Return to Me (Storm Lords) (10 page)

“Don’t worry about Torr. He’ll be fine,” Finn murmured.

“What?” Bella leaned closer to hear over the music. “But that man in there.” A shudder ran through her. “He was evil.”

“You can say that again. But Cade will look after your man.”

“He’s not my man,” she said.

Finn just grinned.

“Does he need looking after?” she asked after a minute.

“Not usually, but he’s a little distracted right now.”

“Distracted by what?”

Finn gave her a look of disbelief. He opened his mouth, but at that moment, Kill arrived at the table, three glasses in his hand. “Here,” he said. “I thought we might need this.”

He sat down and pushed a glass toward Bella. She picked it up and sipped. More champagne; she could get used to this, fast. If she allowed herself. Which she wouldn’t.

Finn raised his glass to her. “So Cade told me you’re a con-artist. How does that work?”

So she told him, more to take her mind off Torr, and what was going on in that room, than anything else. She’d never talked about what she did before.

“And do people really fall for that?” Finn asked.

“You’d be amazed what people will fall for if they think money might be involved. You just have to play on their greed. Justin used to say…”

She broke off. Justin would never say anything again. She swallowed down the rest of her champagne, suddenly feeling lost and helpless. Not something she was used to. “Will we be here much longer?”

Finn shrugged. “As long as it takes.”

“To do what?”

Finn opened his mouth to answer when, across the room, Torr and Cade appeared. She stared at his face as he approached. His features were held in rigid lines, his yellow eyes glowed golden. He looked on edge and dangerous. For the first time, she felt a shiver of unease in his presence. They came to a halt by the table. Finn kicked out a couple of chairs. Cade sat but Torr remained standing.

Bella glanced behind him. “That man? Has he gone?”

Cade nodded. “He’s gone.”

“So do we go back now?”

Torr moved so he stood beside her chair. He reached out a hand and touched her, and some of the tension drained from him. “You go back with them,” Torr said. “I need to do something, but I’ll see you in the morning.”

“What do you need to do?”

“Leave it, Bella,” Cade answered.

She glanced between them. She had no clue what was going on, but the late night was catching up with her. Her head throbbed in time with the beat of the music and she wanted nothing more than to lose herself in dreamless sleep.

She nodded and rose to her feet.

“Come, have a word with me, before I go,” Torr said. He led her into a dark corner of the room. Before she even realized what he meant to do, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her.

The kiss was harsh almost brutal. He tasted different, felt different. Bella struggled. For a moment, his hands tightened on her arms, his fingers biting into the soft flesh. Then his kiss gentled, and finally, he lifted his head and stepped back from her. His hands held her loosely now and she didn’t try to pull away.

“I’m sorry.”

“You feel different, changed. What happened to you in there? What did that man do to you?”

“Nothing.” He shook his head. “Something.”

He leaned toward her, so his forehead rested against hers. Then he took a deep breath and stepped back. She watched him as he walked away from her and disappeared from sight.

“Come on,” Cade said from beside her. “Let’s go home.”

“Shouldn’t you go with him?” she asked.

“He needs to be alone right now. And Torr can look after himself.”

Day 3

Bella bit back a scream of frustration.

She flung herself off the couch and paced the office floor.

Her phone had rung that morning, much too early. It had woken her from a deep sleep, which hadn’t been the best way to wake up. She wasn’t a morning person. Wasn’t an any-time-of-day person until she’d had coffee.

The phone call had been from Torr; he wanted her in his office. Now. She’d decided it was best to follow instructions. Otherwise, she had an idea he would come down here and drag her out of bed.

She’d arrived to find Torr looking infinitely better than she felt. Had he taken something?

“Time to start work.” He sounded so chirpy she’d almost walked straight back out again.

An hour—though it seemed like an  eternity—later, she felt as though she’d been here forever, and she was getting precisely nowhere. This was a total waste of time. She’d done too good a job at shutting her mind away behind her nice, tall wall, and now, she didn’t want to come out.

“Tell me what you see,” Torr said.

She ground her teeth. “I’ve already told you a thousand times.”

“Well, tell me again.” He sounded so reasonable—it set her teeth on edge.

She plonked herself down on the couch, sat cross-legged, and scowled at him. “Not until I get a cup of coffee.”

He appeared faintly surprised.

“Coffee,” she growled. “You know, that hot wet stuff most people drink first thing in the morning. Provided they haven’t been dragged out of bed and ordered to report for duty.”

He picked up the phone and spoke quietly, then came around and sank down onto the sofa beside her.

“Sorry,” he murmured. “You should have said.”

She forced herself not to inch away. “So why are you in such a hurry? Why does it matter so much?”

He shrugged. “It doesn’t. I don’t want you to feel pressured. Relax, and I’m sure it will come back to you naturally. It was always so effortless for you.”

“What do you mean? How do you know?”

At that moment, the door opened and a woman came in carrying a tray with cups and a jug of coffee and a pile of Danish pastries. She put it down in front of Torr and left the room without speaking.

“Your employees are very obedient,” Bella said, her hand darting out to pick up a pastry. “Sort of quietly subservient. I hope you’re not expecting that of me.”

A smile flickered across his face. “No, I don’t expect that.”

“Just as well.” She leaned forward, breathing in the heady scent of fresh coffee. Torr poured her a cup and handed it to her.

She sipped it slowly. “That is sooo good.”

Torr was watching her, an almost hungry look on his lean handsome face. He glanced away when he caught her gaze. “Okay. Now, tell me what you see.”

After draining her cup, she stared at the jug. Torr sighed and poured her another. She ignored him while she drank it, then placed her cup down on the table, licked her fingers, and sat back. Closing her eyes, she tried to picture the wall in her mind.

For long minutes, it refused to materialize, but slowly the barricade took shape behind her closed lids.

“Bella?”

“It’s coming,” she snapped. “But it won’t if you keep interrupting me.” She breathed deeply, trying not to force it. “It’s high, very high, and it’s built of ochre stone. Not bricks, but huge rough cut rocks.” Her mind stumbled, and she forced herself to continue. “Stone, like in my dream, when they walled me up.” She could feel a frown forming on her face. “How strange.”

“Go on,” he murmured.

“The wall is long. I can’t see any end to it, I could walk for days, maybe lifetimes, and I would never reach the end.”

“Perhaps it goes around in a circle,” Torr said.

“Maybe, but if it does the circle is so big I can’t even see a curve.”

“Anything else?”

“No. Nothing. There are no windows, and no doors. Just the wall.”

“Knock it down.”

Her eyes flew open. “What?”

“Tear the wall down, Bella.”

“I don’t want to.” Her voice sounded small and pathetic. She swallowed as dread seeped into her, forming a cold solid lump in her belly. The memory of other people’s pain filled her mind. Her mother’s hatred. She didn’t want to open herself up to that again.

“You don’t need it anymore.”

Her anger flared. It felt better than her fear and she allowed it to rise up inside her. “How the hell do you know what I need?”

He ran a hand over his face and leaned back against the sofa, staring up into space. “Why can’t you trust me?”

She shook her head. “Why should I trust you? I don’t know you.”

“Open up your mind and you will see who I am.”

“I can’t, even if I wanted to. Anyway, the wall’s too strong. You’d need a bulldozer to shift it.”

“Well, use one then.”

She glanced at his face in surprise. Then closed her eyes and pictured a huge red bulldozer. She put her foot down and aimed it straight for the wall. A foot away, it stalled.

“I can’t do this,” she said.

“Yes, you can.”

***

“Where is she?” Lilith could hear the grinding of her own teeth.

Razul shrugged. “My men had her, but something went wrong.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

He shrugged. “With the Destroyer I presume.”

Lilith turned away, as the fury rose inside her. She paced the room, coming to a halt in front of him. Perhaps it was time to put an end to this farce. Torr would see reason without Razul’s intervention.

“Where is the jewel?”

“In a safe place.”

She took a deep breath. “Razul, if you fail me in this…”

“I won’t fail. I have a little trouble brewing. I can guarantee the Destroyer is going to be heading out for a while. I’ll get another chance at the woman.”

***

The frustration mounted inside her, simmering, threatening to explode and make a goddamn horrible mess. However hard she tried, nothing worked. The wall was as solid as when she’d first stepped into Torr’s office that morning.

So far, Torr had kept his word and his distance. He almost seemed afraid to touch her, but that didn’t stop him from watching her incessantly. He was doing it now. From his enormous chair. Behind his enormous desk. Fingers steepled, deceptively sleepy eyes half-closed, fixed on her.

“I’m trying, okay,” she muttered.

“It’s not working.”

She bit her lip, felt his gaze follow the movement, and the tension in the room ratcheted, heat flowing through her.

Don’t go there. Business remember
.

She sprang to her feet. “I need to get out of here. I need some fresh air.”

“Okay.”

He stood up, and she stared at him.

“Alone. I want to go out alone. You stay here. And I go out.
Comprende
?”

Something flashed in his eyes, and a flicker of guilt stung her. Bloody hell—she’d hurt his feelings now, and there was absolutely no reason why that should bother her. She ground her teeth and fought back the urge to mumble an apology.

Torr lifted one shoulder then reached for the phone on his desk. “I’ll call Finn and Kill.”

Her temperature skyrocketed. “I don’t want Finn and Kill. What part of the word ‘alone’ do you
not
understand?”

Torr placed the phone gently down, shoved his hands in his pockets, and studied her as he often did. As though she was some sort of puzzle he was trying to take apart. Only trouble was, if he succeeded, she might never be whole again, might never find her way back.

“Have you forgotten what happened to your friend?” he asked.

The comment brought her up short.

Oh, God. Justin.

She couldn’t believe it, but she had almost forgotten. At least she had pushed her grief to the back of her mind. She’d always been good at that.

“Bella, until I find out why Justin was targeted, I need to keep you safe.”

She regarded him suspiciously. “You seriously expect me to believe that you don’t already know why he was killed?”

She’d been thinking about this a lot over the last few hours, in the meager moments she’d had to herself. And she’d concluded that she had landed right in the middle of something extremely dodgy. What she hadn’t worked out yet was whether she was an accidental participant—just in the wrong place at the wrong time—or whether she was the catalyst that had started it all.

While she didn’t particularly like the first explanation, the second— that she was responsible—filled her with horror. Justin had saved her life, and she’d been the death of him.

Torr’s face had reverted to that state of blankness she had come to expect when he didn’t want to answer her questions.

Enough!

She stalked toward him, coming to a halt only inches away. “Well?”

“I’ve told you what I can.” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Today, it hung loose around his shoulders, dark as midnight, framing his pale, bony face. She put her hand behind her back to fight the urge to reach up and stroke the silky strands. She could remember the feel of it from the night before. Her body tingled at the memory.

“I’d tell you more if I could.” Torr spoke again, dragging her from her thoughts. “But there are reasons. Good reasons.”

Bella didn’t need her powers back to sense his frustration. She wasn’t giving up so easily, but at the same time, she wasn’t unreasonable. “What reasons?”

He looked away, and her own frustrations rose up, threatening to swamp her. “Hey, you know what?” she snapped. “I bet you can’t tell me that either, can you?”

“A few more days and I’ll explain everything. Trust me until then.”

The strange thing was she did trust him. That didn’t stop her from wanting to know what was going on right now though.

She also believed he had valid reasons for not telling her more. Something strange was going on. Something that couldn’t be explained by logical reasoning. A vision of crimson eyes flashed across her mind. Inhuman eyes.

All her life she’d tried to ignore the part of herself that couldn’t be explained by rational argument.

Freak. Monster.

When she was young, she’d tried to pretend she had some sort of medical condition, maybe a genetic disorder inherited from the father she’d never known. But she’d never really believed it.

Once, when she was six, in her desperation, she’d sneaked into a church, hoping to find some sort of sanctuary from the pain of others. But she’d found no peace there. Instead, the feelings had intensified, pounding through her, like a physical assault; she’d run, and sworn never to try that again.

Since she’d closed her powers off, she’d found ignoring that side of her nature much easier. But it was still part of her, slumbering deep inside, safe behind the wall.

And Torr wanted her to let it out.

With a huge sigh, she wandered back to the sofa. Sinking down onto the soft leather, she leaned her head back, and closed her eyes.

She sensed him sitting opposite from her and peeked through her lashes. He appeared tense, unsure which way she would turn, and inconvenient guilt flashed through her again. She didn’t want to feel responsible for Torr’s hurt feelings. But as usual, what she wanted bore no relationship to what she got. She sighed again and sat up straight. “I don’t suppose there’s more coffee.” She tried for a faint smile. “Smashing walls is thirsty work.”

He flashed her a smile in return and nodded, but at that moment, there was a low tap on the door. Torr rose to his feet and strode across the room, flinging open the double doors.

Cade stood there and said, “We need to talk.”

Bella could tell from his expression that something bad must have happened. Torr glanced from Cade back to her. He’d obviously reached the same conclusion. His eyes narrowed and she was pretty sure he was considering sending her away.

A few minutes ago, she’d wanted out. Now, she wasn’t going anywhere.

She wanted to know what was going on. She was in the middle of this and she wasn’t budging when things got interesting. Leaning back, she folded her arms across her chest and raised an eyebrow.

Torr nodded and turned back to Cade. “Come in.”

Cade walked past him, glancing to where Bella sat. “The others should be here for this,” he said.

“Call them,” Torr replied.

Bella sat in silence while Cade made the calls, and then Torr made one of his own to get her more coffee. With the calls made, Torr paced the room, while Cade, perched on the edge of the desk, and studied her.

Bella scowled. She was getting a little pissed off with being studied.

“So, how’s it going?” Cade asked.

“How’s what going?”

He lifted one elegant eyebrow. “Torr said you were trying to break through to your powers.”