by M Never
“It’s okay. It’s over now.” I smooth her hair and kiss her head repeatedly while she latches onto me like it’s the end of the world.
I’m sure for her it is.
I glance around. Javier, El Rey, and all their thugs lay dead on the floor. The room is destroyed, bullet holes in all my books, the walls, and my desk. The cherry wood looks like it’s been chewed on by wild animals.
“Can you stand?” I ask Ellie delicately.
She looks up at me, drained of life.
I lift her to her feet and secure her in my arms. I’m never letting go. “It’s okay. It’s over. It’s all over.”
“Agent Rivers.”
I stand at attention at the call of my name. “Commander.”
Ellie looks at me funny. Yeah, kitten, we have a lot to talk about.
“You alright?”
I nod. “Affirmative, sir.”
“Nice work.” He puts his hand out. Commander Adams is the A-typical Army commando. Short buzz cut, thick mustache, and no nonsense. He’s one of the best people I know. Next to Jett.
My heart sinks. I hug Ellie tighter with the arm I still have around her. She’s the only thing grounding me at the moment. The only thing holding me together. I try not to think of Jett and the terrible end he faced. Images upon horrific images infiltrate my mind.
“Thank you, sir.” My response is strained.
“Debrief at 0800. The house will be wiped.”
“Sir,” I answer mechanically.
Ellie watches our exchange. I know she thinks she’s in the twilight zone.
One of the Special Forces soldiers wraps her in a blanket as I converse with Commander Adams. Then he tries to remove her collar. I want to growl, but I don’t. Mine. When he finds he can’t because of the padlock, he disappears. Good riddance.
“Get that wound taken care of, Rivers. See you in the AM.”
I nod compliantly.
“Sir?”
“Yes, Solider?”
“Did the team I requested deploy?”
“An hour ago.”
I nod again. I sent a fleet to diffuse and disband Javier’s slave operation. The team was instructed to evacuate the estate and then burn the house to the ground. I vowed I wouldn’t let that girl’s death be in vain and I always stand by my word. Now I’m freeing them all.
Commander Adams gives Ellie a once-over, then cocks an eyebrow at me. He leaves without another word after that. Ask me no questions, and I’ll tell you no lies. That’s how this operation works. Execute the mission. End of story.
“Please tell me what’s going on before I fall to pieces.” Ellie finally speaks once we’re alone.
“I’ll tell you everything, but I want to get you out of here first.” I put my arm around her to lead her out of the room, but she backs away.
“No, Kayne, now. Here. Tell me.” There are so many emotions laced in her voice. She’s scared, confused, upset, and rightfully so. I’ve kept her captive for a month, told her nothing about anything, and then just dropped it all in her lap.
A room full of dead people is not exactly where I wanted to have this conversation, but Ellie seems adamant and my time as her proprietor is over. I owe her answers, and it’s time to fess up. Heaven help me.
“What’s going on is it’s over. Everything.”
“What’s over?”
“My mission.”
“Mission?” she repeats, trying to understand.
“Ellie.” I drop my forehead to hers. Where do I start? I guess from the beginning. “I spent my entire life in and out of foster homes, and to say my upbringing was rough is putting it mildly. When I was eighteen, I joined the Army. It was either enlist or live on the street.” Ellie frowns, her eyes compassionate but hard at the same time. “I scored particularly high on certain parts of the aptitude test and was recruited for a pilot program called Black Dawn. It’s where I met Jett.”
“Jett was in the Army?” Ellie interrupts.
“Hard to picture, I know.” My lip quirks solemnly. Every inch of me hurts, inside and out. And the mere mention of Jett’s name magnifies the pain twenty-fold.
“Mutual friends,” she muses.
“Excuse me?” I question trying to understand her statement.
Ellie’s eyes water. “He said the two of you met through mutual friends. I understand now. Sorry, go on.” She wipes a stray tear away from her cheek. I want to lick it off of her finger, but I don’t. Instead I continue.
“We were trained for three years in covert ops.”
“What, like spy school?” She tightens the blanket around her.
“That’s one way to put it. After the training was complete, they let us out into the world. Leaving us to our own devices.” She looks at me puzzled. Explaining this is harder than I initially thought. “They gave us free license to break the law, with hopes of aligning and infiltrating ourselves with drug dealers, arms traders, terrorists. Really anyone who is a threat to national security.” Ellie looks around the room at the covered bodies and blood oozing all over the floor.
“So that makes you what exactly?”
“An undercover special ops agent for a covert operation called Endeavor. For six years I have lived and worked under the alias Kayne Roberts. I have assumed the identity of an entrepreneur, liquor distributor, and proprietor of an elite sex club called Mansion,” I spew. It feels like an act of confession. “It was a cover. A government trap used to lure the enemy. And it lured one of most notorious drug lords on Earth. That was my mission, bring down the bad guy.”
“So Kayne Roberts isn’t your real name?” she asks.
“No, Kayne Roberts doesn’t exist. Kayne Rivers does.”
I can see the wheels grinding as she digests this information. I’m no one she’s ever known me to be. Not since day one.
“Is Jett really dead?” Her voice cracks, it’s like she’s coming out of a coma.
“Yes.” I put my hands on her arms, heartsick. Death is a harsh reality in this business. Jett and I both know that. We willingly chose this life, fully aware of the consequences. It still doesn’t make losing my best friend, my brother, any easier. I take a cleansing breath—my shoulder is fucking killing me—as I grab onto Ellie. She has no idea she’s my support. My rock. My everything. And I have to tell her.
More tears spill out of her eyes.
“No need to cry, sweet thing. Those fuckers had it coming.”
I whip my head over to find a ghost standing next to us. I don’t think I’ve ever been so elated in my life.
“Jett!” Ellie throws herself at him before I can move. Apparently I’m not the only elated one.
“Easy, killer.” He winces as he catches her in his arms. He looks like shit, all bloodied and bruised.
“You’re alive,” she weeps.
“Barely.” He smiles weakly, his left eye swollen shut. “It’s going to take more than three goons and a paring knife to take me down.” He lifts up his sleeve and shows me his arm. There’s a thick white bandage around his bicep. “That was unpleasant.”
“So was this.” I point to my bleeding shoulder. “The fucking thing went straight through.”
“I’m glad you’re alright.” He grins, dried blood caked on his mouth.
“You too.”
Jett looks uneasily between me and Ellie. He knows we need our time. And it’s now. “Well, I just wanted to find you and let you know I was alive before you started planning a funeral.” He smiles at me with sad eyes.
“The night’s not over yet. A funeral might not be taken out of the equation.” I glance down at Ellie.
She frowns.
That moment the solider chooses to return.
“Ma’am.” He holds up bolt cutters. Motherfucker. Then he snaps Ellie’s collar in two. The leather falls to the floor, landing right at my feet. It feels like a bomb just went off. Ellie looks up at me with wide eyes as she grabs her neck.
“Am I free?”
Jett takes that as hi
s cue to leave.
“I’ll just be over there.” He backs up, thumbing in the direction of the door.
Traitor. I shoot him a death glare.
“You’ve always been free,” I reluctantly admit, snapping the delicate strings of crystals off her wrist cuffs.
“I don’t understand.” Her voice wavers.
“I did it to protect you,” I blurt out. Cause really how do you tell someone that you kidnapped them and turned them into your sex slave so some other pervert didn’t get to them first?
“Protect me from what?” Ellie spits.
“Not what, who. Javier, he wanted you. The night of Mark’s party, he wanted to take you. So I took you first.” I start to ramble. “I did it to protect you. You saw how he is. What he was capable of. I couldn’t let him get near you.”
“He did get near me.” She starts to tremble.
“It was a drop in the bucket compared to what he could have done.”
I see the storm brewing in her eyes. “It wasn’t a drop in the bucket to me. Why didn’t you just tell me? Why put me through all ... that? All those things?” The agony in her voice destroys me. I know she’s recounting every second of the last month. Everything I forced her to do, the brutal fuckings, the spankings, the chains, the collars, the beatings, the humiliation.
“I couldn’t. I had to make you believe. I had to make everyone believe.” I take a step forward and she takes a step back. It guts me.
“Ellie, I’m sorry. I’m sorry for lying to you, I’m sorry for hurting you, I’m sorry for falling in love with you.”
The words that have been stinging the tip of my tongue finally spill out. She looks at me dejectedly. I fly into a panic.
“Ellie, please.” I feel her slipping away. “I love you. Forgive me.”
She shakes her head, recoiling. “Get away from me,” she hisses, taking another step back. I take another step forward.
“Ellie, stay.” It comes out more like a command than the desperate plea I meant it to be.
She glares at me, disgusted.
“Ellie, please stay with me,” I beg. The tables have finally been turned. Tears pour out of her eyes as she looks anywhere but at me.
“Jett!” she suddenly calls out frantically. I watch, helplessly, as she flies across the room and into Jett’s welcoming arms. She sobs against his chest as he wraps her in an embrace. My jealousy flares.
I have never wanted to hurt Jett so badly before, but at the moment I want to break every bone in his upper body just so he can’t lift his arms. I’m the one who’s supposed to be hugging her, consoling her. Loving her. Mine.
All I can do is watch numbly as Jett leads a broken Ellie out of the room. He throws me a sympathetic look over his shoulder just before they disappear.
My existence has just been eradicated. Everything is gone; my life, my soul, my beating heart. My eyes water as I stare into the void. I blink rapidly as something trickles down my cheek. I wipe my face. Tears. I lick my hand, they taste just like hers.
IT FEELS LIKE I JUST woke up from a hundred-year dream.
The air is cool, but my skin is on fire. It’s the first time I’ve been outside in I don’t know how long. The sky is clear and dotted with thousands of stars and the moon is a thin crescent above our heads. Jett is talking to me, but I can’t decipher a word he’s saying. My thoughts are just a mess.
“Ellie!” I hear Kayne’s distraught voice echo behind me as Jett tries to usher me into the back seat of a blacked-out SUV. “Ellie, wait, please, just listen to me!” When I feel him grab my arm, something inside me snaps.
“Get your hands off me!” I screech, batting him away. “I don’t want to hear anything you have to say! I hate you, you asshole!” I start throwing punches. Kayne deflects my fists with his forearms in an attempt to shield himself from my physical explosion. I do manage to get one good shot in. My open hand connects with his face; the loud slap rings out and my palm stings just before Jett encircles his arm around my waist and tosses me into the back of the Suburban. I breathe erratically as I crash against the leather seat.
“Jett, get out of my way.” Kayne tries to climb in after me, but Jett blocks him with his body.
“Kayne, back the fuck up.” He shoves him hard and Kayne is forced to take a step back. Jett uses the split-second separation to hop into the car and slam the door. “Drive!” he barks at the man behind the wheel. Less than a moment later we peel out, tires screeching as we pull away from the house. I glance back to see Kayne’s shrinking figure crouched on the driveway with his hands laced behind his head.
Ellie, I’m sorry. I’m sorry for lying to you, I’m sorry for hurting you, I’m sorry for falling in love with you. I take one look at Jett and unstoppable tears start to fall. He pulls me into his arms as I begin to sob. For God’s sake, it feels like I have been crying for an eternity. It’s a wonder my body doesn’t just give out from dehydration.
As we drive, my life comes into sharp clarity. Like a fog has lifted. You’ve always been free. I cry harder and I don’t understand why. I’m free, but I have the heaviest feeling of loss crushing my chest. It’s almost suffocating me.
“Shhhh, Ellie.” Jett comforts me. “Everything is okay. You’re okay.”
“I’m far from okay, Jett!” I explode. “I was just held captive for I don’t know how long and forced to do unspeakable things with a man I once worshiped. I feel betrayed. I feel humiliated. I feel …” Alone.
“He did it to protect you.” Jett defends Kayne.
“There had to be another way!” I demand, my emotions overflowing everywhere. There’s no containing them.
“There wasn’t. It was a split-second decision and we ran with it. Kayne couldn’t allow you to be tortured at the hands of a monster. It was the only way to keep you safe. We both agreed.”
“You both agreed to what? Him becoming the monster?!” I shout. The man driving the car never turns his head to look at us. He just steers the car, keeping his attention on the road. I’m grateful for his disinterest. Or his feign of disinterest. I’m sure I look and sound like a raving lunatic right now.
Jett scowls at me. Like he has any right. “Let me paint you a picture, Ellie. Say Kayne did tell you exactly who he was and exactly what was going on. And Javier came into your room that night and found you munching on popcorn and watching a movie instead of chained to the bed. Do you know what he would have done?”
I shake my head slowly.
“He would have tortured you until you talked. Until you divulged every one of Kayne’s secrets. Do you think you could have handled him yanking out your teeth one by one? Or carving you up one tiny slice at a time? Because that’s the kind of fucking animal he was.”
I swallow hard, my throat sore from trying not to cry, my eyes wet with residual tears. “And after he finished with you, he would have gone after everyone else in the house. There was more than just your life at stake. So yes, we mutually agreed it was the best way. It wasn’t premeditated. If you belonged to Kayne, theoretically Javier should have stayed away.”
“Well he didn’t stay away!” I wipe away the tears that are now escaping down my cheeks, reliving the aggressive, inhumane way he orally raped me.
“Evil is unpredictable. But he got what he deserved. Javier’s death will ripple through the trafficking community. Countless lives will be saved.”
“At what expense?” My voice is an agonizing whisper.
“Ellie, the world is at war, and sometimes innocent bystanders get caught in the crossfire. What happened to you was unfortunate, but you can’t tell me you honestly believe Kayne is a monster.”
“I don’t know what to believe.”
“Yes, you do. Believe what’s in your heart. Over the last month I watched the two of you fall in love and now he’s falling apart because you left him.”
“He doesn’t love me,” I reply desolately. He can’t. None of it was real.
“No, you’re right. He doesn’t love you. His feelings
run so much deeper than that. He’s obsessed with you. He always has been. Since the moment he met you, you’re all he’s ever wanted,” Jett informs me directly. “And for Kayne to feel that way is huge. Beyond Mt. Kilimanjaro huge.”
I shake my head furiously. “No.” I don’t want to believe it. I want to believe Kayne is a monster who doesn’t deserve me. No matter where you go or who you’re with. You’ll always be mine.
“Javier wanted you.” Jett clutches my arms and shakes me. “He would have stopped at nothing to get you, and once that happened, Kayne wouldn’t have been able to intervene. Javier would have killed you. Do you understand? It was the only way.” Jett’s phone rings in his pocket and we both pause. He pulls it out and glances at the screen then looks up at me; his aqua eyes illuminating from the oncoming headlights on the opposite side of the road. “Kayne.”
“Don’t!” I frantically smack the cell phone out of his hand before he can answer it.
“Ellie!?” Jett chastises me.
“I don’t want you to talk to him!” I don’t even want to hear a susurration of his voice.
“I never want to see him again.”
Continue on to read Claimed
Out of The Black ~ Royal Blood
Wild Ones ~ Flo Rida
Control ~ Puddle of Mudd
Sing ~ Ed Sheeran
Seven Nation Army ~ White Stripes
What You Wanted ~ One Republic
Stay With Me ~ Sam Smith
Your naked body should only belong
to those who fall in love with your naked soul.
~ unknown
I KNOW WHO IT IS before I even answer the phone.
“What’s up, Jimmy?”
“Your boy is at it again. Gettin’ belligerent and disrupting my customers.”
“Awesome,” I groan under my breath. “I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
“Five minutes. This is my last courtesy call. Next time, I’m calling the cops.”
“I hear ya loud and clear.”
“Good.” Click.
Fuck. I shrug on a pair of jeans and run my fingers through my hair. The first time I can sleep through the night in six years and this jackass repeatedly picks three a.m. to self-destruct. If it were anyone else, I’d have told Jimmy to toss him in the gutter and let him sleep off his load. But I can’t do that, not to Kayne. At least not this time, but possibly the next. This shit is getting old.