I Thee Take: To Have and To Hold Duet Book Two by Knight, Natasha (ready to read books .txt) 📗

Elizabeth squeezes my hand and I look down to her. “You have to go back.” It’s like moving through mud here. Even shifting my gaze from one to the other is like dragging myself through thick mud.

“Why not?” I ask my mom again.

“Because she needs you. If you die, she dies,” my mother says. “And you made her a promise.”

Crème caramel eyes. Scarlett. Scarlett alone again. Scarlett unprotected again.

I promised to keep her safe and I’m breaking my promise.

Pain. Bright, fluorescent lights. Noise. So much fucking noise.

I blink, feel my mom’s cool hand on my cheek again. I look at her, see her eyes again, fading now.

“Keep your promise,” she says to me and then she’s gone.

28

Scarlett

The chopper lifts off. A soldier straps me in as we veer sharply west and I catch my breath, grasping hold of the edges of the seat.

I hate this chopper.

David is sitting across from me, facing me. In his eyes I see his hate.

Cristiano is dead.

I felt it, didn’t I?

“How?” I ask him, my voice so small in the scream of the chopper’s blades.

“Your lover killed him,” David says.

“My…Marcus? He’s not…Marcus killed him?”

“Don’t pretend to care.”

I’m not pretending but I don’t bother to explain that. Cristiano is dead. He used up all nine of his lives.

The chopper dips low unexpectedly and I gasp, my stomach lurching before that brick settles in again.

Dead.

Gone.

I’ll never see him again and all I can think is how much I’ll miss him.

“I didn’t betray him,” I tell his uncle, not that it matters anymore. Not that he’ll believe me.

He doesn’t say anything, not for a long time and I’m not sure what I expect him to say. What I want him to say. But I have a feeling I won’t feel the loss of Cristiano for too long. I have a feeling I won’t have time to mourn him.

At least I got Noah out. If I’m not at the square in two days’ time, he’ll disappear. He’ll know what happened to Cristiano. He’ll figure out what happened to me and he’ll know he has to disappear.

He’ll be safe at least.

“Where are you taking me?” I ask David.

“Back to your people.”

“I have no people.”

“No, I guess you don’t. But that only makes you more valuable to me.”

“What do you mean?”

“Felix Pérez has a coup on his hands.”

“Felix? What does he have to do with anything?”

“And he is the only one who can give me what I need now.”

“What’s that?”

“Sir,” one of the soldiers wearing a headset interrupts us. “The jet is ready. Chopper lands in less than five minutes. We’re cleared to take off as soon as everyone’s on board. We’ll have a ten-minute window, so we’ll need to hurry.”

David nods, stretches his neck to look out at whatever we’re flying toward. I’m facing the wrong way so I can’t see.

“Do they have what we need on board?”

“Yes, sir,” the soldier says, eyes bouncing off me.

“You get the girl on the plane,” he says, gaze still out the window. “If she fights you knock her out by any means necessary.”

“What plane? Where the hell are you taking me?” I ask when David turns his attention back to me.

He doesn’t answer me though and I shift my gaze to the window as we begin a hurried descent toward a long runway at what must be a small, private airport. If I crane my neck, I can see the jet that’s parked on the runway, one man standing outside looking up at the chopper, two more soldiers hovering around the stairs that lead into the plane. I see that one is smoking as we near the ground.

I scan the expanse of the fenced-in airport with all its open space. Beyond that is a sparsely populated neighborhood.

The chopper touches down, the landing bumpy. David opens the door and slides out, casually adjusting his jacket sleeve as he walks toward the waiting jet.

“Let’s go,” his soldier says to me.

I turn to him, note the pistol in its shoulder holster. He’s in gear like Cristiano and his men when he first came to that tower and stole me. He was ready for war then. This man, he’s ready for war now. And the most dangerous one is standing outside the waiting jet.

I unbuckle the belt, work my arms out of it. The soldier steps out of the chopper. The other one is waiting for me to exit first. As I duck down, the one outside grabs hold of my arm, his grip hard. A warning.

“I’m Cristiano’s wife,” I remind him. “He wouldn’t want you handling me like this.”

He looks at me for a long moment. I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen him at the house. Not that I remember all the soldiers, but this one scares me. Inside his eyes, I see a great expanse of emptiness.

“Let’s go,” he says, and I walk with him toward the waiting plane. The chopper blades blow my hair around my face as we pass David and the other men who simply watch as I’m loaded onto the plane.

That’s when I resist. I can’t not. I feel like if I get on that plane, there won’t be any going back. My fate will be sealed.

But it’s no use resisting. There are at least six of them and one of me. Not to mention that most of them are armed. Once we’re on the plane and he deposits me into a seat, I stop fighting. He straps my belt and takes the seat beside me as David and the other soldiers climb on board. Then the cabin door is closed.

My heart races when David takes the seat across from mine. Someone hands him a rectangular box. He thanks them, then shifts his gaze out the window.

“Tell me what’s happening,” I say as the jet begins to speed down the runaway. I feel the moment we lift off, hear the sound of the wheels folding into the belly of the plane. “Please,” I add, eyeing that box on his lap.

He