Off Limits

by Jana Leigh

  “Like I’m cooperating,” she grumbled and held her sore arm next to her body.

  The large man grinned and quickly pulled her hands out and tied them to the chair as she screamed in pain. When her cries quieted to a whimper , the large man grabbed a scalpel off the table and came and stood in front of her.

  “Do you know what I’m going to do with this?” he said and then looked at her body.

  “Open-heart surgery?” she gritted out through the pain.

  Rocco glared at her and swung his large beefy hand at her face, and she screamed when the knuckle connected with her cheek bone. Stars floated before her eyes.

  “Being a smartass will get you killed , ” h e ground out.

  “So will just sitting here. I thought we could hurry this along a little .” She grimaced and then flinched when the man laughed.

  “Oh, we are going to have some fun.”

  Chapter 2

  Shane and Drake remained in the coffee shop until they knew it was time for their little spy to leave for the day. Both walked to their assigned spots across from the building exit that she took every day. Today they were going to intercept her and take her with them. They had already arranged for her possessions to be boxed up and put in storage until they could check all of them for bugs.

  As they waited, each of the men became more nervous as the time went on. They knew what they wanted to do with their lives and how they wanted to live. Some women were excited about the prospect of being in a menage; however, most only wanted one night. They wanted a commitment , someone who would bear their children and live with them forever. So far, they hadn ‘t found the right one, but as the days had passed, and they watched Phoebe , they knew she could be the one. If she was willing to share , that is . They were planning on telling her right up front their intentions.

  Shane looked over to where his partner was standing and nodded. She had to be working late tonight; it was already thirty minutes past the time she usually left. People were streaming out if the building , ending their workday . After a few more minutes when the largest part of the crowd cleared from the front of the building and Phoebe still had not a ppeared, h e began to get concerned . She should not be in the building alone where people could see what she was doing.

  Shane walked across the street to talk to Blake; the other man was leaning against the wall , looking like he was waiting for someone casually. It was only when he drew closer he could tell his friend was becoming tense and stressed , the same as he was.

  “She needs to get out of there, now , ” Blake ground out between his teeth.

  Shane nodded and looked back at the building. The windows were reflective so you couldn’t see inside even the lobby. The huge sign on the door saying ‘DG Incorporated ‘, was laughable. Most everyone who was in law enforcement or worked for the courts in any way knew what the building held. The corruption ran deep, no matter how much Junior tried to sugar coat it. This business was built on blood, and they were going to take it down.

  “Call and say there’s a problem in the apartment building. Gas leak and they need to get into her apartment. We can pinpoint where she is with the GPS we put into the phone the other day , ” Shane said, and Blake nodded.

  He pulled out his phone while Shane pulled up the tracking program on his phone , and waited. He could hear the ringing of the phone, suddenly a man answered.

  “What?” the gruff tone said.

  “I’m looking for Ms. Stone,” Blake said making sure to use her alias.

  “She’s busy.”

  Blake frowned into the phone and then proceeded to tell the man it was urgent that they get a hold of Ms. Stone . Shane looked up at him and frowned. Something was wrong . Their GPS locator could pinpoint the signal within a few feet. Her phone wasn ‘t on the floor it was supposed to be. Shane motioned with his hand to let him know he needed to keep talking. He was trying to see if he could pin point who had cell phone s around her. His tracking would allow him to see other signals, which were close.

  “Sir, I must insist that I speak with Ms. Stone, or we will have to send a uniformed officer out to her listed place of work. There are a lot more lives involved here , ” Blake said and rolled his eyes. Only a dork would actually buy this story, but he had to think of it off the cuff, and nothing else popped to mind.

  Shane nodded his head and Blake hung up the phone as the man began to get nasty with him. “Well ?”

  “Third floor, in an inner room. According to the plans, we have it a s the security floor , ” Shane said grimly and looked at the building.

  “Fuck,” Blake said quietly.

  “We need to get her out now,” Shane said and looked around the street. They needed a diversion and quickly. One that would make sure that every single person came out of the building.

  “They’re gonna take her through the garage. Once I create a distraction , you make sure you get her , ” Shane said and grinned.

  “How will I know?”

  “You’ll know,” Shane said and ran back across the street.

  Blake shook his head and didn’t doubt for a second he would know when his best friend was going to start. Shane was the master at distractions. Over the years, he saved all the men’s lives they now worked with —his hare-brained schemes always worked and always made them laugh when it was over. Blake only hoped that was the case tonight.

  He wound his way through the streets until he was on the back end of the building. He slipped into the parking garage and positioned himself to see the elevator that led to the area. They knew that only the execs parked in here. He saw Junior’s car and rolled his eyes at the license plate he had —TufGuy. What a dipshit , he thought , and then noted the other cars that were still in the building . Quickly taking out his phone , he snapped pictures of all the license plates so they could look them up later.

  The security man was walking around the garage checking things. Blake turned and twisted , moving around the barrier as the se curity man walked. He wanted to chuckle at the game of hide and seek he was playing. Wow, Junior should really pay to have his security trained better.

  Blake stood wondering when the hell Shane was going to give the signal. It seemed like it had taken forever to get here and be in place. Now he was wondering how much longer he was going to have to avoid security .

  Then he heard it and smiled. The siren and alarms went off, nearly busting his ear drums. Blake pulled out his ear plugs and put them in so the noise would n ‘t bother him. He hated to lose concentration because of noise. He felt the loud noises of the gates being opened and the police department beginning to arrive. It had to be a bomb threat. Shane always loved to make a statement.

  Blake saw the elevator light up and begin to move. It was called to an upper floor. He watched as the lights flickered , finally landing on the floor where Phoebe and the security offices were located. It took a long time for it to begin moving. Someone must have been holding it open, waiting for people.

  She may not be on this ride, he thought , and waited. If she had been discovered, Blake knew that Junior was going to try to keep it under wraps , but who knew how far the knowledge of corruption went into his place. For all they knew, every single person who worked her e knew what the hell they were doing.

  Although Junior tried to say he was a normal businessman, most people didn’t believe him. But there w ere a handful of people who said that he should be given a chance. Most of them were local officials who had helped the two brothers stay out of jail when their father was arrested.

  They claimed that the brothers had not known a thing their father was doing. And the businesses had been separated years before. The brother s actually had a legitimate business that ran out of this building. But only a sucker would believe it were true.

  Blake positioned himself once again so he could see the people as they exited the elevator , when the bell dinged . Junior and a thin man stepped out and hurried together to his car and got in. They didn ‘t even look over thei
r shoulders to the see if the rest of the people got off and got to their cars safely. Blake could see several of the higher security men moving quickly to their vehicles . They had files on each of them.

  Rocco, Junior’s right-hand man, was missing . Blake frowned and watched as the elevator once again closed and began to rise. Shit, if they had Rocco watching Phoebe, she was in more trouble than they realized. The man was a sick mot herfucker, the shit the y read on him made him cringe. He loved to torture people to get information out of them. Few people survived once in his presence, if he wanted information. This really sucked . He needed to have Shane come and help as back -up if Phoebe was with the large man. Blake could take him if they were one -on -one , but with Phoebe being there also, he wanted to make sure she didn’t get hurt.

  The elevator dinged again and Blake looked up; he didn ‘t have enough time to get Shane back here. He hoped he had the car ready for them, because Rocco was on the elevator, and he was carrying a bloodied , unconscious Phoebe in his arms. Blake felt the anger begin to rise as he saw the condition she was in. He could tell her arm was broken because of the old angle it was at as it hung loosely in front of her. Her face was turned toward him and the bruising and blood showed that she had taken a few hits.

  Blake waited as the large, monstro us man walked to the van that was parked next to where Junior had parked. Holding Phoebe with one hand , he reached for the back doors to op en them with the other, and Blak e struck. He hit the large man on the back of the head with the pipe he found. The ‘thunk’ when the pipe hit the man’s head made even Blake grimace , but he didn ‘t have time to stop and think. He grabbed for Phoebe as the large man began to fall.

  Trying to be gentle, Blake laid her in the corner while he stood and looked back at Rocco. He should have known the large man had a rock-solid head. The blow may have dazed him, but it didn ‘t knock him out. With a red , furious face, the large man spun toward him and let out a roar of displeasure.

  “You fucker,” he screamed and lunged toward him. Blake had the advantage of being lighter and quicker. He was also in better shape. The criminal obviously became complacent in the last few years, relying solely on his reputation. Blake grinned and swept the large man ‘s feet, then pounced when he hit the floor.

  Punching him in the face repeatedly, Blake almost grinned at the blood he saw pouring from the man’s nose, he wanted to scream a t him and ask him how he liked being beaten. But he held back. Blake didn ‘t want to attract attention.

  Finally, with a sickening crunch of the cheekbone, Rocco fell unconscious. Blake pushed himself up and took a deep breath before wiping the back of his hand across his forehead. That had been tough work. Now he needed to get his little woman out of here and to safety before he could relax.

  Blake went to where Phoebe’s crumpled body lay on the cold , concrete floor and gathered her up quickly. They had to get out of here before the security and police came to look.

  He walked out of the back of the garage and grinned when he saw the black van parked just beyond the entrance . Moving quickly , he reached the door just as it popped open and Shane said, “Hurry, they ‘re going to be securing this area in a second, and we need to be long gone.”

  Blake nodded and slid into the passenger seat with Phoebe still in his arms and buckled them in together. He wasn ‘t going to let her out of his sight for a second until they were back where they needed to be.

  “We need supplies,” Blake said briskly , knowing his friend would realize he was talking about medical supplies .

  “Already ahead of you, have them being prepared right now. Just one quick stop and we ‘ll be on the way. I think it would be best if we didn’t stop too much until we reach Lily’s.”

  Blake nodded and looked down at the woman he held in his arms. “Yeah, I think we need to make sure she’s safe, then we can figure all of this out.”

  They were headed back to the headquarters of t heir new company , w hich was now located in Massena, NY. The leader of the company was Rex —he was Phoebe’s half -brother. Rex and Drew were getting m arried to Jazz. It was like Pey ton Place around them, but Blake and Shane really wanted the same thing as their friends. Phoebe was the one they wanted.

  The others in the company were Trent and Bear; they had already found their woman, Lily, even if she refused to acknowledge it. It was kinda funny watching the grown men follow Lily around. Blake wondered if Phoebe was going to be like that too. If these three women became close friends like they all hoped, they would be a force to be reckoned with. Jazz was one scary lady when she was pissed. For a dancer, s he packed quite a punch.

  Chapter 3

  Junior threw the glass he was holding against the wall and looked at the large , bruised man standing in front of him. “You have got to be fuckin’ kidding me!”

  “Sir, they were waiting for me,” Rocco said as he held an ice pack to the back of his head. “There was nothing I could do. When I came to , the police were already there surrounding the place, and I had to think quickly on my feet. I said whoever had called in the threat tried to come through the garage.”

  “I hope you spun a convincing enough tale, because if that little bi tch , Mary , wants to come back and press charges, we need to have something good , ” Junior said .

  “She won’t be back, but if she does, we ‘ll have a plan. We have got to do some damage control as it is. She didn’t get out with the papers, but who knows how man y more are being sent. Sir, we’re going to have to start shifting some of the company away from that storefront , ” Rocco said.

  Junior looked at him and grinned. “Yeah, and I know just the place. My father’s company is currently being held by the IRS, the FBI, and whoever else has initials in their names. But they don’t know about one company, the one my father has all of his stuff stashed in.”

  Rocco shifted on his feet and looked at the younger man closely. “But we can’t touch that.” Rocco knew that Senior refused to turn over the passwords and location to this place to Junior. He often called his sons too stupid to actually know what to do with the fortune he had amassed . Junior knew what he was going to do, but first he had to talk to his father’s lawyers and find out if the asshole had changed his will. Junior knew that his father had named his brother and him the beneficiaries , but after this last run-in with the law, he blamed Junior for not protecting him. He was sitting his fat ass in jail and trying to run his empire. It had not been working real well so far, since the FBI was monitoring all of his communications.

  Junior walked around the room an d smiled as a plan formed in his head. He needed to get his father out of power and claim the seat without anyone being able to blame him. The FBI would have an end to their case, and no one would be the wiser. He could finally finish off the list his brother and he had made in order to clean up after their father. They had been shocked at the amount of affairs he had when his mother was alive. And the kids, shit, the man bred like a rabbit.

  So far, none of the bastards his father had , wanted any of his money, but that could change, and he wasn ‘t giving up a dime. His brother and he had to grow up with that man. He was pure evil, and he taught them well —p robably too well. He thought that they were stupid, but in the background, Junior and his brother had been building their own empire. And soon they would add a good chunk of change to it.

  The contact alone would make a person want his father dead. If the statement was bold enough , they would all fall into line, afraid that Junior or his brother would retaliate. There would be some s kir mish es , there always was when there was a shift in power, but they would be ready.

  Junior looked at Rocco and said, “It ‘s time for you to make up your mind whose side you ‘re going to be on.”

  Rocco raised his eyebrows and looked at the younger man; he worked for his father for years, and then his father assigned him to look after Junior and his brother. He wanted weekly updates on what they were doing, in case he had to step in and take over. Junior was a bit ra
sh when it came to taking care of problems and tended to order people to be killed. Their body count was adding up, well it would be if the feds ever found the hiding spots. But they were going to have to find another place to make people disappear soon; the farm was getting full.

  “What are you talking about?” Rocco said and then tried to look relaxed.

  “You know exactly what I’m talking about; I let you report back to the old man for years. I didn’t really care too much, but now that he ‘s in jail, and we ‘re having to clean up his mess. It ‘s time for you to choose what side you ‘re going to fall on. You can stay with my father, which means in the next few days you will be killed right along wi th him, or you can side with me and become my true right-hand man , ” Junior said and then turned back to his desk and opened a drawer.

  Rocco prepared himself for the gun he was sure the younger man was about ready to pull out. Rocco had stupidly left his piece in the van after he arrived, not thinking clearly. The blow to the head he received had made his thinking cloudy. He never thought Junior would actually think that killing his father was a good idea.

  “Junior, I have worked for your family for years. I have no problem working for you, but I have to know exactly what you ‘re p l anning , ” Rocco said slowly.

  Junior turned around and held out a business card, and Rocco reached out and took it. At least it wasn’t the gun like he thought. He looked down at the name and then looked back up at the younger man , surprised . “Seriously?”

  “As a heart attack,” Junior said and then walked around the desk. “Until this all happens , you will be monitored by another one of my guard s , just to make sure you don’t try to warn anyone. I have a scheduled visit with the old man the day after tomorrow. It will be done then.”

  Rocco sighed and then thought about his own circumstances. There was no way he was going to get in the middle of a pissing match between this family. He had a wife and a child in college . Shrugging his shoulders , he said , “Want me to make the call now?”