“They might. It doesn’t mean they will succeed, but they will most likely try.” Reaching across the table, I close my fingers around her delicate hand, wanting to reassure her with my touch. Her skin is chilled, betraying her agitation, and I massage her palm lightly to warm it up. “That’s why I want to make sure that I can always find you, baby—that I can always know where you are.”

She frowns, and I feel her hand growing even colder before she pulls it out of my grasp. “What do you mean?” Her voice is even, but I can see the pulse at the base of her throat beginning to quicken. As I had anticipated, she’s not overjoyed with the idea.

“I want to put some trackers on you,” I explain, holding her gaze. “They will be embedded in a couple of places on your body, so if you’re ever stolen from me, I would be able to locate you right away.”

“Trackers? You mean . . . like GPS chips or something? Like something you would use to tag cattle?”

My lips tighten. She’s going to be difficult about this, I can already tell. “No, not like that,” I say evenly. “These trackers are currently classified and intended specifically for human use. They will have GPS chips, yes, but they will also have sensors that measure your heart rate and body temperature. This way I will always know if you’re alive.”

“And you will always know where I am,” she says quietly, her eyes dark in her pale face.

“Yes. I will always know where you are.” The thought fills me with immense relief and satisfaction. I should’ve done this weeks ago, as soon as I retrieved her from Illinois. “It’s for your own safety, Nora,” I add, wanting to emphasize that point. “If you had these trackers when you and Beth were taken, I would’ve found you right away.”

And Beth would still be alive. I don’t say that last part, but I don’t need to. At my words, Nora flinches, like I just struck her a blow, and pain flashes across her face.

She recovers her composure a second later, however. “So let me get this straight . . .” She leans forward, placing her forearms on the table, and I see that her fingers are tightly laced together, her knuckles white with tension. “You want to implant some chips inside my body that will tell you where I am all the time—just so I’ll be safe on a remote compound that has more security than the White House?”

Her tone is heavy with sarcasm, and I feel my temper rising in response. I indulge her in many things, but I will not take risks with her safety. It would’ve been easier if she’d chosen to cooperate, but I’m not about to let her reluctance deter me from doing the right thing.

“Why, yes, my pet, that’s right,” I say silkily, getting up from my chair. “That’s exactly what I want. You’re getting these trackers today. Now, in fact.”

Chapter 15

Nora

Stunned, I stare at Julian, my heartbeat roaring in my ears. A part of me can’t believe he’s going to do this to me against my will—tag me like some dumb animal, depriving me of any semblance of privacy and freedom—while the rest of me is screaming that I’m an idiot, that I should’ve known that a tiger doesn’t change his stripes.

It’s just that the last few weeks had been so different from anything we’ve had together before. I’d begun to imagine that Julian was opening up to me, that he was truly letting me into his life. Despite his dominance in the bedroom and the control he exerts over all aspects of my life, I’d started to feel less like his sex toy and more like his partner. I let myself believe that we were becoming something like a normal couple, that he was beginning to genuinely care for me . . . to respect me.

Like a fool, I bought into the delusion of a happy life with my kidnapper—with a man utterly lacking in conscience or morals.

How stupid, how gullible of me. I want to kick myself and cry at the same time. I’ve always known what kind of man Julian is, but I still let myself get taken in by his charm, by the way he seemed to want me, need me.

I allowed myself to think I could be something more than a possession to him.

Realizing that I’m still sitting there, reeling from the painful disillusionment, I push back my chair and get up to face Julian from across the table. The kicked-in-the-stomach sensation is still there, but now so is anger. Pure and intense, it’s spreading through my body, sweeping out the remnants of shock and hurt.

These trackers have nothing to do with my safety. I know the extent of the security measures on the estate, and I know that the chances of anyone being able to take me again are beyond minuscule. No, the renewed terrorist threat is just a pretext, a convenient excuse for Julian to do what he’s probably been planning to do all along. It gives him a reason to increase his control over me, to bind me to him so tightly that I will never so much as take a breath without his knowledge.

The trackers will make me his prisoner for the rest of my life . . . and as much as I love Julian, that is not a fate I’m willing to accept.

“No,” I say, and I’m surprised at how calm and steady my voice sounds. “I’m not getting these implants.”

Julian raises his eyebrows. “Oh?” His eyes glint with anger and a faint hint of amusement. “And how would you prevent it, my pet?”

I lift my chin, my heartbeat accelerating further. Despite all the hours of training in the gym, I’m still no match for Julian in a fight. He can subdue me in thirty seconds flat—not to mention he has all these guards under his command. If he’s set on forcing these trackers on me, I won’t be able to stop him.