Kidnapped by the Billionaire (28 page)

He'd turned back, striding to the door. Honor had warned her that Gabriel and the others were clear that they'd wanted Elijah to stay at Zac's place while they decided what the hell to do with him. And she didn't think that Elijah just walking out of here was going to work.

Then again, he wasn't a man who let people stop him when he wanted to do something.

Pushing away all the other disturbing thoughts, Violet followed him to the door. “I'm not sure they're going to let us go,” she said as he reached for the handle. Because together they were “us” now, right? “Honor told me they didn't want you getting out.”

“Then they should have put a better guard on the door.” Elijah didn't even hesitate, pulling open the door.

Honor was waiting outside in the hallway, talking to someone on the phone. But as soon as the door opened and she noticed them, she ended the call, sliding the phone into the pocket of her tailored, black suit jacket. Her blue eyes went straight to Violet, as if checking to make sure she was okay.

And then the guard stepped into the doorway, blocking it.

Honor opened her mouth to say something, but Elijah's hand shot up and, before anyone could move, he took the guard by the throat and slammed him into the hallway wall opposite the door. The guy began to raise his hands, trying for some kind of last-minute defense, but by then it was too late. Elijah's fist caught him full in the face and he dropped like a stone.

“Are you coming, princess?” Elijah didn't look in Violet's direction, his attention firmly on Honor.

Violet's heartbeat had begun to speed up. She'd been planning on convincing Honor to let them go without a fuss, but Elijah had pretty much killed that plan.

“That was unnecessary, Mr. Hunt,” Honor said in a cool voice, completely unfazed by the sudden explosion of violence.

“Really? And I suppose you would have let me just walk out of here, Ms. St. James?”

Honor's gaze flicked to Violet. “Well, that depends on what you're about to do. Such as grabbing my friend here and trying to kidnap her again.”

“He's not trying to kidnap me.” Violet stepped into the hallway, coming up beside Elijah. And then, very deliberately meeting her friend's eyes, she reached out and took Elijah's hand, twining her fingers through his. “I'm coming with him because I want to help.”

Perhaps it was a risk taking his hand and revealing herself like this. And not only to Honor, but to Elijah as well. But hell, why not? The battle was coming and she'd picked a side. She wasn't ashamed of that.

Elijah didn't look at her, but he didn't pull away either, his hand still and warm in hers.

Honor's gaze fell to their entwined fingers, then rose to look back up at them. “I see,” she said softly. “Gabe is going to
hate
that.”

“I don't give a fuck whether he hates it or not.” Elijah's voice was flat. “I'm taking Violet with me and that's final.”

“You want to go, Vi?” The question sounded casual, but Violet knew it wasn't. She could hear the subtext.
If he's forcing you, let me know. I'll help you.

“It's okay, Honor,” she said steadily. “I need to go with him.”

“You know what he's going to do, don't you? What he wants you for?”

“She's not stupid,” Elijah said, his tone icy. “Of course she does. That was the first thing I told her.”

Honor flicked him a glance that was strangely measuring. “We need the name, Mr. Hunt.”

“No, you don't. I'm sure Ms. King can find out for you. If she can break my security system, she can find out that minor detail.”

Honor pursed her lips. “How did you know it was Eva?”

“There's only one way to open that door without the combination code and that's to reset it. It's a top-end Void Angel system and there's only one person who could possibly have hacked into it so quickly.”

So that's how they'd gotten into Elijah's apartment. She still didn't know whether she was pleased about that or not.

“You know Gabriel and the others are in the next room right now.” Honor's gaze was level. “All I have to do is call out. And we know where you live. We can stop you.”

“You could. But you won't. Because the person I'm going to kill is exactly the same person you want dead too.” He smiled one of his terrifying smiles. “Ask Ms. King. She'll be in agreement I'm sure.”

“But we don't even know who that person is.”

“Then you'll just have to trust me.”

Honor snorted, clearly disbelieving.

“You can,” Violet said quietly as she tightened her fingers around Elijah's. “And if you don't trust him, you can trust me. I know what I'm doing.”

But her friend didn't look convinced. “He captured you, Vi. You're a psychology major. You must know—”

“Yes, I know. Stockholm Syndrome, et cetera, blah, blah.” She held Honor's gaze. “You can believe what you like about that, but you have to know I'm also doing this for the people Dad wronged. To make up for all the pain he's caused. You have to let me, Honor. You have to.”

She could feel Elijah's impatience. She knew he wanted to go and go now, and to hell with Honor and the rest of them. But she didn't want to leave with a fight, because that, in the end, wouldn't help anyone.

Honor stared at her. “You know who he's going after?”

For a second she struggled with her conscience, with her loyalties. Elijah hadn't told them, which meant he must not want them involved and she could see why. He wanted this to be his fight, not theirs.

She could feel his dark gaze on her, fierce and cold, but he didn't say anything. As if he was waiting for her to make the choice.

So she made it.

“No,” she lied. “I don't. He wouldn't tell me.”

Honor's gaze flickered as if she knew Violet was lying. “But you trust him anyway? Really?”

“Yes.” The word wasn't hard to say, mainly because it wasn't a lie. “I do.”

The other woman looked at her for a long moment. Then suddenly, she let out a breath. “Go, then. I'll make sure the others don't come after you.” Her gaze flicked back to Elijah. “But I can't guarantee they won't. They have their own reasons for wanting to follow up on this.”

“Then they'll have to bear the consequences,” Elijah said shortly. “Consider yourself warned, Ms. St. James.” And without another word, he turned toward the front door.

“Vi,” Honor murmured as Violet slipped past her. “Be careful.”

“I will.” She forced a smile on her face even though smiling was the last thing she felt like doing. “And thanks.”

But Honor didn't smile back, and the worry in her blue eyes stayed with Violet for a long time after they'd gone.

 

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Honor waited for Gabriel and the others in Zac's study, her hands clasped on her lap.

None of them were going to be terribly happy with her about letting Elijah go, but really, what did they expect? Zac had left one guard. One. Hardly a match for Elijah, and it wasn't as if Honor could stop him if he'd tried to leave.

Still, she probably should have told them that Elijah and Violet had gone. Yet she hadn't and she hadn't worked out why that was yet.

She hadn't expected her friend to want to go back to him and the fact that Violet had was a worry. Yet … Honor suspected there was something deep and complicated going on between Elijah and Violet. She'd seen it in the glances they'd given each other, in the way Violet had reached for his hand, had told Honor she'd trusted him.

For some reason it reminded her a little of her and Gabriel. So no, she hadn't warned the others or tried to stop Violet from leaving. She'd let them both go because fundamentally they wanted the same things that she and the rest of her friends wanted. And because Violet had held his hand and he hadn't pulled away.

Maybe she'd regret it. Maybe she'd made the incorrect choice. But she had an instinct about those two and she didn't think it was wrong.

One thing she was sure of though. Gabriel was going to be pissed.

Luckily she could handle him when he was.

She waited a while, to give Elijah and Violet some time to get well away, and soon enough, the door to the study opened and her lover came in, closely followed by all the rest.

Gabriel's dark eyes scanned the room quickly then came to rest on her. “Where is he, baby?”

Honor lifted her chin. “I let him go.”

Oddly, he didn't seem too upset by this. “And Violet?”

She pushed herself out of the chair and walked slowly over to where he stood. His temper didn't frighten her, never had. She knew how to deal with it. “She went with him.”

Something dark flashed in his eyes. “What do you mean ‘she went with him'?”

“Where's my guard?” Zac was standing behind Gabriel, his amber eyes fixed on her. “He wasn't outside?”

“No,” Honor said, not looking at him, keeping her gaze on Gabriel. “Elijah took him out. I had to send him to the emergency department to get his broken nose checked.” They all seemed pretty calm about this. Too calm. What the hell was going on?

“Explain, baby,” Gabriel demanded. “Because ‘she went with him' sounds like it was voluntary. And I have to say, I'm real unhappy about that.”

And here it came, his temper.

Honor placed a palm in the center of his broad chest and looked up at him. “It's okay. She's your sister and you want to protect her. But yes, it was voluntary.”

“Fucking sisters,” Alex muttered. “Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em.”

“So let me get this straight. It was her choice?” Gabriel looked in no way appeased. “You told her about me, right? About everything?”

Honor met his gaze, unflinching. “Yes. It was a lot to take in and I think … Look, I don't know what went on with her and Elijah, but things are a lot more complicated there than we thought.”

The silence in the room suddenly became deafening.

“‘Complicated'?” Gabriel's voice was deceptively mild. “What kind of ‘complicated'?”

He
really
wasn't going to like this.

Briefly Honor debated not telling him because it was sure as hell going to sign Elijah's death warrant. Then again, Elijah could handle himself, clearly.

“The usual kind,” she said at last.

Alex sighed and walked over to one of the chairs near the fireplace, throwing himself down on it. “Just let me get comfortable before you go postal, Gabe. I wouldn't mind watching the boot being on the other foot for a change.”

Gabriel ignored him. “Fuck that. I'm going to get her back. Now.”

“No,” Honor said firmly and closed her fist in the fabric of his T-shirt, holding him still. “Violet wants to help Elijah. She wants whoever he's going after dead as well, and you need to let her do it.” She held Gabriel's dark eyes with her own. “This is her recompense for everything her father did. You have to let her have that.”

Gabriel's expression twisted and he abruptly pulled away from her, turning and stalking toward the closed door of the study.

Honor watched him, knowing him. Knowing he wasn't going to walk through it.

And sure enough he came to a stop in front of it, staring at the dark wood. Then he lifted a fist and slammed it into the paneling. “
Fuck
,” he said viciously.

“We were always going to let him go, Gabe,” Alex commented from his position on the chair. “This is what we planned, remember?”

Ah, so there was something going on. “What plan?” Honor glanced around at the others, then narrowed her gaze at Gabriel. “What are you talking about?”

“We wanted to let him escape on his own,” Gabriel said roughly after a moment. “Zac put his least-experienced guy on the door for form's sake, but basically we needed him to leave.”

“Why?”

It was Zac who spoke. “Because we think he's already organized a meeting with whoever it is he's after. Eva can find out the name we need, but obviously the details of this meeting—if there is one—are trickier to discover. So our plan was to let you bring Violet here and he'd take her—”

“That was
your
plan,” Gabriel interrupted curtly.

“And it's a fucking good one, you agreed,” Zac continued, all calm. “Anyway, I put a tracking device in the hem of the sweater you loaned her. We can track her, which means we can track this meeting Hunt's organized.”

Honor blinked, trying to take it all in. “When did you do that to my sweater?”

“Still means Hunt's got her.” Gabriel said to Zac, ignoring her question. The expression on his face had cleared, but there was anger burning in his dark eyes.

“She is a strong woman.” Katya, over by the fireplace near Alex's chair, sounded decisive. “Don't underestimate her.”

Gabriel threw her a scowl. “You don't know her.”

“Neither do you,” Alex reminded him. “You saw the way she leaped in front of him in spite of all the hardware pointing in her direction. That wasn't what we'd expected.”

Gabriel straightened out the fingers of the hand he'd punched the door with and gave them a shake. “He probably brainwashed her.”

Honor sighed. “That's what I thought too, but I don't think it's like that. Actually, reminds me a bit of you and me.”

Gabriel scowl deepened. “In that case, he's a dead man.”

“Oh quit with the macho bullshit,” Eva muttered. “Point is, Elijah did what he was supposed to do and escaped. Violet's with him of her own choice, and if Honor thinks that's legit then so do I. He'd not going to hurt her, right?”

Honor gave the other woman an approving look. She'd come to respect the hell out of Eva King. “Uh no. I definitely think that's not in the cards. But I wouldn't have minded a heads-up about the plan though.”