by Lexi Blake
Her brothers were going to kill her. They would lock her up somewhere. “Maybe you’re wrong and the pilot’s just drunk or something.”
It was kind of a horrible thing to wish for. That’s what happened when you suddenly hit rock bottom.
Case opened his mouth but that was when someone knocked on the door.
“Mr. Taggart, I believe you’ll find my people have your people taken care of. If you want them to live for more than the next ten minutes, you’ll hand over the prize,” a masculine voice said.
Prize? Oh, she would show them what a prize was. It looked like she wasn’t finished busting balls this evening.
Before she could open her mouth to give the asshole behind the door a piece of her mind, Case was behind her, covering her mouth with his big hand. He held her tight, his mouth to her ear. Only a few minutes before he’d held her like this in the sexiest way.
She was so perverted because she still thought it was kind of sexy.
“Don’t you fucking dare spit bile his way,” he whispered in her ear. “If he’s not lying then Michael and Hutch are in trouble. And if I find out Fain is in on this, I’ll feed that fucker his own dick. I need you to open that door and explain that you have no idea where I am. I showed up. You got pissed. I left. Do you understand me? When he comes in here to find me, let him. Nod your head if you understand.”
He was obviously about to do some hot commando stuff. She was a complete freak, but it did something for her. Her heart was pounding in her chest, but she was also still kind of aroused. Being near him even in the midst of danger got her hot.
He was holding her pretty tight so nodding would be hard. It was okay. She had another way. She licked him.
“Don’t you fucking die. And I’ll spank you for that later.” He moved away from her, his hand peeling back, and she watched as he disappeared into the bathroom.
Her brother had purchased the plane from some crazy king of a small island nation off the coast of India. The whole thing was designed to spend a nice evening with a lady. Or four. She’d heard some crazy stories about Kash Kamdar. She’d been looking forward to bringing an entirely new chapter of perversion to this particular room but some butthead had to try to kidnap her.
Now she had to find a way to give Case the chance to take him out.
Her optimism took over. She was generally a glass is half full and tastes really good kind of girl. She liked to look on the bright side of things. This dude was fucking up her calm. Mia strode to the door and slammed it open. “What?”
The copilot was standing there, a big old gun in his hand, but she glared at him. He stared behind her, obviously looking for the real threat.
Oh, she would show that motherfucker a threat.
“Where’s Taggart?” He gave a good impression of a hardened criminal.
She still wasn’t buying it. He was a jerkwad ass face who’d cost her a nice night. She was going to start carrying. Life would be easier if she could shove her Ruger in his face. Or his crotch. Guys seemed to react more correctly to that particular placement. “How the hell should I know?”
Case was wrong about how to deal with him. He’d told her not to spit bile his way, but a little defiance went a long way. Confidence was the key. Did this blowhole think she’d never been in a shitty position before? She was a blonde fucking reporter who’d been to some crazy parts of the world. No one took her seriously. She’d stared down terrorists and Hollywood assholes who thought she was fat. Once she’d had to talk her way out of a biker bar that housed a notorious drug lord. That hadn’t been easy. She could handle this asshole.
And if Ezra was a part of this, Case would have to fight her for the right to cut off his junk.
The copilot was a lanky dude, but he knew how to hold a gun. It was pointing right at her face, but she wasn’t about to shrink from that shit. The minute she did, she gave him more power.
“He walked back this way.” The copilot, whose name she didn’t remember because he was a fucking numbnut, strode into the bedroom, his gun out.
Play it cool. Don’t give him anything. Mia crossed her arms over her chest because he didn’t deserve to see her un-bra’d breasts. “He came in, tried to get in my panties, and I sent his ass out.”
Such a lie. He’d gotten his deeply talented hands way down her undies and he’d been a motherfucking revelation. Case Taggart was amazing. He knew exactly how to touch her, and his mouth was so filthy she could barely stand it. Dirty. He was a damn dirty Dom and she was already half in love with that man. This douchebag wasn’t going to murder him before she’d managed to get that cowboy in bed.
“Sure, he did.” The copilot glanced around the room. “Why is your bra on the floor?”
“Because it’s late and I never leave the poor girls pent up. Tell me something, have you ever worn an underwire?”
“Get your back up against the wall.” His voice was a little shaky, like this assignment hadn’t gone as planned.
It hadn’t, she suddenly understood. This particular assignment had begun the minute she’d requested the jet. It had been over a year since she’d asked for one by herself. She’d been holed up in Austin or gone out with a large group of 4L workers for the last year. Since Case. She’d been mooning over that man and hadn’t followed her habit of traveling at every given opportunity. She’d taken some assignments close to home and worked on a book she was writing about a local murder. She’d gone out of the country exactly once and she was a girl who filled her passport quickly. She hadn’t been herself at all. Had they been waiting all this time to try to take her? Were they looking for a quick buck? Or on assignment for The Collective and trying to find a way to force her brother into working for them?
Mia moved, bracing herself against the wall. The people at stake belonged to Case and she was going to trust in that smartass, competent cowboy to get them out of this situation.
Unless she found a way out first, of course.
“What’s back there?” The man frowned at the partially opened door.
“The bathroom.” And Case, who hopefully had found a weapon. The pickings would be slim. He could splat the guy with toothpaste or maybe hit him with some shaving cream. She was fairly certain Drew kept a razor in there, but it would be small.
“Don’t you move. If you run, I’ll have to come after you. We’re trying to keep you in decent shape, but I think our boss would understand a few bruises. After all, he’ll likely let us sample the goods while we’re waiting for your brother’s answer.”
Yep, because she’d never been threatened with that before. It was a universal truth that men with small egos always threatened a woman like that. She flipped him off. “We’ll see who gets bruised if you try to touch me, asshole. Ask Taggart what happens to men who treat me wrong. He’s somewhere hiding and holding his balls and crying like a little boy.”
The man turned on her, his face flushing a florid red. “I won’t be so easy as Taggart, bitch. You might think you’re some almighty rich girl, but after I’m done with you, you’ll know your fucking place.”
He waved that gun in her face. It was all very threatening and scary, but she saw what he didn’t. While Criminal Asshole was busy trying to intimidate her, Case was stalking him. He slipped out of the bathroom and she caught the faintest glimpse of metal in his hand.
It wasn’t a gun, so their erstwhile horny criminal still had the advantage. All Case had was surprise. She had to keep that for him.
Sometimes it all came down to giving a guy what he wanted. She let her arms drop, her body quiver the slightest bit. When she spoke, she put a little tremor in her voice. He wanted her scared? She could give him that. “My brothers won’t ever stop looking for me.”
His lips curled up as though her fear excited him. “Don’t worry, sweetheart. When I’m done with you and the boss is satisfied, you can go home to your brothers.” He lowered the gun and moved in close, like a predator scenting easy prey. “But you’ll be with us for a while. I can m
ake that easy on you. Or it can go hard. Do you understand what I mean? I’m not going to let you send me off the way you did that pussy Taggart.”
Case was moving in, his big body more silent than any man that size should be.
Mia winced as her captor’s hand cupped her breast.
And then she bit back a scream because Case buried one of her nicer nail files in the jerk’s jugular. She closed her eyes because it got messy fast.
Mia shuddered as the body slipped away from her, heard the sound of a thud as it hit the floor.
“Mia?” Case’s voice was a mere whisper. “Baby, you can open your eyes. It’s okay. He’s dead. Actually, maybe you shouldn’t open your eyes. Give me your hand and I’ll get you out of here and I’ll stash you someplace safe. I’m so sorry. I couldn’t find anything else and I couldn’t risk the gun going off if I’d fought him for it. You’re going to be all right. I’m so sorry you had to see that. Don’t be afraid of me. Please.”
She opened her eyes because he was treating her like a girl who’d never witnessed a little violence before. Was this why he’d held her off? He hadn’t thought she could handle his world? She stared at him for a moment before wiping the blood off her cheek. “Next time strangle the motherfucker. You got blood everywhere. Do you know how hard it is to get a steam cleaner in here? And this was my favorite shirt and now it’s got gross stuff all over it.”
His eyes flared and then he smiled. “I’ll pay the dry cleaning bill. You’re really all right?”
She nodded and noted he’d already picked up the guy’s gun. “I’m fine. You did what you had to do, but I will get in trouble for getting blood on the carpet. Drew takes this plane seriously. He doesn’t have another gun on him, does he?”
“No.” Case took her hand. “And I’m not giving you this one. Try to remember that we’re flying through the air in a pressurized tube and putting holes in our tube would be bad.”
Having his hand in hers gave her such strength. “Tell that to the bad guys. Do you think they’ll hurt Hutch and Michael?”
It was a stupid question. Of course they would.
He squeezed her hand. “I’m going to do everything I can to stop it. You’re going to hide.”
He was back to that plan. She didn’t want to split up. The idea that he wouldn’t have anyone to watch his back didn’t sit well. “I can help you. I know this plane way better than you do.”
“Then you’ll know where to hide.” He stopped in front of the door and looked back at her, his eyes hard. “I’m not kidding, Mia. You’re going to stay where I put you. I have to do some seriously dirty work to get us all out of this and I can’t do it while I’m worried about you. You agreed to obey me. We might not have a written contract in place, but there’s a verbal one and I expect you to abide by it or there will be harsh punishment. Am I understood?”
“You can’t expect me to hide while you’re in danger.”
“I don’t merely expect it. If I think I won’t get it, I’ll tie you up myself and stash you.”
Arrogant ass. “Fine. There’s a closet in my brother’s office built for just such a scenario. Apparently the last owner was very safety conscious. I’ll cower in there while you get horribly murdered.”
His expression didn’t change at all. “Excellent. You’ll forgive me if I tuck you in myself.”
He didn’t trust her at all. “I can find my way.”
His hand clutched hers. “Not on your life. The office is the one across the hall from here?”
She nodded. If she really looked at it, maybe this wasn’t about trusting her so much as he was worried about her. That was a much better way to look at it. Even in the midst of serious chaos, she preferred to look on the bright side. Sure she was covered in some dude’s blood and Case was being an unreasonable asshole, but he was likely one of those guys who didn’t handle pressure well. Women were infinitely more suited to handle stress than men. She had to encourage him. If he thought he worked better without her, there wasn’t exactly a ton of time to argue her point.
But they would have a serious discussion about it later.
“Mia?”
She rolled her eyes and then sighed. “I’ll hide.”
“Come on. You stay behind me.”
She didn’t point out that the hall went both ways so there was a fifty-fifty chance that he would be behind her from the would-be kidnapper’s point of view. Again, likely not the time to question him. Mia followed him as he opened the door and checked the hall, only bringing her out when he seemed sure they were safe. Luckily it was only a few steps to the office.
Mia was so tempted to try to see back out into the cabin, but Case hauled her along.
She found herself standing in Drew’s office.
“Where is it?” Case looked around the office, trying to find what was cleverly hidden.
Mia moved to the wood-paneled wall behind Drew’s desk. There were three floor-to-ceiling panels and the one in the middle hid the tiny safe place…she couldn’t call it a room. It was basically a closet.
Who the hell thought to put shit like this on a plane? It wasn’t like the cops could show up to save her at thirty thousand feet. All this casket of a room really did was fuck up her life. She touched the right place and it opened, revealing the tiny space with its cameras. She’d never been in it. Now she realized she could see every room from a small bank of monitors in the wall.
Her brother was such a liar. “I don’t think this is a safe room at all. This is like a creepy watch place. He could see into the bedroom from here. Ewww. I don’t want to know why there’s a box of tissues in here, do I?”
He pushed her inside. “I don’t care. Don’t you open this door until you know it’s me outside. I’m trusting you. I can’t do what I need to do unless I know you’re safe.”
He reached for her, his hand cupping the back of her neck and pulling her in. He kissed her, his mouth dominating hers. Her body relaxed, his need calling to her on every level. She molded her body to his, letting her hands run up the muscles of his back. So strong. So forceful. He was everything she needed in a man. With the singular exception of not understanding how competent she was, he was practically perfect.
She kissed him with everything she had. The passion between them was off the fucking charts. Never before had she felt anything close to the emotion she had for Case. Sometimes it felt like it had always been Case. Like she’d waited all her life for this one infuriating, arrogant, sexy as hell, other half of her soul man.
“Don’t you dare die, Taggart.” She held him fiercely for a moment before letting him go.
Loving Case Taggart would likely mean being in this moment over and over again. He wouldn’t ever quit trying to save his friends and his family and the world. He was that guy and she was crazy about him.
He smiled as he looked down at her. “Not now, Lawless. Not when I’m so fucking close to what I want. You be safe.”
He kissed her once more and then stepped back.
She knew what he wanted. He wanted her and that was why she reached up and touched the button that closed the panel between them.
Her heart immediately ached. It closed with a little thud. She placed her hands against that door as though she could still feel him.
With a long breath, she sat back and tried to deal with being left behind. She glanced down at the cameras. There was a keyboard in front of her. This was how her pervert brother kept up with what happened all around his plane. Including what happened in that bedroom.
What should have happened in that bedroom, except some nasty dipshit had decided kidnapping was way more important than her getting laid by a superhot cowboy/Captain America soldier.
Rude. They were so damn rude. She could be in that big bed with Case Taggart giving her everything he’d promised. And he’d promised freaking crazy oral sex.
Assholes. She could be screaming out his name right now, but no. She was all hiding in her brother’s creepy sex watch box. She looked
at the screen. It was switching between cameras. She could suddenly see the cabin. The stewardess had a gun aimed at Hutch’s head, Michael standing in the background, his hands moving as though he was pleading his case not to kill the hacker.
Fain wasn’t there. Damn it.
Case would never let her live that down. If she’d hired her own damn kidnapper, she would never hear the end of it. She was going to murder Ezra Fain. Maybe that would fix things. Maybe then Case wouldn’t feel the need to tell her brothers anything at all about this little misadventure. She could change the carpet and get rid of the bodies and no one would be any wiser. What her brothers didn’t know couldn’t possibly cause them to mess with her life.
Case. She caught sight of him moving down the hall. He was heading toward the back of the plane, likely to loop around and get a lay of the land, so to speak.
There were only three of them. The pilot was in the cockpit. She still hadn’t found Fain. She looked at the monitors, trying to figure out if there was a manual way to shift through them. She needed to find Fain’s hiding place.
Not that finding him would do Case any good. She had no way of telling him anything. She was utterly useless in here.
Would she have to watch him die? Would he die right here on screen and there was nothing she could do to stop it?
She forced herself to think. What could she do? Sitting and waiting was foreign to her existence.
The monitor shifted and she watched as the cockpit door came open. The pilot probably had them on autopilot now that his dick move had done its job. She pressed one of the buttons and managed to get the camera to stay on the main cabin. The pilot walked out, the gun in his hand pointing straight at Michael Malone. Hutch was down on his knees, his hands behind his head, but at least he seemed perfectly calm.
Michael looked stoic, as though he was simply waiting.
They both trusted Case. These men knew Case would get them all out of the situation.
The pilot frowned as the flight attendant gave him an answer he obviously didn’t like. He’d ditched the tie and jacket of his uniform and rolled up his sleeves, as though finally getting down to his real business. He picked up the small device rigged to go through the plane’s speaker system.
