Keep Me Safe (4 page)

There was nowhere for her to go. No place for her to turn. No safe harbor.

Caleb Devereaux's face flickered in her mind, his parting words to her floating back to haunt her. The genuine regret in his eyes when he realized the consequences of what he'd forced her to endure.

I'm coming back, Ramie. Count on it. I'll make this up to you if it's the very last thing I do.

A year ago he'd torn her world apart and kept her on the endless cycle of running. Perhaps now he was her only salvation.

He owed her. She'd saved his sister. It was time to collect.

She hadn't wanted to go anywhere near him. Didn't
want
to remember what she'd suffered because of what he'd forced on her. But she didn't have any other option available. He was her last and
only
hope. No one else would understand. Who would believe her? Caleb had witnessed firsthand the price she'd paid for his sister's life. There was no way he could ever deny her abilities.

She didn't hate him for what he'd done. Perhaps she should. But in his shoes, could she say she would have done anything differently when the outcome was a saved life? No, she didn't hate him. She didn't feel anything at all except overwhelming weariness and the sense that she'd lost an essential piece of herself to the monsters she'd helped put away. They were a permanent part of her, engraved on her very soul. A stain that could never be removed.

No, she couldn't summon hatred or bitterness toward Caleb Devereaux. Even knowing that if he refused to help her, she was well and truly doomed. But she couldn't blame him if he did refuse. She represented everything she was certain he and his sister wanted to forget. If he helped her, then he reopened a door that had been closed a year ago.

She closed her eyes and took in several steadying breaths. He
had
to help her. She wouldn't entertain any other possibility. She just had to get in touch with him.

First, she needed a safe place to make a phone call. She didn't even know
how
to contact him. She'd done enough research on him to know he was extremely wealthy, his family name old and revered in wealthier circles. But that
hindered
not helped her because it meant she would have a much harder time gaining access to him. She'd be lucky if she even managed to connect with him at all. People like him didn't just answer the phone. There were layers to go through. And after what happened with his sister, he'd be even more guarded than ever.

Contacting him would likely be like trying to phone the president.

All she could do was try to hope for the best. She had to find somewhere to make a phone call. And before she would be able to place a call, she needed Internet access.

Her head pounded and she rubbed her hand over her blood-smeared face.

Think, Ramie, think! Use your mind for something other than touching evil.

The library. Of course.

Relieved to have a semblance of a plan of action, she walked into the gas station and asked for directions to the local library. When the attendant told her it was two miles away, her heart sank. It was a long walk and she'd be pushing it to get there before it closed. She couldn't call a cab because she didn't have a dime on her. And walking out in the open would prove to be a huge risk because
he
was still out there. Waiting. Watching. Not far away. And she might not get a second chance to escape his grasp. He'd be prepared for her to fight back this time.

Knowing she was only delaying the inevitable, she got the directions again and then started out at a brisk walk, watching her surroundings very carefully for any sign of her attacker.

It was minutes until the library closed when she walked in, the wave of cool air welcome on her face. She shifted uncomfortably under the scrutiny of the librarian, but then remembered she had dried blood on her face and she likely sported a huge bruise as well. She probably looked like a domestic violence victim. That would explain the pity in the eyes of the older woman.

Maybe that would play to her advantage and the librarian would let her use the phone to make her call.

Ramie quickly accessed the Internet on one of the public computers and did a search for Caleb Devereaux. He now owned a security firm, formed in the year after his sister's kidnapping. She had no way of knowing whether he could be reached through it or not but all she could do was try. At the very least maybe she could get a message to him. But how would he contact her back? She had no number, no lodging, no way for him to return a call.

She closed her eyes as despair swept over her. It was all or nothing. One shot. If she couldn't reach him, she had no idea what she'd do. If she couldn't reach him, her death was inevitable.

Quickly committing the phone number to memory, she sucked up her courage and hesitantly walked toward the desk where the librarian stood.

“Ma'am,” Ramie said quietly. “Would you be willing to let me make a phone call? I have nothing. My purse and everything in it was stolen.”

“Oh, you poor dear! Is that what happened to your face? Were you mugged?”

Ramie nodded, not feeling one ounce of remorse for the lie.

The librarian pulled out her personal cell phone and extended it over the counter.

“Why don't you go right over there in the corner where there's a place to sit and make your call,” the librarian said kindly. “We close in just a few minutes, but I'll stay open until you're finished.”

“Thank you so much,” Ramie said fervently. “You're very kind. I appreciate this.”

The woman smiled and then motioned for Ramie to go.

Ramie punched in the number as she walked toward the chair in the corner. Her entire body ached and she was so tired from all the sleepless nights that she could barely remain upright.

A somber-sounding male voice answered on the second ring.

“Devereaux Security,” he clipped out.

“I need to speak with Caleb Devereaux,” Ramie said. “It's a matter of life or death.”

She flinched, thinking how cliché that sounded. Everyone who wanted to get a call through would say the exact same thing. And well, this was a security firm she was calling. Every call they received was likely a matter of life or death.

“Your name?”

The man sounded bored, as if he did indeed field such calls every day. Fear gripped Ramie's throat. God, don't let this man blow her off.

“Ramie St. Claire,” she said, shaking so hard her teeth were chattering, making her words nearly unintelligible. Now of all times she needed absolute clarity. She clamped her jaw shut and spoke through tightly gritted teeth. “As I said it's imperative that I speak to him. If you tell him my name, he'll take my call.”

“Hold please.”

Boring elevator music flooded the line and Ramie sat there, waiting, hoping. Praying. Dying a little more with each passing second.

The wait went on for several minutes. She glanced nervously up at the desk where the librarian was obviously waiting for her to finish. She was staring expectantly at Ramie, which only served to make Ramie
more
anxious. Despair crept over her shoulders, weighing her down as she realized no one was going to answer. She started to pull the phone down to quietly end the call when a different male voice came over the line.

“Ramie? Is that you? Where are you? Are you all right?”

She'd know his voice anywhere. Could often hear it in her dreams, mixed with the voices of others. Only for some odd reason, she found comfort in his voice and she had no reason to. He'd pushed her those final inches over the brink of insanity. And yet . . .

She squeezed her eyes shut, relief making her weak and shaky. So much so that she felt faint. If she hadn't already been sitting, she would have collapsed on the spot.

“Yes,” she said hoarsely. “I need your help, Caleb. You owe me.”

She didn't flinch over the demand. He did owe her. There was no excuse for pride when it came to her life.

“Tell me where you are,” he demanded. “I'll come to you at once.”

She leaned her forehead against her free hand, trying to collect her jumbled thoughts. Her stomach churned, partly in fear, partly in gut-wrenching relief. He'd said he'd come. No questions. No excuses. Just . . . ​
I'll come
.

Was she dreaming? Was all of this yet another dream where there was a mixture of Caleb Devereaux and the demons of her past? Was she doomed to forever be haunted by so many faces of evil? But Caleb stood apart, the one good thing in a sea of fear and pain.

“I'm in Shadow, Oklahoma,” she finally managed to choke out. “There's someone . . . ​I'm in trouble. I'm
scared
.”

The words came out as scrambled as her thoughts were. She wasn't making any sense but she couldn't seem to get her tongue to cooperate.

“Okay, slow down, Ramie. Calm down and collect your thoughts. Then tell me exactly where you are and what's going on.”

The soothing note of his voice was like a warm blanket surrounding her. The safety implied in his words was the sweetest thing she'd ever heard in her life. What if he got to her too late?

“Someone's trying to kill me,” she whispered, not wanting the librarian to overhear. “I barely managed to escape him. He was in my hotel room waiting for me, but I touched the knob and I knew he was there. I had to leave my car, my purse,
everything
. I just ran. I have no place to stay, no money. I'm
terrified
.”

“Everything will be all right,” he said with calm she sure as hell didn't feel. “I'll get you someplace safe to stay tonight and I'll be there as soon as I can.”

“But I have no ID,” she said, panic fluttering deep in her stomach. “I can't just check into a hotel with no ID and no credit card. And I'm afraid to go anywhere because he's out there waiting for me.”

“Ramie, listen to me. I
will
take care of it. I'm looking up the city now to see what I can do. Where are you right now?”

“I'm at the public library, but they're about to close,” Ramie said, glancing up at the librarian again.

“Okay, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to send a car for you and the driver is going to take you out of town to a hotel in a neighboring city. The driver's name is Antonio. Do
not
get in the vehicle with anyone but him. He'll take care of checking you into a hotel and you stay put until I get there.”

Relief nearly flattened her.

“Do you understand, Ramie?”

“Yes,” she whispered. “How long before he gets here?”

“Ten minutes tops.”

“How on earth did you arrange something like that?” she asked in bewilderment.

“It's what I do,” he said shortly. “My network is extensive. Now let me get off so I can call my pilot. I'll be there as soon as possible.”

She ended the call and slowly walked up to the desk to return the phone.

“Are you all right, dear? Is everything worked out?”

Ramie nodded numbly. “Someone is coming to get me.”

“Would you like me to wait with you until they get here?”

Ramie didn't even bother to do the whole pretend I don't want to be a bother thing. She nodded fervently. “Thank you so much. You've been so sweet to me. And yes, I'd feel so much better if you waited with me. I was told it would be ten minutes or less.”

The librarian patted her on the hand and smiled reassuringly. “We'll just stay inside until someone comes for you. Then I'll lock up on my way out.”

SIX

CALEB'S
entire body was tense as the plane touched down in the small municipal airport just twenty minutes from Shadow, Oklahoma. Just as Ramie had disappeared off the face of the earth, she'd reappeared just as suddenly. And she was in trouble.

He'd never given up hope of locating her, of somehow, someway, making up for what he'd done, but as more time had gone by, he'd resigned himself to the fact that he might never find her. But still he kept feelers out and spared no expense in his quest to track her down. At times, in order to assuage his own sense of guilt, he'd told himself that she didn't
want
to be found and that he should just leave her in peace as a way of making amends.

But in the end, she'd come to him.

Maybe he would be able to repay his debt after all.

The desperation in her voice kept replaying through his mind. Her fear had been broadcast as loudly as if she sat in front of him. Someone was trying to kill her. Who? He was frustrated by the lack of information he had, but he could hardly risk her life by making her be out in the open answering questions he'd soon have the answers to anyway. He would get to the bottom of things and assess the danger to her, but first he had to get to her and then do whatever it took to ensure her safety. He wouldn't fail her like he'd failed Tori.

His protective instincts were at a full roar. All he could picture was her fragile body huddled on the floor of her mountain cabin, experiencing the unthinkable. Her silent weeping had torn at his gut until his heart lay bleeding on the floor with her.

He would go to any lengths to keep her safe. There wasn't a price too high to pay to the woman who'd gone through hell to save his baby sister.

In the year he'd searched for her, he felt as though he'd gotten to know her, as well as anyone seemed to know a woman whose life had been by all accounts lonely and isolated, even though information was sketchy at best on her. But the image of this vulnerable yet unbelievably strong woman had lived with him every single day until she'd become an obsession. While she might appear fragile, and perhaps she was—now—no woman who'd suffered countless times in her aid of victims of horrific crimes could ever be considered anything but strong and resilient.