Untamed: The Savage: The Complete Series (11 page)

I
didn’t know
what happened in that house but the Alaric that went in was not the same one that came out. It was as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. And for a while there, I allowed myself to believe this new disposition meant he could be happy here in Atlanta with me.

“Is there anything you’d like to do or see?” I asked him one lazy Wednesday afternoon as we sat on the couch.

He picked up the remote control and turned off the television. “I’d like to drive.”

“So how much do you know?” I asked as we made our way down to the parking garage a few minutes later.

“I know the basics, but you may have to remind me about the rules of the road.”

“How do you know how to drive? You didn’t have your license yet before you ran away, right?”

He grinned at me over the hood of the car. “You don’t have to have a license to steal your father’s car at night.” He slid inside the driver’s seat and looked through my keychain. “Where is the ignition key?”

I leaned over and pointed to the Start button. “You just put your foot on the brake pedal, then press that.”

He spent a minute looking over everything, familiarizing himself with my car, before he carefully pulled out of the parking lot. Pretty soon, his hesitation dissolved and he began to drive with some self-assurance. I had to remind him about the rules of the road, things like how long to stop at a stop sign and who had the right of way.

We drove away from the city and out onto country roads. I leaned back into my seat and watched him drive, admiring the return of his confidence. For a while there, I thought I might never see it again.

We drove northwest on I-75 for a long time until we left the city behind, trees surrounding us on both sides.

“So what do you think?” I asked, feeling lighter than I had in a long time.

He glanced at me, a smile on his lips. “I think I’ve got the hang of it.”

“Do you think you can get the hang of the city too?” I held my breath and waited for the answer.

He was quiet for some time before pulling off the side of the road onto the grass embankment. He turned off the car. “Do you want me to stay?” he asked quietly, his hands still on the steering wheel.

“If you want to,” I said. “I know the city is stifling to you, but I think you can get used to it. It’s safer for you here. But I don’t want you to feel pressured to stay if you want to go back.”

He faced me, dark eyes direct and searching. I could see the internal struggle, the wilderness still calling him. “I will never be one of those men who earn ten million dollars a year and own a yacht and wears the suits with the penguin tails.”

“That doesn’t matter to me.” I took hold of his hand. “I love you, the strong, untamed you.”

I realized what I’d said when his eyes widened and his lip twitched. He leaned over and kissed me hard, holding me in place with his hands and his lips. He was breathing fast when we pulled apart, staring at me once again in that way he does.

“And I love you,” he rasped, tangling his fingers in my hair possessively. “And I go where you go.”

“Come with me then.” I opened the door and jumped out, beckoning him to follow. I ran into the woods and he caught up to me a few seconds later. With a thick laugh he caught me by the waist and spun me around. He pinned me against a tree, his body hard, his gaze dark. The world seemed so vivid in that moment, the bite of the tree bark on my back, the breeze fluttering around my skirt, the purely masculine scent of the man before me. It was almost like being back in the mountains of North Carolina.

Alaric held my face in the palm of his hand. “I’ve never fallen in love before,” he said. “It feels like I just jumped off a cliff, not knowing what’s waiting for me at the bottom.”

I reached down between us and unzipped his fly, releasing his rigid length. I lifted one leg and wrapped it around his backside, drawing aside my underwear to grant him entrance. “Maybe there is no bottom.”

He grabbed my ass and lifted me off the ground. “Oh, there’s definitely a bottom.” He squeezed my flesh. “A delicious one.”

I gasped when he lowered me onto his cock. All the while he watched me, memorizing my every moan and whimper, always mindful of my pleasure. “I love you,” I said again, even if those three words didn’t feel like they would ever be enough.

He thrust up. “Only me?” And then again.

“Only you,” I said, wrapping my arms around his neck. “I’m yours, remember?”

“Yes,” he said through his teeth, continuing his relentless barrage. “And I am yours. Always.”

“My wild savage,” I said, biting his bottom lip and drawing away.

“My pampered city girl.”

Then there were no more words, only cries of pleasure until, finally, the sound of two people falling apart at the same time.

I
t wasn’t
all rainbows and puppies after that day, but I tried to make the most of the situation. I still felt confined by the buildings and the traffic, but running outside made it a little easier to bear.

I took classes at the local college, trying to earn my GED while Chloe worked. Afterward I’d walk back to the apartment and study until Chloe came home. It wasn’t the most exciting existence, but it was more than I could have ever hoped for.

O
ne day
, as I unlocked the front door, the hairs on the back of my neck rose. I stilled, listening for any movement inside the apartment. Even though I heard nothing, I sense that someone was inside.

I pushed open the door and came face to face with the senator.

“Hello, Alaric.” He stood in the middle of the living room with his arms folded across his chest, acting as if he owned the place.

My hackles rose but I tempered my reaction. He was, after all, the father of the woman I loved.

“Mr. Randall,” I said with a cursory nod. “How did you get in?”

He grinned, but not in a friendly way. “You’re not the only one who knows how to gain entrance.”

Every cell in my body was on high alert.
How does he know?

“I came here to talk to you, Alaric.” He sounded friendlier. I sensed the trap. “I feel we have a lot to discuss.”

“About?”

“About what every father wants to know: What have you to offer my daughter?”

I let out a breath, not sure what to say.

“Because from where I’m standing, you don’t have anything to offer her. No job. No education. No home.”

I couldn’t speak. How could I defend myself from the truth?

“I thought as much.” He moved casually until he was within striking distance. “So here’s what I need you to do: I need you to disappear. Because you are no good for my daughter.”

I steeled my spine. “I’m not leaving until Chloe tells me to go.”

“Do you not understand that you are beneath her station?”

I ground my teeth together. I was getting sick and tired of people telling me I was not good enough for Chloe. As if I needed reminding. “I don’t have very much to my name, that much is true. But what I do have, I worked for. I fought for.”

He regarded me like I was a dangerous creature. “I take it you’re refusing to leave?”

“You’re not going to scare me away.”

“How about this then,” he said, poking a finger in my chest. “I know who you are and I know all that you’ve done in the Smoky Mountains.”

Every muscle in my body turned to stone. “You’re lying.”

“No. I’m not,” he said with a smile on his lips. “I know you’re wanted for five counts of murder in North Carolina, James Alaric Martin.”

I took a startled step back. “How—”

“I know many things. Like the fact that your father was attacked fifteen years ago, the same night that you disappeared.”

I crossed the space between us, ready to pounce. Murder sluiced through my veins.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” the senator said, holding up his cell phone. “One press of a button and the police will be on their way.”

I reared back, at a loss. I stared at him for a long time, trying to figure out what to do, knowing in the back of my mind there was only one logical choice.

The senator held out his hand, a set of keys on his palm. “I took the liberty of renting you a car. If you have any sense of self-preservation at all, I suggest you take this small mercy I’m granting and leave.”

“And if I don’t go?” I could barely get the words out.

“Then you will be sent to prison, where you will spend the rest of your sorry, miserable life.”

I let out a ragged, defeated breath. “But Chloe...”

His features softened, now that he knew he had won. “She’ll be fine. I’ll take care of her.”

And even if it hurt like hell, even if it was the hardest thing I’d ever done, I took the keys and disappeared.

W
here the hell
am I going? Why am I leaving her?

I pounded on the steering wheel again and again, my vision blurry from regret and anger and doubt. Every other mile marker I passed, I told myself to turn around and go back to Chloe, but I couldn’t bring myself to pull on that wheel.

There was no doubt in my mind Senator Randall intended to follow through with his threats. He would rather see me in jail than with his daughter. Didn’t matter whether I was guilty or not, he saw me as scum: not good enough, smart enough, or rich enough to be with Chloe.

He would do whatever it took to destroy me in Chloe’s eyes. Yet here I was, doing exactly that on my own.

I drove on, back to the only place I could think of. I kept heading north until I started seeing signs for the Smoky Mountains. When I neared the town of Franklin, North Carolina—many, many miles away from my cave—I dumped the car and prepared for the long walk home.

“
H
oney
, I’m home,” I called out with a grin as I entered the apartment. The sight of Alaric’s backpack on the floor stretched my smile wider. To know he was trying so hard to fit in my world made me all the more excited to tell him my news.

I set the shopping bags on the kitchen counter and put the chicken in the fridge. I wanted to cook a romantic dinner, go all out fancy with the candles and the china, before delivering the words that would light up his face.

It had come to me one night, as I’d turned over in bed and caught sight of Alaric sleeping. I knew he wasn’t exactly happy here, was merely tolerating the environment for my sake. The city was too stifling for him, too much concrete and not enough trees.

The answer had come to me a few hours later as the sun was beginning to rise: We didn’t have to stay here. We could live wherever we wanted as long as we were together.

I’d set the plan in motion the very next day, snipping the ties that bound me to Atlanta. I informed my clients that I would complete their current projects but would not be taking new commissions in the foreseeable future. It wasn’t so difficult to untangle myself from this life, not when I knew what else was out there.

Alaric and I could take a few things with us and start over, somewhere with plenty of wilderness for the soul. With my inheritance and my savings, we could live comfortably until we could figure it all out.

“Alaric?” I called out, heading to the bedroom. I toed off my heels and slipped into more comfortable clothes. Thinking Alaric had gone for a run, I went back to the kitchen to start dinner.

The seed of concern didn’t sprout until an hour later, when dinner was almost cooked and I had begun setting the table. Even then I shrugged off the worry and changed into a nice dress for dinner.

But as I reached for my black heels in the closet, I came across his running shoes. My heart leapt into my throat, my breathing going ragged. I knew then, with all certainty, that he hadn’t just gone for a run.

Alaric was gone.

I’d felt his absence the moment I walked in the front door, but I’d ignored the signs, had chosen to believe Alaric would never abandon me.

And I still don’t.

I grabbed the first pair of flats I could find and rushed out the front door to the elevator. I burst out of the building and onto the sidewalk, eyes seeking him out in the dark. I walked down the street to the park across the road, then around the block, anywhere I thought Alaric might be.

It was late by the time I made my way back to the apartment. Before I opened the door I sent up a quick prayer that Alaric would be inside, beside himself with worry for me, but he wasn’t in there. He had disappeared once before and, it seemed, he had done it again.

I sat on the couch for an indeterminate amount of time, facing the front door with my eyes glazed over. Maybe five minutes, maybe five hours. But by the time I finally took a deep breath and pushed out of that deep indentation my ass had made on the cushion, dinner was long cold and so was my appetite.

I tried to turn off my brain while cleaning the kitchen, tried my best not to imagine the scenarios that would give Alaric reason to leave. Because in each and every one of them, he had decided I was no longer worth fighting for.

I
spent
the night under my blanket, crying and raging in fits. The next day my eyes were nearly swollen shut, but as much as I hated leaving the warmth and safety of my bed, I needed to get up and get to a job site.

So I got up and put on my makeup—my “mask” as Alaric had put it—even if it was the last thing I wanted to do.

My neighbor downstairs stopped me on the way out of the building, an older gentleman living with his boyfriend. “Please tell your father it was an honor to meet him,” he said, holding his Pomeranian under an arm. “I had never met a senator before.”

“My father was here? When?”

“Yesterday, late afternoon. I guess he just missed you.”

“I guess so.” My breathing hitched. “Did you see my boyfriend leave at any point? Tall, long dark hair?”

A smile touched the edges of his lips. “Why, yes. A few minutes after your father went up. He’s a work of art, that man of yours.”

I nodded, puzzle pieces sliding into place. “Huh. Well, thank you,” I said, heading out.

My father. Of course he was behind this.

I used my anger to focus on my work, finishing the job a few hours ahead of schedule. After, I headed directly to my father’s office.

He stood up from his desk, holding out his hands. “Chloe Jane…”

“What did you do?” I asked as soon as I closed the heavy oak door behind me.

The smile froze on his face as he lowered his hands. “What needed to be done.”

His words sent a fresh frisson of anger up my spine. He didn’t even bother feigning ignorance. “You chased Alaric away. Why?”

He sat down and set his hands on the desk. “I gave him a choice—you or him. He showed his true colors and chose himself.”

“That doesn’t sound like the Alaric I know.”

His eyes narrowed the slightest. “And what do you know about him? Absolutely nothing.”

“I know everything I need to know.”

“You do, don’t you?” he said with something like disappointment in his voice. “You know about him, about his lowlife past, and you still choose to defend him. You allow him to do things to you that—” He swallowed his last words as if they were glass shards.

The blood drained from my face. Not for the first time in my life, I wondered how he always knew so much about my personal life. “How do you do it?” I gritted between my teeth. “Are you having me followed?”

“I would never have you followed.”

“You’ve bugged my apartment then.” I had my answer when he didn’t deny the allegation.

“Only audio,” he finally said.

And then the implications set in, snippets of conversations and events in my apartment flashing before my eyes, things that my father would have heard. I turned to leave, my face burning.

“Everything I’ve done is for your best interest,” he called out.

I kept my back turned, unable to bear looking in his face out of disgust and embarrassment. I reached for the door handle when his voice boomed out again. “You will not go after that criminal, Chloe Jane. I forbid it.”

I spun around, struggling to keep my temper in check. Out of respect I had never raised my voice to my father, but at that moment, I had no respect for someone who didn’t respect me. “And what would you have me do, Dad? Live alone for the rest of my life in the apartment you’ve bugged?”

“You can be with Ethan.”

It hit me then, what Ethan had said to me that night in the club. “You called him when I was missing in North Carolina.”

“He had a right to know.”

I took a horrified step back, my back hitting the door. I thought back to the first time I met Ethan, during my father’s annual Fourth of July barbecue when my father himself had introduced us. I should have been more suspicious of my father’s easy acceptance of Ethan; instead, I’d been blinded by the handsome face and the bright smile.

I had never been overcome with violence before but, right then, I truly wanted to punch my dad. “Did you make him break up with Sarah to be with me?”

“Of course. She was a nobody. You and Ethan are a good match,” he said, as if playing with people’s lives was no big deal.

But it was. It was a big fucking deal. “And the fact that he’s the Chief of Police’s son makes no difference, right?”

His eyes turned to crystals, cold and unyielding. “You will do this, Chloe. You will uphold the Randall family name.”

My entire body vibrated, my brain screaming and raging. “I will not,” I said, managing to keep my voice steady.

Anger clouded his face.

“
You
can date Ethan if you love him so much.”

His mouth dropped open. He wore the look of a man who was not accustomed to insubordination. “Chloe Jane Randall, you listen here, young lady—”

I raised my hand up to stop him. “No, you listen. I’m a grown ass woman. An adult. And I am capable of making my own decisions. You don’t have to like it, but you have to damn well accept it.”

And for the first time in my life, I turned my back on my father and walked out.