Broken by His Hand - Piper Stone Page 0,69

to bow down to some man who believed himself to be God.

When he turned around to pay the bill, I did the only thing I could do.

I fled.

Chapter Twelve

Michael

What. The. Fuck?

The moment I turned around, my entire world stopped cold. She was gone.

Taken.

I would kill the motherfucker responsible.

Images rushed into the forefront of my mind, horrible visions of her broken body because of her involvement with me. Because I couldn’t protect her.

Think. Think...

I shifted, glaring at the woman behind the counter. “Did you see where she went? My companion.” The woman I was falling hard for. Fuck.

“No. No, sir. I’m sorry. I’m sure she’s just outside waiting for you.”

For a few seconds, I was paralyzed. Then I rushed out onto the sidewalk, glaring from one side to the other. I reached for my weapon before moving closer to the street, hissing as I attempted to study the cars. There was no possible chance that I could see anything amiss, not with the number of vehicles. Every muscle tense, I knew going off halfcocked wasn’t in my best interest.

Or hers.

I moved to the end of the street, staring at the restaurant before studying the traffic on the parallel road. This wasn’t going to do any good. Damn it.

What the hell had I been thinking bringing her out in the open? I’d brought her to the city to protect her, not get her kidnapped.

After taking several deep breaths, I thought about the exchange from earlier. She was angry, pissed off that I’d purchased the necklace I’d called a damn collar. Fuck. Fuck!

While the girl was resourceful, she didn’t know the city. Anything could happen to her. All she had to do was walk down the wrong street. I took off running, heading back to the hotel. If she was a smart girl, she was simply buying herself some time in order to cool off.

Dear God, I hoped so. Then I would tan her hide for making me worry.

She had no full understanding of the kind of enemy we were facing. None. She still believed in fairytales and unicorns. That wasn’t real life. There were no such things as heroes. Huffing, I made it to the hotel in only a few minutes, taking my time to search the lobby. There was no one even fitting her description. I had the only key. There was no way she could have gone up to the room.

The anger within me was directed at myself. I’d been a fool to think I could handle her. Not this way. She was her own woman, but this time, she was going to learn that the necessity to follow the rules was simply to keep her alive.

Where would she go? She didn’t have much of a head start on me, that is if she’d decided to return to the only place that was familiar.

I gazed at the hotel’s monitors, hoping for inspiration. Then I located what I was looking for. When I walked outside to the atrium, I heard the sound of water in the distance. Very slowly I walked in the direction until I was able to see her sitting on a bench in front of a pond, the beautiful space highlighted by sparkling lights imbedded in the trees in various colors.

Breathing a sigh of relief, I moved toward the bench, easing down as far away from her as possible. I stared at the water, realizing the pond was filled with fish. Tranquility. Peace. I hadn’t listened to her. I was a damn fool.

She didn’t acknowledge my presence or make a single sound. We sat quietly for a full five minutes, the trickling of the water in the pond the only noise.

“I’m sorry, Sophia. I wasn’t attempting to push my life or a lifestyle that you can’t seem to stand on you. What I wanted was to make you smile in the same way that you made me feel happiness for the first time in years.” I didn’t bother glancing in her direction. I could feel the wave of anger from where I was sitting.

Sophia shifted, enabling her to look in another direction.

I shook my head and stared down at the package in my hand, the beautiful silver ribbon reflecting in the glittering lights. I closed my eyes, realizing that I had to let go of the very past I’d told her no longer mattered. “Her name was Julia. She was my fiancée. We adored each other and were planning on getting married in a beautiful old church. Then