched too many old movies,” he concluded, a slight grin tugging at his lips. “These photos will have chrono-stamps on them. I don’t need the paper to prove that these were taken today.”

“My dad will want to talk to me,” Lana said timidly. “Can’t you arrange a video call? Please, Mr. Randall.”

“I told you,” he said, shaking his head. “People call me Bruce. And so should you.”

“I’m – sorry. I just wanted to be respectful.” She exhaled shakily.

“Oh.” Bruce narrowed his eyes at her, still sporting that mocking little smile on his face. “So you
respect
me?”

“Uhm...” Lana felt like she was walking right into a trap. How could she, daughter of a respectable Russian Elitist, possibly respect a space pirate? Then again, if she said no, perhaps he’d get angry. “I really don’t know enough about you to answer that question,” she finally replied softly.

“Hmm.” He observed her with a mix of amusement and curiosity, still standing over her. “Very diplomatic. An Elite girl in heart and soul.”

“You’re Elite too,” Lana hazarded, not quite making it sound like a question.

Bruce laughed bitterly. “I was. They kicked me out of their club.”

“Why?”

“Because I wouldn’t play by their rules.”

Svetlana could only imagine what that meant. Had he always had a penchant for thievery and violence? Was that why he hadn’t fit in with the Elite? She knew next to nothing about this man, besides the fact that he always seemed to target the Ivanov business whenever he was out plundering ships in Jupiterian or Saturnian airspace. “What happened?” she inquired.

A few seconds of silence passed before Bruce’s eyes hardened. “Nothing, little girl,” he replied curtly. “Nothing you should rack your brains over. All is well with the world, your daddy’s a perfect gentleman, and I’m a dangerous rogue agent out for blood. End of story.”

Lana frowned, shaking her head in confusion. “You’re not telling the truth,” she observed.

He smiled coldly. “Oh, I’m not?” Unexpectedly, he bent down and balled a fist around her long, platinum-blonde hair, forcibly pulling her head back so she had to look up at him. “You don’t believe I’m dangerous?” he said ominously.

Oh,
fuck
. “I – I do,” Lana stuttered, resisting the urge to close her eyes in fear. She scooted back on the bed to get away from Bruce, but he refused to release his grip on her hair. Lana leaned back on her elbows and gave up pulling away. She just lay there, keeping still.

Her stomach clenched when Bruce slowly moved forward, one of his legs gently nudging her knees apart at the edge of the mattress. Speechlessly, she glanced up at him, her heart beating in her throat as she became agonizingly aware of the dark, brooding tension between them. He had to feel it too.

Bruce didn’t speak as he stood bent over her, still clutching a strand of her hair in his strong fist, his thumb brushing her earlobe very gently, almost absently. A quiet understanding dawned in his gray eyes as he observed the heat creeping up her face. Lana didn’t know how many beats of silence had passed between them when his dark, husky voice finally broke the silence. “Should I let go?” he mumbled.

“Yes,” she whispered. “You should.”

He smiled faintly. “Do you want me to, though?”

Lana licked her lips nervously. “Yes,” she repeated, her voice catching in her throat.

Bruce waited for a few seconds, then untangled his fingers from her hair and stood up straight. “Probably a wise choice,” he said calmly. “I’m not a very nice guy.”

Lana exhaled audibly when he swiveled around and quickly left the room. Her face burned with shame. Shit, he
knew
– Bruce knew she was attracted to him. Through the terror and the paralyzing fear she felt for him, this was something else entirely that she couldn’t deny, and she’d been stupid enough to show him. She was such an idiot. This had to be fixed ASAP. From now on, she wouldn’t speak in his presence, keep her eyes trained on the floor whenever he was around, and do as she was told. The last thing she needed were
two
villains lusting after her – it was pretty obvious what John wanted from her, and she had no idea how to handle that as it was. Should she tell someone? That Chester guy, maybe. He seemed sympathetic enough. Then again, why should
he
care what happened to her? As long as she was alive, these pirates were satisfied.

Her vision turned blurry as tears flooded her eyes. Lana rubbed her face impatiently, getting up to check her bedroom door. At least it could be locked from the inside, so that was something. It was a very sophisticated lock, in fact – it worked with a 5-digit code. John would have to be a very good hacker indeed if he wanted to break down her door with this lock engaged. Her finger hovering over the keypad, she pondered what would be a suitable code, finally settling on her mom’s birthday: 3-11-50. Mrs. Ivanova would have been forty-nine this year if she’d still been alive.

With the door firmly locked behind her, Lana felt slightly more at ease. Maybe it was time to start unpacking – she might as well, since she wasn’t going anywhere any time soon. She strutted over to her old suitcase, a familiar object looking so out of place in this strange environment.

The house belonged to Bruce, and so did the grounds surrounding it. Where could it possibly be? Bruce was originally British, but that didn’t mean his mansion was on the British Isles as well. If anything, it made more sense for him to have property in a country where no one expected him to want to live. A war-torn region in Oceania, perhaps, or somewhere in the south of Arabic Africa. She should try and sneak out tonight to watch the stars if there were any – it might give her some clue about her location. Tori had taught her the difference between the constellations of the northern and southern hemisphere once, so it was time to put that girl-scout knowledge into practice.

Lana frowned when she flipped open the lid of her suitcase and it landed on the floor with an unexpectedly loud thud. It sounded like something heavy was stuffed inside the lid. Her fingers zipped open the compartment, expecting to find an old box of candy or a book. But what came out instead was an old-school smart phone.

“
Bozhe moi
,” she gasped, staring at the life-saving device in her hand. They’d missed this – her abductors hadn’t x-rayed her suitcase. They didn’t know she had a phone. Of course, it was ancient and the battery had completely run out, but that could easily be fixed by putting it somewhere in the sun screen-down. The solar cells on the back would have it recharged within the hour.

Lana thanked her lucky stars that she was on Earth. If her prison had been on a moon circling the outer planets, the solar cells would have been pretty much useless. But she could make this work. She
had
to make this work.

This was the special smart phone she’d always used during summer camp. It was a secure phone that her father had had specially made for her, because there was no way to track the device. The only two numbers in it were her mom’s and Tori’s. That way, she’d been able to call home and keep in touch with her friend without running any risk of her calls being detected by dangerous spies or other outsiders. Of course, the fact that the phone was completely untraceable was a bit of a setback right now – she wouldn’t be able to track her location by using GPS – but at least that also meant nobody could monitor outgoing calls. Calling her mom’s old number was pointless, but calling Tori’s phone would work. Her German friend hadn’t changed her number in ages. It was connected to her latest pad.

Lana scrambled to her feet and stuffed the tiny phone in her bra. Hopefully, that would be the last place anyone would look if they stopped her from going into the garden. She didn’t expect trouble, though – Bruce had shown her the electro-fence running around the property, so she should be free to roam the grounds.

When she opened the door and stepped out into the hallway, the house was eerily quiet. Where was everybody? Lana silently crept down the corridor and tiptoed down the stairs. The sitting room was deserted, so she quickly crossed the room and opened the glass doors leading outside. Perfect – if Bruce’s gang was away running some errands, she had the house and the grounds to herself. All she needed to do was find a safe place where she could put the phone face-down in the sun and let it charge.

Lana started to jog toward the patch of woodland near the fence. Her best bet was to hide the phone somewhere under a tree, but in full sunlight. While the device was charging, maybe she could explore the grounds and check where the gates were. After all, there had to be an entrance for Solar cars and other vehicles.

A giant chestnut tree at the edge of the tree line caught her attention. Tall blades of grass grew all around its trunk, but the sun was hitting the area around it full-force. If she could find a few rocks to pile up into a heap, she could put the phone on there and pray the metallic exterior would blend in with the color of the stones in case anybody walked by.

After a few more minutes, Lana was done. She sat down and leaned back against the tree trunk, soaking in the sunlight as if she needed to recharge herself as well. Now that she took a moment to slow down, it occurred to her that she hadn’t eaten in two days. At that instant, her stomach complained with a loud grumble.

Of course, she could make her way back to the house and explore the kitchen, but she didn’t want to stray too far away from her precious phone. Lana got to her feet and peered into the shadows of the woods. Maybe she could find some fruits or nuts – and taking a closer look at the plants and trees might actually give her some clues as to her location. The air around her was pungent with sweet smells of leaves and something that tasted like honeysuckle on her tongue.
Damn
, she was hungry. And thirsty. The thought of finding some fresh fruit made her mouth water.