happened so quickly. One moment she was being hustled on the wide pavement and the next, in broad daylight, on a busy London road, two men had caught her by either elbow, pulled her forward and then, before she could scream, she was being thrust into the gaping interior of a huge black-windowed limousine that was suddenly there, pulled up at the kerb. The door slammed behind her. Her head was tilted forcibly back, a pad pressed over her nose and mouth. Her eyes flared in terror and then, as the drug sucked into her gasping lungs, fluttered helplessly shut as consciousness drained away.
‘Well, did he tell you how long I’ve got?’
Milo’s voice was harsh, but Theo could hear the exhaustion in it. Milo was tough, but age was finally taking its toll.
‘Six, maybe nine months. A year if you are spectacularly fortunate.’
Theo did not mince his words. He would not be thanked if he did.
Milo’s eyes gleamed fiercely. ‘Hah! Long enough to see a great-grandson on the way!’
Theo looked out of the window of the chauffeur-driven limo. They were nosing down Harley Street. Traffic was bad. Rush hour was all around them.
He did not answer his grandfather. Instead, he said, ‘He wants to put you on a different drug regime. Says it could buy you time. He wants to start you straight away, but he’ll need to monitor you for a week or two to see how you respond. You don’t need to be in hospital. So I’ve taken the suite for another fortnight. I’ll stay with you, naturally.’
His grandfather gave a rasp. ‘Not in that damned hotel, you won’t! And neither will I. We’ll stay at the apartment. I want to see more of Demos anyway!’
Theo frowned. ‘The girl is still there. I haven’t had a chance to buy her off yet!’
Milo gave a harsh laugh.
‘Save your money. She’s been dealt with.’
Theo’s head swivelled.
‘I said I’d handle it—’
‘Well, I’ve saved you the trouble. And my way was a whole lot cheaper! And more certain.’
‘What do you mean?’ Theo’s words were slow, filled with foreboding. ‘What have you done?’
Milo looked at his grandson with grim satisfaction.
‘She’s gone,’ he said. ‘She was in the way, so I had her removed.’
Cold snaked down Theo’s spine.
‘What…exactly…have you done with her?’
Milo gave another harsh bark of laughter.
‘Don’t look at me as if I’d had her murdered! She’s perfectly safe. Sunning herself on a beach.’
Theo’s brows drew together.
‘She agreed to go on holiday?’ He sounded sceptical.
‘I didn’t waste time asking her. I just sent her!’
The cold snaked down Theo’s spine again.
‘You sent her? How? Where?’
‘How? I had her picked up and packed off. I had a tail put on her when she left Demos’s apartment this morning. She was put in a car, kept quiet, driven to an airfield and that was that. Don’t look at me like that, boy! I’m not incapable yet! I know agencies who will do such things and be discreet about it!’
But his grandson was staring at him with an appalled look on his face.
‘Are you telling me,’ he said, his voice hollow, ‘that you had her abducted?’
Milo made a testy noise in his throat. ‘I had her removed! That’s all! She’s perfectly safe—I told you!’
A word escaped Theo that was not in polite usage.
‘Where?’ he demanded urgently. ‘Where is she, Milo?’
His grandfather gave his harsh laugh again.
‘So eager to find her?’ he jeered. ‘Maybe you do want to replace Demos between her legs!’
Theo ignored the crude jibe. The cold had spread from his spine through every part of his body. Had Milo gone insane? Had he really had a British citizen abducted from the streets of London and flown out of the country?
‘Where is she?’
Milo’s eyes flashed. ‘Don’t take that tone with me! She’s on that hideaway island of yours. The one you take your own pillow-friends to!’
Theo’s eyes stabbed black fire.
‘What?’
Milo gave another snort. ‘Hah, did you think I did not know of the place? Of course I knew! But if you want to keep a place like that to yourself, who am I to interfere? A man wants to be private when he communes with Eros. I respect that. So you see—’ he sounded well pleased with himself ‘—Demos’s little tart will be perfectly at home there. She can improve her tan and pretty herself up for her next protector. And by the time I let her off the island Demos and Sofia will be engaged!’
He cast a triumphant look at his grandson, still staring at him appalled.
‘Cheaper than a pay-off, and far more certain.’
‘With only one slight downside.’ Theo’s voice was hollow. ‘Abduction is a criminal offence.’
How Theo got through the next twenty-four hours he didn’t afterwards remember. Milo, utterly oblivious of what he had done, had had to be taken back to the hotel. Then Theo had to confront a frantic Demos who had realised, when he returned to his apartment from his office, that Leandra seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth.
‘Milo did what?’
Demos had gone white.
‘She’s safe, Demos. That much is clear.’ Theo spoke tersely.
‘I’m going out there right away!’
Theo caught his shoulder. ‘No! I will deal with it.’
Demos glared at him accusingly. Theo could read his thoughts. He shook his head. His smile was grim. ‘Even I have my limits, little cousin.’ For a moment they looked into each other’s eyes. Theo had been like a big brother to Demos all his life.
‘Trust me,’ said Theo, holding his cousin’s stricken gaze. ‘You stay here and take care of Milo. Right now—’ he inhaled sharply ‘—I don’t want to be too close to him!’ He shook his head. ‘I knew he was desperate, but to commit such an act! He seems to have absolutely no idea of what he’s done!’
Grimly, Theo knew that if he couldn’t find a way to silence the girl she might drag the Atrides name through the criminal courts. Milo could even be facing a jail sentence.
As
