Prisoner of Love

by Cathy Skendrovich

  But as the days went by and more payments were received and stockpiled without issue, he found it easier and easier to make half his remuneration just “disappear.” His reports to the Feds hadn’t changed. Only the amounts. And now here he was. A Rolex watch on his wrist, an Audi in the garage below, and Armani suits in his penthouse closet.

  Confirming the hour on said timepiece, he turned from the lights and glitz before him and glanced about the room, remembering how he’d always managed to keep his superiors from getting suspicious of his lucrative double life. He had learned how to feed them a few fish every once in a while to keep them happy and content that he was doing his job, while he still maintained his new standard of living.

  And when they sent him some “help” to get the job done faster, why, that person always found a sad ending to his life, with the excuse that the poor sap had been found out. He was the only one to have gotten close enough to Farelli to gain his trust and he was determined to keep it that way. Right now it was a win-win situation for everyone concerned. No two-bit cop from San Bernardino was going to change that fact.

  Sitting back down on the bed, Michael pondered what Dalton could be hunting for at the gas station. His snitch had said the cop had been booking it to his car. That meant he thought he had something.

  Michael glanced out the window one more time. He should just jump a plane. He didn’t owe Farelli anything, or the FBI. Hell, he knew how to hide. No one would ever find him if he didn’t want them to.

  But Dalton was handing him the perfect chance to blame it all on him. If he intercepted the girl and Dalton, killed them, and then told Farelli they had admitted to skimming his money, why, he might be able to maintain his position just a little longer. It all depended on what Dalton had discovered. Otherwise, he’d still kill them and disappear. Worked for him.

  Now that he had a game plan, all he had to do was snap the ball. And no better time than the present. He’d just go over and pay Dalton a little visit. A dropped hundred here or there worked wonders in the information business. Maybe he’d even have a little fun with Dalton’s plump companion. Give her something to remember before she died.

  When they got back to the hotel, Jake hustled them both straight to the suite, where, luckily, housekeeping had tidied the room. Lucy felt a blush start up her neck and face just from looking at the bed, and new tingles began low in her body. She should be exhausted. She should be scared. She shouldn’t be thinking about taking her clothes off, or removing Jake’s. But then, she’d already concluded that she was a goner for the guy.

  As soon as the door shut behind him, Jake leaned back against it. “I can’t believe you didn’t think a chance meeting with a strange guy didn’t warrant letting me know. Especially after I kidnapped you.”

  Those sensual tingles evaporated and Lucy pivoted, got right up into his face. She was tired, and tired of being reamed out. All she wanted was to be held. “That’s why I didn’t mention it. Because at the time, you were the only one who posed a danger to me and you were in my house.”

  They glared at each other until he suddenly opened his arms and invited her in. She moved without hesitation, snuggling against him as he said over her head, “Point taken. But you should have remembered after the attack.” This last he said without bite, though, so Lucy didn’t reply. It felt too good in his embrace to risk leaving it for another pointless argument.

  “What did you mean, you think this guy’s a cop?” she asked instead.

  “Just that. When I Googled him, his public info read like mine. Or rather, like Nicky’s. Too bland. Too pat. But I couldn’t use my official capacity to dig deeper. I didn’t want anyone knowing where I was or what I was looking up. But now I can have my captain dig up the dirt on Delano. So I have to call him.”

  “It’s almost over, isn’t it?” She held tight to his waist. He nodded, and she saw that look she recognized, that look that said he wanted to kiss her. And she wanted him to. But her stomach took that moment to growl, long and loud, and she wished the floor would open up and swallow her. How embarrassing. But she couldn’t remember the last time she’d eaten anything. They’d been on the go since the break-in.

  Jake raised his brows, and the moment was gone. He gave her a quick peck on the forehead and moved toward the phone. “After I call the captain, we’ll get room service, and then pick up where we left off. The bathroom, right?” He delivered that sexy smirk that melted her insides. She nodded mutely, while he dialed out on the hotel phone.

  Her stomach continued its complaining while Jake contacted his commanding officer. Lucy grabbed some pretzels off the snack tray while Jake argued over Delano’s importance. He must have gotten his point across, for pretty soon he was nodding and saying, “yeah” at regular intervals, as if his captain was reading something to him.

  This discussion could go on forever. Lucy sighed, polishing off the meager snack. Casting one more look at Jake, who was now sitting by the phone with his back to her, she decided she was done waiting. She could zip right down to one of the restaurants in the casino, order some food, and bring it back. Once she shut up her stomach, they could move on to dessert. Her body quivered at the thought. She tapped him on the shoulder and whispered, “I’m going to get us food.”

  He frowned, but then his captain said something and his attention diverted. Lucy took the moment to leave. The room door shut with a click behind her. She headed to the elevator and caught one immediately. While it made its way down to the casino level, she contemplated the idea that she had fallen in love with Jake Dalton.

  It was a new feeling for her. Growing up the way she had, with the parent she had, Lucy had steered clear of emotional entanglements. She’d been too afraid of being a replica of her mother. Oh yes, she’d dated and, if she was honest, she’d probably handpicked her boyfriends for their faults—because that meant she’d never trust them fully, never fall for them so wholeheartedly that she lost a little bit of herself. Love had never factored into the equation. Until now.

  The chime of the elevator woke her from her introspection, and she exited into the main casino. Although it was a weekday, the cacophony of slots flooded her ears. Bright, flashing lights, clouds of hovering smoke, and video screens advertising upcoming hotel entertainment accosted her. Vegas never slept.

  She headed to the sandwich shop on the outskirts of the casino floor where its to-go line meandered amidst new flooring installation and an equally new wishing fountain. Two sub sandwiches would go a long way toward sating their appetites. Of course, there were other people wanting the same thing so, while she waited her turn, her mind roved from thoughts of loving Jake (she could actually say it in her head now) to worrying over what was going to happen to him now that this case was nearing its end.

  Moving up in the queue, she studied the wishing fountain (like Vegas needed to take more money from already spendthrifty tourists), and wondered if Jake’s captain was actually listening to him, or just trying to trace the call. They did that in real life and not just in the movies, didn’t they? And if he was hearing Jake out, how would he help Jake? There was a hit on him!

  “Can I help you, miss?” The clerk’s perky question dragged her back into the present. She gave her order before resuming her contemplation, though the construction hammering behind her sounded like it was in her head. Or maybe that was the hunger and worry over Jake’s predicament.

  Jake faced stiff odds against walking away from this state of affairs, and Lucy’s stomach clenched at the thought of him getting shot by Farelli or arrested for being a dirty cop. Death or incarceration. There was really no choice at all. And it all hinged on whether his captain believed him and sent help, or if Jake and she became an army of two to bring down Farelli on their own. Definitely lousy odds. Receiving her order, Lucy picked it up and made her way through the maze of caution tape and cones.

  Glancing about, she decided to pop into the nearby restroom. That tinkling fountain reminded her she’d left the room upstairs wit
hout doing so. The glitzy gold door she shoved open revealed a restroom that looked like it had undergone a recent reno as well, with its gilt mirrors and shiny marble floor. She was its only inhabitant, seeing as it was tucked behind all the construction going on outside its doors. Once she set the take-out containers on the anteroom’s counter, she hustled into the quiet bathroom, glad to be somewhere without a throng of people and noise.

  She assessed her appearance in the mirror and grimaced. She looked like she’d been on the run and without sleep for twenty-four hours. Tucking some hair behind her ear, she headed into a stall.

  A moment later she heard the restroom entrance door swoosh open, the sound of footsteps as someone entered. Ah, well. Never alone for long in Vegas. When she reached to open her stall, she paused, cocked her head. The footsteps hadn’t continued. There was no running water, no movement to another bathroom compartment. Just silence. But she’d heard someone enter. Hadn’t she?

  There. Wasn’t that an inhaled breath? A shifting of a foot? There was someone in here with her. So what were they doing? Lucy puzzled through the meaning of the utter stillness. Until she heard a sound that froze her. The telltale click of the ladies’ room main door being locked. From the inside. On the heels of that came a chilling laugh. A man’s laugh. An icy finger of fear slithered down her spine.

  “I know you’re in here, sweetheart. Come out, come out, wherever you are.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  The singsong, Jack Nicholson-esque whisper echoed off the marble surround, bubbling more chills throughout Lucy’s body. The time for their getaway had run out. This was the person who wanted Jake and her dead.

  Stuffing a knuckle into her mouth, Lucy soundlessly stepped onto the toilet and hunched over so as not to be seen above or below the stall door. With eyes clenched tight, she cast about for hope, listened for someone, anyone, to try the door and find it locked. She wasn’t going to die an ignominious death, slouched over an open toilet with blood dripping from a gunshot wound to her heart, was she? That’s not how lowly female accountants died. They died at home, alone, reading lurid romance novels with a comfortable tabby curled in their laps.

  This was Vegas, after all. People were everywhere in this city, even in restrooms hidden within construction zones. Weren’t they? And there were cameras. Casinos used cameras to spy on gamblers all the time. But did they waste them on secondary restrooms and pass-through walkways?—

  Wham!

  She nearly fell off her toilet perch when her executioner kicked in the first stall door and announced his findings.

  “Empty.”

  Wham!

  “Empty again.”

  She jumped the second time, nearly biting the knuckle she’d used to silence her need to scream for help. Because it looked like she was on her own. And still he continued kicking in the individual stall doors, the ominous sound ringing like her personal death knell. If she’d had more courage, she might have scampered out of her stall into one he’d already investigated. But she was frozen in place by overpowering fear.

  When he finally reached her door and met with resistance from the flimsy lock, all she could do was cower silently, staring at the seam where door met metal jam, and where now a green eye peered through.

  “Peek-a-boo, I see you.” Belying the childish words the man snapped, “Get your ass out here, bitch.”

  She began sobbing in earnest now. As she staggered off the seat, it took several tries before her quivering fingers managed to loosen the latch. She pulled the door open and, in one last, foolhardy attempt for freedom, ducked her head and charged her assailant. He grabbed her ponytail, yanked her right off her feet, extracting an agonized squeal of pain and panic.

  “Let go, let go! Help!—”

  Grabbing and twisting her long hair around his hand like a leash, he snapped her toward him. She screamed again, this time in pure pain, earning a backhand for her noise. A throbbing ache radiated through her face, and she fell limp into his arms. If she couldn’t escape, she would at least make it darn hard for him to disappear as well.

  “Stand up. If you’re not going to use your legs, I might as well shoot you in the kneecaps.”

  This was not how she wanted to go, so Lucy did as she was told, faced her evil captor on wobbly legs. “You’re not going to get away with this,” she announced, with barely a tremor in her voice. “Jake’s on the phone right now with his captain.” A momentary relief coursed through her when he let go of her hair. But her stomach dropped when he withdrew a nasty-looking gun from beneath the casual jacket he wore.

  He grinned, drawing his coldly handsome features into a radiant smile guaranteed to attract women like bees to a honey pot. He raised the gun and caressed Lucy’s stiff face with its muzzle as he mimed a theatrical shiver. “Oh, dear, I’m positively quaking in my boots. What’s that old piece of shoe leather going to do to me from his desk chair in San Bernardino, eh? By the time he gets his fat ass on a plane, both you and your bumbling boyfriend will be distant memories.”

  Those frosty green eyes flicked over her sweatshirt-clad body and he continued, “I was thinking of a way we could while away the time until your Prince Charming came to your rescue, but now that I get a good look at you, I’m not that interested. You’re a little too…ordinary, for me. Jesus, lose the extra weight, you clumsy cow. And the Coke bottle glasses. You’d be passably pretty if you took some pride in yourself.”

  Lucy stared into the hateful brute’s face. This killer, this awful, awful man who could snuff her life out in a nanosecond, was lecturing her on how to become more attractive? While waving a deadly weapon in her face? Furious, she lost all self-control and swung her hand back to slap him a good one across his stony face.

  He shoved the gun barrel against her head. “Don’t even think of it. I don’t need you now. Your absence is enough to bring Dalton where I want him, so don’t make the mistake of getting on my bad side. I could kill you right now and still obtain the result I’m looking for.”

  Her anger died as she gazed into the man’s dead stare. He would make good on his threat, she was sure of it.

  “That’s better. Respect me, and things will go a lot easier, Lucy Parker. Now, in a moment we’re going to walk right out of here arm-in-arm like a loving couple. Oh, and baby makes three,” he snickered, waving his gun. Then he shrugged out of his jacket and folded it over his arm before sliding the muzzle under it, close enough to jab her in the ribs. Lucy did as she was told. After all, she might be the only backup Jake would have.

  “I know, I know, there aren’t any pictures of him anywhere on the web. Just the same bullshit as my Nicky Costas bio. But maybe you can crosscheck the mugshot of Michael Delano in the federal database.” Jake glanced toward the room door through which Lucy had disappeared too long ago for his comfort. Shit, what was she doing, making dinner?

  He’d been having the strangest tingles down his spine since the gas station and he never discounted those feelings. They’d served as his alarm system for far too long to be ignored. But a warning about what? He’d found who he thought was a double agent in the Farelli outfit and he already knew he was wanted by the drug dealer and his own people. So why the hell was he feeling those tingles?

  “I’ll run him, but it’ll take a little time, Jake.”

  “Time is the one thing I don’t have. Listen, I’ll call you back in five and maybe you’ll have some info for me.” Jake disconnected and slouched onto the bed. He knew he was right about Delano. His captain had to find a connection. No one covered their tracks completely. No one. But those damn warning tingles were still bothering him. And where the hell was Lucy? He hated waiting.

  While he sat cooling his heels, Jake thought back over the time he’d spent with her, especially here in Las Vegas. In this room. Everywhere he looked they’d been, bodies seamlessly entwined, as if they couldn’t get close enough.

  He’d never been in love before, had never been able to witness it between his parents. Yes, he’d a
lways thought he’d find that special someone to share his life with, who didn’t? But he hadn’t gone out of his way looking for a mate. Especially not now, when his life was a tangle of epic proportions.

  The shrill of the phone startled him, so Jake grabbed up the receiver. “Did you find him?”

  “Not a him, Costas. A her. A very plump, juicy her, by my standards. It’s nice to finally talk to you, Nicky. Or, should I call you Jake?”

  Jake went cold all over as the explanation for those warning tingles at last became clear. The reason Lucy had been gone so long. Michael Delano had caught onto them somehow and was holding her hostage. Jake decided to remain silent until he could control the anger racing through him.

  With an audible sigh, the speaker continued, “All right, Jake. As you’ve probably guessed, I’ve got something of yours that you might have just realized is missing. It’s a rather hefty something, but then, there’s no accounting for taste.” In the background, Jake heard some muffled sounds, followed by the distinct ring of a slap.

  A pinpoint flame of hatred flared in his gut like a pilot light.

  “If you hurt her, I’ll hunt you down,” Jake vowed. “And they’ll be looking for pieces of you until the next millennium.”

  Harsh laughter echoed over the phone. “Listen up, Dalton. I’m calling the shots. I’ve been your shadow since that clumsy escape maneuver of yours, so give up the theatrics. You’ll do what I say, because that buffoon you work for will just be getting off his official ass by the time this whole fiasco is over. And, if you do defy me, well, the girl loses.” More muted noise met Jake’s ears and then a faint cry of pain, as if the bastard had pinched Lucy or twisted her arm.

  “Tell me what you want, Delano,” Jake barked, knowing he was the only one who could rescue Lucy. The wanted, almost-out-of-options cop on the run. He was her knight in shining armor and he found he wanted that role.