Strike nodded once and let her go. It took her a second to tense and hold herself up, but the adrenaline was enough to keep her going.
Bella was holding a weapon now, it had to be one of Strike’s. As her love picked Burke from her feet, and carried him up the stairs, Bella enjoyed holding court.
“We have all the time in the world,” Bella said. “This is going to be fun, won’t this be fun? No one’s looking for us out here.”
“Wonderland mark two,” Rora commented, but didn’t think anyone heard her.
“You don’t have to restrain me,” Junker said, still clinging to his arm. His pallor made her think maybe the wound was worse than she’d first thought. “I want you to have everything you want. I’m not your enemy, Bella. Just give up that maniac, that’s all you have to do. He’s manipulating you… he’s evil.”
“I like evil,” Bella said.
Junker stumbled forward and caught himself on the couch, which he climbed onto, she guessed to lie down. Rora expected Bella to say something about him staying in view or on his feet. But when she turned, she saw the Black Jewel was admiring her.
“I think we’ll give you your own room,” Bella said. “The room with the biggest bed.”
Rora wanted to spit when Bella winked at her. Strike came running down the stairs and Junker was next to be taken upstairs. He tried to argue and to lunge out with the knife, but Strike took it away from him without much trouble and then forced the man up the stairs.
“My prince tells me he played a little joke on you,” Bella said, coming toward her when they were the only two people left in the room. “Did you really think he’d chosen you?” Bella pouted. “We needed to know where Leandra was… You had your chance to answer the question, and you wouldn’t play nice with us. But I have to be honest; I don’t tire of the chase, do you?” She shivered and grinned. “There’s something invigorating about it, isn’t there?”
“If you say so.”
“Now I don’t want you to think I’ve been naïve,” Bella said. “My prince hasn’t convinced me yet, but he will… we have a little deal and I do feel it’s only fair to warn you since you will be the tool he needs to use.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
Bella touched the barrel of the gun to Rora’s breast and traced it down her cleavage and up to the other breast. “I came here prepared to kill you if I had to… now I find you might be willing to play nice… But I will still have to ensure that my prince’s mind hasn’t been poisoned by you again… Do you love him?”
Rora pulled away as best she could, but her shoulder came up against the side of the stairs. “Go to hell!”
Bella’s head fell back when she laughed. “Isn’t that where we all plan to meet? In the home of our prince?”
Strike’s home wasn’t in hell. Rora understood that Bella enjoyed spreading stories about him and what he was capable of, but she failed to see what else Strike could be.
“Junker’s going to kill him,” Rora said, hoping Bella wouldn’t forget the threat, though she made it seem like she was happy about the idea. “He despises Exile for murdering your family.”
“He has no idea what they were!”
As crazy as she was? Probably not.
“We’ll get the other one from the trunk,” Strike’s voice sounded behind her and she looked up to see him running down the stairs. “If he suffocates, we lose our bargaining chip.”
“Whatever you feel, my prince,” Bella said, waving an absent hand and moving away from Rora when Strike came to untie her fixed wrist. But the Jewel came back to peek around him as he reached up. “Tie her flat to the mattress… and strip her too… there are plenty of men for her to entertain.”
Strike didn’t meet her eyes, but Rora guessed he felt the beat of her hammering heart or the hitch of her shallow breathing. When her arm dropped, her legs almost buckled, but she managed to tug her arm hard, like she was trying to free herself from him. But he yanked her to him and then bent to toss her over his shoulder.
Kicking and shouting, Rora pounded at his back, and ignored the sound of Bella’s laughter. He took her into the bedroom she’d slept in last night and tossed her onto the middle of the bed.
Curling her knees up to her chest, Rora wrapped both arms around her legs and rolled herself into a ball. For the first time since she’d got there, she had a moment of safety to try gathering her thoughts. She had so many questions, and so many thoughts, but they only had a few seconds.
She expected Strike to say something, to issue instructions or ask a question. But the first contact they had was when he grabbed her wrist and pulled it hard, dragging her up the bed to begin tying her arm to the bedpost.
“What are you doing?” she asked, trying to pull it away. “Flame?” When one wrist was secure, he walked all the way around the bed and tried to get the other arm. But she wasn’t going to hand it over easily. “No. No! No!”
“Shut the fuck up,” he hissed and caught her arm.
Her muscles screamed in pain when she tried to resist him extending her arm and tying it to the other bedpost. “What the hell? No!”
When she was secured, he grabbed her chin and hauled her attention to him. “Fighting me will only make it hurt more.”
“I know pain,” she snarled at him, their eyes as enflamed as each other’s. “The physical I can handle.”
He shoved her chin and backed a step away from the bed. “Burke could’ve killed you.”
“He could’ve killed you,” she said, spitting her hair from her mouth. “You want to tell me we’re still on the same side, or have you screwed me over again?”
“Me? You’re the one hanging with the square. Was that part of the plan?”
“He showed up this morning,” she said. “What was I supposed to do?”
“Not play house with him.” He shook his head. “Doesn’t fucking matter. I’ve gotta get Torres.”
“Wait,” she called when he started for the door. “Flame?”
He paused and took a second before turning around. “I’ll put Torres and Burke in the same room. Torres will get him talking, he’ll have his confession, and we’ll get away clean.”
“How is she going to test you?” she asked, caring less about the NSA than she did about her lover. “She said I was the tool to—”
“You know what she wants me to do. It’s just like you said.”
She could see how the anger in his eyes became a tortured pain as they trailed down over her. “Will she drug me or do you want me to pretend to fight?”
His attention leaped to her. “Pretend?”
“If fucking me is what she needs to see you do to believe…”
“It won’t come to that,” he said. “This is going to be over tonight. I’ll kill her before I’d think about hurting you… I’m just sorry we won’t have the time to make her suffer.”
It broke her heart to see how he was tormented by the position Bella had put him in. “It’s not rape if I want it. Flame—”
“You don’t want it,” he said, repulsed. “And I don’t want it like that either, not on her terms, with her in the room directing, and you screaming…”
“You like it when I scream,” she said and smiled when he looked at her again. “Strike, we talked about this.”
“And we’re not talking about it again,” he said, marching over to the bed.
He propped a knee on the mattress to bow over her and touch his lips to hers.
She managed to draw him into a deeper kiss than he’d intended to give. While she lifted her head and dipped her tongue between his lips, she bent a knee to sneak her leg around him. Looping it around his hips, she swept the other around him and took him by surprise pulling him down on top of her.
“Babe,” he chastised her, but she smiled beneath his lips.
“I’ve needed you so bad this week,” she breathed into him and kissed him again.
But he pulled away. “I have to get back downstairs.”
Her need might not have been sexual, well not all sexual, but now that he was here, she felt recharged and ready to face anything. “Did he touch you?”
“No. He told me who he was. I think he wants a relationship with Bella, but doesn’t like to see his sister cozying up to you,” she said, resisting when he tried to pry her legs from his hips. But she was pleased to feel that he’d had his usual reaction to her, and she pushed up to rub herself against his dick. “I have no problem with you killing him.”
“Good, because I plan to,” he said and gave up fighting to kiss her more thoroughly. “He asked for you two to be in the same room… I nearly killed him right then.”
“Has Torres been any help?”
“This week, yeah, but he refused to sleep with Bella last night and she demanded he be tied up. He’s been in the trunk since.” She winced, but he brushed his lips across hers. “He’ll get what he wants.”
“So we get away clean,” she said, repeating what he’d said.
“Your ties aren’t tight,” he said. “You did good downstairs… waiting until the opportune moment.”
That was his way of telling her to do the same thing now. “I’ll be good.”
“Don’t try to escape. I’ll come for you when it’s time to go.” He took something from his pocket and held it in front of her face, showing her it was a switchblade. He tucked it down into her cleavage, covering her with the edges of her torn shirt, managing to wrap and conceal the blade at the same time. “If anyone comes in here… use it. Scream, I’ll come, and I’ll murder anyone I find in here… anyone, Ro.”
She nodded and caught his mouth when he tried to get up. When she whimpered and pushed her hips up to his, she tried to let him know she wasn’t ready to lose him yet. “Flame…”
“I can’t stay up here all night,” he said. “How far you want us to go before you’ll let me get up?”
That was enough of an invitation to make her smile. “You are supposed to strip me.”
“No chance. I’ll tell Bella half the fun comes in getting you naked… and that’s no lie.”
“I love you,” she whispered, hating that moisture was gathering in her eyes. “I love you, Flame, so much, I—”
“Hey,” he said, stopping her words with a kiss. “We’re going to be together, no matter what.”
Even if they had to follow each other to hell? Yeah, she understood what he was saying. “I’m scared you’ll be out there alone… if Bella talks to Junker…”
“All I gotta do is get my hands on the processor and then we’re out of here… I think I know where it is, and I’ve got one shot.”
“If you don’t find it and Bella wants you to come up here—”
“I’ll kill her,” he said. “Fuck the processor, Cupcake. Didn’t I say you were more important than tech?”
“But it’s sex. We—”
“Don’t belong to her and she can’t have us… either of us.”
He swept his lips over hers and this time when he tried to loosen her legs, she let him part them so he could rise. “Be careful,” she said.
Opening the door, he looked at her one last time and then slipped out, leaving her alone.
TWENTY-NINE
Rora heard little else for the rest of the evening. It was getting dark and with every second that passed, she feared what could be going on out there. Torres should have his confession from Burke by now. She trusted that whatever tech Strike had set him up with, the agent would get what he needed to clear his name and although it was heartening to hear that Torres had been supportive, she still classed this as a major favor that she’d expect to be repaid one day when they needed it.
And, if nothing else, she shouldn’t have to explain why she had no inclination to roll on her love anymore.
If she knew Strike, he’d have spent the last couple of hours preparing for their escape. No doubt Bella was talking plans for the future, but Rora doubted Strike was thinking much beyond that night.
The next time that door opened, it would either be Strike telling her they were leaving or him coming in with Bella who expected him to violate the prisoner.
His aversion to rape was rooted in what had happened to his mother. She had a feeling that it didn’t matter how much she reassured him, her flame would judge himself if he gave into Bella’s demands. The hatred he had for his father was entrenched in him, and he’d despise himself if he thought he’d done anything that might make his father proud.
It turned out, she was wrong.
The next time the door opened, she held her breath, waiting to see which version of her man would come in. But it was not him, it was Junker. He had his arm bandaged and was wearing a sling. Someone had treated him, and she couldn’t imagine it being Strike.
“So you switched the Point out on me?” he asked.
Wrinkling her nose, she tried to shrug. “I’m sorry.”
He sighed. “That’s ok. I should’ve figured it out. Everyone’s on edge, no one knows who to trust,” he said and showed her a bowl. “I brought some of the soup you made at lunch.”
Soup that could be drugged? Was he to have his way with her before Strike got here?
“Thanks,” she said. “But it’s sort of tough to eat.” She was still technically tied to the bed after all, but he came in and set the bowl on the nightstand. “Did you kill him?”
She dreaded the answer, but if Junker had managed to convince Bella he was right, Strike might have been caught unawares. “No,” Junker said and started to loosen her bounds. “Bella came to talk to me… I think maybe she likes the idea of having some family around, even if she didn’t know I existed. At least, she’s not ready to kill me yet.”
“That’s something,” she said, trying not to recoil when he laid across her to untie her other arm. As soon as she was loose, she breathed out and sat up, grateful to rub her aching arms. “Thank you.”
He handed her the bowl of soup and she smiled, though she was considering throwing it in his face. There was steam coming from the liquid, but she could hold the bowl without burning herself, so she doubted it was hot enough to cause serious injury.
Rora didn’t want to eat and stirred the liquid wondering how she’d fake it; Junker saved her the trouble. He rose from the bed and walked toward the darkened window.
“She’s my sister,” he said.
Because he wasn’t watching her, Rora made the occasional noise with the spoon, but didn’t bother to eat. “It must be quite an adjustment for you,” she said, because as long as he thought they were friends, she might be able to reason with him. “For both of you.”
“Exile isn’t as understanding as you are,” he said. Junker didn’t try to disguise how much he hated Strike. He thought he had reason, but seemed to have forgotten what his father and brothers were doing to Strike when he killed them. “He keeps telling her I can’t be trusted. He’s using his power over her to turn her against me.”
“But you’re free,” she said, putting the soup on the nightstand and shifting to the edge of the bed. “She must have some trust in you.”
Bella had admitted to liking the chase and there was no doubting this whole drama was exciting the Black Jewel. This late, it would be insanity for anyone to go running out into the dark. So, however the night turned out, Bella would be thinking that they were all stuck here and the only person Junker had threatened so far was Exile.
Bella wouldn’t be averse to seeing the men fight. She might not want Strike dead, but she did get turned on when anyone got physical with him.
“I need your help, Aurora,” he said, and turned to come over and stand in front of her, a grave look on his face. “I need you to help me kill him.”
“Junk—”
“Once he’s gone, she’ll see we’re right. We’ll be able to convince her…”
And they’d be able to give Bella the Point to complement the processor she’d already
stolen. “And Burke?”
She didn’t know if Junker knew Torres was there or what he’d said to Bella about the man whose life they’d saved. Anything Junker said might contradict something Strike had told the Black Jewel.
Rora hadn’t been around to hear all their conversations over the past few days, so she’d stay quiet on the subject around Bella. But Junker was looking to earn points and discredit Strike, God knew what he’d say.
Sinking down at her side, he caught her face in both hands. “Once we get rid of Exile, the others don’t matter,” he said. “Please, Rora, help me.”
Staring into her, she felt his compulsion, and wondered if it had been his plan all along to ask her to do this for him. Had Junker ever killed? Was he capable? It was one thing to say you wanted someone dead, but following through was something else. She’d caused havoc in her time with Exile, no doubt about that, but even she hadn’t killed.
Junker began to pull her closer and she feared he was trying to use seduction to convince her to join his side. But there wasn’t going to be a kiss or an alliance. Her fingers began to rise, but she wasn’t going to embrace or caress him, her thoughts were wholly on the knife her flame had put in her cleavage.
The time had come; Junker was useless to them and a threat to her love, if she got the chance to finish this now, that’s exactly what she was going to do.
A bang came from beyond the room. Short and sharp, there was only one thing it could be.
“A gunshot,” she said, surging to her feet in time with Junker who shared her panicked look.
Together, they dashed from the room.
Every other door in the hallway was open. Burke, Torres, and Strike were all crowded around Bella, who was shorter than all of them, so it was tough to see what was going on.
Bella coughed. “Prince,” she said and fell against Strike who caught her and guided her down to the floor.
Junker called out and pushed her aside to rush over and pull Strike to his feet. “Get away from her!”
Strike moved away, and Rora felt herself drawn toward him. He didn’t face her, but she caught the seam of his tee-shirt and peeked around him at the bleeding woman on the floor.
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