by Jo Davis
“You’re still wearing that stupid shirt.” Even whispering hurt.
Rio gave a sad laugh. “Yeah, it’s hideous. I just wore it last night to get to you.”
“I know.” Joaquin’s eyes searched the room, and he frowned. “Where’s Anna?”
His brother swallowed hard. “She’s not here right now.”
Something about the way he said that made Joaquin’s blood go cold. “Where?”
“She’s, um, missing, bro.”
He tried to sit up, but the pain drove him down again. “What? Tell me!”
“She went outside to wait for the ambulance after you were poisoned. She didn’t come back,” Rio said miserably.
“Why would she go outside?”
“Santos sent her.” That statement said it all.
“He had his men take her,” he rasped. “As insurance.”
“That’s what everyone thinks, but there’s no proof he was involved. Especially since he was right next to you on the floor, making a big show of helping out.”
“Alibi.”
“Yeah.”
“I’m going to kill him.”
“You’ll have to wait in line.”
“No. Santos is mine,” he informed his brother, rage fueling his recovery. The need for revenge would be his sole reason for getting out of this bed long before anyone thought he could.
“All right, agreed. But we’re going to need more help than our men can give. We need something big to bring him down, and it has to be legal.”
“I said I’m going to—”
“Kill him. I know, but it has to be done right. Santos has to be drawn out, into our web. Our actions must be above reproach. The question is, who do we turn to?”
The obvious solution was staring him in the face, and it just about killed him to admit it. But he did, however, because Anna’s life depended on it. She was counting on him.
“Grayson Sloane.”
His brother stared at him, then nodded. “I hate to get the feds in here, but that’s the best choice. They’ll help us if we help them.”
“Did I hear my name?”
Joaquin looked to the doorway, where the agent stood grim-faced. “That was fast.”
“I received a report about the attempt on your life and I got here as soon as I could.”
“For once, I’m glad. We need you here.” Admitting that was hard.
Gray glanced around, nodded at Rio, then met Joaquin’s gaze again. “Where’s Anna?”
He paused. “The person responsible for trying to kill me has taken her.”
“What?” Gray shouted, taking a menacing step toward the bed. Rio placed himself in the agent’s path, hand on his chest, but that didn’t halt his rage. “I warned you this would happen! But you just had to impress her, be the big man, didn’t you? You dragged her into your shit and got her caught in the crossfire, just like I knew you would!”
“I didn’t know it would go down like this!” Joaquin shouted back. “I never thought she would be taken!”
“Well, congratulations,” the agent sneered. “You were wrong. How did this happen? Who is it? I’ll fucking kill him!”
“We believe it was Deno Santos, but I don’t have proof. We have to get her back before he does something bad to her.” The image of what the sick fuck could be doing to her even now was almost too much to bear.
“Jesus Christ.” Jaw clenching, Gray glanced away. His fist closed, and he looked about two seconds from punching the wall. “I’ll make some calls.”
Relief hit Joaquin hard. “Thank you.”
“I’m not doing this for you, you stupid motherfucker. I’m doing this for Anna.”
“I don’t care. We just have to find her.”
“We will—and then Santos is going to pay.”
“Goddamn right he will.”
Gray stalked from the room. Joaquin and Rio sat without talking, one thought chasing itself around and around in Joaquin’s exhausted brain.
They were going to find Anna, safe and sound. And then he was going to castrate Santos with a dull knife and feed his balls to the dogs.
God have mercy on that bastard’s soul.
Because Joaquin would have none as the fucker’s screams faded into death.
She’s torn between two irresistible lovers …
RAW or RISKY?
You can help her choose!
Your vote will decide who wins Anna’s heart! Are you #TeamGrayson or #TeamJoaquin?
Voting will be live between 19 November 2013 and 10 December 2013. Visit www.facebook.com/eternalromance for information.
And don’t miss REWARDED in March 2014 when Anna picks her hero!
Keep reading for a sneak peek at Book 3
in the TORN BETWEEN TWO LOVERS trilogy
Available from Headline Eternal March 2014
1
A rumbling noise and bouncing motion rattled Anna Claire’s brain, pulling her from a deep well of unconsciousness
She came to painful awareness of the stiff carpeting underneath her cheek, the sickening stale odor of motor oil and God knows what else permeating it. But the smell wasn’t as bad as the constant jarring of her head against what she suddenly recalled was the floor of a moving vehicle.
What exactly—
Kidnapped.
Oh, God!
The memory came rushing back to her, the awful truth of what had happened. She had been staying with Joaquin Delacruz at his estate, and her new lover had thrown a party in hopes of swaying the last of his late father’s cronies to the legitimate side of business.
The party started out a success, and then took a drastic turn for the worse. Cold seized her guts as she recalled Joaquin smiling and talking one moment—and the next, he was tumbling to the floor, struggling to breathe.
Poison, he had gasped.
Her handsome lover needed help, fast, and she’d been desperate to do something. So when Deno Santos had sent her outside to wait for the paramedics and bring them to Joaquin, she’d bought his ploy.
Before she could process what happened, she’d been grabbed, thrown into a van, and drugged. How much time had passed since then? Was Joaquin all right?
What were they planning to do to her when they got her to where they were going?
Fear coursed through her as she took stock of her situation. She was lying on her side, wrists bound behind her back, thick tape over her mouth. Her head was still pounding, probably from the drug they’d pumped her with, but otherwise she seemed unharmed. That could change very soon.
Desperately she tried to recall what Joaquin and his brother Rio had said about Santos and his men. Santos was old school, set in his ways when it came to his illegal dealings, unwilling to accept change of any kind. He had become suspicious of Joaquin’s efforts to legitimize his businesses; more than that, he was afraid, as so many were, that Joaquin was preparing to turn on them, give them up to the FBI.
Joaquin had said that he only wanted to clean up his own businesses, not rat on theirs; he had no intention of cooperating with the authorities. But that wasn’t reassurance enough for Santos. He’d obviously decided to take Anna as some sort of leverage
After wriggling to sit upright, she leaned against the van’s hull and sent up a prayer that Joaquin was okay. On the heels of that thought, however, came the knowledge of what would happen if he was, in fact, alive. Her lover had made no secret of the fact that he could be a ruthless man when crossed, and she knew he would move heaven and earth to exact his vengeance for Deno’s actions.
He’d find her. She was sure of that. The question was, would he locate her in time?
With trepidation, she studied the interior of the van. It was stark, just a shell inside, with a partition between her and the men she assumed were in the front. It was so much like a cage, she wondered how many victims they’d transported like this, bound and helpless. Maybe dead. She had to cut off that line of thinking or she’d be carried away by fear.
Closing her e
yes, she let herself be lulled by the van’s motion—only to realize what a false sense of security it had been once the vehicle stopped. As long as they’d been moving, she was safe. Now the terror set in as she heard the men get out, shutting the van’s doors. Some footsteps moved away, while another set came to the side door and slid it open.
A man stood there grinning at her, his face illuminated by the interior light. She was vaguely surprised at his nondescript appearance, and thought he could’ve been an average Joe working an office job somewhere instead of a thug in the employ of a mobster.
“Sleeping Beauty is awake, eh? You were supposed to sleep a while longer, not that it matters.”
She suppressed a shudder, trying not to imagine why it didn’t. Instead, she leveled him with a glare that expressed the anger she couldn’t voice with her mouth taped shut. It only served to make him laugh, which pissed her off even more. He just reached in, grabbed her ankles, and hauled her out the door, causing her to fall backward and smack her head on the floor of the vehicle. She slid helplessly out and onto hard pavement, letting out a muffled cry as her tailbone took the brunt of the drop and her bound arms were scraped raw.
The man let her feet go and she fought to sit up, then raised her gaze to find herself the subject of plenty of amusement. The man who’d dragged her from the van was joined by two other men, one portly with a barrel-sized middle. And the third man …
Anna’s breath caught in her throat. The tall man staring down at her with cold eyes was anything but average-looking. He was built like a pro quarterback and bald as a cue ball. He was a handsome man, dark brows arching over those calculating eyes, his jaw square, mouth unlined as though his face had never learned how to smile.
“I am Petrov,” he told her in a cool, Russian-accented voice. “For the moment, you are a house guest of Deno Santos.”
She snorted, making it clear what she thought of the word guest.
Petrov went on, completely unperturbed. “Enjoy your stay while you can. Because when Santos has no more need of your presence, I will make you wish for death.”
He paused, to let that sink in.
“And then I will grant your wish.”
***
Joaquin Delacruz never thought he’d see the day when he’d beg for the FBI’s help—especially when that involved working with Special Agent Grayson Sloane.
For years, the man had nursed a burning desire to see Joaquin behind bars. He’d hunted for evidence that Joaquin was crooked with a dogged determination that he would have admired under any other circumstances. Hell, he might even have hired the man as a bodyguard.
But Sloane hated him with a passion, now more than ever. Especially since the agent had fucked up his relationship with Anna and driven her to run.
Straight into his arms. Privately, Joaquin had worried that she’d return to her former lover … and then the unthinkable happened.
Joaquin had lost her to an even more lethal enemy.
Rio had cautioned him against bringing Anna into their world, and he hadn’t listened to his brother. Now she was paying the price.
Burying his hands in his hair, he paced his study, unaware of the door opening until Henry got his attention.
“Boss, the feds are here.” The bodyguard’s voice revealed none of his distaste for their presence, considering they were right on his heels. The big man stepped aside to admit Rio, Sloane and another man Joaquin had never met before.
“Have you had any contact with Santos?” Sloane asked by way of greeting.
“The bastard’s not returning my calls.”
“Big surprise there. He wants to make you suffer.”
The agent was suffering, too, if the grooves around his mouth and the shadows underneath his eyes were any indication. Joaquin almost felt sorry for him. But Sloane had missed out on his chance with Anna, had in fact betrayed and hurt her. Seeing her safe was the only reward the agent was going to get.
“Where would Santos take Anna?” the second agent asked.
Joaquin shifted his gaze to the dark-haired man. “And you are?”
“Special Agent Simon King.”
Joaquin nodded in acknowledgement. “In answer to your question, he could’ve taken her anywhere by now. The man has ties all over the world.”
“He could have, but is that his style?” Sloane pressed. “Would he expend that much effort if he didn’t need to? After all, his goal is simple—to keep you in check and under the mob’s thumb. Or rather, his thumb.”
“Anna is his leverage,” Rio mused. “But why try to kill you, in that case?”
Joaquin’s jaw clenched in frustration. “That was Santos grandstanding, sending me a giant fuck you on my own turf. Letting me and everyone else know he did it because he can. If he had meant to kill me, I’d be dead right now.”
“So, this leads us to search, where?” Grayson snapped.
Joaquin paused, considering. “Santos has businesses and warehouses around the city. He’s even ballsy enough to take her to his estate.”
“Where is that located?”
“East of here, about ten miles.”
“Guards?”
Joaquin let out a humorless laugh. “Are you kidding? His place is like Fort Knox. We’d be shot if we got within a mile of the house.”
“First of all, there’s no we in that scenario,” Sloane said curtly. “Simon and I could get together a team, make entry, and extract her before they know what’s happening. The other option is for you to make contact, play along, do as he demands. Then we set up a meet to exchange Anna for ransom.”
“Santos doesn’t need cash,” Joaquin said, shaking his head.
“Then what would he want more than anything?”
“Unbelievable.” He snorted and glanced at Rio, who rolled his eyes at their stupidity. “Did you get your badge from a box of cereal, Sloane? What the hell do you think he desires above all else? A large chunk of my businesses.”
Simon spoke up. “The illegal ones?”
Joaquin hesitated. This was where things could get dicey. He needed their help to rescue Anna, but if he admitted exactly which of his businesses Santos coveted, that would be as good as an admission of guilt. Leaning against his desk, he affected a casual pose and tried to appear collected. Right.
“Let’s say I owned an import company that wasn’t exactly on the up and up, as well as a marijuana-growing operation, both of which I’m phasing out. All hypothetical, of course.”
“Of course.” Sloane grinned, a predatory gleam in his eyes.
“And let’s further say that Santos would do just about anything to get control of them, lock, stock and barrel. That might just be enough to get him to agree to release Anna.”
Sloane crossed his arms over his broad chest, hope flickering across his face. “That might do it.”
“It could work. But I have to ask what’s in this plan for the FBI? I know you’re doing it because you still have feelings for Anna, but what does the FBI want from me?”
Sloane narrowed his eyes. “We want Santos. He’s a much bigger fish than you.”
“Thanks,” he said dryly.
“You get him to go for it. Set up the meet to officially hand over your operations to him, and I accompany you posing as your attorney. After the transfer of ownership, our team descends and hauls his ass to jail. His house of cards comes down in the aftermath.”
Joaquin braced himself for the rest. “And mine, too. That’s what you’ve always wanted, isn’t it? To see me burn?”
Sloane was silent for a long moment, and when he spoke, his answer shocked Joaquin. “It used to be, back when I didn’t buy that you were phasing out your father’s illegal dealings. I truly believed there was no way you could break out of the mob, even if you wanted to.”
“And what changed your mind?” he asked quietly.
“I’ve been talking with Rio. Your brother showed me a bunch of interesting documents dating back at least five years. Records of sales of your fath
er’s businesses, your decreasing revenue from those fronts, along with the increasing earnings from your casino and hotel, which I believe to be legit.”
Joaquin glanced at his brother, who nodded. He turned his attention back to Sloane. “It is.”
“The evidence is there. I didn’t choose a career in the FBI to put men like you in prison, but men like Santos. Men who will never stop pushing drugs, the sex trade, illegal imports, and anything else that could conceivably make them loads of money, fast. Men who kidnap and commit murder to get what they want.”
“What are you saying?” God, he was afraid to hope. Maybe there was a way out after all.
“I’m making an offer. Give us Santos on a platter, caught red-handed with proof of his criminal empire, and you walk away from all of it. The FBI won’t darken your door again.”
Joaquin fought to keep his voice level as Rio gaped in shock. “You’re not serious.”
“Completely. The businesses will be shut down, and you’ll be free of them, as you claim to want.”
“The other families will know I rolled over on Santos to get Anna back.”
Sloane flinched almost imperceptibly. Perhaps at the mention of Anna back with him, rather than Sloane. “We’ll try to minimize your participation, but yeah. They’ll probably figure it out. But he did harm to a woman, someone you care for. That will hold a lot of weight with the other families. Mess with the women and your life isn’t worth shit.”
“True.” For the first time since waking up in the hospital just hours before, he felt real hope.
“Are you in?”
Joaquin studied both men, took a deep breath. “To have Anna returned safely, I’d give all that I own, every last dime. Of course I’m in.”
Both the agents looked relieved. Sloane, however, wasn’t finished. “Good. But if this goes south and you doublecross us, get any of our men or Anna hurt, I’ll save the public a trial. We clear?”
“Perfectly.” He gave Sloane a cold smile. “Same goes. Doublecross me or get Anna hurt, and there won’t be anywhere on the planet you can hide from me. Got that?”
“Yeah. We understand each other.”
