The Art of Retaliation (24 page)

Max’s grip on her waist suddenly tightened and he drew her closer to
the band on the stage.
 
Stephane
get up from the table.
 
He seemed to be annoyed.
 
Hurriedly he walked out of the
room.
 
Mara felt a jolt of
excitement.
 
It would be so easy to
breakaway from this man and run out into the street.
 
Mentally she ran through another plan of
escape.
 
She didn’t have her bag.
 
Stephane
hadn’t let her take it.
 
He hadn’t
wanted her to have any money with her too much of a temptation to run away.
 
She could call Christophe and reverse
the charges and hide until he came to get her.
 
The music came to an end and the
billionaire wasn’t back.

“Would you excuse me?”
 
she
said quickly to Max and began to walk towards the lit
sign displaying the back fire exit.

“Where are you going?” the man asked taking a hold of her arm.

She stared at him, alarmed.

“I’m leaving.”

“No I don’t think you are.”

His voice turned hard as the grip increased.
 
The music started again and she found
herself being dragged across the dance floor into a small hallway.

“Let me go.
 
What are you
doing?”

“There is someone who wants to have a word with you,” Max answered
in a rough tone.

Mara dug her heels to the floor and stubbornly refused to move,
attempting to shake off his hold at the same time.

“Come on.
 
Don’t start
acting up with me.
 
I won’t put up
with you like
Garreau
does.” he said roughly pulling
her.

“Mara, what’s going on?”
Stephane
asked
rounding the corner.
 
He had been
running and was out of breath.

He looked down at her arm that was being held and then back up to
her frightened face.

“I don’t know.
 
He won’t
let go of me.”

The Count took hold of Mara’s other arm and tried to pull her away
from the man.
 
Max Spencer turned round
to face
Stephane
and lent an unexpected blow to his
face knocking him off balance.
 
His
grip on Mara’s arm relaxed.
 
Max
took advantage and began dragging her away from
Stephane
.
 
She fought her assailant with every once
of strength her body could muster but it wasn’t enough.

Stephane
recovered
quickly wiping blood from his mouth and rushed to help but two other men
entered the halfway and occupied his time.
 
Max caught her around the waist and lowered her to the ground.
 
He straddled her attempting to remove
her jacket.

Stephane
fiercely
fought the men but one man’s strength against two was uneven.
 
He felt helpless as the men dragged him
outside convinced Max was trying to rape her.
 
Once Max had completed his task another
man appeared at his side holding a full syringe and took Max’s place leaving
him free.

“I’ll get the car,” he shouted.

Mara seized her chance and brought her knee up and dug it sharply
into the man’s groin following it up with a swift punch to the jaw.
 
The man rocked sideways surprised
dropping the syringe too concerned with the agony between his legs.
 
She rolled over letting him fall against
the floor and jumped to her feet.

Mara ran outside to the alleyway where
Stephane
was still fighting.
 
She
outstretched a leg and jumped on the back of one of them banging her small
fists at him.
 
He moved away trying
to throw her from his back.
Stephane
took advantage
digging an elbow into the stomach of the man who held him.
 
Unleashed
Stephane
was ferocious as a wild cat.
 
He
made short work of the man and then pulled Mara off the other setting her down
out of harms way against the wall.
 
When the man tried to retrieve her
Stephane
dealt with him quickly leaving the man groaning in pain amidst a collection of
grey metallic dustbins.
 
Stephane
grabbed hold of Mara’s hand and led her out of the
alley.

The men were close at their heels when
Stephane
pushed Mara in to another alley seeing a throng of people crowding around some
bouncers to get into a
night club
.
 
He hid her amongst the people and
watched their attackers search with difficulty to find them until he felt Mara
tug at his hand.
 
She guided him to
the door of the
night-club
pushing their way through
disgruntled customers, ignoring their shouts and insults and the arms of the
bouncers who reached out to stop them.
 

“I know this place well, Maxine and I used to come here,” she
shouted trying to make herself heard above the noise of the music.
 
“There is a fire exit at the back where
Maxine used to make hasty exits from unwanted boyfriends.”

Stephane
followed
her glancing at the dance floor that was visible beneath the balcony they ran
along.
 
He could see Max already on
the floor looking for them through the bright swirling lights casting strange
patterns across the faces of dancers in the darkness.
 
Another man was on the balcony not far
away, on the verge of alerting their presence and this one was carrying a semi
automatic handgun.

The billionaire spun Mara around and pushed her into a dark corner
amongst couples kissing intimately.
 
He enfolded her into his arms and closed his mouth over hers.
 
She tried to get away at first but then
realized his motive and wrapped her arms around him, leaning back to
accommodate the kiss.
 
The man
passed by but
Stephane
still continued for a while
longer loving the taste of her on his lips.
 
Eventually Mara backed away confusion
swirling with need for him in her eyes.
 
He smiled.

‘Just like the movies,’ he laughed.

She beckoned him to follow her to the fire exit reaching
possessively for his fingers and allowed them to weave through her own to lead
him on.
 
She banged down hard on the
fire door opening it out on to the early evening sunshine.
 
After checking for signs of the men
lurking outside they ran into the street and crossed the road and down into the
safety of another small street to rest against a wall.

Mara put her hand to her head conscious that her surroundings were
beginning to blur and spin again.
  
Her heart
was
 
still
thudding with the power of an express train.
 
Stephane
reached for his mobile and called for the car.

The Count of
Albain
watched her with
increasing concern after the ordeal they had just been through as he talked on
the phone, pressing his body close to her own against the wall to shield her
own.
 
When he stopped she slumped
against him.
 
He supported her body,
drawing her close.

“Hold on Leon is bringing the car,” he whispered kissing the top of
her head affectionately.
 
“Abdul
must have sent them.
 
I thought Max
was going to rape you but he was kidnapping you.
 
I am damned if I am going to let him
take you from me.”

Leon arrived promptly jumping out of the car asking a host of
questions
Stephane
didn’t want to answer.
 
He led Mara to the car keeping an arm
wound around her sinking frame and held her close against him until she drifted
off into the safety of sleep.

She didn’t wake up again until he was carrying her to his room.
 
He laid her carefully on the bed.

“Peter.
 
He will hurt
Peter again.
 
I have to stop him
hurting Peter,” she murmured deliriously.

“
Shh
.
 
Don’t worry.
 
He is here and
he is safe.
 
I promise you,”
Stephane
told her leaning over her on the bed.

The billionaire had kept tabs on Peter Logan’s movements since he
arrived in Paris that morning to look for his sister.
 
So far he had been busy all day with the
police and the British Embassy.
 
After numerous telephone calls he could assure her that Peter was being
watched and would be safe.
 
Sitting
down next to her he caught her hand and held it to his face brushing the skin
with gentle kisses.

Chantal
Valoire
sent repeated requests to
see her son and he ignored every one of them.
 
He wanted to be alone with Mara.
 
After the third time he grew annoyed and
began to understand why his father retreated to his private room that only
selected people in the chateau knew about.

“Do you think you can walk now,” he asked gently stroking her hair.

She nodded and slowly sat up with his help.

“I’m going to take you somewhere we can’t be disturbed and can
talk.”

He took her hand in his and led to the side of the fireplace and hit
it.
 
A panel slid open in the wall
next to the bed.
 
Mara put her hand
to her mouth and smiled.
 
She
followed him through the wall.
 
A
cold breeze was blowing through the dark passageway giving her goose
bumps.
 
As they stepped in the door
slid closed, sealing them in.
 
Mara
gave an involuntary gasp suddenly feeling trapped and looked up at
Stephane
fearful.
 
He drew her closer and told her not to worry.

Walking along the stone floor was cold and refreshing on her bare
feet.
 
She put out her hand and
touched the slated walls that had been pressed together for centuries and were
now imprisoning them.
 
The
passageway smelt musty and damp from the rain that had showered in the area in
the last few days and she could see a film of moisture lining the walls.
 
The artery continued to wind around the
heart of the house and she was sure it would never end.

“No one knows about this passageway apart from Louise and
myself.
 
We found it one day by accident
and we still keep it secret.
 
My
mother doesn’t know but I am sure my father did.”

“Where are you taking me?”

“
Shh
, we are nearly there.”

The passageway halted at the foot of some narrow steps.
 
He mounted three at a time in long easy
strides pausing to help her up.
 
The
staircase spiraled and stretched as though trying to reach the moon.
 
At the top she was in the open air
behind what looked like battlements surrounding an inner room.
 
Judging from the height they were in one
of the towers.
 
She rested against
the wall and gazed out over the formal gardens in the twilight.
 
Darkness surrounded the grounds, apart
from the lights illuminating the house, formal gardens, moat and the fountain
below them.
 
It was like being
locked in a fairytale.

Stephane
fumbled
with a key and unlocked a large wooden door.
 
He put an arm around her shoulders and
led her across a floor of black and white tiles that resembled the
chessboard.
 
Long flowing cotton
white curtains blew gently at the windows on either side.
 
Furniture was sparse apart from a
comfortable leather reading chair and a desk on which a model of the
Cutty
Sark
lay unfinished.
 
Glue and small intricate pieces of the
skillful puzzle lay around it.
 
To
one side several books on model ships and novels were stacked.

“My father used to come here.
 
Not via the secret passage but by the opposite door,” he said pointing
to another door across the room.
 
“My mother never came in here.
 
I left everything the way it was when he died.”
 
He gave a small laugh.
 
“I thought I might finish the ship for
him but I have never had time.”

Mara picked up a piece and examined it closely before replacing it
on the desk.

“He came here to escape.
 
His marriage was one of convenience and both he and my mother were
bitter they had been forced together by their fathers.
 
My mother hid in friends, society
parties, young men and my father young women.
 
They loved us both but my father adored
Louise and she is as wayward as he was.
 
Always getting her self in to trouble with the wrong man and the wrong
friends.”

Mara put her hand on his arm and smiled gently.

“I suppose I am old fashioned.
 
When I marry it will be for love alone and it will be with the right
woman,” he continued.
 
He looked
directly at her communicating his desire for it to be her.
 
He wanted to laugh out loud.
 
He was crazy to think there could be
anyone else more suitable.
 
Mara
Logan was the perfect woman he had been looking for all of this time and he
could not deny it.