Descended (The Red Blindfold Book 4)

DESCENDED
BOOK FOUR

ROSE DEVEREUX

Copyright © 2016 by Rose Devereux

Cover
design by Sarah Hansen at Okay Creations

Ebook
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Jesse Gordon

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• PROLOGUE
  
• CHAPTER ONE
  
• CHAPTER TWO
  
• CHAPTER THREE
  
• CHAPTER FOUR
  
• CHAPTER FIVE
  
• CHAPTER SIX
  
• CHAPTER SEVEN
  
• CHAPTER EIGHT
  
• CHAPTER NINE
  
• CHAPTER TEN
  
• CHAPTER ELEVEN
  
• CHAPTER TWELVE
  
• CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  
• CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  
• CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  
• CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  
• CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  
• EPILOGUE
  
• ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  

After
three weeks of silence, a husband appeals for help.

His
wife disappeared while they were on vacation with another couple in
the idyllic Mexican retreat of Los Bonitos. Her cell phone and credit
cards have not been used, and she hasn’t been in contact with
family or friends.

But
her husband of didn’t alert police for eighteen days after his wife
vanished. Why? They’d had an argument, and he thought she might
have left him for another man after six years of marriage.

Now
he says it was all a misunderstanding, and he’s asking for the
public’s assistance in locating her.

Her
name is Karina Blair. She’s a twenty-seven year-old lawyer from
Boston, with friends and family who miss her very much.

If
anyone has seen her or has information about her whereabouts, please
call your local police station or the toll-free number on your
screen.

When I could think
again, I looked at Jane.

No, not Jane. Not
anymore.

She was frozen beside
me, her face etched with disbelief. She didn’t breathe or blink.
I’d never seen a person stand so still. Then her mouth trembled,
and the spell was broken.

I could see the news
broadcast reflected in her eyes. It was as if her entire life were
flashing before her. And it was.

Flickering across her
vision was the face of the anchorman, an 800 number, and her own
picture. In the photograph, she was standing in front of a Christmas
tree, smiling. She was just as beautiful but she was a different
person, in a different life.

Karina Blair. Lawyer.
Wife. An accomplished woman who lived in another state, and belonged
to another man.

He was on television
now, speaking into a reporter’s microphone with all the urgency of
an idiot on anesthesia. What the fuck. His incredible, gorgeous wife
had been missing going on a month. He had no right to be calm.

But calm or not, he was
still her husband. I was just the guy who’d saved her life and
fallen in love with her.

Not that it mattered
anymore. Every day we’d spent together had been a lie. Our future
was an empty space that just sixty seconds ago had been filled with
hope.

It was over.

She was still standing
next to me, but she was already gone.

All the desire and
connection in the world couldn’t change it. Deep down I’d always
known this would happen, but I hadn’t wanted to admit it. It was
the same thing I’d always done, only this time it was worse by a
factor of – one fuck of a lot.

And soon, all of Texas
would find out.

My friends, my
employees, my investors. Not that I gave a shit. All I cared about
was losing the woman I loved.

And lose her I would, way too soon.

“Oh, my God,” she
said, sagging against me.

I put a steadying arm
around her and held her tightly. “It’s okay. It’s okay.”

It was a platitude and
we both knew it. Jane, Karina, what the hell would I call her now?
Why did a name matter so much?

Because
I’d
named her Jane. And a man who named a woman possessed her. He had a
part of her no one else ever would.

Or so I’d believed,
until reality shot me down in the form of a ninety-second news
segment.

Jane wasn’t her name.
All it had been was a placeholder while her asshole of a husband came
to his senses.

I despised him, hated
his perfectly trimmed beard and small, vacant eyes. He was too old
for her, too passive, too aloof. Jane –
Karina
,
goddamnit – ran way too hot for a guy so cold and heartless.

She wasn’t attracted
to him. I could see it in her eyes when she watched him on
television. He didn’t stir her heart, her soul, or her pussy. All
he inspired was confusion and fear. And for me, total contempt.

Of
course
Jane hadn’t run off with somebody else. Or had she, and it all went
wrong? Would I ever find out the truth? Did the truth even matter
anymore?

I knew all I needed to
know. This was the beginning of the end.

The receptionist looked
from the television to Jane and back again. “Wait a minute – is
that you?”

“Nope, it just looks
like her,” I said. “Thanks again.”

I took Jane by the
elbow and hustled her outside. The sun hit my face like a furnace
blast, not because it was hot but because it was real. Way too
goddamn real.

This was actually
happening. It was Monday morning, the sky was brilliant blue, and
Jane wasn’t Jane anymore. There was nothing I could do to change
it.

I guided her to the
truck and helped her in. She gripped my hand as if the whole world
depended on me. It was just like the first day, the way she leaned on
me, needing me to take care of her and make decisions.

I gave her a reassuring
smile and squeezed her shoulder, but inside, fury was tearing me down
to the studs. I’d never been so out of control, such a fucking
victim of circumstance.

I shut her door and got
in the driver’s side. Hands balled in her lap, she looked straight
ahead with a blank, wide-eyed expression that appeared almost serene.
But it was shock. Shock, and a realization neither of us could
escape.

Every minute she’d
spent with me, she’d been unfaithful to her husband.

I’d fucked her, owned
her, commanded her orgasms. My seed lived inside her. And all the
while her husband had sat clueless half a country away, too weak and
worthless to do shit about it.

We’d known it was a
possibility she was married, but a possibility was one thing.
Certainty was hellfire and torment. It was what every preacher talked
about on Sunday and every good wife swore she’d never do.

But Jane was no good
wife. Nor should she be.

Rings and vows didn’t
matter much when your husband took three weeks to look for you. When
he flew home on an air-conditioned jet, leaving you to wander through
God-forsaken deserts and shitty border towns by yourself.

Jane’s eyes were like
shattered glass. I wanted to say something that would take the last
five minutes away, but all I could do was stare at her beautiful
face.

She was gone. It was
only a matter of time. Hours, if I was lucky.

“I’m okay,” she
said in a thin voice. “We’ll get through it.”

“How?” I should
have been consoling her, but I had nothing left.

“I don’t know.”

“You can’t just
walk out of my life,” I said, my tone too loud and sharp. “I
won’t let you.”

She turned to face me,
her mouth set in a firm line. “You have to. You don’t have a
choice.”

I clenched my fists.
“Bullshit. I always have a choice.”

If I worked hard enough
and relied on my wits, I could always make things go my way. It had
been that way my entire life.

“You don’t love
him,” I said. “You can’t.”

Her eyes were pleading
“How do you know?”

“Because you love
me.”

“Drex…”

“Don’t,” I
snapped. “Don’t dare say it isn’t true.”

We stared at each
other. Every emotion crossed her face and vanished, until only defeat
was left.

“It doesn’t change
anything,” she said in a harsh whisper.

“It changes
everything. Your life will never be the same. Neither will mine.”

Her frown was full of
pain. “Yeah. Everyone you know is going to find out.”

I shrugged.

“You don’t care?”

“I don’t run from
what’s hard,” I said. “I never have.”

“I was afraid I’d
affect your business and that’s about to happen,” she said, a
desperate edge in her voice.

“We don’t know that
yet.”

Her eyes were piercing. “We will.
Just wait.”

I started driving. A
hundred miles went by and I barely registered one. I was in panic
mode, trying to blast my way out of a trap.

I turned on the radio,
filling the silence with the twang of old country songs while
thoughts rampaged through my brain. Okay, so she had a husband. A
husband was just another man, and a man I could deal with. I would
fight him for her, no matter who he was, whether he loved her or not.

And I didn’t believe
for a second that he loved her.

If he did, he wouldn’t
have waited to look for her. No man with a shred of character would
do something so abominable, no matter what the pathetic excuse.

“I’m a lawyer,”
Jane said in a barely audible voice. “A lawyer.”

I grabbed her hand.
“Now I understand why you’re so persuasive,” I said, forcing
humor into my voice. “You’ve got a lot of experience making
people see things your way.”

I felt her gaze searing
the side of my face. “Is that what I’ve done?” she asked.
“Persuaded you? Made you do things you shouldn’t have?”

“That’s not what I
meant.”

“But it’s what
happened, isn’t it?”

“Not even close.”

Or was it?

I’d broken a hundred
promises to myself since I’d met her. I’d ignored every instinct,
and been a sucker for all my own lies. When it came to business,
there was nobody more clear-headed than I was. And for a while, I’d
been approaching relationships the same way: no illusions, no
commitment, no hopes for the future.

But with Jane, I
couldn’t see past our chemistry, her pretty face, and my rabid need
to possess her. Now I was paying the price in one hell of a lot of
misery.

But would I go back and
undo it? See her on the street in Chimayo and keep driving?

Not in a million years.
She was worth all the pain in this world and a hundred more. No
woman, no amount of money, no professional success would ever equal
my time with her.

“We got into this
together,” I said, glancing over at her. “I’m glad we did.”

Her hand felt small and
fragile in mine. “Even with the way things have turned out?” she
asked.

“I wouldn’t change
a fucking second.” Squinting at the road, I shook my head. “Except
for one thing.”

“What?”

I clenched the wheel so
hard my knuckles burned. “I’d take you into the wilderness again
and we’d never come back.”

It was the truest thing
I’d ever said.

I hadn’t looked at a
television in hours, but I could still see him in my mind.

David Blair. My
husband. The man who’d put the ring on my finger.

He was tall, slim,
bearded, and probably ten years older than I was. According to the
news report, he was a law school professor. A professor, and a
complete stranger.

I felt nothing for him.
Not a single emotion, good or bad.

I couldn’t imagine
lying in his arms, or kissing him, or taking his last name. I
couldn’t even imagine having a cup of coffee with him. But we
shared a life, a life I had to return to.

And when I returned to
it, I’d be living with him. A man I didn’t know or recognize.

Picturing his face, a
shiver trailed down my arms.

Maybe I did feel an
emotion for him, after all. I couldn’t name it, but there was
something in his eyes I didn’t trust.

Maybe it was just the
fact that he wasn’t Drex. I must have loved my husband once, or I
wouldn’t have married him. If we’d been on vacation together,
that love still existed somewhere. Buried under all of my feelings
for the man who’d rescued me and given me a new life.

The media hadn’t
mentioned kids, so I could only assume I didn’t have any in spite
of the faint stretchmarks I’d seen. I ached at the thought, but
intertwined with the pain was relief and gratitude. At least an
innocent child wouldn’t be touched by this disaster. I wouldn’t
have to look at my own child and be unable to remember her face or
name.