“Breathe,” he instructed, ripping off his suit jacket and draping it over her bare, shaking shoulders, dwarfing her delicate frame. Adelaide in July was not warm, and dressed as she was in a strapless gown, she’d freeze in no time. “Slow and deep. C’mon,” he said encouragingly. “You can do it.”
“I...had...to get...away,” she gasped.
He was shocked by how anxious she was. Shanal was always the Queen of Calm. Nothing unnerved her. Except maybe the carpet python he’d slipped in her bag when he was fifteen.
He rubbed her shoulders through the fine wool of his jacket. “Don’t talk, just breathe, Shanal. It’s going to be okay.”
“No, no it’s not.”
Her words came out strangled, panicked.
“You’ll work it out,” he said, as reassuringly as he could under the circumstances.
Even as the words left his mouth he was reminded of the expression on Burton’s face as he’d been left standing at the altar. An expression Shanal had missed seeing completely, thank God, or she might not have stopped running at all.
Raif had long known Burton was avaricious—he’d always had to both be the best and have the best, by any means possible. But there was another edge to him, as well—and that edge had been clear on his face for a split second as he’d seen his latest intended acquisition flee from him. Raif might not have had much to do with him over the past three years, but he knew that Burton Rogers was not a man who enjoyed being thwarted.
Shanal struggled to sit upright, tugging flowers and her veil from her jet-black hair without any heed to the pins that must be raking her scalp. She tossed the destroyed blooms and filmy material to the walkway at her feet. She turned to Raif and grabbed his hands. He was shocked at how cold she felt already. As if she was chilled to her bones.
“Take me away,” she implored. “Take me far away, right now.”
It was the last thing he’d expected her to say.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“Just, please, get me out of here,” she begged, her bewitching, pale green eyes shining with unshed tears.
It was the tears that undid him. He thought about his Maserati, parked a good two blocks away. Only a handful of people had come out of the cathedral so far, but more were bound to follow soon. He and Shanal would never make it to the car before someone reached them, he thought, and once the crowd got to them, Shanal would be fielding questions left and right from a slew of concerned family members and friends wanting to know why she’d walked out on her own wedding. She didn’t look as if she was up to conversation right now. As he swiftly considered their options, a taxi rounded the corner. Raif secured Shanal’s small hand in his and pulled her to her feet.
“C’mon,” he said, as he bolted for the sidewalk, towing Shanal along behind him.
He raised his hand to get the cabbie’s attention. To his immense relief the guy pulled over, his eyes as round as saucers and his mouth hanging open as Raif yanked open the back door and guided Shanal inside. He barked his address to the startled driver as he yanked the door closed behind them.
Shanal sat next to him, pale but finally seeming more composed, as they pulled away from the curb and down the street. Raif cast one look through the back window. The crowd on the sidewalk outside the cathedral had grown. In its midst stood Burton, his eyes fixed on the retreating cab. Even from this distance Raif felt a prickle of unease. The groom, understandably, did not look happy.
Raif faced forward again. Burton’s happiness had never been a priority of his, and as long as the man didn’t take his anger out on Shanal in any way, Raif admitted to himself that he was delighted that his nemesis’s day had been ruined.
He and Shanal had little privacy in the cab and Raif maintained his silence until, nearly forty-five minutes later, they reached his home. His phone, already on Silent for the ceremony, vibrated continuously in his trouser pocket. He knew exactly who was calling—and he had no intention of answering him.
“What are we doing here?” Shanal asked as the cab drew away, leaving them outside Raif’s single-level home nestled at the edge of the family’s old and well-established vineyard. “It’s the first place he’ll look, isn’t it? He’s bound to have seen us getting into the cab together.”
Raif’s eyebrows shot up. “I hadn’t realized we were meant to be hiding from him. You really don’t want him to know where you are? You’re absolutely certain you don’t want to work this out with him?”