He let go with a self-satisfied smirk. “I think you do. Let me give you a little more evidence to support my promise.” This time, Luis pulled out his own phone and opened his photos. What Tomi saw made her blood freeze in her veins.
“This is my brother’s family. He tried to go behind my back and make plans for my business. Do you see Manuel there?” Luis pointed to the top of the photo, the cute Latino with Carrie stood in a pool of blood, knife in one hand and the mangled bodies of an entire family at his feet. “That was a quick death because I am merciful when needed. I loved my sister-in-law and nieces.” Luis leaned down close to her once more as she fought the rising bile. “Do I need to show you more pictures?”
“No.” Tomi jerked her head away, horrified.
“Perfect, Francois is approaching. You will do as I instructed, won’t you Tomi?”
She glanced up to see a thin, oily looking man with dark, curly hair approach. Her gaze dropped to the floor along with her heart. “Yes,” she whispered.
“Luis, you’ve outdone yourself tonight,” said a man with a smooth, French-accented voice. “The crowd is delighted, and I cannot wait to see the rest.”
Tomi glanced up at Francois, fighting to gather her courage.
“François, how wonderful for you to join us. I didn’t know you were in the market,” Luis answered just as gallantly. The polite exchange made her want to vomit.
“Ah yes, I’ve brought my last little piece with me, but they just don’t make them like they used to. She’s reached the end of her usefulness to me and I’m looking to replace her tonight. This little gem is particularly interesting. Such fine craftsmanship.”
Leaning down, he tipped up Tomi’s chin.
Tomi caught Luis’s brief, warning stare. It was now or never. Tomi bared her teeth and tried to bite Francois’ hand. He jerked away before she could sink in her teeth, and both men burst out laughing as if her reaction were a joke. “The perfect amount of responsiveness, my friend,” Luis said. “I tell you, you would enjoy her for a long, long time.”
The man’s dark gaze rolled over her body as if he were caressing her with his hands. “She seems very willful.”
“Yes, it’s the reason I’ve saved her for last. I’ve never seen such spirit. I’ve debated keeping her for my own pleasure,” Luis drawled.
“Ah, taming such a wild beauty would be heaven. May I touch her?”
Tomi sucked in a breath and glared at Francois, not having to fake the revulsion crawling across her skin like a thousand fire ants stinging her all at once. Her trembles turned into shakes and she dug her toes into the hard ground beneath her, attempting to get an anchor.
“You know the rules, no touching before buying,” Luis said as if he were amused by the man’s request.
François chuckled, but his eyes burned with desire…and something darker. Something brutal and cruel. Tomi sent up a silent prayer that she could survive long enough to save her friend.
“You’re a devil, Luis, but a brilliant businessman.” Then François looked directly at her, and she recoiled against Luis’s leg. “I hope I can afford you tonight. If I do, I’ll get my money’s worth out of you.”
François left and Tomi fought back the tears. How could she be here? She’d only seen things like this on TV. This really couldn’t be happening.
“Tomi, you’re crushing the fabric of my pants.” Luis tsked and pried her fingers off his calf. She let go with a violent shudder, ashamed of her cowardice.
“Your instincts are excellent, Tomi. François might appear angelic, but his tastes are very sadistic.”
Oh, God. Oh, God please get her out of this.
A crowd of men was filing down the staircase, returning to their seats. Tomi looked at each of their faces, hoping beyond hope that there was a sympathetic gaze in the room, but she found none. The satisfied smiles on their faces exuded anticipation.
She wasn’t supposed to be here. She should be on the beach in Mexico, enjoying margaritas with her best friend. All of this had happened because she’d forgotten her passport.
Her father had always warned her that her lack of planning and uncontrollable ways would get her in trouble one day. Turned out he’d been right.
The crowd on the staircase was thinning out. Despite knowing it was hopeless, she continued to search the men’s faces.
And then she saw him.
Cole Fury.
Her heart stopped beating, overloaded with joy. His tight shirt showed off massive biceps and hinted at the washboard stomach underneath. Hard-packed muscled had replaced his lean athletic figure from high school. His boyishly charming smile and smooth cheeks flattened into a granite jaw coated with a scrub of five o'clock shadow that made him appear sinister and sexy.
The Cole of her past had been charming and handsome. The Cole of her present was too hard to call charming. His features too intense. The combo of thickly corded shoulders, cropped midnight hair and tanned skin was nothing short of devastating to her senses.
As if tapped by some invisible finger, Cole turned and caught her desperate stare. He blinked, gave her a distant once over and then gave her his back.
Her stomach bottomed out and crashed into the floor. He'd recognized her and dismissed her. Seeing Cole had brought on such a rush of hope, that when he turned away, she'd crashed back to hell with the speed of a clipped bird dropping out of the sky.
Help! She screamed in her mind.
He was laughing with the man walking next to him, turned down the isle mid-way up the stairs and never looked back. Tomi fell back on her heels, stunned. He’d recognized her and dismissed her.
Just like he should have after what you did to him.
Her last grain of hope fell to the floor. There were two men in this room tonight who wanted her gone. One she’d accidentally unmasked as a criminal earlier this week, and the other whose heart she’d destroyed years ago.
5
His fucking heart was hammering in his chest like he was a goddamn sledgehammer on steroids. It took every ounce of willpower Cole Fury possessed not to tear down that staircase and scoop Tomi into his arms. The utter terror on her beautiful face tugged at every single fiber inside his body. She’d begged him with her eyes, and he'd almost taken a step to her. Almost. He'd turned at the last minute, forcing himself away so he didn't blow his cover and get them both killed.
He rushed Adam back to their table, needing the curtains to hide his slipping poker face. Damn, she was so fucking scared.
“No one has thrown up an alarm. We may be good,” Adam said in a hushed voice as Cole took Chaplinsky’s seat at the table.
Their butler stepped through the curtains, “May I refill your scotch?”
“Yes, and a whiskey for my man.” Adam pointed at Cole, flicking his wrist in an offhanded movement as if his bodyguard were an afterthought. The butler nodded in understanding and melted from the small space. Cole hunched forward, coiling his body tight so he wouldn’t explode.
“We don’t have a choice. And don’t you dare let anyone outbid us. Did you see that Frenchman looking at her?” Cole had barely restrained himself from charging into the man and wrapping his hands around his throat.
“Couldn’t miss it. We’ll have to bid against him, and he knows Luis.”
“We know money. And money talks,” Cole said carelessly, his anger outweighing his logic. He would never talk like this in front of anyone else, but Adam was one of the few men besides his brothers he felt comfortable enough to express his true feelings around.
“Yeah, as long as you don’t screw it up. You look like you’re ready to go all Hulk on me. She doesn’t need you to lose your cool. Not tonight, man.”
“You think I don’t know that?” Cole whispered harshly and shoved his forearms on the table, trying to clamp down his muscles and relieve some of the tension.
“I think your head knows it, but not your heart. You need to shut that shit down now. If you don’t, we are all dead.”
Cole took a deep breath and closed his eyes, reaching for that box inside, the one he’d always been able to so effortlessly close himself into before tonight. His brothers always joked he was a machine—someone with no discernible emotions or feelings—but dammit, seeing Tomi like this had ripped the lid right off that box. “I know. I’m trying,”
“Try harder,” Adam said without an ounce of sympathy in his voice. “It’s not just her life that depends on you tonight. Tara and the other women are at risk too.”
“Shit, I know,” he said, running a hand through his short hair. “I just wasn’t prepared to see her. Not like this.”
“I’ve never heard you even mention an ex, who is she?”
“Just a teenage crush.”
“Bullshit, teenage crushes don’t get this kind of reaction.”
Cole should’ve known better than to try hiding something from Adam. The man was a master at reading minds. But he hadn’t talked about Tomi since the breakup. Didn’t know how to talk about her. “I thought she was the one.”
“You don’t strike me as a man who changes his mind easily, Cole. Why aren’t you married with a handful of babies? She couldn’t handle the military life?”
Cole let out an unexpected harsh burst of laughter. “Wrote me a Dear John and ghosted. Never saw her again.” It was the first time he’d ever talked about it, and the words burned just like he’d known they would.
“Damn, she dumped you when you were deployed?”
Adam sounded just as surprised as Cole had felt the day Tomi had told him the truth. “Yep. Had about six months left on tour. Wasn’t a damn thing I could do to stop her.” Cole shrugged, feeling stupid about the whole thing all these years later. “I didn’t see it coming.”
“And you want to save her?” Adam asked quietly.
Hell, yes, his insides screamed. Cole controlled it, knowing Adam was watching him closely. “We were both young.” He didn’t even have to think about it. No woman deserved this-this was the kind of evil he’d spent his entire career fighting against.
Adam let out a long sigh. “She’d better be worth us risking this entire mission.”
She is.
Shit, he was losing his mind.
Cole decided it was better to change the subject than continue down this path. Adam would see through his façade in a second. “I’m surprised we haven’t heard Chaplinsky yelling yet.”
“We will.” Quiet certainty laced Adam’s tone.
As if on cue, their butler reappeared in the room, placed the highballs on the table with a flourish, and disappeared back through the curtains. Yet his quiet entrance and exit was punctuated by a loud bellow of outrage, and it was then Cole knew without a doubt that Clint and Carter had come through. They’d managed to freeze his accounts.
“I’m pretty sure that’s our Russian friend screaming,” he said.
“Sounds like your brothers came through. Hopefully that’ll buy us enough time to get the girls.” Adam straightened the edges of his suit, carefully sipping his drink. The host made his way back to the microphone on center stage, clearing his throat. Luis had yet to move, and Tomi’s eyes were widening as if she were going into shock.
She’d needed some sort of sign from him earlier—one he’d known better than to give her. No doubt she thought the worst of him now, but Cole couldn’t do anything about that yet. No matter how badly he wanted to.
“Gentlemen,” the host announced, “next up on the menu are our main courses. Each girl has been hand selected and groomed, with the highest ratings in each category. I hope you will cherish and enjoy these gems for many months to come. Our first beauty comes to us from the great state of California. She has 100% Latino lineage with bloodlines tracing back to Spanish royalty. An Olympic bronze medalist in track, she also has a master’s degree from Caltech. Certified 100% pure. May I introduce, Garnet.”
A stunning young Spanish girl was escorted out onto the stage. Her steps were too steady for her to have been drugged, and she held her chin proudly despite the fact that her hands were bound in thickly padded leather cuffs in front of her waist. They’d dressed her in a scarlet satin braless bustier and a matching sheer thong. Incredibly high heels showed off her toned calves and legs. “You’re disgusting!”
The host chuckled at the victim’s outburst. “As you can see, she is fully aware, and while her spirit shows, she should be tamed fairly easily. We’ll start the bidding at $500,000 for my Latino beauty.”
The bidding war began, and the woman’s false bravado wavered toward the end as reality set in. The winning bid, a stunning $700,000, was made by a very American-sounding gentleman off to their left.
“Our team better be ready… I have a feeling these men won’t be sticking around long,” Adam said.
Cole kept his gaze locked on Tomi as he answered, “They’ll be ready. They want to catch these bastards as much as we do.” While his business was only a couple of years old, still in its infancy stages in terms of private security firms, they had a 100% success rate on all of their missions. Cole had no intention of breaking that track record.
The bidding continued efficiently and quickly as the host ran through the next three girls, each more beautiful than the last. But none of them were Tara. Cole could see the worry lines forming on Adam’s features. They had to prepare themselves for the possibility that she wouldn’t be in tonight’s auction, which meant they couldn’t risk blowing their cover.
The host escorted the last girl listed on the menu. She stepped into the circle of light cast on the stage from the overhead spotlights, her alabaster pale skin gleaming like porcelain. Dark red hair hung in waves down her back, and the green scrap of lingerie she wore perfectly offset her deep green eyes.
There were audible gasps in the room. Cole knew they were coming from the Saudis he’d noticed during the intermission. Their culture valued redheads as nearly priceless treasures. This girl would go fast. The bidding commenced at $900,000. The bidding war became a vicious battle and the host practically swooned in delight as the price went above $1.2 million.
Adam barely seemed to notice. Tara wasn’t here. They had no idea where Luis kept the women in between auctions.
“I’m sorry,” Cole said quietly.
Adam clenched his jaw and gave a brisk nod of acknowledgment.
“It’s okay, I’ll find her. Let’s get your girl.”
The bidding wrapped up. The host clapped, gestured for the guards to escort the stunned beauty off the stage, and announced, “Gentlemen, I am honored by your presence here tonight. To show our appreciation Luis has arranged for a special surprise ending. I know you ask yourself, what could it be? How could we have any gem more precious than the last? Well, Luis has handpicked the final girl himself. And in deference to him, I shall kindly bow out so that Luis may present tonight’s surprise attraction.”
Luis rose to his feet in a fluid motion and there was an audible shift in the room as everyone’s attention turned to him. He wrapped a hand around the chain linking Tomi’s collar to the cuffs, forcing her to her feet. Cole gnashed his teeth together so hard he was surprised his jaw didn’t crack.
“Esteemed guests, I would like to present to you my southern belle. She is very special to me, and I’ve struggled with myself on whether to keep her, but seeing you all tonight, I could never be so selfish. My belle is certified 100% grade-A healthy, she has experience in early childhood education, and—as you can see—is flawless.” Luis forced Tomi to turn in a slow circle. The sheer white babydoll emphasized her curves and the clear crystal spiked heels on her feet made her already shapely legs mouthwatering. “I have personally inspected the merchandise and can guarantee your satisfaction. The bidding starts at $1 million.”
Luis nodded to someone else in the crowd. “I have 1 million, who will give me $1.2? Very good, you have been matched, who will give me $1.5? Excellent, who will give me $1.7?”
The bidding quickly rose to $2.2 million, each increment tightening Cole’s gut
as if there were a steel cable wrapped around it, squeezing. “Adam, bid.”
“Wait until it slows down.”
“She’ll be fucking gone by the time it slows down.”
“I’m not going to let that happen. Rein it in before you get someone killed,” Adam said, giving him a pointed look.
Shit. Shit. Shit. His emotions were hitting a boiling point.
Cole focused on his breathing, in and out, slow and steady, controlling his heart rate until it evened out to a reasonable level. Then he focused on Tomi. Her unmistakable terror tested his control. What was wrong with him? He'd never had an issue shutting that shit down and getting the job done.
Right now, her survival depended on him having a cool head. Later, when she was safe, he'd let the ocean of pent-up emotions out of their cage. Now, he dropped his gaze to his clenched hands and pulled back inside himself. Shutting off the world, he locked his rage down tight and let the ice encase his veins. The hollowness that usually came with this state of mind eluded him, though. He felt anything but empty now.
“Who will give me $2.5? This lovely slave is worth it—I can promise you that.”
Luis paused again. “Well gentlemen, we have $2.2, going once—”
Adam lifted two fingers into the air.
A surprised but not pleased look slid across Luis’s face. “The gentleman bid $2.5 million.” Luis looked to his right, staring at a table Cole couldn’t see, no doubt the location of the last bidder. “Do we have $2.7?”
A buzz of excitement built in the room. It started as a low humming and quickly rose in volume.
Adam kept his gaze directed at the stage, and whispered to Cole, “You see that? He doesn’t look happy. I think we may have interrupted his plans.”
“We need to find out what those plans were.”
“The gentleman bids $2.7 million. Will anyone raise it to three?”
Luis had no choice but to look at Adam’s table, only this time Tomi did too. Her wide blue eyes locked on to Cole’s and he stared right through her. Her shoulders dropped, as did her gaze. The defeated slump to her posture nearly undid him.
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