Into The Night

by Janelle Denison

  He understood, and gave her the escape she seemed to need. He quickly stripped off his clothes and joined her under the stream of warm water, already thoroughly, achingly aroused. As much as he wanted to take advantage of the erotic setting and make love to Nicole, there were things they needed to discuss first.

  “What happened tonight?” he asked, keeping his voice low as he reached for a large sponge and poured a generous amount of liquid soap on top. Then he motioned for Nicole to turn around so he could scrub her back.

  “Where do I start?” she said with a sigh as he began buffing the soapy sponge across her shoulders and the scent of ripe peaches filled the steamy air. “He gave me a bracelet, tried to kiss me, then issued a threat-that it was up to me whether things between the two of us went gently, or roughly, and he didn’t seem to mind the latter if that’s what it came down to.” She shuddered.

  Nathan clenched his jaw as he glided the sponge over her bottom, hating that she’d had to endure even a moment of Sloane’s vulgar personality. “Did he hurt you?” he asked, kneeling to wash her legs.

  “No. But I can’t be alone with him again.” She turned around again when he urged her to do so, and let him soap and scrub his way back up the front of her body. “He’s not very patient with the hard-to-get routine. Next time, he’s not going to take no for an answer.”

  “I know.” Standing again, he dragged the sponge over her belly, then her breasts, trying like hell to keep his mind on business, and not the temptation of her tight, hard nipples and slick, wet skin silhouetted by the erotic rainfall of blue-amber water.

  He swallowed hard and placed the soapy sponge in her hands so she could return the favor. But before she touched him, he needed to tell her just how urgent this mission of theirs had become.

  “Things here at The Sanctuary are much worse than we originally thought. Sloane is trafficking the girls to Russia once he’s done using them,” he said, watching as her eyes widened with shock. “He’s already made arrangements to sell off Angela and a few of the other girls.”

  “Oh, my God,” she breathed, her face reflecting her own revulsion at the news. “We have to get the girls out of here.”

  He gently smoothed wet strands of hair off her cheek, knowing how desperately she wanted to save each and every one of the girls here at The Sanctuary. Except the two of them just couldn’t do it on their own. It was impossible. Once they were out of this hellhole, it would be up to the authorities to look into the allegations further and gather the evidence they needed to arrest Sloane-and make sure the charges were strong enough to stick.

  “We’re getting Angela out tomorrow night, before a swap can be made, so you won’t be alone with Sloane again,” he said, informing her of the more immediate plan he’d formulated. “I’ll set things up with Sloane tomorrow when we talk, let him think that after a few hours at the party we’ll make the exchange for the night. Except by then, we’ll be gone.”

  “You make it sound so easy.” She was washing his back, and while he couldn’t see her face, he could hear the frown in her voice. And the doubts.

  “No, not easy.” He didn’t want her to think that anything about getting Angela out of the estate without Sloane’s knowledge was going to be simple or uncomplicated. It was a matter of hoping for the best, and planning for the worst. “But it can go relatively smoothly if we have Angela’s cooperation. When you go to the spa with her, I need you to establish a friendship with her, let her know she can trust you, and me, and get her in the mind frame to leave. I honestly think she’s ready to get out of here, so hopefully it won’t be too difficult to sway her.”

  “Okay. And tomorrow night? How are we pulling that off?”

  Her soapy hands slipped between his thighs from behind, and when her fingers brushed across his balls, his cock stiffened even more and he groaned deep in his throat. She continued her way down his calves to his feet, leaving him in sexual agony.

  Closing his eyes, he exhaled a deep breath and refocused on their conversation. “We’re going to make the masquerade party work to our advantage. Everyone will be masked, which will help conceal our identities and enable us to blend in. Since Sloane will most likely know which masks are yours and Angela’s, I need you to find a way to switch your masks with other people’s, preferably blondes, to throw Sloane off our trail and buy us some time. Do you think you can do that?”

  “I know I can,” she said confidently.

  “Good.” He explained the best way for them to disappear with Angela, and while what he had planned would only give them about half an hour’s lead time before Sloane realized they were gone, once they were out the front gates it would be too late for Sloane to do anything at all.

  Finished washing his body, she stood in front of him again, both of them beneath the cascade of water. She set the sponge aside, splayed her hands on his chest, and looked up at him, her eyes smoky with desire and a deeper purpose. “I need to ask you a huge favor, especially in light of the fact that Sloane is trafficking the girls to Russia.”

  He couldn’t imagine denying her request, mainly because she’d never asked him for anything. If it was within his power to grant, the favor was hers. “Okay.”

  “I know I’m not going to get the story I wanted on Sloane,” she said, her voice infused with disappointment. “Even though we’ve both witnessed his sordid lifestyle and just how corrupt he is, and how he’s abusing all these girls and that he’s also involved in white slave trade, if I wrote an exposé, it would be his word against mine. If I even tried to reveal the truth, he’d literally destroy me, personally and professionally.”

  Needing to touch her, he placed his hands on her hips and slowly glided them upward over her waist to just beneath her arms. His thumbs absently skimmed the underside of her breasts, and her eyes darkened even more. “Yeah, he would,” Nathan said, glad to see that she was thinking sensibly.

  “But there is one thing I want out of this and it means more to me than the story,” she said in a soft, imploring tone. “I want to take Holly, too.”

  Shit . Now, there was a complication he hadn’t anticipated. Getting one girl out undetected was going to be difficult enough, but two? He shook his head, unsure he could make such a promise.

  “Please, Nathan?”

  She framed his face in her hands, forcing him to look into her beautiful eyes, past the strong, tenacious woman he’d come to love, to the young, vulnerable girl she’d once been. More than anyone, she understood what these girls were going through and felt she needed to try to save Holly.

  “If we don’t get her out of this place now, she’s going to end up in Russia, imprisoned to prostitution for the rest of her life, and I’ll never forgive myself for not helping her when I had the chance.”

  His own devastating past reared its ugly head. He could relate to that feeling of regret all too well, and it was something he never wanted to experience again. Because of that, telling Nicole that he refused to help Holly was impossible.

  “We’ll get her out,” he said gruffly. For Nicole, he’d somehow find a way.

  “Thank you.” Gratitude filled her voice as she curled a hand around the back of his neck and pulled his mouth down to hers.

  She gave him a hungry, emotion-filled kiss of appreciation that spurred his own need for her as all the anxiety and tension of the past few hours flashed over to desire and uncontrollable passion.

  Nathan groaned at the feel of her hands moving urgently over his slick, wet body-across his chest and down his belly, until she encircled his erection with her fingers and stroked the rigid length. His own hands squeezed her breasts and lightly pinched her nipples, and she caught her breath and rubbed her thumb over the sensitive head of his cock.

  She tore her mouth from his and buried her face against his neck, her soft tongue licking his damp skin all the way up to his ear. “I want you inside me,” she murmured. “Please.”

  Aching for the same thing, he walked her backward until they came to one of
the built-in seats. He lifted her up a few inches and settled her on the ledge, then pushed her legs wide apart so he could fit in between. She raised her knees, wrapped her legs around his waist, and whispered the erotic words that were his undoing.

  “Fuck me,” she whispered, her eyes glazed with lust and need.

  She didn’t want it slow and easy, and neither did he. He dragged the tip of his cock along the slippery folds of her sex, positioned himself, and with a hard flex of his hips he was eight inches deep inside her. He moaned in pure pleasure, and she gasped in surprise, but the hands grabbing his ass and urging him to thrust gave him all the invitation he needed to lose himself completely in the tight clasp of her body.

  He pumped into her-fast, rough, and hard-some primitive, male instinct urging him to mark her as his. Her ankles tightened around his lower back as she tilted her hips and pushed herself against him, taking everything he had to give, and more.

  As he drove himself home, he felt her shudder and contract around his shaft, milking him with the strength of her orgasm. Her head fell back, and she cried out as she came, sucking him right into that same vortex of pleasure she was experiencing. His climax ripped through him, and his groan became a deep, guttural growl as he spilled himself inside her.

  Once he recovered, he lifted his head and looked at Nicole, the words I love you poised on the tip of his tongue, a breath away from being spoken.

  But before he could say anything at all, she leaned into him and pressed her lips to his in a reverent kiss. The slow, sweet kind that spoke from the deepest part of her heart and soul. The kind that made him believe that after they were done with this case, they might just have a chance at a future together.

  He was counting on it.

  * * *

  After breakfast the following morning, Nicole slid into the back of a waiting white stretch limousine with eight other girls, including Angela and Holly. She deliberately sat next to Angela, who was quiet and subdued compared with all the other loud, talkative teens who were excited to spend a day at the spa.

  Being aware of her surroundings, Nicole didn’t miss the guy dressed in slacks and a casual shirt who was accompanying the group. While he sat up front with the driver, he was clearly there to watch the girls. For as much as today’s outing gave the illusion of a day of fun and freedom, the girls were not allowed to come and go at will. Once outside the estate, their environment was organized and controlled.

  It wasn’t even noon and champagne was already flowing from a minibar, and everyone but Nicole and Angela was indulging. Sitting at the opposite end of the limo, Holly had already downed one glass of the bubbly and was working on a second.

  While the girls around her were energetic and animated, Holly’s expression was sad and bleak, as if last night with Sloane’s friend had devastated a part of her-which made Nicole all the more determined to follow through on getting the young girl off Sloane’s estate tonight. Then there was the threat of becoming a statistic of human trafficking that added to the urgency of the situation. Not just for Holly and Angela, but for all the girls.

  Nicole had to find a way to talk to Holly alone today, but right now she needed to take advantage of the fact that she was sitting next to Angela, and no one was paying them any attention. Since the other girl was staring out the tinted windows at the passing scenery, Nicole lightly touched her arm and smiled when Angela looked at her.

  “Is going to the spa a regular thing you all do?” Nicole asked conversationally.

  Angela shrugged, her demeanor reserved and guarded. “Just usually when there’s a big party going on. Like tonight.”

  Nicole tipped her head, trying her best to engage her. “Do you like the big parties?”

  “They’re okay,” she said quietly.

  “Almost everyone seems excited about tonight,” Nicole went on. “A masquerade party sounds like fun.”

  Angela didn’t reply. Instead, she stared blankly at the other girls taking advantage of the limo’s many luxurious amenities. Nicole didn’t believe Angela was being deliberately rude; it truly appeared that she had a lot on her mind, and an afternoon of indulging in a facial or pedicure wasn’t on her radar.

  Hopefully, longing for her family was.

  Still, Nicole persisted. “So, how did you get to The Sanctuary?”

  Her inquiry startled Angela out of her thoughts. The other girl met her gaze and was painfully honest with her answer. “Gwen brought me here.”

  The girl was opening up, just as Nicole had hoped, and she steered the conversation accordingly. “From where?”

  Angela wrung her hands anxiously in her lap and glanced back out the window. “I don’t know where from. I came here from Arizona, so I’m not real familiar with places. It was by some big hotel with a volcano outside.”

  The Mirage Hotel and Casino, which was located on the Las Vegas Strip. As Sloane’s assistant, Gwen appeared to be in charge of recruiting girls. She’d most likely recognized that scared, out-of-place look on Angela’s face and had plucked her off the streets and offered her a safe place to stay. Except Angela couldn’t have imagined the strings attached to Gwen’s offer until it was too late, or that accepting would change the course of her future, and not in a good way.

  “Did you run away from home?” she asked, her voice just high enough for Angela to hear over the other girls’ talking and laughter.

  Angela glanced back at her, the question triggering a wealth of emotion in her soft blue gaze. “Yes,” she whispered, the one word filled with so much loneliness and pain. “I don’t want to be here anymore. I miss my mom and dad. I miss my cat and friends.”

  Nicole’s heart hurt for the young girl. “Do you want to go back home?”

  She nodded, tears filling her eyes. “I do. But I can’t. Not now. Not after everything I’ve done.” She ducked her head and wiped away the tears that had spilled over her lashes, not wanting anyone else to see her crying. “I’m so ashamed.”

  Seeing a part of herself in Angela, and recognizing those feelings of guilt and blame, Nicole took her hand and gave it a comforting squeeze. “You made a mistake,” she said adamantly. “You still have the chance to make things right and change your life back around.”

  Angela shook her head. “I don’t know how.”

  “I do.”

  The young girl stared at her with wide eyes filled with a mixture of hope and skepticism.

  Without a doubt, Nicole knew that Angela was ready to embrace the opportunity she was about to hand her, which would make Nathan’s job of getting her out of the estate so much easier. After casting a quick glance at the other girls to make sure she and Angela weren’t being overheard, she leaned even closer and lowered her voice just to be on the safe side.

  “Remember Alex from last night?”

  “Yeah,” Angela said with a nod. “He was very nice.”

  Nicole hesitated a second, then revealed the truth. “Your parents asked him to find you and bring you home. They love and miss you very much and want you back with them.”

  Shock transformed Angela’s features, then panic set in. “But I can’t leave,” she whispered frantically. “Sloane won’t let me.”

  So he was holding Angela against her will? Sounded like grounds for kidnapping charges to Nicole. “Have you told him you want to go home?”

  “He told me that my parents don’t want me,” she said, her voice choked with emotion. “That they don’t love me or else they would have come for me by now.”

  Goddamn bastard . “Believe me, Angela, they’ve tried to reach you. They’re devastated that you ran away and they do want you back. Badly.”

  “Why would they?” Angela’s bottom lip quivered. “I was so horrible to them. I said such ugly things that hurt them both.”

  “They love you no matter what. A parent’s love is unconditional and isn’t based on your actions or what you say or do,” she said, not sure that someone of Angela’s age could grasp the concept. “They know that being a teenager
isn’t easy, but it’s also their job to be tough on you, to make sure you turn out to be a good person.”

  “I want to go home.” Angela’s voice was hoarse, but the look of despair in her eyes said it all. She missed her family terribly.

  Nicole couldn’t have been more relieved to have Angela’s cooperation. “You need to listen to me,” she said, making sure she had the girl’s full attention before continuing. “As soon as you get to the playroom tonight, go to the women’s lounge. I’ll meet you there.”

  “Then what?”

  “I’ll let you know when the time comes.” For Angela’s own safety, the less she knew up front, the better. “Just be there, and we’ll get you out. And don’t tell anyone what we talked about.”

  “I won’t. I promise,” Angela said, just as the limo pulled into a driveway leading to a small, private resort, then parked near a villa that housed the spa facilities.

  The girls piled out of the limousine, with Security Guy watching their progress from the vehicle into the spa. Nicole followed behind with Angela, and once inside the exclusive facility, she looked for Holly so she could talk to the other girl next and get into her head a bit.

  She caught up to Holly just as she reached the front desk and asked one of the technicians for a private massage and waxing. She was immediately whisked away, leaving Nicole on her own for the next few hours.

  Disappointed that she’d lost the chance to bond with Holly, Nicole chose a manicure and pedicure for her spa treatments. She was assigned two young girls-one to polish her fingernails, and the other to tend to her feet.

  Settled into a chair that massaged her back, she closed her eyes and relaxed, absently listening to the conversation between the two girls working on her hands and feet. Between envious comments and snide remarks beneath their breaths that they assumed she couldn’t hear, Nicole came to the conclusion these girls had once been part of Sloane’s harem. She wouldn’t have been surprised to learn that he owned the spa and used it to farm out the girls once they got too old for his tastes.