by Susan Hayes
“No, I think we need to have this conversation right now.” Simon lunged, slamming his body into the back of her chair and effectively pinning her up against the desk.
Pain flared across her midsection as the edge of the desk bit into her ribcage and knocked the breath out of her. Gray and black spots danced in her vision as she took several gasping breaths to try and refill her burning lungs. Before she could get her breath back enough to even scream, Simon had a fistful of her hair and yanked her head back and then jammed something into her open mouth.
Lexa was still struggling for air and nearly choked on whatever he’d forced between her teeth but when she tried to spit it out he clamped a hand over her mouth and nose, preventing her from breathing at all.
“Swallow it, bitch. For once will you fucking well do what you are told?”
He tightened his grip on her hair and the gray spots changed to blinding red and white lights and then back again as she fought for a breath that would not come. Panicked and hurting she finally bit down and was surprised when the familiar taste of a jelly candy hit her tongue.
Why the hell is he forcing me to eat candy?
He removed his hand from her mouth the moment she swallowed and she sucked in a desperate breath. The hold on her hair eased the slightest bit and her chest heaved as she gasped in several lungfuls of air. The gray spots faded from her vision and she finally noticed the pain of her bruised ribs was bad enough to making breathing uncomfortable. Great.
“What the fuck are you doing and what did you make me swallow, you bastard?” She opted to ignore the pain and try to get some answers while she was waiting for a chance to get away from him. Either he would keep her here until she found a way to get to her cell and dial 9-1-1, or Beau and Diego would come back to the house and find her note. No matter what happened there was no way in hell she was going anywhere with him.
“You’ve ruined everything for me with your snooping and your questions, you stupid bitch. Everything was going perfectly and then Sam had to go find you and bring you back here so you could poke your nose into things that didn’t fucking well concern you!” Simon yanked on her hair and Lexa bit back a whimper of pain.
“This is about the boats going out at night, isn’t it?” she demanded, focusing on her anger at being manhandled rather than the pain he was causing her. Anger she could use, but fear and pain were not going to help her, so she didn’t let herself dwell on them.
“Yes, it’s about the boats. We had a sweet setup here, and you’ve fucked it all up. You should have done what I told you and left the marina to me. I liked you, sexy little Lexy. We could have had a good time together, but you had to screw everything up. Bad enough you were a nosy bitch, but you had to go and fuck those two cops and bring them sniffing around, too.”
“You were using the marina for something illegal, is that it? And buddy, there was never any chance of us having any kind of fun together. You seriously need to work on your people skills if you think this is any way to get a date.”
“Well I liked you before I found out you were just another island whore. You’re fucking two men and no one seems to care around this perverted place! You’re all twisted fucking freaks. I wouldn’t touch you now if you begged me. And when you find out how your day’s going to end, you might do just that.”
“Big talk,” Lexa snarled and twisted her neck so she could glare at him. “But I don’t see how you’re getting me out of here.”
“Oh that’s easy, sexy Lexy.” He leered down at her and the darkness in his eyes made her go cold inside. “You’re going to be real happy to do whatever I say pretty soon. I could fuck you right over this desk and you’d thank me for it afterward.”
“That’s never going to fucking happen!”
“It will, just as soon as that shit I gave you starts to kick in. Should be any minute now. That’s my own special stash, it works nice and quick. Didn’t your momma tell you not to take candy from strangers?”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Panic surged through her at the idea that she’d been drugged and would soon be helpless. She needed to be able to take advantage when he made a mistake because she knew that whatever he had in mind, she didn’t want to stick around and find out the details.
“Didn’t your cop fuck-buddies tell you about the case they’re working on?” Lexa shook her head. The guys had never talked about their current cases with her, it would have violated all of the rules, but just this once she wished they’d made an exception so she had a clue about what was going on.
“I’ve been making a killing importing drugs to this perverted paradise for months now and your boys in blue haven’t had a clue who was doing it. Well, not until tonight anyway. You must have told them about the rental boats, bitch, because they ran my name through the mainland computers and my fucking idiot brother-in-law dropped the ball on shoring up my alias.
So I have to bug out and leave this lucrative market behind, and what do I find sitting in my fucking office? You. Messing with the GPS software. Fucking up my day again. I am so tired of you and the grief you’re causing me.”
“You’re right, I did tell them,” Lexa lied. “They’re going to figure the rest out any minute now, and when they do you’re going to want to be long gone, so just leave me ‘n’ go away.” Her last few words came out as a mumbled slur.
“Right on time,” Simon sneered at her. “How you feeling now?”
Words tumbled around Lexa’s brain like shiny bubbles but she couldn’t seem to make her mouth work well enough to say anything. Instead she made a contented humming noise that was completely at odds to the screaming panic she was feeling deep down in the only part of her mind that still seemed to work properly.
“Yeah, I thought so. That’s good stuff. You’re going to be a very happy camper for the next while, more than long enough for what I have in mind.” Simon jerked her chair back a foot or so and spun it around, his hand still in her hair. The motion of the chair sent her senses whirling and Lexa felt the last bits of her awareness unravel as a wave of euphoria enveloped her and made it impossible to think clearly. The pain from her ribs and scalp faded away and she felt disconnected and adrift from everything around her.
When Simon pulled her up out of the chair she didn’t fight him, and even the rough way he tugged at her hair as if it were a leash didn’t bother her too much. He groped her ass for a second and she felt him pull her cell phone out of her pocket. He tossed it on the desk and she reached for it, but he shook her hard enough her teeth clicked together.
“Leave the phone. Come on, bitch. We’re leaving,” he snapped at her and guided her toward the door. She followed, feeling like a balloon on a string, floating along behind him.
Somewhere in the back of her mind a thought niggled and a tiny voice screamed in protest, but it was so hard to think and so much easier to just drift. As she followed him down to the docks she had one last thought, that whatever it was she’d forgotten couldn’t have been that important, or she wouldn’t have forgotten it. Maybe she’d remember after they got back from the boat ride.
Chapter 16
When Beau saw the name at the top of the printout his heart twisted and a flood of adrenaline hit his system. Simon Johnson, aka John Simons. “Son of a fucking bitch.” he swore and shoved the paper that had been sitting in his inbox at Diego. He didn’t bother to explain, he just unlocked the top drawer of his desk, took out his weapon and started putting on the shoulder holster.
“We need to call Lexa.” Diego let the report drop as he scrambled to get his own weapon.
“I got it. I’ll tell her to lock the doors and stay inside. She’s been working with that slime for weeks though, so I don’t think she’s in any immediate danger.”
Diego shot him a look that could have boiled oil. “Immediate danger or not, she’s not fucking safe. Call her!”
“Chill! I’m calling.” Beau hit speed dial and listened with a deepening sense of worry as the phone rang and f
inally went to voice mail.
“Hey, cher. I need you to do me a favor and go make sure all your doors and windows are locked, and then keep that cute ass of yours inside until we get there. And when you get this message, call me right back, okay?”
He ended the call and glanced up just in time to see Diego’s broad back disappearing out the door. Shit. He sprinted after his partner.
They covered the short distance to the marina in record time, and Beau just stared at his phone the entire time, praying Lexa would call. As much as he wanted to call in to the station and get more bodies out to the marina, he knew that at the moment all either of them had was a phone going to voice mail and a very bad feeling, and neither of those was justification for a “calling all cars” scenario.
He was out the car door before Diego even had the engine off and within seconds he was at Lexa’s front door, tearing at the note stuffed under the heavy brass door knocker.
“Note says she’s at the office.” Beau called out and looked to the marina building. The lights in the office were on, but there was no one there.
“She’s not there!” Diego howled with fury and took off at a run with Beau only a few yards behind him. How the fuck had things gone so wrong, so fast?
They were both calling for Lexa the whole way down to the office, and by the time they arrived at the empty office they both knew without a doubt that she wasn’t anywhere nearby. The door was unlocked, and her cell phone sat on the desk in plain view. Fuck. She’d never leave her phone behind and the office unlocked.
“Call it in,” he barked at Diego. “Get everyone down here and get dispatch to find that bastard’s address for us right fucking now.”
“And what? Wait for them to check the house without us?” Diego snarled, his body so tense Beau was surprised he wasn’t tearing the walls down with his bare hands just for something to do.
“No. We’re not waiting. He’s not stupid, if he’s got Lexa he didn’t take her back to his house. My bet is he’s making a run for it. So move your big, angry ass out of my way and let me check the computer while you make the call. Then we’ll go down to the docks and see if any of the rental boats are missing.”
“She’s out there alone with a drug dealer,” Diego said and his voice was edged with ice. “If he’s so much as touched her…”
“Don’t go there. If we even think about it we’re going to lose it and then we’re going to be too angry to think clearly. We need to keep our shit together or Jackson won’t even let us go out there to look for her, he’ll order our asses back to the station if he thinks we’re a liability.”
“Or if he figures out I’ll happily kill the fucker when I get my hands on him.”
“Yeah, or that. Make the damned call.”
Diego grabbed his cell and stepped out of Beau’s way, heading out of the small office to give Beau quiet to work. He sat down behind the desk and turned on the monitor, and as a large online map appeared on the monitor he had his first moment of hope since Lexa hadn’t answered her phone. The rental boats were apparently all rigged with GPS locators. Now all he had to do was figure out if any of them were missing. He grabbed a scrap of paper and a pen and started noting which boats were showing as still being in the harbor.
By the time Diego came back into the office Beau was staring at the screen, all his earlier hopes rapidly cooling to ash. There was a boat missing from the rental dock all right. The trouble was it was missing from the map too.
“Good news is the boats have GPS beacons. Bad news is the bastard apparently knew that and he turned the fucking thing off. I can’t find him.” Beau threw the pen he’d been writing with against the wall with enough force it broke in two.
“You sure the boat’s actually gone?” Diego asked and Beau swore. “Fuck. No. You’re right, it could just be turned off and sitting there. At least I know which one it is, come on, let’s go double check while we wait for everyone else to show up.”
* * * *
The wind whipped around her hard enough to bring tears to Lexa’s eyes, and that was the first real sensation she’d had since the drug had stolen her mind and her will. It was good to feel anything again, and she clung to the simple sensation of warm tears tracking down her cold cheeks and the ache of her bruised ribs. It was still hard to think clearly, but each minute that passed brought her a little more clarity.
Not that she let Simon know that. She was careful to keep her face slack and her eyes locked on the bow of the boat as it leapt through the waves, though it was hard not to cringe at the way he was speeding into the pitch black night. If a log or anything else was floating in their path there was no way that the hull of the eighteen foot cuddy runabout they were on would survive the impact.
Simon was standing at the wheel, his eyes locked on the small expanse of water illuminated by the boat’s running lights and his fingers drumming a staccato beat on the instrument panel. He had only moved once in the time Lexa had been watching him, and that was to check his watch and then glance down at a portion of a chart taped to the panel.
She had no idea how long she’d been out of it, but judging by how cold she was she knew it must have been at least half an hour if not more. An icy dread filled Lexa’s stomach as she considered just how far away from the island they must be by now. Had the guys even realized she was missing yet? It was impossible to guess.
Simon referred to the watch and the chart again and Lexa realized he was navigating without using the GPS, which was far more difficult and made no sense unless—shit. He’d turned it off to avoid having anyone use it to find them. She was really on her own. Miles off shore without so much as a clue as to which direction they’d gone in, there was no way anyone was going to be coming to her rescue.
A radio crackled and she nearly gave herself away when she startled, but Simon was too startled himself to notice her jump in her seat.
“The Pieman here, looking for Simple Simon. Simon, you there? Over.”
Simon snarled in irritation. “Fucking hate that name and you know it, prick. I’ll simple your fucking Simon.” He slowed the boat and finally dropped the engine to idle before answering.
“Simple Simon to Pieman, yeah I’m here. I’m nearly at the rendezvous. I’d be there sooner if I didn’t have to stop and talk to you on the damned radio. Over.”
“Quit your bitching, John. We’ve hit some weather and we’re not going to be on site for another twenty minutes or so. Over.”
“You’re fucking kidding me.” Simon swore under his breath. “Get there as soon as you can. I have a loose end with me and her boyfriends are cops. They’re going to be looking for her soon, if they aren’t already. Over.”
“That’s your problem. Deal with it. Over and out.”
Simon slammed the mic back into its cradle hard and throttled the engine up to half speed. “Never work with family, Lexa. Nothing but fucking headaches and grief.”
Lexa just smiled vapidly and nodded once before going quiet again, but inside she was screaming in relief. While he’d been distracted she’d managed to spot the fishfinder and GPS module mounted just a foot away from her, and now she knew she had a chance. Simon…or John, since that was what the man on the radio had called him, hadn’t disabled the beacon, he’d just unplugged the whole unit from the power supply. All she needed to do was distract him long enough to plug it back in. His escape plans were delayed, and she hoped that would give her enough time for help to arrive. Now she needed to get her head together and wait.
As Simon checked the chart again, Lexa closed her eyes and thought of Beau and Diego. She’d only just found love and happiness, there was no way in hell she was going to die now. She was going to see her men again, and she wasn’t accepting any other outcome.
“How you feeling, sexy? You should be coming back down to earth pretty soon I figure. Once we get to the meeting place I’m going to give you another dose and then you’re going for a nice little midnight swim. Sound good?”
Lexa looked
up at him but didn’t say anything, and Simon sneered. “Yeah, you’re coming down all right. Half an hour ago you’d of been giggling about the idea of a swim. Now you’re awake enough you know that’s not a good idea, aren’t you? What with all the sharks swimming around out here, looking for a tasty meal.”
Sharks. Fuck.
He must have seen the fear in her eyes because he gave her a toothy grin and then snapped his jaws together before snickering. “Can’t charge someone with murder without a body, and your body is never going to be found. Tiger sharks are over a thousand pounds of muscle and teeth, did you know that? Apex predators. And you know what you are to them? You’re a gourmet fucking meal.”
He narrowed his eyes and grabbed her by the chin, yanking her head up so she was looking at him. “Son of a bitch, you’re sobering up fast. Good thing I have more of that stash.”
He dropped her head and she let it fall to her chest, hoping it convinced him she wasn’t all the way back yet. It seemed to work because he powered down the engine and left the key in the ignition.
“You stay here, you hear me? You move a muscle and I promise I will have you begging for me to toss you overboard.” With that he ducked down into the tiny cabin and Lexa waited three long heartbeats before she leaned forward and carefully plugged the GPS back in. A single red led light appeared, indicating it was in standby mode and Lexa leaned back, praying that he’d be too busy to notice it.
He was back on deck seconds later and Lexa knew she was out of time. If he drugged her again, she was dead. As he moved toward her Lexa tensed then launched herself off the seat and straight into his midsection, hoping to knock him off balance. She was already moving when she spotted the flash of a knife blade in his hand. Too late to back down, she screamed in defiance and kept fighting.
Chapter 17
Diego had the throttle wide open and his eyes glued to the sea as they flew across the waves, the bow pointed in the direction of the only clue they had going for them. Once they’d confirmed the cubby boat was missing they’d headed back up to the office just in time to meet the lieutenant and every available officer on or off duty converging on the marina.
