MARKED (Hunter Awakened) (16 page)

“Teal, Colton and I were planning on having a
Christmas party at the end of next week,” Bryson said, interrupting
my thoughts. “You'll come, right?”

I felt more than saw Elias move towards me as
Bryson put his hand on my arm. “I'll do my best,” I said. “I'm
going away for a couple of days. Just need to clear my head. I'm
not sure when I'll be back.”

Bryson slipped his arm around my shoulder and
put his mouth close to my ear. “Please tell me you're taking that
gorgeous new bodyguard of yours.” He made a sound that was almost a
giggle and I wondered if he'd gotten some spiked eggnog. “I bet
you'd like to ride him like a pony. I know I would.”

I was glad I'd finished my drink a few
minutes ago, otherwise, I would've choked or spit it out, neither
of which was very appealing. “Thank you, Bryson, for that image.” I
gave him a hug. “I'll let you know when I'm back in town. Tell
Colton I said 'Merry Christmas.'”

It took me another twenty minutes to manage
to get away and I could feel Elias shadowing me the entire time. It
was a bit disconcerting how aware of him I was. When we finally
made it to the parking lot, he fell in step beside me so that he
could reach out ahead of me and open the back door. I shook my head
and opened the passenger's side door.

“If we're trying to be incognito, I can't sit
in the back. Nothing says money or fame more than being chauffeured
around.” I climbed into the car. I didn't add that I kind of wanted
to sit closer to him. Part of me said it was because he made me
feel safe, and that was true, but I knew that a larger part was
that I wanted to explore this connection that the two of us had and
I didn't think that'd be possible as long as there was a defined
line between guardian and guardee. Not a word, I knew, but it fit
what I needed. I wanted this to be as close to equal as
possible.

Elias got into the driver's seat without an
argument and started the car. He was silent as he drove us out of
the parking lot and then started towards the highway. I looked out
of the window, trying to figure out the best way to get to know my
mysterious bodyguard. Nearly a half hour passed before he broke the
silence.

“The young man back there, the one with whom
you shared a kiss.” His voice was almost hesitant, much different
than his usual confident tone. “Bryson, I believe?”

“Yes.” I supplied the full name. “Bryson
Jackson.”

“I have noticed over the last few weeks, he
seems fond of you.”

I nodded absently. “We're very fond of each
other.”

“Is he...” Elias's voice trailed off.

I glanced at him, curious as to what was
causing this change.

“Has he inquired about courting you?”

“Courting?” There was a word I hadn't heard
outside of historical romances or religious articles during that
little no-dating, only-courting phase a couple of years back.

“Does he wish to be involved with you?”

I couldn't help it. I laughed. “No. Not a
chance.” Apparently he hadn't been quite as observant as I'd
thought when it came to my friends. His glaring at Bryson during
the kissing scene made sense now.

Elias gave me a sideways look and I could've
sworn he looked relieved. “So he and you never...?”

He didn't finish the question. I wasn't sure
if I should be annoyed that it'd taken him this long to ask, or
amused that he seemed so concerned about it. Hadn't he figured out
by now that I wasn't a typical Hollywood girl? I didn't play games.
I decided to go with amused. “Bryson and I have a little too much
in common for that.” I grinned as I remembered my friend's parting
comment. “We even have the same taste in guys.”

Elias looked at me. It was only for a moment,
but it was long enough for me to see relief on his face. My insides
gave a pleasurable squirm. So often he could be stoic and
unreadable. It made the moments like this, when he allowed himself
to relax enough to let me see some of who he was, all the more
precious. Sometimes, I thought I could see a glimpse of the boy he
had once been.

“So when you were kissing yesterday...”

“I'm guessing he was thinking about his very
hot boyfriend.” A sign ahead caught my eye. I hadn't realized until
now that we were heading further away from the city rather than
into it. I'd assumed the someplace safe Elias was taking me to
would be a hotel under an anonymous name. It's what pretty much any
celebrity in my situation would do.

“Is there, then,” he continued, unaware that
my thoughts were no longer on Bryson. “Someone of whom you were
thinking?”

I was torn. This conversation was exactly
what I'd been thinking I wanted to have, but now I wasn't so sure I
wanted to tell him that I'd been thinking about him, wishing it was
him I was kissing. Sure, we'd spent a lot of time together over the
past couple weeks, but neither of us had addressed what any of it
meant. And we hadn't kissed, though we'd gotten close. So, like the
brave little cowardly lion that I was, I changed the subject.

“I meant to ask you.” I'd always been able to
tell when I was giving a performance that was falling flat, one
that the audience wouldn't believe. This was starting to sound like
one of them. “Did you call Paul to tell him where we were going so
he could come relieve you in the morning?”

Elias shook his head. “As the intruder in
your house did not break in and the alarm did not sound, I believe
that the fewer people who know where you are, the safer you shall
be.”

“So what did you tell Paul?” I pressed my
hands together in my lap, my fingers tightening until my knuckles
turned white. I was starting to get nervous for a completely
different reason than before.

“I told Paul that I was accompanying you on a
trip and that one of us would call him upon our return. I also told
him that he would receive a larger than usual Christmas bonus.”

As Elias took an obscure branch off of the
highway, the number of cars around us dwindled from a few to none
as far as I could see. I wasn't used to a lack of traffic. I was a
born and raised LA girl, after all. Some people shunned the city,
claiming that it was too dangerous, but I'd never realized how much
I'd considered the press of people to be a safety net until now.
Everything from every horror movie I'd ever seen said that
isolation was dangerous.

“So,” I could hear my voice wanting to
tremble. “No one knows where we're going.”

Elias shook his head. “I am the only one who
knows our true destination. Everyone else only knows that you will
be away for an unspecified amount of time.”

I suddenly wasn't so sure that this had been
a good idea.

A thousand thoughts ran through my head, one
right after the other, chasing and racing over and over in the span
of just a few minutes. I had to be overreacting, right? Elias was a
good man. If he'd wanted to hurt me, he'd had plenty of chances
since I'd hired him. Why would he need the elaborate ruse?

Unless, of course, his intent wasn't to kill
me, not yet anyway. And if he'd just taken off with me before,
people would've known something was wrong. Paul. Kevin. Everyone I
worked with. One of them would've called the cops when I didn't
show up. By waiting and having me tell people I was going away for
a couple of days, it was possible that no one would realize what
had really happened until I didn't show up at Harrison's house on
Christmas Day.

My breath caught. Harrison. Of course. He and
I talked every couple of days, and since my attack, we talked more.
The attack that had happened just before Elias had showed up at my
house, unannounced and uninvited. A horrible thought struck me.
What if Elias had used Rufus's attack on me to insert himself into
my life and he was the one leaving notes in my trailer and breaking
into my house when I wasn't home? He would know the alarm code,
after all. The alarm code and my schedule. What if Elias was my
stalker slash intruder and I was falling for him?

Trying not to call attention to what I was
doing, I leaned down and retrieved my purse. I rummaged through it
as quietly as possible. Dawn was still about an hour away, but I
had enough light to see by. Just as my fingers closed on my phone,
Elias spoke.

“Who do you intend to call?”

I kept my face down, not trusting my
expression to be neutral enough. “Harrison. I need to tell him
what's going on.” If Elias watched me so that I couldn't dial the
police, I knew I could get a message to Harrison, even if Elias was
listening in.

“There is no need for that,” he said. “I
asked Paul to contact anyone who would be concerned by your
absence.”

I glanced down at my phone, and turned on the
screen, as if I were merely checking the time. The little bars in
the top left corner—or lack of as the case was—were absent. No
signal. Not even a weak one. This was not good, so very not good.
Scenes from various horror movies flashed through my mind.

I struggled to keep my breathing even. If I
gave in to the panic I was feeling, it would all be over. One of
two things would happen. Either I would completely freeze and Elias
would be free to play out his plans, or he would figure out that I
knew what was happening, and hurt or kill me. Neither option was
appealing, so I wasn't going to panic. It was easier said than
done.

I looked out the window again. The sun was
rising behind the trees and I could now see my surroundings, though
that really didn't do me any good. This part of the highway was
surrounded by woods, and nothing else. There were no towns, no
houses. Just hills and trees. We were going far too fast for me to
try to get out of the car. I'd have to wait until we stopped, and I
didn't know when that would be.

Was he going to drive far enough that he'd
have to stop for gas, or were we going somewhere closer? Since he'd
have to park the car either way, there was a good chance that I
could get out before him, which would give me a head start. How
much good that would do me, I didn't know. I hadn't really seen him
running, but he looked to be in great shape. I could only hope that
my morning runs with Paul had done me some good.

“Where are we going?” I tried to make the
question sound casual.

Elias glanced at me. “A safe place.”

Have I mentioned how much I hate cryptic and
vague?

The car slowed as Elias turned into a
virtually invisible gap in the trees. What was this? Driveways
didn't just shoot off of highways and there was no marker stating
what road this was. I tensed, my fingernails digging into my
armrest. My interior vision of a horror movie continued, and I
really didn't want to star in it. I could almost see what would be
at the end of the path.

A creepy castle surrounded by mist and
haunted by the ghosts of all those who'd been murdered within its
walls.

A log cabin, rotting and overgrown with trees
fertilized by the decaying bodies of the other women who'd gotten
into a stranger's car despite childhood warnings against such
foolishness.

“Is something amiss?” Elias asked as he
navigated a barely-there path through the trees.

Amiss? Was he serious? He was driving me
practically up a mountain in the middle of nowhere and no one knew
where we were.

I spoke through gritted teeth. “No, of course
not.”

We rounded a corner and my eyes widened in
surprise. Okay, that wasn't what I'd been expecting. Yes, it was a
log cabin, but it was more like something out of a fairy tale than
out of a horror film.

It was bigger than I would've thought, and
while there were trees around it, there was also a small, neatly
trimmed yard and what looked like flowerbeds up against the cabin
itself. There weren't any lights on inside, but it didn't really
seem ominous. In fact, it was almost welcoming. It wasn't enough to
completely make me relax, but some of the panicked flutterings in
my stomach started to ease.

“You are afraid.”

It was a statement and not a question. I
slowly turned towards Elias, unsure where this was going to go.
“Yes,” I answered. “You brought me up here and no one knows where
we are. I'd be nervous even if I'd known you for more than a couple
of weeks, which I haven't.”

Something that looked an awful lot like
sadness crossed his face, but it didn't stay long. “It was not my
intention to frighten you.” He turned off the car and held out his
hand. “I want only to protect you.”

I looked down and saw that he was holding the
car keys towards me. When I made no move to take them, he set them
on the seat next to me, then climbed out of the car. He took a
couple of steps backwards, his hands up in a gesture of
surrender.

“I brought you here because no one knows
about this place. I did not tell the people in your life where we
were going because the person who has been stalking you may be
spying on them to learn your location. If they do not have the
information, they cannot accidentally give it.”

That made sense, and I was pretty sure I
wasn't just saying that because I really didn't want Elias to be my
stalker. Still, I was wary. It had been stupid of me to go off with
him and I wasn't going to add to that by letting one little
explanation sweet-talk me. Right?

“I shall leave the keys in your possession
and you are free to leave whenever you wish, though I do pray that
you will allow me to do as I said I would and protect you.” Elias's
voice was calm for the most part, but I could sense an underlying
current of tension. “I could not bear it if something should happen
to you under my care.”

I picked up the keys and, after a moment of
considering just getting into the driver's seat and leaving, I put
them into my pocket. I unbuckled and climbed out of the car. A wave
of relief went over Elias's face as he stepped forward to close his
door. I made sure neither door was locked as I put my hand in my
pocket to reassure me that the keys were there. I had a way out if
this went south. That was being smart, right?