False Security (22 page)

Donovan turned around. He stared
at her for a moment, but she couldn’t interpret his expression. His eyes fell
to her restless fingers and he inched toward her. He reached out and stilled
her hands.

“I don’t care if it’s wrong,”
she said. She searched his eyes for some hint of his thoughts, and she thought
he would leave.

This time his firm kiss bubbled
over with passion. Her body reacted to him and her need for him consumed her.
His mouth moved off hers and he lifted her shirt over her head. He tossed it to
the floor and reached for the button on her jeans while she worked on
unbuttoning his shirt.

She could see him touching her,
tasting her, but when he lowered her down on the mattress, the sedative
unleashed its power over her. She fought to stay awake, and forced her eyes
open every time they closed. Even though she felt his warm skin against her,
his hands pinning hers down, his fingers intertwined with hers, it was as if it
was happening to someone else. She closed her eyes and fought off sleep, praying
she would remember every moment of experiencing him when she woke in the
morning.

When she opened her eyes again,
Donovan stood beside the bed, buttoning his shirt. He knelt down next to the
bed and kissed her softly. “You are mine, Rachel,” he whispered, as her heavy
eyelids closed. “You belong to me.”

Few things
remained secret on the estate, so Rachel was surprised that for five months
after the night in her bedroom no one knew of her involvement with Donovan. His
sneaking in and out of her room most nights went unnoticed. The looks they
shared, even in front of the others, remained just between them.

Five full months, and not one
person at the estate suspected the blossoming romance between employer and
employee. When they did find out, Rachel wished she could take back the kiss
she stole from Donovan in the library when Joe came through the door. Within an
hour, Rachel discovered Joe’s gossiping skills rivaled his ability to disarm
security systems.

In the wake of everyone learning
about their relationship, Donovan insisted they remain discreet. He did not
want to deal with any of the other residents questioning his decisions, nor did
he want their relationship to appear as if it tainted his capacity to run their
operations. He gave Rachel no preferential treatment. If anything, he was
harsher with her and placed her under greater scrutiny. He expected nothing but
perfection from her, and she gave him everything she had, both in her assigned
jobs and in their relationship.

A year after Joe told her secret
to the others, still no one had dared to approach her directly about the
matter, but they didn’t have to. From the looks she received, she ascertained
each resident’s reaction to the news. Joe and Tony seemed indifferent, though
she suspected Joe wanted to give her a high-five. Aaron could only manage his
trademark blank stare, the one he disappeared behind when a conversation went
down a road his mind couldn’t travel.

She suspected Paul had his
reservations, but after knowing about her relationship with Donovan for the
past twelve months, he never spoke of it. His mannerisms remained the same
toward both her and Donovan. Every now and then, though, standing in the same
room with Paul and Donovan, she detected a slight twitch in his jaw that told
her he was thinking about it and he wasn’t happy.

But now, as she stood in the
game room watching Paul throw darts in the general direction of the dartboard,
Eric’s reaction came to mind. Like the others, he had not spoken his opinion,
at least not to her. His actions, however, reflected his feelings.

“Eric hates me,” Rachel said.

Paul threw the last dart.

She walked to the dartboard and
tugged on each dart until she retrieved all of them. “Are you sure you don’t need
new glasses?” she teased. “Donovan will be real upset if you put a hole in the
wall.”

Paul grunted. “We can patch it.
Besides, it’s not like you’re doing any better than I am.”

“Oh yeah? Watch this.” She ran
her tongue over her lower lip and concentrated on the target. The dart whistled
through the air. Bull’s-eye. She turned around and smirked. “You were saying?”

“Keep up the smart comments and
I’m not playing anymore.”

“Yes, you will. You can’t stand
for me to beat you and that will be your downfall.” She threw the rest of the
darts, each one landing far away from the bull’s-eye so as not to show off too
much.

“I hate it when you win, but
with throws like that I have nothing to worry about.” Paul retrieved the darts
and walked back to the line. “What makes you think Eric hates you?”

“Eric has never been overly
friendly to me or anyone, but lately he’s been more brusque than usual.”

Sarcasm filled Paul’s voice and
he avoided her eyes. “Eric brusque? I don’t believe it.”

She glared at him. “Come on,
what do you know?”

Paul hesitated, as if trying to
decide what to tell her. “Eric’s upset that Donovan put you in charge of the
Stein job. He doesn’t think you can do it.”

Rachel shook her head. She
should have known Eric’s behavior was tantamount to a childish temper-tantrum
over the Stein job. She recovered from the mild blow to her ego. “Eric can have
the responsibility for all I care, but Donovan put me in charge, not him. He
has to get used to me being in charge every so often, but I don’t see what his
problem is. He’s not even assigned to this job.”

“He made it clear to Donovan
that he wanted to be in charge of this one, but Donovan gave it to you. That’s
quite an insult to an already somewhat unstable guy.” Paul threw a dart. “I
also might have overheard Eric telling Aaron that he thinks Donovan shows you
preferential treatment because of your relationship with him.”

“Nothing could be further from
the truth,” Rachel said. She did not want anyone thinking like that and was
incredulous Eric would voice his opinion to others without approaching her
first. “Everyone knows Donovan is harder on me than anyone else out there. Eric
is grasping at straws because he can’t stand for me to be in charge. I’m sure
he’ll say anything to get me taken off the job so he can take control.”

“Rach, I don’t know if this is
such a good idea.”

“I think I can handle being in
charge of this job.”

“I’m not talking about the job.”

His words quieted Rachel for a
moment. They had never spoken about her relationship with Donovan, let alone
admit that there was one to discuss. Rachel dropped into a chair at the poker
table and crossed her arms. “Okay,” she said, resigned to a stern lecture.
“Let’s have it.”

Paul clasped his hands together
as if praying and paced in front of her. “I’ve known Donovan a lot longer than
you. Most of the time you’ve known him, you’ve been a child, incapable of
judging character. You’ve spent over nine years of your life cut off from
society, but biologically, you’re the same as any other nineteen-year old. You
have the same physical needs and—”

“Will you stop getting all
doctory on me and say what you have to say?”

He took a deep breath and
stopped pacing. “Donovan has sheltered you for nine years. I wonder if you
aren’t confusing dependence with something else.”

“That’s not the case.”

“And I didn’t expect you to say
anything less. At least let me tell you this much. Donovan is a possessive man
in every aspect of his life. I know how he gets. I don’t want you on the
receiving end of it. Do you understand?”

Donovan’s voice entered her
mind, repeating the phrase he had spoken so often.
You are mine.
After
being involved with him for almost seventeen months, he had never said he loved
her, though she knew he did. Despite wanting to hear those three words from
him, she accepted everything else he said as confirmation of his love.

He always told her that she
belonged to him, that she was his life and he was hers. That he couldn’t
breathe without her, let alone survive a single moment. She had never defined
his words as a form of possession, but Paul’s description was accurate.

Rachel pushed herself up from
the chair and held her hand out to Paul. He handed her the darts and sat down
behind her. She put her toe up to the piece of tape on the ground and aimlessly
threw the darts at the board. She was no longer concerned with her score or
with beating Paul. She only wanted the conversation to end.

“Rachel,” Paul said, letting her
know the conversation was far from over, “I know it’s your life and I can’t
tell you what to do. I’m also not belittling your feelings for him, or whatever
it is you have with him, but I wanted you to know my thoughts about it. I know
what it’s like to be young and to think you’re in love.”

For the first time since Donovan
kissed her after the Cox job, Rachel experienced guilt over their relationship.
She had never considered Paul’s feelings on the matter or what affect her
relationship with Donovan would have on him.

As a young girl, Paul acted as
her father figure, though she had been raised by everyone at the estate in one
way or another. Despite being her uncle, Paul rarely interfered with her
decisions. That he was unsupportive of her relationship with Donovan bothered
her and she questioned her actions. Paul wouldn’t warn her away from Donovan
without reason.

“I appreciate your honesty,” she
said. She yanked the darts out of the board.

“But you won’t stop seeing him,”
Paul deduced from her words. “I can’t force you to end it with him, but please
think about everything carefully. As for Eric, he tends to run his mouth so his
feelings about you are no secret. I’ve never trusted him and I’m starting to
think he’s up to something. He would do anything to put you out of favor with
Donovan.”

Rachel held the darts out for
Paul to take, but he motioned for her to take another turn. She stepped back up
to the line. “Why doesn’t Eric like me?” she asked.

“When you first came here, it
was hard for everyone to adjust. A ten-year old girl on the estate?”

She smiled. “I guess it would be
pretty strange.”

“Especially strange when it’s a
child as feisty and stubborn as you. Joe always liked that about you and never
minded that you were here. I think you won over Tony when you sat in on a poker
game for the first time and cleaned Eric out. He saw that you weren’t afraid to
try anything and that’s what it takes to live here. Aaron wasn’t so sure about
you and still has his moments. Of course, he is somewhat influenced by Eric—”

“Somewhat influenced?” Rachel
said. “Aaron can’t tie his shoes unless Eric is right there, showing him how to
make bunny ears.”

Paul laughed. “That’s Aaron all
right. But when Eric isn’t around, Aaron admits to liking you. I think he
admires your courageous nature, which is something he lacks. Eric, on the other
hand, is simply intimidated by you. He’s also jealous that Donovan has always
adored you. Over the past several years, his relationship with Donovan has been
rocky, at best. I think he’s scared that one day Donovan will eliminate his
position.”

Rachel’s heart skipped a beat,
and she pondered Paul’s statement. “Would Donovan really get rid of Eric?”

“If Eric becomes too much of a
problem, yes. Donovan chose each of us for the roles we fill. We all have our
place on the estate with our own area of expertise. You were the only
unexpected addition to the team, but you learned quick and you fit in well. The
problem with that is that you and Eric are both masters at lock bypass and
safecracking.”

Even though she had been taught
several different skills and could perform most of them with ease, Rachel took
a shine to opening safes. She enjoyed the challenge and treated each safe as a
puzzle for her to solve.

As the resident safecracker,
Eric spent a lot of time with her, training her in the craft. She never
imagined having two people with the same skills would be problematic, but
considered it to be an advantage for Donovan. “What’s wrong with us both being
able to open safes?” she asked.

“Why does Donovan need two
experts in the same field? Besides that, you have an edge over Eric. You’re
more valuable to Donovan because you’re intimately involved with him. Eric
knows that if he screws up too bad, Donovan won’t hesitate to take him out.”

Rachel whirled around to face
Paul. She knew that’s what Paul had been saying all along, but the words still
struck her. “Take him out?”

“It’s always a possibility.”

Rachel stared speechless at
Paul. Over the years, Rachel had done a lot of bad things for Donovan. She had
broken into homes and stolen art or jewelry that he could sell on the black
market. She helped plan out intensive jobs that resulted in the deaths of
others. She had killed Jeff Cox, as well as two others Donovan convinced her
needed killing. Rachel was the only one at the estate who had ventured into
contract killing, and it was only because she wanted to please Donovan.

The thought that Donovan would
so callously eliminate someone at the estate frightened her. If he asked her to
kill another resident, she knew she could not do it, not even if it was Eric.
But if he considered getting rid of Eric, there was a chance that he may one
day decide he no longer needed her.

Rachel wouldn’t bring herself to
believe that Donovan could kill anyone at the estate, no matter what they did.
Paul’s fears had to be unfounded, otherwise they would all be at risk. “I doubt
Donovan would ever get rid of Eric,” she said. “But Eric being jealous of me is
ridiculous. If Eric is screwing up it’s his own fault.”

“That’s not how he sees it. He
blames you.”

Rachel pursed her lips. “Maybe I
should talk to him and get things out into the open.”

“That’s the last thing you
should do. Let’s get through this job. Maybe he’ll get over it and things can
calm down.”