What was life or death without taking risks? Jeff used all of his weight to break down the terrace door, and he rolled to the floor, firing two guns at the same time. Paige screamed and Ramone cursed. Trony was the first to run, and he escaped into the hallway.
“The big, ugly guy is yours, Connor,” Jeff said aloud, cocky as hell and ready to take on the world. He’d dropped several of Ramone’s guys when he’d entered.
“Jeff! Behind you!” Paige screamed.
A man swung a club wildly around his head. He rushed Jeff, chanting some kind of magic and failing to understand men refusing to believe in voodoo rarely had anything to fear.
Jeff rolled to the floor, kicked the sucker squarely between the legs, and finished him off when he fell to the wooden planks and begged for mercy. His arm locked around the asshole’s head, and he savored the snap of his neck all the more when he recognized his face. “Ten of Diamonds face down.”
“Transmitted,” Miles said in his ear. “Watch yourself. We have company and plenty of opposition down here.”
“Come on,” Jeff said, hurrying like a mad man to untie Paige’s hands. “Let’s get you out of here!”
“Not so fast,” Ramone said in a diabolical tone when he stepped out from behind the closet door.
Fuck! Where had his head been! Jeff knew Ramone was still in the room but he’d had only one focus—freeing Paige.
“You and I haven’t had the opportunity to get to know one another. Seems such a shame you’ve gone to this much trouble to get my attention, and now that you have it, you’re running off with my wife.”
“She’s not your wife,” Jeff grated out, standing in front of Paige, buying her enough time to loosen the rope binding her legs to the other two posts.
Ramone wielded a gun and paced across the floor, acting as if it wouldn’t bother him if the pistol shot off a few bullets in all different directions. “You think you know her?” Ramone asked with contempt in his voice. “You think you understand who she is?” Ramone’s evil laughter shook the room. “Ah, Jillian, you’ve fooled the best of men, haven’t you?”
“Don’t listen to him, Jeff,” she whispered.
Ramone chuckled. “I can see the doubt in your eyes, young man. You care for my Jillian, don’t you?”
“Her name isn’t Jillian. That’s the name you gave her, a name she loathed as much as she hated you.”
“Ah, yes, I see she’s already fed you full of her lies. Is that what she told you?”
“She didn’t have to. She’s only gone by Paige Lambert since we met her. She’s not the woman you tried to make her become. That person never existed.”
Ramone pointed the gun at Jeff’s head. “Then how do you explain this?” he said, retrieving a playing card from his shirt pocket. The Queen of Hearts landed on the bed and Paige’s picture stared back from the center.
“You think I haven’t seen that card before?” Jeff asked, unmoved.
Ramone narrowed his gaze. “If you have and you’ve done nothing, then my wife has played you far better than she’s played any other man she’s taken to her bed.”
Jeff’s temper threatened to get the best of him. Right then, he needed to remain calm. Paige’s life depended on his ability to maintain supreme focus. Damn! Since when did he care so much about protecting those around him? When had his need to guard Paige become more important than covering his team?
Gunfire exploded below them. Screams filled the house. Moans often followed a few choice words.
Ramone sat in an easy chair located next to her bed. “I’ve often wondered about you, Jillian.” He stopped speaking all at once, and Jeff watched for movement, a change in his expression, or something to suggest he was pulling the trigger and firing the first round from his gun.
Paige stirred behind him, and Jeff placed his hand behind his back, steadying her with his open palm flat against her hip. Jeff hoped she didn’t provoke the madman in front of them.
Ramone seemed interested in the way they responded to one another, smirking at Jeff, rubbernecking enough to check out Paige’s bare ass. He rolled his tongue over his thick, pudgy lips. “Did she tell you she killed your sisters?”
Jeff swallowed hard. Ramone was pure evil, a man willing to do absolutely anything in order to plant a seed of doubt.
“That’s not true!” Paige shouted. “Jeff, I swear to you.”
“Of course it’s true,” Ramone said. “Why else would we have taken her in, Jeff? Surely you’re smart enough to figure out what happened. She protected herself by killing for us, and we let her live because she did everything we required.”
“That is not what happened!” Paige screamed, trying her best to get around Jeff so she could get at Ramone.
“You can change a book’s cover, put it on a brand new shelf, and surround it with various stories yet to be told, but you can’t escape the truth, Jeff. And the truth is this: Paige Lambert is and always will be Jillian Carpasia.” Ramone grinned. “She is the Queen of Hearts. It doesn’t matter what name you give her. She’s still a cold, ruthless, conspiring, cunning bitch who happens to be pretty enough to turn heads but not quite savvy enough to keep her men satisfied. I’m a prime example.”
“She’s more than enough for me,” Connor said, appearing in the doorway with a .357 magnum pointed at Ramone’s pecker.
“Took you long enough,” Jeff complained.
“I was sort of busy,” Connor replied, wiping the blood off his cheek.
“More company.” Ramone sighed. Jeff glanced at Connor. He wanted Paige completely out of the room so he could have his way with Ramone.
“I was just telling your friend about his family’s death. Jillian—Paige—whatever her name is—killed his little sisters. She actually traded her safety for theirs.”
“That’s a lie and you know it, you sorry son-of-a-bitch!” she said, darting from behind Jeff and attacking Ramone like a wildcat gone mad. She beat him with her fists over and over again. “You know that’s a lie!”
Paige distracted Ramone when she leapt across Jeff and her nude body crashed to the floor. Ramone, apparently in shock, paid more attention to her nude form flying through the air than he did to his weapon—which he immediately lost.
“I remember. You remember. You killed them,” Ramone said, fighting her off and going for the pistol. Connor and Jeff tackled them. Jeff tried to cover Paige and move her out of harm’s way. Connor struggled to break the grip Ramone had on his gun. Four bodies rolled around on the floor, groping for control of Ramone’s automatic weapon.
Boom! Boom!
And then the dreaded sound filled the room. Only instead of one gun being fired, there were two.
* * * *
“Paige!” Connor screamed her name. Jeff lay a few feet away with blood on his hands. He immediately looked at Ramone. The evil man gurgled blood, spewing something about Jillian and Ramona, love and honor.
Jeff crawled over to Paige and quickly brought her to him, rocking her back and forth and back and forth. “Paige! Oh my God, Paige! Connor! Get an ambulance!”
Paige slowly sat. “I’m not hurt,” she told them, looking over at Ramone.
“You weren’t shot?” Connor asked, brushing her long hair out of her face. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, yes, I’m sure,” she cried, gasping on every word. “Someone hit me during the struggle.”
“You have blood all over you,” Connor told her, like she couldn’t see that for herself.
Jeff looked down at his own body and then over at Connor. “You weren’t hit?”
“No,” Connor said. “Am I ever?”
“Don’t tempt bad fates,” Jeff replied, taking Paige’s hand and pulling her to her feet.
Paige glared at Ramone. She seemed unaware of the fact that she was still naked. “I want you to tell him the truth. You’re dying, Ramone. Blood is spilling from you in two different places. At least go to your death with honor.”
Ramone strained his neck, continuing to
gurgle something he desperately wanted to say. She sat next to him and he raised his head a few more inches off the floor. He looked at Jeff, and his eyes rolled back in his head.
“That’s right, motherfucker. Die. Die the way you’ve lived, with no one around to mourn you when you’re gone. Die. Knowing that the one woman you wanted most belongs to me now.”
Ramone strained again, his head rolling toward Paige.
“Tell him,” she said in a spiteful voice. “Tell him I tried to save his family. You tell him the truth, damn you to hell!”
His lips curved into a bloody smile, and he wrinkled his nose. “Down deep he knows the truth, Jillian…and when he has…proof, he’ll throw you away…like garbage.” A raspy chuckle followed his final words, and he died with a wicked, eerie grin upon his lips.
“Damn you, Ramone! Damn you!” She shook him until her hands hurt, and then she wanted to shake him some more. Connor finally pried her away from him, uncurling her fingers from his arm one by one.
She stared at the blood on her hands and remembered the last time blood had stained her flesh. She’d been there in Charlotte. She’d held the dying. She’d tried to save Jeff’s family members one by one. She was the last one to see those beautiful little girls alive. She’d tried her best to comfort them as they left this world in search of a better one. And now Ramone, the bastard, left Jeff to believe otherwise.
Did he believe Ramone? She grabbed Jeff’s arm and held fast. “He was lying, Jeff. I swear to you, he was lying.”
“I believe you.”
Unfortunately, she didn’t believe Jeff. His voice was cool and definitely detached.
She could see the doubt in his eyes. He didn’t trust her. Without solid proof, how could he?
Chapter Nineteen
“Is everything all right up there?” Adam yelled from below.
“We’re okay,” Connor assured him. “How about you?”
“One scrape,” Adam said. “Miles tried to save Paige’s computer system, and a bullet grazed his skin. Callan is patching him up.
“Lucky son-of-a-bitch, isn’t he?” Connor commented, studying Jeff.
Adam entered Paige’s bedroom and gasped when he saw the bloodshed. “He’s scarier dead than he was alive.”
Jeff’s gaze held Paige’s, and she wondered what he was thinking. She looked away from him and studied her hands again. Oh, how she hated this. Why had her life become so complicated? Why couldn’t she have been a simple homemaker with a house full of kids running in and out? Would it have been so hard to schedule play dates and bake cookies?
“I have to wash this off.” The smell of smoking guns became so overpowering she felt faint. It was then that she relived how she’d lost her clothes. The recent bad memories came rushing back.
Ramone and Trony had ripped her shirt and pants to shreds, tossing her on the bed and ordering the others to tie her there. They’d taunted her and let her know they’d watched her have sex with three men. Several of Ramone’s men had ogled her like they couldn’t wait to touch and taste, to have their way with an unwilling participant.
Thank God Jeff had made it in time. He’d saved her. He’d promised, and he’d followed through.
She made her way to the bathroom, tripping over the broken chairs and furniture Jeff had demolished when he’d rushed into the house. She didn’t bother shutting the door. It would’ve been useless anyway. Thick splintered wood hung from the hinges.
Standing in front of the porcelain sink, she fished a large bar of soap out of the nearby dish. Once the water ran hot, she scrubbed her hands under the steady flow. She watched Ramone’s blood drip from her fingertips and swirl down the drain.
When she’d started crying, she couldn’t say. But at some point, she was shaking so violently that her teeth chattered. A few minutes later, Adam and Connor entered the bathroom. Jeff stood observing from the door. She continually cleared her throat, as if that might help her breathe.
Once or twice, she tried to say something, but the syllables clogged her throat. Connor started the shower, slipped off his shoes, and stepped inside. Adam helped her, scooping her into his arms and waiting for Connor to take her.
Connor was fully clothed and apparently there for one purpose, to help her cope with washing off the blood tainting her skin.
She shivered when she first entered the tiled area. The water was warm, but it wasn’t hot enough for her liking. She wanted to cleanse her skin.
Maybe if she could completely wash Ramone’s foul stench off her body, her soul would be protected once more. She’d worried about that from time to time. She feared what she’d become because of her association with the Ramone Carpasia organization.
“Let’s get you cleaned up,” Connor said, using the handheld nozzle to spray her down.
On the other side of the glass, Adam walked away. Jeff remained where he’d been since they’d entered. He leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, observing them. His lips became a tight line and a stone cold expression shaped his face.
“I need to be alone,” she finally said.
Connor shook his head. “That’s the last thing you need. I’m not suggesting anything sexual here, Paige. Right now, you need a friend, and that’s all I’m being.
“By bathing with me?”
They locked gazes, and he finally said, “All right. I’ll wait on the other side of that wall.”
“Burn the clothes in my room. The ones I wore earlier today. I don’t want any reminders of what happened here.”
Through the glass, she saw Jeff march toward the shower. “Were we too late?”
The agonizing tone shocked her. She shook her head when she saw despair in Jeff’s eyes. “No, Jeff, you weren’t too late.”
“Are you telling me the truth?”
“I swear it.”
He returned to where he’d been standing.
“Jeff,” she wailed. “I’m so sorry. I…”
“Paige,” Connor interrupted her. “None of this is your fault.”
“I know that. But somehow, I can’t help but think I could’ve stopped Ramone.”
“You could’ve. You could’ve killed him while he slept. But it wouldn’t have saved my family. Apparently, no one could save them,” Jeff said, exiting the bathroom.
When Jeff left, Paige covered her face and sobbed. “He hates me.”
“No, honey,” Connor assured her, pulling her into his arms. “Jeff has a lot of demons he faces every day. We tried to warn you about him because this is the Jeff we see every day, on every mission.”
“You don’t understand. He hasn’t been that way with me.”
Connor pulled her palms away from her cheeks. “Honey.” He paused, shook his head. “I care about you. Jeff does, too, in his own way. We all do. But if you have some kind of crazy woman notion about Jeff, you’re going to have to let it go. You need to head in another direction. Jeff isn’t a keeper. He never has been and he never will be.”
She snubbed a few tears, hoping she wouldn’t choke on them. It was time to pull things together. Connor was right. Hadn’t Jeff already proven the kind of hard man he could become? When she needed him most, hadn’t he walked away and left her under Connor’s care?
“Now, let me help you so we can get you back to the resort.”
“We’re going back to the hotel?”
“Yes,” Connor replied. “Trony got away, Paige. We can’t stay here.”
“We can’t go back there. They know we’ll be there.”
“We’re all going back, Paige.”
“I’m not. My home has been destroyed. The sooner I start cleaning up this mess, the better. I’m not going back to the hotel, and I refuse to wait for Trony.”
“He’ll come back here looking for you.”
“I don’t think he will. Connor, you have to understand something. Trony only encouraged Ramone to get rid of me because Ramone became obsessive with the women in his life. Trony was hungry for the business, not the busine
ss of saving Ramone’s relationships.”
“I see,” Connor mumbled, stepping out of the shower. “I’ll talk to Adam.”
“You can talk all you want. I’m not going anywhere. The five of you can go wherever you want. I know you have a job to do.”
“We do. But somewhere along the way, our mission changed. Our most important task here is keeping you safe.”
* * * *
“You okay, Jeff?” Adam asked when he approached him on the beach.
“Fine.” Why couldn’t everyone leave him alone?
“I can see that,” he remarked, staring at the beer bottles scattered across the sand.
“Paige won’t go back to the resort.”
“Make her see things your way.”
“I don’t think she cares what any of us think. Connor says she’s got this new attitude. Something snapped while she washed blood off her hands. He says she’s not going and we won’t be able to coax her.”
“I’ll talk to her.”
“And use that mild-mannered charm you’re so notorious for? I don’t see you making a difference.
Jeff ignored Adam’s sarcasm. “What do you think happened in Charlotte all those years ago?”
“You mean with your family?” A pause didn’t produce an answer, so Adam continued, “I think it’s just like Paige said. She probably came out of the restroom and put up a fight. Ramone liked strong women around him. Ramona may have had something to do with Ramone recruiting Paige, but I think everything she said about trying to save your family holds merit.”
“But how can I be sure?”
“Do you love her?” Adam put him on the spot.
Jeff stood. “I can’t love her.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t think you’d understand.”
“Try me,” Adam encouraged.
“The reasons are hard to explain without sounding corny.”
“I’m listening.”
A few moments passed, and Jeff said, “When I stand beside the ocean, I feel small, sometimes helpless. It’s like my existence pales in comparison to the sea. When I’m next to Paige, I feel the same way. It’s the most bizarre sensation I’ve ever had as a man.”
Blaine, Destiny - Breakfast by the Sea (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 19
