by E. M. Gayle
I re-opened my eyes and was immediately hit with a testosterone overload at the menacing presence of four big men dressed in black standing and staring at me. And in the full light their guns were even more intimidating than before.
I drew in a shuddering breath and prayed for some sort of calm.
Ronin crouched down until we were at eye level, his brilliant eyes drawing me in. “Did he hurt you?”
“Not really. Just a little manhandling from his men, although I could have done without the drugs.” My body and head still felt out of sorts from whatever he’d injected me with.
A hard look crossed his face as a snarl rumbled through the room. He turned and looked at one of the men, who acknowledged him with a nod. Two of them left the room and I shuddered to think of what that little silent communication had meant.
“We need to get out of here.”
“What about Alex? He’s supposed to be on his way here too.”
“Fuck, Alex. I’m sick to death of his interference in my business AND my life. He doesn’t deserve to find you. You were supposed to be mine, not his.” He grabbed my arms and hauled us both back to our feet.
Not liking his grip on my bicep, I jerked out of his hold. “I don’t know what’s going on between the two of you, but I don’t want anything to do with it. And I don’t belong to either of you. Is he really your brother? Viktor said this whole thing is about you two fighting.”
“Stepbrothers. And absolutely not by choice. My idiotic father got soft and fell in love with his mother.”
The sneer on his face told her all she needed to know. Ronin didn’t care for the union between his father and Alex’s mother. And if she had to guess, she could imagine that Alex didn’t care for it either. Which could be what had led to some sort of fight between them.
“As for the other,” he wrapped a finger around the chain at my neck, “it’s too late for that.” He grabbed my hand this time and pulled me flush against him. Immediately the delicious scent of his cologne filled my head. It was the one thing I remembered fondly from our one night together. It was unique and alluring and something I’d never smelled before or since.
“Too late for what?” I asked as I took a deep inhale. I’d already forgotten what all I’d said.
He reached down and grasped my chin and tilted my head until my gaze met his. “It’s too late for you not to be in the middle of this. Viktor made sure of that by taking you, but so did Alex with this.”
He lifted the necklace still wrapped around my neck. I’d never gotten the chance to take it off and since those two men had dragged me away from Alex’s building I didn’t want to.
“I don’t know what that means. One thing has nothing to do with the other.”
“Doesn’t it?” His fingers trailed around my neck just above what I knew Alex thought of as a collar. Which meant as long as I wore it, no one should be touching me like this without his permission.
He dropped his hand and the semi glazed look in his eyes disappeared. “Not that it truly matters now.”
I had no idea what the heck his cryptic words were supposed to mean. “What does that mean?”
“This,” he gestured again to my necklace. “That asshole stole you and claimed you. Which means he’s also been fucking you.” The disgust written on Ronin’s face caught me by surprise. “Probably let his dick friend have you too since that’s his thing.”
Ouch. Direct hit.
Apparently, I was not the first in that scenario if Ronin guessed the truth of how our relationship started right off the bat. The idea of Alex and Jeremy with other women the same way turned my stomach. It also was a stark reminder that I didn’t really know that much about Alex’s past. For some reason we never discussed our history much and I’d been all too happy to go along with that since I’d never wanted to reveal my humiliating past.
Until I had to.
But there was one thing I knew for sure…
“Alex didn’t steal me.”
“You only think that because you don’t know the truth. I don’t imagine stepbrother dearest told you much at all. Too busy fucking, right? Not that I blame him for that.” His eyes turned hot and dark and I was ashamed to admit that his look gave way to heat between my thighs as well. “If you were mine I’d be tempted to keep you tied to my bed all the time as well. Your little cries alone are enough to keep a man hard for a lifetime.”
I gasped, shocked not only by his rough words but the fact that he was implying that he remembered our one scene from that night. I could hardly believe he remembered my name let alone anything else about it from that night. We’d both been drinking way too much and after I’d left the party, I never got even a hint that he might be interested in seeing me again.
“I don’t even know what I’m supposed to say to that. We barely know each other.”
He nodded. “That’s true. But only because you disappeared and I didn’t know how to find you. Although I understand now that’s because you have a thing maybe for aliases? I don’t know. Viktor was kind of cryptic in his messages beyond the fact that he found you through Alex.”
I scoffed. “Found me my ass. Alex took me to a party on his yacht. I barely spoke to him.”
Something changed again in Ronin’s eyes and I didn’t know how to explain it. There were too many unexplained facets about him that still scared me as much as they did that first night.
“C’mon.” He grabbed my hand again and pulled me towards the door. “We are getting out of here. I doubt my finding you first was Viktor’s end game.”
I tried to break free and couldn’t, his grip was too tight. “We need to wait for Alex.”
He turned back to me, the darkness so intense in his eyes I felt it all the way down to my toes and not in a good way. “We are not waiting for your lover. There is no telling what other surprises Viktor might have left for us here and I have no intention of waiting around to find out. That Russian is not right in the head. He toys with people like their lives mean nothing. Do you want to take that risk with your life? Or mine?”
I shook my head as new fear bloomed in my chest. I hadn’t gotten any kind of malicious vibe from Viktor when it came to me, but I had no reason to trust he wasn’t capable of what Ronin said either. The man had gone to ridiculous lengths to get me here and I didn’t doubt he would up the stakes at every opportunity. He had said it was a high stakes game after all.
“Alex isn’t going to like me going with you, is he?” I asked as we rushed out the door and down the long corridor that led to the other levels of the boat.
“No, he won’t. But I don’t care and you shouldn’t either. Your life is more important than his feelings. And besides, if Alex had done the right thing from the beginning none of us would be here right now.”
I didn’t know what that was supposed to mean, but I had enough to worry about just trying to keep up with Ronin and his men. And then there was the matter of the bodies. The one outside my door had blood spatter behind his shoulder and it didn’t look like he was breathing anymore.
“Did you kill all of them?” I gasped, trying to fight the rising panic.
He tilted his head. “I do whatever is necessary to get a job done. It’s probably best you know that about me. Besides, they took you against your will and put you in harm’s way. Every one of them knew what kind of risk that meant. I only regret I didn’t get my hands on Viktor. Although his time will come too.”
Those ominous words made my stomach churn again. I didn’t understand this world at all. How could so many lives mean so little? Was it that easy to take a life?
We were almost at the end of the hallway and while the idea of freedom from this prison should have relieved me, I didn’t want to jump from one prison to another. “What happens now?”
“That’s up to you, Harper. Unlike my stepbrother, I do not need to force women to stay with me with a piece of jewelry.”
I stopped suddenly. “He didn’t force me into anything.”
“Force, coerce. It’s all semantics. He is a master manipulator. Especially of women.”
“Are we talking about Alex or you?”
A low chuckle sounded from him. “Does it matter? I’m here and he’s not. Your life is currently in my hands. What do you want me to do with it? Or rather, what are you willing to do to save it?”
A chill ran down my spine with every new word out of his mouth. I was pretty sure I had just leaped from the frying pan into the fire as my mother would have said. Cruelty among these men seemed to know no bounds. And Viktor wasn’t kidding when he’d said this game involved high stakes.
I straightened my spine and stared at Ronin in his cold, cold eyes. “I’ll do whatever it takes.”
My stomach still shook from my attempt at standing up to Ronin when I heard a shout off in the distance and more of those pops that sounded like firecrackers. Damn. I guess that meant that the next part of this messed up game was about to begin…
Chapter 9
Alex
“Did you hear that boss?
Alex clenched his jaw so hard he half expected his teeth to break. “I heard every word.” And he had. From the moment his men had left the helicopter to the time they breached the yacht only to discover Ronin in a room with Harper. “You need to pin that asshole down if you have to. I don’t want either one of them leaving that boat until I get there.” He signaled for the pilot to get him down there now. “But be careful. Ronin will use her as a pawn if he feels trapped.”
“Copy that,” Gerard answered. “And uh, that’s not all.”
“What?” His blood had chilled at his security chief’s tone.
“We have confirmed that Sokolov is not aboard the yacht. Although the engine room is locked down, there are no more heat signatures that indicate he is onboard. And Kavanaugh and his men have killed everyone else.”
Alex swore. His stepbrother’s thirst for blood had no end. And he had his hands on Harper. “Get me the fuck down there,” he yelled at the pilot.
“Yes, sir.”
He should have never agreed to stay behind. He had a sick feeling that if he didn’t get on that God forsaken boat soon, Ronin would try and use Harper against him. His stepbrother wasn’t keen on anyone taking what he considered his. It was the one trait they had in common. Although he shared his women with Jeremy on occasion, that was different. Harper was different.
“Eta two minutes sir. Standby to jump.”
The pilot’s voice in his ear pulled him back to the helicopter and his task at hand. Getting off this bird. He rose from his seat and prepared his equipment precisely as Gerard had instructed with the flight engineer checking for safety behind him before he kicked the eighty foot rope out the door.
He really did appreciate these men and their precision. When they got free from the bullshit of Ronin and Viktor, he would have to tell them so.
“Thirty seconds, sir.”
By now they were well within range of the yacht and Ronin would know they were coming. Fortunately, there was still a helicopter on the yacht’s helipad and no one close by.
With his hands in position, Alex waited for the all clear. With his propensity for adventure sports and fast everything, he had no qualms about this jump.
“Go. Go now.”
He jumped from the helicopter deck, using his feet and hands to control his descent. The adrenalin that had been building dumped into his bloodstream as he landed on the boat softly and with no incident. Piece of cake.
He quickly dropped the rope and ran in the direction Gerard provided. Ronin and Harper were nearing the helipad and he would have to hurry or they would have to intervene. That could result in more bloodshed and a chance Harper was hurt. A risk he wasn’t willing to take.
Fortunately, he knew this boat better than they did and he easily navigated his way. He was on a direct course of intervention when he rounded the corner to find Ronin holding Harper tight to his side a gun clear in his hand and heading away from the helipad.
“Alex!” Harper gasped, trying to reach for him despite Ronin’s hold.
“Take it easy,” Ronin warned.
She rounded on him, rage on her face. “Let me go. I already told you I want nothing to do with this game you and your brother seem embroiled in. You do not get to use me as some kind of pawn!”
Alex lifted his eyebrows as his brain registered the fact that she’d called Ronin his brother. Fuck. Every aspect of his relationship with her that he’d tried to control had just blown up in his face.
Ronin laughed. “Fine. I’m not into sloppy seconds anyways. But don’t say I didn’t warn—”
Suddenly a loud explosion shook the boat from top to bottom. Debris flew every which way as the walls surrounding them exploded outward.
“Harper!” Alex yelled as the woman he loved disappeared through a thick cloud of smoke. Panic seized him as he lunged forward in the direction she’d last been standing. She had to be here.
“Alex,” her voice was weak, but it was enough to send him in a different direction. A moment later he found her, nearly buried under the still falling debris. His heart stopped, stuttered.
“Don’t move.” He flung piece after piece of metal, fiberglass and wood and every other thing that made up this mother fucking boat until he found her crumpled on the ground.
“Harper,” he growled, dropping to the ground to dig her out from the rest of the rubble.
“I’m okay,” she choked out. “I’m okay.”
He wasn’t sure he believed her, but he helped her up nonetheless. The sight of blood on her face and arm had the panic he’d felt rising all over again. “You’re hurt.” He whipped his shirt off and began dabbing at her forehead to find the source was an ugly gash that looked like it needed stitches.
“I’ve got to get you out of here.” His insides were shaking with every touch to her beautiful face. Fear of what could have happened to her finally mounting to an uncontrollable level.
She nodded tightly. “Agreed.”
She started to step over some of the debris he’d flung off of her and stumbled. He growled, grabbed her around the waist and lifted her into his arms.
“I can walk,” she complained.
“Shut up.” The pain of seeing her hurt was infecting him like a cancer and it was spreading fast. He had to get them both out of here now before this heap of crap sank or something worse.
They were halfway to the helipad when she started to struggle in his arms.
“Harper, what’s wrong? We’re almost there.”
“Where’s, Ronin?” she asked, struggling to look over his shoulder.
He’d barely given his stepbrother a thought since the explosion. Not with Harper injured. She owned all of his focus.
“Dead I hope.”
The hurt that flashed across her face gave him pause. Maybe he shouldn’t have said that out loud. But goddamit she was hurt and part of this was Ronin’s fault.
“You don’t mean that.”
He did, but he opted not to confirm that. She didn’t understand their history, nor did she know the pain and suffering his stepbrother caused to everyone in his life. He’d spent so much time cleaning up Ronin’s messes, he couldn’t carry any sympathy towards him at the moment.
“Please, Alex. Don’t do this. We can’t just leave him to die.”
“I can and I will. I will not help him at your expense. You could have died out here.”
Before she could say anything more, he spotted Gerard and waved him over. “She needs medical attention.”
“One of my team is a medic. He can help her until we can get back to the mainland. Hey, Harper.”
She smiled at Gerard and his stomach clenched. Seconds ago she’d looked at him with disdain, but for Gerard she was all smiles.
“You need to get her out of here.”
“Sir, you too. We don’t know if there are any more explosives set to go off and it would take too long to secure the ship.”
He handed ov
er Harper into Gerard’s arms. “Just take her and get her out of here on Ronin’s bird. I can use the Chinook to get out.”
“Sir, I must object. Is this about—”
“Gerard, I don’t pay you to argue with me. I pay you to follow orders. Get Harper in the goddamn helicopter and make sure she gets medical attention now.” He didn’t miss the hardening expression of his security chief or the shocked look on Harper’s face, but he couldn’t worry about that now. He had to make sure she was safe and then he was going to do the one thing he swore he never would.
Save fucking Ronin.
He watched Gerard disappear into the helicopter and when the blades began to rotate, he turned back towards the direction he’d last seen his stepbrother. Unfortunately, he didn’t get ten steps before another explosion rocked the yacht under his feet. Debris flew through the air and rained down around him. He tried to turn back to the helicopter, but the pathway stood blocked. He’d have to find another way.
“Sir, are you there?”
God, he’d forgotten all about the comm piece in his ear. “Yeah. I’m here. But this place is unstable. Get Harper the hell out of here now.”
“Already taking off,” came back the answer.
“Thank you, Gerard.”
“Sir, the Chinook will meet you at the forward end of the boat since it has suffered the least amount of damage. But you need to hurry. The team says this floating death trap is taking on too much water. You won’t have long.”
“Understood. Get everyone else out of here now.”
Silence met him after his order and he imagined Gerard fighting not to argue with him. He didn’t care. They’d already risked enough. He’d find Ronin on his own.”
He raced back down the maze of corridors, but that bastard was nowhere to be found. He’d disappeared.
“Sir, we’re clear, but you have to get to the helicopter now.”
This time he didn’t have to be told twice. The fancy boat was quickly shifting and crumbling before his eyes. He ran for the front and hoped like hell Ronin would be there waiting for him. For Harper’s sake. And maybe his mother’s. She would probably care. His father’s death had taken its toll on his tender mother and he didn’t want her to go through that again anytime soon.
