Savage Chains: Shattered (#3) (Men in Chains) (8 page)

He waited, expecting her to rise from the rubble, but she didn’t.

Should we leave? What if she pops up out of there and attacks us?
Angelica sounded worried and he didn’t blame her. Sweet Dove had been the author of so much misery, she wouldn’t stop now, not if she had the chance to do otherwise.

I think something might have happened to her. I want to have a look, but I’ll keep the disguise tight around us and I won’t leave altered flight.

Sounds like a plan.

With great care, he passed through the tumbled rock and found her buried. When the ceiling collapsed, the artful chandelier’s couple of dozen blades had cut her up, one of them severing her head from her body.

He couldn’t believe it, but his captor was finally dead. Scorpion, the founder of Starlin, the woman known as Sweet Dove, was no more.

The feeling of relief that went through him was so profound that he felt light-headed.

She’s gone.
Angelica’s voice gave him substance once more.
She’s actually dead.

I believed her immortal.

She seemed immortal, but there’s nothing like a beheading to change a perception.

Reyes glanced at her and saw the wry curve of her lips.
Thank you.

For what?
Angelica’s brows rose in surprise.

For being here, for saying exactly what you just said, for making it real when I’m not sure I would ever have believed it.

With one arm gripping the laptop and her other slung around his neck, she kissed him.
Take me home, Reyes. Take me out of this nightmare and back to your bedroom, where I belong.

He wasn’t sure she could have spoken sweeter words.

As he launched them away from the cave-in, she said,
I just realized that no one else will ever know that Scorpion is dead. And Engles was her only contact. So not a single member of Starlin will have a clue that we have the laptop and therefore the means to do with this organization anything you want to do. Reyes, you did it! You’ve achieved what you set out to accomplish. You have everything you need now to take down Starlin. You could even pose as Scorpion while you get everything set up.

Drawing near his home, he squeezed her waist.
You’re right, but you know something, I’m not thinking about that right now.
He touched down in his bedroom near the table and took the laptop from her, setting it aside.

She didn’t seem to be aware that she was completely naked, which made him admire her all the more. Engles had almost had her, almost taken her life, but she’d kept her wits and brought them both here to this moment.

No, he wasn’t thinking about his mission right now, only about her.

And right now he wanted her in his bed.

* * *

Angelica wasn’t surprised that Reyes had something specific on his mind, so she said the only thing that made sense. “How about we get you out of your bodyguard clothes, although I must say I like you in a snug T-shirt.”

He smiled. She’d never seen such a light in his clear blue eyes before. He lifted his shirt off, his muscles flexing and making her take deeper breaths. Here was Reyes, the man she’d desired for months. She felt his Ancestral power resonating from him and through the double-chain at her neck.

He reached toward her, tracing her chain with his fingers. “I never would have believed this could happen. But you have to know that I have contacts who can work to remove your chain, if you want. It might take some time, but it can be done.” He frowned as he spoke, and she felt his concern for her.

Angelica smiled. “You’re what I want, Reyes, with or without the chains. But given the state your world is in and that you’ll become a target as soon as you start taking Starlin apart, I think I’d like to keep this on. I’m stunned by the level of power that I feel right now and how much I can siphon from you.”

She glanced down at her feet and made a mental decision to levitate. And just like that, she floated.

“Wow.” He caught her around the waist but held on loosely so she could continue to experience the newfound ability.

After a moment she slid her arms around his neck, let go of the levitation, and fell against him.

He laughed and swung her in a circle. “You’re alive. I thought I’d lost you.”

“I know.” She held him tightly, even worrying that she was hurting him, a silly thought because he was so physically strong.

He gripped her in return, not setting her on her feet, but just keeping her pressed against him.

Angelica’s eyes filled with tears.

“We almost died, both of us, didn’t we?”

He nodded, his cheek sliding against her hair, his chest rising and falling. She felt the depth of his emotion, the near loss for each of them and the relief that they’d survived.

“She’s dead,” Angelica murmured.

“I know. I’m so glad. She won’t be able to hurt anyone else ever again or to use her abilities to create another auction, or betting Web site, or method of torture.”

Angelica pulled back and her feet finally touched the carpet. She cupped his face with both hands. “We made it.”

He nodded. “I have so much I want to say to you that I hardly know where to start, except that I love you. I should have realized it sooner, but I couldn’t wrap my head around what was really happening between us. Part of me knew and wanted to believe, the part of me that had known love as a child. Yet I’d gone through so much, I wasn’t sure I had the capacity to feel anything ever again.”

“I can’t imagine what that was like for you. I can only speak for myself.” She chuckled softly. “I was kidding myself, Reyes, when I spoke of leaving, of going back to my old life. I think there was a part of me that was uncertain whether I could measure up in your world.”

“Well, you certainly proved yourself. What made you take the chains with you, and where the hell did you keep them?”

“In my gloves. That’s why I chose this pair that went almost to my elbows. As for the why of it, you were being justifiably stubborn about not making use of them, and for very noble reasons. But remember how Sweet Dove hurt me that first week of my captivity? I felt her power then, and I knew its flavor and its scope. I believed with all my heart that the only way we would survive, if Sweet Dove chose as she did tonight to act against us, was if we had her level of power.

“And Reyes, my God, your power. It surpasses hers. Did you know that’s how it would be?”

He shook his head. “I’m convinced that I kept myself blind to my potential. Of course being her slave all that time and kept in a subservient position helped me feel constantly less than Sweet Dove. But I feared so much that I would become corrupt like her or like Engles. Even now, I know I’ll need to be vigilant.”

She sensed his fear that being an Ancestral would change him, but she also knew his character and that so long as he lived he’d work hard to stay true to his deepest values, the ones his parents had taught him when he was young. “All I can say is, welcome home, Reyes. That’s what I want to say to you. Welcome home.”

“That’s one of the most wonderful things you could say to me, and that’s how I feel. It’s taken all this time, from the first day of my captivity until now, to meet you and be with you in order to find my way home. You’re my home, Angelica. In fact, that’s where I want to go.”

“But this is your home.”

A slow smile overtook his face. “Venezuela. In the Cordillera system, high in the mountains near the Caribbean coast.”

“Oh, you mean your family home. The one you took back when you made your fortune.”

He nodded. “How about we get cleaned up, pack some clothes, and head there now?”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Angelica soon learned that the double-chain had changed the proximity issue so that while she showered, Reyes could remain in the sitting room as he continued to explore Sweet Dove’s laptop.

By the time she’d emerged wearing jeans and a tank top, her makeup restored and her hair brushed out, she found Reyes at the table, in a robe. He still sat at the table, staring at the laptop, chin in hand.

He glanced up at her, and she put her hand on the double-chain. He seemed to be in a state of shock.

“What is it?”

“It’s all here. Every last bit of information I need. It’s clear to me that Sweet Dove didn’t feel in the least threatened.”

“Was it even password protected?”

Reyes shook his head. “She seemed to have a love of numbers, though. The records here are careful to the penny. Her crimes are legion.”

She rounded the table and sat on his lap. He surrounded her with his arms. “I like you in jeans.”

She kissed him. “I’m all packed. Ready when you are.”

He closed the laptop lid and headed for his turn in the shower.

She stared at the laptop for a long time. Part of her was curious, and no doubt in the coming days and weeks she’d become completely familiar with Sweet Dove’s organization.

For now, however, the horror could rest. More than anything she needed this time with Reyes, to just be with him.

A half hour later he carried her in one arm, her satchel dangling from his free hand, and flew her at top speed to South America.

I have no pain.

What?
He squeezed her waist.

There’s no more pain when I fly.

Nor should there be because of my Ancestral power. But the truth is I didn’t even think about it. Although if you’d suffered in any way, the chains would have told me in a split second.

Within minutes he slowed, flying into the coastal range of Venezuela where the mountains ran along the northernmost section of the country.

He flew her to the highest elevation and passed through a forest, then finally drifted through the hard rock walls of the cavern system.

My housekeeper has come and gone, so we’ll have privacy. But she’s left a meal of spicy chicken-filled empanadas and a salad. And beer.

And suddenly I’m starved.

Reyes touched down in the middle of the living room. A thin but very wide waterfall made up the wall opposite, tucked behind a low stone barrier. Soft lights lit the dark rock that sparkled with gold-colored minerals.

Heavy, carved-wood chests and tables sat against the walls but a cream sectional lightened the space. A brightly colored woven rug anchored a solid coffee table. Branches of antique candelabra and ornate silver boxes completed the decor.

Faylen’s boxes.

She moved toward one that sat on a dark wood chest. It was one of the larger ones and had intricate carvings on each drawer. “This belonged to your mother, didn’t it?” Oddly she could almost feel Faylen’s presence in the space, and for a long moment she wished, for Reyes’s sake, that his mother was still alive.

With her hand on the box the room began to spin, faster than ever, a sure sign that a revisiting vision was upon her. Again.

“Reyes.” She gestured for him to come to her.

“A vision?”

“Yes, an important one. Please hold me.” She just had a feeling.

An image swept through her of a woman with auburn hair sitting on a cot, her legs shackled. The room had a stand with a pitcher of water and a chamber pot in the corner.

Angelica’s heart beat hard in her chest. “I think I’m seeing your mother. Tell me what she looked like.”

Reyes took a deep breath as he leaned his head close to hers. “Show me. I have a sense that I’ll be able to see her because of the Ancestral chains.”

Angelica relaxed against him and let her mind flow.

The woman rocked softly on the cot.

“I can see the vision. Oh, God, it is her. That’s my mother.”

“Reyes, where is this? Do you know where this is?”

“No, that is, it feels familiar. But can you tell me when this took place?” Revisiting visions were always in the past.

Angelica was shocked as she turned in his arms, forcing the vision to disappear. “This vision is of something that occurred just a few minutes ago. Reyes, your mother is still alive.”

* * *

Reyes felt hot and cold at exactly the same moment. He’d grieved his mother’s death for well over a century. Sweet Dove had relayed the progress of her demise step by step, how she’d stopped eating and taking blood and had devolved into blood madness, afterward dying.

Sweet Dove had lied to him.

Maybe it was the blood-chains or his increasing Ancestral power, but he could feel his mother now. He just couldn’t believe it was true.

His mother lived.

“Can you sense where she is?” Angelica asked.

He closed his eyes and focused at the same time, letting his Ancestral power surge through him. “She’s alone. Dear God, Sweet Dove kept her sequestered all this time.”

“Do you think she hurt your mother?”

“Almost two centuries of solitary imprisonment would have been torture enough. But let’s go. She wasn’t far from Sweet Dove’s office.”

He held out his arm, and Angelica climbed onto his booted foot. The moment she secured a hold on his neck, he shifted to altered flight and sped through rock and into the air.

A few minutes later he slowed his approach, diving through more rock, centering his path on the image of his mother. Angelica had touched the silver box and the vision had come to her. She had given him so much and now this.

A moment later he passed through the final layer of rock.

When his boots hit the solid rock floor, he stared at the woman in the white, sack-like dress, still sitting on the edge of her cot. She looked as young as he remembered, and her blue eyes were as full of life.

“You found me,” she whispered, rising to her feet. “I knew you would. I never gave up hope.” She opened her arms, her eyes filling with tears.

He gathered her up, holding her tightly against his chest, tears coursing down his cheeks. She clung to him and wept. He didn’t think he ever wanted to let her go.

At last he murmured, “I bought our home back, the one at Cordillera.”

She drew back and planted her hands on his face. “You did?”

He nodded. “As soon as I escaped my captor I began building my fortune. The moment I had enough money to tempt the owner to sell, I bought it back and recovered as many of your things as I could. Remember your silver boxes?”