Seductive in Stilettos 5: BWWM New Adult Romance

by Nana Malone

  "The man has serious control issues. But I worked hard for this freedom, even if it was false." She tried not to think about the pieces of freedom she'd taken for herself. That night in L.A., what she'd done in the car with Shane, their movie date, or the night in the borrowed apartment. Hell, what they’d done an hour ago. What he'd done to her body—what she'd allowed. That she'd wanted. Sure, now she had all this sexual freedom but not the man she wanted.

  "I'll make it work, you guys. I'm not leaving. This is my home now, and no one is pushing me out. I'll meet with Micha's fiancé in the morning. I at least trust him not to take me out of the country to Trinidad."

  Sydney patted her back. "And we're going with you. Family sticks together."

  7

  Tris couldn't believe Shane thought he could get away with this. For the last week and a half, he, War, or Tom had been on her like glue. She was furious. And to make matters worse, he always looked good enough to eat. And of course, her friends were no help. Every time War was around, they insisted on talking to him like he was part of the crew. The asshole was too charming for his own good. A new RA had been assigned. She was significantly less hot than Shane but much better at her job.

  Xia and Syd were at least loyal to her when it came to Shane. No one spoke to him. But try as they might to pretend he wasn't there, it was tense. Always tense. Mostly because he kept watching her like he was trying to figure her out. Like maybe if she'd taste the same. The only time they actually ever relaxed was in their room with no one watching them. Sometimes, to give her friends a reprieve, she sent them out without her. No one wanted to hurt them, just her. Some of the kids on the floor had started to ask why people were following her all the time. Of course, the dumbasses believed she was on house arrest for something.

  All Tris could do was try to keep things as normal as possible. She laced her sneakers and tried to ignore Tom following behind. Tom, to his credit was more professional than War or Shane because he didn't talk much to them. He was polite, but he was clearly not fucking around. Not that War was either, he just had a looser countenance about him. While he'd be grinning at one of them, he was also busy checking out the surroundings and shadowing Tris with expert precision. And then, well, there was Shane. He never took his eyes off her for one second. Not once. But his peripheral vision was excellent because he always seemed to know how to move her out of the way of something.

  All she needed was a good run, then she'd feel better.

  Xia stretched beside her.

  "You know you didn't have to come. I have Van Damme behind me, so I'm good."

  Tom smirked at the Van Damme reference, then said, "I'm German not Belgian."

  "Whatever,” Tris muttered.

  Since she was running more, she'd been instructed to vary her route and the lengths, sometimes combining parts of other runs. That way, whoever was following her couldn't track her. And she left her cell phone at home so she couldn't be tracked that way.

  They headed out along the border close to campus, and Tom jogged easily beside her with Xia on the other side. Her bestie talked about class and the upcoming paper, and it was a relief to talk about something normal. They made it down to Mission Bay, and she opted to take a short cut to run around and come back.

  She turned to a side street, and goose bumps appeared on her skin. Before she knew what was happening, both Tom and Xia fell to the ground convulsing. Tom recovered faster, but something unseen caused him to convulse again and then something sprayed in his face.

  Tris turned to whip aout a kick, but the person caught her leg. He had a mask on, but something about him was oddly familiar when he spoke.

  "Get in the fucking car, or the next thing I hit them with won't be a tazer."

  She looked down at his belt and saw the butt of the gun. The hot flush of anger was quickly doused with ice cold, numb fear. She nodded.

  Horrified, she watched as he kicked a now unconscious Tom in the kidney then tied his hands behind his back.

  "Stop it. You don't have to hurt him."

  "I have to make sure he stays down. Don’t want him following us."

  Tris glanced back at Xia, her thin body just lying on the sidewalk. "No. I'm not leaving her like this. At least let me call her an ambulance. You let me do that, and I'll come willingly. I'll do whatever you want."

  He waved the gun in Tom's direction as he dragged her to his black SUV and handed her zip ties. "You already will. Now tie yourself up."

  The fear she'd worked so hard to banish returned with a vengeance as she worried about her friend. She knew no one would be coming to find her. There was no way to track her. No one would be looking for her for hours. But Tris didn't have a choice. If she insisted, this lunatic would kill her friend. "Fine. Right." Just don't hurt my friends.

  8

  "Where is she?"

  Shane burst through the doors of the ER. War had called him as soon a he'd heard. The asshole had taken Tris. Tom and Xia were at the hospital and were being treated for injuries. Who the hell was this asshole that he'd gotten past Tom?

  While his colleague had been sedated, Xia was up and cursing up a storm. Shane could hear her the farther down the hall he went.

  When he got to her room, Caleb stood outside, shaking his head. "Xia, you have to understand, we're trying to help."

  "You know what? I like your fiancée and have a great deal of respect for her, but you can go fuck yourself. I'll only talk to Shane."

  He wasn't in the mood to laugh, but Xia had a way. "You can ease up on his balls, Xia, I'm here."

  Her normally vibrant skin looked sallow, and her hair hung in limp hanks around her face.

  "Lover boy, at last. Can you tell your boss man here that first of all, I'm okay and that I need to go after my friend? And that secondly, I'm not a fucking invalid?" The last part she said on a scream.

  "Yeah, I will. Just as soon as you tell me what happened."

  She wiped her hair out of her face. "It's like I told the cops—we were on a run. Tris made the route up as we went along. Tom was on one side of her, and I was on the other, but then out of nowhere, I get hit with this pain. I thought I was gonna die. All I remember after that was, Tom going down, but he didn't go down easy. So the guy shot him again, then fucking pepper sprayed him. After that, all I saw was black."

  "Think, Xia, do you remember anything at all that can give us a clue to who he is."

  "Height, around six feet, his hands were darker complexion. Maybe Middle Eastern? Or just a tanned white dude. Trim, in shape."

  "Any identifying marks?"

  She shook her head. "No. But he had this ring. On his pinky. Like a class ring or insignia."

  Shane frowned as something pricked his memory. "Do you think you can draw it?"

  She widened her eyes. "I can try."

  Caleb handed her a pen and a pad. She scribbled something on the paper then handed it back to them.

  Shane's heart hammered as cold fury settled in his veins. "I've seen this ring before."

  9

  Shane slid Caleb a look as they made their way to the security office at the Westhorpe. Alec had been kind enough to give them a suite to use since it was family and all. Too bad Shane was about to get blood on his expensive carpets.

  Roland opened the door, and his brows snapped down over his eyes. "Has there been a development? Has she been fou—"

  Shane didn't give him the opportunity to finish, instead, he delivered a straight punch to the guy's nose. He barely registered the crunching noise it made before he moved in closer and delivered an elbow to the face.

  With forward movement on his side and Roland stumbling backward, Shane advanced. Using both hands, he clamped them around the nape of the larger man's neck, pinning his head down, then delivering a knee strike to the diaphragm. The red haze of fury blurred Shane's vision. All along, this man had known what they were dealing with. He was supposed to care about Tris. Was supposed to protect her. Instead, because of him, she'd lived in so
me state of fear for the last several years.

  Anger spiking again, Shane hooked his thumbs in Roland's eye sockets and forced his head back, then delivered another straight punch to his larynx. Roland crumpled to the ground, choking and wheezing.

  Behind him, Shane could hear Caleb moving, but he didn't give a shit. Not once did his uncle try to stop him. He didn't intervene, just hung back calmly while Shane worked out some of his frustration.

  What he wanted to do was keep beating the guy. What he wanted to do was wrap his fucking hands around his neck and squeeze until Roland's eyes went flat. But he needed Roland to tell him what his brother had done with Tris.

  Shane kneeled down to his crumpled body. "Now, I'm pretty sure you're in a bit of pain and it probably hurts like a son of a bitch to talk, but I'm going to implore you to find some strength to tell me where the fuck she is.”

  Still clutching at his throat, Roland shook his head.

  Shane took hold of his hand, then isolated a finger. "Roland, you're pissing me off, man, and given that I'm considering killing you and leaving your body in some canyon for coyotes to find, that's probably not the best idea you've ever had."

  Roland rolled on the floor again, away from Shane. The ice-cold fury that settled into Shane's veins was far more dangerous than the blind, hot fury. This way, he didn't feel a thing. Didn't care. He had one goal—find Tris. And he would do what he needed to find her. Without even blinking, he wrenched Roland's finger from the socket. "Tell me where he has her." His voice was low, flat, unemotional.

  Roland found his voice then, screaming, writhing, trying to pull his hand back, but Shane only tightened his grip on the second digit. "Roland, did you know I stuttered when I was a kid? My dad saw it as a sign of weakness and beat it out of me. I hated getting beatings. Right now, you're making me feel like I stuttered." He leaned close. "Where. Is. Tris?"

  Roland muttered hoarsely, and Shane wrenched another finger loose. This time, there was no screaming, only a moan. He didn't have time for this shit. The longer Roland held his tongue, the longer Tris was in danger. He went for another finger, and he felt the hand on his shoulder.

  He wasn't a fan of touching, but there was something calming about Caleb's hand.

  "That's enough, Shane, he'll tell us what we need to know." Caleb turned his attention to the weakened man. "Isn't that right, Roland? Because if you don’t, I'll join Shane here and start working with your other hand. So quit sniveling, sit up, and tell us what we need to know."

  Roland pushed himself into a sitting position and scooted back against the wall, cradling his injured hand. "I swear, I don’t know. I've been trying to find Saul. But I have nothing. His cell is off. And he's not answering his radio. I swear. I didn't think he'd do anything like this."

  Shane lunged for him again. This time, Caleb stepped in his way. He shook his head slightly then kneeled in front of Roland. "You better think hard, man. He's already hurt her once. If that girl dies, Shane will be the least of your problems."

  Roland had one eye swollen shut and the other lid lowered half way. With his half-good eye, he slid a glance between the two of them. "I—wait. A few weeks ago, when Tris went skydiving with her friends, out east, he was on watch. There was an abandoned house near the jump site where he observed from. I couldn't find him last Wednesday, so I pinged his phone. He'd gone back there. When I asked him about it, he said there was something suspicious he wanted to investigate further. I didn't think he'd find anything.”

  Caleb's voice was calm. "Coordinates. Now."

  Roland pointed at the computer. "It's all there."

  Shane wasted no time pulling up the logs from the last two weeks. He hadn't been on that day, but War had. He'd know what angles they were dealing with. Tom was still recovering, so he couldn't go as back up. He turned to Caleb. "War was on."

  "We'll call him on the way."

  Shane nodded in Roland's direction. "What are we doing with him?"

  "Why? You still in the mood to kick his ass?"

  He was still in the mood, but what he needed right now was Tris. He could finish rearranging Roland's face later. "Yeah, but not now."

  "We'll also call Tris's dad on the way. I'm pretty sure you'll have a long line of people waiting to deliver an ass handing."

  Once they were back in the car, Shane swallowed hard then muttered, "Thanks."

  Caleb frowned. "For what?"

  "You know for stopping me, b-before I could kill him."

  Caleb shook his head. "Breaking his fingers wasn't going to kill him."

  "I know, but thank you. I wasn't sure I could stop myself."

  The other man sighed. "You are not your old man. I know you. You just need some faith in yourself."

  Shane shrugged. "He's not the one I want to kill anyway."

  "Don’t worry, we'll find her."

  Shane prayed he was right.

  10

  Pain. That's all Tris could register at first, like a million elephants kicking inside her skull, desperate to push themselves out. Slowly she became more aware of her surroundings. Filthy room, a basement maybe? She blinked hard, trying to get her eyes to focus. Little slivers of light pierced boards on the walls. Okay, so not a basement, but somewhere dark.

  She tried to move toward one of those slivers of light, but quickly learned moving wasn’t really an option. First, that shit hurt. Every one of her muscles had something to say about any attempt. Secondly, the fucker had her hands tied behind her back.

  She tried to inhale but immediately thought better of it. It stank. The smell of exhaust permeated the tiny room. Her stomach quivered then convulsed several times.

  No. Keep it together, Tris. Stay calm. Do not vomit all over yourself. You have survived worse. Yeah, she had...just barely. Nearby, she heard a plane take off. Or was that a landing? An airstrip maybe?

  Despite the pain, she rolled her head in the direction of the voice she recognized. Her first attempt at talking didn't exactly go as planned. All she managed was a weird croaking sound. The second attempt went better. "Okay, Saul, you want to explain how me, tied up in some God forsaken room is my fault? Especially since you're the one who brought me here? Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren’t you supposed to be protecting me?"

  "I am protecting you. Why can’t you see that?"

  She forced her lips to curve into a wry smile. "I think you and I probably need to review the job description. You got that shit all wrong. The idea is you put yourself between a bullet and your charge. Not act as the bullet."

  He pitched something into the corner, and she ground her teeth, forcing herself not to flinch. Show no fear. Be brave. Be bold. He was going to kill her...and she was going out swinging.

  "You did this!" His voice boomed off the walls.

  "I kidnapped myself? And let me guess, you're here to rescue me. Just like all those years ago when you found me in the woods? You'll forgive me if I call bullshit. For starters, I would have kidnapped myself in a better outfit."

  "Shut up. Shut up!"

  Even though it pained her, and all she wanted to do was pop her head off and stick it in a freezer, she lifted it to glare at him. "No. I will not shut up. You kidnapped me. You have to deal with me picking at you, asshole."

  He advanced on her, shoulders heaving. "I swear to God if you don't shut up, I will tape your mouth shut. Then you won't be able to breathe."

  She jutted her chin out. "I thought this was about sex, Saul? I didn't take you for being a freak job, but hey, if you're into necrophilia...this is the part where I would say no judgment, but you and I both know, I'm gonna have to judge you for that."

  The full weight of his fist knocked her head to the side, and her vision blurred. Do not black out. Fight, Tris. Stay conscious. If she was conscious and yelling at him, then he wouldn't be too enthusiastic about raping her. At least that was her deduction. Even though the bile rose, she swallowed hard and held onto her wits. It didn’t matter that pain made her skull feel like it was shatter
ing into a million pieces. She had to stay sharp.

  "Do you see what you made me do?"

  Her jaw ached, but most of the pain was along her cheekbone. "You make your own choices, Saul. You chose to hit me. I didn't make you do anything."

  He shook his head. "You didn't have to be here."

  "Then what am I doing here? I should safely be on a run with Tom and Xia. You brought me here—what do you want?"

  He reached a hand out, and this time, she couldn’t help flinching as he ran the back of his finger over her bruised cheekbone. "I just want to show you how much I love you."

  "Here's a little hint about love: you can't force someone to be with you. There's another word for that."

  His eyes bugged, and he sputtered as he spoke. "That was not my idea. If I had known, I never would have allowed Matt to take you that first time. I thought he shared my love for you."

  "So what? You assholes were going to share me?"

  "No. No. No. I was never going to let him touch you. I just knew he was obsessed with you, and I understood, but you were always supposed to be mine. I've known you since we were kids. But you didn't want me."

  "Maybe you can understand why."

  He balled his hand into a fist again, and she met the challenge of his gaze. "Go ahead, hit me. Kill me. You're gonna have to. It's the only way this is gonna go down."

  "Why would you let him touch you? I don't understand. I waited for you. I thought once you were in school and you didn't have my brother watching over you, you'd finally give me the time of day. You were finally old enough. Finally over the trauma of what happened. Instead, you slept with him. A complete stranger. That makes you a whore."

  "No. That makes me a woman who knew what I wanted."

  "If you had just stayed away from him, none of this would have happened. I would have given you time to get used to the idea of us again. It would have made sense. But you fucked him."