Pursued Read online

  Then the vision dissipated as quickly as it had formed.

  Elise needs you now—urgently, the Goddess told him. Go to her. Before it is too late.

  Chapter Forty-one

  “’Scuse me, Miss Elise, but you got a visitor down here with a whole bunch of flowers.” The soft, drawling voice of Barney, the ancient doorman at Elise’s downtown apartment building, came clearly through her intercom.

  James, she thought in exasperation. Couldn’t he even give me an hour before he had to come after me? But she knew the answer to that—her ex-fiancé was nothing if not persistent, especially when large sums of money were involved. And that’s all I am to him, she thought bitterly. Just a large sum of money he doesn’t want to see float out of his reach. Well too bad, James, this little wad of cash is gone.

  Resolutely, she pressed the intercom button. “Tell him to leave, please, Barney. I’m not seeing anyone.”

  There was a soft, indistinct mutter of male voices and then Barney replied.

  “Sorry, Miss Elise, but he’s real persistent. Says he just wants to come up and tell you how sorry he is. You oughta see these flowers—they’re real purty.”

  Elise ground her teeth. She’d always kind of thought it was cute what a hopeless romantic Barney was, despite his age. He was like a secondary character in a romantic comedy, going out of his way to get the two star-crossed lovers together. But right now she found his meddling annoying in the extreme.

  “I’m sorry, Barney,” she said firmly. “But I’m just not interested.”

  She was turning away from the intercom, congratulating herself for never quite getting around to giving James a key to her apartment, when Barney’s voice came floating out of the small, tinny, box again.

  “Miss Elise, he says to tell you if you just listen to him for five minutes, he’ll tear up the prenup, whatever that means.”

  The offer stopped Elise dead in her tracks. For the past hour, ever since she’d gotten home, she’d been pouring over her copy of the ill-fated document she’d so foolishly signed.

  All this time she’d believed it was a standard contract, one to protect a rich man from a gold-digging woman. Since she had her own money and career and didn’t care about James’ wealth, she’d signed without hesitation, though it had hurt her a little that he thought such a document was necessary between them.

  But it was more—much more than that. And sure enough, there was a clause that stated she was legally bound to James and had to go through with the wedding, no matter what. Even worse, it stipulated that their marriage couldn’t be dissolved for at least a year afterwards. Not only had she legally obligated herself to marry James—she was going to be stuck with him for a good long time afterwards.

  Reading the document made her sick. James had been planning this for a long time—probably ever since he’d run that background check on her and gotten in touch with her stepfather.

  He’d hand me over to Charles on a silver platter as long as he got paid enough to do it, she thought, and knew it was true. The depth of dishonesty and betrayal from a man she’d once believed she loved hit her like a brick in the stomach. But if James was actually offering to tear it up…

  “Are you sure?” she asked into the intercom. “Are you sure that’s what he said, Barney?”

  “Sure am, Miss Elise. He even got a copy of it with him. I can’t make heads ’nor tails of it, though—looks like a lot of legal mumbo-jumbo to me.” Barney cackled. “’Course that’s why I’m a doorman ‘stead of a lawyer, I guess. So what do you say? Should I send him up?”

  Elise hesitated. Something in her gut told her to be careful—to be wary of this offer, which seemed too good to be true. And yet, if she could really get James to tear the contract up, she could save herself years of litigation and possibly hundreds of thousands in court fees.

  “Miss Elise?” Barney asked again. “You there?”

  “All right,” she said at last, against her better judgment. “Send him up.”

  It seemed only a second later that she heard a knocking at the door. Jumping up, she ran to open it but a sudden surge of anxiety made her look out the peephole first. Nothing could be seen, however, but the bottom half of James’ immaculately tailored suit and a huge bouquet of deep red roses which obscured his face.

  Elise sighed. She hated roses—they reminded her of her father’s funeral. But they were the first flowers James had ever sent to her and she’d never had the heart to tell him so. As a result, she was always getting bunches of them from him. Though from the look of things, he’d outdone himself this time—there had to be three or four dozen long stemmed American Beauties in the bouquet he was holding up.

  Well, I’m damn well going to tell him what I think of roses now! she told herself. Sliding the bolt, she opened the door and held it wide. “Come in,” she said tersely. “But don’t expect to stay long.”

  “Just long enough,” he murmured and Elise frowned, thinking that his voice sounded wrong somehow. What had happened to his accent?

  “James?” she asked uncertainly, backing away.

  “No, not James.” The roses dropped to one side and a different face from the one she’d expected appeared. Different, but horribly familiar all the same. “Hello, princess,” her stepfather said, kicking the door shut behind him. “Long time no see. What do you say we get reacquainted?”

  * * * * *

  “Merrick, is that really you?” Olivia’s face on the viewscreen looked cautiously happy and bewildered at the same time.

  “Yeah, it’s me all right,” he snapped. “But I don’t have time for small talk.”

  “I’m sorry. It’s just—Elise was so sure you were dead.”

  “Sure enough to go down to Earth and see that fucking fiancé of hers?” Merrick growled.

  Olivia frowned. “Well, yes, she went to see him. But only to tell him that the wedding—uh, joining ceremony—was off.”

  “But she’s down there now, right? Down on Earth?”

  Olivia nodded. “Yes, she is.”

  “Do you have the coordinates? The place she’s at? I need to find her right now, Olivia. It’s urgent.”

  “Well, she did give me a place I might be able to reach her.” Olivia frowned. “Her fiancé’s house.”

  Merrick swore. “And you think she’ll be there instead of her own place? She does have her own place, right?”

  Olivia looked troubled. “I honestly don’t know. I think so. Her fiancé has been really persistent about wanting her to come back home, but she’s been so broken up about you I don’t know if she’d spend much time with him. Here, let me get you the addresses she gave me.” Olivia’s face disappeared for an instant and then she returned and rattled off a string of numbers and words that didn’t seem to make sense to Merrick. He fed them into the guidance system anyway and punched in the coordinates.

  “This is amazing,” Olivia said from the viewscreen. “Sylvan is going to be so happy!”

  “Don’t start the fucking party yet,” Merrick growled. “I have something to deal with first. Something important.”

  Olivia looked worried. “Is it Elise? Is she in trouble? I knew I should have gone down to Earth with her!”

  “Don’t worry, I’m going to take care of her.” Merrick nodded at Olivia. “Thanks for the coordinates.”

  “But—” Olivia started.

  Merrick broke the connection. “Hang on, baby,” he murmured under his breath as he punched the red button. “I’m coming.”

  Chapter Forty-two

  “Well, well, princess…it’s been a long time.” Charles advanced on her, giving Elise no choice but to back away.

  “Why are you here?” she asked in a voice that trembled much more than she liked. “Get away from me!”

  “I just wanted to see you again, that’s all.” He grinned at her, showing teeth that were slightly yellowed with age. Other than that, though, he looked almost the same as he had that horrible day he’d attacked her. His hair had gone