Episode 7: Taking Control

Episode 7: Taking Control

by Toni Walker

Raphael Martinez found the cabin to be small yet clean. He wrapped Theresa up in a blanket he found and started a fire in the fireplace. The shack wasn’t much to look at but he’d been in worse on his brother Dom’s ranch. They had hundreds of line shacks on his property. Most smaller than this.

He felt a shiver go trough him and decided he’d better take care of himself as well. Theresa was out cold on a bed near the fire so he didn’t hesitate to discard his own clothing, hanging them up near the fire to dry.

Rafe didn’t know it but a pair of eyes watched him as the fire danced across his tan skin. Most of him was covered by a blanket similar to the one draped across her. She felt an instant awareness as she regarded him n the dim light.

Theresa had never felt this strong a connection to Mackenzie. From a spark to a flame in mere seconds. Rafe turned and caught her staring at him. She smiled and it lit up his face more than firelight ever could.

“You’re awake. I’m surprised.”

“I’m tough,” she managed to say before she let loose a small cough.

“I noticed that when I dragged you out of the river. You were calm. Almost too calm.”

Theresa shrugged. “I’m used to being in stressful situations so I choose how I will react. And I choose not to let it make me a victim.”

Raphael came across the room and sat down next to her. The chemistry between them crackled nearly as brightly as the fireplace.

“What is it about you? I don’t even know you, yet I feel compelled enough to jump in the river after you.” He laughed. “A very cold river, mind you.” He brought a hand up to her face and she didn’t brush it away.

Her hand covered his and her eyes searched for a reaction. She had to know that he was feeling what she was and it wasn’t just the after effects of their dip in the Mississippi. They felt drawn together like opposite ends of a magnet.

“This is crazy. I shouldn’t be feeling this way.” Raphael’s words were husky.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of waiting.” Theresa had never been known to deprive herself of something she wanted. She had no patience for waiting. She grabbed the back of his neck and brought his body closer to her. Their lips met in a frenzy of nibbling and open mouthed kisses. The blanket fell from around Rafe’s shoulders and pooled at his waist. Her hands roamed the exposed flesh.

“I want you,” he said breathlessly. “So bad.”

She swiped the blanket from his lap and from around her own body. “Show me.”

***

Melanie didn’t have a brain in her bimbo head, but she did have a few redeeming qualities. She was gorgeous and she knew all the secret ways of giving him pleasure.

Paul Thomas wasn’t particularly proud that he was carrying on an affair with his much younger secretary, but that didn’t stop him from pulling Melanie into his lap.

“Hey,” she said playfully as Paul ran his hands up and down her thighs. “I thought we were supposed to be doing work today. Not... You know!”

Paul’s smile lit up his entire face. He had a boyish charm that Melanie couldn’t resist. “Maybe I want to do... You know.”

“What about all the agents in the field who need your help and guidance?” Melanie giggled then moaned when Paul cupped her breast.

“I think they can wait twenty minutes, don’t you?” Paul picked her up and carried her to his sofa. On the way, he locked the door to make sure no one accidently came upon them unclothed.

Earlier Paul had turned off the ringer to his direct line. The red light flashed earnestly, but it went unnoticed as the director of the Midwest office make hot monkey love to his secretary.

***

“Blast! He’s not answering!” Nigel Bennett listened as his cell phone endlessly rang. “Double blast!” He snapped his phone closed and pinched the bridge of his nose pushing his glasses up onto his forehead.

Raven Martinez was not happy about this sudden development. “I thought you said your friend could help us.”

“He can!” Nigel was more upset than usual. It wasn’t everyday a hired assassin chased you down and tried to kill you. “At least he can if he would answer the bloody phone!”

Raven knew something was up. Nigel wouldn’t be acting like this if he didn’t know who Teryl Ellison was.

“You know her, don’t you?” Raven said accusingly.

“Know who?” he winced at the question. How could he tell this raven beauty who was following them without putting not only his cover but their lives in jeopardy?

“Teryl Ellison. You know her! I can see it in your eyes.”

“‘Know her’ is quite a misleading term. Do I know who she is? Yes. Do I know her personally? No. Our only hope of avoiding her is to get us both to a safe house. Until then, we’re sitting ducks.”

Nigel led Raven at a fast clip down the cobblestone walkway toward the large mansion before them. The area was lavishly decorated by houses which Raven assumed cost a pretty penny. At the end of the cobblestones sat a large castle. It was set far back into the lot leaving a large front yard. It wasn’t surrounded by a mote but an electric fence.

“This is it, I think. I can use my PDA to shut off the fence, but the attack dogs could pose a problem.”

Raven stepped backward. “Attack dogs?” The young Hispanic girl was not fond of dogs, period. But there was no way in hell she would jump into this person’s version of a moat and land in the jaws of a dog who only saw her as today’s midday snack.

“We have two choices. Seek shelter here for a short time, or wait until Teryl catches up to us. It’s your choice.”

Raven sighed. “This is a choice? Be killed by a raving lunatic with a gun or by dogs who haven’t been fed in weeks? That’s not a choice. Either way, it’s suicide.”

Nigel noticed a car turning down the lane. It was Teryl! He could feel it. He turned Raven around so she could see her as well.

“Make your choice. Death by dog or death by gun.”

Raven could feel her heart pounding erratically in her chest. The woman who had kidnapped her brother, Angel, was very close to discovering their hiding place. She looked to Nigel then back to Teryl. Death was at every door. What were they going to do?

As her breath came quicker, her mind became filled with images of her father and brother. She’d never see either one of them again.

Just as she was about to make her decision, Raven did something she had never done before. She fainted.

***

“They’re here,” Teryl said softly to her brother, John Ellison. “I can feel it.”

John watched as his sister clicked off the safety on her gun. This game was going too far. No one was supposed to get killed. No one was supposed to die, especially not in front of him.

His publisher had promised that they would only hold the children a short time, then let them go. Now it appeared the stakes had been raised.

“You can’t do this,” John whispered in a timid voice. Mr. Cross wouldn’t want the blood of an innocent child on his hands.”

Teryl laughed at his comment. It was an empty, heartless sound. In that instant, John knew her years in the intelligence and espionage business had changed her.

“You don’t know your boss very well, brother dear. He hired you to write the story and he hired me to get rid of any loose ends. Raven and her British friend can’t be allowed to return to the authorities.”

“We can deal with them,” he argued. “But not this way.”

Teryl’s eyes turned hard. “Stop testing my patience. You don’t want me to consider you a loose end, do you?”

John’s mouth hung open in horror.

“I’m your brother... You wouldn’t... You couldn’t.”

Teryl brought the silver gun to rest on John’s forehead.

“I’m not the same girl you knew as a child. Don't’ make me prove how heartless I really am.”

---

Next Time....

As Raphael and Theresa begin to make love, one isn't sure who the other partner truly is!

Mac comes face to face with Angel.

Evie flees from the Black Council minion, only to be overcome, in more ways than one.