The killer left his DNA on his last victim. All they needed was to find a match, so Victoria had been doing decoy prostitution missions nonstop for the past month. Evidence technicians were present at every mission to swab the arrestees for DNA. The hotel security staff had provided processing rooms for the evidence techs, and everyone was in place and ready.
The old-world charm of the Drake Hotel made Victoria feel like the heroine in a 1920’s movie as she walked over to the bar and took a seat. She was meeting a John who had secured a room in the hotel. She crossed one leg over the other, showing a little thigh, and looked around the room. Undercover officers were posted around the lobby and in the bar. Deon would be tailing Victoria that night instead of Steve. Victoria decided that Deon would be less conspicuous in the elegant hotel than her muscle bound tattooed partner.
Victoria looked up and found a smiling bartender standing in front of her. “What can I get you, lovely?”
“Jack straight,” she responded returning his smile.
She looked over at Deon, and he narrowed his eyes.
“Shut up, Deon,” she mumbled, well aware that she could be heard through the microphone in her earring. Undercover officers were allowed to drink on the job. Sometimes it was necessary in order to fit in, but Victoria needed it to take the edge off. Even though she’d been doing prostitution missions for years, Victoria was still aware of the potential dangers of entering a hotel room with a strange man. Not to mention the fact that one of them was torturing and killing women. When the bartender returned with her drink, Victoria thanked him and took a small sip. She wanted to take the edge off but remain alert. She turned from the bar and looked around the room at all the well-dressed patrons. Hell, even the servers wore Chanel.
Victoria heard her phone ringing, so she reached into her purse. It was her covert phone, so she knew it was the John.
“Hello?”
“Hello, Vanessa, you can come up to room 1507,” the voice said before hanging up. Victoria placed the phone back in her purse and pulled out a twenty. She placed the twenty on the bar and rose from the stool. She straightened her dress and whispered, “Room 1507.”
Victoria headed towards the elevator, turning heads along the way. She pushed the button and waited. When the elevator arrived, Victoria stepped in, pushed 15, and turned to watch the doors close. She didn’t see Deon, but she knew he was close by. When the elevator arrived at the 15th floor, Victoria took a deep breath and stepped out of the elevator. She followed the signs that led her to 1507. Victoria took another deep breath and knocked. The door opened, and Victoria walked into the room. A man stepped from behind the door and closed it. Victoria turned toward the man and froze. She was shocked that Greg Donovan was standing before her.
“Hello, um, Vanessa, is it?”
Victoria feverishly wondered if it was a coincidence that she happened to end up in the same room with the man who’d humiliated her at the dinner party. He stalked over to Victoria and she didn’t know whether she should continue to play her role or get the hell out of there. Her instincts told her that his intentions weren’t good, so Victoria turned and walked toward the door. Before she could reach the door, she felt an intense pain shooting through her scalp. Greg had grabbed Victoria’s hair and yanked her against his body.
“I knew you were a whore the first time I laid eyes on you. But no, my money wasn’t good enough for you,” he whispered in her ear. His tone was filled with hatred, and fear raced through Victoria. “I just didn’t know how good of a whore you were. Apparently your blow-jobs are so good that you can make a man that I’ve known for years attack me and ruin me financially.”
Victoria reached up and tried to peel his fingers from her hair. She shouted for her partner, “D!”
Greg reached around her body, roughly grabbed her breast, and continued his rant. “Jack Storm is gonna pay for fucking me over, but first you’re gonna suck my cock and show me why you’re worth a million dollars.”
Victoria slammed her head back and made contact with Greg’s nose, causing him to release the hold that he had on her hair. She used the opportunity to twist herself around and bring her knee up to his groin. Greg doubled over and clutched his groin with one hand and held his nose, which was now gushing blood, with the other.
“Ah! Fuck! I’m gonna kill you, you fucking bitch!”
Victoria reached in her purse and pulled out her nine millimeter. She slapped the side of his face with her weapon, causing him to fall to the floor. Victoria climbed on top of him and struck him repeatedly with the butt of her gun.
“You want me to suck your little dick, asshole?!” She swung with every word. Victoria was seeing red. She was so focused on the ass whipping that she was dishing out that she didn’t even feel Greg’s blood spraying all over her. Nor did she hear her team bursting through the door. Someone wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled a fighting Victoria off Greg’s unconscious body.
“It’s ok, Vic. He’s out,” she heard Deon say in a voice meant to calm her.
Victoria wiped the blood from her face and sat on the bed. She needed to catch her breath. “Is he alive?”
“Shit, just barely,” Deon chuckled.
Victoria looked up at Deon and his face turned serious. She could tell that her friend was afraid for her. “The fucking hotel key they gave us didn’t work. I had to kick the goddamned door in! I’m sorry, Vic,” Deon said clearly full of remorse.
Victoria felt bad for her friend, so she walked over to him and asked, “Deon, who gave you the key?”
He squinted his eyes and looked away as if he was trying to remember. Then he exhaled and looked back to Victoria with an expression full of realization. “Sargent Banner.”
“Exactly. That drunk bastard mixed up the keys. It’s not your fault, D. He’s gonna get me killed,” she said loud enough for the entire room, including Sargent Banner, to hear.
The paramedics entered the room and scraped Greg off the floor and onto a stretcher. He was starting to come to, so Frankie cuffed him to the rail of the stretcher. He and Miguel rode with the paramedics to the hospital. They didn’t need to take Greg to the room with the evidence techs because Victoria was wearing plenty of his DNA. She and Deon walked out of the room and entered the elevator. When they reached the ground floor, Victoria walked through the hotel lobby well aware of the fact that she looked like a walking homicide. She was sure that she looked like the black version of Carrie.
She heard someone gasp and say, “Oh my God!”
Victoria ignored the shocked faces and questioning glares and exited the hotel. She wanted to get Greg and her dress processed as soon as possible so that she could get home to Jack. After completing what seemed like a mountain of paperwork and answering endless questions about Greg, Victoria was finally in the elevator of Storm Enterprises. It was three in the morning and Victoria was exhausted. She was still wearing the bloody dress minus the swatch that the evidence techs cut out, which got her some strange looks when she passed the security booth. She figured that Jack would be sleeping and she’d wait until the morning to get answers. The elevator arrived at the penthouse, and Victoria knew she had figured wrong. When the doors opened, Jack was standing in front of her. He looked down at her bloody dress, and his eyes widened with fear.
“What the fuck?!” He ran into the elevator and started searching Victoria’s body for wounds.
“Baby, I’m fine. It’s not my blood.”
Jack hurriedly pulled Victoria from the elevator and into the penthouse. “What happened? Are you okay? Was there a shooting? Whose blood is this, Victoria?”
Jack fired questions at Victoria but she had a few of her own. “Whose blood is it?! It came from Greg Donovan,” she shouted and then waited for a reaction.
She didn’t get one. Jack’s expression went from panicked to business immediately. “How did you get Greg’s blood all over your dress?”
“Jack, he said that you attacked him and ruined him financially. W
hat was he talking about?”
Jack walked over to the bar and she followed. He fixed Victoria a glass of Jack Daniels. She gulped down her entire drink and slammed the glass down on the bar.
Jack poured her another and lowered his eyes. “I, well, Emily and I, kicked his ass the night of my mother’s dinner party. Then I blocked the funding for a company that he wanted to buy.”
“Emily?”
“Yeah, she kicked him in the balls while I was giving him a pounding,” he chuckled.
Damn, his balls have had a rough couple of months, Victoria thought to herself.
He asked as if he was afraid of the answer, “Did he hurt you?” He looked at Victoria with eyes filled with sadness.
Victoria wanted to ease his fears, so she gave him a full account of her evening. By the time Victoria finished her story, Jack’s eyes had turned from sadness to hatred. “Too bad he didn’t die.”
Victoria nodded, finished her drink, and walked away from the bar. She decided that she’d worn Greg Donovan’s blood long enough, so she headed up the stairs and into the master bath. Victoria peeled the dress from her body and tossed it into the trash. She looked up at the mirror and saw Jack standing behind her.
“I loved that dress,” she muttered.
“I’ll buy you a hundred dresses, baby. I’m so sorry about this,” Jack said as he walked over and started the shower for her.
“It’s not your fault. Do you hear me, Jackson?”
He looked at her and smiled. Victoria knew that he liked when she used his full name. She returned his smile, and he walked out of the bathroom.
Victoria peeled off the rest of her clothes and yelled out to Jack. “Hey! Wait a minute, baby.”
“Yes?”
“My shoes were ruined too!”
She heard his laughter from inside the bedroom.
Victoria hopped in the shower, grateful to be scrubbing the blood and her shitty day from her body. It took forty minutes for her to decide that she was as clean as she was going to get. She stepped out and grabbed the fluffy towel that Jack left out for her. Victoria dried herself completely and wrapped the towel around her body. She walked into the bedroom and over to her side of Jack’s bed. After dropping the towel to the floor, she climbed in bed with her man. She rested her head on his bare chest and, when he wrapped her in his arms, Victoria was afraid for the second time tonight. She realized for the first time that she had fallen in love with Jack.
Victoria fell into an uneasy sleep and woke up alone. She looked at the clock on the nightstand. It was twelve twenty-seven in the afternoon, and she had to be at work at two. Victoria couldn’t believe that she’d slept so late, and she was sure that Jack was already at work. She pulled back the comforter and rose from the bed, thanking God that it was Friday.
Victoria padded over to the bathroom. She noticed her wild hair in the mirror as she made her way to the toilet. Victoria did her business, washed her hands, and brushed her teeth. She threw on her robe that was hanging on the back of the bathroom door and made her way downstairs because she desperately needed coffee. Before Victoria reached the bottom of the stairs, she noticed that there were four racks of clothing in the living room. She slowly approached the racks and rummaged through the designer garments. Victoria ran her hand along the luxurious fabric of a white evening gown designed by Versace and could barely catch her breath. She looked toward the floor-to-ceiling window, and there were shoe boxes stacked as high as the beautiful Chicago skyline. Victoria ran to her purse that was still on the bar from last night and pulled out her phone.
She dialed Jack’s number and, when he answered, she asked, “Jack, what have you done? This is too much.”
“Good afternoon, beautiful,” he responded in a very sultry voice.
“You didn’t have to do this,” she whispered into the phone.
“Yeah, I know. But I’m rich, baby, and you deserve the best.”
Victoria didn’t argue because she agreed with Jack. He was rich and she did deserve the best. She’d put her life on the line everyday for years for thirty dollars an hour to make at least one part of the world a safer place. Still it was her responsibility to provide the best for herself, not Jack’s.
“Vic, are you there?”
“I’m here,” she answered.
“When can you take some vacation time? I want to take you away.”
She thought about how wonderful it would be to get away with him and answered, “I might be able to take off next Thursday through Sunday.”
“Perfect. Oh yeah. I almost forgot. My parents have invited us to dinner Sunday night. They’re celebrating their anniversary. Will you come?”
Victoria could hear uncertainty in Jack’s voice. It wasn’t like Jack to be unsure of anything. Victoria knew that he was worried because the last time that she’d had dinner with his parents it ended in disaster.
“Of course I’ll come. Your parents are great,” Victoria said with excitement because she wanted to ease Jack’s discomfort.
“Ok great. I gotta go. I’m walking into a meeting.” Victoria heard relief in Jack’s voice.
“Ok. Later, baby.”
She ended the call and hurried into the kitchen to make coffee. She was definitely going to be late, but she could care less.
Chapter 17
STORM
Jack entered his private elevator and loosened his tie. It was Monday, and it had been a long day of meetings. He actually had to force his workaholic sister to go home. It was ten-fifteen, and Jack’s plan was to have a drink, a long hot shower, and Victoria underneath him.
Jack thought back to his weekend with Victoria. Saturday they’d met Victoria’s friend Tracy and her partner Steve for lunch. Sunday they’d had a wonderful dinner with his parents and sisters. His mom even volunteered to help Victoria with the charity concert that she was planning. Jack just couldn’t seem to get enough of her. He noticed that he instinctively touched her whenever she was close to him, and he made sure that she was always close. Friday night Victoria had thanked him repeatedly in the best possible ways for her new wardrobe. He reminded himself to give Mary a raise.
Jack needed Victoria to be okay with accepting things from him because he was seriously thinking of asking her to quit her job. If need be, he’d offer her a position as director of security for Storm Enterprises. When Jack got the call from John telling him that she was walking out of the hotel covered in blood, he all but passed out. Although John said that she appeared to be unharmed, Jack needed to see for himself. And when the elevator doors opened and he saw Victoria covered in blood, Jack was terrified all over again. Jack still couldn’t believe that Greg had set Victoria up. If he wasn’t in jail already, Jack probably would have killed him. He didn’t doubt that Victoria could take care of herself, but for some odd reason Jack felt as if that was his job.
Jack was really looking forward to Thursday. He liked the idea of a relaxing vacation but the truth was that he was happier to be getting her away from her job. Jack planned on having a talk with her about the police department when he got home, but he didn’t anticipate working so late. The conversation would definitely have to wait until tomorrow because when the doors to the elevator opened, Victoria stood in front of him wearing nothing but red high heels and very alluring perfume. She was smiling and holding a glass of what Jack assumed to be whiskey.
“Welcome home, baby.”
Her sexually alluring voice made his cock twitch. Jack stepped off the elevator and placed his briefcase on the floor. Victoria kissed him softly on his lips and handed him the glass that she was holding. Jack quickly downed the whiskey. There was no way that he was going to waste time sipping the drink with Victoria standing naked in front of him. Victoria took the glass and walked across the room. She placed the glass on the bar. Jack admired Victoria’s perfectly round ass and long sculpted legs and made quick work of getting out of his clothes. He made his way over to her and wrapped his arms around her waist.
; Jack pressed his hard-on against her back, slid his hands up her body, and massaged her breasts. Victoria released a soft moan when Jack pinched her nipples. Victoria turned in his arms, slid her fingers through his hair, and pulled him in for a kiss. Jack gripped her ass and placed his lips to hers. She slipped her tongue into his mouth and deepened the kiss. Victoria pulled her hands from his hair and ran them down his body. She closed her fingers around his hard cock and slowly stroked up and down. Jack reached down and grabbed her hand. He had to stop Victoria from ending him before he could get inside of her. He tightened his grip on her ass and lifted her from the floor. Victoria wrapped her legs around his waist without breaking their kiss. Jack turned and carried her to the dining room table. He held her close to his body and, with one hand, pulled out a chair. Jack sat Victoria on the edge of the table. He removed his lips from hers and kissed down her neck and chest until he reached her breast. He slowly licked her nipple before pulling it into his mouth. Victoria moaned, leaned back, and placed her palms to the table to support her weight. Jack held her breasts together and licked from one nipple to the next. Victoria’s soft moans were going straight to his cock and Jack had no confidence in his patience. He wanted desperately to plunge deep inside of her. He roughly sucked her hard nipple into his mouth while pinching the other between his fingers.
“Jack, please,” she whimpered.
Jack released her nipple and stood back. He looked down at Victoria’s beautiful body and back to her gorgeous eyes that were filled with lust and whispered, “So beautiful.”
Jack pulled the chair back to the table and sat directly in front of her visibly wet pussy. He could smell her arousal. Her sweet scent caused his cock to leak. Jack grabbed Victoria’s ass and slid her closer to the edge of the table. Then he pushed her legs further apart. He used his thumb to pull back the hood of her clit and slowly licked her pussy until she started to squirm. Jack sat at his dining room table and thoroughly enjoyed his dessert. He removed his thumb from her clit and sucked it into his mouth.
Beautiful Prey: The Storm Series Page 10