Her vision fractured like glass shattering. Stars spun as she allowed herself to slide into unconsciousness, all the time fearing she’d been the one who’d been betrayed.
Chapter Sixteen
Lucas Randall had been born into wealth and privilege. He’d gone to war and worked six years as an FBI agent on some of the roughest, toughest cases in the United States. This was the first time he’d compromised his morals.
They’d driven through the night. Ashley slept most of the way. Lucas had removed her gag because he didn’t want her to suffocate, and loosened the binding on her legs. She wasn’t going anywhere.
The fact he’d had to hold her down as she fought with every ounce of her strength made him feel sick inside. If he hadn’t gotten a firm hold of her before she’d realized she was in trouble they’d never have overpowered her without someone getting seriously hurt—probably her.
It went against every grain of his being.
Alex had offered to pick her up alone, but as much as he trusted the other guy with his life, he didn’t trust anyone with Ashley Chen’s. She meant too much to him.
Detective Nelson Shaw had blown the lid off the case, but Lucas and Alex were the only ones who knew it. Lucas should have gone to his boss with the photograph of Jenny Britton; he didn’t know why he hadn’t, except there were too many things that didn’t add up. He was jumping all over a fellow agent’s civil rights but—what if he was wrong? What if it was a coincidence that Ashley Chen looked exactly like the dead niece of their prime suspect?
Questions burned in his mind, and he needed answers.
Alex turned down a narrow lane and the unpaved road rumbled under the tires. Almost there.
Lucas looked at Ashley’s inert form and reminded himself not to fall for any act of innocence or ignorance. She was a liar. She’d probably played him every step of the way. She’d initiated the first kiss. She’d initiated sex. Sure, he’d been the one to pin her against that alley wall and finger fuck her, but she’d let him.
Christ.
He felt sick to his stomach. Maybe she’d faked the whole thing—the intense attraction, the blistering orgasms. It made him feel dirty and angry, but none of that mattered compared to people’s lives.
He’d almost told her about Becca. The realization made him want to lash out. So he needed to be on guard against his anger, as well as his hurt.
Alex rolled to a stop and stretched before getting out. Lucas eased open the side door and slid outside, grateful to be hit by the fresh morning air that slapped him awake with its icy chill.
“Let’s get her inside before the sun rises.” Alex walked away.
Dawn was breaking on the Massachusetts coastline; the dusky shadows and diffused light showing Lucas an isolated outpost with a small cottage surrounded by wild looking shrubs and stunted trees.
He turned back to the van. No point in delaying the inevitable. He eased his hands under Ashley’s body and lifted her, for some foolish reason, trying not to wake her. She reared back and head butted him so hard his nose crunched, and he dropped her. Fuck. He fell to his knees, clutching his face.
Sonofabitch!
He watched her run blindly, stumbling through the gray dawn in the direction of the beach.
Lucas ignored the blood running down his face and took off after her. He could hear her thrashing through scrub. She couldn’t see and couldn’t save herself if she fell. The woman was going to break her damn neck. She had no idea where she was. It could have been a cliff she was running toward.
Did she even care if she lived or died?
Maybe she could see, because she found her way onto the path that led to the beach. For a few seconds she ran as fast as she could, even with a bag on her head and her arms cuffed behind her back. Then, just as suddenly, she stopped moving, every line in her body going taut.
He reached for her shoulder, but she twisted out of reach.
“What’s that? What’s that noise?” she demanded angrily.
He frowned. What the hell was she talking about? He cocked his head and listened hard. “It’s a seagull.”
“And waves? Are those waves? Are we near the sea?” Her voice rose in pitch.
This was a damned strange conversation to be having at this exact moment. He loosened the string on the hood and pulled it off her head. Her makeup had smudged, her hair was mussed and her right eye was swollen shut.
His mouth went dry. That was his fault for not restraining her properly.
But her gaze wasn’t on him. It was fixed on the miles and miles of exposed sand, and the surf that crashed down in a rhythm as old as the ocean itself.
She started to tremble. Then she backed up. “No. No. No! Get me out of here.”
What the hell? He went to touch her, but she jerked away from him like he was the one who’d betrayed her. She turned and started sprinting up the path, but as soon as she spotted the isolated cottage on the edge of the beach, she stopped and looked back at him. “I can’t stay here. Take me anywhere else.” Her face was contorted by grimness. “But not here. Not near the ocean.”
“You don’t get to dictate terms, Jenny.”
Her bottom lip wobbled, and she looked away. Then she resumed running, fast, in the direction of the road this time.
Lucas caught up with her in a matter of seconds, scooping her up in his arms. She yelled, but the wind stole the sound and wove it into its haunting narrative.
She sank her teeth into his flesh, and he shook her off him with a curse. He shouldered past Alex who stood in the doorway, watching.
She stiffened in his arms when she saw the other man.
Lucas dumped her on the made up bed. The drapes were closed, and there were locks on the window.
It wouldn’t stop her smashing them if she got the chance.
Two sets of handcuffs were attached to the metal frame of the bed.
“I can’t stay here,” she sobbed. “If a wave comes we’re all dead.”
The woman had gone from icy cool federal agent to insanity, which pretty much reflected how he was feeling.
“Don’t you understand how dangerous this is? Just one wave and everyone who lives along this coast is dead!” She was borderline hysterical.
He wiped at the blood on his face and looked at her incredulously. “Seriously? After everything you’ve pulled you’re worried about a tsunami? Do you know how fucked up that sounds?” His words or his tone seemed to shock her out of her panic. Or maybe she realized he wasn’t going to fall for this line of bullshit.
She sobbed but stopped begging. It was probably all an act anyway.
He pushed her toward the bed, but she fought against his grip, every inch of her body pushing against his, striving for freedom and stirring such memories he wanted to walk away. Just ditch Ashley Chen or Jenny Britton or whatever the hell her name was. Walk out the front door and forget she existed. Forget that she’d lied to him and played him like a fucking violin concerto.
“I need the bathroom.” She raised her voice, and he knew she was serious. Great. He’d known this was going to be part of the setup going in, but he didn’t like it.
And he sure as hell wasn’t letting Alex interfere in this part of the program.
The fact she hadn’t even asked why they’d taken her or why he was calling her “Jenny” spoke volumes about her guilt. She’d lied her way into the FBI. She was either a spy for the people they were hunting or employed by some foreign government. He removed the cuffs from her wrists and stood impassively as she shook them out, grimacing against the rush of blood. He opened the door to the bathroom. “Be quick.”
The tang of blood on his lips reminded him not to underestimate her.
She flashed him a look full of loathing as she went to close the bathroom door.
He shook his head. “Not on your life.”
Tears brimmed in her eyes, but he forced himself to ignore them and think instead of everything Becca had endured over the years. She was the real victim in this.
“I hate you,” she said slowly, but with venom. “You pride yourself on being honorable and noble, but you’re nothing but a hypocritical, self-righteous bastard. I thought you were different, Lucas.”
He didn’t let the accusing tone get to him. “My character isn’t the one in question.”
“Yeah, well maybe it should be,” she said bitterly. “They’re out there, searching for me, probably killing anyone who gets in their way. And rather than help catch them, you snatched me off the streets and detained me illegally. You’re as bad they are.”
The hurt shimmering in her eyes battered his resolve, but he was committed now, and that meant seeing this through to the bitter end. He checked his watch. “You have sixty seconds to use the facilities before I handcuff your lying ass to that bed. I suggest you get on with it.”
Her mouth firmed, and her chin lifted. “Yeah, I guess handcuffs are the one thing we didn’t try the other night.”
He held her gaze. “I’d never have touched you if I’d known the truth.”
She flinched, and he told himself not to be conned by the rare show of vulnerability.
She turned her back on him and did what she needed to do. He averted his eyes. When she’d finished and washed her hands he handcuffed her to the bed and tied a gag between those pretty white teeth so she couldn’t scream her way to freedom.
And all the while her eyes watched him with betrayal in their depths, as if he was the one who’d lied to the FBI.
* * *
“Where is Ashley Chen?” Andrew asked in a deceptively quiet voice.
“Fuck. Do you want to get caught?” The words were low and hard over the phone, Rabbit finally finding his nerve. “You can’t go after the FBI like this! You killed an innocent woman who was four months pregnant.”
Andrew didn’t approve of Brandon’s actions, but it was done now.
“Why are you even doing this? They should be miles away by now. In fucking Canada,” said Rabbit.
“The way you’re questioning me makes me think you don’t care anymore. Have you given up? Are you thinking of turning on us? Do you think you’ll ever be safe if you do?” Andrew let his incredulous amusement leak through. “How do you think your family will react to hearing you raped a child? Will the woman you love stand by you?”
“I didn’t rape her.” Rabbit spoke through gritted teeth.
“She’s thirteen and was being held against her will. Do you know what happens to pedophiles in prison?”
“There’s no proof,” Rabbit insisted.
Andrew laughed, the nasty, bitter sound expressing how he really felt. “How about a video of you bending the kid over the bed and taking her from behind? Would that be adequate proof? Or you telling her to call you ‘Daddy’? You sick fuck. How about the recording of you asking Mae Kwon to add pretty little Mia Stromberg to her stable of underage girls? You think people will believe that?”
Rabbit swallowed thickly. “You recorded that?”
“I recorded everything.” He let that sink in for a few moments. They were in a new location, and Andrew was confident no one could trace them here. With the commotion surrounding Jenny he’d managed to avoid Lily before he left yesterday. Thank God. He couldn’t bear to see the disgust she must feel for him reflected in her eyes. She was safe now. He was better off alone. “I need to know where Ashley Chen is.”
“I don’t know how to find out. She left,” he insisted.
“Figure it out. Else we’ll be visiting you next.” He put the phone down, and there was a knock at the door. “Go away.”
The knock came again, and he strode over and flung it open, ready to ream out the idiot on the other side who obviously didn’t understand English.
Lily stood there with her head bowed, holding a tray with a glass and a bottle of water on it.
“What are you doing here?” he snapped. After everything he’d done to try and keep her safe.
“The dai lo gave orders I accompany the household.” Her tone was as listless as her expression.
Inside he was screaming. He didn’t want her exposed to this world anymore. He didn’t want his uncle anywhere near her. It had been a mistake not to fight for her. She kept her head bowed as she placed the tray on a nearby table. Her hands shook. “The dai lo said that if you didn’t want me in your bed I was to warm his.”
The horror of the situation crashed around him.
“Do you want to be with him?” Andrew asked carefully.
Her brown eyes flashed with such outrage that for a moment they were back to the way they’d been before. Before he’d fucked it up. There were dark circles under her eyes, and a haunted fear that hadn’t been there before.
“I just follow orders, sir.” She bowed her head and went to leave, but he snagged her wrist.
“I don’t want you to go,” he whispered fiercely. Seeing her again. Touching her…even knowing his uncle had also touched her, made something inside his chest crack open and bleed.
Her eyes rose to meet his, but rather than love he saw loathing. He tightened his grip. The safest place would be in his bed. She didn’t have to like it. “Wait for me in my bedroom. Don’t leave for any reason.”
He waited for her eyes to meet his, but she refused. Instead she bowed low and retreated from him. As he shut the door, loneliness closed in around him. He hated everything he’d become.
His phone rang. Rabbit.
“Look, I don’t know how to find out where Ashley Chen is.” The man kept his voice low, as if nervous of being overheard. “But I know someone who would.” He gave Andrew a name and address and hung up.
Andrew stared at the piece of paper for a long time, knowing that if he gave it to Brandon he was signing that person’s death warrant. This was the man he’d become. This was who he was now. He picked up the glass of water and threw it against the far wall. It smashed into a thousand pieces and scattered throughout the room in razor-thin shards.
Why couldn’t his sister have just stayed dead.
Chapter Seventeen
“Here.” Alex thrust a steaming mug of coffee into Lucas’s hands. “Give her this. It’ll keep her out of trouble while I go through her machines this morning.”
Lucas recoiled from the steaming brew and put it down on the counter. “I’m not drugging her.”
Alex gave him a rueful smile. “There are worse things.”
The scar that bisected his eyebrow twitched. He’d gotten it during their Army days in Afghanistan, a souvenir from a brawl with a couple of Air Force pilots who’d been kicking the shit out of a cocky young corporal for playing his music too loud. Alex had dispatched the pilots with their tails between their legs and reamed the kid out for being a noise nuisance. The young soldier had later died in an ambush that had earned Alex the Distinguished Service Cross. Living with the aftermath of that ambush had put shadows in Alex’s eyes that were still there today.
Sometimes the dog days of war felt like yesterday. Other times it felt like someone else’s life.
Alex was a good man to have in his corner. And from the resigned expression on his face, he wasn’t any happier about this situation than Lucas was, even though his suspicions about Ashley had finally been confirmed.
“Lucas, we abducted a federal agent. If anyone finds out, we’re in deep shit. Drugging her to keep her quiet isn’t going to make that any worse, but it might buy us enough time to figure out exactly what she’s been doing.”
Lucas rolled his shoulders and looked away. The cottage belonged to a friend of Alex’s. Someone who wouldn’t ask questions. But they weren’t planning a long-term stay.
The fact he and Alex had broken the law pissed him off. Why was he risking his career for a woman who’d lied to him, and to the organization he’d dedicated his life to? Why was Alex? The repercussions, if their actions were discovered, were career ending. Worse, it could land them in federal prison.
“We need to figure out whether she’s working for the Dragon Devils or the Chinese government a
nd decide how that affects the case.”
“And if it were that simple, you’d have informed the SSA in Boston and set up a surveillance sting.” Alex’s expression softened. He’d overheard Lucas’s conversation with Ashley. He knew they were involved on a personal level. Bad enough Lucas had slept with the woman, but his emotions had started to be engaged and how he felt about her was affecting his judgment. Unlike some people, he did have to like someone to fuck them.
It made things more complicated.
“I can’t believe she’s a mole working for the opposition. She gave us some great leads,” he admitted finally.
“You don’t infiltrate the upper echelons of any organization by doing a crappy job,” Alex argued.
Lucas blew out a troubled breath. His nose throbbed from where Ashley had head butted him earlier.
She was a good agent, but Alex was right.
“As soon as we confirm some facts, we’ll go to Frazer and Sloan. Plus, there’s something more important you need to know…” He told Alex about Becca, speaking in a low murmur that couldn’t be overheard. “If Sloan is replaced and Becca’s survival revealed to the team, we can’t afford for the Devils to have an inside source.”
The idea that Ashley might have aided in the murder of a little girl made the fact they’d slept together utterly repulsive.
Alex nodded. “We need to catch these people before they figure out the kid is alive. You’re right. We need to know if Chen has been feeding them information.”
Lucas reluctantly picked up the coffee mug from the counter. The image of Agata Maroulis bouncing on her tiptoes seconds before she stepped off the curb and into Mae Kwon’s minivan flashed through his mind. All those victims force-fed drugs so they would be easier to subdue when the traffickers brought in clients. His stomach turned.
He tipped the laced drink down the sink and watched it drain away.
“Taking away her freedom is one thing. Taking away her mind is something else entirely.” He leaned against the sink and looked out at the leaves on the dwarf trees quivering in the stiff breeze. “I need to question her.”
Cold Secrets (Cold Justice Book 7) Page 22
