by Tina Donahue
Jake had no chance to explain that he needed the man’s love and protection. He wasn’t allowed the time to beg for it. His father closed the door, the lock’s metal click all too final. With nowhere else to go, Jake had returned to the reservation as his mother had so many years before, though not to stay. An athletic scholarship had seen to that, along with a desire to escape his stepfather’s continued abuse.
Lea pulled in a shuddering breath.
Starting at the sound, Jake turned to her.
“It can’t be true,” she said, as though speaking to herself. She glanced at Toby, then back at him. “You have the wrong person. I’m not who you think I am.”
Although it killed Jake to see her anguish, he couldn’t rewrite history. “There’s no mistake about this.”
“There has to be,” she argued, her words trembling with a combination of hope and doubt. “You’re saying my parents went into witness protection when I was three because of what my father did, the drugs he sold, the people he murdered, and then they decided they wanted to abandon me?”
“No one abandoned anyone,” Toby said, looking at her in the rearview mirror. “Your mother put you in foster care under an assumed name, just like Jake told you.”
“Yeah, I know,” Lea said. “I lived those fifteen years in the homes of strangers, without any real family anywhere, all right?”
Toby fell silent.
“I’m sorry,” Jake murmured, picturing her as a three-year-old, her face wet with tears, blotched with color as she sobbed for her mother. It took all the control he owned to keep from pulling her into his arms.
“She left me with people I didn’t know,” Lea said, as though she simply didn’t understand. Clearing her throat, she spoke in that same mournful tone. “As I got older and started to question, everyone told me it was my grandmother who had put me into the system.”
“I’m certain that’s the story your mother wanted them to tell you,” Jake said.
Lea lowered her face. Her slender fingers tightened into fists. “She never came by. Not once. I had dreams of looking for her.” Pausing, she lifted her shoulders, her brows drawn together in a frown. “Maybe they weren’t dreams after all. I recall running to the window of a house I knew wasn’t mine. I kept slapping my hands on the glass, calling for her, wanting to see her coming down the street. I listened really hard, hoping to hear her voice.” Hers fell to a whisper. “She never came back for me.”
“Your mother did it to protect you,” Jake explained. “Even with the program, she always feared that Cubrero would catch up with your father and it would put you at risk.”
Lea shook her head as though it was too much to comprehend. “I don’t believe it.” She tightened her fists to a point that her knuckles blanched. “No one—no one—carries a vendetta this long.”
“Not in your normal, everyday world,” Jake said, “but we’re dealing with a drug cartel here. They need to control their members and do so through fear. As I said before, your father was facing life in a federal penitentiary for his crimes unless he testified against his superiors. That’s simply not done in the Colombian cartels.”
She gave him a look that said he was crazy. “Neither is going after me. I was a child when all this happened. I didn’t know anything about what he was doing. I don’t have any knowledge that can harm them.”
“That’s not what this is about,” Jake said. “Your father broke rank. His testimony put Cubrero’s father in prison for life. The man died there in a riot a little over a year ago. For that and your father’s betrayal of the cartel, Cubrero vowed to murder him, along with all of his family. That’s the way these people work, Lea. They’re not the Mafia where wives and children are off-limits. These animals slaughter everyone they can to get their revenge, to control, and they don’t give a fuck how long it takes. With your father’s death, Cubrero can boast about how he finally caught up with the man, even though he was in witness protection. It’s a miracle your mother wasn’t there when the execution went down.”
“That doesn’t mean she’s safe,” Toby warned, turning to the side before he glanced back at the road. “Cubrero will continue looking for her. Only through her murder and yours can he can prove to his subordinates that no one—no matter who they are, no matter how long they tried to run and hide—can get away from him. Cubrero won’t stop until both of you are dead.”
Lea’s features went slack.
“That’s not going to happen,” Jake said quickly, trying to convince her even as he shot a frown at Toby’s reflection. Did he have to be so fucking blunt? “We’re going to protect you and your mother.”
Her attention darted from him to Toby and back. “Where is she?”
Jake shook his head. “We can’t tell you. It’s for her protection and yours.”
“For how long?” She lifted her brows. “Are you saying you’re going to keep me in the dark forever? You’re going to be able to protect me forever? Have you even seen this Cubrero around me? Have you been tracking his movements? Why haven’t you simply arrested him?”
“We don’t know what he looks like,” Toby said.
Jake kicked the back of his seat, wanting him to shut the fuck up.
Unfazed, he met Jake’s eyes in the mirror. “She needs to know what we’re up against.”
Not like this. Not all at once. Scaring the shit out of her wasn’t going to do any of them a bit of good, especially him. He didn’t want to see her so damn hopeless. He liked her other persona—SiNN—a deliciously assured woman. The one who’d looked at him so directly at the club with longing and arousal. The one who hadn’t seemed afraid of anything, especially his unashamed lust.
Those moments might as well have been a lifetime away. Again, her worry swung from Toby to him. “How can you not know what he looks like?”
Jake spoke before Toby could. “No pictures were ever taken of him or his immediate family. It allows them to move around freely without identification by the authorities and to avoid being murdered by their competitors. We suspect Cubrero will have some of his father’s features, but to what extent we can’t possibly know for sure.”
Unclenching her fingers, Lea wrapped her arms around herself and pushed back in the leather seat. “He could be anyone?”
Jake wanted to lie, but could not. He nodded.
She drew her shoulders in as though trying to protect herself. “He knows I perform as SiNN at The Second Circle?”
“No,” Toby answered.
“How can you be so certain?” she asked.
Swapping a glance with Toby, Jake finally said, “You’re still alive.”
Lea’s arms tensed around her torso. It did little to stop her shivering.
“Turn down the air-conditioning,” Jake ordered Toby. He leaned forward, extending his hand. “Give me your jacket.”
A muscle ticked in Toby’s jaw at Jake’s command. Offering no comment or complaint, he checked the traffic on all sides before cutting the air and handing over the garment.
“Here,” Jake said, his movements gentle, nearly tender as he draped the jacket across Lea’s chest. “This might help.”
She caught a hint of Toby’s scent on the fabric—clean and soapy—then a trace of Jake’s remembered fragrance, a perfect combination of leather and musk.
Lifting her face, she studied them both. In the lights from the oncoming cars, Toby’s blond locks had a silver cast, while blue shone in Jake’s raven hair. Colors at each end of the spectrum, so different, the same as their features.
Toby’s cool looks belonged in a boardroom, while Jake’s rugged appearance would have gone unquestioned and unchallenged in the wildest roadhouse. Yet each of them was so powerful and masculine. Large men who exuded strength.
A crazy urge to be close to them flooded Lea. She ached to wreathe her arms around their shoulders, drawing them close, sandwiching herself between their big bodies, comforted by their warmth and scents, content in the fact that they wouldn’t let her go. They would k
eep her safe.
“Better?” Jake asked.
His vibrant voice was so tamed with concern it stirred something within Lea. She’d lived so long in a world where no one except Danielle had ever cared. Turning her face to his, she saw kindness in his dark eyes along with naked lust.
If Jake worried about her reaction to his desire, he didn’t show it. He was a man comfortable in his own skin, no doubt used to breaking the rules. Toby, on the other hand, had serious reservations about Jake’s feelings for her, not to mention his own. Lea had seen that unease flash continually in his eyes.
It didn’t stop her from wanting him and Jake.
“What now?” she asked.
Neither man answered. They looked at each other in the rearview mirror.
Lea’s stomach clenched. “What now?” she persisted.
Jake spoke first. “Our first priority is getting you to a safe location.”
Lea watched the cars and landscape whizzing by. They’d left the populated areas a long time ago, before Jake had even begun revealing the full truth about her parents. As far as Lea could see, there weren’t any motels in this desolate location or even a community airport for them to whisk her out of state.
“Where?” she asked.
“A place where you’ll be safe,” Toby said.
Lea dug her fingers into her arms and stated the obvious. “There aren’t any towns around here. No motels.” Nothing.
Without warning, an image flashed in Lea’s mind of her grandmother—or rather her mother—leaving her, accompanied by a sense of loss so great it made her nauseous. Jake and Toby were going to do the same. They were bringing her to a stranger who would then bring her to another stranger until people she didn’t know surrounded her, leaving Lea alone once more.
“Where are we going?” she cried. “Dammit, tell me.”
“Easy.” Jake rested his hand on her knee. “We’re not leaving you.”
His words and restrained strength broke her panic, sending ripples of warmth through Lea’s body, making her limbs sluggish and her lids heavy. She leaned closer, irresistibly drawn to him as she’d been at the club. “Then tell me where we’re headed. Please,” she begged.
After exchanging another glance with Toby, Jake murmured, “A location Cubrero doesn’t know about.”
Too quickly, the blessed heat receded from her body. Why was he being so fucking cryptic? Lea twisted her torso to face Jake, sending the jacket tumbling from her shoulders. Goose pimples rose on her arms from the SUV’s cool air and her renewed worry. “Who else is going to be there?”
Cops? More marshals? Their superiors? All of them discussing her life, changing it, while she was supposed to stand by and accept whatever they decided unless she wanted to be murdered? Wasn’t that what Toby had said earlier? It was her right to refuse all of this—if she wanted to die.
“Who?” she insisted.
“No one,” Toby answered. “Like Jake said, we’re staying with you. Just us.”
Lea’s heart leapt with foolish hope, which didn’t last. Past experience taught her not to trust promises. So few people actually honored them. “For how long?”
“The next few days,” Toby admitted.
And then? she wondered, but didn’t ask.
“Once this is all settled, you will be all right,” Jake said.
Lea heard his doubt. Or was it regret that their time together was far too short and would soon be at an end? Forcing down a swallow, she looked at him. Something flickered in his eyes, only this time he pushed it away, not letting her see it.
Too weary to question him, Lea pulled Toby’s jacket back over her shoulders and turned to her window. Dread sapped her strength, making her sleepy, encouraging her to escape. Closing her eyes, she breathed as deeply as she could and surrendered to exhaustion.
Her dream came swiftly.
She was back at The Second Circle, kneeling on a large, circular bed that took up most of the stage. Jake’s weight and Toby’s shifted the mattress as they crawled onto it, joining her, each of them nude and erect, their expressions predatory.
Lea’s body weakened, making breathing difficult. Heat rose to her face, the flush hidden by her feathered mask. She stared at their ponderous balls and rigid cocks, knowing before the night was over, each of their shafts would slide over her tongue, filling her mouth, both would burrow into her cunt and anus, obligating her openings to accommodate their savage male strength and need.
Her thoughts grew lethargic, her manner submissive. Facing them, she displayed her nudity, letting each man know her acceptance of whatever he wanted to do with her. Nothing would be too lewd. No act prohibited. Lea’s breasts quivered with her unsteady breaths, her nipples puckering in the room’s coolish air. The delicate chains she wore rolled gently across her torso and over her cunt, taunting Jake and Toby to remove them from her.
Neither advanced as they studied her flesh, their cocks thickening in response.
Deep within Lea’s pussy a pulse beat hard, arousal moistening her opening. Parting her legs, she encouraged them to view her dewy cunt. She pulled back her shoulders, further exhibiting herself.
A horn honked. Tires screeched.
Lea froze, confused by the sounds, her heart tripping on several beats. Glancing over, she saw men without faces reclining in the leather chairs surrounding the platform. Their excited breathing was oddly noisy, their words hurried as though they were arguing, drowning out the Latin music.
Lea frowned, wanting them to be quiet. Turning away, she saw the look on Jake’s face—unbridled lust mingled with a measure of affection.
“There’s no reason to be afraid,” he murmured. “I won’t leave you.”
Tears welled in her eyes. “Liar,” she whispered, unable to help herself. “You will.”
“No,” he insisted, sounding pissed. “Now do as I say.”
“Or what?” she challenged.
Swifter than Lea would have believed possible, Jake clamped his hands on her shoulders, pushing her down to the mattress that smelled of leather and musk. Her mouth fell open in a startled gasp. Allowing her no chance to recover, he ran his calloused palms down the inside of her thighs, spreading them widely.
The chilled air licked her damp clit while his thumbs stroked her smooth vulva.
She mewed at his intimate touch.
“Louder,” he ordered, dragging his forefinger over her clit, sending pulses of sensation to her belly and down her thighs.
Lea emptied her lungs in a lusty moan.
Jake swung his head to Toby, the movement freeing several strands of his ebony hair. They tumbled over his forehead. “Grab her wrists,” he instructed the man. “Make certain she can’t move.”
“Trust me, she won’t,” Kneeling at her side, Toby grabbed Lea’s wrists in one hand, dragging them up, keeping her imprisoned with his brutal strength.
His body was magnificent. Dark-brown hair dusted his muscular thighs, the tint the same shade as his brows. Prominent veins entwined his thickened cock, its ruddy color matching his plump balls.
A bead of sweat ran down Lea’s neck. She attempted to swallow, but could not. Her body softened in anticipation of his and Jake’s coming invasion of her. She smelled their lust, no different from her own. The only thing that differentiated them was her expected surrender.
Lea gave it, voicing no protest as Toby slipped his fingers beneath her mask, pulling it from her face. Crisp air touched her hot cheeks, unable to cool them.
With his free hand, Toby unlatched the chain around her throat, pushing it down to her cunt. There, Jake took over, stripping her of the body jewelry, leaving her exposed and unprotected.
Her nudity registered in every part of Lea’s being, her subservience to these men far from complete. Lips parted, she watched Toby lifting his leg and straddling her, his knees grazing the sides of her breasts.
A throaty purr escaped her.
His fingers tightened around her wrists. He ordered, “Suck me. Take me
as deep as I can go. Drain me fucking dry.”
Desire echoed through Lea and her body responded. More moisture seeped from her sheath, encouraging Jake to invade it with his cock.
He gave her his tongue instead, lapping her juices, swirling the tip around her erect nub.
Her mouth hung open on a feral cry cut short by jolting pleasure.
Seizing the opportunity, Toby eased closer, his free hand on his cock, directing it to her lips.
She smelled him first, the scent of an animal, his former propriety gone. Grunting crudely, she licked the back of his crown, the bumpy skin that afforded him the greatest sensation.
His shoulders bunched. He pushed her wrists into the mattress while Jake latched his mouth onto her clit, stroking it slowly, relentlessly with his tongue even as he worked two fingers into her opening.
On a strangled moan, Lea closed her eyes, fighting her tormenting need to climax, not yet wanting the act to end. Demanding her attention to him, Toby eased his cock deeper into her mouth, sliding the hard column in, then out, going further each time until she’d accommodated his full length. His thick brown bush tickled her nose, delivering a wave of his musk. His plump balls touched her chin.
Shamelessly, she submitted, sweeping her tongue over his length, tasting the saltiness of his pre-cum as he again pulled back. He stopped abruptly, the sensations she’d created clearly too much. His body shuddered.
Lea’s toes curled.
Instantly, Jake pulled his fingers free of her sheath and clamped his hands on her ankles. Pushing them toward her thighs, he kept her prisoner, licking and suckling her opening.
In the chairs surrounding the stage, the men made the leather creak as they leaned up for a closer view.
Lea struggled to open her lids, but could not. Her world became Jake’s tongue rasping her clit and Toby’s cock sliding in and out of her mouth.
Together, they used her, allowing no protest, no escape. A cry of delight gurgled in her throat.
“Lea.”
At the sound of her name, she frowned.
