by EM Gayle
We were almost at the end of the hallway and while the idea of freedom from this prison should have relieved me, I didn’t want to jump from one prison to another. “What happens now?”
“That’s up to you, Harper. Unlike my stepbrother, I do not need to force women to stay with me with a piece of jewelry.”
I stopped suddenly. “He didn’t force me into anything.”
“Force, coerce. It’s all semantics. He is a master manipulator. Especially of women.”
“Are we talking about Alex or you?”
A low chuckle sounded from him. “Does it matter? I’m here and he’s not. Your life is currently in my hands. What do you want me to do with it? Or rather, what are you willing to do to save it?”
A chill ran down my spine with every new word out of his mouth. I was pretty sure I had just leaped from the frying pan into the fire as my mother would have said. Cruelty among these men seemed to know no bounds. And Viktor wasn’t kidding when he’d said this game involved high stakes.
I straightened my spine and stared at Ronin in his cold, cold eyes. “I’ll do whatever it takes.”
My stomach still shook from my attempt at standing up to Ronin when I heard a shout off in the distance and more of those pops that sounded like firecrackers. Damn. I guess that meant that the next part of this messed up game was about to begin…
Chapter 9
Alex
* * *
“Did you hear that boss?
Alex clenched his jaw so hard he half expected his teeth to break. “I heard every word.” And he had. From the moment his men had left the helicopter to the time they breached the yacht only to discover Ronin in a room with Harper. “You need to pin that asshole down if you have to. I don’t want either one of them leaving that boat until I get there.” He signaled for the pilot to get him down there now. “But be careful. Ronin will use her as a pawn if he feels trapped.”
“Copy that,” Gerard answered. “And uh, that’s not all.”
“What?” His blood had chilled at his security chief’s tone.
“We have confirmed that Sokolov is not aboard the yacht. Although the engine room is locked down, there are no more heat signatures that indicate he is onboard. And Kavanaugh and his men have killed everyone else.”
Alex swore. His stepbrother’s thirst for blood had no end. And he had his hands on Harper. “Get me the fuck down there,” he yelled at the pilot.
“Yes, sir.”
He should have never agreed to stay behind. He had a sick feeling that if he didn’t get on that God forsaken boat soon, Ronin would try and use Harper against him. His stepbrother wasn’t keen on anyone taking what he considered his. It was the one trait they had in common. Although he shared his women with Jeremy on occasion, that was different. Harper was different.
“Eta two minutes sir. Standby to jump.”
The pilot’s voice in his ear pulled him back to the helicopter and his task at hand. Getting off this bird. He rose from his seat and prepared his equipment precisely as Gerard had instructed with the flight engineer checking for safety behind him before he kicked the eighty foot rope out the door.
He really did appreciate these men and their precision. When they got free from the bullshit of Ronin and Viktor, he would have to tell them so.
“Thirty seconds, sir.”
By now they were well within range of the yacht and Ronin would know they were coming. Fortunately, there was still a helicopter on the yacht’s helipad and no one close by.
With his hands in position, Alex waited for the all clear. With his propensity for adventure sports and fast everything, he had no qualms about this jump.
“Go. Go now.”
He jumped from the helicopter deck, using his feet and hands to control his descent. The adrenalin that had been building dumped into his bloodstream as he landed on the boat softly and with no incident. Piece of cake.
He quickly dropped the rope and ran in the direction Gerard provided. Ronin and Harper were nearing the helipad and he would have to hurry or they would have to intervene. That could result in more bloodshed and a chance Harper was hurt. A risk he wasn’t willing to take.
Fortunately, he knew this boat better than they did and he easily navigated his way. He was on a direct course of intervention when he rounded the corner to find Ronin holding Harper tight to his side a gun clear in his hand and heading away from the helipad.
“Alex!” Harper gasped, trying to reach for him despite Ronin’s hold.
“Take it easy,” Ronin warned.
She rounded on him, rage on her face. “Let me go. I already told you I want nothing to do with this game you and your brother seem embroiled in. You do not get to use me as some kind of pawn!”
Alex lifted his eyebrows as his brain registered the fact that she’d called Ronin his brother. Fuck. Every aspect of his relationship with her that he’d tried to control had just blown up in his face.
Ronin laughed. “Fine. I’m not into sloppy seconds anyways. But don’t say I didn’t warn—”
Suddenly a loud explosion shook the boat from top to bottom. Debris flew every which way as the walls surrounding them exploded outward.
“Harper!” Alex yelled as the woman he loved disappeared through a thick cloud of smoke. Panic seized him as he lunged forward in the direction she’d last been standing. She had to be here.
“Alex,” her voice was weak, but it was enough to send him in a different direction. A moment later he found her, nearly buried under the still falling debris. His heart stopped, stuttered.
“Don’t move.” He flung piece after piece of metal, fiberglass and wood and every other thing that made up this mother fucking boat until he found her crumpled on the ground.
“Harper,” he growled, dropping to the ground to dig her out from the rest of the rubble.
“I’m okay,” she choked out. “I’m okay.”
He wasn’t sure he believed her, but he helped her up nonetheless. The sight of blood on her face and arm had the panic he’d felt rising all over again. “You’re hurt.” He whipped his shirt off and began dabbing at her forehead to find the source was an ugly gash that looked like it needed stitches.
“I’ve got to get you out of here.” His insides were shaking with every touch to her beautiful face. Fear of what could have happened to her finally mounting to an uncontrollable level.
She nodded tightly. “Agreed.”
She started to step over some of the debris he’d flung off of her and stumbled. He growled, grabbed her around the waist and lifted her into his arms.
“I can walk,” she complained.
“Shut up.” The pain of seeing her hurt was infecting him like a cancer and it was spreading fast. He had to get them both out of here now before this heap of crap sank or something worse.
They were halfway to the helipad when she started to struggle in his arms.
“Harper, what’s wrong? We’re almost there.”
“Where’s, Ronin?” she asked, struggling to look over his shoulder.
He’d barely given his stepbrother a thought since the explosion. Not with Harper injured. She owned all of his focus.
“Dead I hope.”
The hurt that flashed across her face gave him pause. Maybe he shouldn’t have said that out loud. But goddamit she was hurt and part of this was Ronin’s fault.
“You don’t mean that.”
He did, but he opted not to confirm that. She didn’t understand their history, nor did she know the pain and suffering his stepbrother caused to everyone in his life. He’d spent so much time cleaning up Ronin’s messes, he couldn’t carry any sympathy towards him at the moment.
“Please, Alex. Don’t do this. We can’t just leave him to die.”
“I can and I will. I will not help him at your expense. You could have died out here.”
Before she could say anything more, he spotted Gerard and waved him over. “She needs medical attention.”
“One of my te
am is a medic. He can help her until we can get back to the mainland. Hey, Harper.”
She smiled at Gerard and his stomach clenched. Seconds ago she’d looked at him with disdain, but for Gerard she was all smiles.
“You need to get her out of here.”
“Sir, you too. We don’t know if there are any more explosives set to go off and it would take too long to secure the ship.”
He handed over Harper into Gerard’s arms. “Just take her and get her out of here on Ronin’s bird. I can use the Chinook to get out.”
“Sir, I must object. Is this about—”
“Gerard, I don’t pay you to argue with me. I pay you to follow orders. Get Harper in the goddamn helicopter and make sure she gets medical attention now.” He didn’t miss the hardening expression of his security chief or the shocked look on Harper’s face, but he couldn’t worry about that now. He had to make sure she was safe and then he was going to do the one thing he swore he never would.
Save fucking Ronin.
He watched Gerard disappear into the helicopter and when the blades began to rotate, he turned back towards the direction he’d last seen his stepbrother. Unfortunately, he didn’t get ten steps before another explosion rocked the yacht under his feet. Debris flew through the air and rained down around him. He tried to turn back to the helicopter, but the pathway stood blocked. He’d have to find another way.
“Sir, are you there?”
God, he’d forgotten all about the comm piece in his ear. “Yeah. I’m here. But this place is unstable. Get Harper the hell out of here now.”
“Already taking off,” came back the answer.
“Thank you, Gerard.”
“Sir, the Chinook will meet you at the forward end of the boat since it has suffered the least amount of damage. But you need to hurry. The team says this floating death trap is taking on too much water. You won’t have long.”
“Understood. Get everyone else out of here now.”
Silence met him after his order and he imagined Gerard fighting not to argue with him. He didn’t care. They’d already risked enough. He’d find Ronin on his own.”
He raced back down the maze of corridors, but that bastard was nowhere to be found. He’d disappeared.
“Sir, we’re clear, but you have to get to the helicopter now.”
This time he didn’t have to be told twice. The fancy boat was quickly shifting and crumbling before his eyes. He ran for the front and hoped like hell Ronin would be there waiting for him. For Harper’s sake. And maybe his mother’s. She would probably care. His father’s death had taken its toll on his tender mother and he didn’t want her to go through that again anytime soon.
He made it to the destination and turned, giving what he could see of the boat one last sweep.
“You’d better be alive somehow. Or I’m going to find a way to make you suffer.”
Chapter 10
Harper
* * *
For three days I had laid in bed with multiple people standing by to wait on me hand and foot and/or offer me medical assistance and it was driving me crazy. I’d suffered a concussion, multiple lacerations that required a total of thirty-three stitches and more bruises than I could count. But I was fine.
I was also ensconced in Alex’s apartment where he was currently treating me with kid gloves. I knew this should have thrilled me, but I was on edge more and more each day.
We still hadn’t talked about the events of my kidnapping, nor had I gotten the courage to tell Alex the truth about me. Which left me in a kind of catch-22 scenario. It was kind of hard to be pissed at him for whatever the hell was going on between him and his brother and how the hell I was involved because I had my own secrets I was still too scared to reveal. Then there was the fact there was still no official word on whether Ronin really got out before the final explosion that sank the Sokolov super yacht.
The story of the boat’s demise had been covered by every news agency across the globe, however, neither Alex or I wanted to take our story public or to the police. So the current theories were accidental explosion or sabotage. If they only knew.
My personal doctor, assigned and paid for by Alex, had just left the penthouse after reassuring both Alex and I that I was okay to resume my regular routine. I was thrilled that tomorrow I could go back to work if I wanted even though I was technically still on vacation.
Yet another secret I currently harbored from Alex. The night I had come to his apartment I had also planned to leave town. I just couldn’t get the humiliation of telling him I loved him out of my mind and it was driving me mad.
The scene that would not be forgotten had heightened my emotions to the point of confession, but the feelings I’d expressed were as raw and honest as I could be. That he didn’t feel the same way tore a new piece from my heart every time I thought of it.
Talk about an upheaval. Even before the kidnapping, my emotions were all over the map, leaving me irritable and exhausted. The idea of getting away for a while had begun to get under my skin and in preparation for that night’s impending loss, I had planned on at least a two week-long vacation somewhere nice and warm. I’d already bought and paid for my ticket to paradise before I’d gone to his apartment. While my ideal getaway would have been a small deserted island where no one could bother me, a quiet resort with a limited number of other guests at one of the small Florida Keys was a strong second choice.
It was somewhere I could start to get over Alex.
I sighed again. The idea of that happening anytime soon seemed impossible.
Since the night I screwed up with Alex, however, all of my current perceptions had been turned upside down and then some.
Also, this not talking about anything important we had going on right now had created an ever bigger chasm between us that continued to grow larger with each passing hour.
It was enough to make me want to stomp my foot and curse. We were both mature adults, so this ignoring of the growing elephant between us had to end. Up to now, my cowardice had run rampant roughshod over my psyche, taunting me with the genuine possibility that he didn’t have the same depth of feelings I carried.
The idea that I seemed to have started out as nothing but a pawn in the Alex vs. Ronin game made it even worse.
Then he would pull me against his chest every night, skin-to-skin, so that I could fall asleep with his arms wrapped around me and the sound of his heartbeat under my ear, soothing me until it eventually lulled me to sleep.
He’d understood the quiet comfort I needed on these past few nights and he provided it in spades. It was by far the sweetest thing he could have done. It wasn’t his fault that him being nice to me at this point confused me. He had no idea what was going on in my head and that honestly wasn’t fair.
I emerged from the shower and began to dress. I’d picked out one of my favorite shortish skirts and a simple blouse to wear tonight, complete with a feminine white lace bra and panties that matched. I wasn’t dressing for Alex. I really wasn’t.
There was a good chance that whether I got him to talk or not, I would be leaving. But not before I told him the truth. He deserved that much. So the pretty clothes and the hair and makeup I was working on were for me. My mother had always taken a little extra time to fix up her appearance before she went to work and despite her telling me that it made her feel good to look good, I didn’t quite understand until now when I really needed it.
So I curled my long hair and didn’t skimp on my makeup, taking special care to make my eyes stand out and using concealer and highlights to take away from the appearance of my stitches and yellowing bruises. I hated that I still carried a reminder of what happened on that boat. It was hard to move on with mementos continually reminding us.
However, I had to admit that I looked great and my mother was right as always, it did feel good. I grabbed a belt and looped it around my waist, frowning when I noticed that I had to release it one notch from my norm in order to be comfortable. I stood to the
side and looked in the mirror trying to decide if my stomach looked bigger.
Had I gained more weight?
I sighed. My normally active self had been in bed for days being served all the good food I wanted. I’d probably indulged more than I should have. Finally, I shrugged. I wasn’t exactly skinny to begin with, so a few extra pounds weren’t going to kill me. Besides, as soon as I got back to work things would bounce back.
Well, maybe not my heart. A broken heart was probably going to linger a little longer than a few extra pounds. As long as I didn’t bury my feelings in ice cream and pizza. My two big weaknesses.
Although my break up with Bill had had the opposite effect. I’d been angry and fired up and never wanted to eat. Within six months of leaving North Carolina, I had lost almost two hundred and forty pounds. Forty pounds of body weight and about two hundred of bad husband.
That thought made me smile. No matter what Alex had to say about my past, I could feel good about the fact I’d moved on. My therapist would be proud.
I emerged from the bathroom and headed in search of Alex. The penthouse had that eerie quiet feeling as my heels clicked along the white and gray marble floors much like a drum march to the guillotine.
In the silence of the vast space any other day I would have been swept away by the grand area with vaulted ceilings, gorgeous crown moldings and sleek furnishings that were as surprisingly comfortable as they were beautiful. But today no amount of space and elegance made up for the suffocating sensation of my world falling further apart with each step.
The first time I met Alex I’d walked through a similar luxurious space with the same sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Except then I’d been on my way to a secret Valentine’s rendezvous in a private sex club with a man I didn’t know.
It had been a crazy thing to do I know, but a dare was a dare and I’d been too curious for my own good. Now I loved that mystery man and even after the break-up, I’d feel forever connected to him.
