Double Jeopardy

by Emma Sinclair

  So what was she doing?

  “Are you all right?”

  She smiled up at AJ and realized that she was in a lot of trouble. Her heart did a little flip flop.

  But she needed to reunite the brothers. They both needed that. Deserved it.

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” she said. She looked at Harry mostly because she couldn’t stand the pain in her heart when she looked at AJ and demanded, “Tell us what you saw.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  AJ had to admire Di’s tenacity.

  After the sex they just had, he was having trouble remembering his own name let alone what they’d come here for.

  “You’re fast at recovery, aren’t you? I hope that doesn’t mean that you were faking,” Harry said.

  AJ hoped so, too.

  No. There wasn’t any way she could have been faking, he told himself. She was definitely into what they’d done. He was absolutely sure of it, wasn’t he?

  Harry laughed slightly and rose from his position on the floor. He shrugged into a robe, thank gods, and sat back on the stump. He picked up a thick slab of jerky off of the table.

  “Would you like?”

  “No,” AJ said. “We’re ready for the information you promised.”

  He crossed his arms over his chest and learned back against the wall.

  Di watched him and then repeated his actions, crossing her arms and leaning back next to him. AJ chuckled at her actions. He wanted to reach out and pull her into his arms, but he resisted.

  Harry just continued to gnaw on his jerky.

  AJ had enough dealings with him in the past to know that he was just being dramatic. Harry tended to do things like that. But beside him, he could feel Di’s tension increasing.

  “Well,” Harry finally spoke. “Yesterday I was out by the docks. I was buying my new friend here.” He indicated the man kneeling before him.

  Next to him he heard Di’s sharp intake of breath. He wanted to comfort her, do something, but didn’t want to risk interrupting Harry. He hoped Di remained quiet.

  Luckily Harry continued speaking.

  “I was there when the ship came in. I was a little nervous, let me tell you. I thought I was going to have to leave without my new friend when dock security was increased. We just barely got back here before guards were swarming the place.

  “Anyway, one of the guards came knocking at my door, as they do occasionally. He wanted to know if I knew anything about some stowaways.

  “I says, ‘Why would anyone want to stowaway to this hellhole?’

  “He says, ‘that’s what he wanted to know.”

  “Asked me if I knew anything about a jailbreak. I said I didn’t.”

  “I saw something tossed off the boat while another something was carried off towards the barracks. I asks him what was going on and he tells me it’s none of my business.”

  Harry stopped speaking then. He took another gnaw on the beef jerky.

  “What? That’s it? We’d already assumed that much,” Di yelled.

  AJ leapt to subdue her. He knew Harry had more.

  “Di, maybe we should let him finish.”

  “But he’s just toying with us.”

  She had to shut up now. If she got Harry mad at them who knew what information they could lose out on.

  “Di, shut up.”

  AJ was pretty sure that it was shock rather than anything else that quieted her.

  Harry chuckled.

  “Good thing you have such power over your woman.”

  Without giving Di a chance to speak he pulled her close and settled her in his arms. She stiffened slightly but then relaxed and thankfully remained silent.

  Harry continued to chew his jerky.

  “Well, as my good friend AJ knows, I don’t trust anyone, especially anyone who tries to tell me what’s best for me. So, I followed them.”

  “Way to go Harry,” he muttered.

  “Turns out the package they were carrying was alive. I could hear the moaning and the struggles.”

  Di gasped.

  AJ pulled her tighter against him. He spread his legs and pulled her as close as physically possible. His arms wrapped tightly around her.

  “They carried him into the barracks and tossed him into the brig. When I came back to the docks your friend here,” he indicated Di, “was being pawed and you know the rest.”

  AJ nodded, thinking over Harry’s statement.

  “Do you have any idea what they’ll do to him?” AJ asked.

  He had a pretty good idea but wanted to hear it officially from Harry.

  “If they took him to the brig, they don’t expect to let him leave.”

  “Do we…” Di started but her voice broke.

  AJ took over the question he assumed Di was going to ask.

  “Do we know if he’s still alive?”

  Harry sat silently for a moment. Di pressed back closer to him. He held her tighter.

  “They’ll torture him first.”

  AJ shivered at the thought of Alliance torture. He’d experienced it himself more times than he wanted to remember.

  Harry took another big bite of jerky. His mouth was still full when he spoke again.

  “If you’re going to break him out, or try to break him out, I should say, you should get to it soon. There’s no telling how long I’ll decide to keep this conversation a secret.”

  Di couldn’t believe that after all they’d gone through; Harry would have the nerve to threaten them.

  “Why did you bother telling us if you’re just going to turn us in?”

  AJ once again tried to silence her, but she wasn’t about to quiet so easily this time.

  “No,” she insisted. “What the hell is this?”

  AJ grasped her chin in his hand and forced her to look at him.

  “Di things are done differently on the island,” he said. “Come one, get dressed in all of your layers and we’ll head back.”

  “But…”

  “Di, it’ll be all right. I promise.”

  She didn’t know why, but she did trust him. Both with her life and Cal’s.

  And that made her nervous. That made her really nervous because she didn’t trust anyone.

  Still, she listened to AJ and pulled on the other pair of pants and two more shirts. Just before they stepped outside, she shrugged into the cloak and pulled it up over her head.

  This time, walking through what could loosely be considered a town, she had no problems keeping her head down.

  The slave auction was still going on but she couldn’t bring herself to look. The memory of Harry fucking his slave’s ass was going to be burned in her brain forever.

  “They are sex slaves,” AJ said from next to her, “but they choose to do it. Granted it’s the best of a bad situation, but they’re not treated badly.”

  She didn’t speak. It wasn’t that she didn’t necessarily believe him, she just didn’t want to know any more.

  Damn it, she did want to know more, needed to know more.

  “Do you… Have you ever had a slave?”

  She spoke so quietly she wasn’t sure he heard her. That was okay because she wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer.

  But finally, he did speak.

  “I haven’t been a saint the whole time I’ve been here. Fifteen years is a long time. But I swear I’ve never hurt anyone and I’ve never done anything that the other person didn’t want.”

  She thought it best not to ask any more questions she wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer to.

  The two of them walked along in silence.

  What had Di gotten herself into?

  Less than a week ago she’d been running her own very successful club. Now she was on a Malory Island wearing four layers of clothes because who knew what would happen if anyone found out she was a woman.

  And her mind, and she was afraid her heart, was completely torn between two men.

  She’d certainly come a long way in a short time.

&nb
sp; She had no idea how long they’d been walking and she was completely shocked when AJ grabbed her shoulders and pushed her to the ground, landing on top of her.

  Above her she heard a crash and rock shards rained around them.

  “What the hell?”

  AJ pushed himself up off of her, balancing himself on his arms. Rock dust covered him and he had a gash on the side of his face. Blood trickled from the gash down the column of his throat.

  “You tripped my burglar alarm.”

  “Sorry,” she said.

  Much to her surprise he smiled.

  “I’m not,” he said. “You feel damn good underneath me.”

  Heat coursed through her.

  “We should probably get back to the shelter and get your head patched up.”

  His smile faltered and he rolled off of her.

  “Yeah, whatever. We seem to be doing a lot of that since you got here.”

  He pushed himself up and dusted himself off. Rather than waiting for him to help, she pushed herself to a standing position.

  He frowned in her direction and then, without saying anything, continued on down the path.

  Di took a deep breath and followed him.

  She knew she hurt him. She felt bad about it but she had to remind herself that she needed some distance. She was getting much too close.

  And she was afraid that he was getting just as attached to her. She didn’t want to cause any problems between the two brothers once they were reunited. She was only temporary, but hopefully their family would be forever.

  When she reached the shelter a few yards behind AJ he was already taking care of the cut on his forehead. He’d wiped himself with a cloth and had smeared blood across his forehead.

  “Let me help you with that,” she said, crossing towards him.

  But he pulled away.

  “That’s okay. I can do it myself.”

  She pulled away. She wasn’t going to push when she wasn’t wanted, but still, he only managed to smear blood around.

  “Shit,” he finally yelled. “I’m going to the water hole. You can come along if you want.”

  “Okay,” she said quietly.

  She did want to clean up a bit after what they’d done earlier. Even being at Harry’s house was enough to make her need a shower.

  “Better get all of that filth off of your pretty skin,” she heard him mutter.

  He wasn’t talking about himself, was he?

  “AJ…”

  “Are you coming or not?”

  She jumped when he yelled.

  “Yeah.”

  She once again grabbed the scratchy blanket and followed him out the door.

  “We’ll leave in the middle of the night. Well before first light. We want to get him out while it’s still dark.”

  “What?”

  “To go get your boyfriend.”

  Sizzles of excitement coursed through her body. Sure, she was excited to be going to get Cal, but she was just as excited by the thrill of the hunt.

  “What’s the plan?”

  The spring in her step increased.

  “We’re going to need a distraction. Hopefully we’ll be able to rouse some locals but if not, we’ll think of something else.”

  “No.”

  Di stopped in her tracks.

  AJ took a few more steps, apparently unaware that she’d stopped.

  “What?”

  He turned around finally when he realized she was no longer behind him.

  “You’re not going to do anything stupid, are you?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “We came here to find you. I don’t know why but Cal needed to find you. If you do something stupid than this whole thing is a massive failure.”

  He stared at her for a long time before speaking.

  “The ideal scenario is for all three of us to get off of this damn island,” he said. “But worst case scenario is that I stay behind and you two get the hell out. I can survive here. You two don’t have to.”

  She opened her mouth to protest but AJ stopped her when he walked towards her and put his finger over her mouth.

  “That’s the way it is,” he demanded. “Now just nod.”

  She did as he said.

  “Good, now come one.”

  He grabbed her by the wrist and puller her along to the watering hole. When they reached the side of the pond AJ quickly shucked his clothes and dove right in.

  After the day he’d spent with Di, after doing the things they’d already done, and with more things he wanted to do with her floating through his brain, the cold water felt amazing sluicing over AJ’s skin.

  It was the only thing that cooled the erection that had practically been bursting out of his pants since he’d met Di.

  And tomorrow, with a little bit of luck he’d be handing her over to his brother.

  His brother.

  He didn’t even have a clue how he felt about that. Hell, he was still having problems accepting the fact that he may actually have the opportunity to leave the island.

  He popped out of the water in the middle of the lake, breathing heavily after being under water for so long.

  He turned back to the shore in time to see Di stripping out of her clothes. She was still wearing several layers so it was an even longer strip tease. And he couldn’t tare his gaze away.

  She tossed the cloak aside. Then she unbuckled both pairs of pants and pushed them down over her hips. They fell to the ground.

  Her ass was perfect and round. The cold water wasn’t doing anything to keep his erection down anymore. When she turned around he could just barely see her plump pussy between her legs.

  Completely unaware of the show she was putting on for AJ, she reached up and took all three shirts off at the same time. Her breasts were high and when the cold air hit her skin, her nipples pebbled.

  Below the water, AJ’s cock throbbed.

  She stood at the corner of the lake separating the three shirts, completely oblivious to AJ’s situation. When she was finished, she sat on the edge of the lake and slowly slid into the water, making sure that she continued to hold onto the side.

  Only then did AJ work up the strength to look away.

  He turned around and the first thing he noticed was that they weren’t alone. Two men peeked out from the bushes. He could see one of the men had his hand on his cock, tugging furiously. Both of the men were practically drooling.

  He turned back around to see Di picking up water in her free hand and then letting it slide over her body. Her nipples hardened even more when the cool droplets touched them. He knew exactly how the other men felt.

  But the fact was, Di could be in danger.

  AJ ducked under the water and swam furiously to where Di was bathing. She screamed when he popped up directly in front of her. He quickly put his hand over her mouth, silencing her.

  Her eyes went wide and he knew he was scaring her. That was okay though, because if he were perfectly honest with himself, he was scared, too. Scared for Di.

  “We need to get the hell out of here.”

  He removed his hand from her mouth, though kept it poised closely as he expected her to argue.

  Much to her surprise, she remained quiet.

  “Can you help me out, please?”

  He stared at her dumbfounded.

  “You said we have to go, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  He pulled himself out of his stupor and lifted her out of the water, climbing out after her.

  She was already putting on one of the pairs of pants.

  “Just one set of clothes, okay.”

  She looked at him and nodded; anxiety was clear in her eyes.

  It was only a few moments before they were once again dashing through the woods back to the shelter. Neither of them spoke until they were safely inside.

  “What was that?” She asked.

  “I’m sorry you didn’t get to finish your bath. There were some sketchy characters watching in the wo
ods.”

  She seemed to calm slightly.

  “Oh, is that all? They way you were acting I though it was something really bad.”

  She didn’t seem to grasp the seriousness of the situation. She was on an island with a bunch of animals most of whom would rape her as soon as look at her.

  “It could have been dangerous,” he said.

  Perhaps it was his harsh tone of voice, but she obviously changed her opinion.

  “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

  He just nodded.

  “I’ll go get us something to eat. We should go to sleep early so we can get an early start.”

  To go break into the Alliance barracks, remained unspoken.

  This time it was Di’s turn to nod.

  While he went out to find some food, he had a stash of food in a nearby cave, he also reset his burglar alarm.

  Finding a few more boulders and lashing them together he couldn’t help wondering if this would be his last night of freedom, if this could be called freedom.

  He knew very well that if it came down to him getting out versus making sure Diana and his brother were safe, he’d sacrifice himself.

  A brother.

  He was still having trouble believing he had a brother let alone one who would risk his own life for him. What was that all about?

  He gnawed on some of the jerky as he walked back to his shelter. Duck was just falling and as he always did, he got that sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. He had a minor moment of panic when he walked inside and didn’t immediately see Di.

  She wouldn’t have left, would she?

  His pulse slowed when he realized that the lump on the middle of the bed was Di. He tossed the jerky on the table and lay down next to her.

  Still asleep she sighed and snuggled into him. Content for the evening, he pulled her close and closed his eyes, ready for whatever would come tomorrow.

  ****

  Tension was already thick in the air when Di opened her eyes. It was still dark, but the stirring in her belly told her that it was just about time.

  “Morning.” AJ’s voice, thick with sleep, rumbled over her from next to her on the bed.

  “Good morning.”

  Wasn’t it odd to exchange such banal pleasantries when they both knew it was nothing close to a good morning?

  “You ready?”

  No, she didn’t know if she’d ever be ready for this. There was no doubt that she was always up for a fight but what was going to happen to them now?