A Princess Bound by Kristina Wright

Author:Kristina Wright [Wright, Kristina; Yardley, Cathy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cleis Press

LOCKS

Tahira Iqbal

The thousand-dollar-a-plate benefit is amazing. The cause, close to my father’s heart, ensures that he digs deep into his wallet at the auction, which is already in the seven figures. Amazing.

But I’m on edge. Utterly on edge.

“I’m just going to the bathroom,” I say, leaning across while the bidding heats up for a Matisse.

“Okay,” he says, before nodding to a group of men at the side of the room.

“Father…” I whisper pleadingly in his ear.

“Cara, security will go where you go.”

The guests at the table are all looking at me, so I smile and pick up my purse. The men at the table rise, tipping their heads briefly as I depart. I keep the smile going, weaving through the tables. The red Prada dress—one shoulder, to the floor—captures attention. Cameras go off, women whisper. But I know it’s my hair they are really interested in as it snakes around my waist, feeling just as jittery as I am.

In the safety of the empty bathroom, cleared by the security team, I pat the wheat-blonde belt that’s constricting like a snake. Tears rise. But I don’t let them fall. I won’t ever let them fall, even as I recall last week.

That man…with a knife in one hand and a fist full of my hair in the other.

There’s a knock at the door. I jump out of my skin and my hair drops to the back of my knees. It nearly touched the floor last week.

“Ma’am?”

“I’m coming.” I smile at the woman in the mirror.

It doesn’t stick.

I exit, walking with the security team back toward the ballroom. There’s a commotion behind me; noise, like a door being forcefully opened. Then a gunshot. Someone to my left falls. More shots. I’m dragged bodily out of the way, into a corridor. My knees tremble as I press my hands over my ears.

The man holding me back whispers hotly into his cuff before looking at me. “North exit. Go. Someone will meet you there.”

“What about you?”

His eyes go to steel. “It was an honor serving you, Princess. And your mother when she was alive.”

There’s a single figure coming round the corner…not one of the bodyguards. It’s him…the man who attacked me last week.

“Go!”

I run as bullets tear through the corridor.

He wants me.

The descendant of Rapunzel. My hypnotic hair the focus of the deranged few who covet its potent power.

I crash through the emergency doors, finding myself on a loading bay.

I gasp. A man waits with a gun trained on the door that I’ve just flown through. He’s dressed in a black suit, just like the men I’d left behind….

“Princess,” He lowers the weapon immediately. “Andrew sent me.”

I put my ass to the edge of the dock, but it’s too far down to jump and I’m in heels.

“I’ve got you.” His dark eyes, assured and comforting, meet mine. He puts his hands up, and they connect with my waist. I slide down the dock wall and against his body.

We go tearing into the night in the SUV.

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