Captured in Croatia by Christine Edwards Read Free Book Online Page B

has pulled me along with him. In seconds I’m pressed firmly against his torso, like a floppy rag doll. My world tilts sideways as he lifts me up into his strong arms. With no words exchanged between us, he swiftly eats up the distance between us and his car.
    “N -no,” I manage to sputter as I try to shift out of his grasp.
    A tighter hold is all he offers. I’m an optimist by nature but I’m not dense. This is bad. I’m doomed. I can’t hold on much longer, and soon I pass out.
    ***
    It’s a damned good thing that I live for order and duty because if there was ever a temptation to relinquish my tight control, this stunningly beautiful creature would certainly be it. Pushing the heady thought aside, I jog with her held tightly in my arms back up the incline to the Maserati. Cops or curious civilians will soon notice the broken guardrail, and I don’t need any additional fucking complications tonight.
    I grabbed her small black purse, fairly sure that this was all she had with her. If not, everything else is staying inside the crushed car. She has all that she fled the mansion with tonight and that’s all that matters to me.
    There is no way that she could have ma de it more than a foot or two on her own. She’s clearly disoriented from the crash and the blood loss is only adding to her weakened state. I feel how cold she is and bring her in closer to my body as I round the shredded guardrail.
    S he’s compliant for the moment, which is a relief. After her one small objection she realized there was no escape. Her left wrist is sprained badly. She cried out in pain when I dislodged her and it’s clear that she favors the swollen wrist. The deep cut on her arm needs tending to. She’ll have to wait until I have time to tend to both, which will unfortunately be over an hour from now. I’m not worried. She’ll make it.
    At this point I’m uncertain of the extent of her training. I’ll get that out of her soon enough. She’s confident to the point of arrogance, but that’s innate, not taught. She must have some sort of martial arts background. One of my guards phoned my mobile while I was in pursuit to inform me that she had used a sleeper hold to choke Juric out and that the boss was pissed as fuck that she’d tricked him.
    He wants her dead , or at the very least returned to him immediately so he can handle her himself. Neither will be happening. Not tonight. Not on my watch.
    As I place her in the passenger seat of the car, I realize that I’ll need to come up with a cover story to explain why she was inside of it. The blood attests to the fact she was in my possession.
    She fad es in and out as I lean across her slim frame to buckle her in. She’s not tense with fear anymore. She’s too out of it to register that emotion.
    Before rounding the car , I turn to hit the camera icon on my iPhone. After taking several images of both the demolished rail and car resting below, I feel confident that Juric is going to believe my story.
    After s liding into the driver’s seat, I rip out onto the highway and speed across the city toward a nearby abandoned lot. There I can stem the bleeding on her arm. That’s all that can be done until I get her back to my home, which lies near the Bosnia and Herzegovina border.
    My ancestral home is deep within a forest on the outskirts of the Plitvice Lakes National Park. Plitvice is famous throughout Europe for its multitude of waterfalls and clear lakes. In my opinion, it’s the most unique and beautiful place on the planet. It is also exceedingly isolated.
    There she will be secure. Even Juric has no concept of where I live. I’m just as cautious, if not more so, with my own personal security. My brother and I wouldn’t still be alive if I wasn’t.
    ***
    A warm, weighted touch on my bare shoulder brings me around. My eyes open and I see that we are in the parking lot of a dilapidated warehouse. Two starving stray dogs amble past the misty beams of the headlights.
    As I l