SIX YEARS LATER
Stepping into the house she had moved into with Harvey Stanhope five years before, Alyssa stared around the pristine, far too opulent D.C. home his father had purchased for them.
How ecstatic Marion Stanhope had been when she and Harvey had married. Certain his son was turning over a new leaf, as his father called it, and giving up his depravities. The judgmental bastard. He’d been furious when he’d learned his son was gay. So furious he’d beaten Harvey to the point that when he showed up on the Hampstead doorstep he’d nearly been dead.
He had been her friend at one time. He and Summer had been the only friends she’d really had when she was younger. Summer had remained, but Harvey had followed his own pursuits until she’d returned from Barcelona.
He’d begged her to marry him even before he’d learned of the baby. Begged her to give him just a few years of peace from the beatings to enable him to find a way to make it stop. Against her mother’s arguments, she’d married him.
For her baby. To ensure Shane and Sebastian knew she had no intentions of asking them for anything. That she would raise her child without them.
That was six years ago. It seemed a lifetime ago. They’d been each other’s shields, so Alyssa had allowed the marriage to stand. The platonic relationship had given them both a chance to recover in some ways. Except something had changed.
It had been slow. A subtle contempt she’d felt at odd times. An anger that had begun building in the past years. And she’d had enough of it. She’d had enough of a lot of things, though. The political machinations, her sterile life, the dreams that haunted her until she thought they’d drive her insane.
Taking the staircase to the second floor, she entered her private suite and, collecting fresh clothing, entered the bathroom. Her return from England had left her exhausted but unwilling to remain in the house with Harvey. Before leaving he’d been a little erratic. Just enough to begin worrying her. Just enough to make her start looking into certain things. Things like her personal checking and savings and the huge amount taken out in the last month. The money was hers. Her income for the past years working as her parent’s social director and he’d forged her signature to her checks and stolen it. The bastard. She’d been saving for a reason, and it wasn’t so Harvey could steal it all.
She’d called her father on her way home and told him she’d be returning later that night. She just needed to pack a bag and wash the stench of the flight from her body.
Once the divorce was final she intended to leave for Pennsylvania and the house her grandparents had left her next to a gorgeous mountain lake. The house she’d once dreamed of living in with a husband, a houseful of children.
That dream was forever dead. After six years she’d accepted the fact that something vital inside her was dead as well. Shane and Sebastian had so destroyed her that once she’d lost the baby there had been nothing left for another man. No desire left for more children.
She, who had dreamed of a house filled with children, would die childless. How ironic was that?
And there was no way to revive those dreams. She’d tried. God knew she had, but she’d failed. Just as she’d failed at so many other dreams she’d had before that summer in Barcelona. Before she’d given every part of herself to two men. She should have seen the writing on the wall there, she thought painfully. Two men willing to share her? As Summer said once, where was the love?
Not that Alyssa had ever made herself fully believe that there had been no love. She’d tried. It wasn’t as though there wasn’t enough proof. There was. But believing it … if she believed it, she wouldn’t still dream of them or awake with the feel of their arms and their warmth surrounding her.
She wouldn’t still lie in silence and try to reach out to them as she once had, just to imagine she could feel their warmth.
Finishing her shower and dressing in a pair of jeans with a soft cotton shirt, she laced the sneakers she’d chosen to wear before entering the attached closet and packing a small leather bag. Just enough clothes for a few days. Anything else and she risked Harvey learning that she wasn’t coming back.
Harvey was up to something and it wasn’t just stealing her money.
She didn’t know what or what it involved, but whatever it was, it hadn’t been working out for him. He’d been confrontational and insulting when she called the night before, and she didn’t expect it would be any different now that she was home. She refused to stay and listen to his ranting when the bottom fell out of whatever plans he had this time, which was no doubt his problem.
Stepping from the bedroom, she paused at the sight of her husband waiting for her.
She hadn’t expected this, she admitted. She’d been certain he wasn’t home when she arrived.
“Hello,” she greeted him as though everything were fine and moved to her dresser. “I need to go to my parents’ for a few days. Dad has a Senate briefing he has to have completed before Monday. I should be back that evening.”
Not if she could help it.
Placing her makeup in the bag along with the small box of jewelry she kept in her dresser, she turned to face Harvey once again.
“Is everything okay?” she asked, as though everything were perfectly normal with her.
Trepidation was beginning to build inside her, though, the certainty that Harvey was far more dangerous than she’d suspected.
“Not really.” He stood at the bottom of her bed, his hazel eyes narrowed and glittering with malice.
That look had the first feeling of fear that she’d ever felt in his presence rising inside her.
“Is your father bothering you again?” Gripping the bag, she left the bedroom, desperate to get out of the house now. She should have never returned to the house, but he was supposed to be gone this weekend. He’d told her he wouldn’t be there before she left, that he had business to take care of out of the country.
And he followed her. Moving behind her from the bedroom, he followed her to the stairs and moved quickly to catch up with her.
Reaching the landing, Alyssa headed for the front door only to have him push her roughly to the side, throwing her against the wall as he blocked the exit.
“What the hell is your problem?” Straightening, Alyssa slid her hand into the pocket of the light jacket she wore and hit the emergency button her father’s chief of staff had programmed on her phone. “Get away from the door, Harvey.”
The sneer that contorted his face wasn’t in the least complimentary to his looks. Though in the past years the once almost pretty features had taken a turn for the worse anyway. Whatever he’d been involved in hadn’t been healthy. Nor had it been sane, evidently.
“Like hell!” he snapped. “Tell me, Wife, why do you think I married your bitch ass, anyway? Do you really think I needed you to protect me from dear old Dad? Do you really think Marion Stanhope would lay a hand on his only heir? Gay or not? He didn’t beat me that weekend. I did that to myself. I knew that pathetically soft heart of yours would feel sorry for me.”
Well, didn’t that just figure? She hadn’t expected it, but she wasn’t really surprised at this point. She should have suspected it, actually.
Panic was beginning to set in now. She could hear someone yelling at her from the phone in her pocket, knew she’d connected with either her father or his chief, Raeg. Someone would be there soon, she assured herself. Once she hit the panic button her father and Raeg would be rushing to the house.
“I don’t care why you married me, Harvey,” she informed him calmly, despite the fact that she felt anything but calm. “It didn’t matter to me then and it doesn’t matter to me now.”
“Because poor little Alyssa’s heart was already broken.” He seemed to take mocking delight in that. Not that she’d ever told him it had been broken.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” she assured him. “Now get away from the door and let me leave. We’ll discuss this at another time.”
They would discuss it never. She’d be damned if she’d ever allow him to so much as be in the same room with her.
The smile that curled his lips was far too confident. Far too knowing.
“You mean I don’t know about Shane Connor and Sebastian De Loren?” he asked softly, the malice in his gaze growing brighter. “But I do know about them, Alyssa. I know about how you fucked both of them. Do you know how long I’ve waited to throw that in your goody-two-shoes face? That I know you were dumped by the De Loren get? That you left Barcelona with a baby and a broken heart?” He laughed at that. “Poor little Alyssa. It was too bad about the kid. I could have said it was mine. How I would have loved that.”
As he crowed over whatever triumph he felt he had over her, Alyssa slid her hand from the pocket of her jacket, the phone gripped in it to allow everything he said to be heard by Raeg. She was certain it was Raeg. His voice had a particular timbre when he was pissed.
“Let me leave, Harvey,” she repeated, despite the pain she felt at the accusations. Not because he wanted to hurt her. Because remembering had the power to hurt her that much more. “You don’t want to try to make me stay.”
“Oh, Alyssa,” he sighed; the smile on his face terrified her. “I can’t do that. I’m sorry, bitch, but you’re not going anywhere.”
She turned her hand, showing him the phone. “Dad will be here soon, Harvey,” she warned him. “And Raeg. Do you really want to have to deal with them? You don’t want to.”
His eyes narrowed on her, fury flushing his face.
“I was so close to not even needing you anymore,” he informed her, his voice lowering, as though that would save him.
“Harvey, just let me leave—”
“Let you leave? You fucking whore,” he snarled. “I put up with six years of marriage to you, letting you sleep in that cold little bed of yours, listening to you whimper and whine at night for your lost lovers. For what? What did I gain from it?”
What the hell was he supposed to gain from it anyway?
“I didn’t promise you anything.” Dropping the overnight bag, she backed into the living room. “You begged me to marry you, not the other way around.”
“You coldhearted little cunt,” he hissed. “If I had time I’d spread you out and fuck you like a real man instead of one that needs his cousin’s help. But then you don’t know what being fucked by one man feels like, do you?”
Just a few more minutes, she told herself as he advanced on her. Just a few more minutes.
“Why are you doing this?” she cried out. “You know Dad will kill you. If you lay a hand on me, he’ll kill you.”
“He’ll be too busy grieving for you.” He was on her before she could evade him.
As he jerked her to him with one hand the other moved in a wide arc. A second later, Alyssa stiffened, a cry falling from her lips as she felt overwhelming agony pierce her side, ripping through flesh and burying deep.
Shocked, she stared up at him, the betrayal so shocking she didn’t know what to say, what to do.
“I tried to help you, Harvey,” she whispered, the feel of the knife lodged between her ribs agonizing. “Why? I tried to help you.”
“Because I didn’t need your help, you fucking little bitch,” he snarled. “I never needed it. And now, all you can offer me is the life insurance policy I put on you. I’m not here, remember? Looks like you surprised a thief instead.”
And was he so insane that he didn’t know Raeg would record every word caught on the line? This was Raeg’s job. Security. Anything that would affect his boss. And the panic mode on her phone wasn’t just answered by Raeg or her father, but it automatically recorded everything.
“You won’t get a penny,” she promised, fighting to breathe as he released her.
The strength left her immediately.
Sinking to the floor, Alyssa lay there, her fingers holding to the phone so tight that when Harvey tried to pry it from her, he cursed her. As he straightened, his foot landed in her arm before he turned and left, slamming the door behind him.
Alyssa lay there, feeling her blood ease from where the knife had penetrated her flesh. It hurt. It hurt so bad. It was so unexpected. She’d never imagined Harvey could become so angry. And she didn’t understand why he was so angry.
Breathing was so hard. The slight sound of dampness with each breath wasn’t a good thing, she knew. Just as she knew she was dying. Just as she’d felt her baby’s life bleed from her, she could feel her own bleeding away as well.
She’d hurt worse in her life, though. This pain wasn’t nearly as bad as the pain she’d felt when she’d lost her little boy. But she was just as cold, just as terrified. And just as out of it as she had been then, because she swore she felt Shane and Sebastian there with her. Their warmth, their rage spilling into her.
They were there, their promise no longer broken. Bound to her, as she was bound to them. Their souls reaching out to touch.
She smiled at the fanciful thought. Perhaps delusions were common before death. Because they were inside her senses so clear. So clear she could hear Sebastian’s voice.
’Lyssa? Sleepy and a bit confused.
“I love you, Goofy,” she whispered, needing the warmth, needing the comfort. “Don’t let me die alone, Sebastian. Don’t leave me alone.”
Rage exploded through her. Warmth surrounded her and fury rushed over her senses like a wave, striking at her, fueling her own.
Don’t you leave me, siren. You will not leave me.
Why did she feel that? What was it about death that made a person long for the one thing she knew wasn’t real? Because his voice wasn’t really there. Their warmth wasn’t really wrapping around her, shielding her, demanding she live.
“I’m cold,” she whispered, as she heard her father screaming, heard Raeg barking commands and her doctor’s steady voice. “So cold.…”
How had Dr. Brennan gotten there?
“You promised to keep me warm…,” she whispered. “You promised.…”
* * *
Sebastian came awake with a suddenness he’d only experienced once in his life before.
This time, the difference wasn’t the excruciating physical and mental pain he’d sworn Alyssa was feeling.
This time, it was her death.
I’m cold.… You promised to keep me warm.… You promised.…
They had made so many promises to her, only to have to break each one.
Shane wasn’t the only one who had felt that connection snap back into place, felt her, the bond so fragile, almost non-existent now.
As he jerked his boots on he was aware of the light switching on in the sitting room and knew Shane was hurriedly dressing as well.
They had to hurry. God help him, they had to get to her.
“I’m calling the pilot!” Shane yelled out, panic edging his tone, his certainty that they were losing Alyssa.
Sebastian ran through the connecting door. “Call him on the way.”
They’d been certain she was safe.
Gregory Santiago, the neighbor who had once lived beneath Alyssa in Barcelona, had been killed in the raid on his apartment where they’d found the original videos he’d taken while Alyssa was at Landra’s apartment six years before.
He’d finally moved to transfer the blackmail payments that had been made over the years by the De Loren family. Their CIA contacts had instantly traced the transfer, pinpointed Santiago, then with Shane and Sebastian rushed his Barcelona apartment.
The cousins hadn’t trusted him six years before, but Sebastian had never suspected he was involved with the blackmail. They should have, he knew. Not many people had known they were more or less living with Alyssa there. Gregory had known, though. He’d known, just as he’d known their reputations.
All the videos and digital files had been recovered, even the one addressed to a U.S. gossip rag, and left with his lawyer in Madrid.
The operation had finished the day before. Would fate be so cruel as to take her from them now?
Running from the house, Shane shouted directions to the pilot as well as the flight plan. He had twenty minutes to get prepared to take off.
They were racing for the airport, that fragile, so very fragile connection they felt to Alyssa dimming by the second.
“Don’t you die on me, siren!” Sebastian screamed as he pushed the little sports car as fast as it would travel on the winding roads. “Don’t you fucking die on me. We’re coming, baby. We’re coming.…”
As fast as they could get to her. God, why hadn’t they left the day before? Why had they allowed their brothers to convince them to wait, to sleep first so they could go with them? They should have left for her immediately.
They’d failed her again. And God help them, they might have failed her one time too many.
* * *
Ice formed in Margot’s veins. It chilled rage and froze out fury. It left only the steely determination and cold, hard vengeance cementing inside her.
“Why didn’t you call nine-one-one?” she demanded as Davis and Dr. Brennan rushed through the foyer, following Raeg, and Davis’ bodyguard, Crane, as they carried Alyssa to the downstairs guest room rather than up the stairs to her room.
The gurney they used was no more than a flat slat with handholds, and blood dripped from it, running from her daughter’s body in a long, slow rivulet.
“Davis.” She grabbed his arm imperatively as he went to pass her. “She needs a hospital.”
“Margot, let him be,” the doctor demanded, passing them as Margot held her husband’s gaze. “We can deal with this.”
“Why?” She ignored the doctor. “Why isn’t she in the hospital?”
“Because we don’t know what the hell is going on!” he snapped, pulling her with him as he rushed for the guest room Alyssa had been taken to. “Summer called just before Alyssa’s panic call came through. She’s on her way home from Spain and told Raeg to make certain Alyssa was safe. That’s why Brennan was with us. I’d already called him. The only reason she’s alive is because we were already on our way there.”
Standing in the doorway, Margot stared in at the rushed efforts being made to save Alyssa’s life. Raeg and Crane had placed Alyssa on the narrow bed and were hastily cutting her clothes from her.
The hilt of a knife extended from Alyssa’s side. It looked so big, so lethal, the blade buried completely inside her small body.
The doctor’s wife was unpacking the totes she and the nurse had carried ahead of Raeg and Crane. The RN attaching an IV to Alyssa’s arm, her expression grim as Mrs. Brennan placed several monitors on the bedside table, and attaching electrodes. They moved quickly, the monitors beeping, IV attached, and the doctor striding from the connecting bathroom, his sterilized, gloved hands held up as another nurse strode behind him, her own hands covered with sterilized gloves.
“Who did this?” Margot asked her husband, fighting to remain calm.
She had to stay calm. She had to make someone pay for this.
“Harvey.” It was Raeg who answered her as the doctor motioned them away from Alyssa. “We heard everything after she hit the panic button on her phone. And he knew about Barcelona. He knew too much about it.”
Focusing on her daughter, Margot made herself watch as the doctor removed the blade, the size of it causing her breath to catch. How Brennan managed to do everything required to stabilize the pierced lung, take care of the wound to her side, and keep Alyssa alive she had no idea.
Margot paced the hall, the ice freezing to the depths of her mother’s soul as she listened to the doctor and nurse talking to each other. Dr. Brennan barked out orders to both his nurse and his wife, while monitors beeped too fast and beeped too slow.
“You will not die, Alyssa Paige,” Margot muttered, determined that her daughter sense the determination pouring from her. “You will not.”
Margot watched the clock at the end of the hall as time passed. First one hour, then two. Just before the third hour struck, the door opened and the doctor stepped out, his expression somber.
“She’s alive,” he told them. “And trust me, Margot.” He focused completely on her. “There’s nothing that can’t be done better here than I can do at a hospital. But it’s not good.”
He went through the complications. The collapsed lung, the amount of blood lost, and, most especially, Alyssa’s lack of determination to live.
“If her will to live hasn’t strengthened in the past six years, and I’m not convinced it has, then there’s no way we can keep her from giving up.”
Margot heard every word the doctor said, and what he didn’t say as well. Alyssa didn’t live. She drifted through life as though waiting for a reason to give up and join the child she’d lost.
“The hell she will.” Stalking into the bedroom, Margot paused beside Alyssa’s bed.
She was too pale, her breathing too shallow. The doctor was right: Alyssa could easily drift away from them now.
“Alyssa Paige, I’ve watched you suffer for six years and I’ve had enough of this fight I’ve waged to keep you alive. Do you understand me, girl?” She didn’t speak gently. Her voice was hard, the voice she had used before her daughter had returned broken inside.
“Did you hear me, Alyssa Paige?” she yelled, causing the nurse to flinch at the sound of her voice. “Buck your ass up, girl. I have six of the meanest, best-trained Special Forces soldiers ready to head out the second I give the order. They will suffer, Alyssa. If you die, then I swear to you, they will suffer.”
It was a vow she’d made to herself six years before. Shane Connor and Sebastian De Loren would suffer.
But Harvey Stanhope would suffer first.
Alyssa’s lashes fluttered, an almost silent moan leaving her lips.
“Die on me. Leave me to face this alone,” Margot informed her daughter furiously, “and I will no longer have a reason to allow them to live.”
Her daughter moaned again. The sound was faint and filled with such pain.
“Understand me, Alyssa,” Margot snarled, “as you have never understood anything. Die, and before they take their last breath, they’ll suffer a hundred times more than you have before I’ll allow them to slip away.”
Straightening, Margot turned to her husband. The moment Alyssa was no longer in danger Davis would go after Harvey. She would beat him to it.
“Notify me immediately if she begins to worsen,” she told him.
“So you can bully her?” Raeg snapped, his expression filled with contempt as he watched her.
“Whatever it takes,” Davis answered for her. “Whatever it takes to keep her alive.”
Margot nodded sharply and left the room. What she had to do next would require all the deceit she’d learned to practice over the years. All the lies she’d learned to tell.
She was going to convince Harvey to come to her.
Then she was going to ensure the little bastard could never hurt her daughter again.