Survivor (The Soul Mates Series Book 1)

by Victoria Johns

  I’d forgot I’d set up a phone alarm for when it was time to check in with Cara until it started beeping, I dialed the house phone and waited. He answered it and after I’d conveyed to him I was OK, he handed the phone over to her. “I’m fine baby, nothing to report. Have you had a productive day?”

  “Yes. Where are you?” Direct and to the point, it seemed she wasn’t going to be deterred.

  “Huntin’.” It was the simplest form of the truth I could offer.

  “Promise me you’re safe and out of sight.”

  “Absolutely.” I heard her breathe a sigh of relief, but it was clear we couldn’t carry on like this. I needed to be able to focus and not be worried that she was mulching her brain with worry every day. “Listen baby, our options are limited. Either I do this myself or I have to bring in resource.”

  “No!” she snapped, “That’s not safe.”

  It seemed like I’d made my point, “I know. So for now this is the best route. Trust that I’m OK. This has been my gig for years. If I sense things are going south, I’ll bolt.”

  “OK. I… stay safe.”

  “You too,” I replied and hung up. Even with the distance and over a phone line I could sense she had developed serious feelings for me. I had to get this shit done and head home, for the first time I had something waiting for me and I was over the moon about it.

  Arriving at Sunset Strip and getting a table was as easy as pie, these places cater for two distinct groups, bachelor parties or weirdo loners. Tonight, I was definitely the latter. The pussy on offer was predictable. Foreign, fake and flying high. The dancing was appalling, no real flair or talent, they may have well of strolled in naked, spread themselves wide open and then left with a bunch of dollar bills grasped in their skanky paws.

  Two of the bouncers were definitely selling something, either flesh or drugs and possibly both. The drinks were so watered down and expensive it was a crime, a highway robber may as well have been serving them.

  “Private dance sugar?” I heard for the twentieth time. These bitches were on rotation and it didn’t take long for it to feel nasty. Every time I said no, they checked with one of the muscled goons for permission to move onto another sucker.

  Nursing my overpriced beer, I carried on clocking the routine of the bouncers and the clientele who couldn’t move to a private room for a dance fast enough. Some people have no taste or standards.

  “Um… sir, excuse me would you be interested in a private dance tonight?” I was about to finally snap in annoyance but then I took in the girl stood at my side, she was different. She was real and when I say real, I mean, real tits, real curves, real hair and really fucking young. Her nervousness could be described as alluring, but it was also scary that she was doing this, someone this jittery would be a real fantasy come true for some twisted fucks. I imagine she was also a real, money spinning, crowd pleaser. Dirty fucking ass holes. “My name is Raven.”

  She’s smiling at me like a cheerleader and I get the impression that she is also expecting to be dismissed imminently, like her co-workers.

  “Sure Raven, why not.” As soon as I finish saying the words, she froze in shock. Yep, she’s fuckin’ terrified.

  “Uh… it’s gonna be a hundred and fifty dollars sir, if that’s OK, please follow me.”

  A hundred and fifty bucks! Did she have a golden pussy? What the fuck was she doing for that much money? And as soon as I finished thinking the question, my own mind answered it and I felt ill. She nodded at yet another goon and placed a shaky hand in mine. There was no way this kid was legal, but I followed anyway. I was hoping her naivety would help me glean some information so my night wasn’t a total bust, that left me feeling like I could murder someone.

  We got to a room that was playing the standard music, bump ‘n’ grind shit and there was a curved chaise strategically placed opposite a pole and a large mirror on the wall. I’d been around mirrors like this before and it was definitely two way.

  “Sir, money up front please,” she requested as soon as I was backed up onto the chaise. I handed it over and she counted it quickly before shoving it in a well concealed drop box just below the mirror.

  As soon as she got a little closer and blocked me off from the mirror, I began, “How about we just talk?”

  Raven began to look around like a deer caught in the headlights, “I have to dance. I need to dance,” she whispered to me. That confirmed the first thing, that whoever collected the money at the other side was most certainly watching us.

  “Just saying, I’ve kinda seen enough dancing for one night, but you do what you gotta do.”

  Raven then proceeded to twist and turn in a sexy manner in front of me, with her back to the mirror. It felt all kinds of wrong to look at her. Sickening. When she removed her string bikini top it was obvious that her tits were pert from youth and not silicone. “Please sir, I need you to enjoy it. I’ll be in heaps of trouble if you don’t.”

  “Girl, I ain’t gonna lay a hand on you so don’t push it.” I saw her bottom lip quiver.

  “Please, this is hard enough as it is,” she whispered, turning and bending to touch her ankles. Her ass was tight and firm and the muscles in her thighs screamed one thing – gymnastics/cheerleader.

  “How old are you Raven?” I enquired leaning forward pretending to be after a closer look.

  She pivoted round and grabbed her tits, her own posture giving away how uncomfortable she found this. “Old enough.”

  “Can we be heard right now?” I whispered.

  I didn’t get a verbal answer just a slight shake of her head. Without any choice in the matter Raven climbed up onto my lap and began to dry hump me. “You’re not the type I normally have to do this for. You don’t make me feel… icky. You should leave.”

  “Type?” I asked playing along and running a finger up her arm.

  “Old, rich, wealthy, influential, government, councilor type.”

  “I see.” The ducks all fell together then in a logical row.

  “Are you safe?” I mumbled against her shoulder.

  “No. Yes. I don’t want to talk about this, so please don’t make things unsafe for me.”

  Before she could continue a loud banging sounded from the door, “Time!” Raven hopped off my lap and reached for her clothes. I wanted to tell her that I could get her out of here, but in reality that wasn’t why I’d come. No fucking way was I going to put myself and possibly Cara out there without more information. When the door opened, I followed her down the corridor, sandwiched between her and another robotic goon bouncer.

  As I rounded the corner I saw her gaze rapidly drop to the floor, coming in our direction was the main guy.

  Guiseppe Acerbi.

  He looked a mean and edgy motherfucker, his suit was cut razor sharp along with his hair and he was flanked by another man who was clearly some kind of henchman. “Raven, look at you, so beautiful. How are you?” he asked her.

  “Good sir, thank you for asking,” she was clearly anxious about bumping into him and was still looking at the floor.

  “Wonderful. Keep up the good work.” The smile on the face of this cold ass hole was telling, she’d pleased him and he suspected he had another mark in the bag.

  Guiseppe looked me up and down, his glare lingering in bemusement, unable to place whether I was an intentional target or not. I didn’t utter a word or change my facial expression and I had to work hard to pull it off. This was him, the man who was making Cara’s life not worth living. This was the guy who was scaring her senseless and made her so terrified that she was willing to spend the rest of her days in a remote cabin. She’d attempted to cut herself off from civilization so much, that she was worried about a satellite or space station tracking her down and giving her away.

  I could have grabbed him now and taken my chances. It would have been easy for me to wrap my hands around his neck and squeeze until I heard his C1 and C2 vertebrae crack and snap under the pressure.

  But I didn’t.r />
  I remained impassive, calling on years of skills that I’d learned on the job. I swallowed down the revulsion that was threatening to overshadow my basic training and reasoning.

  He carried on down the corridor, into an office at the end as I was urged to keep moving from the dick head ‘escorting’ me back to the main club.

  When we landed back on the main floor I felt the urge to go back to my dad’s. I needed to tell Cara that I understood, that I’d looked into the eyes of the monster and seen what she feared. It felt important that she knew I’d realized just how cold and hate filled he was and that she was nothing like him.

  “Thank you. I hope to see you again,” Raven told me, bringing me out of my own ponderings. I could see the terror clouding the edges of her eyes.

  “Sure honey,” here take an extra tip. I handed her another hundred dollar note and made my way straight to the door.

  When I was sure that no one was behind me, tailing me, I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and dialed. “It’s me, I’ve had eyes on big brother. Mean. Fuckin’ cold. Anyway, think I’ve just stumbled into the middle of a honey trap.”

  “Shit. Not good. Stumbled how?”

  “Put in a room with underage pussy. I’m pretty certain it’s just been recorded for posterity too.”

  “Fuck! You know what that means.”

  “Yeah, someone somewhere is going to start diggin’, see if I’m worth ridin’ for blackmail.”

  I’d confirmed Jonas’s fear. “Yep. Not fucking good, but at least we know the brother has a base there.”

  “Agreed. One other thing, there’s a young girl called Raven who is not settlin’ into her role of honey pot. I don’t see good things in her future. We may need to extract.”

  “I’ll see if I can put my hands on her data before we consider anything further.”

  “OK. I think I’m done here, I’m gonna head your way next,” I advised and heard him sigh.

  “Guess I’d best get Chris prepped.”

  “Piece of cake,” I laughed, “remember to say hi to Neely for me.”

  “Motherfuckin’ shit stirrer,” he grumbled and then hung up.

  Chapter Twenty Two

  Ross had been gone for over a week and I was missing him like mad. It was like my mind knew he was the constant it needed to fight off the darkness of my past and fear of being discovered. In the time he’d been gone Sam did his best to keep me busy, like he sensed my demons would swallow me up and that only meant that we became closer. It was the type of relationship every normal girl had with their daddy. He was humorous, compassionate, respectful and above all else a very patient mentor and teacher. Finally coming clean and being honest with him about my past had opened him up more, there was only one way I viewed him now, he was the father figure I’d been missing all my life.

  If whatever Ross or I had didn’t work out, or I was forced to do the unthinkable and run again I’d be losing more than just Ross. I’d have to give up Old Sam too and it made my insides hurt, because it didn’t bear thinking about.

  Our lives became normal for the most part, I carried on doing the little bits of book keeping for his friends, only now I didn’t have to take my time and pretend to work through them like before. My truthfulness had given me the freedom to do with them as I would normally, blast through them with ease. Sam watched me for a couple of days, I could hear him muttering about my super powers, but in the end he was pleased to see me comfortable and not hiding. Doing them at my normal pace also gave me more time to train with Sam.

  On one occasion he taught me how to load, shoot and reload a hunting rifle. I promised him that my use of this would be in extreme need only. He also made me swear that I wouldn’t tell Ross about it, he knew Ross wouldn’t like me handling anything other my hunting knife which I found odd. Sam explained that taking someone’s life would haunt a normal person, but someone with my recall skills… well, he didn’t finish, but I got the drift.

  Another day he lined up a number of cars and taught me how to disable them. For the most part they were the old rust buckets sitting around the lot, but besides slashing the tire walls, there was a lot to take in. Fortunately not so much that my brain didn’t find it challenging, putting the steps in order and mucking around in oil and grease was kind of liberating.

  I learned how to remove the rotor from a distributor and how to remove, swap and damage spark plugs. Sam showed me how to cut and slice battery cables. I learned how to puncture holes in key, vital hoses and pipes so that oil and water would leak silently from the engine. It was amazing, “I imagine the bad guys will be using newer cars, but providing you can pop the hood, you can do some damage. It could give you more time to run and getaway,” he told me.

  Old Sam encouraged me to head into town more, I was still very nervous and going often and alone made me feel too vulnerable. It was clear that my time imprisoned with my family, as well as my self-inflicted exile had had an effect on my social skills. Sam accompanied me mostly and I became less shy, letting him point out people, or his friends who he trusted and could help me if I truly needed it.

  Our nights were spent playing cards, I was in my element and able to share a few easy tricks that would help him with his friends. It was nice to have someone make use of my skills for something fun instead of something sinister. I’d agreed to tutor him so that he could try his skills out on Ross when he got back. I was looking forward to hearing about how it went after he got one over on his pal and as each day passed, I prayed that I’d be around to see it.

  That was when I realized I began to have faith, I was starting to hope. I could really see myself living this life, being with Ross and Sam for the long haul. I’d never risked doing that before and I had to remind myself to put the brakes on occasionally. I had to slow it all down, I couldn’t expect these people to permanently change their lives for me if we couldn’t figure a way out of my trouble. Ross had a real life, OK… a number of different lives and it was dumb of me to assume that he’d want this to be long term. I also knew I’d spent my life waiting and dreaming of everything I wanted, I knew I’d never be satisfied if I had to spend the rest of my life waiting for a guy to come home from God knows where. I was ready to live outside my head for the first time ever. Was it selfish? Absolutely, but I couldn’t compromise and I wasn’t prepared to settle for a relationship that was anything less than full time.

  End of.

  “So today how about we walk your route to the gas station? I wanna see what my boy has come up with.”

  “Are you sure?” It was a long way and even though Sam was fit, I wasn’t sure about dragging him, through the forest on a hot summer’s afternoon.

  “Listen to you Mouse, I can hike a forest path. I’ve forgotten more things than my boy has taught you. Let’s move.”

  I followed his lead until it was time for me to show him our route, “Sam, can I ask you something?”

  “Of course.”

  “You’ve been so kind and I don’t want to overstep but, does… Ross have a girlfriend or someone special in his life?” I mumbled quickly, desperate to get it out.

  “Haven’t you asked him? Seems like the kinda thing you should talk about considering he’s already assaulting you with his friendly weapon,” he chuckles in reply.

  I’m hesitant about sharing, knowledge is power and that was a lesson I learned early on. I’m desperate for the information and need to get the lay of the land before I fall any deeper under the spell of possibilities that this new life is tempting me with. “It sort of swept me up, he swept me up and I’m not complaining, but I get the impression he’s not in a place for this. Whatever this is.”

  “Alrighty, one thing you must remember, when the time comes that you need to take this escape route, you must always look forward and stay looking forward. Ignore that impulse to keep checking back. You focus up ahead and in front, look behind you and you’ll get caught.”

  “OK.”

  “That means now too. Face fr
ont and keep moving Mouse. My boy is a pussy cat,” he starts laughing, “the mouse and the pussycat. But he’s a pussycat wrapped up in an exterior of grit and granite. He followed me into the life of a Fed and never looked back. That said, he saw what me being gone did to his momma, always wondering whether I was safe, where I was and hell, whether I was actually gonna make it home.”

  Sam seemed to be remembering the time of his marriage with regret. “My Katherine knew what she was taking on, but I’m fairly sure the reality was more extreme than what she first thought. Time passed and I was a stranger in my own house and marriage. My son was loyal to his momma and by the time he hit high school… well, he was the man o’ the house and doing his best to offer comfort and companionship to my wife, something I should have been doing. That was my job, my responsibility and I never made her a priority.”

  “I understand what it’s like to see your mom fall down the priority list Sam.” At least he was remorseful. My dad was one step away from sending out invites and holding a celebratory party.

  “Don’t mean it’s right and you’ll know that you can never get that time back. Anyway, Ross was intent on serving his country, despite the lonely life Kathy led, she approved of it. She taught that boy the value of patriotism and he joined the army. He did a stint in special forces and came out when his momma got sick.” Oh no, I didn’t like the sound of this, I didn’t want to make him sad, but before I could stop him, he carried on. “My Kathy was so ill. I’d spent my life making the world safe, caring for others, putting them first and missed what was under my own fuckin’ nose. My boy nursed that woman until the end and she still welcomed me back, like I was a shining star. It was then that I saw it, saw everything I’d missed. Their bond and the beauty of a family that I’d taken for granted.”

  “Sam please, you don’t have to talk anymore if you don’t want to.” I could tell he was on a trip down memory lane and it was both pleasuring and painful.