A Little Harmless Rumor

by Melissa Schroeder

  She walked off, gaining more than a few glances from some of the Doms.

  “She’s kind of bold for a sub,” Jaime said, watching the woman walk away.

  He shouldn’t be pleased that she was so jealous, but he couldn’t help it. It was nice to know that she still got upset. She had always been a woman who could control the show of her emotions. It was one of the reasons it made Jaime so good at undercover.

  “First, she is very good once you get her in the room. The woman has a thing for being spanked by anything from a crop to a cat ‘o nines. You know I don’t like wimpy subs. Just not my thing.”

  He leaned closer and looked down at her outfit. He had almost called off the entire operation. The tight black knit halter-top dipped low between her breasts.

  “Eyes up here, Sean,” she said.

  He looked up with what he hoped was an angelic smile. “Besides. I know one woman who likes to play a little, and she is definitely bold.”

  Her lips twitched. “Yeah?”

  Randy shared a smile with Sean and scooted closer to Jaime. “Yeah, definitely.”

  The waitress returned with the drink order, and they spent their time watching some of the scenarios. If he hadn’t been so on edge about the situation, they would not have lasted long. They did their best to pretend to be interested in the performances for the night, but his gut was telling him there was something very, very wrong. It seemed like something in their plan was off.

  “I have to go to the bathroom.”

  Jaime did not like the idea. It was easy to see from her reaction. She frowned at him and opened her mouth to argue.

  Randy leaned closer and she snapped her mouth shut. He tossed him a thankful glance, then headed toward the bathroom. He was stopped three times before he could make it to the hallway that lead to the back.

  “Mr. Kaheaku,” someone said from behind him. He turned but someone stepped up and zapped him. A force of electricity coursed through his body as he staggered. Pain filtered through him, and every nerve ending in his body felt as if it were on fire.

  He blinked as his vision wavered. His attacker was wearing a leather mask, so there was no way he could make out who he was. The man said nothing else, but he held up a phone. There was a video of Lassiter, strapped to a chair, his usually styled hair a mess and his face beaten and bruised. Blood stained his shirt, and he looked like he had lost a few pounds.

  “Mr. Lassiter sends his regards.”

  “Sean, don’t listen to them. They only want to get you here to kill you,” Lassiter said. “Get Jaime to safety.”

  It was then Sean realized it was real time and not a video.

  For his troubles, Lassiter was given a right hook by whomever held him captive.

  “Stop. I’ll go.”

  He stepped forward, but his attacker shook his head. Sean opened his mouth to argue, but he was hit with the stun gun again, and everything went black.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Jaime had to fight the urge to follow Sean when he left. Randy had been giving her worried glances, and she didn’t blame him. She hadn’t been this nervous about anything since she first picked her first pocket. To make matters worse, the crowd seemed to swell with each passing moment. It made sense. It was high tourist season, and it was a weekend. Rough ‘n Ready was the only club in Honolulu. They had to be crazy to think this was a good idea.

  She took a sip of her water and started to watch the clock. Five minutes since he had disappeared, and she was ready to crawl the walls. Everything was irritating her, including Randy.

  “Settle down. He’ll be back in a second,” he told her as he sipped his water.

  “You always just want to let things go.”

  “Of course, and you and Sean are the planners. Makes things easier.”

  She opened her mouth to say something, but she saw Micah making his way through the crowd. The look on his face left her blood cold. He was watching the crowd like he was looking for an attack. He was always a man of few words, and he always seemed to be on guard. But tonight, there was something different in the way he looked around the club.

  “We have a situation. Come on,” he said, not waiting for them to comment. She slid out of the booth and followed him to the back of the club and up to the office. It was hard to keep up with his long strides, and people kept trying to stop them to chat. Randy set his hand in the small of her back and guided her through the crowd.

  When they reached the top of the stairs and stepped into the room, she was stunned. She had expected a small room with some monitors. She did not expect all the cool colors or the fabulous sofa. Of course, that probably had more to do with Dee than Micah.

  A stern-looking man was there, along with another man, who looked vaguely familiar. They sat in front of several monitors and seemed to be going over footage from the club. If her blood was cold before, it was iced over now.

  “Jaime and Randy, meet Conner Dillon and Devon Stryker.”

  Of course the second man looked familiar. He was one of the richest men in the world, along with being married to the infamous Ali—the woman from Sean’s past who did not like Jaime. Both men nodded, but did not look away from their duty.

  “Ross, I think they took him out that side door. I told you to get rid of that,” Dillon said. She knew of him because their professional world was small. He was also former FBI, and someone she not only respected but also admired.

  “It is a fire regulation, Conner,” Micah said shaking his head.

  “What?” Randy asked.

  “They took him,” Micah said.

  Everything seemed to freeze in that moment, and the air backed up in her lungs.

  The burner phone Del gave them went off. Randy answered. “Okay, you have a hit on where they are going?”

  He listened as Jaime’s heart raced out of control.

  “Okay. Send them as you get them. We’ll go on your command.”

  “Clothes are in the back room. You can change here.”

  “No, we need to stop them.”

  Randy grabbed her. “No, we need to let him get to where they are taking him. You know Letov isn’t here. And you know he had your father. You know that was Sean’s plan. We need to follow it, or someone will get hurt. Sean or your father.”

  She closed her eyes and counted backwards from ten. Then opened them. Randy studied her for a moment longer, kissed her, then released her. “Hurry up. We need to get on our way.”

  She nodded and went into battle mode, as the men discussed the situation and the direction of the GPS tracker. Jaime knew the only way to get through this was concentrate on the job.

  As soon as they had Sean and Royce back, then she could fall apart. Right now, she thought about making Letov cry, and making sure she could take a video for Emma.

  * * *

  They were headed out of the city via Likelike Highway when Emma called.

  “Where are you?” she asked over Jaime’s phone.

  “Put it on speaker,” Jaime said. Randy had told her to drive because she was much better at it than he was. He clicked on the speaker.

  “Where is he, Emma?” Randy asked.

  “It looks like they’re headed to Kahuku,” Emma said over Jaime’s phone.

  “Fuck.” Randy knew the area, knew it wasn’t easy to handle at night. Hell, it was one of the reasons the military trained there from time to time. The terrain was a bitch.

  “What?” Jaime asked, not taking her eyes off the road. It wasn’t busy this late at night, but the higher elevations of Likelike got rain, and left the roads slick.

  “Lots of jungle. At least, that’s the way it looks,” Emma said. “And they are already there, which means they flew that way.”

  “Wait, I think I have it,” a voice said.

  “Who the bloody hell is that?” Jaime asked, as she sped up to get around a slow moving minivan.

  “It’s Adam. He works with Del, who has the coordinates too. He’s probably about ten minutes behind y
ou.”

  “What were you saying, Adam?” Randy asked.

  “Kahuku has a lot of forest area, but the road they are taking leads to one house. A compound really.”

  Jaime shook her head. “Only in Hawaii. A compound in the middle of the jungle.”

  She took an exit, following the directions from the phone.

  “You need to wait until Del gets there. He said that several times,” Adam said.

  “Okay.”

  Jaime grabbed the phone and cut it off.

  “Fuck that.”

  “Jaime.”

  “No, do you think now that they have my father and Sean in one place that either of them have a chance of living? They don’t. Hell, we’ll be lucky to get there before they kill Royce. He’s served his purpose.”

  “You don’t know that. There are other things going on here that neither of us know about.”

  “Yes, but if we assess the situation and it looks bad, then we go in. Fuck waiting for anyone else.”

  Randy was quiet for a second, then he nodded. “Okay.”

  He knew it might be the worst decision of his life, but he couldn’t even comprehend waiting there, holding his dick in the wind while Del made his way over. Letov was known for torture, but more than most people knew about torture. He was a man who had been trained in it. A man who knew how to keep a subject alive just enough to cause them pain. By the time he was done with people, they were happy to die. He couldn’t wait for Del or anyone else. It would be them.

  “We go in.”

  He sent up a prayer, then started looking over their weapons. Nothing short of their own deaths would stop them.

  * * *

  Sean woke up, choking on water. He blinked, his mind trying to come to terms with where he was. The room was dark, but he could see Letov there, his two henchmen behind him. Then he noticed another figure in the chair beside him. It was Lassiter.

  “It’s about time you rejoined us, Kaheaku.”

  Sean tried to move his arm, but found both of them tied behind him. “If you wanted me awake, you should have had your men zap me.”

  Letov stepped closer, and now Sean had a good look at the man. The last few years had not been kind to him. He had aged at least three years for each one that had passed, and he was bloated. It was easy to see he had been excessively drinking. But his eyes…they told him the most. This man had nothing left to lose.

  He knew Jaime and Randy would be there soon, so he just had to hold on until then.

  “You always had a smart mouth.”

  “I don’t believe we’ve ever met.”

  He didn’t look at Lassiter right now. He wasn’t even sure if his old boss was still alive. But, if he was, he was just hanging on. Sean needed Letov concentrated on him and not Lassiter.

  “No, but I have read your reports. Especially the one where you killed my son.”

  Of course he had. The man had his greasy fingers into so many different organizations, it wouldn’t have been hard to bribe someone for the report.

  “Oh, you mean the one where you sent your son to die so you could fuck with me?”

  He knew the hit was coming, but he hadn’t expected that it would be so fast and so fucking hard. Letov backhanded him with such power; the chair almost fell over. Sean blinked trying to focus.

  “You bastard. You dare say such things about my son?”

  He backhanded Sean with his other hand. This one hurt even more. Fucker. Trying to fight the bile that now seemed to be permanently stuck in his throat from spewing forth. He needed to get the man close enough so he could trip him as soon as he had a chance.

  “Your son was a fuck up. A big one. Who calls attention to himself when he knows he has his quarry in his sights. Your son did, and that’s why he’s dead. Of course, you’re probably the one who insisted that he go on the mission.”

  That pushed him over the edge. He punched Sean with such force that his chair did topple over this time. Letov took the time to kick him in the ribs a few times, and the fucker must have had steel-toed boots on. Each time he landed a hit, Sean felt as if he were being torn apart.

  Sean didn’t move after the assault. At first he couldn’t. Pain vibrated through his body. When he had fallen, the wind had been knocked out of him.

  “You know they won’t miss him for long, sir,” one of the other men said. His voice was heavily accented, and Sean remembered it from the club.

  “I didn’t ask for your opinion.”

  “Sir, Michael is correct. We should kill them both and just be done with it. It is not safe here.”

  Sean opened his eyes, and saw the look on Letov’s face the second before he picked up a pistol and shot them both in their heads. Neither man expected it, for they didn’t even try to move.

  “Thank God. They were getting on my nerves.”

  He squatted down and grabbed Sean by the hair. “Now, it’s time we have a little fun before the end.”

  When he stood, he grabbed Sean and righted the chair. It took considerable effort, since the man wasn’t in that good of shape. Letov then went to his table where he had kept the gun and unrolled a pack. Various sharp instruments caught the dim light from above. But that wasn’t what caught Sean’s eye. There was what looked to be a bomb on the far end of the table. The fucker had much worse plans than Sean had ever thought.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  They made it in relatively easily, and that worried Jaime. There was a chance Letov’s fast journey had left him unprepared, but Letov was a sick bastard. He could have planned to lure them there to torture Royce and Sean. Killing Randy and Jaime in front of the two of them—before they were killed themselves—would be something Letov would do.

  The man really had lived too long. People like him shouldn’t be able to cause this much pain.

  Randy used hand signals to tell her that he was going to head down the hallway. She nodded and followed his lead. They both had armed themselves with automatics, but they also had pistols and various knifes. There was no way they were not going to get out of there.

  They made their way down to the very end of the hallway. All the rooms were empty but the last one. They heard talking, and Jaime knew it was Letov.

  The door was partially open, and it was easy to see inside. She could see Letov striding around the room, a sharp instrument in his hand. She saw her father then. His arms were tied to the chair he was sitting in, his face was bloodied, and his shirt had dried blood on it. She didn’t know if he was even breathing. Her heart stuttered, as if it were going to stop, when she saw Sean. He was in a chair also, soaking wet, and with a little blood. He was watching Letov as he paced back and forth. Randy made a motion with his hand, and there it was, the almost imperceptible nod. Sean knew they were there. But, he wasn’t calling for them to come. Why?

  Sean made a motion with his head, and Randy positioned himself to see what Sean was telling him. When he did, Randy’s face lost all color. He stepped back then signaled a C and a four.

  Fuck. A bomb.

  “You would think you would have been smarter. Lassiter said you would never fall for the plan, but you did, didn’t you? You just couldn’t deal with not flaunting those two disgusting lovers of yours.” Letov made a noise. “That slut and the gay boy.”

  Jaime wanted to go in with guns blazing, but they didn’t know about guards.

  “Funny you should say that. I mean, you look down on healthy sexual appetites, considering your own.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  Sean made his own sound of disgust. “It’s said you like young girls. The younger the better.”

  She shared a look with Randy, who shrugged.

  “I do not.”

  “Oh, then maybe it’s boys.”

  “Bastard,” Letov screamed as raised his hand and brought the sharp weapon down onto Sean’s thigh. He dropped the others he held and backhanded Sean. His chair toppled, but he seemed to be ready for it. The minute he hit the floor, he swung his feet
around and tripped Letov. The man went down with a grunt, and she and Randy burst into the room. She kept her back against the wall, taking assessment of the situation. Two of his men were down, shot in the head.

  Randy walked over to Letov and kicked him in the face. He didn't even give the man time to stand.

  The blow sent him to the ground again, unconscious.

  “Get Sean. I’ll get your father,” Randy said. Randy felt Royce’s pulse and sighed. “Strong and steady.”

  Relief filtered through her, as she helped Sean up, then cut the plastic cuffs with one of the knives Letov had dropped. As soon as he was free, he stood up, then he staggered.

  “Hey, there, be careful,” she said. “How many more?”

  “I don’t know. I know about those two, but I had just come to a few minutes ago.”

  “Royce, buddy, are you in there?” Randy said as he slapped her father’s face.

  “Take Sean,” she said as she went to her father. “Royce, wake up.”

  He stirred opening his eyes. “Jaime, you’re here.”

  “Yes, and we need to get out of here.”

  Randy undid Royce’s hands and helped him to his feet. “He needs more help than Sean. I’ve got him.”

  She nodded and went to Sean. They were almost out the door when she heard something behind her. She looked behind her and saw Letov heading to the table. Without hesitation, she shot him in the shoulder, but not before he hit a button on the bomb. It didn’t explode, but she heard the ticking. He’d set it to explode.

  Letov fell to the floor.

  “Is he dead?” Randy asked.

  “Who cares? Let’s get out of here before that blows.”

  They rushed out as fast as they could. It wasn’t easy since Royce was a dead weight and Sean was injured. Suddenly, she heard shots from behind them, and knew that Letov was still alive.

  “Go,” she yelled at Randy. She let go of Sean and pushed him in the back. “Go on, I’ve got this.”

  * * *