A Matter of Circumstance by M J Marlow (if you give a mouse a cookie read aloud .TXT) 📖

her. “I think it’s time you took a break from all of this.” Hawk took her to the airport and refused to tell her where they were going. They both needed a break, he told her bluntly. When the plane landed in Las Vegas she was intrigued. When the taxi pulled up in front of a wedding chapel, she was stunned. She had always wanted her uncle to officiate at her wedding. But she couldn’t tell Hawk her uncle was alive and make him wait. Seeing the look on his face, she didn’t want to wait. So they were married and they flew back to Phoenix three weeks later as Mr. and Mrs. Travers. They went to the safe house that was arranged for her after playing tourist and Hawk watched as she moved around smiling and humming. Feeling secure was having a liberating effect on her. He could not help himself; she drew him to her like the proverbial moth to the flame. He kissed her and she was in his arms without a fight. He was totally overwhelmed by her passion and still floored after a wedding night of frantic and then tender sex when he realized she had been a virgin before they had gotten married. “I was saving it for the man who I could give all of my heart to, Hawk,” she had said to him when he choked. “I knew that man was you the moment I met you.” She laughed at him. “I am your wife, Agent Travers.” “I am humbled that you would wait for me, Mrs. Travers,” Hawk replied and raised her hand to his lips. He smiled at the wedding ring that now rested on her finger. “You know we’re going to have to have a church wedding eventually,” Victoria said to him. “I promised Uncle William.” Hawk was still wondering if he could agree to a church wedding two weeks after they arrived at the safe house when the phone rang. Five weeks of wedded bliss was soured as he was reminded that there was still danger threatening his wife out in the real world. He listened as he watched her shower and wanted to join her. Instead he let her dress, trying to control the way his body responded to her and failing miserably. She waited for him to tell her what was going on. “That was Gunther,” he said. “He is coming here to talk about his case. He thinks you are withholding information and if he shares intel it might jog your memory.” “I don’t like that man,” Victoria frowned. They heard a honking horn and went outside. Gunther was opening the lid of his trunk and pulling out a box of files. “You’re very thorough, Agent Gunther,” she said as she pulled out a file and began to read. “Someone needs to teach you how to be more succinct,” she said as she closed the file and put it back into the box. “If nothing else, I’ll be bored enough to sleep well.” They started taking the boxes of file inside and were saying goodbye to Gunther when there was a squealing of tires. They all turned to see two black SUVs barreling down the road towards them. Gunther threw the box back in and slammed the lid shut. The windows of the approaching vehicles went down and they all dove for cover as weapons fire hit the side of the car. Hawk heard something pop nearby and smoke filled the area. He heard Victoria cry out in alarm and struggled to his feet to see her being shoved into one of the SUVs. The smoke cleared as the vehicles roared away with one last burst of gunfire. Gunther and Hawk piled into his car and followed but the SUVs were gone. “So Gunther,” Hawk snarled as he clamped his hand on the man’s throat and squeezed. “Convince me you didn’t set my wife up for that abduction.” “I was wrong about her,” Gunther choked. “Someone has been yanking our chain so that we’d lead them right to her.” He rubbed his throat as Hawk let him go. “We have to move fast or they’ll get her out of the country before we can find her.” 12 Victoria had been sedated the moment she was yanked into the vehicle and she woke up to find herself collapsed in the corner of a large wooden box with air holes up higher than she could reach. There were blankets inside with her but nothing else. She was bound hand and foot and gagged. Someone was going to a lot of trouble to make certain she could not get free. She heard someone moving nearby and she sat up straight and listened to their conversation. They were speaking French. “Il est un homme osé allant à l'encontre quelqu'un comme Beauclerc,” one of the men was saying in a nasal tone. “Est-ce qu'femme en valeur est le risque qu'il prend?” They were talking about the man who had ordered this abduction. Was this another man who was after her father’s money, or was there some other purpose for this abduction? Victoria did not like being so out of control. It made her angry to think that after twenty years of relative anonymity far too many people knew who she really was. “C'est Beauclerc'; fille de s que nous parlons,” the other man’s voice was deeper but she seemed to remember it from somewhere. “Il va l'employer pour commander son père.” “Quit chattering like old women where the girl can hear you,” a man snapped in English. “Considering who her father is, don’t you think it’ possible that she can understand French?” She heard blows being struck and knew the men were being disciplined. “The ship is here. We need to load the crate so they can be underway before the feds find out where she is.” Ship? How long had she been asleep? They were obviously not anywhere near Phoenix now. Where had they brought her? Questions circled in her brain and she had no answers for them. She heard something scraping above her head and saw a tube enter one of the air holes. The others were covered and gas filled the box quickly. She began to cough as it entered her lungs and then she was out. The next time she woke she could feel the movement of a ship beneath her and knew she was on a vessel heading only God and the man who had abducted her knew where. She opened her eyes and the ropes were gone. She was lying in a small cabin and she was loose. She got up and caught herself on a desk as the world titled around her. She was still fighting off the after-effects of whatever they had used to sedate her. She got to the porthole and looked out to see nothing but water. They weren’t anywhere near land now and she was angry and frightened. “Let me out of here!” she demanded as she beat on the locked door. The door opened and she backed up as a tall decidedly Gallic type man with his dark eyes and dark hair and swarthy complexion stepped in. His eyes raked over her and she knew what he was thinking. She moved further away, looking for something she could use to hurt him with, and Philippe laughed. The girl was just like her mother. “You are in no danger of being ravished by me, Madame Travers,” the man told her. “But if you keep drawing attention to yourself by yelling, the rest of the crew will know you are here. They have been without women for a very long time. Do you understand what I am saying?” “The crew on this ship are not my friends,” Victoria said to the man as she sat down in the chair at the desk. She held her hands out to the man. “Hello, Philippe. I assume that my kidnapper’s plot has been thwarted.” “I know nothing of kidnapping. I am returning a child to her father,” Philippe replied with the typical Gallic shrug. “He has missed you terribly, enfant. He heard that someone was insisting you join them overseas and he decided to intervene.” “He could have warned me over the phone,” Victoria stated coldly. “What is really going on?” “You must be hungry, Madame,” the man said instead of answering her question. “You have not eaten in three days.” He knocked on the door and it opened to admit a man holding a tray. He set it down on the desk and looked at her with hunger in his eyes. “Il retirera vos yeux pour qu'oser moule un tel regard à sa fille, la stupide. Sauf ces pensées pour vos putains.” He slapped the man and shoved him out of the cabin. “I shall leave you to enjoy your meal. We will be with your father in a few more hours.” Victoria sank down at the desk and looked at the meal she’d been brought. Since she hadn’t eaten since she did not remember when she was hungry, but she was also cautious. Was the meal drugged? Would she fall asleep again and wake up in some strange place she did not know facing a man she could not remember? She had no way of knowing if these men belonged to her father’s or the man who her father was investigating. She had to risk it; she was too hungry to go without. A half hour after she had finished her meal, she was asleep again. “Here she is, mon ami,” Philippe smiled as he opened the door and stepped back so that a taller, more arrogant and regal man could enter. “From all account they kept her sedated the entire trip. No one touched her.” Nicol Beauclerc looked down at his daughter and smiled. She was her mother all over again, but she had his eyes. He picked her up in his arms and carried her to the helicopter pad, settling her gently into a seat and strapping her in. She had been shot. He was still raging at that fact! The bastard had tried to take his child! He had no remorse over his actions. Someone was hunting his child and she would only be safe with him until that animal was brought down. 13 “We have it!” Hawk and Martin turned from their conversation with Steven as Glen called out in triumph. They went to his desk and read what was coming out over the printer. The information Victoria had been given was a detailed list of men involved in sharing information with terrorists, many of them among the federal bureaus. No wonder someone had wanted her dead. It was obvious she had been put on the trail of these men and they had found out. Another file was personal information. “Nicol Beauclerc,” Steven whistled. “Wow! That man has been under surveillance by Interpol for decades! They’re going to love to hear that he abducted one of our people.” He ran for a phone and got a connection to one of his contacts in Interpol. “We have something you can use to put the screws to Beauclerc. His daughter Victoria Travers is one of ours. She is not there with him willingly.” He smiled. “It’s not much, but it’s something.” He hung up and saw the other two men glaring at him. “What?” “You do realize that you may just have let the men hunting her know where she is, don’t you?” Martin snapped at him. He saw Steven pale. “Do you ever stop to consider the repercussions of your actions, Gunther? How have you never been shot before this?” He made his own call. “Emile, mon ami,” he said to the man he knew. “It’s Martin Cavenaugh. I have a situation you need to be aware of.” He filled him in on Victoria’s situation. “She’s important to