Rebel Heart (44 page)

"Hell!" he seethed suddenly. "If there is another way out..."

"Out?" she said sweetly. Then a smiled curved her lips. "I do assure you if there is a secret passage to the forest, I would never tell you."

"But I will find it and seal it."

She tilted her chin regally. Something she was very good at, he determined, since she seemed to do it so often.

"Very well." Maybe something in the heated look he cast her way gave her reason for alarm. She stepped back once more. "It will not be so easy--to find."

"I have men here, men who are willing to spend days if, necessary, searching for you should you go missing. Let it go, Tori. For your sake, for your very life let it go."

She shuddered softly. "I already have."

"Really? We are married and what we do at this center can now be called treasonous. Unless Jonathan is successful in the next few days, we will have to continue to take very great care. I will have to know my friends from my enemies. I need to know you are safe."

"Do you really think I would sacrifice our people, just to spite you? Do you think that little of me?"

Her eyes narrowed dangerously. Perhaps he'd pushed her too far; perhaps he shouldn't provoke her so, but he wanted honesty. He needed, craved the truth from her.

She swore furiously. "Let it go. Leave me alone...please."

"But I can't. Promise me you won't leave the tower without a body guard." He gripped her shoulders as she tried to dash away. "Please, Victoria--"

She tried to twist away, but he found himself holding her still, looking down into the fathomless depths of her dove-gray eyes, and at the same time longing to make love to her.

He wanted to slip his fingers into the velvet flowing mantle of her hair. "Ah, babe, the depth of your sweet innocence continually amazes me, and your sweet gasps of astonishment proclaim exactly what you are."

She pushed on his chest and tried to escape his hold. "Savage--"

"Come on, sweetheart, whisper to me. Tell me how you crave me and only me, not the Phantom."

Her chin rose a notch. The set of her mouth, the look in her eyes, her very expression challenged him. "You would have me tell you I love you, when you've just taunted me with honesty, with truth. When you come to bed each night wishing you were somewhere else--anywhere else."

"What?" Instantly his hands fell away, eyes slanting dangerously.

She slipped away from him, hesitating as if she had something more to say. "You didn't want me anymore than I wanted you."

"You're wrong."

Yet she was right too, and he felt a strange sense of guilt at the words she'd carelessly hurled at him. At first he had not wanted her. He had thought to sacrifice himself at the time. But after he got to know her--even a little--no power on earth could have made him marry her if somewhere deep inside he had not wanted to. He was haunted by Tori, by her memory, by the dangerously impulsive child and now the stubborn, willful woman. His craving for her and even his admiration for her never seemed to diminish.

"So what do you care of my past or even my future for that matter?" she murmured softly.

He caught her shoulders and held them, lowering his head until they were eye-to-eye. "You are mine, Tori," and
I'm falling in love with you
. "Don't ever forget that. You're my wife."

All the color bled from her face. She was trembling beneath his fingertips.

What the devil was she up to?

Frustration was turning to anger, her reticence confused him, and she did it deliberately.

But her arms suddenly wound around his neck. "I would not betray you!" she whispered. Her lips were against his throat. His arms encircled her.

Now as he watched the sun then looked to the dirt that swirled around his feet, he was obsessed by the memory of Aisling's words in the forest.

She will betray you...

She had already done just that, yet she hadn't. Pain welled deep inside, frustration haunting him.

Aisling had always predicted the future. Always. She believed in destiny, but then why had she told him, warned him of the betrayal? Perhaps he could change his fate. Perhaps...

She was at the lab now. He was quite sure there were no secret passages to make possible an escape. He knew Luke watched her while he was gone, and Luke was forever loyal. It was all he could hope for, all he could pray for. In the night she had come to him, passionately, willingly, yet in the day she continued to battle him. He wanted peace.

When it was dark, he felt it--that little breath of surrender, the sweet feeling that she was his. Then the sun would rise.

He had brought them to this. It was, he admitted, his fault. Now, as he waited for Jonathan, he knew it would be a long time, if ever, before anything would change. He would find no peace, not in the research center nor within the world.

He wiped the sweat from his brow, growing more impatient as the sun beat down on him and the rays bounced between the concrete of the building surrounding him.

Cameron felt the hair on the back of his neck stiffen. He was instantly alert and backed further into the shadows, determined to see before he was seen. But as he anticipated, Jonathan came striding toward him.

"Savage!" He walked closer, holding out his hand to Cameron. Cameron clasped it quickly. "You're a damn good sight to see. I've heard about the chase and the wedding. My beautiful cousin has kept you a busy man."

Beneath the cool facade of indifference Cameron tried to emulate, he grimaced. "She's quite the little she devil," he admitted.

Jonathan laughed. "Indeed. She had one hell of a teacher."

"Then I should challenge you. A duel would be fitting for all she's put me through."

"Hmm. I trust you've been gentle."

"That doesn't deserve an answer, but, yes. As gentle as I can be under the circumstances."

"These are dangerous times. Now the pressure increases. Did you come with bad news or to tell me you can, indeed, change a person's genetic makeup? Within the hour, I must have something tangible to report and ready to argue against those who would stop us. The senate will vote today."

"I have documents. I have proof. I've located the apparatus used once before and I know what went wrong."

"The people are afraid. They are always afraid. Yet they sit in the cities and they die from a disease that doesn't even send an Outsider to bed. Every day the signe virus mutates, changes its form slightly. We cannot inoculate...we can no longer protect until the virus has taken hold of its victims."

Jonathan turned then, hitting his hand violently against the wall, swearing. "Yes, Cameron, I know the consequences. I know what's at stake. Your procedure is the only way."

"Damn her...hell! I told her, no, commanded her to stay put. Those times I couldn't find her, Victoria went to you--didn't she?" He hesitated, feeling a swift simmering of anger within him. "I thought we had agreed! She plays--toys with her life and others. She must stop. Now."

"Cameron, I know we agreed, but I cannot control her anymore than you."

"I will control her even if I have to lock her in the tower. And you..."

"I tell her what I think. Threaten--yes, I've even begged her, but Cameron, she does not listen."

Cameron set his jaw, his muscles tense. She would not win this game she played, he determined. He began to lecture Jonathan again then reminded himself that Victoria had Jonathan dancing to her beck and call a long, long time ago. Nothing would change now even if he decreed it. Tori was his wife and he would see to her well-being and to protecting her life. He would make sure she remained where he could keep an ever-watchful eye on her. But then he reminded himself he'd set Luke to keeping an eye on her and she'd still managed to leave the tower.

"Do not be too hard on her," Jonathan implored.

"Hard?" Cameron echoed.

"She's a sweet innocent little--"

"She's my wife and I don't know how..." Cameron finished for him.

Jonathan turned away for a moment and Cameron's brow rose in question. Then he turned back. "She claims you're an unfeeling baboon and you make her life miserable. You won't let her work in the lab without supervision. She can't turn on a computer unless your man, Luke, is hovering behind her. The key-cards have disappeared and even Nessa obeys your command, not hers. She says The Phantom treated her abominably, trying to seduce her at every turn. 'He's a despicable creature,' she says. You're a lady's man, Savage. Why can't you charm my cousin?" Jonathan inquired.

"Need I remind you that you sent me to save her sweet little hide? No? Well, I'll tell you this, it was no easy feat. She fought me on the ladder nearly falling to her death. Then she tried to escape me and ran straight into the barrage from Sheridan's fighter planes. If that wasn't enough, when we got to the cabin for a little rest and peace, she tried to seduce me and ply me with wine in hopes I would save her from Savage. Savage! You realize of course that now even after we've married, she has called me nothing but barbarian, or baboon. I promise you, much more of this and I will give her to Morray on a silver platter." His eyes narrowed perceptibly. "How the hell did she get out of the tower?"

Jonathan laughed. "So she's smarter than you think. She has tricks. She's always had tricks. Her father could never figure it out either and he had years to look. He owned the tower, and still he didn't know how she did it."

Cameron felt his fury transcend all other feelings, seeping deep to the pit of his stomach. "Jonathan, I tell you, this is not a laughing matter. If Morray finds her, or if Sheridan runs across her while she's flitting around the City or the countryside, we will be hard put to save her from them again."

"I understand," Jonathan said quickly. Then he ran his hands through his hair, somewhat at a loss for words. "I never told you about the passageway?"

Cameron stepped forward swiftly. "What passageway?"

"Behind the bookshelves in her room there is a long set of steps. They go on forever and eventually they leave the City behind. It lets out beneath a waterfall. She's used it for years. DeMontville never knew and of course as children we never dreamt of telling him."

"There is an escape route in the tower?" Cameron repeated, his voice hardening.

"Yes."

"I nearly lost her on those old rusty ladder rungs, and there was a passageway at our disposal. Yet she was planning on going down the ladder. She had already left the safety of her room and was dangling out the window."

Jonathan had the temerity to look a little sheepish. "Sorry. I forgot. What can I say?"

Cameron stepped back. "Sorry will do for now. But I'm telling you, the passageway is going to be locked. And it's something else she can complain about because I'm going to have the only key." He paused a moment. "Why that little fool! She merely told Luke she wanted to rest and voila she's free."

"She was so excited, so angry, she was a mass of nerves, but she had to tell me what you'd done," Jonathan said.

"I will make love to her so often she will be too tired to get out of bed."

Jonathan laughed. "That sounds like a good plan. When are going to tell her you're The Phantom?"

"She already knows. The woman isn't stupid, Jonathan. The Phantom is the reason we're having such a difficult time."

"What now?"

"I don't know," Cameron said quietly. "I do so respect her courage, her strength as well as her determination, but..."

Jonathan nodded in another direction. "Perhaps she will always keep you on your toes."

"Hell, I couldn't find her this morning."

"There is no more time," Jonathan interrupted. "I have to leave."

Savage glanced at his watch. "Go Jonathan. I'll be there as soon as I can." He handed over the envelope. Their eyes met for a moment then Jonathan turned. Cameron watched as Jonathan stepped into the sunlight and strode down the long walkway toward the government buildings.

Victoria

What if the debate went on for hours? What if he saw her? What if he went somewhere with Jonathan?

She was finding a greater and greater attraction to the man.

He had made a point to include her when he could have simply deciphered the information on her pins by himself. She had no doubt the codes would have caused him little trouble. To Tori's irritation, she had heard her sister more than once proclaim how handsome he was, and how very, very kind. Perhaps he was all these things, tall and strikingly handsome, indomitable with all-knowing dark amber eyes and ebony hair. Perhaps...

Perhaps there were things truly praiseworthy about him. He was always there when she needed him--dependable. Even when he was soaring to the heavens then dropping swiftly to the earth in less than a heartbeat of time, she had felt safe from both Sheridan and Morray. Then there was the way he held her in the dark of the night and the soft persuasive brush of his lips against hers. There was the stormy, uncontrollable tempest that raged deep inside her when his hands explored her. There was the way he made her reach out and feel as if she could truly touch the stars.