A Warlord's Lady Read Free Page B

stood watching, warily, drying glasses behind the bar. Through the haze of toxic cocktails I saw the barman’s eyes drift to me, but they snapped back to Tao within a second. He nodded then looked away. At the time I didn’t understand, or take much note of the gesture, but I should have.
    ***
    So, I left the bar somewhat drunkenly with a man named Tao, the alcohol in my system making me giggly and uncharacteristically brazen.
    ‘Where are we going, Tao? Somewhere a little private, maybe?’ I leaned against him and inhaled. He smelled like the perfumed cigarettes: sweet and kind of nice in a smoky way. Yet a tickle of unease gnawed at the back of my mind. What was I doing? Heading into the depths of Vientiane with a complete stranger — not one of my best lifestyle choices. Eventually, when I was able to drag my eyes from the gorgeous planes of his cheekbones and the sensual promise of his lips, I realised I was a long way out of my comfort zone. How far had we walked? The buildings here were crumbling and the people who sat in the doorways seemed dodgy, with shifty eyes that narrowed as they assessed me, then flickered with worry as they noticed Tao.
    ‘Sabra,’ Tao purred, ‘I have some business to attend to.’ He lifted a gentle hand and caressed a line down my cheek.
    I shivered.
    ‘Yes, you do,’ I smiled, hoping to seem flirtatious, ‘with me.’
    Genuine amusement glimmered in the molten depths of Tao’s eyes. ‘Not just yet, but soon. I promise you.’
    Despite my growing concern, I felt absurdly disappointed when he suddenly looked away. The muscles in his hand tightened around mine, and his voice became hard.
    ‘Jürgen, come, take her to the car. I’ll be back soon.’
    I heard myself gasp in surprise. Jürgen? I spun around, tugging my hand from Tao’s to see the hideous German man from the bar standing not far behind me. Had he been there all along? Where was Mags? What was going on?
    I felt stone-cold sober.
    ‘Sabra, if you would be so kind as to follow my colleague, he will take care of you. I will join you shortly,’ Tao murmured. His fingers reached out towards me, and ran their heat down my exposed arm. His touch left me weak.
    At that moment, a silver Mercedes Benz rumbled down the cracked, potholed road towards us. My stomach was churning badly now. It stopped a metre away from us, and a fresh-faced Laotian man stepped out and opened the back door, a gun hung in the belt of his neatly pressed black trousers.
    ‘A gun!’ I cried and backed away from the men.
    ‘Sabra.’ Tao’s voice was firm and for the first time I recognised the smell of magic in the air.
    ‘What’s going on?’ I stepped backward, my nice new sandals from Thailand sinking into a foul puddle of water. The man beside the car lowered his hand towards the gun and horror boiled up through my body like acid.
    ‘Calm down, no harm will come to you,’ Tao soothed.
    ‘Are you kidnapping me?’ I cried, backing further away. I was beyond caring about my Chameleon abilities, and my face fluctuated wildly with colour.
    ‘She is a Chameleon, Boss, you’re right,’ I heard Jürgen say beneath the roar of blood in my head.
    ‘Boss? Who are you? You’re not a bar-boy at all.’
    Jürgen sniggered and Tao stepped toward me, his presence calming and numbing at the same time. ‘Please, Sabra, just relax. I won’t hurt you…’
    For a second I wanted to believe him, but the reality was frightening — I was lost in a dodgy part of Vientiane and there was a man with a gun.
    I shook my head. ‘I don’t trust you,’ I whispered, backing away again.
    As if sensing I was about to flee, Tao lurched forward to grab me. With a speed I didn’t know I possessed, I twisted and ran.
    ‘Get her!’ Tao yelled. ‘She can’t get away!’
    Wildly, I ran. This part of the city was a warren of small alleyways and paths and it was easy to lose Jürgen, big and bulky as he was. People peered out from their front doors as I dashed by,