by Avery Gale
“Yeah, well, nice to see you, too, Melita, and that piss wad you brought into my Club was watching in the mirror over the bar, so I had to play my part. You owe Trace Bartell a beer, too, by the way.” At her puzzled look, he added, “The cowboy who got you in here, Christ the man thinks quick on his feet.” Smiling now, he reached over and pulled Melita into a rib-crunching hug. “Goddamn, Melita, in a million years Zach and I won’t be able to repay you for helping Katarina escape and return to us. I can’t wait to reunite you with her, but right now, you need to tell me everything you know about what’s going down here tonight.”
Mia quickly filled him in on everything she knew, she was sure he was wired so likely she’d just told their whole team. You have to love rich boys with cool techy toys.
Chapter 31
While Mia explained what she knew and what she knew Petrov was looking for, Alex was fussing with her clothing and putting a plastic bracelet around her wrist. What the hell, are there fucking carnival rides in here? “Excuse me, Alex, are you listening to me?” She had stopped talking and was looking at him as if he’d completely lost his mind. “I’m trying to give you some really important information here and all you care about is straightening my dress, such as it is, and putting a damned ‘Ride Free All Day’ bracelet on my wrist?”
Alex’s eyes glinted with amusement, and she saw the first signs of the fun-loving man she’d known years earlier when he answered, “First of all, you have been updating the entire team while you have been speaking to me. Second, I think your dress is lovely, but it lacked the tracking device I have attached. Third, since I have no guarantee you’ll be keeping that lovely frock on all evening, I’m attaching a band that not only tells other members that you are a ‘newbie’ and they must check with a club dungeon monitor before engaging you in play, it also has a tracking device. We want to know where you are at all times, sweetheart. Make no mistake, Master Dylan is not planning to let you leave ShadowDance with anyone but him.” Smiling down indulgently at Mia, he wiped the single tear that was slowing sliding down her cheek. “Please don’t cry, Mia, we’ll keep you safe.”
Mia took a deep breath and seemed to recenter herself. “I’m not worried about my safety, it’s just…Well, it wasn’t ever supposed to be about a bunch of damned diamonds. I’ve been working on this case for two years, I’ve given up the only man I ever loved in my naive belief I could protect him and his friends from being associated with me, and then look what happens. I land right on your front steps bringing who knows how much danger.”
Dylan was listening, and it was taking every ounce of self-restraint he possessed to stay out of the women’s lounge. The only man she’d ever loved? To protect him? What the fuck had she been thinking? She’d broken his heart and nearly taken his soul down in the process. Hell, it had taken him over a year to even eat dinner with another woman, and he was just now attending The Club on a regular basis. As his dismay faded, his hope blossomed, and smiling for the first time in a long time, he promised himself a long-overdue vacation when this evening was over…and he sure wasn’t planning on spending it alone.
* * * *
By the time Alex returned Mia to Petrov at the bar, he was already on his second drink, and he was becoming more and more agitated as he listened to those around him speculating about all the extra security in The Club for tonight’s festivities. As Alex led Mia closer, Petrov turned, glaring at the two “What the fuck took so long? You decided to take her for a test drive, Mr. Lamont?”
Alex went completely still. Mia felt him tense but knew the other man wouldn’t be watching carefully enough to notice. One thing she’d learned, the more powerful the criminal, the less they cared about others, and that often translated into inattention on their part. Most were so accustomed to having someone else do their dirty work that they rarely saw far enough past their own agendas in social situations to notice subtle changes in the body language of others. “Not at all, I am happily married, and I do not cheat…Ever. I noticed that your sub did not have an identification band as is required of all nonmembers. We wouldn’t want her being approached by another Dom, now would we?” Alex heard snorts of laughter coming through his earbud and knew he’d better shelve his sarcasm.
“No, I don’t suppose we do. Now, if it’s all the same to you, I’d like to talk with the slut privately for a moment.” It hadn’t escaped Alex’s attention that the man hadn’t referred to Mia as his sub. Maybe he wasn’t completely stupid after all. Nope, asshole, she isn’t yours, not even close.
* * * *
Standing in the shadows watching Petrov lead his woman into a secluded corner, Dylan watched as the man slid his hand down Mia’s back and gripped her ass cheek with enough force to cause her to wince, and he growled his rage before turning to see Zach standing next to him. Zach’s eyes held a compassion Dylan wasn’t used to seeing directed at him. “Don’t worry, we’ll keep her safe and we’ll get her back to you. Remember, Dylan, this is what we all do best.” Slapping Dylan’s shoulder, Zach moved through the room.
Petrov pushed Mia so hard into the corner that she felt her shoulder hit the wall hard enough she’d cried out at the pain. “Shut up and tell me if you see Katarina McKay in this room, you stupid bitch. I don’t know why Robertson didn’t kill you when you helped her escape, but your time is running out if you don’t tell me where she is now.”
Mia worked her shoulder trying to ease the pain and hoping the small action bought her a few more seconds to figure out how to tell the man in front of her Kat was not only not in the room at this time, but wouldn’t be for several more months, according to Alex. “I don’t see her, but I haven’t been anywhere but the bathroom and near the bar. Is there a dance floor? I know she always said she loved to dance, perhaps we should look there?” She’d tried to make her voice sound light and hopeful, but she could tell by his scowl he wasn’t buying her story.
“I hear from other members that she is pregnant and her husbands will not let her come to The Club until after the child is born. What kind of tramp has two husbands? American women must be insane.” Having been raised by a sadistic father who took great joy in regularly sending his wife to the local emergency room, Petrov couldn’t imagine any woman wanting to deal with two men. “My men tell me there is cause for concern, we may have been compromised. They have overheard comments about added security. It is time for us to leave.” He’d grabbed her upper arm, his hands were so large that his fingers more than circled her bicep and his hold was so tight her fingers were quickly starting to go numb.
“But what about the diamonds? How will he get them? Do you have men in place to search her car? I’ll bet it’s in the garage, maybe you and I should go look.” She knew she was babbling, but she was scared he would actually get her outside. He would have at least two alternate forms of escape, he’d bragged about how he always had at least two backup plans. At her words about searching the garage, he’d slowed his pace fractionally before moving to the side and speaking with the man who had acted as their driver for this evening.
Petrov’s words were too quiet for her to hear over the blaring music, and all of the sudden the other man was leading them toward a door at the back of the room. Mia prayed the men Alex had assured her were watching her every move had noticed their abrupt change of direction. As soon as she felt the cool air waft up under her dress, she became all too aware of the fact she was barefoot, outside, without anything to break the cold wind that was heralding the first storm of the coming winter. Shit, she remembered the times she and Dylan had visited Climax during the fall and knew the weather could and often did change from glorious to deadly in a matter of minutes. The rocks of the gravel drive were cutting the bottoms of her feet as Petrov drug her farther from the lighted path.
“Wait, I can’t keep up, the rocks are cutting my feet, please slow down.”
A second man stepped out from the shadows and grasped her other arm. She’d known Petrov would have people already in place in and aro
und The Club, so she hadn’t been surprised when he’d approached them. “Do not complain, I am giving you the chance to help us, if you have no purpose, perhaps I should just let my friend here end your misery? Eh?” Petrov was moving along the shadows, unaware team members had already moved into position and were lining the path to the garage. Several had been forced to step back to avoid being bumped into by the two men dragging Mia through the darkness. Mia had seen one man move quickly out of their path and been relieved to know Petrov hadn’t managed to elude Alex’s men.
* * * *
“What the fuck do you mean she’s gone?” Colt Matthews’s voice was icy hot as his temper flared. He did not need this additional complication. Goddamn it to hell, he’d left her sated and sleeping in his suite, he’d left a note saying he had to return to work and she was to stay put until he returned, what about that was so fucking difficult for her to comprehend? “Find her—now!” Christ the woman was going to be the death of him yet. “Is her car still disabled?” He was having it “looked at,” which was team code for disabled until further notice. He had wanted to be sure she didn’t try to take off like she was so well known to do.
Grayson’s soft chuckle in his earbud was all the answer he needed, but the words were a welcome assurance. “Oh yeah, that little sports car has been keeping the mechanics entertained, they are itching to put it back together though, I’m sure the test runs are going to be worth buying tickets to watch.”
“It’s a given she’s headed to the damned garage, heads up everybody, it seems Jenna has decided on a late-night fucking stroll.” Colt was still muttering under his breath about disobedient damned subs and a thrashing she’d never forget when he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. “What the hell is James doing making his way to the garage? Team, we have another boogie, the son of a bitch is armed, too.”
* * * *
Jenna stayed off the main path, even though the majority of the gardens had been constructed while she was crisscrossing the globe for Lamont Oil, she had still spent hours exploring the paradise her brothers had created. It had amazed her that two ex–Special Forces soldiers could be such visionaries of created beauty. Just as she was about to round the last corner into the garage’s security lighting, she heard the scuff of a boot and stopped, frozen in place as the small hairs on the back of her neck stood straight up. And then she heard the voice she had heard in her nightmares for years. “Well, well, if it isn’t little Miss Jenna Lamont. Interesting name, Jenna, is it short for Genevieve?” For just a split second, Jenna was afraid she was going to faint when she saw little pinpoints of black cloud her vision and felt light-headed. She’d recognized his voice immediately, but it was his question that had sent all the air out of her lungs.
Jenna knew all about the body’s fight-or-flight response system. She’d studied self-defense and was an expert in several applications, but she was most proud of the street-fighting skills her brothers had taught her when she had insisted she would need to know how to defend herself when she moved to college. Once she had gotten them on board, they’d been tough taskmasters, and she still remembered Zach preaching to her that “All that fancy shit is great for the gym and competition, Jenna Beth, but if you want to save your ass, you need to fight dirty.” And he and Alex had taught her well, she’d sparred with both of them and any team member they’d brought home over the years. A small part of her brain was still a victim because she had never allowed herself the opportunity to process and heal, and that small part of her wanted to scream and run, but the larger part of her wanted to take out the bastard that had caused her years of heartache and loneliness.
Turning slowly toward the man who had stolen her innocence so long ago, she assessed him coolly. “Well, well, Ted Scott is alive and well after all. And here I was told you’d died in a cave in hell, and I’d been so awed by the irony of it, but it seems that wasn’t exactly factual intel, now was it? But, oh my…let’s see, it’s Theodore James now, isn’t it?” She was face-to-face with the man she had always dreamed of having a chance to use all her skills to hurt as he’d hurt her, and she wanted nothing to do with the man sexually, but a small part of her was relishing the idea of beating him to a bloody pulp. He was a pencil pusher now for some damned ailing general, and she was in top physical condition. Oh just step a bit closer, you piece of shit, I’m going to make sure you never have the urge to hurt another woman again. It’s going to take a surgeon a week to even find your balls I’m going to kick them so high and hard.
Deciding to engage the man in conversation until she could get him into position, she asked, “So tell me, why all the plastic surgery? Why hide who you really are from everyone? Tell me all about how you survived all alone in one of the most inhospitable places on earth. How’d you get them to help you?” Jenna would have bet her inheritance that she already knew the answer, but she was hoping he’d tell her and that at least one of the zillion security feeds that covered every inch of the gardens was trained on him.
His dark laugh sent chills racing up her spine. The man’s eyes were not just cold, they were also completely empty. It was as if he had no soul at all. How do other people look at this man and not sense what is missing? “Well, since all my teammates decided it was too much trouble to retrieve my body”—his voice lowered to a point that it sounded like it should belong to Satan himself—“I had to make nice with the locals, and it was just a lucky coincidence that I happened to know the local dialect and had enough contacts to drop the right names.”
“What do you mean contacts? And I don’t believe in coincidences. You’d been working for the enemy all along?” Jenna’s voice reflected the total disdain she felt for the traitor she was facing. The idea that this man had served beside her brothers and other dedicated and loyal soldiers almost made her physically ill.
Ted Scott looked at her as if she was nothing more than a bothersome insect. “Don’t be such a fucking hypocrite, Jenna, what do you think your family’s oil company is doing if they aren’t supporting the enemy when they buy oil from the Middle East countries that are secretly funding terrorists? I had merely cut out the middle men. Think of it as furthering their education. I taught them about our planned missions, and they paid me—and oh did they ever pay me.”
Jenna was slowly inching closer, just another few inches and he’d be close enough to land the first kick. After that, it was going to be all her show. “You see, I’d been stashing money for years and had never made a mistake, until you. You were a temptation. You were the only one I ever let walk away. I’m almost done, just need to tie of a couple of loose ends and then I’ll be enjoying the good life in my beachfront villa while your family mourns the loss of their precious little princess.”
Jenna was shocked to the depths of her soul. I was the only one he let walk away? Oh my God, how many other women did he brutalize and then kill? Her shock fueled her fury and with a burst of power that even surprised her, she sent a lightning-fast kick the front of his knee and smiled as she heard the satisfying pop of soft tissue and snap of bone. Scott screamed and drew up a small pistol, but before he could get off a shot, Jenna had kicked the weapon from his hand, spinning around to land another solid blow to the center of his chest. When she heard the whoosh of air leaving his lungs, she knew it was time to rearrange his dick and balls before she rendered him unconscious, she sure didn’t want him to miss out of that fun. Two more rapid kicks to his groin were answered with a gasping sound that was somewhere between a howl of a wolf and the screech of an owl. Smiling to herself, she didn’t have much time to bask in her victory before they were surrounded by the ShadowDance Club’s security team.
When Colt had heard from Grayson where Jenna was and what the monitors were picking up, his heart had nearly failed. Theodore James was really Ted Scott? And the implications of the man’s compromises to not only his team’s safety, but to national security were staggering. Hell, it was going to take years before they really knew the extent of the man’s betraya
l and the cost of his greed. Colt ran into the area on the heels of two of the younger men who had been working the perimeter of the property and saw they had Scott secured. Colt turned and wrapped Jenna in a hold that would have made a grizzly bear proud. All he could do was hold her tightly. Jesus he’d never been so scared in his entire life. Was this how life with Jenna Lamont would always be, challenge and terror? He wasn’t sure his heart could take it. When he finally stepped back enough that he could get a good look at her, the first thing he noticed was the look of smug self-satisfaction in her expression, and then he realized his little warrior pixie wasn’t even out of breath.
“Woman, I have no idea what to do with you. You scared me so badly I’m pretty sure my brain is scrambled. Why on earth are you out here in the dark, alone? Didn’t you read the note I left you giving you very clear instructions to stay right where you were, that under no circumstances were you to leave my suite without an escort?” Colt knew he was almost yelling at her, but all things considered he felt he was handling the adrenaline surge remarkably well. “I’m going to have to think up some whole new level of punishment for this and when I’m done, your brothers are sure to want their turns.”
Jenna narrowed her eyes at him and crossed her arms underneath her beautiful breasts and spoke in a tone that was nearly arctic. “Excuse me? Punishment? You must be bat-shit crazy if you think you’re going to go all big bad Dom on my ass. No, I don’t fucking think so, buster. I brought down a spy that has eluded not only your Special Forces “Super Troopers” but the US government in general, and I’m the dimwit here? Don’t think I want to buy a ticket for this little guilt trip, thanks anyway.” Jenna was seeing red, literally. She was beyond pissed off…about everything, having been raped and then convinced to cover it up—Christ, who knew how many other people had suffered because she had been so selfish she’d let him get away. She was mad that the man now being led away by deputies had betrayed his team and her country, how dare he? She was mad because at this moment all she wanted was to be cuddled, and that alone was enough to make her nearly thermonuclear. Damn, couldn’t he just say, “Wow, great job, babe. Way to get the confession and kick the prick’s ass in less time than it took my team to run across the gardens”?
