“Are you refusing to go away with me?” he asked, almost pleasantly.
“Y-yes,” she whispered. The wind caught her honey-blond, layered locks and flung them across her face. He reached to move them away for her, tucking them behind her ear, his touch gentle. Still, she flinched.
He moved her to his side, retaining his hold on her arm. He pulled his sidearm and pointed it at Miguel, aiming for the doctor’s head. Miguel groaned and covered his head with his arms, as though his flesh could stop a bullet.
“You still refuse to get on the helicopter?” Alejandro asked, eyebrow raised.
She stared back at him and then said as defiantly as she could, “You’re a bastard, Alejandro, but I’ll go with you. Just please leave him alone.”
He released her arm and gave her a shove toward the helicopter. When she turned and walked slowly back the way she’d come Alejandro made eye contact with the pilot and gave him a twirling motion with his finger. The pilot nodded back and started the helicopter up again, setting the blades in motion. Gina looked back over her shoulder as she climbed on board. Trepidation clutched at her heart. Alejandro was crouched over Miguel, the gun pressed against the other man’s skull. He was speaking to him with a look of feral rage plastered across his face, a look she’d never seen before. She’d known him to be angry, but his anger was always coldly efficient, never this heated fury.
Alejandro stood and turned to where Gina was crouched in the doorway of the helicopter. His eyes devoured her for a second, taking in the way her skirt and hair lifted slightly from the breeze created by the blades as they picked up speed. Then he was striding toward her, intent glittering through his narrowed gaze. Gina quickly backed away from the door and took the seat she’d been in only minutes before. Alejandro swung through the door, closed and locked it as he settled in beside her.
When he reached for her seatbelt she tried to slap his hand away, mumbling that she could do it herself. He took her hands firmly in his. “You do not want to test my patience right now, Gina. It’s thin at best. Now be a good girl and shut up.”
Her mouth fell open and she sat in helpless silence as he latched her seatbelt, tugged on it to make sure it was snug against her body and then pulled her headset back on. Satisfied, he did the same for himself. Moments later they were airborne. Gina watched him through black-tinted lashes, cataloguing every move he made. Alejandro was beautiful, like a large, lethal cat when he moved. Maybe a panther. One moment lazy, the next he would strike with such quick efficiency, his victim was on the ground before he knew what was happening. For the moment though, he appeared relaxed in the seat next to hers, his elbows resting on the arms of the chair, his hands loose against his long legs.
It occurred to Gina that this was almost the first time she was left alone with Alejandro with a handful of exceptions. Absently she lifted her fingers against the pulse beat in her throat as it accelerated. After they had been flying for about fifteen minutes in complete silence she finally turned to him and asked, attempting to keep her voice steady, “Where are we going?”
He flashed her a grin. “Ah, so the little mouse finally gets brave enough to speak.”
“Alejandro,” she pleaded with him. “Please just tell me. Where are we going?”
The playful grin slid from his face, but the predatory look remained firmly in place as his eyes slid over her possessively. “We have a date with a priest, mi amor.”
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Bonus: Because You’re Mine
"She's been hurt."
The three simple words sent a chill through Jay's heart, dissolving his annoyance at the interruption. He dismissed the two men he'd been meeting with and turned to Greg with a raised brow. Words weren't necessary. Greg had been his right hand for nine years. He understood exactly how much Allie meant to Jay.
"Allison was taken to the hospital in an ambulance twenty minutes ago. Preliminary reports say a knife wound to the arm and across her side. The cuts don't appear to be life threatening, but deep enough to need stitches."
Jay's fury rose with each word. Renowned as he was for icy calm and deliberate control, Allie was the only person that could draw this kind of feeling from him. He struggled to contain the rage so he could ask the requisite questions. It wasn't necessary. Greg knew exactly what he wanted.
"She was working in one of the addiction offices at the soup kitchen. Apparently, a fight broke out among the clients being served in line. She left her office and tried to intervene on her own."
"Of course she did," Jay managed from between gritted teeth.
He turned his back on Greg and stared out the window of his office to the dockyard beyond. It was just like Allie to think with her heart instead of her head. It was going to be the last time she would be allowed to do that. He'd stood in the shadows long enough. He gave her what she wanted. She'd lived her life the way she'd wanted. Now it was his turn.
"Her husband?" he snapped, knowing the answer, but needing to hear anyway.
Greg shook his head. "She sent him a text while she was waiting for the ambulance. Apparently, the little prick’s too busy to go to the hospital himself. Said he'd send someone to pick her up and take her home when she's been patched up."
Jay clenched his fingers on the windowsill and narrowed his eyes on a vessel slowly making dock. It was one of theirs. ”What did she say?"
"She told him not to worry. Said she wanted to catch a cab back to the kitchen. She has to meet with one more client before she goes home and then pick up her car. She plans on driving herself home."
"His response?" Jay demanded.
Greg hesitated, then replied, "He told her not to keep supper waiting for him, he's going to be working late again. I'm checking into it, but at a guess, he's meeting with his side whore."
Jay felt wrath rise up and knew if Derrick were in the room with him he'd be on his knees begging for his life. Jay had despised the idea of this marriage, yet had allowed it to go forward, since it was what she wanted. And what Allie wanted was everything to him.
No more. He would harden his heart to the only thing in the world that could touch him. Her safety would come above all things, including her wishes. It was time. Past time.
"Get the plane ready, we're bringing my girl home."
Allie pulled her jacket tighter around her shoulders and tried to curl her legs into her chest without pulling on her fresh stitches. She tried to calm the shivers that wracked her body, but they kept coming. She was laying on a cot, tucked into the far corner of one of the wings of the emergency room in the Regina General Hospital. She wanted to ask for a blanket, but didn't want to disturb any of the busy staff that were rushing by her tiny curtained cubicle.
She'd been in the hospital for nearly three hours. The first hour had been waiting to get into the cubicle, the next had been waiting to see a doctor and the third had been waiting for her doctor to sign the release forms. She wished she could say it was just an extra busy day at the hospital. She knew better. It was always like this. She'd accompanied people there on more than one occasion.
She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to suppress another shiver. Sighing she ran her hand lightly over her arm, avoiding the heavy bandage on her bicep. Her fingers caught in the tangled strands of long dark hair. She shoved it out of the way impatiently and moaned when she jostled her arm. She wiggled her hips in an attempt to get more comfortable on the small metal frame bed when the curtain moved and light flooded her eyes.
Allie blinked up as a man stepped forward. He wasn't wearing scrubs like the nurses and doctors.
She frowned and blinked in the harsh light. "Derrick?"
She knew she was wrong though. Derrick said he wasn't coming. He barely cared enough to acknowledge her text. It was only her stupid heart that hoped he might rush to his injured wife's bedside that made her send that text in the first place. He wasn't even coming home from work to check on her. That was how much he cared. No, the man standing before he
r was not her husband.
"Hello, Allie."
Heart thundering, Allie pushed herself up using her good arm. She blinked against the brightness of the light, her mouth opening in disbelief. It was impossible. He couldn't be here with her. Could he? Yet the deep, measured voice could belong to no one else.
He looked so good it made her body ache in a way nothing else could. He looked older than she remembered. It had been five years since she last saw him briefly at Veronica’s wedding. His hair was completely grey now, prematurely, she thought. He was thirty-nine. His grey eyes looked wearier, harder than she remembered, framed by lines that weren't there before. His body leaner, as though he didn't eat enough. He exuded solid strength though, despite the lean frame.
"Jay," she whispered, tears filling her eyes.
His eyes caressed her face and the corner of his lip lifted in a tiny smile, softening the always present hard edge. The only time she'd ever seen Jay Le Croix smile was for her or her mother. Never for anyone else. Allie lifted her arms, ignoring the painful pull of her stitches and leaned forward trusting him to catch her as she slid forward off the bed. Strong arms enveloped her, holding her tight. She breathed in his familiar scent as he rocked her against the strength of his body. One hand cupped the back of her head, holding it against his shoulder, while the other hand swept down her back comfortingly. He was careful not to touch her where she’d been cut. Somehow, he’d found out about her injuries and come to her.
They stood that way for a long time, looking to all the world like a couple in love locked in an embrace. Finally, Allie indicated she was ready to pull away. Reluctantly Jay allowed her a few inches of space. She looked eagerly up at him, taking in all of his features. Jay ran his fingers lightly through her long, dark brown tresses, automatically restoring some order to the wavy chaos with his reassuring touch. Despite an age difference of ten years he had been her best friend for much of her life.
When Allie had been a child, her mother had watched over the orphan boy as though he were her own. Veronica had made sure he was fed when his foster homes forgot. More than once she'd given him a roof over his head when things got too bad to stay in his placement. When he was old enough to care for himself, he returned the favour by watching over Veronica and her young daughter. He made sure none of Veronica's clients got too rough and he helped Veronica get clean when she was ready to make the choice. When he was able to run a crew of his own, Jay worked his way up the streets until he was able to create enough legitimate business opportunities that he could get Veronica and Allie off the streets.
Allie adored Jay all of her life. Her mother assured her the infatuation would wane. It didn't. With each passing year it only grew until Allie became old enough that Jay began noticing Allie too. Veronica and Jay agreed that Allie was too good for the life he'd chosen. The life that had chosen him. She was destined for better things. When Allie turned eighteen and graduated from high school, her excellent grades and, unbeknownst to her, Jay’s maneuvering, earned her a scholarship to a university two provinces away. Allie didn't want to go. But Jay had insisted.
The separation had been difficult. She'd cried for him every night. She'd written him letters and phoned him. He never answered her letters and rarely picked up her calls. When he had, it was monosyllabic responses before abruptly ending the call. Confused and hurt, she'd finally decided to forge a life without him. When she visited her mother, she stubbornly avoided talking about him and almost never saw him. The last time she'd heard from Jay was three years ago to receive his decline to her wedding and an extremely beautiful pearl necklace as a wedding gift.
She'd only seen him twice in the ten years since he’d sent her away. The last time she'd actually seen Jay had been at Veronica's wedding five years ago. He'd walked the bride down the aisle, turned to Allie, held her close for several seconds pressing his lips against her temple and then leaving abruptly. The time before that was seven years ago when he'd come to her apartment out of the blue. She’d just graduated from the Addictions Education program and had accepted a job as an Addictions Counsellor. He wanted her to quit.
"It's too dangerous, Allison."
"Of course it's not! It’s perfect for me. It’s something that I've always wanted to do. With the way I grew up and my mother’s past, its practically the only think that makes sense for me. Why can't you just support me in this?" she'd pleaded with him.
"Support you? I pulled you out of the fucking gutter! Now you want to jump in head first. I refuse to support this shit."
"Jay! You don't get to dictate to me. You shut me out of your life years ago. Now I'm living it the way I want to."
"Tread carefully, little girl. I can wrap you in chains just as easily as I set you free."
But that was years ago. Now, as Allie looked up into the eyes of the man that used to possess her every thought, those same words echoed in her mind. His gaze hardened on her face. "What are you doing here?" she whispered.
"We're going home, Allie."
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Also by Nikita Slater
If you enjoyed this book, check out some other works by #1 International Bestselling Author, Nikita Slater. More titles are always in progress, so check back often to see what's new!
Angels & Assassins Series
Book One – The Assassin’s Wife
The Queens Series
Book One – Scarred Queen
Book Two - Queen’s Move
Book Three - Born a Queen
Book Four - The Red Queen (Coming 2021)
Alejandro’s Prey (a novella)
Fire & Vice Series
Book One – Prisoner of Fortune
Book Two – Fight or Flight
Book Three – King’s Command
Book Four – Savage Vendetta
Book Five – Fear in Her Eyes
Book Six – Bound by Blood
Book Seven – In His Sights
Book Eight - Burning Beauty
Book Nine - Chasing Ecstasy (Coming soon!)
The Driven Hearts Series
Book One - Driven by Desire
Book Two - Thieving Hearts
Book Three - Capturing Victory
Novella - The Princess and Her Mercenary
The Sanctuary Series
Book One - Sanctuary’s Warlord
Book Two - Sanctuary on Fire
Book Three - The Last Sanctuary
Book Four - The Road to Wolfe (Coming soon!)
Standalone books
Because You're Mine
Mine to Keep (a novella)
Luna & Andres
Loving Vincent
Stalked
After Dark
In collaboration with Jasmin Quinn
Collared: A Dark Captive Romance
Safeword: A Dark Romance
Chained: A Mafia Marriage Romance
Good Girl: A Captive BDSM Romance
Hostile Takeover: An Enemies to Lovers Romance
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About the Author
Nikita Slater is the International Bestselling dark romance author of the Fire & Vice series, Angels & Assassins series, The Queens series and several standalone novels. Her favourite genre is mafia romance, the bloodier the better, though she loves to write about every subjec
t under the sun. She lives on the beautiful Canadian prairies with her son and crazy awesome dog. She has an unholy affinity for books (especially erotic romance), wine, pets and anything chocolate. Despite some of the darker themes in her books (which are pure fun and fantasy), Nikita is a staunch feminist and advocate of equal rights for all races, genders and non-gender specific persons. When she isn't writing, dreaming about writing or talking about writing, she helps others discover a love of reading and writing through literacy and social work.
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