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

Nigel,” she pleaded with him as he tried to force a response from her with his kiss; “I don’t belong to you, no matter what you want.” “You will be my mine,” Madison said softly. “It is decided.” “No!” Victoria sobbed and shook her head. “You can’t!” She watched as he left her. “Please, Nigel,” she pleaded with him. “I want to go home!” “You are home, my pet,” Madison laughed at her. “Accept it.” Victoria burst into tears as he left her alone and she heard his laughter. Rage flowed into her then. She felt a hatred that she had never experienced before and it frightened her. “Forgive me, God,” she prayed as he got up to take a shower and wash his foul touch off of her body, “but I want him dead for what he’s done!” She dressed and went to her computer and a cold smile lit her features. “But if I cannot have him dead, I will do as much damage as I can until I am free of him.” She contacted the list again and recanted her earlier decision. ‘Situation changed. Spy in place where he cannot remove it but Hawk’s mate must be released.’ She sent the message and waited. She was smiling when she read the reply ‘Consider it done.’ The door opened and the nurse came in with her lunch. She ate it like a good little pet and took a real nap. When she woke up, she saw her contact sitting at the desk. “He’s out of the house,” the nurse smiled at her. “Are you ready to fly?” “More than you could ever imagine, Celeste,” Victoria replied. Celeste applied acid to the ring in the collar and caught the chain before it fell. It was left on the bed. “Where am I going?” Victoria asked as she took the collar off and set it on the bed with the chain. She turned to see a nun’s habit being pulled out of Celeste’s bag. “Good choice. I have a lot of penance to do.” “You were given no choice, child,” Celeste told her firmly. “The monster was not going to keep his hands off of you much longer no matter what you did.” She watched her put on the habit and nodded. “Keep your head down and stay silent and it just might work.” Victoria walked along the landing and down the servant’s stairs to the kitchen. She waited until there was no one there and then she hurried out into the gardens and along the wall where the guards could not see her. Celeste had unlocked the side gate and a car was waiting there for her. Philippe looked at her and shook his head as he smiled. “A nun?” he laughed as they drove away. “That, my dear little friend, is something you could never be.” “Too sinful?” “Too much a child of your parents,” Philippe corrected her. “You need to be free to make your own decisions. The church frowns on such independence in nuns.” He saw the look in her eyes and he touched her hand. “He is going to pay for every blow he struck, little one. Believe it.” “I have to believe it,” Victoria nodded. “It’s the only thing holding me together right now.” They drove to the train station and he left her in the care of two other member of their organization, also in nun’s habit. A third person, dressed as a priest was waiting with their tickets. They settled into their compartment and Victoria began her debriefing. These three were trained in psychology and counseling. For however long Victoria needed them, they would be her companions until she felt herself ready to return to her life. 16 “I tell you,” Glen chuckled as he read the latest message he was sent in the sixth month of Victoria’s imprisonment, “this woman is amazing!” He blacked out the screen as Steven Gunther came close. The man was becoming a major annoyance as far as Glen was concerned. “How are you going with clearing Victoria’s name, Gunther?” “These things take time,” Steven shrugged. “I hear you’re getting some serious chatter from overseas.” He saw the wedding photograph Hawk and Victoria had taken in Las Vegas on Glen’s desk. “Why do you have that on your desk?” “Victoria and Hawk are both friends of mine, Gunther,” Glen frowned. “You have a problem with that?” He turned to the picture and he did not have to hide his anger. He and the rest of the agency had been told why Victoria was with Madison and it did not reflect well on the men. It did leave her pardoned in the eyes of those who did not know her. “It’s not her fault her father sold her to Nigel Madison in exchange for his continued existence. Piece of filth!” He turned on the news ticker and paled. “Oh God!” “Wife of federal agent vanishes,” Steven read with growing alarm. “Foul play suspected.” He went to his desk to contact his overseas friends. Twenty minutes later, he had a report. “Nigel Madison returned home from a late night business meeting to find his home broken into and his guest, the pregnant wife of Agent Hawk Travers, missing. Blood was discovered at the scene indicating Mrs. Travers did not go willingly. Not enough to be alarming,” he continued as he saw Glen’s face. “So far no ransom demands have been made. Her father would make no comment about his daughter’s disappearance.” “That’s because he doesn’t know anything,” Victoria spoke up from the doorway. She removed the hat and veil she was wearing and ran her hand through her shoulder length curls. “We planned it that way on purpose.” She smiled at Glen as the man squealed and got up to hug her. “Hey, techie.” “Sit down, Vick,” Glen said as he pulled up a chair for her. “You look like you have swallowed a watermelon.” “You always did have a way with words, my friend,” Victoria laughed and kissed him on the cheek. “It’s a wonder you aren’t married yet, Glen.” She sank down with a sigh of relief. “Being seven months pregnant will change a girl’s physique.” She saw his look. “Don’t worry, Glen. This is a Travers child I am carrying.” She looked at Steven. “Gunther.” “How did you get here so quickly?” Steven asked her in shock. “The news has only just hit the wire.” “My bastard of a jailer would have hid my disappearance as long as he could but my father made a statement this morning,” Victoria told him. “I escaped from Madison’s house two and a half months ago.” “With your father’s help?” Steven asked. There was something about this situation that just did not ring true. “We are curious, aren’t we?” Victoria said nastily. “No,” she shook her head. “I managed to get myself out of that house of horrors.” She smiled at the memory of the trip. “Hawk and I have a lot of friends who were all too willing to help.” “I am beginning to think that I completely underestimated you, Victoria Travers,” Steven actually smiled at her. “Most men do,” Victoria replied. She looked at him. “You’re not really as bad as you want people to believe, Gunther. Give yourself a break and start being human?” She tossed him something and he looked at the ring she’d thrown to him. “Madison had it. He gave it to me while as part of his attempts to seduce me. I seem to remember that you wanted it.” She wheeled the chair over to Glen’s computer and turned on the news ticker. “So has my worried host made an appearance yet begging my kidnapers to send me back unharmed?” “You’re really enjoying this, aren’t you?” Glen laughed. “If I didn’t already know what a bloodthirsty little bitch you can be when you’re angry, I might be truly shocked by your behavior.” “Glen, my dear dear friend,” Victoria laughed and hugged his neck. “You are going to give away all my secrets.” She got to her feet clumsily. “I have to go see Martin. He and Joanna are my protection to the good doctor’s arraignment.” She put the hat with veil back on, her face hidden completely from view. “See ya, techie.” “Later, super spy,” Glen laughed. Victoria went down the hall to Martin’s office. She knocked and he called for her to enter. She froze as she saw Hawk standing at Martin’s shoulder. She had not seen him since she’d been abducted. She nearly fainted as he held out his arms to her and she ran into them with a sigh of relief. They did not part from their kiss for several long and exceedingly delightful moments. “You certainly know how to make trouble for people, Victoria,” Hawk smiled as he nodded towards the screen. “The only reason he isn’t dead is because he kept his hands off of you.” He laid his hand on her abdomen and missed her flinch. Martin did not and he knew he’d be talking to her about her reaction soon. “Hello, son,” he said and then smiled as the baby kicked. “Wow that’s some kick he’s got!” “Tell me about it,” Victoria smiled and laid her hand over his, needing to feel him. She looked at Martin. “So how is Joanna doing, Martin?” “Morning sickness is the pits,” Martin replied. “That’s why Hawk is here. He’s subbing for her as one of your escorts.” “How nice,” Victoria smiled at Hawk again. The flames rose between them again and she was hard pressed to keep her hands to herself. He was breathing a bit heavier himself, she noted with some satisfaction. “I see you’ve missed me almost as much as I have you, husband.” “I don’t see how no one could see the real you, Vick,” Martin laughed. “You are no girl scout.” “I was,” Victoria said, donning an innocent expression that would have had anyone who didn’t know her completely fooled. “I had every merit badge there was and some I created myself before I was done.” She read the ticker. “Announcement from worried host expected in one hour.” She pouted. “I would have liked to have seen that. Shall we beat him to the punch or make him twist in the wind?” “You are a cruel woman, wife,” Hawk smiled. “Remind me never to make you angry.” “He deserves anything he gets,” Victoria said fiercely. “He is a bastard.” She laid her hand on his chest and looked up at him fondly. “You are not.” She was getting better. She could talk about Madison without shuddering and looking over her shoulder. Soon he would be just an unpleasant memory and she would be free to have a life with a man she loved and respected. “Did you find out who shot you, Victoria?” Martin asked her a question he had been dying to have an answer for. “Madison,” she replied. “The man is being primed for a major fall as we speak.” She saw the clock. “Should we go? I want a good seat for the hanging.” They went outside and waited as Martin brought up his car. She opened the door to her rental car and saw Hawk’s look of displeasure. She needed to be solo, however; so she could surprise him later at his – their house in Montrose. She kissed him and objections were forgotten in the tidal wave of emotion that swept over them both. Martin honked his horn and they jumped like scalded cats. “You should let one of us drive you,” Hawk said as she got behind the wheel of her rental car. “You’re in no shape to drive yourself, Victoria.” “I’m pregnant,” she told him snappishly, “not crippled and you have that deposition to give.” She kissed his cheek. “I just want to go home and relax.” He claimed her lips and she almost forgot to breathe. “I