Chapter Six

Belle

I didn’t think. Couldn’t think. All I could do was run. Sprinting through the hallways, I almost cried when I found the main entrance door. Flinging it open, I rushed through the driveway and into the garage. Fifteen luxury cars from Maseratis to Bentleys were parked there. I wasn’t sure if I could get any of them to start. It wasn’t like I knew how to hotwire anything. Luckily, the keys were hanging up on a corkboard along the far wall. I grabbed the keys for an Audi, figuring I’d do best with an automatic. Once the engine roared to life, I pulled away from the driveway just as Leonard and Mrs. Johnson ran after me.

I didn’t want this.

I couldn’t do this. Not when he’d scream at me, not when he’d dig his fingers into me. I know he’d seemed out of it, weird even for him, the moment he’d seen the medal in my hands, but I no longer cared. I wanted off the damn island and away from him.

I drove down the dark highway, winding through the roads and catching a glimpse of the ocean, the waves made silver by the moonlight shining over them. The signs pointed me well enough to the main market. I could find a restaurant or some place to wait and then try and beg for passage home off the island on a cruise ship, or at least wait till morning to call Carol and see if she could wire me a ticket and some money. I’d left everything back at the estate, even my ID, and I was going to regret that when it came time to board the plane. I’d have to come up with a lie or a story, maybe beg for help after something so terrifying had just happened to me. Surely, someone would show me mercy.

There wasn’t much open at close to three a.m. in the market area. I had my choice between a local dive bar that had a seating capacity of about six and a battered Senor Frog’s. It was older, the paint peeling from its boards, but the music was loud and everything seemed hopping in there. Maybe it was full of local college kids on break or a throng of drunken tourists. That would be a good enough place for cover.

Hurrying inside and hoping that this late at night the bar runners were too tired and too overworked to question my lack of shoes, I slipped into a booth and asked the waitress for a water. She gave me the stink eye over that, clearly realizing there wouldn’t be tips for her this evening, and walked with deliberate slowness to the counter.

Sighing, I leaned back in the booth and tried not to shake. I could fall apart later, once I was off the island and back in L.A. Then I could do anything I wanted, cry for hours about the insulting dog collar and the way Drake had shouted at me tonight, cry over the loss of something I’d never really had. It was time to be honest; I’d conned myself into thinking there could be more to Drake than met the eye. I’d been reaching for clues that he was anything but the womanizing deviant he appeared to be. In a way, I guess I’d found my answer. There was more to him than that, something dark and dangerous, something almost feral lurking underneath the surface that frightened me. No, as much as I was drawn to him, as weird as this odd connection between us was, Drake McManus was too much to deal with. Terrifying in the most primal of ways. Not because I thought he’d really hurt me, but more because of the things he wanted, some of the places he could lead me? Those were places I’d never recover from. Places I could lose myself in forever.

And I couldn’t do that.

My mom and dad depended on me. I wasn’t the financial whiz like Carol, but our family needed me, and I couldn’t fall prey to Drake’s games.

I just needed to wait for daylight and go home.

A clunk sounded on the table top before me and I looked up to thank my waitress. Instead, I frowned at the tall mug of beer sitting in front of me now and the three lobster-red college guys in polo shirts, complete with flipped-up collars, sliding across from me at the booth.

“I don’t need anyone to join me,” I said, offering a pleasant smile or I hoped what passed for a good approximation of one.

The tallest of the three, a guy with shaggy brown hair and a visor on, shook his head. “You look like you’ve had a rough night, sweetheart, definitely seemed like you needed something to take the edge off.”

The second guy, a redhead with more than a few freckles on his cheeks, chimed in, “Totally. It’s hot as balls out there, just take a sip. You’ll need something to keep you cool.”

I sighed, not wanting to push it with any of them and hoping that they’d back off if I took a few sips before my water arrived. “I… sure.”

“Great!” the first guy said, offering a smile with too many sparkling white teeth to be genuine. “I’m Will, that’s Dan, and the guy who hasn’t said much yet is Tyler. He’s not really a talker.”

Tyler was a huge, hulking guy. He looked like someone who had to have played football, lacrosse, or some other contact sport where he thrashed other guys for fun. He hadn’t said anything, true, and even then, he didn’t try and introduce himself. Just glared at the mug.

I swallowed under the scrutiny and took a long draught.

Then the room started to spin.