“Alec! Adam!” Both names exploded from her lips as the orgasm dominated all thoughts, all reason, and all self-control.
“Let go, sweetheart,” Adam said through gritted teeth. “I’m right there with you.”
“So am I.”
She had only a moment for her mind to register that Alec’s declaration meant he’d been jerking off while he fucked her ass with the dildo before her orgasm ripped out of her. Blissful satisfaction settled her in spent and convulsing body as both men grunted with their own release.
Next time, she vowed as she allowed herself to fall limply on top of Adam, it would be Alec’s cock in her ass instead of some blasted sex toy. Maybe even just as soon as she got a little sleep.
Chapter Seven
Alec eased out of bed, careful not to wake Jennifer. He wasn’t surprised when Adam’s eyes popped open, and the man’s gaze instantly landed on him. Men like them had coined the phrase about sleeping with one eye open.
“Where are you going?” Adam asked, his voice so low Alec probably wouldn’t have understood him if he hadn’t read the man’s lips in the sliver of light peeking through the slats in the blinds as the sun rose on the horizon.
Alec scooped a pair of shorts off the floor and pulled them on. “For a run.” When Adam’s brows etched together, he explained, “Can’t sleep. Need to burn off some energy.”
Adam slid a look down at Jennifer who was cuddled against his side with her head resting in the crook of his arm. One of his brows lifted as his gaze met Alec’s again.
Alec swallowed a laugh. Yeah, sex with Jennifer was a far more appealing way to burn off energy than going for a run. Still… “I figured we should give her a break after last night.”
He assumed her untrained ass to be sore after being fucked with the dildo. But she’d enjoyed it. There was no doubt in his mind about that. He was so certain of it that he fully expected her to want a real dick her in ass the next time they had sex.
Adam nodded once. “Enjoy your run.”
Alec put on his tennis shoes and quietly left the cottage. Movement in his peripheral vision caught his attention as soon as he hit the front walkway.
“Looks like the two of us had the same idea this morning,” Robby said as he headed toward Alec. The man was dressed in an Under Armour tank top, loose fitting shorts, and running shoes. He had a sports bottle of water clipped on his hip.
Alec hadn’t bothered with a shirt, knowing he would be drenched in sweat by the time he was finished anyway and would likely dive into the water for a quick swim to cool off as he always did before heading back to the cottage.
Robby’s gaze moved over the scars on Alec’s chest. “That must have hurt like hell.”
Alec made a noncommittal sound. “Where’s Lexie?”
Robby glanced back at his cottage. “Still sleeping like the beauty she is. What about Jennifer and Adam?”
“Same, though I wouldn’t call Adam a beauty.” Adam hadn’t been asleep when he’d left either, but Alec didn’t bother with the semantics.
Robby chuckled. “There is that. Do you always go running this early?”
Alec shrugged. “When I can. It’s quieter. Less people around. I don’t usually see you out.”
Robby dragged a hand down his face. “I thought it would be good to clear my head. You know, after last night and all.”
Yeah, Alec knew. He hadn’t been totally honest with Adam. He was looking for some time to clear his head, too. Or, at the least, get some of his thoughts in line. Jennifer and Adam’s time on the island was rapidly drawing to a close. The more time he spent with both of them, the more he was dreading that. He liked having Adam around again. And as for Jennifer…
“Mind if I join you?”
“Having someone else around isn’t really going to give you time to clear your head,” Alec told him.
“I didn’t say we had to talk,” Robby countered. “Honestly, I was kind of relieved when Lexie voted to sleep in rather than come with me. Running with you will be different.”
Alec shrugged again. “Suit yourself.”
He headed down the sidewalk toward the less occupied end of the island with Robby keeping step at his side. The nudist colony claimed much of that end and was rarely out at this time of morning. He waited until he hit the edge of the beach, turned again, and started running.
His thoughts picked up where they’d left off with Jennifer. He more than liked having her around. He fucking loved it. As in, really fucking loved her. The realization of that didn’t scare the shit out him as he’d figured it would. Losing her did. The possibility of finding out that what was between the two of them had only been a vacation fling did. What would happen when she went back to Waterston? Her relationship with Adam would continue. Alec didn’t doubt that.
But what about her relationship with him?
He pondered over that question and the various ways the scenario could play out as he ran, half listening to the water crashing against the shore, the birds chirping as if they were greeting the sun, and Robby’s heavy footfalls beside him. Lexie seemed to have found happiness on the island and with this man. Jennifer was convinced her friend would decide to stay. Would Jennifer? Would she be willing to give up her life in Waterston and move to the island to be with him?
And where would that leave Adam?
“Damn, it’s blistering hot out here already,” Robby commented, wiping beads of sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand.
“Thought we weren’t going to talk.” Alec was surprised the man had kept his mouth shut this long. They’d nearly made it to the pier on the far corner of the island where he usually turned back to retrace his steps before diving into the Gulf.
“Hold up. I need a drink.” Robby stopped and gestured with the sports bottle to Alec as he unclipped the sports bottle from his hip when Alec slowed to a stop with him. “You didn’t bring any water.”
“I didn’t think about it.”
Robby passed the bottle to him. “Have some of mine. I don’t mind sharing.”
Figuring what the hell, Alec pulled the up the cap on the squirt top and squeezed out a mouthful of water before handing the bottle back to Robby. “Thanks.” When Robby didn’t immediately take a swig, Alec knew he’d fucked up.
The man’s whole demeanor changed. Alec watched it happen even as his vision began to blur. “What the hell did you lace that with?”
“Just a little something to make you more cooperative.” Robby’s voice sounded farther and farther away.
Alec’s head spun, and his muscles felt weak. Dizzy, he stumbled, lost his footing in the sand, and went down on one knee. “Why?”
“You’ll find out soon enough,” Alec heard the man say just before his world went black.
* * * *
A persistent buzzing woke Adam from the sound sleep he’d fallen back into after Alec had left. The buzzing was his cell phone set on vibrate and rattling against the change he had in the pocket of his shorts. He’d taken them off, or rather, Jennifer had taken them off him, beside the bed and left them lying on the floor.
She stirred next to him, her head lifted, and her eyes slowly opened. “Is that your cell phone?”
“Yeah,” he said, his voice still gravelly from sleep.
“Hmm…” She stretched languidly beside him. “I’m not sure how I feel about someone besides me wanting you.”
Chuckling gruffly, Adam rolled to his side, caught his shorts, and dragged them closer to dig out his cell. A glance at the illuminated screen told him it was U.S. Marshal Clive Gatewood calling.
“What have you found?” Adam asked in lieu of a greeting.
“About time you answered,” Gatewood responded. “I’m texting you a pic now taken from surveillance footage from a small restaurant Rithrisak Vibol visited hours before his death. The system is outdated, so the photo is grainy, but we believe we’ve found our blond-headed man.”
Adam’s phone vibrated against the side of his face with
the incoming text. “I just got it. Hang on.” He pulled the phone from his ear, pushed the text messaging icon, and felt his blood turn to ice. “Son of a bitch.”
He didn’t bother with another word to Gatewood. He ended the call as he got out of bed, found Alec’s number, and met Jennifer’s questioning gaze as he listed to the phone ring in his ear.
“Is something wrong?” She shot a cursory look around the room. “Where’s Alec?”
“He went for a run. Call Lexie.” Christ! Lexie had been with Robby, or whatever the prick’s real name was, last night. Had she stayed in his cottage next door? “If she doesn’t answer, keep calling her.”
Alec wasn’t answering. A quick glance at the bedside clock told Adam it had been more than an hour since the man had left for his run. He ended the call, pulled up Cabelly’s direct line that he’d saved in his contacts during his last visit to the island, and initiated the call as he stepped into his shorts.
Jennifer had found her cell phone and had it braced between her ear and one shoulder as she quickly dressed. Adam had only a nanosecond to think how truly incredible the woman was that she would spring into action with no questions asked before Cabelly’s voice filled his ear.
Adam didn’t mince words. “I know who the blond man is. He’s dyed his hair, but it’s the same man. I need you and as many of your deputies as you can gather at Alec’s cottage yesterday.”
Cabelly didn’t hesitate. “We’re on our way.”
“I’ve called three times.” Jennifer’s voice was full of worry but surprisingly calm and steady. “She isn’t picking up.”
“Neither is Alec.” Adam shoved the phone in his pocket and palmed the gun he’d placed on the bedside table last night.
Jennifer’s gaze landed on the gun. “There’s another one of those in the nightstand drawer. I saw it the other day. Give it to me.”
Adam wasn’t accustomed to taking orders, but he was familiar with thinking fast on his feet. Jennifer’s brother had been a cop. He knew the man had taught her how to defend herself in every way from fighting to shooting a firearm. Deciding he would rather her be armed than defenseless, he got Alec’s gun out of the drawer and handed it to her.
“You stay behind me at all times and do everything I tell you,” he said in the tone he used with his agents that brooked no room for argument.
Jennifer nodded as she positioned the gun in her hand in a sure and steady grip and held it at her side. “Where are we going and why are you worried about Lexie?”
“We’re going next door to see if she’s still there while we wait for Cabelly and his men,” Adam told her as he led the way through the cottage. “Remember the guy Roumduol Alec and I told you about?” He didn’t wait for Jennifer to answer, knowing she would remember. “He’s after Alec again, and I believe the guy Lexie has been seeing is his latest hitman.”
He didn’t just believe it. He fucking knew it. Why else would Robby have been seen eating in a restaurant with Vibol hours before Vibol had been killed and was now on the island getting close to Alec and the people around him?
“Oh, dear God.”
Adam paused at the front door to the cottage at Jennifer’s horrified whisper and took a precious moment to turn and cup her cheek with his free hand.
“You think he has Lexie and Alec.”
“We’ll find them.” Adam put as much assurance in his words as he could, praying he wasn’t already too late. “I need you with me, so I’ll know you’re safe, too.”
* * * *
Alec came to slowly. His mind registered the faint sound of the waves first and then the sobbing. The sobbing was much closer, female, and terrified. When he tried to move, he realized his arms were bound behind him around something hard and unyielding against his back.
“Good. You’re awake.”
Alec’s lifted his head, opened his eyes. He concentrated on the blurry form standing in front of him and blinked until his vision focused on Robby. He licked his dry lips, tried to swallow, tried to speak. His mouth was parched. He needed water, but wasn’t that what had gotten him in this position to start with?
“Who are you?” he managed to rasp out.
“Just consider me a means to your end,” Robby answered vilely. He was holding a gun. Alec didn’t know where he’d gotten that, but it was in his hand in a loose grip at his side. His gaze shifted to Alec’s right, and he made an unconcerned face. “And hers.”
Bitter panic and nausea pushed bile to the back of Alec’s throat when he saw Lexie gagged and tied to a tree within arm’s reach at his side. Her eyes were huge in a face streaked with tears, the corner of her mouth and side of her jaw swollen and bloody. The bastard had hit her. God, what else had he done to her?
“It’s going to be okay.” He tried to comfort her, but he could see his words did little good. Like him, she’d been put through hell once, and those demons of the past were combining with the one standing before them now to wreak havoc on her sanity.
Robby tsked. “You shouldn’t lie to the lady. It’s not nice.”
“You should know,” Alec ground out. “You lied to her, to all of us.”
Robby shrugged. “That’s neither here, nor there. I never intended on harming you.” Lexie’s sobbing got louder as the man stepped closer to her and skimmed a finger over her swollen jaw.
Alec jerked and strained against the ropes binding his wrists to the tree behind him. “Don’t touch her. I’m the one you want.”
What he didn’t know was why.
“I have to kill her, too. She’ll be a necessary casualty. She’s seen me.”
“Half of the people on this island have seen you,” Alec reminded the man. He’d been on the island for weeks, staying in the cottage next to Alec’s, apparently waiting for the right time to make his move.
Why had he chosen this morning to do it?
“Yes, but those people haven’t seen him with me.”
Alec whipped his head toward the sound of the new voice. Hatred and memories, Veansa’s memories, swamped him. “Boran Roumduol.”
And now, he understood everything.
“It’s been a long time, old friend,” Roumduol sneered.
“I’m not your friend,” Alec snapped back.
“Oh, but you were. I made you one of my most trusted and you betrayed me, Alec. You didn’t really think I would let you get away with that, did you?”
“Sounds to me like you put your trust in the wrong man,” Alec countered.
Visibly seething, Roumduol stepped closer. The first punch connected with Alec’s jaw. Hard. His head snapped to the side, wrenching his neck. He spat out the blood when it filled his mouth and felt his throbbing lips stretch as he looked back at Roumduol. The grin he gave the man wasn’t the one he’d grown accustomed to feeling since he’d met Jennifer. It was the one he’d taught himself to control and hide before she’d come into his life. The one that had once belonged to Veansa.
“You hit like a girl.”
The next blow hit him dead in the stomach. Waves of nausea battered him, and he struggled not to throw up. The third blow landed in his ribs on the left side and was followed immediately by another and then another. He doubled over as far as the bindings on his wrists allowed, absorbing the blows, his muscles tensing and his mind stumbling over memories and his instincts to survive.
He’d been here before. Maybe not in this uninhabited part of the island near the pier. He realized that’s where he and Lexie had been taken, into the dense trees the owners of the island had left undeveloped to accent the island’s beauty. He had been in this world of pain before, at the mercy of a kingpin and his goons, with certain death looming over him.
“Stop!” The gag in Lexie’s mouth muffled her pleas, but she screamed loudly enough that her words were clear. “Please!”
Roumduol didn’t stop. He continued to use Alec’s midsection for a punching bag, concentrating his blows on Alec’s ribs and stomach. Alec tried not to choke, not to heave as the pounding
continued, one after another until reality began to merge with the past.
Memories he recognized as being from the last time he’d attempted to withstand such a beating returned. He saw Phay’s men surrounding him, holding him down, and hammering him into a broken, bloody pulp. Knowing none of that would save him in the here and now, he forced it all to the back of his mind and was aided, unintentionally he was certain, by Roumduol as the man finally quit punching him.
Alec gasped for air and fought to think past the pain. He’d left Jennifer and Adam in his cottage. How long would it take before Adam would come looking for him? Would the man come looking for him? How long had he been gone already?
You can’t depend on anyone to save you.
He had to find a way out of this himself. More importantly, he had to find a way to save Lexie.
He heard Lexie gasp, listened as she started to beg again, and locked his gaze on the eight-inch blade Roumduol pulled from a sheath on his side. The sun filtering through the canopy of the trees overhead glinted off the silver.
“I have a whole lot more in store for you,” Roumduol promised as he backed away, “but first, you’re going to watch as the lovely blonde dies.”
Fear and adrenaline mixed a heady concoction in Alec’s veins as Roumduol passed the knife to Robby. Robby stashed the gun in the waistband of his shorts as he took the knife and moved in on Lexie.
“I really am sorry I have to kill you.” There wasn’t an ounce of remorse in Robby’s voice despite his words. “You have such a pretty throat. It’s a shame I have to slice it open.”
Lexie was flailing, straining against her bindings, and frantically sobbing.
Alec couldn’t allow this to happen. He’d break a damn wrist to get out of the rope binding them tight if he had to. He fought the rope, feeling it dig into his flesh, as Robby started to raise the knife to Lexie’s throat.
Safe and Assigned to Ecstasy [The Heroes of Silver Island 5] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 13