Forbidden Love

Taken

Dominic Vassuer had not changed.

That was the first terrible thing Sapphire noticed. A year had passed, and he still moved the way she remembered, unhurried and certain, like a man who had never once been told no. He wore a black coat over a dark suit, and the station lamps caught the sharp lines of his face and the silver at his cuff. His eyes, grey and steady, found hers across the platform and did not let go.

“Hello, Claire,” he said.

His voice was low and even. It was not the voice of a man who had hunted her across a country. It was the voice of a man who had simply been waiting for her to arrive.

Sapphire’s mouth had gone dry. “That isn’t my name.”

“It was.” He walked toward her slowly. Julien released her arm and stepped back without a word, as though he had been given a silent order. “But I understand. You wanted a new one. Sapphire.” He tilted his head. “It suits you. Hard and bright, and very difficult to hold.”

Don’t show fear. Not to him. Never to him.

She lifted her chin. “Whatever you think I owe you, I don’t have it. Not yet. If you let me go, I’ll find a way to pay.”

Something flickered across his face, too quick to read. “You think I came here for money?”

“Why else would you come?”

For a moment he said nothing. He only looked at her, and the silence stretched until she felt it pressing on her skin.

“Get in the car,” he said.

“No.”

“It wasn’t a question.”

“I said no.” Her voice shook, but she held his stare. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

Stubborn, a small voice whispered in the back of her mind. You’re always so stubborn. It’s going to get you killed.

She ignored it. She had spent a year learning how to survive, and she would not hand herself over like a parcel.

She turned and bolted.

She made it three steps.

An arm caught her around the waist, hard and fast, and lifted her clean off the ground. She kicked and twisted and drove her elbow back with everything she had. It struck something solid. A grunt of pain, but the grip did not loosen.

“Julien, enough,” Dominic said sharply. “Don’t hurt her.”

“I’m not,” Julien muttered. “She’s trying to break my ribs.”

“Let me go!” Sapphire screamed. “Somebody help me! Please!”

The porter stood at the far end of the platform. He looked at her. Then he looked at the black car, at the tall man in the black coat, and slowly turned his back.

The sound that came out of Sapphire was small and broken.

They own him too. They own everyone.

Dominic stood before her now, close enough that she could smell his cologne, cedar and something colder underneath. He did not touch her. He only looked down, and for the first time she saw that his jaw was tight, as if holding something back.

“I did not want it to happen like this,” he said quietly.

“Then let me go.”

“I can’t.”

Something sharp pricked the side of her neck.

Sapphire gasped and jerked her head around. A third man, one she had not even noticed, drew a small syringe away from her skin.

“What did you...” Her tongue felt thick. The platform lights smeared into long streaks of gold. “What did you do to me?”

“It will pass,” Dominic said. “Sleep.”

Her knees gave way. Strong arms caught her before she fell, and the last thing she heard was Julien’s voice, low and strangely gentle.

“I’ve got you. Easy now.”

Elise, she thought wildly. The bread. The money. I never even said goodbye...

Then the darkness took her.

She woke to the hum of an engine.

Her head pounded. Her mouth tasted of metal. For a few confused seconds she did not know where she was, only that she was lying on soft leather and that something heavy was draped over her shoulders.

A coat. A man’s coat, warm and smelling of cedar.

Sapphire jerked upright, and the world swung sickeningly. She was in the back of a car, moving fast through the dark. Trees streaked past the windows. Her wrists were free. Her bag was gone.

And Dominic Vassuer sat across from her, one leg crossed over the other, watching her.

“Easy,” he said. “You’ll be sick if you move too quickly.”

She grabbed for the door handle. It did not budge.

“It’s locked,” he said. “Child locks. I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry?” Her voice cracked. “You drugged me. You dragged me off a train platform like an animal. You own people who watch while it happens, and you’re sorry?”

“Yes.”

The calm honesty of it startled her into silence.

She pulled the coat from her shoulders and threw it onto the seat beside him. “Where are you taking me?”

“Somewhere safe.”

“Safe for who? For you?” She laughed, high and sharp. “I know what happens to people who owe you, Dominic. I’ve heard the stories. I know how it ends.”

His eyes darkened. “You don’t know anything about how this ends.”

“Then tell me.”

“No.”

“Tell me what you want from me!”

He leaned forward, forearms on his knees, and the dim light carved shadows beneath his cheekbones. “I want you to stop fighting,” he said, very softly. “Just for tonight. I want you to rest.”

It was such an absurd thing to say that she could only stare.

“I won’t rest,” she said at last. “Not for you. Not ever.”

“I know.” A faint, tired smile touched the corner of his mouth, and it was the strangest thing she had seen all night. It did not look cruel. It looked almost like pain. “That’s exactly why I find you so difficult.”

He sat back and said nothing more.

Sapphire pressed herself into the corner of the seat, as far from him as she could get. Her heart thundered. Her mind raced through exits, weapons, ways out, and found none.

Stay awake. Watch the road. Remember every turn.

But the road twisted and wound through the dark, and the drug still clung to her thoughts like fog, and the turns began to blur together.

At last the car slowed.

Tall iron gates rose out of the night, opening silently as the headlights touched them. A long gravel drive stretched ahead, lined with trees, climbing toward a vast house with lights burning in every window.

Sapphire went cold.

She knew that house. She had seen its glow from her window every night for a week, and she had never once guessed what it meant.

“Welcome,” Dominic said, “to your new home.”

The gates closed behind them with a soft, final click.