Frankly, it was amazing that her nightmares tended to focus on her time spent in that windowless basement, although that was where it all started, wasn’t it?
Yet she’d made a split-second decision when he said he was going to kill Leo. She couldn’t let that happen. Sacrificing her freedom was a small price to pay for Leo’s life.
She made this decision despite what she’d seen in Leo’s eyes.
I don’t want you anymore.
He might as well have said the words for how starkly she could see the message in his dark orbs.
The way her heart broke when he looked at her; it was worse than her fear when she was nineteen and had woken up in the dark and discovered she was never, ever going home again. It was worse than when she found out Hayk was dead. It was worse than Davit climbing into her bed and declaring her “his” and informing her that he’d kill her if she ever left him.
It was worse than the fear she’d felt when she finally did run away.
It was worse than the paralyzing fear she’d experienced when they walked into the room and saw Davit standing there, and Shannon realized he’d found her after all.
While her heart shattered into a million pieces, Shannon made the decision to save Leo and likely his brother too.
She now understood that it wasn’t the death sentence Davit had always threatened. His obsession was too all-consuming. Here it was, a year after she’d left, and he showed up and still spouted that “you’re mine” crap and flew into a rage when Leo touched her.
He would never destroy his own obsession.
Which was the problem.
Because she’d just agreed to return to her living nightmare. To being his obedient little toy, to be played with when he felt like it, to do his bidding when it worked to his advantage. To being whatever Davit wanted.
For the rest of her life.
She’d finally come to terms. Nina Sarvilli had managed to escape twice, yet Shannon couldn’t get out, not ever.
Easily falling into her role because all those years of programming could not be wiped away so easily, Shannon wrapped an arm around Davit’s waist and urged him toward the door. She drew his attention to her, to her low voice, murmuring the platitudes she used so often in the past when he lost it like this.
He let her lead him away, out onto the porch, down the steps, to the black Escalade double parked in front of the bed and breakfast. She didn’t have her purse or her luggage or anything at all, but it didn’t matter. That stuff was all replaceable.
Leo was not.
Using her arm around his back as a guide, Shannon urged Davit toward the SUV. He’d expect her to drive, that was his way, so she walked him around to the passenger side door.
“Do you have your keys?” she asked, and he thrust his right hand into the front pocket of his jeans.
Click.
Suddenly, there was a man standing behind them, and a gun pointed at Davit’s temple.
“Step away, Shannon,” a deep voice commanded.
The guy knew her name?
Davit tensed. Shannon did as she was told.
“Hands up,” the man demanded before pressing the gun more firmly against Davit’s head.
Davit slowly lifted his arms. Shannon raised hers much more quickly. And then she glanced over her shoulder.
Marco Romano. Holy crap.
There was a hard set to his features, like he was wholly focused on this task, which apparently was to disarm Davit.
“Give me your weapons,” Marco demanded. “All of them.”
He didn’t even glance at Shannon or threaten or warn her in any way. And when Davit didn’t obey fast enough, Marco pressed the barrel of the gun more firmly against his head. “Give me an excuse to pull the fucking trigger. Please.”
After another moment’s hesitation, Davit began to pull guns and knives out of various hiding places, handing them one by one to Marco, who stuffed everything into his pockets. The whine of a siren could be heard in the distance, growing closer by the second.
“Here’s how this is going to go down,” Marco said while he pulled a pair of handcuffs from somewhere on his person and clamped them around one of Davit’s wrists. The other end he hooked to the doorhandle on the SUV. “Those cops that are almost here are going to arrest you for battery and whatever the hell else they can come up with. And this lady is going into witness protection. She’s going to disappear, for good this time. And you’re going to let it happen, because I know your brother doesn’t want the federal government sniffing around the family’s business dealings. Or better yet, go ahead and try to find her again. I’d like to see you and your brother both rotting in prison. Nothing would make me happier.”
The pitch of the sirens was almost painful, which meant the authorities were close. Shannon hoped there was an ambulance in the mix because Leo had looked like he was in some serious pain.
Damn Davit.
“Okay, time for our exit,” Marco announced, tugging on Shannon’s arm. She let him lead her around the house, not the side where the patio and guest parking lot was, but into a jungle of bushes and flowers separating the B&B from the yard next door.
They crossed through that yard and then through rows and rows of grapevines, until they stepped onto a narrow, unpaved road that was so far away from the B&B, she couldn’t even see the flashing lights in the distance anymore.
“What’s going on?” she asked. This didn’t seem like proper protocol for someone who acted
