The Deadly Series Boxed Set
Page 171
Landon snorted. “Yes, well, she’s learning.”
Shame warmed her cheeks. Couldn’t they just go? She wasn’t a bone to be snarled over.
Something flashed in Kinncaid’s blue eyes as they rose from her arm to meet hers before looking over her shoulder. “Something so beautiful should always be cherished, never mistreated.”
“I completely agree, Mr. Kinncaid,” Landon said. “But sometimes the treasures must learn how to shine.”
Mr. Kinncaid made a noise in his throat. Some sort of growl or grunt. A cab pulled to the curb behind Landon’s car even as a shiny blue Stingray pulled in behind the cab.
Kinncaid shifted as she did.
She’d had enough.
“Good night, gentlemen. I’d say it’s been enjoyable, but I was taught not to lie.”
Not daring to look back, she jerked her hand away from Landon when he reached for her, walked to the cab and climbed in. Both men were staring after her.
Kinncaid’s lips were tilted up at the corners.
Landon’s lips were pressed together and the muscle bunched in his cheek.
Her hands trembled as she climbed into the cab and gave the driver her address.
She’d pay for leaving Landon standing there. She knew it, she just had no idea how to get away from it. With her work, her job she’d worked hard for, she didn’t want to give it up. Giving up meant saying Landon had won another part of her. If she quit, she’d be giving him what she knew he’d want, though he hadn’t said that. Sighing, she leaned back and met Kinncaid’s eyes as he grinned and tilted his head at her.
Kaitlyn closed her eyes and wondered when and how her life had become so complicated.
Watch for Deadly Beginnings, coming soon!
Read on for an excerpt from
Hunted,
the thrilling new book
by Jaycee Clark!
Sins can be buried, but they’re never forgotten . . .
Morgan Gaelord has lived with the knowledge of her past and the fear of her secret for years. No one knows the truth behind her nightmares in the hellish Czech Republic underground, and they never will. She’s carved a life for herself, helping her brothers run the family antiquities business. Nothing and no one is taking this slice of contentment away from her.
Lincoln Blade III, owner of the premier Blade Jewelers, has put his past behind him. Retired from his days with Interpol and undercover operations, he’s enjoying the corporate side of life. He’s spent years in the cesspools of society, helping the lucky escape, and he has no intention of being dragged back.
But someone from both their pasts changes that. Women who escaped the world of sex slaves are being hunted and eliminated. When the victims are linked to Blade and his past, he’s forced back into a role he’d vowed to leave behind, and both he and Morgan must trust each other before the killer reaches his final target.
Prologue
Czech Republic, late summer
The body landed in a tangle of naked bloody limbs.
Mikhail Jezek watched. Dried, half-decayed leaves, dirt and other debris sticking to her body as the girl rolled over the ground. The summer night breathed hot and thick around them all.
He sniffed and looked to the other woman who stood before him. Her face was bruised and battered, her lips split and cracked—from the beatings and the fact he’d denied her food or drink for days. Her eyes, those icy eyes, were blank, almost accepting, almost broken. Almost. She’d been a hellcat when he’d first found her. He’d tried to train her, to instruct her, to break her, but he was finally forced to teach her the hard way. Some had to learn the hard way. Mikhail brushed his finger down her bare arm. She was naked, but no one in their group noticed. No one cared, and no one else would pass by. It was desolate here.
Goose bumps pricked her skin in his finger’s wake and he smiled.
He hadn’t wanted to put this one in the brothels, she was a rare beauty. True grace and a face that rivaled those caught on priceless canvas, but she thought he was horrible. She would learn what true horror could be.
Tonight was just that. A lesson.
He looked from her averted face back to the still figure on the ground beside the open grave one of his men had dug earlier. They’d all known this was coming and he chose to end it now. Mikhail nodded once to his men. They stepped back, one pulling a gun free from a shoulder holster hidden beneath the dark jacket before looking back to Mikhail.
Mikhail waited, studying the stupid girl’s prone body lying on the night-dewed grass. He’d given that one the name Ebony. Some of the girls came to them complete with identification, visas, passports, which were all quickly destroyed. Others, he or his contacts simply found and liked. Either way, the girls became his. Ebony was one of those who he’d seen, liked and took. He didn’t know her true identity and honestly didn’t care.
You should, an inner voice warned him.
He ruthlessly ignored it and took a deep breath.
Stars glittered quietly from the dark sky. The headlights from his limo slashed across the quiet scene. The dark trees, still and silent, witnessed tonight’s events.
The other woman, Dusk, trembled before him. In darkness, things looked different. Not colored, but in a macabre, harshly contrasted black and white. Two of his men, Ebony, and the empty grave. Black on white, gray on shadows.
The leaves of the trees rustled near the wood’s edge. Creepy places, abandoned cemeteries, but it served its purpose. An old cemetery was a perfect place to dump a body. Rarely did anyone look for the dead if the place catered to that very need. His eyes stayed on the point of tonight’s venture.
Ebony, a lovely little Italian piece, had been beautiful once, but not now. Now she was bloody, dirty, no longer graceful, but broken. He’d broken her, let his men break her. Not merely reining her in, not only teaching her her place, but breaking her. If she’d come around, she would have brought him a pretty price. However, he’d learned long ago some losses simply must be cut and the profit forgotten.
Stupid bitch. She’d tried to escape.
Her dark matted hair twisted around her neck and face, blood trickled in rivulets from various cuts and wounds inflicted on her. Her arm lay at an odd angle from her body where it had been broken hours before.
Still she had whispered of vengeance, screamed it until her throat had been raw and hoarse.
Mikhail took a deep breath in through his nose. The woman before him still didn’t look at Ebony. He grabbed her face, digging his fingers into her chin and forcing her to watch.
“This is what I do to those who try to escape me,” he said softly.
She shut her eyes, the bruises and swollen skin marring the beauty of those thick-lashed, icy blue eyes.
He tsked and tightened his hold on her chin until she opened her eyes. “You. Will. Watch.”
Her eyes weren’t blank now, but shadowed with fear . . .
Good, she should fear him.
He nodded to one of the guards, who pointed the gun at Ebony’s still figure on the ground and pulled the trigger. Once. Twice. Then his man moved the gun a fraction lower and fired off two more rounds into Ebony’s heart. The woman he held flinched with each bullet. He waited until those wide, tear-filled eyes rose from the girl’s body on the ground to him.
He smiled, shoved her forward and waited, made her watch while his men rolled Ebony’s body into the grave. He shoved her harder and she went down on her knees beside the grave, a small whimper moaning through the night, her fingers flexing in the loose dirt.
He pulled his own gun free—a wonderful CZ75. He leaned down and whispered in her ear. “Would you like to join Ebony?”
Her body trembled, her breath wheezed out.
He waited.
Her chest shook as she inhaled. She appeared as broken as the one they’d just disposed of, but he knew better.
Her hands were fisted in her lap, the knuckles marred and dirty on those long lean thighs.
Still a bit of anger
left in her, was there?
He put the barrel of the gun at the base of her skull and waited.
She flinched and her trembles increased.
He could all but smell her fear. He smiled. “Would you like to join Ebony, Dusk?”
Still she only trembled, her head bowing.
He waited.
“P-p-pl-please,” she whispered, so quietly he barely heard her.
“What was that? I didn’t quite catch it. Did you say something?”
“P-please,” she said a bit louder.
“Please what, Dusk?”
Her body shook on another breath. “Please d-don-don’t kill me.”
He pressed the gun harder against the base of her skull, and she threw her hands out with a small cry to keep from falling into the grave.
A sob choked into the air, as the yawning grave waited . . .
Slowly, he pulled the gun away.
She didn’t move.
He leaned down and whispered in her ear. “You see, I can be lenient.” He held his hand out, noting she winced as she stood, but then she would wince after the beating he’d given her.
As she stood, she swayed, but he tightened his hand on her arm, watching her eyes.
He waited until she looked at him, then he nodded back to the grave. “This is what happens to those who don’t listen, Dusk, to those who scorn what I provide them, to those who try to escape.”
She glanced to the side, down into the grave, the dark shadow open wide as if waiting to be fed again, and shuddered.
“You won’t ever try anything so foolish, will you?” he asked her softly.
For a moment, she didn’t move, didn’t speak. Then those eyes rose back to him and he saw the acceptance in them. Slowly she licked her lips, then shook her head. “N-no. No, I promise, I won’t ever do that. I won’t ever escape.”
He smiled. She was right. She wouldn’t escape him. No one ever escaped him.
Click here to buy Hunted!
Books by Jaycee Clark
eBooks from Beyond the Page
Deadly Shadows
Deadly Ties
Deadly Obsession
Deadly Games
Deadly Secrets
Hunted
Also by Jaycee Clark
Angel Eyes
Firebird
Talons (coauthored with Shannon Stacey, Mandy Roth, Michelle Pillow, and Sydney Somers)
Black Aura
Ghost Cats (coauthored with Mandy Roth and Michelle Pillow)
Ghost Cats: Revenge
The Dream
Phoenix Rising II (coauthored with Donna Grant and Mandy Roth)
Ghost Cats 2 (coauthored with Mandy Roth and Michelle Pillow)
About the Author
Jaycee never really grew up—she still enjoys playing with imaginary people on a daily basis. Sometimes those people are nice, sometimes they're not, but in the end the girl gets the guy, so all is well. Jaycee earned her degree in Elementary Education from Eastern New Mexico University. She lives in Texas with her family, who puts up with her when her characters demand more of her time and appreciates her weirdness—or so they claim. There are also the cats and the corgis, who, in truth, rule the family. When she’s not chained to her keyboard, she’s doubling as a parent, a teacher, a maid, a chef, a chauffeur, a therapist, and promoting her education in human development while finishing her masters in plant elimination.
You can learn more about Jaycee by visiting her website at www.jayceeclark.com or emailing her at jaycee@jayceeclark.com. Her newsletter and blog subscriptions can be found on her website, along with links to follow her on Twitter, Facebook, and various other sites.
Contents
Cover
The Deadly Series
Title Page
Copyright
Contents
Deadly Shadows
Acknowledgments
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Epilogue
Deadly Ties
Acknowledgments
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Epilogue
Deadly Obsession
Acknowledgments
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Epilogue
Deadly Games
Acknowledgments
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Epilogue
Deadly Secrets
Acknowledgments
Dedication
Prologue
Part I: Beginnings
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Part II: Decisions
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Part III: Reckoning
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
> Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Epilogue
Excerpt from Deadly Beginnings
Excerpt from Hunted
Books by Jaycee Clark
About the Author