“Allison Klassen!” a voice yelped in recognition right before Allie found herself seized in a chokehold and squeezed until she was breathless. “How the heck are you, little girl!?”
Allie laughed and tugged at Serena’s elbow, pulling it down and gasping for breath. She looked into the beautiful brown eyes of one of her mother’s oldest friends. Warmth flooded Allie and she felt completely at peace for the first time since coming back to the coast. She knew Serena would be pleased to see her. Allie was just happy to find the older Salish woman still working at the shelter where Veronica and Allie had first met her twenty-five years ago when they’d been evicted from their Downtown Eastside apartment a few blocks away. Serena had welcomed them with open arms back then too.
“You look wonderful, Aunty Serena,” Allie said, grinning.
She touched the long braid, now shot through with thick strands of silver, that hung over Serena’s shoulder. Serena wasn’t her aunt by blood, but she was kin in the way that mattered. Veronica had encouraged Allie to call Serena ‘Aunty’ since their second week at the shelter. There were more lines around her eyes and mouth, but her eyes were as bright as ever. She tugged a lock of Allie’s hair affectionately and picked up the laundry basket she’d been carrying when she buzzed Allie into the building. She motioned for Allie to follow her into the back.
“Thank you, my girl. Compliments are always welcome around here. Now, you’ve certainly turned into a beautiful young woman,” Serena said, throwing a grin at Allie and shoving the door to her office open with a hip. “You’re mama wasn’t lying one bit about that! It’s no wonder Jay was impatient to bring you home.”
Allie gasped and gripped the door of the office with frozen fingers. “You knew I was back?”
Serena set the basket down and turned to Allie, her expression more serious, but her eyes still twinkling. “Mama Veronica called before her bodyguard of a husband whisked her down south. She warned me you might show up around here. I told her Jay was too possessive to let you come slum it with me, and too smart to let you convince him otherwise. Apparently I overestimated him.”
Allie laughed out loud, covering her mouth to contain the shocked exclamation. Then, dropping her hand, she said wryly, “Or underestimated my determination to get to Victory Square.”
Serena shrugged. “Whichever, it’s so good to see you again, my girl.”
“And you, Aunty,” Allie said, smiling softly. “When Jay catches up to me, which he will very soon, you’ll have to promise to come visit me at the house. You should see the pool, it’s this insane infinity type thing. I’m not kidding, I’d probably live in it if he let me. I doubt I’ll convince him any time soon to let me come work with you, and I could really use a friend.”
“Of course, my girl.” She sighed and leaned her elbows on the basket, looking Allie up and down. “It’s a pity that man is such a worrier when it comes to you. We can sure use someone like you around here. A good addictions counsellor I mean. Our last one wrote a book about the “infamous Vancouver Downtown Eastside,” got more famous in the wallet than the heart and left us high and dry.”
The two women excitedly discussed the goings on at the shelter when Allie heard the unmistakeable sound of the buzzer letting someone into the building. A prickling sensation ran down her back and she knew, without a doubt, that Jay was striding toward her. Her heart started pounding, her mouth went dry and she could no longer hear a single word that Serena was saying to her. Serena quickly caught onto her distraction and look over her shoulder at the cause for Allie’s alarm.
Nodding her head, Serena came around the side of her desk and wrapped an arm around Allie’s waist. Allie was a few inches taller. She leaned up and whispered in her ear, “Be strong, my girl. This man has loved you since the moment you came into the world, he wouldn’t harm a hair on your head.”
Allie nodded and gave Serena a strained smile. She braved a glance over her shoulder. Jay had stopped to talk to a security guard, an old friend from the street. But his eyes never once wavered from her as he spoke. They were pure molten steel. He was angrier than she had ever seen him. Though she knew he would find out about her sojourn to Victory Square, somehow she thought his men would collect her and bring her home, mitigating some of the damage of his actually finding her in the exact place he had expressly forbidden her from being.
“If that’s not his angry face, then I don’t want to see him mad,” she whispered as he finished his conversation, shook the guards hand and strode toward the women.
Serena stepped in front of Allie and held her arms out to Jay. “Jay Le Croix, how are you, my boy?” she said warmly.
Jay accepted her greeting and kissed the top of Serena’s head. His gaze never left Allie. Jay conversed with Serena for a few moments, his words warm with no hint of censure toward Allie’s presence. Without prompting from either woman, he invited Serena to the house and made sure she had their contact information so she could visit Allie whenever she wanted. Allie watched his skillful maneuvering with awe.
Allie hugged Serena once more before Jay took hold of her arm in a firm grip and led her from the shelter. Her jaw dropped when she saw that Jay had brought no less than three black armoured cars to collect his woman. She was about to direct a scathing comment about his overkill when she saw a man she recognized. She was surprised and pleased to see Greg standing outside in the sunlight, holding the back door of one the cars open for her.
“Greg, you’re back!” she said excitedly, starting toward him.
“Ms. Klassen,” he said grimly, not glancing down at her.
Jay pulled her back from the bodyguard and pushed her into the vehicle, a firm hand on her head to protect her from the frame. She frowned and looked up at him quizzically. “I don’t understand, he was calling me ‘Allie’ just a few days ago.”
Jay sat next to her and buckled her seatbelt before buckling his. He turned to her and spoke in a quiet voice that nonetheless held a ruthless quality that made her shiver. “He has the sense to understand exactly how angry I am with you. He knows it’s best for both of you to maintain some boundaries at this time.”
Allie’s mouth dropped open for a second, then she snapped it shut. She sat stiffly in the circle of Jay’s arm. Though he said he was very angry, he was holding her close, like a lover. He didn’t speak to her again during the long drive back to the house, instead making a call to his secretary. He seemed to be rearranging his schedule to clear his afternoon and evening. While Allie would have enjoyed the idea of his having an entire evening to spend with her, she didn’t think he had anything wonderful planned after she took off on his security team.
She gazed unseeing out the window and twisted her bracelet around her wrist. She pushed it up her hand as far as it would go, shoving it until it bit painfully into her skin. She’d done this a hundred times over the past several weeks. It had become a nervous tick now. Jay’s hand came down on hers, squeezing tightly until her fingers were forced to release their hold on the bracelet. Startled, she looked up at him. He frowned down at her and slowly released her hands, pulling them apart. He retained his hold on her right hand and continued his conversation.
Allie went back to staring out the window. Clouds were gathering across the sky, stretching out towards the mountains. She wondered what Jay was going to do to her. Despite Serena’s words, she knew that Jay wasn’t going to let her go unpunished. He couldn’t. He was a powerful man, head of a powerful organization. He hadn’t gotten to where he was by letting challenges go unanswered. Allie may be the one person in his world that held influence over him, but she would not get away with challenging his authority unscathed. Especially with a direct command. He had told her to stay away from the Eastside. She had disobeyed, knowing he would have to retaliate.
She shifted in her seat and glanced sideways at him through the curtain of her long hair. He had always seemed serious to her. Beloved, yes, but always serious and commanding in every situation. Like the weight of the world was on him. Even now, when he looked grim and angry, she wanted to soothe him. Jay abruptly ended his conversation as they pulled up to the house. He pulled Allie from the car and issued several rapid commands to Greg.
Cool rain was beginning to splatter against the grey paving stones. One of the orders Jay snapped at Greg that had Allie’s heart beating uncomfortably was to keep everyone away from the house for the duration of the night and not to disturb them. When he finished with Greg and the car pulled away, Jay placed a hand at the back of Allie’s neck and led her toward the doorway of the house. She went with him willingly, but broke away as soon as he opened the door and ushered her inside.
Wrapping her arms around herself she turned to him and watched as he disarmed the alarm system. She watched him warily as he set about his usual routine of opening each window, despite the steadily building rain storm. She could sense the leashed tension in him. She jumped and gasped as a clap of thunder sounded overhead. Thunderstorms were a rare occurrence on the coast, though she was used to wild storms from living on the prairies.
Finally, after what felt like a year, though it had barely been minutes, Jay approached Allie where she stood nervously next to the kitchen island. He stood inches from her, not touching, just looking down at her, his grey eyes unyielding. He took his phone out of his pocket, glanced down at it for barely a second, turned it off and then placed it deliberately on the counter behind her. His arm touched against hers, brushing against her hair and sending tingles cascading up her arm. She shivered in reaction and tried to edge away from him, but he brought his hand down on the other side of her, trapping her against the island.
“Tell me what happened today,” he demanded in his quiet, measured voice.
Allie shivered again and tried to meet the steel in his eyes, but quickly dropped hers. She shrugged. “I’m sure you know already, your guys are pretty efficient.”
“Apparently not, or you wouldn’t have been able to get out of their sight,” he said letting some of the lethal darkness enter his voice. “Now, I suggest you start talking to me or I’ll start talking to them again and I won’t be as calm as I was earlier this afternoon.”
“Jay!” Allie gasped, finally forcing herself to meet his implacable gaze. She found no mercy there. His guys had fucked up by letting her get away from them and he wasn’t a man to let mistakes pass without swift and brutal retribution.
Allie brought a hand up to her mouth for a few seconds before dropping it and twisting her body sideways against the island so she wouldn’t have to look at him. She dropped her head and began twining a section of long dark hair nervously in between her fingers. She felt swamped by his powerful presence, despite his calm, still body. His seductive, familiar scent wrapped around her, drawing her in like a dangerous predator. She wanted to lean toward him, but knew that way lead to danger.
She drew in a breath and began to speak. “I convinced Hershel and Vic that I needed supplementary reading materials for a sociology class I wanted to take online. I had talked to you about it yesterday and knew you’d approved the class… because… because you’d see it as a step toward me settling down. Uh… because it’s not actually addictions, but still closely enough related to the field to hold my interest.”
She felt his body tighten fractionally and could see his fingers grip the counter next to her until his knuckles whitened. She held her breath until he loosened his hold. His breath touched her cheek as he spoke. “Very subtle, Allison. I’m disappointed.”
She glared down at his hand, which still leaned against the island and said, “I’m disappointed you kidnapped me, so I guess we’re even.”
He chuckled unexpectedly startling her into looking up at him. His eyes were still dark and the lines around his mouth held a grim promise, but he still found humour in her words. He nodded at her, “Please, continue.”
She shrugged and dropped her gaze to the floor again. “I knew Hershel would check with you about taking me off property and I knew it was sooner than you would have liked for me to go, but I also thought maybe you would take the chance. You knew I would be excited about the possibility of starting a new class because I’ve always been that way and if you’ve had me tailed for the last ten years your guys would’ve reported on my extreme keener-ism. I made sure I spent the entire evening last night and this morning researching my new class and all the books associated with it. Then I checked all the book reviews and selected the books I knew would be at the bookstore that I needed, the massive one next to the subway line. Then I spent the rest of the morning harassing Hershel into asking you to let me go. I knew you would do a quick search of my internet history to back up the legitimacy of my bookstore claim.”
“Fuck, Allie. I don’t know if I should be pissed off that I underestimated how manipulative you’ve become or proud of your intelligence.” He lifted his hands off the counter and turned her toward him. “Now tell me what happened after I gave five men permission to take one woman to a bookstore and not take their eyes off her.”
“I didn’t really have a plan,” she admitted with a shrug. “I thought I would just get out of the house and scope things out. Maybe gain some trust with you and the guys and then try a few more times and get my security to relax their guard a little. You know how much I like books, so I didn’t think it would be too hard to convince you to let me go back if this trip was successful.”
Jay snorted, making his feelings on the success of her adventure clear. “So what the fuck happened then.”
“Starbucks.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“You know how lost in books I can get. I must have been in the bookstore for over an hour. I realized I was really thirsty and then just sort of wandered into the Starbucks for a drink. I got a frappuccino, looked up and realized none of my guards were there,” mischief sparkled in her eyes as she relayed that piece of information with relish. “I realized it wouldn’t take them long to check the Starbucks when they noticed I was missing, so I watched for an approaching train, ran straight out the door and onto the train. Lucky for me there were no transit officers and I was able to make it down the line without getting a ticket.”
“Son of a bitch,” Jay said.
“I took the subway to the central bus depot and then a bus to Victory Square…. and you know the rest,” Allie finished.
He was quiet for a minute as he processed everything she said. Finally he asked, “Why?”
“I wanted to see Serena,” she said right away.
“You know I would have brought her to you,” he growled impatiently. “Why the show, Allie? Why all the manipulations when you knew I would track you within minutes?”
She tried to pull away from him, but he held her still. She glared up at him and, placing her hands against his chest, gave him a small, ineffectual push. “Because,” she breathed angrily, “I wanted to show you that you may try to control me, but I will fight back, Jay. When you least expect it, I’ll make a mockery of all your precious rules.”
Jay reached for her arms and dragged her against him until her breasts were pressed against his chest. Any amusement he may have felt fled. His eyes were liquid steel as they pierced hers.
“Even if my rules are meant to save your life?” he asked, his voice hard.
“A life of slavery isn’t a life I want,” she shot back angrily, her eyes snapping dark fire.
“I would rather have a live slave than see the woman I love dead,” he bit out.
Tension snapped between them, firing the attraction that shaped their entire adult existence. Jay’s eyes dipped to her full lips, shivering under the onslaught of emotion. His fingers clenched around her arms even as she brought her hands up between them to push him away.
“You will never have the freedom you want,” Jay said, shaking her a little. “You understand?”
She shook her head, a sob escaping her lips. “I can’t accept that, Jay. I’ve worked too hard to build my career, to create the things that I love and the supports that I needed when you pushed me away.”
“You have me now, Allison,” he said from between clenched teeth. “Accept that it will have to be enough.”
She shoved him hard, twisting until she was able to break away. He let her go, giving her the essential room that she seemed to need in that moment. She drifted toward the glass patio doors and stared out at the storm. The rain was hitting the pool so hard the water was pounding back up toward the sky several inches before settling back into the pool again. She looked stunning in the dim, grey lighting. Like a beautiful, dark shadow with her curves packed into patterned leggings, a loose pink bias-cut top with straps that criss-crossed down her back and black designer sandals. All purchases he’d made for her based on things he knew she loved to wear. She wore her eclectic clothing choices with a confidence that never failed to turn him on.
She shook her head sadly. “It’s not enough anymore. It might have been when I was eighteen. I might have learned to settle down and be a mob wife, or whatever it is you want from me, but not now. I want the choices I’ve worked hard for, the things I’ve earned.”
“Then you’ll be my prisoner for real, love. Because I’m not letting you go and I’m sure as fuck not letting a mistake like today happen again,” Jay said quietly, his eyes holding hers intently.