Independence & Consequences by M J Marlow (best color ebook reader .TXT) 📕

need to keep them in here to give my family time to get free.” “We have already seen to all of this, child,” the woman told her. “You are tired and need to eat. Please come with me.” Isabel took the woman’s hand and allowed herself to be led down to the floor of the cavern. She was taken into a cave set up as a kitchen and dining room. “Ilsa, please get something for this poor child to eat.” Isabel turned to see a young woman with scars on her body nod and turn away. She was stricken by the fact that someone had done that to the woman deliberately. She closed her eyes and struggled to fight the tears that started. She opened her eyes to see the older woman watching her. Then she appeared to decide something and nodded, smiling. “This place is a sanctuary that your father, Sebastian Guerrero, built,” the woman told her. “He has made it his life’s pursuit to rescue those who others would enslave.” She gripped Isabel’s hand, and smiled. “Many of us would have died if Senor Guerrero had not found us. He is a good man.” “Telling lies about me?” “Father!” Isabel cried and ran into his arms. “Are you all right? How is Mother? Where is David, and Eduardo, and…” “Everyone is quite fine, hija,” Sebastian broke in, holding her close. “It was you we worried about. It was very foolhardy of you to run off as you did.” “Nonsense, nephew!” the woman sniffed. “If your child hadn’t run off as she did, you and the others would have had to face armed men when you escaped. Our darling Isabel is to be commended, not scolded.” “Tia Marta,” Sebastian frowned back at her. “Isabel is my daughter and I am quite proud of her. But she is pregnant and should be thinking of her baby’s welfare.” He saw he had Isabel’s attention. “What if you had fallen?” “I was only interested in getting out of the house,” Isabel told him, “in the hopes that my drawing those men away would give you and the others an opportunity to escape. Where are the others, Father?” “They are quite safe,” Sebastian told her. He smiled as Ilsa came to the table and set out two bowls of stew, thick crusty bread, and two mugs of milk. “Gracias, Ilsa.” He ate his meal and rose to leave. “I will now deal with these men. No, hija,” he said as Isabel rose to her feet to go with him, “you remain here with Tia Marta.” He kissed her on the forehead and turned to his aunt. “See she gets some sleep, Tia.” Marta took Isabel to a cave on the main floor and stepped aside for Isabel to enter. It was a large room and a large bed filled most of it. She kissed Isabel on the cheek, told her not to worry, and left Isabel to rest. But Isabel could not rest. The men who had broken into their home had said ‘she’ had told them about Isabel. Once that ‘she’ would have been Alejandra, but seeing her cousin and sister-in-law with Esteban Moreno, and speaking to her, had convinced her that Alejandra was no longer her enemy. What other woman could hate her, hate her families enough to want to do such a hateful thing to them? She got up, anxiety keeping her awake, and went to the kitchen to get some milk. “No,” Ilsa’s voice came floating out of the kitchen, “I won’t do it! Not to her!” There was the sound of a slap and a girl’s cry of pain. “I can’t…” “Ilsa?” Isabel called out before she entered the cave. “Is something wrong?” “I’ve dropped some glasses and there’s shards everywhere,” Ilsa answered. “Don’t come in, Isabel. Please…” “I can help, Ilsa,” Isabel broke in, afraid that the girl was in trouble. “Or I can go get Tia Marta…” “Yes, Isabel,” Ilsa sobbed, as if in great pain, “Get Tia…” Isabel heard her voice choked off and knew the girl was in trouble. She turned to run and was grabbed and dragged into the kitchen. The man clamped his hand over her mouth to keep her quiet. Ilsa was seated on the bench, her wrists tied behind her back, a gag in her mouth. Isabel was taken on through the back into the supply cave. She watched as a ladder was pulled down and she was forced up it. Isabel decided to pretend to collapse and fell on top of the man forcing her up. She got up to run and he recovered enough to grab her ankle and pull her down. Isabel screamed as he dragged her back towards the ladder. She tried to scratch him, to bite him, to strike him, but he met every action. He got her up the ladder and his confederates grabbed her and ran down the tunnel. The man wasn’t as lucky. He was halfway up when Sebastian entered the supply closet and yanked him down. “Hit the alarm,” Sebastian told the young men he shoved the intruder to. “Harass and herd.” He was up the ladder, followed by several others. They headed down the main tunnel and one of the young men found their tracks veering to the left. The young men broke up into two teams and Sebastian followed the tracks. Whoever had Isabel was about to learn how wrong they had been in taking that particular tunnel. Sebastian heard his daughter’s screams and picked up his pace as an angry voice screamed something. Isabel was giving her abductor’s trouble, he thought with a proud smile. “Shut the girl up!” he heard as he rounded a corner just in time to see someone striking her across the jaw. The next moment they had disappeared down a side tunnel. Sebastian frowned. Only someone who knew these tunnels would know that cut-off. He could only hope that the others were near enough to stop the intruders from getting to the beach. “Father!” Isabel cried as she saw the men ambush Sebastian just outside the cave mouth. She watched in horror as Sebastian went tumbling down the hillside and into the ocean. He didn’t resurface. “No!” she screamed as her abductors dragged her down the trail. “You’ve killed him!” She went ballistic, striking out with fist and nails. “Let me go! I have to help my Father!” They got Isabel into the boat and tied her to one of the benches. She couldn’t let them take her. Not when her father needed her help. But nothing she did could make them stop. They rendezvoused with a yacht waiting a few miles offshore. Isabel was taken aboard and locked inside of a stateroom. She collapsed from exhaustion and didn’t wake when Hawke Lassiter came into the room. He sat down on the bed next to her and contented himself with stroking her hair. He was quite happy with this little firebrand he had been given. Back on the island, Sebastian came up out of the surf just in time to see the boat roaring off. He got onto the beach, scowling darkly. His daughter was gone again, in the hands of a man who killed people for a living. What was it about his child that made people think they could treat her with such callousness? Sebastian was going to find this man and string him up for what he was doing to his child. * Isabel set the pen down on the desk and tried to get up from the chair. Hawke forced her down and she glared at him. There was no way she was going to do what he asked. She would never turn her life over to his control. He would just have to kill her. Hawke saw all of this in her eyes and knew he had met a very stubborn young woman. Rather than being cowed by what she had endured in the past few months, she had grown more determined to refuse to allow others to control her. He had to admit, he was quite impressed with her. He decided to let her have her way and yanked her to her feet, kissing her roughly. She slapped him and he caught her hand. Then he held her arms behind her back and kissed her again as she struggled to free herself from his hold. “Let me go!” she hissed once he had taken his fill of her lips. “I am never going to do as you ask!” “I could make you, girl,” Hawke told her, “but that could kill your baby.” He saw the worry in her eyes and knew her weakness. “Is that what you want, Isabel?” She shook her head. “Then do as I ask. Your baby’s life is surely worth more than your freedom.” He kissed her neck and felt her shudder. “You get everything you could ever want, Isabel: a loving husband and manager, a career in dance, and a home for your child.” “I am not letting that woman anywhere near my child!” Isabel cried in anguish. “You really have no choice, Isabel,” Olivia said as she joined them in the lounge. She picked up the wedding contract and frowned. “What’s this? Still no signature?” Olivia set the paper down as Hawke turned Isabel so the girl had to face Olivia. “Honestly, darling. Do you think I’d choose any man to be your husband? Hawke Lassiter is an exceptional man. You will not be unhappy…” “You’re still trying to run my life, Olivia,” Isabel broke in, still struggling to free herself from the man’s hold. “I won’t have it!” “Then you will be sent to a home for unwed mothers,” Olivia told her. “Robbed of your voice, and your mobility. When the child is born, it will be put up for adoption because to leave it with a cripple would be unthinkable.” Olivia grabbed Isabel by the hair and yanked her head closer to hers. “Is that what you want? To never see your child?” “Olivia, please…” “Those are your options, Isabel,” Olivia broke in coldly as she released Isabel. “You will marry Hawke Lassiter and keep your child, or your child will be put up for adoption while you are helpless to prevent it.” She watched as Isabel went to the desk and picked up the pen. She picked up the contract and very calmly ripped it to shreds. Olivia slapped her across the face and Isabel faced her down. The woman left the lounge, muttering under her breath about ‘ungrateful children,’ and Isabel nearly laughed. She looked at the man and saw him looking at her with open admiration. Hawke took her back to the desk and sat her down. Then he opened a drawer and pulled out another contract. “I thought you might have such reservations, my dear,” he said as he handed her the pen, “so I brought along multiple copies of the contract.” He ran his hand along the back of her neck and held it there. “It is the only way your family will remain alive, Isabel. Because,” he whispered coldly as he leaned down next to her ear, “a member of your family is going to die each day you refuse to sign it.” He saw her look. “You doubt me? Perhaps then, we’ll start with an old friend of yours.” He nodded to his man and he went down the passageway, returning with David Evans in tow. He held Isabel in the chair. “A very beloved friend, yes? If you do as I ask, he will be allowed to return to his little school in the Midwest.” “Don’t do what he asks, Isabel,” David cried out weakly. “My life isn’t worth it!” “It appears that Isabel does not agree with you, Mr. Evans,” Hawke smiled as he watched Isabel pick up the pen. She signed the contract and Hawke raised her hand and