‘You are not where I left you.’ It was a clear reprimand. ‘Where are you?’
“Corinne?” Cullen asked anxiously. “I shouldn’t have brought you. If anything happens to you, Lisa and Dayan will kill me.”
It was strange to carry on two conversations at the same time. “Nothing is going to happen to me, Cullen. See, I’m much better.” ‘We’ve come for Lisa. She went to a park where they’re photographing her.’
‘No! It is not safe. I cannot come to you yet. Leave that place at once!’ It was a clear order, delivered tersely with a hard “push” behind it.
She wanted to obey him. Needed to obey him more than anything else in the world. Everything in her demanded she do as he told her, but there was Lisa. As much as her entire heart and soul required that she comply with that order, she could not leave without Lisa. ‘Don’t be upset, Dayan. I will get home as soon as I have Lisa safe with us. Cullen is here too.’
Dayan lay helpless beneath the earth, seething with rage. With fear that amounted to terror. He didn’t dare make his command any stronger. Corinne was strong-willed and she was fighting him. Her loyalty to Lisa demanded that she get her sister-in-law to safety. Dayan knew her heart would not survive a struggle against him. He subsided, a shadow in her mind. The time until sundown seemed to tick away with agonizing slowness.
“Maybe you’d better stay in the car,” Cullen said uneasily. Dayan was working on him, pushing at Cullen’s mind so that he felt it was of paramount importance to protect Corinne. “It won’t take me long to collect her.”
“You’ll never get through security,” Corinne replied, resolutely pushing open the door. She slipped out before her reluctant body refused to do as she asked.
Cullen leapt out of the car and raced around it to take her arm. She walked determinedly along the walkway to the path that cut through to the interior of the park. At the area cordoned off for the shoot, she waved to the nearest security man and flashed a smile at him. “Frank! I didn’t know you’d be working today or I would have come sooner. How’s Lisa doing?”
The man in uniform grinned at her. “My favorite woman. I was desolate without you. You know how Lisa’s doing. She couldn’t make a mistake if she wanted to.” He reached across the rope to loosen the latch and let her through.
Inside Corinne’s mind, Dayan was suddenly very still. He wasn’t prepared for the surge of adrenaline sweeping through his body, the flood of black jealousy at the stranger’s words or Corinne’s obvious affection for him. She was far too attractive and didn’t seem to realize when men genuinely admired or wanted her. Dayan had come to resent the dead hours of the day when his body needed to rejuvenate. Even in his sleep, when he lay as dead, he missed her. Needed her. Craved her like a drug in his blood.
“This is Cullen, Frank. I’ve hired him as a personal bodyguard for Lisa. We’ve been getting weird phone calls, and I’ve been so paranoid since John’s death. I know I’m being silly, but I just don’t want to take any chances with Lisa.”
Corinne was looking up at Frank with her vivid green eyes, and the security guard was melting on the spot. Even Cullen could see that. Dayan could see it too. Inside him the beast was roaring with anger and a terrible rage. Hot lava was boiling up through his bloodstream even as his body lay paralyzed, locked beneath the earth. It took a tremendous amount of self-control to keep from using Corinne or Cullen to retaliate against the guard. The man wanted Corinne, but Dayan couldn’t really fault him.
“Should I put my crew on alert, Corinne?” Frank asked, his blue eyes worried. “Are you expecting trouble?” John’s murder had shocked them all. John had loved his sister and had come often to watch her photo shoots. Lisa was different from the majority of the other models, the ones who never spoke to the security crew. John and Corinne had almost always been at Lisa’s shoots and had gone out of their way to speak to everyone. The three of them were unfailingly polite, warm and friendly. They remembered everyone’s name and inquired about family members.