This man wore a cool looking, slick Armani suit. He was dressed up like he had some sort of event to attend.
It was a contrast to him as the person. Leather looked like it would be more his thing.
I’d never seen him before in my life and on the regular, I’d assume this guy had a death wish for entering my home knowing who I was.
That was on the regular. Today not so much.
This man reeked of power and control. The vibe beamed from him as he snapped dark brown eyes that almost looked black to me, but what enhanced the vision of him was the way Xander looked.
I’d seen him look angry, I’d seen him look enraged to the point of losing it, I’d seen him happy, I’d seen him look sad and defeated. What I’d never seen before in his eyes was fear.
Fear became terror when he saw me enter the room.
“Who are you?” I directed at the man.
He smiled and tipped his head in reverence, the way most Southern men did.
“I am Balthazar Kane,” he replied in a thick Southern accent that fit his mannerism. I wasn’t surprised to hear it.
“What the fuck are you doing in my home?” I threw back.
“Jia, please,” Xander cut in. Caution filled his tone and spiked my nerves.
If he could look and sound like that, I needed to calm the fuck down.
“No, Xander please the lady has a valid question. I like her.” Balthazar nodded. “You sure like your women ballsy don’t you?”
The comment was a dig that didn’t escape me. He’d known someone else that Xander had been with.
Xander raised his gun higher. “Balthazar, what the fuck do you want? You direct your answers to me. Why are we seeing you?”
What an odd thing to ask.
“Not for the reasons you think, old friend. Or, maybe it’s half and half. Nothing is happening just yet. I just came to look at your weakness. See where she lives.” He laughed and a shiver ran down my spine.
“Leave her out of this.” Xander cocked the trigger back on his gun. It clicked and my heart squeezed.
“No, no. I simply couldn’t resist the opportunity to screw with you, especially when you’ve been looking for me for so long.” Balthazar laughed a wicked laugh. “When I realized you were with this beauty I just had to make my presence known, just to screw with you. Thought it might conjure up various memories. The bad kind. Looking at you now, I see I was right. This is going to be very interesting.”
“I said, leave her out of this!” Xander shouted.
Balthazar only laughed though. “Xander Cage. I’m not sure how it is you’ve known me for this long and you never learn. You just keep thinking you can get me. Stop me. Really now? Xander come on think, do you seriously believe I’d come here today dressed up like this without backup?”
“I will shoot your fucking head off before you get the chance to think about harming her,” Xander balked.
Balthazar smiled again but answered the question by swiveling his finger and pointing at me.
“Look. Better to look,” he stated and we both looked.
I saw it first. A red dotted light hovering just under my cleavage. A laser light. A target mark. It was something I’d seen too many times. Not on me though.
Someone, somewhere was holding a gun… a rifle and they’d shoot me.
“Jesus,” Xander winced and lowered his gun immediately.
At least he could talk. I could not. I couldn’t even breathe.
I couldn’t even breathe and I was pretty certain that all the blood inside me had seized up in flow, for fear that any sudden move could take me out.
“Stop it you bastard,” Xander cried. “Fucking stop it. This doesn’t concern her.”
“But it does. Like I said she’s your weakness. Every man has a price and she is yours. I needed to be sure of it because Xander Cage, I think you know something I don’t and it’s something I need.” He switched his gaze to me. “Jia Marchesi, it’s only fair that you get the full rundown of what’s going on. Your father got himself into deep shit. That’s the best way I can put it, sugar. Greedy. That’s what he is. Greeeedyyyyy. He’s one greedy son of a bitch. Fuck. Couldn’t say no to a deal with the devil who was using him. He stole some blueprints my people need. He’s keeping them somewhere and I think your boy here knows where, or has a pretty good idea of where I can find them. Xander Cage is a would-be agent for the Special Mission Forces. SMF. I love the acronym. It suits. Doesn’t suit him though because he’s not really one of them, but useful. Like me. Unlike me though, he allows himself to be used by whoever for whatever. His skills got him hired big time. He can dress it up to look like whatever he wants but really he’s just a professional thief.”
I was listening. I was really listening.
Balthazar cleared his throat and continued. “Your boy is only here to steal the prints himself from your father. That is why you two met. That is how you two have met. Xander Cage, I don’t know what it is you think you can do, but regardless of what happens, my visit today was purely to let you know you won’t win. You won’t stop me from getting my hands on those prints. And you won’t stop me either, from getting my hands on your weakness.”
“You evil bastard.” Xander hissed.
“Yes. I sure am one evil bastard. The kind who likes women a little too much. They make great pets when they aren’t dead.”
I actually felt the moment when my blood started running through my veins, but …cold. So cold it froze my heart.
There were enough sick bastards around for me to get the gist of what he was saying.
Balthazar stood up and walked over to me.
He came right up to me, touched my cheek and allowed his gaze to drop to my breasts.
It was different when Armand made his advances. I got a different vibe altogether from this guy.
“Xander Cage, you did well this time. I’ll be sure I fuck her a good few times before I kill her.”
Click -Clack.
The sound of the trigger pulling back rippled through me.
I looked to Xander and saw that he was once again aiming the gun at Balthazar.
Balthazar wagged his pointer and grinned from ear to ear.
“One more time agent. Pay attention.” He pointed at the laser light on my chest. “She’ll be dead before you get to pull the trigger.” A cold hard chuckle resonated from his chest.
To add to the helplessness of the situation, he turned back to me, leaned forward and planted a kiss on my forehead. The gesture made my skin shriek away from him although I wasn’t moving.
“Soon,” he whispered and walked out of the room.
I watched him go. He walked through the sitting room door and moments later the front door clicked closed. It closed but there was no relief yet, the laser light was still on me. It was still there on me.
Xander’s eyes were fixed on it, directed to it and he wasn’t moving.
A minute passed. Two… three… four…
It disappeared.
It disappeared and my knees gave, legs caved at the same time as my heart.
Xander rushed over to me in blind panic and took me into his arms.
“Jia,” he breathed. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”
I still couldn’t talk. I couldn’t do it, what was I supposed to say to him?
It wasn’t his fault. This was Pa again.
Now I knew what he was up to. Now I knew what it was he did, and why Xander was here.
Blue prints… I didn’t think I needed to know what it was for. Clearly it wasn’t for a shopping mall. Had to be something big. Enough was said.
Xander scooped me up, took my hand and to my surprise, led me away.
He wasn’t talking. Hadn’t given more than the apology, but he moved like he’d come up with some kind of plan.
When he put me in the car, I wished like hell he would drive away with me, far, far away. We’d run away together and leave everything behind. Just like he said yesterday.
T
hat was what I wished we would do. What I wished he was doing.
My heart sank when we turned out of the neighborhood and it looked like we were heading toward The Grand Marchesi.
My heart sank further down into the chasm of despair when I saw that was exactly where we were heading.
“Xander what are you doing?” I gasped.
“It’s the only way,” he replied.
“Going to the casino?”
He didn’t answer.
We parked up and he jumped out of the car. He opened my side and practically lifted me out. Taking my hand, he guided me inside the casino.
We went to the elevator and he selected the presidential floor. That would take us up to Pa’s office.
“Xander, what are you doing?”
He still didn’t answer.
When we got to the floor and the doors pinged open, we got out but I stopped and planted my feet in the carpet, pulling against his grasp.
“Stop it, why are you taking me to him?” I cried. “Why would you do that?”
Things got worse. The door to Pa’s office swung open and Pa barged out with that oafish look on his face.
“What the fuck is going on here and why the hell do you have your hands on my daughter?” Pa griped.
It was only then that Xander let go of me, but only to pull a gun on Pa.
I wondered if this was the moment when I’d see him do what he had to do in killing Pa.
“No…” I said breathlessly.
Xander looked to me and pain filled his eyes.
Pa didn’t look fazed but I knew him, he was scared. He was scared because he didn’t fully know Xander’s abilities.
Xander focused his gaze back to Pa. “You, greedy son of a bitch. You asshole. When I took this job the first thing you said to me was your daughter was the most important thing to you. I never knew at the time that you said that because of the shit you’d gotten yourself into and needed people to protect her.”
“How dare you?” Pa spat.
“I absolutely fucking do dare! I would kill you right here for the evil bastard you are, but I wouldn’t do it in front of her.”
“What the fuck do you want?” Pa growled.
“Get your men together, every last one of them and protect her. That is what I want. Get them together Giovanni and you be a father and protect her. No money on earth is worth putting your family in danger. It’s not worth it. Protect her, make sure she gets on that plane with Armand and make sure he keeps her safe.”
My heart… it wasn’t beating anymore. It wasn’t.
Pa’s face actually softened. “That is what you want? Why?”
“Because if you let The Ra get to her, you will never see her again.”
Ra?
That was what he said. That was what he said. I’d never heard the name drop before. Who were the Ra? Balthazar Kane never mentioned them, but damn did Pa ever looked freaked out with terror spreading over his face.
I’d experienced many firsts today. This was another.
Pa looking freaked out.
“How do you know about them?” he asked Xander.
“The leader of the Spades was in her house not an hour ago. You like cards right? You’re the king, your men the knights. They’re Spades.” Xander lowered his gun. Looked to me and backed away.
This was it.
His eyes were on me, holding me in place. He was leaving. This was the last time I was going to see him. He’d do whatever it was he was supposed to, steal the blueprints, and then I wouldn’t see him ever again.
I rushed up to him and grabbed onto his shirt.
“Xander no, there has to be something we can all do.” I nodded vigorously.
“No, you have to do what your father says. Jia please.” He took my hands but I wouldn’t let go.
“How can you just leave me?” I cried.
“Jia, that man was death. He is death. This is best.”
“Why?” I couldn’t see how it was best.
“Because I love you,” he blurted and my lips parted. A tear ran down his cheek and he shook his head. “I love you and as you saw, I couldn’t protect you. I couldn’t do anything to stop him from threatening you and I couldn’t kill the fucker because he would have killed you first. Yesterday I told you I had someone I was going to marry. He killed her. Right in front of me, he killed her. I can’t let that happen to you.”
Shock flew through me.
Pure shock.
My head was already spinning from hearing him tell me he loved me, but hearing that too was unreal. It filled the gaps of what Balthazar had said earlier. I understood now what he meant.
Xander reached out and touched my face.
“I’m so sorry,” I told him. “But, I love you too, and I can’t just sit back and do nothing.”
“Jia, you have to. This is best. You were the innocent, never supposed to be caught in the tangled mess. Never. You need to get out of it. I love you, so I have to let you go.”
“No… I love you too.” The tears came again. The other day I cursed myself for always crying. I couldn’t control them today.
“Then let me go... Let me go, Jia.”
My hands were on his shirt. He meant for me to let go physically, and emotionally.
Let him go.
“Please… bellezza,” He whispered. It was the first time he’d ever called me that.
My shoulders shook and something inside me shattered.
My fingers loosened, coming free of his shirt and …I let him go.
I let him go and it felt like he slipped from my grasp.
He turned away from me and went back into the elevator.
He pressed the button and the doors closed shut.
Sealing him in, sealing him away from me.
Gone…
He was gone.
Just like he never existed.
Chapter 16
Xander
Five years ago…
“We go in and out. Like we were never there,” Claire ordered pointing to the map of the factory like facility on the mountainous range.
She’d placed it up against the stone wall of the bomb shelter we were hiding out in.
I looked over the area she’d pointed to and got that tense feeling I’d had all day.
Everyone looked tense. They looked like how I’d felt.
I felt lumbered with their tension and my own. Tension for the mission we were about to go on and why.
It was the first time that any of us had been taken. Captured.
Paul…
He’d been captured a week ago by Balthazar and his Spades. Tonight we were going to rescue him. We were going into the mouth of hell on a rescue mission.
Damn Paul. I wish I didn’t care so much.
Fuck. I wished it had been me.
I had Claire but she wasn’t my wife yet. I had Jack too, but I was sure if I’d been captured and killed they’d grieve and time would heal them.
Paul had a wife and a newborn baby he hadn’t seen yet.
He had a family. One he’d created for himself. A woman who loved him to no end and a child who needed to know him.
We were looking for Balthazar and I felt we got pretty damn close. Close to him and someone else he was liaising with.
After Kazakhstan the stakes went up to bring him down. That was one year ago, and for that fucking year we’d done nothing but chase.
The thing was, it was clear there was more at work because the asshole was always one step ahead. One step ahead of us. It didn’t take rocket science to guess that someone had been feeding the motherfucker intel. Giving him the juice on who was after him.
Nobody was that good at staying hidden and escaping a unit like ours.
That fucking prick….
Paul was taken in Russia. The trail led us here to Nepal.
This morning we got a call from him letting us know where he’d been taken.
He’d said he managed to hide out in one of the storage rooms but co
uldn’t escape on his own. It was too dangerous to try. The signal cut and the connection broke as he was about to tell us more.
That was all we got.
It was enough to spring a team like us into action. A team like us who were close as family. It also clouded the other part of the situation which screamed that this could be some kind of trap.
I dare not say it, I dare not say it because if I did it wouldn’t be about me, it would be about her.
Claire. Me trying to protect her.
Me trying to stop anything bad from happening to her. A trap wouldn’t be enough to stop us from entering sure death, but it was enough for me to want to protect the woman I loved.
Claire was a real hard ass and she knew her stuff. She was her father’s daughter through and through. She didn’t care about herself. She put others before her. Her team before herself.
John was the first to stand. He’d taken it the hardest when we got the distress call from Paul that morning. He and Paul were like brothers. Lucas however, who stood next, was a man after my own heart. He’d questioned the call. Thought it was … off.
“Let’s get ready to go. You spoke to Ethan?” John asked.
Ethan was perhaps the only thing we had that made me feel comfortable. But… only because he agreed the mission. A mission we really shouldn’t be going on. He knew what Paul meant to us.
Ethan agreed it and arranged with some allies to help us if we rescued Paul and got out of the mess. That was the most he could do. It was a lot because a mission like this was against protocol. If an agent got captured the way Paul had by an enemy like Balthazar the guidance was to assume death. Not go in for a rescue.
It was worse for a specialist unit like ours that had been put together because of the skills we each possessed. Take us out, as in eradicate us—the only people who’d managed to get close to not just Balthazar but The Ra in general—and the government would lose a lot.
“He has everything ready,” Claire answered after a moment of silence. It was obvious that she wasn’t comfortable with what we were about to launch ourselves into. “We just need to get Paul.”
Ethan arranged with the allies to meet us on the other side of the mountain. We just had to get to them.
Tease of Spades: Game of Love Series Page 12