Chapter Ten
When Isaac had burst into The Imperial Dragon, Alex assumed the meeting had been a trap and that his own life was in danger. Instead of panicking and running back out with the younger man, Alex apologized to the small group of people he had been speaking with and forced himself to walk the length of the restaurant with a steady, confident pace, his eyes twitching back and forth, hand close to his concealed Glock. When he exited the building, Isaac was back at the SUV next to Nate, pistol drawn, his face contorted with rage.
“What the hell is going on?” Alex hissed. He glanced around at the deserted street. “Put your weapon away.”
“Emma,” Isaac spat. “Someone took her, and he won’t go after them.” He gestured in Nate’s direction. “Or give me the fucking keys.”
Alex’s stomach churned, and looked around in a dumbfounded confusion.
“I don’t take orders from you.” The driver shrugged casually.
“You said the van was ours,” Isaac yelled.
Alex ignored him and instead looked at Nate, fury in his chest. How could he have not given chase?
Instead of grabbing the driver and beating him bloody, Alex let his mind fly over possibilities.
Could this have been Slatter? Alex looked down at his phone. He tapped open the tracking app Vance had their technology guru install on his phone to keep track of potential runaways. “I know where they’re taking her.”
“What? How?”
“Let’s move.” Nate nodded at the command and hurried to his place behind the wheel.
Alex yanked the front passenger door open and hopped inside. “Grant is on backup for this meeting. Call Marcus. Have him catch a ride with Grant and head in our direction. Keep him on the phone, even after we meet. Tell him to be on standby, to follow us and wait for further instructions.”
While Nate drove, Alex sat quietly in the front seat, his face illuminated in his phone’s glow, watching a little green dot that signified Emma’s cell. Rage boiled in his stomach. Within fifteen minutes, a small squad of various vehicles fell into place behind the SUV.
“Grant’s behind us.” Isaac’s voice was strained, phone pressed to his ear. He followed Alex’s orders, telling the cop to stand by until they arrived at their destination.
There was a tense silence, then the younger man spoke again. “How do you know where they’re going?”
Alex ignored him.
Twenty horrifically long minutes later, they all pulled along a short, out of sight drive and into an open lot. Nate killed the engine, and the three men got out of the car and into dark silence. They were quickly joined by Marcus, Grant, and five other men. A large, desolate warehouse stood before them, the van that had been outside of the Dragon in view.
Alex drew his pistol, the weight comforting in his grip, and stalked toward Isaac. “You and I will clear the inside after Marcus and his men take care of the guards outside. They will keep the perimeter secure as we enter. Nate.” He turned to the driver. “Find a way in from the outside. Do not be seen.” Alex looked back at Isaac. “We keep at least one alive, to question.”
The guards were quickly and quietly executed before they could sound an alarm. Alex moved through the warehouse, closing in on the only sounds he could hear, Isaac close behind, Glocks sweeping in front of them as they cleared each area. No other enemies waited in the darkness. Once the area was secure, the pair crouched outside the door of the room where Emma was being held.
Alex focused on staying calm as they waited for Nate’s signal. He could hear Isaac’s breath as it tore in and out of his nose. The younger man’s gun was pointed at the ceiling in front of him, mimicking Alex’s stance, and his soft curls were plastered to his forehead. Alex frowned. He’d never seen the kid lose his cool on any job, and his eyes narrowed.
A smart-mouthed comment from Emma drifted over to them. Alex felt his upper lip curl as one of the Italians threatened to remove her teeth. Where the fuck is Nate? He thought, more frantically than he expected. As he listened to the events in the next room unfold, he realized they might have to change their plan.
“You have such delicate fingers,” Alex heard a man say, and his eyes locked with Isaac. He nodded his head, mouthed Now at the kid, then stood in a quick, fluid motion. Isaac followed suit, but the sound of shattering glass sliced through the room. Alex smiled. About fucking time.
Together, he and Isaac swept into the room, silenced guns pointed in front of them. The men inside had all been startled at the window’s sudden explosion, and had turned to face the far wall. There was no hesitation as Alex and Isaac squeezed their triggers, and two of the captors dropped to the ground, leaving the man with the pliers and the one with the boot on Emma’s back. The former dropped his tool as he flung his arms up. At the sound of the shots, both men whipped back around and faced their attackers.
Alex’s eyes flicked down to his lover as he aimed at the captor with his foot on Emma. He felt his rage boil at the sight of her on her stomach, bloodied and dirty. He squeezed the trigger of his Glock once more and felt the recoil as a bullet flew from the chamber and buried itself in the man’s left shoulder. He turned his head and nodded once at Isaac, who had the nose of his gun embedded in the temple of the captor with the crooked nose. Satisfied the kid was following instructions, he turned toward the injured captor. Too late, Alex watched as the man raised his gun at Isaac.
Nate, who had entered the room via the broken window during the chaos, brought a thick metal pipe down onto the man’s arm, snapping bone and smashing the joint of his elbow. As the captor fell, Alex went to Emma and gently pushed a loose strand of sweat slicked hair from her eyes. She stared up at him with an expression he couldn’t place. Behind her, Nate wrapped a length of rope around the neck of the captor in front of him, turned, bent forward and pulled. The motion lifted the other man into the air by the throat as he lay across Nate’s back, whose feet were planted wide beneath him. Strangled noises emitted from the man’s mouth as he choked, his face turning first red, then purple. Nate shifted his stance wider as the man struggled.
Alex began loosening Emma’s restraints around her ankles and wrists. He helped her to her feet. As she stood, her legs trembled slightly. He expected her to throw her arms around him. Instead, she dusted herself off and grinned at not him, but at Isaac.
“Emma.” Alex tried to ignore his irritation. His hands trailed over her as he checked for injuries. He gently pulled her fingers into his hands and looked into her eyes. “Are you all right?”
“All this for a trophy?” The accented voice of the captor Isaac held at gunpoint sounded over the struggles of his companion. Alex watched as the kid gripped the man’s hair and yanked his head back, then shoved the nose of his Glock into his mouth.
He knew he should be angry at the man’s comment, his insult of Emma, but his body was too busy experiencing a near crippling sense of relief now that she was safe, back in his arms where she belonged. He wanted to kiss her, to take her away from the dangerous scene, but instead, he turned to Nate.
“Drop him.” The driver complied, and stood over the man, who gasped for air once his body thudded to the concrete.
“It’s funny,” Alex said to the captor with Isaac’s gun in his mouth. “You thought you could fuck with us. That we would cower to you. That you could hurt us - hurt her - and get away with it.” Alex reached down and gently pulled Isaac’s hand back until the gun was fully removed from the man’s mouth. Isaac let go of the man’s hair and gripped the gun with both hands, eyes still full of rage.
“Who was it?” Alex asked softly.
Crooked Nose simply laughed. It was a pathetic, manic sound, but it still infuriated Alex, and he struggled to keep his cool. Behind him, Nate lifted a leg above the man on the floor in front of him as he writhed on the floor. The driver swiftly brought the heel of his foot down on the man’s ankle, who emitted a choked, ragged howl as the small bones of the joint snapped.
“That’s not going to ma
ke me talk,” Crooked Nose said, his voice clear. “I don’t give a shit about—”
“Slatter,” the other captor heaved, the word a muffled mess.
Alex smiled without taking his eyes off of the man on his knees before him.
“There we go,” he said brightly, and nodded at Isaac.
“Wait.” Emma stepped forward. She stood in between them and Nate, violence on her face. Without a word, Isaac pulled his Cryo knife from his front pocket and handed it to Emma, who snapped it open in a quick motion. She advanced on the Italian. Alex stepped backward, out of her way, as she bent at the waist and stared into the man’s eyes.
“I told you I’d kill you,” she muttered. The man took a breath in then cried out as Emma stabbed the blade into his stomach. She stabbed him again and he fell, blood splattering on the concrete underneath him. Isaac and Emma took a step back as he crumpled forward. Stabbing him in the small of his back, Emma let out a ragged yell. A stream of blood surged forth. She stepped back and kicked the man in his head, no longer able to keep her rage and fear from the night bottled up. Still uttering wordless noises, Emma dropped over Crooked Nose and straddled him, apparently uncaring of the blood that instantly blossomed into large stains on the fabric of her jeans. She raised the knife and plunged it back into her captor’s chest, over and over, until he stopped screaming.
Alex’s lips formed a smile as he watched. He looked over his shoulder at Nate and nodded. The driver knelt over the other captor and began to beat his head against the hard concrete ground.
“Emma.” Isaac’s voice was soft, cautious. He stepped forward, careful to avoid her vicious movements as she continued to stab the dead man beneath her. “Emma, it’s all right. He’s done. You’re fine.” She let out a final hoarse yell and let the knife stay imbedded in the man’s torso. When she looked up, Alex could see her eyes were wide but dry. She was covered in random patterns of blood splatters and smears, and her jeans were ruined. He opened his mouth to tell her to get up when he was interrupted.
“Look what I found outside.” Marcus’ voice cut above the dying man’s yells. Alex looked up and grinned at the district attorney, nose bloodied and a look of wild fear in his eyes.
“Hi, there.” As Slatter took in the bloodbath before him, Alex said, “This is what happens when you underestimate Ivan Vance.”
—-
Less than an hour later, steam curled upward from the hot water in Emma’s bathtub in thin tendrils that reached for the ceiling. She stared at a random fixed point on the wall behind the ceramic tub, her mind aflutter from the night’s events. Alex stood behind her, his hands slowly helping her out of her dirt covered, blood-smeared shirt.
Emma winced as she pulled her right arm out of the sleeve, her side painful and bruised from where she’d been kicked. She felt Alex’s fingers slide down her bare torso and gently probe the tender area. Her breath hissed through clenched teeth as she inhaled at his touch, half out of pain, half from an emotional recoil.
Another dull pain in her side brought her focus forward, and she shied away from Alex’s touch.
“I don’t think anything is broken.” His normally cold voice was soft.
He unclasped her bra and let it fall to the tiled floor of the bathroom. Emma’s arms crossed over her exposed breasts instinctively. Alex didn’t say a word as he helped her remove her dirty jeans. He was being so tender, giving her every ounce of his attention.
As she lowered herself into the steaming bath water, her mind recalled how he’d acted before the kidnapping. On the way to Alex’s meeting at the Imperial Dragon, he had stared at her, obviously unable to contain his desire, even with Nate in the car with them. Sure enough, he’d unbuckled his seatbelt and slid over to Emma until his body pressed against her side, hand between her legs, fingers pressing against her jeans.
Emma had felt a shock of pleasure at his wandering touch, his hot breath on the side of her neck. She tried to think of an excuse to pull away, but she had come up blank. I’ve never turned him down before. If I do, will he hurt me? The memory of his sexual punishment after their meeting with Slatter flashed through her mind. Oh come on, it wasn’t that bad. A little harsh, a little rough, sure, but I still liked it in the end. But he didn’t have to whip me as hard as he did. He left marks all over my legs...
She had to kiss Alex back before he noticed her rigidness, but she couldn’t bring herself to do so. Until she thought of Isaac.
Her mind had jumped to his strong jaw and deep green eyes, his lopsided grin, infectious laugh, his hands, his lips, and she had found herself kissing Alex back with a sudden passion. She’d closed her eyes and spent the entire ride to the restaurant short of breath and with flushed cheeks as Alex had had his way with her, her own fantasy in her mind keeping her wet and willing. He’d finished with her right before they’d pulled up along the curb.
Nate had exited the vehicle to provide them with privacy, and Emma had told Alex to wait inside while she cleaned herself up. Once he’d gone, she had spent a moment to herself in the SUV, tears threatening to fall from her eyes as she roughly wiped the mess from between her legs. She hated Alex for how he was. His perfectly pressed, expensive clothes, how he adjusted his glasses, how his smile almost never reached his eyes, his jealousy, his controlling behavior. She hated Isaac for not wanting her when all she wanted, needed, was him. Hated that she still felt mixed signals from him only to come up against a solid wall when she made any kind of move on her end. She hated Nate with his devout loyalty to her lover, hated Marcus and his cocky, sneering attitude, hated Laska for peeing on the bathroom throw rug that morning. She hated Redborough, hated the holidays spent alone, hated her life there. She hated her mother for letting Vance control their lives, Emma’s childhood. But most of all, she hated herself. She sat in the vehicle, her face wet and contorted with misery and despair as she cried with a fierce anger.
After finally exiting the vehicle, she had seen Isaac waiting for her alone, Alex already inside, and despite her inner turmoil she hurried forward. Emma knew he didn’t owe her anything, much less a relationship if he just wanted to stay friends. Her mind clear now, she walked toward Isaac, eager to talk to him. Sadness shoved onto a back burner, she replaced it with hope, and that’s when they had taken her.
Emma tried to keep her thoughts straight as she scooted lower in the bath. Alex turned the faucet off, then sat on the edge of the porcelain and rolled up the sleeves of his dress shirt.
“Emma?” She looked up, startled. He’d been saying something but her mind had been too far away to comprehend it.
“Hmm?” She tilted her neck and rested her head on the back of the tub, hair still pinned up.
“I asked if the temperature was all right.” He had a slight frown on his face.
Don’t give Alex any inclination that you want to leave him.
Emma smiled up at him. “It’s perfect.”
“I was so scared I lost you tonight.” Alex reached down and caressed the side of her face.
Emma looked up at him, saw what seemed to be adoration in his gaze, which made her doubt herself again. “I knew you would come for me.”
“A couple of them looked like they’d been knocked around. Seems like you put up a hell of a fight.” He grinned.
She let out a laugh despite her emotions. “Damn right I did.” She watched as the clear bath water turned murky with grime, and the dried blood left her body in small coils of red. Alex slid his hand down from her face and began to rub away the more stubborn spots of dirt on her arms. She watched him in silence. Minutes passed, and her eyes slipped shut. Between the turmoil of the night and the steam of the bath, exhaustion crept up on her, and she found herself drifting until his smooth voice cut through the silence once more.
“I don’t want you doing the infiltration.”
“Excuse me?” Her eyes snapped open.
“This happened tonight because of how much Slatter wants you. How upset he was that he lost you, that you’re mine.”
Emma nearly snorted, but held it in. Don’t give him any inclination...
“Alex, I’ve done this for a long time. It’s the only time something bad has come from it, and you know damn well it wasn’t my fault.”
He winced. “I admit, my overreaction in the meeting with Slatter didn’t help things, but you made him want you. If he didn’t, he would have hit us some other way.”
“Bullshit.”
Alex frowned at her obscenity, but she continued, unable to help herself.
“This is my job. My work.”
“You said you hated it.”
“I do. And this infiltration will be the last. But I want, need, to do it. If I don’t, I’ll never impress Vance enough to get higher up.”
“I can try to convince him. Give you different jobs to be in charge of.”
“You know damn well he won’t without proof. He’s not that kind of boss.”
Alex sighed and looked away from her, silent, brooding.
Emma hesitated, then put a wet hand on his. “Please, Alex. Let me do this infiltration. I swear it will be the last one. Vance will see my potential and I’ll get the work I’ve been wanting, and I won’t have to put myself in another man’s arms again simply for a job.”
He stared at her. He seemed to be struggling with his thoughts.
You fucking bastard, don’t you dare ruin this for me, too.
Emma stood carefully, as her right side protested at the movement. Alex watched as water dripped along her skin, still seated on the side of the tub. She stepped onto the green bath mat, refreshed and oddly relaxed. She felt his hand wrap around her wrist, and turned.
“Come here.” He guided her wet body toward him until she sat on his lap.
Grim Ambition Page 13