Roni winced.
“That’s his problem,” Merinus sighed as she glanced at Dawn. “She won’t let him touch her.”
“I don’t blame her. And it’s time for me to go as well. I have detail on Mr. Andrews in just a few minutes. We don’t need him getting any more transmissions out.” Roni stilled, her coffee cup poised at her lips as her eyes widened. She set the cup down carefully as the ramifications of those few words hit her like a fist to the stomach.
“He’s the reason they knew which room we were in,” she realized painfully, swallowing tightly as the food she had eaten threatened to come back up. “He told them where we were.” Merinus sighed heavily. “We can’t be certain, Roni. They’re still tracking the transmission.”
“He sent a transmission out yesterday and last night we were attacked. The men found every weakness in security the estate possessed by sheer luck, I guess?” she snapped bitterly as she rose to her feet. “He nearly got us all killed and he’s still here, given the chance to try again.” Rage roiled through her chest. Dear God, what would it take to neutralize the threat her father had always been within her life? He was only growing more determined now to destroy her than he had been in the years before.
“Roni. Callan and Taber are taking care of it,” Merinus said gently. “Let them do what they have to do.” Roni speared her with a hard, vengeful look. “I don’t think so, Merinus. Not this time. Not again.” Chapter Twenty-Nine
Roni was none too pleased with Taber. His refusal throughout the day to get rid ofReginald, or to allow her to find out what the hell he wanted only stroked her fear higher. He was dangerous—to her and to Taber. He had already proven that. The battle she had fought with Taber earlier only drove home the fact thatReginald was growing more conniving, more evil, than ever before. They couldn’t prove he had made the transmission. They only suspected it. To effectively put a stop to any threat he represented, they had to be certain. Just as they needed to know for certain who he was working with.
The men who had attacked last night were no more than hired guns. Sometimes they worked for the Council, sometimes they worked for other sources. There was more than one source popping up in the world that had decided the Breeds didn’t deserve life.Reginald, if involved, was only one of many.
He was her father. He was the man her mother had loved. Her sweet, gentle mother. Roni laid her head against the cool glass of the balcony door and fought the pain ripping through her chest.
Margie Andrews had been one of the kindest, gentlest souls. Roni barely remembered her, but she remembered how her mother sounded, the soft lullabies she sang to her, the whispered
promises of a better life. And she remembered her mother crying.
It was one of her strongest memories from childhood. Her mother’s cries, muffled, pleading, as she beggedReginald for mercy. Please, Reggie. Please don’t hurt me…
Roni flinched as the words echoed through her mind. It was her last memory of her mother. The last words she had heard Margie speak. The next morning her mother left for work, an hour later she was dead.
“Weak bitch,”Reginald had muttered at the funeral. “She didn’t fight enough.” Roni had never been certain what he meant by those words, but as she grew older, they had stayed with her. Had he been behind her mother’s accident? Or had it been another of his muttered ramblings in regards to her mother’s frail health?
She had been alone then and she felt alone now. She stared into the darkness fighting the old fears, the old wounds. She could feel the brink she stood on and it terrified her, the knowledge slowly building inside her.
Her mother had loved Reggie with a single, driving obsessive emotion that had terrified the young Roni.
It hadn’t made sense to her, how easily her mother would bow to his demands. She’d push aside her own wants and needs in deference to him. Even more than that, she pushed aside her daughter’s. How many nights had dinner been a meal of cornbread and the meager amount of potatoes her mother had grown in the backyard because Reggie had taken all the money for himself? Or the times she had watched him slap her, scream at her, because they had eaten the last of the groceries in the cupboard, leaving him to fend for himself?
Her fists clenched. She had sworn she would never need a man so desperately. Had sworn she would never let herself be used, broken, because she loved. And here she was, unable to break away from the man who had that very power.
It didn’t matter then that Taber had always held her with tenderness, had always given her heat and security rather than his fists. Her fears raged inside her as hot and bleak as the heat that throbbed in her pussy.
For some reason nature had taken the choice away from her and Taber both. He was a man, fully mature, who had faced unspeakable horrors and beside him she felt like the child she feared she was.
Frightened. Confused.
She squared her shoulders and breathed in roughly. Okay, so she knew her problem. That was the first step to fixing it. Right? Her emotions had terrified her months before, once she realized how deeply Taber could hurt her. That letter she thought he had sent had destroyed her, broken a part of her. A part of her fighting, trying to heal only now that she was with him again.
When your heart loves, Roni, there’s no fighting it.She remembered the saddened words her mother had whispered to her one night after another ofReginald’s attacks. Sometimes, protecting those you love, no matter what it takes, is more important than your own heart.
And Roni knew now that she had to find a way to protect Taber. He didn’t know how vicious, how cruel,Reginald could be. He couldn’t, or else he would have never allowed him to stay. Taber knew loyalty, a need for freedom. He could never believe her father would do anything it took to achieve his own aims, even destroy his daughter. And Roni knew her destruction would bringReginald a wealth of satisfaction. Finally. He had a weapon against her, and soon, she knew, he would use it.
“Roni.” Taber’s voice, as dark as midnight, wrapped around her senses as he stepped into the room.
Immediately the pulsing arousal that flowed through her body intensified. She turned from the window, pulling the gun from her waistband and laying it on a nearby table as she approached him. She reached for the hem of her shirt and stripped it quickly over her head.
He was hers. Damn him. DamnReginald and her fears.
She tossed the shirt to the floor and toed off her sneakers.
“Son of a bitch.” His hands went to his jeans.
“Take me,” she challenged him as she pushed her own jeans from her hips and stepped out of them quickly. “I dare you.”