by Marie Harte
“Maybe offer sex with her as an incentive. She doesn’t have to fight other women. Put her in the ring with a man.” Linda had a thought. “Kyle. He’s big and fucks like a stallion. I’m sure he’d be happy to beat the shit out of her, then fuck her in front of an audience.”
Morley nodded. “Not bad. We can charge extra for the experience.” He grinned, and his approval warmed her. “You’re a genius.”
“Just don’t let Kyle kill her yet.”
“Nope. We need her to keep Hanson in line. What a terrific idea.”
Linda was full of them. “How about another one?” she whispered into his ear and cupped his bulge, excited to find him hard for her. And just her.
She ignored the way his gaze strayed to Kitty while she played with him, or how he positioned her bent over the table, her head down, while he fucked her and no doubt stared at the redhead lying passive on the floor.
* * * *
When Kitty woke, she slowly opened her eyes and kept her groan to herself. Her head freakin’ hurt. She put out feelers to sense nearby emotion and found nothing. Opening her eyes, she took in the small dark room, the cot she lay on, and the smell of sweat and mustiness. Odd. Odder still, she stared at what looked like the bars of a cage above, beside, and all around her.
Shit.
The breakfast, the coffee, Linda, Morley, and Dane all came rushing back to her. She sat up and groaned.
“Kitty?”
She jumped and gasped, but strong hands brought her back to lie down on the cot. “Dane?” Relieved he hadn’t been killed, she sagged into his hold, comforted by his rich scent and strong presence.
“We’re in a bad situation.” He sighed and rubbed his chin over her head. “They definitely know about Stallbridge.”
“I get that.” She pulled herself together and sat up, already missing the contact between them. “But this is a little extreme. I thought Linda might be upset, kick us out, have us arrested. But drugging us? And we’re where… in a cage?”
She turned to see him, grateful he didn’t seem hurt anywhere.
“It gets worse.” He frowned. “From what I overheard before you woke up, Morley James is a big-time fight promoter. Illegal cage matches watched by those who can afford to lose thousands on bets.”
It was like a bad dream. “You have got to be kidding me.”
“I wish. I overheard them talking about a fight with Kyle. Some huge dude who massacres his opponents.” He paused. “He won’t be a problem. I’ll take him.”
She had confidence in him, but… “What if he has a weapon?”
“What if he does? You whammy him with your superbrain, and I’ll disarm him.”
“If I can get close enough,” she said in a low voice, conscious they were probably being monitored. She’d expected him to reject her and be all manly about taking on their enemy alone. She liked that he fully expected her to contribute.
“Good. In fact, touch as many bodies as you can. I want you out of here.”
Yep. There went macho Dane. The thought made her smile.
“You really are pretty.” He kissed her, and she wanted to return to his embrace.
“Thanks. You’re not so bad yourself.” She gave him a long look. “Well, not when you’re naked.”
They grinned at one another. The terror, the bad feeling, the worry. None of it mattered so long as Dane was by her side, unharmed. Oh man, she was starting to feel like Karen did about Doug. All that tenderness and affection.
“I think I get you now,” she murmured. “An adrenaline junkie. I read your file.”
“Yeah? Well, I read yours too.” He pulled her on top of him and lay back on the cot. It was barely wide enough to fit his broad shoulders. He whispered, “What’s it really like to sense emotion? I mean, do you see it? Feel it? What?”
She snuggled closer, flattered he thought to ask. “It’s more a sense. I can’t see emotion, exactly. I mean, I call it a rainbow of light, but I don’t really see that. I feel it. It’s hard to explain.”
“And with me you feel nothing?”
“Not unless it’s poking through your pants, no.”
He chuckled. “Funny.” He paused, then said, “But you can manipulate emotion too?”
“That came later.” Much too late to help her mother, who would never be normal, not at this stage in the woman’s life. “I got vague senses of feeling when I was a kid. It didn’t fully develop until I hit my late teens. And then my talent exploded. I joined the PWP, and they altered me.”
His arms tightened around her for a moment. “How?”
“Genetic stuff they injected us with. It changed all of the team to some extent. But it allowed me to influence other people’s emotions. It helps a lot in cases like these.” She sighed. “Not that I don’t love how we’re not focusing on this danger, but we have to figure out a way out of here.”
“I know.” Dane kissed her. “But at least here you can’t run away from me.”
She leaned up and blinked at him. “I haven’t run away from you.” She squared her shoulders. “I’m not afraid of you.”
“Good to know.” He stroked her hair. “Kitty, I’m a dominant kind of guy. I love fucking you—”
“So romantic.”
He continued over her, “But I want to do more. I want to play with you, to take you to new places.” He tugged her hair and brought her down to kiss her. Then he nipped her lip.
“Look, Dane. Surprisingly, I like you. And I can’t deny I’m attracted. But we agreed this, between us, would last only through the mission.”
He waited.
“My mother took a lot of shit from my stepfather. I saw abuse growing up, and I can’t go down that road. I won’t.” No matter how much I want to. God. I’m so sick.
He frowned. “Dominance isn’t about abuse. I thought we talked about this.”
Kitty didn’t hear him, lost in the past. “He’d beat her, and he’d do things to her. And she’d crawl to him and beg for more. It’s not right.”
“No, it’s not.” He caught her cheek and met her gaze, his soft. “Honey, that’s domestic violence. Sure, some people are into pain, but I’m not one of them. Neither are you. You’re not your mother.”
“This isn’t the place for this discussion.” She tried to move away from him, but he held her tight and kissed her until she couldn’t think.
He broke away, panting, after she moaned his name. “That’s domination. Acceptable force, Kitty. Not abuse, not hurting your partner. It’s about trust. You trust me, even if you don’t want to admit it.”
“I admitted it,” she said, shaken.
“No, I mean trust me to take care of you, to give you what you need.” To her shock, he put his hands between them, then down her pants. He whispered, “You’re wet. You get aroused when I take control, when I’m a little rough. You like when I grip your throat or pin your hands back. You need to submit, Kitty. Just like I need to control. If you can accept that, you’ll be a lot happier in life.”
He slowly withdrew, never removing his gaze from hers. “It takes a strong will to trust, to focus on another. I’m not submersed into the lifestyle. I just know what I like.”
“Yeah? And what’s that?” She shivered, alarmed at his insights.
His smile was slow in coming. “I like a strong woman with a smart mouth who knows how to beg for my cock.”
“Asshole.” She pushed away from him.
“Exactly.” He laughed, and she wondered again how she could feel so comfortable with him while they were in danger.
“Man, we’re messed up, Dane. We’re sitting in a cell, with bars, for God’s sake, and talking about sex.”
“You know what I said makes sense.” He sat up and scooted closer to her on the cot. “Real Doms don’t hurt the women they love.”
She stared wide-eyed at him. “Are you saying you love me?”
For the first time since she’d known him, she saw Dane Hanson flush. “Hell, Kitty. I mean, we just met.”
She started laughing hysterically, overcome by their situation, the inane conversation, and by the man blushing like a schoolgirl.
“Shut up.” He pushed her to the side and stalked from the cot.
She laughed harder.
A surge of excitement preceded the footsteps coming toward them from outside the cell. Her laugher died. “Dane. Company.”
He swiftly returned to her side, putting himself between her and the small distance to the cell door. Brave but unnecessary. When she tried to push past him, he held firm.
“Damn it. Move.”
“No.”
“Bully.”
“Thanks.” He turned, kissed her on top of her head, then faced the door.
Morley James and two men armed with guns entered. Nine millimeters, enough wallop to punch through a body at close range. Terrific. She put a hand on Dane’s arm, warning him to hold still.
Morley pulsed excitement, like a kid at Christmas. Greed stole through him too, then lust as he stared at Kitty. “Even knocked out and recovered, you’re a beauty. No wonder Linda’s so jealous.”
The men on either side of him grinned.
“Okay. Bring her along.”
Kitty started to move when Dane stopped her.
“She’s not going anywhere.”
Morley grabbed a gun from his man and shot Dane in the shoulder in the blink of an eye.
“Dane!”
“Yes, she will come along, or I’ll fill you full of holes.” Morley laughed and handed the gun back to the guard. “Bad line from one of Linda’s old movies, but it’s appropriate.”
Dane didn’t flinch, but she knew his arm had to hurt. It looked as if the bullet had passed through the meaty part of his shoulder, at least.
“Just stay here and wait. Do you hear me?” She wished she could help him, but she couldn’t pull the pain he had to be feeling. The jerk wouldn’t let her in.
“Better listen to her. Or I’ll fill her full of holes instead of you,” Morley drawled.
Dane stepped aside.
Knowing she couldn’t help him, she did the next best thing. When one of the gunmen grabbed on to her arm, she touched his hand and pushed the need to help into him. She worked so hard she felt dizzy. And then Morley dragged her out of the cell, and she latched on to his emotion as well.
She didn’t see Dane as she left the cell, but she felt him watching her.
“Linda thinks he might be in love with you,” Morley said.
“We haven’t been dating that long.”
“I don’t know. She knows things. Very perceptive woman.” Morley looped an arm around her shoulders, and the tips of his fingers grazed her breast. “She knew I wanted you.”
Kitty wanted to lean away but didn’t want to give him the satisfaction. “And you should have. I’m much hotter than that has-been.”
He laughed. “Not nice. But then, I had a feeling you were meaner than you looked.” They continued to walk down the dark hallway she’d assumed was in the basement of Linda’s mansion. But when they met the stairs and a door opened above, she heard a cacophony of sound. A crowd?
“What the hell?”
Morley pushed her ahead of him and gripped her ass. “It’s fight time, sweetheart. Kyle’s waiting.”
Kyle? The huge guy Dane had been talking about. She swallowed hard.
They entered a large gymnasium. In the center sat a hexagonal boxing ring, like the kind seen in the mixed fighting arenas she’d seen televised. The ring had netting over and around it, so there was no escape unless someone let her out. She spotted Kyle inside. The guy had a blond crew cut and wore boxing shorts. He had thighs like tree trunks, a mean stare, and a huge chest and arms. God, he’d squeeze the breath out of her before she could convince him not to.
Morley shoved her when she slowed.
She noted an audience filling small stands all around the ring. Close to a hundred people were in attendance. They wore tuxedos or suits and ball gowns. Kitty had the insane notion she was still sleeping. That or trapped in a very bad Linda Cavendish movie.
Morley walked her up to the ring, where Kyle stood waiting, stroking his large knuckles. “I tell you what, Kitty. I like you. Win, and I’ll take care of you. And I know how to care for a lady. Lose, and Kyle will fuck you in front of the audience. It’s a win-win for me, really, because either way, the audience is satisfied.”
He shoved her into the ring, but before he left her, she latched on to his wrist.
Everything seemed to stop around them, as if time had been suspended.
Then Morley shook his head and left her. She’d have to hope her best had been good enough. Because the bell rang and Kyle approached.
Chapter Twelve
Dane waited for the guy to come back. Kitty had held on to him with a fierceness that told him she’d worked her weird mojo. Fuck. He hated this fear. Though it had been a while since his last mission, Dane didn’t do emotion when on a job. He focused, he fought, and he succeeded. Casualties would be minimal, and if they weren’t, they all knew what they faced when signing on for the job.
But Kitty mattered. She was more than an autocratic redhead afraid of her true nature. The woman mattered in a way he still didn’t quite understand. So strong yet vulnerable. Powerful, yet still a woman who needed to be taken care of…by someone like him.
Watching her leave with Morley had snapped his worry into a fevered pitch, and now he couldn’t turn it off.
Come on, asshole. Come back here. I have to help Kitty.
What might have been a few minutes passed before the guy who’d held Kitty returned. He seemed puzzled even as he opened the cell door and stood there, his gun trained on Dane.
One step closer. Dane blocked off the pain radiating from the bullet wound in his shoulder. Thankfully the bullet had passed clean through. But that didn’t stop his body from aching or from bleeding like a stuck pig.
“You need help.” The guy frowned and glanced over his shoulder.
Dane took a subtle step closer.
“You shouldn’t—”
Fuck it. Dane leaped and knocked the gun aside. Then he slammed the bastard into the wall hard enough to break a few bones. He punched the guy until he sagged in Dane’s arms. Dane tossed him to the ground, scooped up the gun, then leaned down to slap the idiot to awareness.
“Shit. Ow.”
“Okay, dickhead. I want to know where we are and where you took Kitty.”
With wide eyes, the bastard answered, “We’re underground in Mr. James’s private gym. Where he hosts his fights.” The guy swallowed hard. “He, uh, took her to fight Kyle.”
“She’s fighting Kyle?” Dane swore. “Where?”
“D-down the hallway. It ends at the gym. You’ll find two men guarding the stairwell at the top of the stairs.” The man clutched his temple and moaned. “You have to hurry to help her. And yourself. I think Ms. Cavendish is on her way.”
No way this idiot helped out of the goodness of his heart or because Dane forced him. Had to be Kitty’s handiwork. “Good job. Now go to sleep.” Dane knocked him out, searched his pocket for the key to the cage, and hurried from the cell, locking it behind him.
The closer he drew to the end of the hall, the more Dane sensed vibration above him. He raced up the stairs and pushed the doors open. The bright arena made him blink and gave the guards on either side of the door an advantage.
Or so they thought.
Dane was on a mission to save Kitty. He nailed both men and knocked them out. Easy.
His arm throbbed, but he ignored it. He tucked the gun into the small of his back and hastened toward the center of the gym, where the ring had prominence.
To his shock, Kitty danced away from Kyle, actually fighting a guy who had to be twice her weight. Half the crowd cheered when she hit him while the other half booed. He didn’t understand how anyone thought she might win against him, then realized she wasn’t supposed to.
“Ten to one says he fucks her ass,
” one of the men nearest him said to his friend dressed like a penguin. They wore matching tuxes, like most of the assholes in the audience. Dane estimated close to a hundred well-dressed jerks in the stands. Men and women drinking and smoking, wearing their finest as if at a friggin’ opera and not a human death match.
Of all the scenarios he’d envisioned when coming to the end of this job, an illegal fighting ring where his lover boxed a giant was last on the list.
Of course, according to Frick and Frack, Kyle was supposed to rape her, not just beat her up. Talk of fucking his Kitty had him seeing red. Dane took out the gun and shot into the air three times.
All activity ceased. Thinking fast, he yelled, “This is the police. You’re all under arrest.”
Before he finished saying “arrest,” the crowd erupted in a frenzy. People flooded the gym and rushed outside, clearing the way for him.
He reached her just as she swung at Kyle and missed. The giant hugged her tight and whispered something in her ear. To Dane’s horror, Kitty seemed to droop in his meaty arms.
Then Kyle gently put her down and ran to the caged door of the ring. He yanked it open and ran to a bag on one of the bleachers. What the hell?
Dane rushed inside while Kyle yanked a walkie-talkie out of his bag. Dane heard sirens in the distance. Hustling to Kitty, Dane remained one step from her at the same time Morley entered on the other side, through a door Dane hadn’t noticed.
“Perfect. Now we can do this the right way.”
“Motherfuckin’ A.” Dane grinned, intent on making Morley spend the rest of his life eating through a straw. But first he dragged a hazy Kitty to him and pushed her toward the exit. To his relief, she stood and swayed but kept herself upright. “Hold this,” he ordered and shoved his gun into her hands.
But his lack of attention gave Morley the advantage. The asshole struck him hard in the shoulder, paralyzing the nerve that deadened his good arm.
Dane swung around and kicked Morley before he could follow up with another shot. “Come on, shithead. Let’s dance.” Forced to work with his wounded shoulder, Dane did his best to shield himself from the pain and looked for Morley’s weaknesses, hoping like hell he found the use of his left arm again.
