Page 36 of Jake

“Watch me!”

Daddy had let me go, as far as my suite, but the following day, everything totally unravelled.

***

When my bedroom door crashed open, I was startled awake, and George appeared in the doorway. I could barely see him in the dim light of what I thought was the early morning.

“Get up, Eleanor. Move!” George sounded frantic.

I jumped from the bed and grabbed a gown and slippers but didn’t stop to dress in either. George took hold of my hand and we fled along the corridor towards the kitchen, where a trapdoor in the pantry opened into another corridor that led underground to a hunting cottage in the forested area outside the estate’s fence.

My heart beat out a tattoo as we ran. I didn’t ask questions; I was busy attempting to breathe. There would be time to ask George once he deemed it was safe enough to stop.

When we reached the door that opened onto a set of steps leading into the lodge’s laundry, George made me stand back. With a gun in his hand, he pushed the door open a few centimetres and listened. Satisfied it was safe, we entered the small building.

“Get dressed, we need to get out of here.”

I kept a change of clothes and a small suitcase at the ready in a bedroom at the lodge, and with George behind me, we made our way there. He stood guarding the door while I dressed, discarded the nightwear and slippers, and snatched up the case.

When I opened the door, George grabbed my hand, and we hurried towards the garage, where a vehicle was kept at the ready.

An attack by one of Daddy’s enemies was always a possibility, and my escape, should the need arise, had been meticulously planned. It wasn’t the first time George had rushed me to safety, but fortunately, the other attacks had been amateurish, done no harm, and Daddy had disposed of the perpetrators without issue.

This attack had ended differently from the others. Daddy had been killed, so I’d stay safe, George had delivered me to the Bonello family, where I’d gone into hiding with their help. Don Bonello had been good friends with my father, though only God knew why. Daddy always said they scratched each other’s backs when it became necessary. Since Tania had been my best friend for decades, I had no objection to the arrangement.

Don Bonello produced documentation, signed by Daddy, which stated if both my father and I died, he was to inherit the entire estate. No one contested the claim, there was no family excepting my mother, and she wouldn’t have dared take on the Bonello empire.

The reading of the will had taken place, the estate sold with funds deposited in an account in my new name, and funerals for my father and I had taken place amid great pomp and ceremony, or so I was told. Mama hadn’t cared enough to attend, but I hadn’t expected she would.

Don Bonello confirmed the attack had been orchestrated by Pierre Oriole in retaliation for his son’s death. I hadn’t needed to be a rocket scientist to have figured that out.

Don Bonello had his contacts throughout Europe keeping a close watch on the movement of Oriole, convinced the man wasn’t done. Tania was terrified he would come after me to exact further revenge.

When her father suggested I take on a new name and identity, I reverted from my straight non-descript mousy brown hair to the natural mass of red curls that hadn’t been seen since I was the age of five and before I’d started school. I’d also binned the blue contacts. Father had feared the combination of my red curls and unusually striking emerald green eyes would make me far too easily recognised if trouble ever arose. When Natalie came into being, they worked in my favour.

So, on that day one year earlier, Eleanor Hume had been laid to rest alongside her father, and Natalie Prior had been birthed.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

JAKE

It had been almost a week since the casts had come off and my leg was strong enough to support my weight to walk short distances. The arm was also doing well. Thanks to the program I’d set in place, and with either Connor or Quinn’s help, I was starting to get tone back all over my body.

I hung up the phone after speaking with Herias. We’d been discussing the trip I was making to Rabaul the following week. He’d spoken with all the Kumul Cartel’s customers and a meeting was arranged to be held at his compound. I wasn’t going alone, Connor, Quinn, and ten men were accompanying me, and I wasn’t objecting. My nerves were on edge with having to return to the town where I’d been so brutally beaten and tortured.

“Got a minute?”

I glanced up to find Connor standing in the doorway, a file in his hand.

“Sure, come in.”

He closed and locked the door before taking the seat opposite me and dropping the file on my desk. Whatever was in that file was serious stuff.

“What’s this?” I fingered the manila folder, waiting for it to strike like a snake.

“Read it.”

Connor sat back in his chair, one ankle crossed over his knee and arms folded over his chest.