"Seemingly not with you around anyway."
The two of them descended into desperate laughter again.
"Look Nadia… I'm serious." He looked at her now without any trace of laughter. "No more of this defensive stuff. I can't help what you do to me, that's not my fault." She pressed herself tightly to him in response, making him even harder. "But I mean it when I say I want you to be with me every day of my life once we get out of here."
Her heart was ready to burst but her defenses just wouldn't go down, she needed to keep it light, dirty, silly, to protect her fragile emotions. But none of that would work with Clayton Hargrave.
"I love you Nadia. I've never been surer of anything else in my life."
She squeezed hard on his cock again and bit down on his neck.
"You can play with me all you want but it won't change the way I feel and it won’t change a word of what I'm saying to you. I love you and I want you to be with me forever and I know you want the same thing… " his granite like confidence faltered momentarily. "At least I think you do."
She squeezed him hard again.
"God, will you please stop doing that and admit to me, for once, that I am completely right?"
She kept her head buried in his neck.
"I made you lose control of yourself once before you know."
"I know, God, how could I forget and I want you to make me lose control again, just not now while we're hostages of a psychotic Russian Mafia boss."
"I don’t know." She said, her words muffled in his shirt. "If I can make you lose it here, I'm pretty sure I can make you lose it anywhere." She bit into his neck and he squirmed.
"Come on Nadia. Say it. Say what you've always wanted to say to me, since we first met. You felt it just like I did. Now let go once and for all and let me take care of you…"
Crazy as it was, as stupid as it was - this man tied down and helpless underneath her - still she felt that he was the one who could turn her life around, bring her back out into the light of day, transform her world of cold secrecy into love, light and warmth.
She clung to him, squeezed him, trembled and then lifted her head to look into his eyes.
"Clayton… I…"
A heavy boot kicked the door in before she could say another word.
Chapter Six
Ruben holstered his weapon and with Dale, set to untying the bewildered couple with. They began filling them in on the sequence of events since their blackout.
"You were drugged using scopolamine - a narcotic from Colombia. It doesn't knock you out but it makes you lose your will power and forget everything that's happened to you."
Nadia's stomach tightened and her mind reeled with fear. What had they done together? What had they been forced to do? What had they been forced to say? The feeling of dread was unlike anything she had ever imagined. Four years of her life devoted to covering ever track, every footprint - digital or otherwise - and now she had been reduced to a helpless shell, her mind, her past, all of her secrets an open book to her worst enemies.
A pair of strong hands took her head gently and drew her gaze down. She was still lying on top of Clayton but they were free now. His gaze was unwavering. He didn't say a word but his look spoke volumes. They would be okay. This was nothing. Everything would be made good again.
"We have everything up until you told him where all the tracking and surveillance devices were on you and Nadia." Dale said.
Clayton looked up at him, shocked, still holding Nadia's head in his hands.
"I told them all of that?"
"Of course you did." Ruben reassured him. "It's the drug, you'll say or do anything you're asked to do."
He looked back at Nadia and a scant moment of absolute understanding passed between them - they were in this together and they would overcome it together. Without each other this could be too hard to bear.
He released her and they pushed themselves up from the bed.
"What happened after that?" Nadia asked. "How did you find us?"
Ruben tapped his nose knowingly.
"You didn't tell him about all the tracking devices because you didn't know about all of them. I put an extra one on each of you just to make sure and then another on the chopper before it took off. Those idiots never had a chance of getting away with you guys."
"And it was our chopper." Dale added. "We could have taken control of it at any time but we needed to find out where Boyevik was holed up."
"How long have we been here for?" She asked.
"Don’t worry. Not long. We caught up with you inside of an hour and when Boyevik contacted us with his demands we had our own list of demands for him in return."
An hour. Nadia thought. A whole God damn hour. A girl could spill a whole lot of her guts in the space of sixty minutes, but would she ever know what she had said?
"What were the demands?" Clayton asked.
Ruben winked in that arch way of his. He was back in control now.
"My people have been busy Clay. We found out a whole lot about Boyevik while he's been waiting for us to cave."
"Did you find out where he is?" Nadia asked. Something was missing. Her head still wasn't clear from the drug but something huge was missing.
"Your old boss is not a popular man Nadia and yes we did find him. He was here."
Nadia's heart lurched in her chest. She had been face to face with him but had no memory of it, not even a trace of a recollection.
"He didn't expect to be located so quickly." Ruben continued. "They never do. We threatened to sic the Feds and his current enemies in the crime world on him unless he vacated the premises without you. When he saw how many choppers we had closing in on him he backed down. There was no way in hell he would have gotten out of here in one piece, even without the government behind us, and even if he did he would have the Ukrainian Mafia salivating for him and his family not far behind. We left him a corridor of escape and he took it. He said he left you two drugged up and playing cards together. " He looked over to a table with two chairs and two hands of cards laying face down on the table.
"So how did we end up like we did? Tied to each other?" Nadia asked.
"You got me." Ruben said without a trace of a smile. "Maybe you got bored playing Pinochle after a while and decided to do something more fun together."
Nadia felt a hot blush begin to rise to her face. Clayton glanced over at her but she didn’t look back.
"That's impossible." She said. "How could we have tied ourselves together like that?"
"Clay always was a good boy scout." Dale said.
"Shut up Dale." Clayton said quickly. "It doesn’t matter how we got that way, the point is we're free now and we have to track down Boyevik and bring him to justice."
"I don't think so." Ruben shook his head. "A deal's a deal Clay. Besides, we have no idea where him and his boys have gone to."
Clayton stood up from the bed and came eye to eye with Ruben.
"Fortunately Mayweather, that's where you're wrong. I took the precaution of slipping a tracer onto that slimeball Mitch when were on the bench together in Battery Park. Just in case Mayweather Services didn't do its job correctly."
Dale grinned. "Always a good boy scout. What did I tell ya?"
Even Ruben had to smile, despite the aspersions cast on his professionalism.
"Okay." He said. "We let them run for a while before we inform the authorities and the feds catch up with them. An anonymous call about a disturbance somewhere, suspected armed mobsters, foreign accents. They'll be arrested on outstanding warrants, possession of firearms and probably resisting arrest. They go away for a long time but as they are criminals they won’t be talking about us. Everybody is happy, case closed."
It sounded good but a growing swell of panic was rising through Nadia as she scanned the room. She stood up abruptly from the bed.
"Where's Louise?" She said. "Where's my mom? She's still here, right? Tell me you didn’t let her go with them?"
"It's okay
Nadia." Dale said. "She's here. Our medics are examining her right now."
"What happened to her? Where is she?" She asked frantically.
"She's on a chopper back to New York City. She's being taken care of. She was drugged as well but we don’t know how much or for how long, so we have to take precautions. You two need to be checked out thoroughly as well."
"You're right." Clayton said. "Nadia, you go back with Ruben's people. I'll go with Ruben and Dale. We need to catch up with Boyevik. We can’t let that vermin go free."
"It's too late Clay." Ruben said. "He's gone. If we catch up with him now it'll just start a war."
"If we don’t catch up with him then he's still free to do whatever he wants to us or to anybody else. Nadia will never be free of him. This story ends now - today."
"Even if he lands up in jail he'll still be able to get you. Trust me Clay, this is the best thing to do."
"He's right Clay," Dale said, "as much as I agree with you about putting this vermin away forever, we have to be smart and let this one go."
Clayton turned to Nadia.
"This is your call." He said. "It's your life this asshole is playing with. What do you want to do?"
She looked back into his deep dark eyes; so powerful, so caring and so incredibly fuckable when they wanted to be.
She took a deep breath and considered her options.
Let Boyevik go and justice would not be served. Worse still, she would never stop looking over her shoulder to see if he was coming after her again.
Try and catch up with him and there would be a fight. Probably the police would get involved and she would be on the NSA radar again. Anything could happen. If Boyevik went to jail he could still get them, and would justice really be served anyway? He would bide his time in jail, running his empire remotely and continuing to hurt even more people. With involvement from the authorities she would have to disappear again
"Don't worry about the government Nadia." Clayton said as though reading her mind. "Once Boyevik is locked up they'll have no leverage on you anymore. You can forget all this secrecy and lead a normal life again."
"They'll never let me go. And if they'll never let you go either. Not if they find out how messed up in all this you are."
"Nothing is impossible Nadia." He glanced at his brother. "We've done the impossible before. We'll take care of you."
Dale nodded in response. He hated to give up on anything every bit as much as his brother. If they couldn't stand up to injustice, with all of the resources they had, then who could?
"We have strong government connections." He said. "Hargrave Robotics and Mayweather Services." He glared at Ruben, daring him to disagree. "If you're working for us you'll be working for them anyway. You and your mother won't have to worry about a thing. Everybody wins."
Nadia covered her mouth with both hands and looked at all three men. Could it really be? With these men around her, these two fearless brothers and their friend Ruben - a master in playing criminals off against each other and protecting people from threats to their safety - surely they would prevail. After all, this wasn't just about her - Boyevik had threatened her mother's safety and the Hargrave family as well.
"Every minute we wait he's getting further away." Clayton said.
Nadia took one more deep breath and then met Clayton's gaze again.
"Let's get that bastard." She said.
The three men exchanged a glance that said it all but Clayton was the one to put it into words.
"Gentleman, it looks like we have a new member in this exclusive boys club." He said. "Except she's a hot as hell gorgeous girl. Now come on people, let's move it out."
An hour later Mikhail Boyevik didn’t know it but his past was rapidly catching up with him. He and his men were headed for an airstrip for light aircraft near to Trenton New Jersey, ready to fly north to the Canadian border. They had stopped along the way to fix a blowout to a rear tire on their vehicle.
The secondary road they were on was deserted - in the last forty minutes only one car had passed them going in the opposite direction and that was shortly before the blow out. Nevertheless, Mikhail still had his men stand guard while one of them did the work to replace the tire.
"What the fuck is this?" Mitch cursed under his breath. The single car that bad passed them was backtracking to them, probably to offer help on the deserted stretch of road. Mitch got ready to send the do-gooders on their way. The car got closer and he saw the two men inside, both in their thirties and dressed in almost identical bomber jackets with dark shades. He reached his hand into his pocket to find his gun and a small pack of scopolamine. The amnesia drug might do the trick, after all, nobody had been killed yet and it was fine that way by him - less of a trail for the Feds or for anyone else to follow.
The window of the black BMW rolled down and Mitch pinched the Devil's Breath dust between his fingers.
"Need any help there?" The driver said.
"No thanks, we can handle it." Mitch growled.
"Is that so? "
Mitch heard another vehicle approaching from behind him and hissed a curse under his breath.
"Why don't you let us take a look?" The driver persisted.
"It's just a blow out. We can handle it. Now fuck off."
Now there were chopper blades. Mitch wrapped his fingers around his gun and drew it out, the two other henchmen standing guard did likewise, as did the driver of the car and his passenger.
"It's over Mitch." He said. "Be smart and put the gun down now."
The noise whirring blades got louder, but Mitch didn’t dare look up. There had to be at least three of them coming in for landings. Soon the incapacitated van would be boxed in.
Mitch hammered his fist against the vehicle.
"Mr. Boyevik, boss, we got a situation out here." He shouted.
There was no answer.
Mitch squinted as four figures from the helicopter most directly in front of him began to approach. Every one of them was holding a weapon, everyone of them was in body armor.
"It's over Mitch." Ruben shouted at him. "Tell Boyevik to step out of the van. The FBI will be here soon."
Mitch's heart raced. This deal was supposed to make him a multi-millionaire, and he had watched the transfer of funds himself. The deal was done but then Boyevik had wanted to keep the damn girl as well.
"Fuck it." He shouted and raised his weapon, but he didn't have a chance. A hail of gunfire went off around him and over his head, one bullet just grazing him on the shoulder.
"Drop it Mitch. It's over." Clayton's powerful voice rang out. "And lose the Devil's Breath, the drugs, whatever else you have.
There was still no answer from the van. He looked around him and then at his two guys. It was a miracle they were all alive.
He dropped his weapon and his two guys followed suit.
Turn and spread 'em against the van." Ruben said. "That goes for all of you."
The men exchanged a defeated look and then turned to the van.
There was only left one person unaccounted for.
Ruben approached the back of the van and standing to one side delivered a powerful blow to the door. It was surrounded on all sides by his people.
"Come out Boyevik. Be a man about it and don’t make me call your friends from the Ukraine to come out here and convince. You're communications are blocked already so forget about back up. Your guys are spread eagled out here against your vehicle, you have a flat tire--"
The sound of the back door unlocking from the inside made Ruben cut short his list of reasons to comply and his team stood ready. Nadia held a weapon that was shaking in her hand despite the fact that she was covered in light weight Kevlar from head to toe and had her nostrils blocked to prevent a second use of the behavior control drug.
She was about to come face to face with a figure she knew more from nightmares at this point than from reality. Everything had happened so fast in the last hours that she hadn't had time to think about anything
, but events were rapidly condensing down into this moment and the incarnation of all her fears was about to step into the light of day right in front of her eyes.
She watched as the door opened slowly.
She knew that there were no police on the way. Ruben had made sure of that. They were in the most deserted stretch of county highway in the State of New Jersey. Everything had been rapidly but meticulously planned, from the intentional drive by puncture to the bluffing of imminent FBI intervention.
They had set it up so that she would be free to do whatever she wanted. Nobody wanted this man alive - not even the people who worked for him and certainly nobody who worked for Hargrave or Mayweather Services.
She squeezed the trigger and waited as the door slowly swung open. One thin, frail leg descended to the ground.
Her hand was shaking almost uncontrollably now and she watched the old man lift up his head. He had aged unimaginably in the last four years and it had given him an appearance of near harmlessness.
But appearances can be deceiving. Nadia knew that better than anyone.
She pointed the gun towards him and the violent tremor left her hand instantly. Boyevik found her eyes and then shook his head gently from side to side.
"There is no need for this Nadia. All I ever want is for us to be near each other. To know you again."
Ruben grabbed one of his hands while Clayton took the other, effectively immobilizing him.
"Shut up Boyevik." Clayton said as he twisted his arm behind his back.
Together they pushed the old man to his knees.
"Anything you'd like to say to this criminal before we take care of him?" Clayton asked.
Nadia stood silent for a moment, thinking of the accounts she had read at the time of the trial. Boyevik had taken part personally in more tortures and executions than anyone knew about. He was renowned for his cruelty and lack of mercy. She slowly raised her gun, at pointed it directly at his wrinkled forehead. His long, tangled white hair hung down to either side.
"Do you have any last words Mikhail?" She said. Her hand was steady as a rock this time.
Her old boss looked up at her without a trace of fear in his eyes.
Her Sweet Satisfaction: Billionaire Secrets - Book Two Page 9
