Our movements began to slow until we rocked gently, letting the wall behind her support us both. Her legs relaxed around me and I held her to me as I set her down. My wet cock still throbbed against her as I kissed her. I held her tightly to me. I hated that I’d have to let her go but I could hear gunfire in the distance. She was mine but we were still far from safe.
We were protected for the moment by the pump house that stood between us and the compound. We adjusted our clothes and paused as I took her back in my arms. I kissed her deeply, pulling her to me. Her swelling breasts were both soft and firm against my chest. I needed hours, days alone with this woman and even then I knew it would not be enough. I could never get enough of her. I held her head, my thumb caressing that velvet spot under her ear.
“Abby, it’s happening, now…inside the house. I need to get the fuck inside…make sure Nic and Lazar get to Macek.” I held her tight and watched her face. I could see fear in her eyes but there was strength too. Everything she’d been through had made her even stronger. Her swollen lips drew my eyes. “There’s no place for you except at my side, Abby. I won’t fucking leave you again, ever. I’m taking you in there with me.”
“You sure as hell are,” she said, her hair wild and sexy around her beautiful face. “You couldn’t stop me if you tried.” I ground my lips against hers and she met me with fire and passion. My perfect fucking match. It was hell to have to pull away from her.
“Can you fire a gun?” I asked, working to focus and pulling the piece from my shoulder holster.
“Dad taught me a little,” she answered. She looked at me. “I can if I have to,” she said, her chin tilted up.
“That’s my girl.” I put it into her hand. It was large for her small hand. “Squeeze the trigger, don’t pull. Aim for the chest…remember to breathe.” I locked her eyes. “Use it only if you absolutely have to. I’ll be right beside you.”
She smiled nervously up at me. I stroked the hair from her face.
I picked up the gun that had fallen from my waistband and tucked it back into place. “Stay behind me.” We moved from our cover. We had a clear shot through the woods but I could still hear gunfire. “We’ll head in through the back. It’ll be their weakest point. We’ll take the stairs to Lazar’s office. If we’re lucky, Macek may have already gone down.”
“Problem solved?” Abby asked as we started to move toward the compound.
As we moved in closer the sound of shots fired rang out more loudly. Shit. There was still too much action inside and we had no choice but to walk right into the middle of it. Problem solved. Problem fucking solved…
That’s what Lazar had said from the helicopter as it was taking off. Problem solved. What the fuck had he meant… The faster we ran toward the compound the faster everything began falling into place.
Nic had said no one knew about the safe house where I’d left Abby. Only he and I and Lazar knew. Macek didn’t know it existed. And Cutter shouldn’t have known… Yet he’d gone in and taken Abby cleanly without being seen.
Lazar had said Abby was a complication who could cause split loyalties. To him she was just a fucking problem.
My legs pounded the last few yards with Abby straining to keep up. I’d done everything I could to protect Lazar and his family, his organization. I’d worked my whole life to keep him in power, risking my life and now Abby’s. I couldn’t believe he could do this to me.
I knew Lazar thought the family would be better off with her dead, but the thought that he could have set Cutter on her...
We made it to the back of the compound and I pulled Abby with me behind a thick hedge. My chest was heaving, not from the run or the danger, but from the idea that the man I’d looked up to as a father could want to kill the woman I…
I looked at Abby, small and brave as hell catching her breath beside me. I’d never felt this way before.
She adjusted the gun tucked into the waistband of her jeans and smiled at me. I smiled back into those clear blue eyes and knew her life mattered more to me than my own. It’s how my mother had felt about my dad. I knew I wanted a life with Abby, the kind my parents had shared. But I wanted our future to be one that didn’t include fear and violence and loss. I took Abby’s hand and brought it to my lips.
“Abby. I need to tell you…” I began. “We’ve got to go in and I need to tell you… I don’t know what we’ll find in there. In Lazar’s office.” I ran a nervous hand around the back of my neck. “Macek’s been our target all along and he still is. But Lazar said something I didn’t like. Abby, I need to go in there and I need to find out. It might be neither of us can completely trust Lazar.”
“You mean he…but you’re fighting for him Dane. He’s on your side and you’re on his. Why else would you be here? What did he say?”
“I’m a loyal man Abby. I could be wrong about him. I have to know for sure and finding out means finding him.”
“Everything is more dangerous now,” she said, her eyes dark and understanding.
Abby
My heart never slowed down. From the time Cutter took me until Dane found me and fucked me, fucked me hard up against the wall… It was pounding still.
We’d moved at a dead run through the woods and were hidden in the hedges behind the house. Dane told me what I already knew, that Lazar might not be on our side, on my side after all.
“I trust you,” I said, leaning in to kiss him. I felt his heartbeat, steady under my palm and I knew it was true. I trusted this man with everything in me and I admired the loyalty he felt in the face of his doubts. Dane was a dangerous man, my beautiful killer, and I trusted him completely. We were about to enter the heart of the mob war and though I trembled with fear, I knew my place was at Dane’s side.
I realized it when he found me at the pump house but I think I knew when he’d come back for me and caught me in the woods. He made me feel strong and alive when he was next to me. I was still throbbing inside from his body filling mine and bringing me the ecstasy I’d never imagined. He’d given my life back to me again and again and I liked the strong woman I was becoming. My whole world had changed.
“Take me with you Dane,” I said looking up into his beautiful dark eyes. “We both need to know what we’re fighting for.”
Adrenaline and desire pounded between us. He caught me in his arms and devoured me with his lips and his hands. My breath was ragged when he finally pulled away.
He took the gun from his waistband and checked the silencer as he spoke. “Stay behind me Abby.” He tucked my own gun tighter into my waistband and pulled my sweater down, covering it. “Use me as a shield and stay the fuck behind me.” His black eyes swallowed me. “I won’t lose you again.”
Then we were moving fast toward the compound’s back doors. One was wide open and two dead guards flanked the entrance, each with an almost bloodless wound to the temple. “Fuckin’ Dalcas know their shit,” Dane said under his breath as we passed them. I kept my eyes on Dane’s back as we passed close to the bodies and headed for the utility stairwell.
He took the stairs two at a time and I had to move fast to keep up. The sound of gunshots came from every direction at once and the air tasted of burned powder. We hit the landing and were in the empty hall. I saw the muscles in Dane’s jaw tic as he drew his gun, ready to fire. He pulled up at a corner, motioning me to stop and keep behind him. I watched as he took a fast look around the corner. “Fuck,” he breathed. “More fucking guards. Stay quiet and move when I do.”
Before I understood what he meant he took aim around the corner and fired. When I heard the guards fall we took off, stopping only when we reached the doors to Lazar’s office. We stopped beside them and Dane rested a hand on the knob. I was at his back, braced for more gunfire and whatever else waited for us inside. Then the hairs on the back of my neck started to rise. A shadow fell across my eyes and I felt the cold sting of steel at my temple. Dane knew instantly something was wrong. I saw the muscles in his neck tighten into ropes.
“Drop the gun or I drop the girl.” The voice was quiet behind us. Dane’s gun fell to the floor and a black boot swept it away. An enormous man with cold glittering eyes stepped forward,
roughly searching Dane. Then he stuck his gun in the small of Dane’s back. “Open the fucking door. Mr Macek is expecting you.”
Dane straightened and spread his shoulders wide in front of me. He’s trying to protect me, I thought, and my heart swelled in spite of my fear. He opened the door and stepped in with me at his back. Nic and Lazar sat in chairs off to the right of the desk by a window, their arms tied. I heard the guard bolt the door behind us and my stomach clenched. On the floor across from them was a young woman, barely clothed and terrified. She was thin and bruised, with ropes at her ankles and wrists and a wide leather collar around her neck. The sight of her hit me hard. Without Dane, it could have been me…
Macek was smiling behind the massive desk, his feet up, a cigar hanging from his mouth.
“Welcome back Dane,” he drawled softly. “Your men thought sending the whore would distract me from your fucking little takeover. It’s hardly worthy of you. But I knew when these two showed up,” he swiveled the cigar toward the chairs, “that you wouldn’t be far behind. I’m hoping you can talk some fucking sense into them.”
The armed man behind us glided past to stand at Macek’s side. Macek stood and stubbed out the cigar on the desktop leaving a black ugly burn. “I haven’t had much luck with them yet, but you’re a reasonable man Dane.” He came from behind the desk to stand in front, leaning back against it as he spoke. He was inches away, his face dark and his eyes pale with an unnatural light. “When you choose to be.”
“Lazar wants me dead. He wants his fucking organization back and he wants to run it his own way. He thinks it can survive forever on small shit art theft, running guns and washing money. He’s a small man with a small dream.” Macek paused, watching the effect of his words. “I intend to speak plainly Dane.”
“I can run this business alone, but I need a powerful right arm backing me up and it’s going to be you and I want the men who will follow you. You don’t care for my line of work Dane, but I can be very persuasive. I can offer you the kind of fucking money and power no one else can.”
Dane’s hands were in fists at his sides, his shoulders broad and he was standing like a sentinel in front of me. I could see the pulse pounding at the side of his neck.
“Go to hell Macek. Kill every fucking man here and there won’t be a business left to run. Lazar’s men have taken everything outside this room. You won’t leave this office and live. This is the fucking end of you.”
“This is the end of nothing!” Macek roared over the sound of shots outside, his face turning red and veins standing out. “There’s not a goddamn man out there who won’t turn for money. And they’re going to follow you straight to me. You don’t understand me yet, that’s all.” He took a revolver from inside his jacket and aimed it at Dane’s face. He cocked the hammer and smiled. Then he swung the gun toward Nic.
I watched in horrified shock as I caught Lazar’s look. He sat helpless watching his son and then he turned to look at me. Dane had said perhaps we shouldn’t trust him, but the look I saw in his eyes…
Dane
Rage surged inside me as images of Macek’s death filled my head. He’d already be dead by my hand if it weren’t for the fucking goon at his side. But I had to choose my moment carefully. Gunfire in the compound was beginning to slow and I didn’t really know which side was gaining. At any moment men from either side of this war could come crashing in. It might not even matter which side they were on. Noise and confusion might be all I needed.
“Maybe you’re starting to understand a little better now?” Macek said, taking his gun off Nic, walking slowly around me and stopping next to Abby. “Alive or dead, you and your family aren’t going to stand in my way and women like this one are nothing but money to be made Dane. Don’t push me to do things...” He ran the blackened tip of his revolver along Abby’s jaw leaving a faint black smudge behind. I ground my teeth. If I went for his throat now, the goon would take me out and Abby was too fucking close. Macek moved, his face inches from mine.
“You want the girl. I can see that. So do I…so does any man. Just because we train her properly and allow her to make us a small fortune doesn’t mean you can’t have her too Dane. She’s young and strong. Fuck her all you like, it’ll make her even better. But if I have to kill her to control you I will. Defy me and you’ll lose her, you lose it all.” He paused, turning his fucking eyes on Abby again. “Work for me without reservation and you’ll keep her alive. It’s the only way you will keep her alive. And it might even save your family.” Macek turned his gun back to the tied men.
Nic shifted in his chair and looked at his father. I looked from him to Lazar and felt Abby’s warmth behind me. This room held the only three people I gave a fuck about in the world. I still wasn’t sure of Lazar’s intentions toward Abby, but there was no fucking way I’d allow him to be shot like a dog by this sick fuck.
I could kill Macek with my bare hands where he stood but the risk was just too high. I had to bide my time. I needed to lure this sick fuck in and I needed an opportunity to talk to Lazar...
“You’re right Macek, I want her. I want Lazar and my brother alive too. Everyone with the power to back you as boss is in this room. Kill one of us and you’ve lost the others. You’ll sure as fuck have lost me.” I could see Macek’s fucking ego wrestling with the truth. “My price is Abby. She’s mine and only mine. I share her with fucking no one. You pay my price and we might have something to talk about.”
“You ask a lot Dane.”
“So the fuck do you. The girl is off the table. Let me talk to Lazar. You’re strong with me beside you but you’re stronger with the three of us and everyone else we bring. You’re the only side here that’s armed Macek. You’ve got nothing to lose. Let us talk and decide if we want to die here in this office or stay alive and stay in the organization. Your organization.”
Macek stepped back from me and walked around the desk, sitting down. I fucking prayed I’d blown enough goddamn smoke up his ass for him to accept the bullshit I’d told him. I felt Abby shift nervously at my back. I trusted her to see this as a ruse. She fucking knew me. She had to know I’d never work for Macek.
“You stand to gain a great deal by joining with me Dane. Their lives, yours, the girl. Wealth you can’t imagine. You have three minutes with them and the girl stays right where she is.” Macek put the revolver back in the holster under his arm. The look on his face made my fingers itch to close around his throat.
“Fuck up and she pays,” Macek said, motioning to his guard who swung his gun toward Abby.
My gut wrenched as I moved a few steps from Abby, but I had to talk to Lazar. I kept one eye on her and moved fast to kneel at Nic’s feet.
“Do you know the status outside this room?” I asked quietly. Lazar shook his head.
“We need to fucking buy some time, make Macek think we’ll cooperate. We have a chance if we work this together. If I can get the gun off his fucking gorilla…”
“Why the fuck did you bring the girl Dane?” Lazar asked. His forehead was damp and his eyes darted. “Her presence gives Macek more leverage than ever. What the fuck were you thinking?”
“That bastard Cutter had her, or did you already know that? Did you send him to solve the problem of her Lazar?” I wanted so much to help him. My doubts about him were fucking torture.
“I wouldn’t inflict that asshole on any woman, witness or not, Dane. I thought that she was just a witness…just another woman to you. But Nic talked to me in the chopper and I can see it in your eyes. I’m beginning to understand now what she means to you.”
“I’ll get you out of this Lazar, or die trying but only if you’ll keep her safe. No matter what happens to me.” I glanced back to Abby standing bravely on her own in front of the desk. “There are still scores to se
ttle and I need your word that she’ll be protected.”
“You have it Dane. Loyalty for loyalty. I want Macek fucking finished for good.” Lazar’s eyes met mine. He had never lied to me in my life.
“Time’s the fuck up boys,” Macek said too loudly. The asshole with the gun stood beside him like a fucking black vulture. “Are you with me, or do you need more motivation?” The guard took a step toward Abby. Macek’s eyes glowed with anger and greed, and something more dangerous.
“We intend to cooperate Macek. All of us,” Lazar said.
I stepped back in front of Abby. “But only if I keep the girl.”
Abby
Macek wanted to use me as a pawn but Dane had turned the tables. I also knew Dane was risking all three men’s lives for me. Everything hinged now on Macek’s decision and he looked on the brink of losing control. If he refused to give me up to Dane, we could all end up dying in this room. If Macek let Dane keep me we might all live, but Lazar, Nic and Dane would be working for a deranged man who brutalized and killed innocent women for money. I couldn’t accept it. I knew Dane wouldn’t either. I was still unsure of Lazar, but I’d seen the love in his eyes when he looked at his son, and Dane had said he was a good man...
All this had to be a play for time. There was no way any of these men would work for a vicious bastard like Macek. I thought of Cutter’s breath in my face and his hands on my body. I remembered Arseny. I looked at the poor ruined girl tied up on the floor.
These men would never follow Macek or men like him.
I realized I hadn’t heard any shots outside the office in a very long time. The war out there had raged in gunfire while we were inside, engaged in a private battle for power and control. I wondered who had won outside those doors, and if the men who would eventually come for us could shift the balance of power back in our favor. I moved closer to Dane and leaned my forehead into his broad strong back. I remembered the feel of him inside my body and I was overcome with the desire to be away from all this, to be back in the woods alone with him. The two of us by the campfire, me wrapped up warm and safe in his arms. I reached for his hand and he took mine firmly, squeezing my fingers, lending me courage. I watched from behind him as Macek studied Dane’s face. I was afraid of Macek’s answer, no matter what his decision. I shifted and my elbow bumped something hard against my back. I had forgotten...
My Beautiful Killer: A Bad Boy Mafia Romance Page 10
