I jerked out of his hold. “I’m not going to sit here and let him drug and rape me. I don’t care about money, lifestyle, or any of this shit. Just take it all and let me go.”
“Whatever you want to do, Vince,” Elliott offered, ignoring me.
Vincent held up his hand. “Someone get in here now.” He called out for a guard again, but no one came. I looked around for a way out as minutes passed.
Elliott grumbled as I twisted in his hold again. “What’s taking so long?”
“I’ll be back.” Vincent pushed the door wider and walked through the gap, yelling, “Didn’t you hear me calling for you?”
I took a step away from Elliott, and he took my arm back.
“Do you know it’s Angel upstairs? She’s lost her mind and she has Dane’s little girl. She’s here in this horrible place. How could you?” I choked.
He put his hand over my mouth. “Shut up or I’ll gag you.” He removed his hand but quickly took hold of my arms.
I stomped the heel of my stiletto into the top of his shoe. “I hate you. You will all rot in hell for this.”
He didn’t even flinch. “Good, you’ve stopped trying to find my good side.”
“You don’t have one,” Marco said, and then he laughed as he came through the door holding up a syringe. “Uncle Vincent had to go check on something. We can start the party first.”
Elliott let go of my arms and placed his hands on my shoulders, moving me flush against his body.
“Let her go,” Marco commanded. “I want her to fight me again.”
I sneered. Oh, please let him, Elliott. I’ve got fight for him.
Elliott smiled at me. “You heard him. He wants a fight.”
I didn’t hesitate. I jumped onto Marco and we fell to the floor together, hard. He shifted around to try to find the syringe he’d dropped, but I was back on him, hitting, scratching, ripping at his clothing. I was doing anything I could to stop him from getting a hold of the drug again.
“You fucking bitch.” He hissed and pushed me hard in the chest, knocking me off him.
I fell back in pain and gasped for breath.
“What the hell?” A guard came in and Elliott rushed over and knocked him over on his side. I pulled at the fabric of the dress to free it from under Marco, who was fighting to get a hold of me. He tugged hard against my grasp, tearing the material covering my waist.
I kicked out with my legs, but the long dress made it hard to connect with his body. He didn’t have the same problem. His leg kicked out and landed on my sore ribs, and I screamed in agony.
“You will pay for this, bitch,” Marco hissed.
I smirked. Guess he hadn’t expected a real fight.
Marco was quick to straddle my body and pin me down. “Don’t bother looking for Elliott. He won’t be around to help you any time soon,” he said roughly.
I reached between his legs and grabbed hold of his balls then squeezed with all I had.
Marco yelled out, “You’re dead!” Then he grabbed my neck and squeezed.
I clawed with my fingers and twisted my body under him.
Elliott came into my line of sight behind him. He had the syringe in his hand.
“Elliott, get out of here now. You know you’re done,” Marco told him as he struggled to keep a hold of me. “You interfere, and we’ll kill you both.”
Elliott plunged the syringe into Marco’s arm. “Vincent won’t be coming back. This is an FBI raid, motherfucker.”
Marco’s eyes bulged, and he tried to hit at Elliott but was too slow.
Elliott stood and kicked him over to his side. I scooted across the carpet away from him, my breath labored as I tried to understand what Elliott had said to him. “You’re…FBI?”
Elliott smiled. “I’ll explain later.”
He kicked Marco in the ribs. “That’s for hurting Gia, though it still isn’t enough.” I gaped at him as he patted Marco down until he found a gun strapped to his lower leg. He removed it from the holster and armed it.
My mouth dropped open. I hadn’t even considered that he could be armed. “He could have killed me.”
“This is not the time,” he said. “I need to go see what’s going on.”
My eyes darted from Marco to the doorway. “Don’t leave me in here,” I stammered.
He cupped my face. “Marco will be out for hours. I’ll push the guard out and block the doors. I promise I won’t let anything happen to you. We will leave here together.”
“Yes. You both will be leaving.” Vincent appeared at the door with a police officer behind him. “You’re under arrest.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
* * *
“Put the gun down,” the officer yelled out. “A man is down, get an ambulance,” he shouted into his radio
“It’s like I told you,” Vincent said, “this was a private party, and they brought drugs in. That’s my nephew on the ground. You get them out of here now, or my next call will be to your superior.”
“Move away from me Gia,” Elliott told me. He next turned to the police officer. “You’re going to take out the gun and point it at me and I’m going to remove my badge from my jacket pocket.”
The officer took out his gun.
“No,” I said frantically. “I won’t move away. Look at my torn dress. He and his nephew brought me here against my will. This man rescued me.”
“She’s lying, and he has a gun,” Vincent pointed out. “Shoot him.”
“You must, Gia,” Elliott said. “Do it now, slowly.”
I moved to the side, and the officer raised the gun at Elliott, who raised his hands.
Another officer entered the room and announced, “Ambulance is on its way.”
“No ambulances,” Vincent said. “I just want them and all of you out of my home—now.” His voice reverberated off the walls.
“Sorry Mr. Santiago,” the first police officer said. “He identified himself as FBI. We have to check it out.” He turned to the other officer. “Go frisk him.”
The officer took Elliott’s gun then patted him down. “He’s wired.”
“We got you recorded, asshole,” Elliott said. “My team should be nearby or already outside the gate. I’ll give you the number to the head of the operation.”
“That has to be illegal,” Vincent flustered.
The officer continued to search Elliott. He pulled his wallet from his front left pocket and flipped through it.
“He’s telling the truth,” the officer said then handed Elliott his badge.
“I don’t care,” Vincent said to the officer. “He and his women came here under false pretenses. This was a private party on my property.”
Elliott moved over to stand in front of me. “I’ll go when I see you in handcuffs. He kidnapped Gia Walsh.”
“I’m a well-respected member of this community,” Vincent asserted. “Who is she?”
“I’m Gia…Walsh. Governor Walsh’s wife, from Seattle,” I said. “I was drugged and abused by this man and his nephew.”
“I never abused you,” Vincent fumed.
The police officer went over to Vincent. “Mr. Santiago, you’ll have to come down to the station with us.”
“I’m calling my lawyers,” Vincent said then stormed out of the room.
Elliott placed his arm around me. “You okay, baby?”
I bristled. “Don’t call me baby.”
“Sweetheart, I told you I’d turn everything upside down to find you.”
Our eyes lingered and mine filled. He had. He’d saved me. Tears streamed down my face and he gently placed his arm around my shoulder.
I winced in pain but didn’t move out of his embrace.
Elliott took off his jacket and helped me put it on to cover myself, and I appreciated it. “We need an EMT. To take…Ms. Walsh to the hospital.”
He led me and the others out to the hallway, back toward the grand stairway where Vincent was standing, talking on his phone. I didn’t see any of the men a
nd women who had been there. Had they let them all leave?
“We wiretapped your calls too, but you can keep talking,” Elliott told Vincent.
“You’ll end up the one in trouble,” Vincent said as he scowled.
A high-pitched laugh rang out from the top of the stairs. Angel.
We all turned as she descended with a gun in her hand.
“She’s sick,” I cried out. “Angel, put the gun down. It’s over. We can all leave.”
“Drop the weapon,” one of the officers said, pulling his gun out.
She didn’t. She pointed it at Vincent and fired. Elliott pushed me back. “Get on the ground. Angel!” His cry was loud, but there was nothing we could do to stop what had happened.
Red exploded on the front of her body and she fell, rolling the rest of the way down, her body landing in a twisted heap at the bottom.
Elliott rushed over and pulled her on her back. “Shit. Get me something to help her—towels, something.”
The housekeeper came running over to hand Elliot a cloth and he pressed it to the wound. “Angel, come on, don’t give up now.” His voice shook.
All I could think of was Dane. He’d been so close to getting Angel back, only to have her taken without her knowing that he tried to save her.
The other officer joined him. I looked around and found Vincent far down the hall, away from us. He appeared unharmed, but there was an officer standing guard over him, making sure he didn’t try to leave.
The front door opened and officers and EMTs entered. They took over and loaded Angel on the gurney.
“Mommy, Mommy!” Melinda came running out of one of the closed rooms with the maid close behind her. My heart shattered as she tried to get close to her mother.
“Get her out of here,” Elliott barked, using his body to block the little girl from seeing.
I scrambled to my feet and swept her into my arms. “It’s going to be okay.”
“Mommy okay?” she asked.
They moved her out the door.
“I’ll take her,” Vincent said. “Come on Melinda.”
“Is she your child, Mr. Santiago?” asked the police officer standing next to him.
“I…I…her mother had stopped by,” he stuttered. “I can see that she goes to her father.”
I seethed. Was he angling for some sort of leverage to avoid going to jail or to keep Angel silent by trying to take her child? There was no way he was getting anywhere near their child.
“Back the fuck up,” I said through clenched teeth. “Her father, Dane, should be close by. He will take her.”
Vincent blinked. Now who’s surprised? The Agency must not have told him. Apparently, he wasn’t as high up in their membership as he thought.
“She’s right,” Elliott said. “I’ll get him to meet us at the hospital.”
“Where is everyone?” I asked as Elliott guided Melinda and me out the front door and over to an ambulance.
“I don’t know.” He took out his phone, and Melinda stared at me quizzically.
“That’s your…your Uncle Elliott. He will get you to your mommy,” I said gently.
He pinched his eyes before taking her in his arms. He waited until the emergency staff checked me out and placed me on a gurney for transport.
“Come here for a second.” He called over an officer to hold Melinda then climbed in the back of the ambulance with me. That was when I let go of everything I had bottled up since I’d been taken.
I let out a sob. “Thank you.”
He took my lips and pressed down on them hard. “I’ve got some things to do here, but I won’t be long.”
“I just want to go home,” I murmured.
He stroked my face. “You’re getting checked out at the hospital. They’ll need a statement too.”
I grinned. Elliott Carmichael, FBI—shocking.
“Sure, officer,” I tried to joke.
“Soon to be ex-FBI,” he said. “I enjoyed being an interior designer.”
Was he teasing? It didn’t matter right then. He’d been there when I needed him. He’d saved me, Angel, and Melinda. He’d helped Dane. “Thank you.”
He pressed his lips to my forehead. “You didn’t need much help, you ball-busting badass. I’m blown away by you.”
I giggled then winced in pain. I owed him my life.
The emergency workers moved him out and hooked up an IV then I was off to the hospital. I closed my eyes, my head spinning with everything that had happened. It was so sensational that I doubted anyone would believe me, but with the recordings, there was proof.
Once there, I was faced with an explosion of media cameras flashing as I exited from the back of the ambulance. News traveled fast. Then again, a sitting governor’s ex-wife getting kidnapped was too sensational of a story to pass up. I was sure to be hearing from Patrick. For once, I didn’t care.
After they bandaged my bruises and treated my face, I was left alone in a hospital room to rest. When I opened my eyes again, the room was full of roses, and Dane. He was sitting in a chair close to my bed. It was a version of Dane I hadn’t seen before. His shirt was creased, dark hair tousled, a day’s growth of beard on his face. In other words, he looked amazing.
“You’re awake,” he said as he touched my cheek lightly. “You were hurt. I’m sorry I wasn’t there. Vincent called me to meet him and then I was immediately ejected from the boat. I had to depend on Elliott to see you through, and then Angel, and…Melinda.”
The pain on his face made my heart turn over. I reached out and took his hand. “I’m sorry, Dane. We tried for Angel, but…how is she now? How is Melinda?”
Dane’s eyes shimmered. “Angel is in intensive care, and Melinda is here in a family room with a nurse. I caused all your suffering.” His voice cracked.
“Stop that,” I said. “You never gave up. We are safe because of you and Elliott. I’m thankful.” More than thankful—they’d saved my life.
“Still, I should have been there.” He picked up an envelope and handed it to me. “I couldn’t be there like I wanted to, but I did take the time to get this for you.”
It was a receipt for money to keep my company afloat, and a first-class ticket back to Seattle.
A flutter went through my chest. Dane had kept his promise. “Thank you.”
A knock sounded on the door. “You busy?” Elliott asked. He came over and put his hand on Dane’s shoulder. “Melinda is with the nurse.”
I swallowed hard, but I understood. Angel and Melinda needed him. “You should go.”
Dane nodded then leaned over and kissed my lips tenderly. “I should stay too, but I won’t be far.”
“Gia’s tough. She’ll be all right,” Elliott said with a wink at me.
Dane kissed me and whispered, “You never have to be tough with me.”
“Or you with me,” I whispered back.
A million things went through my head as I watched Dane leave the room. Dane’s love and care were boundless. He’d turned his world upside down for Angel. To really know him and have his heart would be something to cherish.
I sighed. They need him.
“Whatever you’re thinking now, Dane’s not gone if you want him to stay,” Elliott said to me.
“You think so?” I murmured.
“I do,” Elliott answered. “He wouldn’t leave you.”
I bit my lip. “Will you Elliott? Now that you’ve finished with The Agency?” I couldn’t ask if he was finished with me. I didn’t know where I stood with him most of the time, but what I was sure of was that we shared something more than friendship.
“The Agency case isn’t over and done yet,” Elliott said as he took my hand. “I’m here now. How are you feeling? I hate that I couldn’t stop him from hitting you, but I needed his confession—”
“You did the right thing. I’m fine,” I said then cleared my throat. “Whatever can stop what happened from happening again is worth living through a few bruises. Where are the other women? Liz?�
��
“Vincent convinced the first officer on scene to let the women leave with the men,” Elliott told me. “But with all we know now, they won’t get far.”
I appreciated his optimism. Then again, most of the men would probably want to distance themselves from this scandal once it became public.
Elliott took the envelope Dane had given me from my shaky hands. “We’ll fly back to Seattle together as soon as the doc says you’re free to go.”
I was free to return to the life I’d known, but now I was more than miles away from cosmetic samples and Christmas-tinis.
THANK YOU READERS!
If you enjoyed the INDISCREET: The Agency Dark Affairs Duet Book One. I hope you had fun reading this story as much as I had writing it. Book Two DAUNTLESS will be available soon.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
* * *
Thank you, my dear husband and best friend Alan. Here we are again. I love you so much.
A wonderful group of people helped me with INDISCREET. I greatly appreciate all your hard work.
Thank you, Silvia Curry, Lisa M. Birch, Deanna, Amy, Cynthia and Persephone, for their beta critiques. Thank you all for your kindness, support, and patience.
Thank you, Caitlin at Editing by C. Marie, for copy editing.
Thank you, Kim Ginsberg, for proofreading.
Thank you Roxana Cousmans for final proofreading.
Thank you, Sommer Stein of Perfect Pear Creative, for cover design.
Thank you Michelle New for the teasers.
Thank you to my friends, bloggers and reviewers for all your kindness and support in the promotion.
Thank you, readers, for reading this story. I most sincerely hope you enjoyed it.
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