The woman was holding a walking stick, too. Dear god, was she blind? Claudia was about to scream out to her when the woman, apparently instinctively, dropped to her knees and then rolled over on her side, covering her head. A spray of bullets hit the metal doors of the closing elevator right where the woman had been standing. Claudia turned to Daniel to warn him about the innocent woman. He was staring toward the other woman, a look of anger and horror frozen on his face. Claudia had never seen such emotion penetrate his deadly exterior. Did he know the other woman? From her current position, Claudia doubted it. The woman looked soft and feminine, the opposite of anything that might attract Daniel Mercer. Yet, he was watching her like a hawk watches over its young. Deadly, uncannily still, ready to strike if necessary. Thinking quickly, Claudia said, "Give me one of those guns." Daniel looked down to where Claudia was crouched under him. Her green eyes held his earnestly. Like mo
"I've missed you, Alicia." Claudia stared in shock and horror as she stumbled into Tyson's living room. Dante Marquez, her ex-boyfriend, surveyed the room as if he owned the place. He looked the same as he had when she'd last seen him a year and a half ago. He was a few inches shorter than her in her expensive heels. His chest and shoulders were leanly muscled. His tanned skin and black hair attested to his Cuban ancestry. He was a handsome man, with dark eyes, a sharp nose and high cheekbones. Though she despised him with every part of her, she also saw the original appeal. Claudia had spent months agonizing over the stupidity of her decisions. In the face of Dante's commanding presence and good looks, it was a miracle any woman could resist him. Until they saw the darkness that lurked within. It hadn't taken Claudia long to discover his true colours. She wondered how many other women had found out too late. "Dante," she said quietly. He turned to her, studying her striking fe
It was amazing to Claudia how long a split second could feel when a person was castigating themselves for making a very bad decision. She screamed in terror, her arms still locked around Dante's neck, as she fell through the air, hoping desperately that pool tiles didn't hurt too much after a thirty-foot fall. They missed the tiles and hit the pool together, the force of their entry driving them to the bottom. Claudia bent her knees, but the impact was minimal. She let go of Dante's neck and pushing her feet against the concrete bottom, propelling herself back up. Claudia broke through the water gasping for air and looked around in confusion, water streaming over her head and into her eyes. She immediately turned to where Tyson was frantically calling her name and started swimming weakly toward him. Dante surfaced in front of her and, immediately taking in the disadvantage of his situation, surrounded by an extremely angry Tyson King and his men, grabbed Claudia. She struggled in h
"These just arrived for you." Claudia looked up and smiled as Laney Paul walked into her office. The smaller woman set a box on her desk and took a step back. She was about 5'5" and weighed maybe 130 lbs. She was a lovely girl with a petite figure and straight black hair falling down her back. She was also one of the most deadly women Tyson could find to guard his jewel when she wasn't with him. Claudia had insisted on being part of the hiring process when it came to her protection detail. She understood the necessity of having one, but she absolutely wasn't going to have Daniel dogging her every step. While Daniel had warmed up to Claudia a tiny bit, in his own way, he still held himself stiffly separate. Claudia flat out refused to have decisions made for her when it came to her own safety. Tyson had been surprisingly understanding. He wanted his future wife to feel secure in her new life. When Daniel had gone toe to toe with Laney and pronounced her a decent fit for the security
Book One: Prisoner of Fortune"Another card for the lady?" Shania glanced down at her cards uneasily. What had possessed her to attempt a table at the casino? She'd never even touched a slot machine. Of course, she had never been one to balk at risks either. That could explain how she found herself dropping fifty dollars on one game of blackjack, sitting around a table with a stone-faced dealer and two other men, both older and likely vastly more experienced than herself. She had to discover for herself what the game that had nearly gotten her husband killed was all about. Ex-husband, her mind whispered. Or soon to be ex-husband, to be more exact. He was the reason she was here in the first place. She had promised him one last favour before walking away from her disaster of a marriage forever. She would find the owner of this casino and hand over the $2,000 her husband still owed. Shania shivered in apprehension. Perhaps it was an unconscious attempt to put off the meeting tha
Shania was suddenly acutely aware of her situation, like a baby lamb bleating angrily at a full grown lion. She was brave. Or trying very hard to act like it. He raised a brow at the furious, frightened beauty challenging him. "I didn't force Aiden to come to my club, and I didn't force him to throw down that money. I also didn't force him to gamble away an IOU." "No conscionable business owner would accept an IOU!" she snapped. He took a step toward her, thick brows lowering over dark eyes. "Watch your tongue, woman. Just because you trespass on my good graces this evening doesn't mean I'll let insults pass those beautiful lips unpunished." Shania quickly stepped away from him, trying to keep some distance between them, and bumped the top of her thighs sharply against his desk. She tried to look brave, but was failing miserably on the inside. She wanted nothing more than to escape his presence, run to her little car, drive home, pack up all of her belongings and move away from
"This is human bondage," Shania pleaded as Khalid escorted her from his office, down the hall and past the concierge toward an elevator bank. "It's not going to work! You can't just decide to keep me. I'll fight you. I'll start screaming and someone will call the cops!" Khalid looked down at her, amused. His lips quirked in a chilling smile as he reached out to press the elevator button. She wanted to slap him, which surprised her. She had always considered herself a pacifist. "Ah, princess, there's little you can do." He gave her a small shove into the elevator and grabbed her arm when it looked like she would try to leap back out. "Every person in this place is loyal to me. No one will help a hysterical woman that owes me money. They'll think that I'm being generous by not doing to you what I and my men do to others who run up a debt." "But I don't owe you anything!" "On the contrary." Khalid reached out and wrapped one large hand around her hip, shoved her back against the w
Looking down at Aiden Galveston's battered face, Khalid was glad he had sent Ash to pick up some of Shania's belongings and come here himself. He hadn't been able to get her image out of his head. He needed to understand her better and she only socialized with one person. The burning need to smash in the face of the man that had put hands on, and made love to, Shania was nearly overwhelming. Khalid knew it was unreasonable to expect the woman, who was around thirty, to be a virgin. But he was disgusted by the fucker that she'd had sex with. Aiden was a waste of humanity, while the man's wife was a fucking saint in comparison. "Wake up," he snarled. Aiden opened his eyes and struggled to get out of the hospital bed when he realized who stood over him. "Calm down," Khalid snapped. "I'm not here to kill you." Aiden stopped struggling and lay back, colour draining from his face as he stared up at the man he was sure was here to end him. "What do you want?" he asked, his voice cho