“Why not Sydney?” His thoughts couldn’t keep up with his vocal cords. “Give it a try, Kika. You’ll like it so much you’ll never want to leave.”
Never want to leave… His promise echoed in his ears, powering him like a jackhammer. Why not? Why couldn’t she come with him, and give them a chance? Hope ignited a flame within him, and he offered her a reassuring glance. The urge to give her an earth-shattering kiss tingled his lips, but he didn’t want to use their sexual attraction as bait. No.
She watched him, and a small bob made its way down her throat. A smile formed on her lips, but she stopped it before it turned into an open mouthed grin and clamped her lips together.
The thump of his heart sliced the room, fiercer than a chainsaw.
After an intake of breath, she lifted her chin. “Ryan, I wasn’t there for my brother… I have to be there for Luna. If I moved somewhere just to be close to you, I’d be robbing her of that. It would be about us. About me.”
“When are you going to put yourself first?” And stop punishing yourself.
“I’ve done that for far too long.”
The jackhammer that powered him with hope a few seconds earlier drilled into him, without mercy, crushing any silver lining.
***
“Excuse me,” she choked. “I need to freshen up. Why don’t you go in and get started? I will join you in a moment.” Freshen up and pull herself together from the conflicting emotions stirring her. Unsettling her. Tempting her.
She willed her throbbing knees to move, and sauntered out of sight. With a burn in her stomach, in her thickening throat…and her wildly beating heart.
Ryan was a good man. He knew the art of forgiving, and thrived to move on. I’m not there yet. How could she commit to a relationship she was sure would occupy her day and night, when a part of her would always wonder… what if I had changed? What if she, too, learned to forgive herself?
She followed the golden, cursive printed signs to the long hallway leading to the restrooms, craving a moment of solitude away from the happiness of the wedding party. The cheerfulness of the guests. Most of all, his demanding stare.
How did he see her in a much better light than she saw herself? Was the sex they shared enough to blur his common sense? Last night she had given him something she had never done before. Somehow, it seemed like it had been so much more.
She lifted her hand to her neck, her fingers pressing her heated flesh, the throbbing pulse on her main vein. A strange kind of despair assailed her, different than getting in trouble because of her sister.
What kind of future could they claim together if the cloud of doubt persisted above her, without her taking the chance to redeem her past and be there for Luna? A couple of chattering women strolled past her, and as voices blended far away, she lifted her dress on both sides, enough to hustle to the bathroom.
Away from him, she’d indulge the prickling tears that tightened her cheeks and temples. She’d cry, and recompose, and start all over again. Away from him, she’d—
“Shush.” The muzzled, deep voice sounded at the same time someone snatched her hand before she reached the door handle. Chilly fear spiraled inside her, all her nerves in high alert. Her breathing caught in her throat, and solidified. The man slammed her into an employee’s only door at the end of the hall. They stormed into the small area, the smells of cleaning product and bleach overpowering her senses.
She made a motion to move, but the grip tightened around her. She opened her mouth to produce a sound, any sound, and a damp napkin that tasted like alcohol and acetone was shoved into her face. Quickly, her eyes fluttered and her body melted.
Chapter Thirteen
“I need to talk to you and Blake. Now.” Ryan said.
Charlotte gestured to the guests at her table. “Does it have to be right now?”
“Yes, it’s urgent,” he said, then shot Blake a look serious enough to have the other man standing up and pulling her chair.
“What is it?” she asked, as they both followed him out of the main salon. Ryan strode to the empty hallway, his temples throbbing. Half an hour ago, Kika had gone to the restroom and not returned. After ten minutes, he had swallowed his pride and gone looking for her, but she was gone. According to the restroom attendant, Kika never had even put her foot in there.
She could just had gone home. To her sister, and away from him. Didn’t she make it clear during their conversation that she had no place for him in her life? Maybe leaving him without a good-bye would be drastic, but hadn’t she run away before? From her sister? Hell, even from him, on their first night. Still… he hadn’t given them the rest of the money.
Then…as he paced the hallway, he stepped over something, and when he lifted his foot, he noticed a piece of silver on the carpet. One of her earrings. A nauseating sensation brewed in his stomach, and he could taste bile on the back of his throat. Someone took her.
“What is it?” Blake pulled him from his thoughts.
“Where is Kika? What do you know about the prostitution ring in your hotel? And don’t fuck with me.” He slammed Blake against the wall and grabbed his collar.
Even though Blake wasn’t that much shorter or smaller than him, he kept his cool. “What? Nothing. Until today when someone came to my suite, I had no idea. I swear.”
Charlotte nudged Ryan, whose grip on Blake loosened. “Wait, what? What are you two talking about?”
“I came early to Vegas because someone told me about a prostitution ring in his hotel. I couldn’t let you marry him if it were true,” Ryan said between his teeth.
Blake shook his head. “You never liked me, did you?”
Ryan let go of Blake, and drew a deep breath. “I just want what’s best for Charlotte.”
“So do I,” Blake said, his voice genuine.
Charlotte stepped in between them, her features hardening. “What did you find out?”
“There is prostitution going on,” Ryan said.
Blake smoothened his hands over his black suit jacket, and glanced around.
She crossed her arms over her fancy cocktail dress and turned to her fiancé. “Blake? Well?”
Blake’s gaze swung to her as if he had nothing to hide. “I swear I didn’t know any of it. Do you really think that’s how I want to be known? Ryan, who told you about this to drag you all the way here?”
Ryan curled his fingers into a ball. “Katie.”
A mocking sound flew from Blake’s lips, even though Ryan and clearly Charlotte weren’t amused. “No wonder. She hates me, mate.”
Charlotte sighed. “She is the one who slept with Blake.”
“You mean who he cheated on you with.”
Blake shook his head. “I wasn’t dating Charlotte exclusively, when I went out with Katie. I didn’t even take her on a date. She was separated for a while from her husband, and one night we had too much to drink. That was it. I broke it off, and she didn’t like it that I didn’t pursue her any further.”
Charlotte toyed with her gold necklace. “Yes, Ryan, I’m sorry. He told me about her after, and that’s why I never told you who he slept with, I didn’t want any bad blood because I knew Katie was a friend of the family. And then she went back to her husband anyway.”
“She didn’t lie though…there is a prostitution ring.”
“Yes, there is and I will see to closing it. I can’t allow such thing,” Blake said, pulling Charlotte to his side. “Do you see though, how she got her revenge? She probably traveled to Vegas, somehow learned of what was going on, and instead of bringing it to me or your sister, she told you that. Knowing you have integrity and wouldn’t allow Charlotte to marry someone of such low character.”
“Can you guys not talk about me as if I’m not here?” Charlotte stepped forward. “Ryan, I appreciate your concern, but I’m an adult woman. Why didn’t you come to me with this?”
“Because I wanted to fix it?”
She flashed him an apologetic smile. “Like you couldn’t fix Mom
?”
Ryan scratched his chin. “Mom made mistakes. I made mistakes. I just wanted to prevent you from making a big one, if that were true.”
She pulled him into a hug before he could avoid it. For a moment, her arms embraced him, and he sighed and closed his eyes. Little sister or not, she was allowed to learn from her own mistakes—even though it seemed Blake wasn’t one of them.
He let go of his sister and faced the man she was to marry. “Blake, I—”
“No worries, mate.” Blake shot up his hand. “Let’s forget about what happened.”
Except, he couldn’t. That amateur investigative stint linked him to Kika. Kika… He couldn’t bear the thought she wasn’t there anymore. The woman who had to know him in a more profound level than any other he had been with. The woman he…was falling for, hard. “I can’t forget. I need to find Kika,” he decided.
He removed his dinner jacket. First order of business: rushing to Luna’s apartment. If neither of them were there…his jaw clenched. He remembered what Luna had said…the guys at the security floor knew about it. And he would happily make them tell him of Kika’s whereabouts. By all means necessary.
***
A whimpering noise made her shift. She opened her eyes, slowly, her eyelids two precious stones. A couple of blinks in, and the blurry, monochromatic images gained color and sharpness. Tape that tasted like glue prevented her from speaking.
After a couple of seconds, it all sank in. Her fingers screeched against a metal surface, the goose bumping sound of metal on metal. She was chained at the back. Automatically she glanced at her feet, also tied at the ankles, stretched out in front of her. A flicker of anxiety zapped down her spine, faster than the erratic heartbeat pounding in her ears. Where the hell am I?
The muffled sound died in her throat, never made its way past the tape. She blinked at the street lights skipping through the glass windows located higher on each side. The roaring sound from a car engine died. I’m in a van.
She peered around her, and found her sister watching her, eyes wide open, hands and feet chained, and her mouth bound. The spark of despair in her eyes made it obvious she knew what was going on—and God help them, it wasn’t good. None of it.
Kika wanted to move, but only succeeding at banging the metal chains against one another. Someone opened the back door where she turned her attention to.
Omar stood by the open sliding door and stepped in the old industrial size van, all dressed in black, the background what looked like an empty parking garage. Sweat slicked her forehead and palms. She continued to bang and make noise. He leaned down with a sharp knife.
“Scream and I’ll slit your throat.” His voice, colder than usual, turned her blood into frozen custard.
With a nod, she felt her eyes widening on her face, her eyebrows reaching her hairline.
He ripped her tape in one quick jerk, making all those Brazilian waxes a walk in the park. The skin around her lips tingled, ached, burned. She darted her tongue out and licked her dry lips.
“Are you going to kill us?” she asked in a rush.
He pulled back and assessed her with a glint on his evil eyes. “And get my hands dirty with your skanky asses?” He snickered. “No.”
“Then what the hell are you doing?”
He checked the screen of his iPhone, and answered as if distracted, “Your sister made a mistake. She rejected one of our top clients. Then you came along…and it took me a few days but I learned what the fuck was going on. It stops now.”
“What do you mean?”
He raised his eyes to hers, and she shuddered with panic. “The two of you are going somewhere in Eastern Europe. Believe me, you’ll miss the States. And work a lot harder.” His smile widened.
Newspapers articles she’d read about human trafficking popped in her mind, causing her heart to slam against her ribcage. A fate worse than death. “No,” she said. “You can’t do that.”
With a shrug, he shook the phone in his hand. “Already done. Just waiting on someone to pick you up and take you to the airfield.”
“People will miss us.” She cleared her throat. “They’ll notice.” She injected energy at the end, unwilling to show him any more weakness than she already had.
Omar gave her sister a glance and returned his attention to her. “I had your sister sign a resignation letter. Hasn’t she also mentioned to the landlord she might be moving soon?” Shrewd poison coated his voice.
Oh, crap. She’d told Luna to ask the landlord about getting out of the lease without having to pay for the remaining months. “Yes, but Ryan—”
“Ryan will notice fifteen thousand dollars less in his hotel safe. And because you had the key to his room and bolted in the restaurant, he’ll assume you and your sister went off somewhere.”
Ryan. Her heart shrank to the size of a pearl. A black, unpolished pearl lost in the bottom of the ocean. The disappointment on his face when she’d declined his proposal to move to Australia would be her last memory of him. Ryan Winters. The man she came to love, despite her best efforts not to.
Couldn’t be, could it? She shut her eyes, haunted by his handsome features. I love him. A wave of warmth flooded her, bringing her empowerment and pride. Opening her eyes with a start, she clung to the only positive emotion lurking within her. Whatever happened, she had to be brave. “People will go through security tapes.”
A sarcastic chuckle. “Which is why it’s so handy to have contacts on the security floor.”
“Bastards.”
A frown dipped into his forehead, and his eyes narrowed. The once over he gave her warned her he didn’t take insults lightly. A shiver went down her spine, but she couldn’t let fear win. She lifted her chin.
The buzz from his cell phone sliced the silence. Looking down at his iPhone, he smothered a smile and whispered, “No screaming. We’re in the middle of nowhere, but I’ve had enough of your annoying voice. Save it for later, bitches.”
In a blink, he jumped off the van, cell phone to his ear, and the noise from the creaky doors being shut resounded through her. Time to do something.
“Luna?” she whispered to her sister. “We’ll be okay.” The veiled promise brought a bitter aftertaste. That couldn’t be a lie.
Luna shifted, tears bordering her eyes.
“That’s it, cry. Let the tears soak your tape. Don’t make any noise, don’t move.”
Tears streamed down her sister’s face, rolling down her flushed cheeks and over the tape.
“Scoot toward me as much as you can.”
Kika leaned toward her sister, stretching her neck to find Luna’s mouth. With her teeth, Kika grasped the damp corner of the tape and ripped it out. The pain made Luna jerk back, gasp, and sob.
“Luna, it’s okay. I’ll find a way.”
“I think he saw me at the hotel. After I called you, I was leaving the property when he got me, and made me tell him where you were,” she said, her voice strained. “I’m sorry, Kika.”
“No need to be sorry. Look, I wasn’t there for Freddy but I’m here for you. You have to believe me.”
Luna’s big eyes twinkled. “I think he had our apartment bugged.”
“That’s how he found out.” Kika nodded to herself. He agreed to me finding my own client too easily. Damn.
A sob made her gaze at Luna. Tears rolled down her flushed cheeks, the pain in her twin’s face clenching her heart tighter. She parted her lips to toss encouraging words she knew she couldn’t back up, when Luna shook her head, and stopped trembling. “Kika, I don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t want you to think you weren’t there for Freddy. You were. The night when he died, I was supposed to clear the second bathroom, remember?” Luna dipped her face down to wipe the dampness of her cheeks on her sleeved shoulder. “I was so upset at you for not listening, envious of the close relationship you had with him… I forgot to double check the trash can.”
An upsurge of confusion sent her pulse spinning. She wished she could
move, or kick, to deal with the emotions stealing the air from her lungs. “The trash can?” Kika pushed the words out of her dry throat.
Luna nodded, a glint of guilt in her eyes. “See, he never left the place to find drugs. He used to hide them under the trash bag lining. It was my fault.”
Her fault… Kika shifted in silence, wishing her beating heart had the power to unchain her and set her free. Shouldn’t her lack of blame set her free? “Why didn’t you ever tell me?”
“I thought the truth would go away if I didn’t admit to it out loud. When you told me you wanted to travel after his death, I was so bitter, I let you take the blame as punishment.”
“All this time…” All the time she’d lost. All the time her sister lost.
“I’m sorry. You can hate me, but I had to tell you in case something happens to us.”
The image of Ryan unfolded in front of her. He’d forgiven his mother, and himself. I’m not as brave as you, she had told him. Her heart shrank, the beating coming to a halt for a stretching second.
I can be. What point was it to blame her sister for all the guilt she’d nourished all that time? It’d been her choice to go away. To deal with her feelings like that—what right did she have to judge Luna? By the tormented stance on her sister’s face, Luna had a lot of guilt of her own.
“I don’t hate you. You’re all I have left.”
A thump rocked the van, and they both slammed against the metal. She scooted closer to her sister. She shifted like a caged animal, and suddenly the doors swung open.
Ryan.
Chapter Fourteen
“You okay?” The concern in Ryan’s voice shifted to a melody in her ears. He gave them a quick glance, and still dressed with the suit from the dinner party, kneeled down in front of her to unchain her.
“Ryan, I’m so happy you’re here,” Kika didn’t fight the urge stemming through her, the fire starting in her belly and snaking up her spine. “How did you find us?”
Accidentally Hooked (The Naked Truth Series Book 1) Page 12
