“I’m not afraid of anything,” he said. “But you fell for it.”
“You are evil incarnate!” she screamed at him. “What the hell was I thinking? You don’t have a decent bone in your body!”
He tipped his head onto the back of the couch. “We at Evil Incarnate thank you for your custom,” he said. “Please come again. First tongue fuck’s free, next one will cost your beautiful Benjamin his apartment.”
Gritting her teeth, she hissed, unable to believe that she’d thought there could be anything redeemable about him. “Go to hell, Strike!”
“Or as I like to call it, home sweet home.”
Rora just barely heard the last word as she stormed out and slammed the door as hard as she could. If he wanted to be a bastard and push her away, she’d let him. If he wanted to be all alone, if that was what made him happy, then who was she to stand in the way?
He’d accused her of being green. Bella had told her she wouldn’t be able to handle Strike’s vicious moods. Turned out they were both right. The only one who’d been wrong so far, was her.
eleven
“Don’t beat yourself up, men are just superior in general.” Strike leaned over the cockpit of the tiny plane to flick a switch near her. “You didn’t have a choice. You had to come. You rely on me now.”
So far, Rora had managed to say very little to him. If she’d had any other choice, she would never have gone to the airfield. Rora had even considered that she could get in touch with Bella and try her luck direct. Except, she had no way to contact Bella and no way was she leaving Benjamin out there to rot another day if she didn’t have to.
When Strike had said airfield, she didn’t expect it to be so far out, or for Strike to be the one flying them. It was really aggravating how it seemed there wasn’t anything outside his range of expertise.
“Do you know what my favorite part of today is going to be?” he asked. Rora gained a new appreciation for how her twittering probably annoyed him. It didn’t seem to matter that her arms were folded and her nose pointed to the window furthest from him, he filled her in anyway. “The part where you realize you’ve got too much integrity to back out of our deal. I’ll get your Benjamin back, you’ll have your little fuck session to say hello and then it’ll be you and me, baby. You’ll hate every second of it, but you’ll have to tell me the truth because you promised you would.”
So their fight last night would’ve been for nothing, that’s what he was trying to say. But Rora disagreed. If she’d told him the truth last night then he’d have had no reason to bring her here today.
“I have no intention of backing out,” she said, sliding down in her seat a little.
“Good.”
“You asked one question. I promised to answer that one question, which I can actually do in as little as two words… I didn’t promise to answer any follow-up questions.”
“Wait,” he said. “What?”
“I heard the guy at the airstrip tell you to fuel up before flying back,” she said. “You have no choice now. We have to land wherever we’re going to land… You have to take me to Benjamin.”
He went from aloof to angry in a blink. “I’ll take you and leave you there with him. Good fucking luck getting out.”
“No, Flame, because we had a deal,” she said, taking pride in using the name she’d used while they were being intimate.
“And you declared me evil incarnate,” he said. “I don’t have to do anything.”
“Yes, you do,” she said, pulling her legs up to fold them under her. “Because if you don’t, I’ll go to my other buyer.”
“What?” he asked, doing a double take. “Buyer? What the hell are you talking about? You haven’t sold anything to me.”
“Someone emptied my bank accounts,” she said. “You’ve been paid, by me, for everything we’ve been through.”
With his hands on the control wheel thing, he looked proficient at flying. The headphones were kind of sexy; she just hoped no one was listening through that microphone right now.
“I didn’t take your money,” he said. “It’s sitting in a fucking trust to be released to you whenever I feel like it… Remember that.”
“Whenever you feel like it,” she said. “Still under your control. It doesn’t matter. I don’t care about money.”
“You care about Benjamin.”
“And once we have him released and safe, I will answer your one question, and we’ll be even.”
They flew for a few minutes, and she was happy to have knocked him off his high horse. When he wasn’t smug, he was quiet, and left her alone to her anxiety.
“I ate your pussy last night,” he mumbled.
“I remember,” she said, reaching over to rest a hand on his shoulder. “You were very good at it. I appreciate your effort.”
“This is one of your stupid jokes, isn’t it?” he asked. “You don’t really have another buyer. You’re for sure not talking about Bella, she’ll raze the fucking earth.”
He was right, though Bella was an interested party who Rora would hear out if she had a proposition. But the other buyer she was really thinking about was the NSA. If Strike left her high and dry, she hadn’t eliminated the idea that she’d go to the authorities and give them what they wanted in exchange for her safety and Benjamin’s.
No matter how much he annoyed her, Rora doubted that she’d be able to betray Exile; but as far as she was concerned, he didn’t have to be part of the deal. Still, that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to taunt him with the notion he might have solved her issues by making the introductions.
“Bella doesn’t say nice things about you either,” she said, looking out at the ground below.
At first, all the trees had been nice and green. The mountains had risen from the horizon and she’d spotted the odd bit of movement that suggested wildlife, but Rora knew nothing about that kind of thing and Strike wasn’t exactly a great tour guide who could fill her in either.
She didn’t know where they were going or how long it would take to get there. But the verdant vista had faded, the trees were looking decidedly white and the mountains around them were covered with snow.
She wished she had her wool coat.
“Ro, you wouldn’t really… Bella’s not what you think she is. I don’t know what kind of mood she’ll be in when we show up unannounced. If she didn’t need something, she’d shoot you in the head or keep you as her toy for a few months. But she needs something…”
“She took Benjamin because she needed something,” she said. “But I’m still confused, what’s the Black Jewel got to do with this?”
Looking from the front of the plane to her and then back, he lingered when their eyes locked. “Sometimes, when the light hits your eyes like that and your hair kinda glows, I think…”
Surprised to hear anything even close to romantic from his lips, she sat dumb for a few seconds, but then just had to know. “What? You think what?”
“You’ll make a beautiful corpse.”
“Strike!” she said, lunging over to smack him in the chest.
“Hey, whoa,” he said. “Don’t kill the pilot, then what would you do?”
Sulking, she folded her arms and slouched back. “Make a beautiful corpse apparently,” she muttered.
“I’m just amazed sometimes that you’re still here. I’ve been around cons and aliases all my life. You have to think fast and work on assumptions. Life is a risk. You’ve gotta be willing to be wrong.”
“I don’t work on assumptions,” she said. “I don’t ever factor anything in until I know it’s a fact.”
“Fact,” he said. “You tried to get me into this because you said I had an interest in the Black Jewel.”
“How do you know that?”
“Did you say it or not?” Short of lying, she had no choice except to nod. “I don’t have an interest in the Black Jewel.”
“Then why are you here if I was so wrong?”
“I used to be in the Black J
ewel,” he said. “A lot.”
Squinting out front, she tried to figure him out. “You used to… But you said the Black Jewel had…” Rora gasped and grabbed for his forearm. “That’s her alias. Bella, she’s the Black Jewel.”
“You got it,” he said. “You’re touching me again.”
“Oh,” she said, and her hand sprang away from his arm. “The Black Jewel has Benjamin… He doesn’t have her, no one has her…” All the things he’d said began to click into place. “You could’ve just told me that, Strike. Why do you have to be so evasive all the time?”
“We’ve had this conversation,” he said. “I like to be alone.”
For the first time today, she started to feel a shift, like they were relaxing enough to maybe forget about the bravado and be honest with each other. “Strike, about last night…”
“Let’s just forget it,” he said. “You’re getting stuck in the past again.”
“I should look to the future.”
“We can’t change yesterday. Tomorrow’s a whole new adventure.”
For him, maybe, but not for her. As soon as she had Benjamin back, she was returning to her normal life, collecting his data, writing reports, running his department. Rora was good at keeping Benjamin’s haphazard thoughts on track. Sometimes he got a new idea and wanted to go off on a tangent, but his sponsors didn’t like that so much. Her job was harnessing the genius.
“What’s next for you?” she asked.
“I’ve got a couple of projects on the go.” Vague. Just like she expected him to be. “Buckle up, we’ll be landing in five.”
Adjusting to sit in her chair properly, Rora fastened her belt and watched him concentrate on his approach. “In case this all happens fast and I don’t get a chance to say it,” she said, focused on his determined profile. “I meant every word I said last night. Before, you know, you flipped the switch on me… I meant it all.”
His gaze drifted around to hers and she caught her lip in her teeth. This was one of the many times she wished she could read his mind. It must be a terrifying place in there, so much going on, it would be easy to get lost.
“I didn’t sleep with the blonde. I wanted to teach you a lesson about playing with me,” he said, startling her, but the confession seemed to surprise him too. He frowned at himself, and his chin rose an inch. “I don’t know why the hell I just said that.” Something must have sounded in his ear, because he cast off his glower and adjusted the mouthpiece. “Roger that…”
Rora didn’t care about why he’d told her or why he hadn’t slept with the blonde. But she couldn’t deny that a weight lifted from her shoulders when she learned he hadn’t slept with any other women during their trip. He’d watched over her and pushed her away, because soon, too soon, this would all be over.
Like a pro, Strike landed the plane.
They got out and she walked to the edge of the trees, turning in a full circle to admire the scenery. It was cold, no doubt about that. Icicles hung from the trees that were weighed down by snow. It crunched beneath her feet and the icy air nipped at her nose, but it was… invigorating.
“It’s beautiful,” she said.
Strike had been approaching her, but she turned away to peek into the trees, inhaling the new scents of their environment. A strong hand grabbed the back of her neck hard. He squeezed her tight, pulling her backwards, almost off her feet. Fumbling behind her, she tried to pull at his arm.
Terror burned her lungs, and she gasped a ragged breath that burned her throat.
“Don’t fight,” he said, closing a hand over her mouth and pulling her against him to talk into her hair. “Don’t fight me, Cupcake. Relax. Don’t fight it.”
Her body got heavy, went limp, then she was out.
Rora heard static and it took her a few seconds to realize the noise was just in her head.
Brilliant white light blinded her when she opened her eyes, so she closed them immediately. She couldn’t remember where she was or what had happened. It was warm and the air was perfumed, but there was something new, unexpected… Where was Strike?
Gasping, she sat upright and almost said his name. She grabbed for the back of the candy-striped couch she had been lying on and blinked around the room. Strike was there, standing fifteen feet away in the arms of a woman she didn’t recognize.
There was a wooden table and chairs behind the couple, in a rustic style that suited the wood-clad room. A fireplace burned somewhere behind where Rora was lying and to her other side were floor-to-ceiling windows that led out to a wide terrace. Beyond that were snow-covered trees and mountains.
Holding up her hand to block the sun that was reflecting off the snow, Rora chose to turn the other way and look over the back of the couch again. But that meant looking at Strike and the woman he was holding.
“She’s awake!” the woman exclaimed and pushed away from a reluctant Strike.
He didn’t want to let the woman go and Rora speculated they’d been doing a lot more than just holding each other before she woke up. It was sickening to think she might have been in the room while he was being intimate with another woman.
“You knocked me out,” Rora said, her voice hoarse in her throat. “Again.”
“Bella likes her privacy,” he said. The beautiful brunette, who Rora assumed was Bella, was staring right at her, a wide smile on her face, her eyes glittering with excitement. “And you’re less trouble when you’re unconscious.”
“Don’t be rude, Ex,” Bella snapped at him and then turned her smile on again. “She’s so beautiful. A perfect little possum.”
“I didn’t bring her here for you to play with,” he said.
Spinning around with her arms wide, Bella went to him and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Will you tell me everything? Every detail? Tell me everything, prince. What’s it like to be inside her? What does she taste like?”
“Bell,” he warned, taking her arms to ease her body away from his. “We’ll play later. Just you and me.” Seeing him brush the back of his fingers down her face, Rora wasn’t surprised to see the eager woman tilt her head toward his touch. But, she was surprised to see how tender he was in his caress. “You’re getting overexcited. You need to calm down and focus.”
Focus, yes, that was something Rora had to do too. “Where’s Benjamin?” she asked, trying to stand up, but she wobbled and sat down again.
“Working,” Bella said, putting her back to Strike. “Dinner will be served in an hour. You’ll see him there. I assume you’ll want to change into something lovely…” The woman sprang forward a step and held out both hands. “Come and I’ll show you a wonderland.”
Strike stepped forward and took Bella’s arm to pull her back. “Aurora doesn’t want to see your wonderland or to change her clothes. Show me.”
Bella huffed. “Really? Can’t she come with us?”
Stepping into her, Strike slid his hands under Bella’s bolero and pushed it from her shoulders, letting his fingers trace all the way down the back of her arms to her wrists. His body made contact with hers and he enraptured her with his laser focus.
“Show me, pretty dolly,” he murmured.
Bella’s sulk slid away until her grin returned. “Oh, my naughty prince,” she purred and grabbed his hand to tug him across the room.
Strike barely spared Rora a glance. “Stay here,” he ordered just before Bella pulled him out of the room and closed the door behind them.
Inhaling, Rora turned back toward the view of the snowscape. Maybe she’d pushed too far last night in their argument. Bringing it up again in the plane had certainly been a mistake. She’d thought they were here to rescue Benjamin, she hadn’t really known what that would involve, fighting maybe, bullets, running. She didn’t expect it would involve him sneaking off to screw his ex-girlfriend.
Strike said that he ‘didn’t do implied’, but she’d thought he was over Bella. If anything, he’d suggested the break-up was bitter. But that wasn’t what she’d just witnesse
d. She’d seen an established couple who knew how to entice each other, something she’d never managed to do with him.
Bella wasn’t exactly what Rora had expected either; she had an air of innocence about her, except there was also an undercurrent of something far more sinister that Rora couldn’t quite pinpoint.
After discovering all the doors were locked, she returned to the couch she’d woken up on and sat down. Benjamin was here, somewhere. She’d achieved the first step, now she just had to get to him.
twelve
Maybe an hour or so later, a man came to tell her it was time for dinner.
Rora didn’t know much about the building she was in—they were on the second floor, that was about all she could tell from the view—but when she left the room to follow the guy who was leading her to dinner, she saw a few more doorways.
At the end of the corridor, a door was opened for her and she went in to find Bella and Strike already at the circular dinner table. Sitting at opposite sides, they weren’t even looking at each other. Strike was doing something on his laptop and Bella was issuing instructions to a man standing beside her. She was pointing at the copious amount of food, directing one dish to be switched with another and certain bowls to be rearranged. Talk about OCD, Bella got quite frustrated when her minion didn’t put one bowl in exactly the right place.
Shooting to her feet, Bella grabbed her fork and stabbed it into the back of the guy’s hand. “Get out of my sight!” she screamed. “Useless cretin!”
The guy scarpered, Strike didn’t even look up at Bella or at Rora while she stood there just inside the door, gaping. Bella turned, perhaps seeking out another server because there were a couple of others dotted around the room.
But when Bella saw her, she gasped and grinned again. “Oh!” she said and turned to admire her. “Those hips, the curve of that beautiful waist. You are just delectable, Aurora, and what a beautiful name, you have a beautiful name. Did Ex tell you that your name is beautiful? Ex? Did you?”
Hide & Seek Page 10
