Oh, Dillan. She stepped out of the darkness directly in front of him. Always so stubborn. I like that about you.
“What do you want from me, Katarina? Cut through the bullshit and get on with it.”
She clucked her tongue at him, playing coy. He growled, blessed annoyance replacing his panic. Her hair rippled like she was underwater when she shook her head. Then she smiled that sinister smile of hers. He had only ever seen it in this dream state. She looked like Katarina, but was it really her?
Oh, I’m the real thing, Dillan.
“Get out of my head!”
Her blue lips formed a perfect O. Oh, but we are in your head. So you see my little dilemma. How can I leave when all you do is think about me?
Calling on his training, he exhaled all the tension in his body and closed his eyes. “That’s not true,” he said softly. “Not anymore.” The truth in his words lent him strength. He’d make it out of this in one piece.
Then why are we still here?
He honestly didn’t know. A voice he didn’t expect pinged behind his closed eyelids.
Sloan, Sebastian said. I can cut the bonds holding you back. But that is the most I can do. The rest is up to you.
Katarina said this was all in his head. Did he really want her to disappear? She haunted him because he’d failed her. Maybe if he accepted it she would set him free. Fresh out of options, he thought it was worth a try. Sucking up his pride, he prepared himself for what he needed to do. The one face he’d been picturing more times than he really should appeared in his mind’s eye. Her springy curls he wanted to run his fingers through. Those unique aquamarine eyes he could stare into all day. They reflected her heart and soul. And her blushes that stopped his heart every time. If there was someone who needed his help now, it wasn’t Katarina.
“Okay, do it,” he said to Sebastian.
Do what? Katarina asked.
He relaxed his muscles then pulled up. No resistance. With a smirk, he sprang out of the chair. Katarina’s eyes widened as she stumbled backwards. She screamed when he reached her. Not allowing her to resist, he pulled her against him and wrapped his arms around her cold body. She stiffened. Seconds later, like she always did, she relaxed. Her sigh touched his collarbone.
The rightness of his actions surprised him. He bent down and whispered into her ear, “I’m sorry, Katarina. I should have done everything I could. I was weak and I let you down.”
He felt her fingers hook onto his shoulders from behind, like she hung off a cliff. Dillan.
“You have the right to kill me,” he continued. “It was my fault you were taken. But you have to understand…I can’t let you. Not when someone else’s life is in danger. I have to help her, Katarina. I have to save her.”
The way you wouldn’t save me, she said in a sob.
The reality of her words threated to buckle his knees. “I know. Please forgive me. I was a coward. The one thing I had to do and I couldn’t. I’m sorry.”
She started to dissolve in his arms, but he held on, crushing her to his chest. This is not over.
He jerked awake. Those were the same words she’d said the night he’d stabbed himself. It took him a second to figure out he was still sitting in the GT. Quickly, he checked himself for stab wounds. When he wasn’t bleeding from anywhere, he breathed in relief. He ran shaking hands through ruffled hair and stared up at the ceiling. The sun had gone down while he napped. Not good.
Realizing his mistake, he got out of the car and headed for the bookstore. He wasn’t sure when Selena’s shift ended. He just hoped she was still there. But about halfway across the road, Sebastian’s voice rang inside his head.
Dillan!
“Whoa!” He froze in the middle of the street. A headache came to life, forcing him to rub at his pounding temples. “Take it easy. My head’s about to explode.”
A car honked and screeched to a halt. He jumped back then slapped the hood. Thank God for Illumenari reflexes. He gave the man driving the finger before backtracking to the GT.
Dillan, drive to Valley View, now!
“What’s with the panic?” He got into the car and started the engine.
Ormand is the Maestro. He took the girl named Penny hostage.
His heart bounced around in his chest. “Selena?”
I got her out in time.
Enough said. He shifted the GT into gear and drove like the devil out of downtown.
Chapter Forty-Two
Selena
Guarded Indecisions and Mocking Concerns
Like a projector running out of film, the vision ended with nothing but white. The kind of white that felt hot behind the eyelids. I groaned, fluttering my eyes open. I lay below a large chandelier. Vision doubling, I rubbed my eyes with heavy hands. What the hell did Sebastian do to me? Everything about my body felt heavy, especially my stomach. Last thing I remembered was him rescuing me, then nothing.
Staring up at the impressive crown molding on the ceiling until my vision cleared, I took a couple of deep breaths. Then I closed my eyes and counted to ten. When I opened my eyes again, I turned to the right. Chocolate upholstery. Turning to my left, a low coffee table with several coffee-table books about flowers and a crystal vase with white lilies, orchids, and roses sat in silence. The hellhound brought me to Valley View and somehow I ended up in the living room. Then purring: a deep rumbling that could only come from one source.
I looked straight down my body. Constantinople lay curled up on my stomach. His tail flicked impatiently while he watched me with his lime-green eyes. That explained the heaviness.
“You’re getting fat,” I said groggily and reached for the cat, giving him a friendly scratch on the forehead. He closed his eyes in appreciation, like he allowed me to touch him and not the other way around. Arrogant cat. Very like a blue-eyed boy I knew. “Remind me to smack Sebastian with a rolled up newspaper for knocking me out. Bad, hellhound.”
I sat up when I heard murmuring coming from the far side of the room. Constantinople gave me an annoyed meow for being moved off his perch. He leapt to the floor and slinked his way toward the voices. I followed the cat with my eyes and watched him rub against Dillan’s jean-covered legs. He looked down at him, and then, moved his eyes to me. My lungs squeezed. I flicked my gaze to Kyle, who stood with him and turned to look at me, too. In my periphery, I saw Riona enter the living room. I turned my head and gawked at her.
“You’re finally awake,” she said.
“I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen you in leather pants and a T-shirt,” I managed to say.
She handed me the glass of water she brought. “Just prepared for a fight, that’s all.”
I accepted it and drank deeply then put the half empty glass on the coffee table. “Riona?”
“Yes, sweet?” She took a seat on one of the armchairs adjacent to the couch I was on and crossed her legs. I had a hard time fully believing the gorgeous woman was a mercenary. Whatever that meant.
“Did you lie to me, too?” I traced the patterns on the upholstery, afraid of what I might see on her face if I stared at it too long.