Black Hearts: A Dark Captive Romance (Heartbreaker Book 3)

by Stella Hart

  We lay together afterwards, bodies entwined on the narrow bed. Now that the pleasure was fading, my shoulders were aching. My nerve pain had returned in full force.

  “You still seem tense, even after all that,” Alex said as I squirmed around, trying to find a more comfortable position. “You’ve been like this all week. Are you okay?”

  “It’s my back,” I said, sitting up and rubbing it in vain.

  He frowned and sat up too. “It’s hurting again?”

  I nodded miserably. “It came back a few days ago.”

  He got up and rummaged around in one of his bags for some painkillers. “Here,” he said, handing me two. “You should’ve told me.”

  “I know. I just thought it would go away again.” I swallowed the pills.

  Alex nodded slowly and picked up the exfoliating brush. Then he stroked it over my back and shoulders, and I closed my eyes and exhaled deeply at the immediate relief from the scratchy bristles. It was almost as good as the orgasms. “Thank you,” I murmured.

  “No need to thank me,” he said. “Tell me what’s on your mind. Something must be really stressing you.”

  “It’s just….” I opened my eyes. “We’re only four days away from the party now. The closer we get, the more it bothers me. There’s just so many things that could go wrong. So much of our plan is based on ‘what ifs’ because there are so many things we can’t account for until we’re actually there.”

  “That explains it.” Alex scrubbed me harder. “You’re scared.”

  “Yes. Petrified,” I murmured. I was ashamed to admit it, and my cheeks flushed hot.

  “I understand. I’d be more worried if you weren’t, to be honest.” He paused for a moment, then went on. “You know I’ve never liked the idea of you being the first one in the house. So I’m open to changing the details if you want to.”

  I shook my head and turned to look at him. “But it has to be me who gets in there first. I can blend in for a while; you can’t.”

  “Are you saying I look old?” He arched a playful brow at me.

  “You can’t exactly pass for a young housemaid, can you?” I said with a faint smile at his tension-breaking quip. Already, I was starting to feel more relaxed. As rough and dominant as he was, Alex had a softer side too. He always knew how to make me smile when I needed it, as if he could see right inside my mind and know exactly what I craved. “It makes sense for me to be the one to go in. Besides, we need you outside dealing with the guards before you come in. You’re way better at that than me.”

  “Are you sure? If you want me to handle it all on my own, I can try to come up with another idea. You could stay here, and that would be fine. I don’t want you doing anything you don’t want to do.” There was a taut little twist at the edge of his mouth as he awaited my reply. He was worried about me.

  I looked down at the duvet as I thought it over. Our plan to destroy the Circle and save the imprisoned kids and maids most likely wouldn’t work if it was just Alex there on the night of the party; we had way more of a shot at success if I was there and entered the house first.

  I wanted to be brave like him and flippantly say that I was fine with going deep into the belly of the beast all alone, but instead I was filled with cold terror at the thought of doing anything without him right by my side.

  I took a deep, shuddering breath and thought about all the times he’d helped me and rescued me. All the things he’d sacrificed just to keep me safe. He’d made one thing abundantly clear to me: he would die for me.

  The amount of love and passion he had to have to put my life in front of his with no half measures struck at me hard, reverberating through me. The sheer blazing intensity of his courage gave me the strength to want to do the same; to want to take all my remaining days and breaths and put them in his hands, trusting that he would always be there to catch me if and when I fell.

  I owed him that trust.

  “No. I want to help you.” I set my jaw resolutely and looked into his eyes. “And we have the best chance of succeeding if I go in first. Alone.”

  Pride glimmered in Alex’s eyes, and he stroked my cheek. “You won’t really be alone. I’ll always be with you in one way or another. I’ll know where you are at all times from the little camera we got for you, and we’ll be able to speak to each other when we can with the Bluetooth things. Any hint of trouble and I’ll be in there. I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise.”

  “I know.”

  He squeezed my hand and frowned. “Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked. “I won’t be angry if you can’t go through with it all. Most people couldn’t handle it.”

  “I can.”

  “Okay. I’m proud of you, angel.”

  “Why?” I asked softly.

  The intensity of the look he gave me almost sent me slamming back against the bedhead. There was pure passion in his eyes, bright and roaring like a forest fire in the night.

  “Why wouldn’t I be?” he asked, tilting his head to the side. “You’ve been through so much in your life. The kind of things you’ve experienced can wreck some people. It can shatter them into a billion pieces and shuffle them all around until they’re unrecognizable; make them a totally different person. But you… you’ve just become stronger instead. You bend but you don’t break. You’re incredible, and you should know that.”

  I stared at him with my lips parted as he delivered his tender speech. I’d never thought about myself like that.

  “I don’t think I’d be able to do it all without you,” I said quietly.

  He shook his head. “I think you could. No, I know you could. You stayed strong long before I was in your life. That’s why I’m so proud.” He pulled me close and smoothed my hair. “But you won’t have to do it all on your own anymore. Not as long as I’m here.”

  I closed my eyes and leaned into the warm glow of his embrace. “Thank you,” I said breathily. The pain in my back was starting to fade again. He always knew how to make it go away.

  “For what?” he asked, weaving his hands through my hair now.

  “For doing what you’ve done.” I bit my lip for a second. “For taking me. Being here for me.”

  “I always will be. I’m never letting go.”

  “Good,” I whispered. “I don’t want you to.”

  12

  Celeste

  It was December the 1st.

  The critical night was finally upon us.

  I was shivering despite my jacket, rubbing my arms to keep myself from freezing in the dark country air. It was raining again, and fine stinging needles of it hit my face as I waited behind a tree with Alex. There was a huge black hiking backpack sitting on the snowy ground beside him, filled with the things we needed for tonight, along with a metal stepladder he’d carried all this way at the same time.

  Alex reached down and pulled my hood farther over my face. “Don’t want to ruin your makeup,” he said softly before checking his watch. “It’s almost ten past.”

  From our previous stakeouts, we’d figured out that the security guard who patrolled the fence line in a black car would be due to drive up to this exact spot along the back fence at about a quarter past every hour. We assumed the Circle party would start somewhere between seven-thirty and eight, so this was the best time to get in. Not too early, not too late.

  “Ready to put it on?” I asked.

  Alex nodded and grabbed a large wet branch; one we’d picked up on our hike through the reserve to the back of the Circle property. He slipped a rubber glove on to his free hand to dull the shock from the electric fence, then stepped out from behind the tree and placed the branch on the white-coated wires so that it was hanging off them.

  The fence buzzed and groaned, and Alex stepped back with a jolt in his step. “Jesus. Higher voltage than we thought.”

  “Are you okay?” I asked anxiously.

  “Yeah, just a little shock. Now we wait.”

  Headlights appeared in the distant darkness a
moment later. A car slowly meandered toward us, pulling to a complete stop when it reached the branch. A man stepped out, wearing the guard uniform of a black jacket, pants and beanie. Around his waist was a thick belt which held his two-way radio and gun.

  From our hiding spot behind the tree, we heard the radio chirp with static before a male voice came through. “What is it, Blaine? Someone there?”

  As predicted, the weight of the branch on the fence had triggered an alarm somewhere.

  The guard, apparently named Blaine, shook his head and pressed a button to reply. “Just a big branch. Must’ve fallen onto the fence from one of the trees here. Gonna move it off now.”

  Alex squeezed my hand and nodded. We had to move fast.

  As Blaine kicked at the branch to knock it off the fence without shocking himself, we crept out from our spot and approached him, both of us carrying a gun. In his spare hand, Alex was hauling the stepladder.

  “Move and I’ll blow your brains out,” he said crisply.

  Blaine looked up at us, his eyes going wide. One hand flew to his radio, presumably to call for help, and Alex held his gun level with his face. “You fucking heard me. Don’t think I won’t do it.”

  The guard nodded and slowly raised his hands, staring at us in silence as I dragged the stepladder across to the fence. I carefully climbed it, then jumped onto the other side, stepping behind him. “Throw your radio, keys, and gun over to him, then get down on your knees. Slowly,” I said, planting the barrel of my gun right on the back of his head as I gestured to Alex.

  “Who are you people?” Blaine asked, fumbling in his belt before doing as I said.

  “Guess,” Alex said.

  I couldn’t see the guard’s face from where I was standing, but I imagined comprehension dawning in his eyes as he replied. “It’s you, isn’t it?” he muttered, his whole body seeming to crumple. He didn’t need to elaborate. We all knew he was referring to the Heartbreaker.

  “Yup. Now, Blaine, you’re gonna help us out.”

  “Like hell.” I heard the guard swallow hard, then grit his teeth. “Just get it over with. Kill me.”

  “But we don’t want to kill you,” I said, stepping around to his front, my gun still trained on him.

  He looked up at me from where he knelt, confusion etched into his shadowy features. “What?”

  “You aren’t like the others. You’re just a patrol guard, right? There’s no way we’d want to kill someone like you.”

  “I’m not falling for that,” he mumbled. “You know I’m one of them, and I know you’re gonna kill me. So just do it.”

  “No, I’m serious. You aren’t like them,” I said, widening my eyes in a sympathetic expression. “I mean, sure, you might help your bosses in the Circle by keeping their secrets and helping them out, but you don’t actually hurt the kids yourself, do you?”

  It was an excuse straight out of Dan Vallone’s slimy playbook. Blaine saw his get-out-of-jail-free card right there, and he gulped and nodded, suddenly itching to play along. “That’s right. I… I’d never hurt them.”

  And yet you happily accepted money in return for helping the Circle continue with all their heinous acts, I wanted to scream.

  Instead, I kept my cool and smiled sweetly. “I thought so.” I turned to Alex for a second. “See? I told you.”

  Alex played along. “Yeah, yeah,” he grunted in a faux-annoyed tone.

  I cocked my head to the side, then went on, looking back down at Blaine. “You know, someone like you really doesn’t need to have the same level of loyalty as the rest. They all made their beds years ago with the shit they do, so they have to be loyal, because if they ever dared to rat on the others, they’d go down with them. But you haven’t crossed that line, have you? If the others go down, you won’t. So there’s no need for you to die out of loyalty like they insist on doing.”

  “Yeah, I guess.”

  “So here’s the deal. You tell us what we need to know about the house, and we’ll let you go.” I pointed behind us at the nature reserve on the other side of the fence. “We’ll let you run that way, far away from all the others. They won’t see you from here. They won’t catch you. And once we take this place down, no one will ever even have to know you worked here.”

  The guard licked his lips nervously. “What if I decide I want to be loyal? What if I don’t tell you anything?” he asked quietly.

  Alex smiled and held out his gun. “Then we’ll have to kill you. But like she said, we don’t want to.” He paused. “Well… she doesn’t want to. I’d do it in a heartbeat.”

  I suppressed a smile of my own. This ‘good cop, bad cop’ routine was fun.

  “I….” Blaine looked down, his hands trembling. Then he looked back up again, past us and beyond the fence. He was thinking about it; thinking about the route he’d take through the reserve once we let him go. “Okay. I’ll do it,” he mumbled.

  “That was easy, wasn’t it?” I said smoothly. “Now tell us about tonight’s party. We want to know the security guard layout. Don’t lie to us—we know your face and name now. If you lie, we’ll find out, and we’ll hunt you down.”

  He nodded and looked down at the ground before responding in a quiet, guilty voice. “There’s twenty-three other guards.”

  “Where are they?”

  “One is in the security room, keeping an eye on the CCTV feeds. Two are in the ballroom, where the party is happening. Another one is patrolling the inside of the house, just in case. The rest are all around the exterior of the house or in the parking lot.”

  I moved closer to Alex and spoke in a hushed tone. “That means there’s nineteen outside. Can you handle that?”

  He nodded. “It’s basically what I expected. William still thinks the Heartbreaker is one of the Circle, remember? He wants to trap him inside. So they have the majority of the guards outside to prevent anyone from leaving once they’re in.”

  “Oh, right. Yeah.”

  “Makes your life a hell of a lot easier, only having a few on the inside.”

  I nodded and breathed a quiet sigh of relief, then spoke to Blaine again. “How would someone get to the security room if they were coming in from the greenhouse entrance?”

  “You’d turn left and go down that hall. You’ll pass the library on the right and see a corner staircase at the end. On the right of that staircase, there’s a little door. The security room is in there.”

  “And the greenhouse itself… were we right when we figured that there aren’t any cameras around it?”

  The guard nodded. “None in it, either. The cameras are only inside the house and outside the main exterior parts of it. Nothing behind the greenhouse, because it’s enclosed.”

  “By the walled garden,” I murmured with a nod. “And are there any guards behind that wall?”

  He shrugged. “No point. If anyone was able to climb that wall and get into the greenhouse from the garden, it leads straight inside, so the cameras and the patrol guard in there would spot them. Same thing if anyone tried to leave via the greenhouse. Cameras would see.”

  Things were looking up—this made our plan just a tad easier. “Great. You have a key to the exterior greenhouse door?”

  Another shaky nod. “It’s on the set I tossed to you. Right in the middle.”

  “Anything else we should know?”

  “The party starts at eight, but people are already arriving. Every Circle member is going to be there. I don’t know why, but it’s some big event.”

  “Don’t worry, we know that already,” Alex said to the part about everyone being there.

  “If you plan on taking them out, it’s gonna be rough for just the two of you.”

  “I appreciate the concern, but we have a plan,” Alex said smoothly. “You’ve really been so helpful, Blaine. Thanks for finally doing the right thing. In return, I’ll make this relatively fast and painless for you.”

  “Wha—”

  Alex sent a bullet blasting into his chest. Blaine
dropped to the freezing ground, blood pouring from his wound. His surprised eyes ceased their blinking only seconds later.

  One down.

  Seventy-one to go.

  13

  Celeste

  I stared down at the dark blood trickling onto the snow, lit by the dim moon peering out from behind a storm cloud. I felt nothing for Blaine.

  He got what he deserved.

  Alex stripped him of his thick belt and beanie before putting them on himself and sliding the keys, radio, and gun into the belt. He was already wearing black pants, shoes and jacket, so from a distance and with the beanie pulled down low, anyone would think he was just another guard when he reached the house.

  “Get in,” he said, nodding toward the car.

  I did as he commanded, sitting on the passenger side. I watched him toss the stepladder back over the fence and dump his backpack in the back seat. Then he joined me in the front.

  I slid out of my long jacket to reveal the long-sleeved white silk shirt and black pants I wore beneath it. Around my neck was a thick black plastic collar. We bought this one because it looked similar to the ones the maids and kids in the mansion wore.

  In the same place where the flashing light was on the other collars, Alex had stuck a minuscule GoPro camera to it and rigged it so that it was linked with the internet connection he had on his phone. That way I would be transmitting constant video footage to him.

  When the tiny camera was working, it flashed with a yellow light at the bottom, so at first glance it would just look like I was wearing the same tracking collar as anyone else.

  Alex looked down at his phone. “Seems to be working,” he said softly. “Let’s get the earpiece in.”

  He tucked the blonde wig back on my left side and put a tiny black wireless bud in my ear. With the hair down, no one would see it. “That should stay in pretty firmly,” he said. “And we already know this works.”

  He gestured to the inside of the collar, behind the camera. There was a tiny mic there, smaller than my little fingernail. We’d tested it back at the motel the other day. I would have to be careful when and where I did it, but if I spoke loudly enough, Alex would be able to pick up whatever I said from his own earbud, which communicated with my device via Bluetooth. The only thing that would stop it from working was if we moved too far out of each other’s range.