ALIEN SHIFTER ROMANCE: Alien Tigers - The Complete Series (Alien Invasion Abduction Shapeshifter Romance) (Paranormal Science Fiction Fantasy Anthologies & Short reads)

by Tanya Jolie

  “That’d be entertaining.” He glanced at the older man and saw strain lines bracketing his thin lips. “Your hip giving you grief again, Arthur?” he asked, slowing his pace.

  “The arthritis. They want to replace it.” He watched T.J. pick up his duffle from the luggage carousel. “He gave me the Taser, Mr. Terence.”

  Because he liked the old thug, T.J. followed him out to the limo parked illegally at the curb. The back window lowered and another voice from the south of Boston said, “Get in.”

  “No.” The only way to deal with his father was in words of one syllable. “What?”

  “Get in, Junior, and I’ll tell you,” the elder Terence Jamison Riley said. “Or don’t, and Arthur will Taser you, throw you in here, and I’ll be late for my three o’clock class.”

  T.J. got in the limo and sat across from his father. “Class?”

  “Yoga.” As elegant in Armani as a reformed mob boss could be, Terence popped a piece of nicotine gum in his mouth. “Your mother thinks it’ll help with my anger management issues. I don’t mind so much. The girls are pretty, and hooboy, so flexible.” Terence gave him the once-over. “Why you over here? Work?”

  The old man looked tired, so T.J. took pity on him. “What do you want, Pop?”

  Terence shrugged. “Same old. Give up this spy shit, come home and work for me. I’m legit now, remember?”

  T.J. rolled his hand.

  His old man sighed. “Your mother wants grandbabies. We’re not getting any younger, you know. Your sister Margaret’s doing that test tube thing, but it ain’t working out. Her and Jack are talking about adopting.”

  T.J. rolled his hand again.

  His father rubbed his eyes. “Look. You come home, marry a nice Irish Catholic girl, and knock her up. It’ll make your mother happy. She’s happy, I’m happy. I’m generous when I’m happy, Junior.”

  T.J. looked over the seat. “Arthur, drop me at long-term parking, will you?”

  “Do this, and I’ll write you back in the will. I’m worth ten billion now, boy, and – you’re bleeding?” Terence jerked aside the collar of T.J.’s shirt to glare at his bandage and then him. “You got shot? And you didn’t say anything?”

  “Pop? I got shot.” As Arthur pulled over T.J. grabbed his duffle.

  “Love to Ma.” When the car stopped he climbed out and didn’t look back.

  T.J. walked to a black SUV with a license plate that read HOT4U2. He input the security code on the door panel keypad and threw his duffle in the back. Once inside he took keys, a wallet, a cash bundle and a smart phone from the glove box. As soon as he touched the phone it lit up and buzzed.

  “Yeah?” he answered it as he started the SUV’s engine.

  “Central is bloody pissed with you, Terry,” a friendly British female voice said. “Consider yourself severely reprimanded for that cock-up in Paris. Why are you in America?”

  “I’m taking some personal time, Ash.” T.J. reached under the seat for the untraceable handgun tucked there. He popped the fully-loaded clip to check the rounds. “Thanks for the nine.”

  “Can’t have you scampering about unarmed, love. There’s extra ammo in the boot.” Ashley’s tone turned crisp. “We have a vastly unpleasant situation brewing in Berlin. It will likely go critical by Monday. That’s all the time we can spare you.”

  “Understood. Appreciate it, doll.” T.J. ended that call and dialed the number to his old boxing gym. When a gravelly voice answered, he said, “Where we at, Mike?”

  “They stashed her in a brownstone in Roxbury,” his former trainer said. “Some whorehouse for pervs run by a Spanish woman. She’s got some Eurotrash managing the whole business. But Terry, you need to turn on News Chat AM. Turn it on right now.”

  T.J. switched on the twenty-four hour news radio station, and listened as publishing mogul Brian O’Hara finished giving his statement to reporters.

  “We would do anything to save this brilliant, brave young woman’s life,” O’Hara said sadly. “But we have seven children. If we pay this ransom, then they will instantly become targets. We can’t allow that, so we will pray for her. It is our hope that God, not money, brings her home again.”

  “Cheap prick.” T.J. shut off the radio and put the phone to his ear again. “How long we got before they kill her?”

  #

  Bound and gagged, the hostage could do nothing but watch as the madam shut off the radio and paced around the room. The busty brunette muttered under her breath in Spanish as a slender European man named Benton watched.

  “Consuela, darling, calm yourself,” Benton said. “All is not lost.”

  “Isn’t it? Your father is a stingy bastard, Sarah O’Hara,” the madam raged as she dragged Sarah up from the floor. “And you, you are worthless to me now.” She pulled a dagger from her robe.

  “Kill her, and you really do have nothing.” A slender man who had shown surprising strength when he’d snatched Sarah, Benton seemed bored with the universe. He lit a thin brown cigar and examined the glowing tip as he exhaled smoke. “We’ll simply have to get creative.”

  The madam turned on him. “You heard that tight-ass. He won’t pay a penny for her. I’d have to drug her to make her into a whore, and then she’ll probably kill herself like half of them do. So how do you make something out of this, Benton?”

  “We find someone who will pay for her.” Benton came over and inspected Sarah. “She’s pretty enough. She might even still be a novice. Surely there are gentlemen in Boston who would be delighted to enjoy such a young, tasty morsel. We send out invitations to the right clientele and sell her to the highest bidder.”

  “And what happens if she escapes? She goes straight to the police. Then we are all going to jail.” Consuela made an impatient sound. “Don’t be an idiot.”

  “Oh, I didn’t mean sell her as a slave, darling,” Benton replied. “We allow the winner to use her here, in our little dungeon. We can even film it. Torture and rape porn is quite profitable, you know.”

  Behind her gag, Sarah swallowed hard. She’d expected to be killed right away. Now that she was facing a fate that might be worse than death; she needed to think about ways she might kill herself.

  “Yes.” The madam’s mouth stretched into an evil mirror of the slender man’s smile. “But there is something that will make us even more money.”

  Chapter Two

  Sarah sat hunched over as far as she could to feel the heat from the fireplace. The madam had stripped her of everything but her bra and panties before cuffing her to the metal chair. If she didn’t get warmer soon she’d start shivering. She refused to do that in front of any of the men being brought in to inspect her.

  She also needed a way out. Everything sharp from the room had been removed. If she tried to bolt they might shoot her, but only to cripple her. Uninjured she could still put up a fight. The prospect of being raped while she slowly bled from a gunshot wound made bile surge in her throat.

  The next bidder escorted in stood tall and bulky-looking in black leather and expensive shades. His dark hair spiked out around a hard, rugged face that might have been handsome once. Now a nose broken too many times and a scattering of thin white scars all but shouted career criminal.

  “Why I gotta come in here?” the thug demanded in a thick Southie accent.

  “So you can inspect the prize, dear boy,” Benton said, making an elegant gesture. “Allow me to introduce our very poetically-named Sarah O’Hara. She is twenty-four years old, enjoys cheerleading, strawberry daiquiris, and long walks on the beach.”

  As the thug removed his coat Sarah inspected him again. With his build and bone structure he definitely looked stronger and more dangerous than all the other bidders combined. If he won her, she wouldn’t stand a chance.

  “She is also the sadly unloved daughter of Publishing’s misery prince Brian O’Hara,” Benton was saying. “As you can see she’s healthy, drug-free and mostly uninjured. Possibly virginal, too, although we can’t guarantee th
at. She dislocated our resident physician’s jaw when he tried to check. You’re a profession assassin?”

  The thug grunted. “Hitman, yeah. So?”

  “Rather convenient, considering.” Benton took out a stop watch. “You have five minutes to inspect her – and please, no pre-auction violations. Really not worth having your fingers crushed.” He started the stop watch and stepped out of the room.

  The hitman loomed over Sarah, and then slowly removed his sunglasses. His right eye glittered a brilliant blue, and his left a vivid green. “Look familiar yet?”

  Sarah didn’t know any killers with complete heterochromia, but that didn’t mean anything. As he crouched down in front of her she could smell him and hated herself for liking his scent. She flinched when he reached out to touch her face, and then tried to yell as he tugged down her gag.

  He clamped his big hand over her lips to muffle her shriek. “I can wait for that.” He put his mouth by her ear. “It’s me, Rah-Rah. T.J. Terry Riley’s son. Remember, from grade school?”

  Sarah nodded, and when he drew his hand away, whispered, “FBI or PD?”

  He grinned as if she’d made a joke. “You’re still a riot, Rah.” The smile faded as he examined her bruised cheek. “You okay? Any of them mess with you?”

  “Not yet.” She glanced at the door. “T.J., you have to get me out of here. Will you untie me?” If he would do that much, she could brain him and jump out through the window.

  “I’m working on it, sweetheart. Just keep your eye on me, and be ready to move fast, okay?” He replaced her gag and kissed her brow as he stood up and slid on his shades.

  A moment later Benton stepped back inside. “Before you join the others, I must inform you of the special conditions involved in this sale.”

  “What conditions?” T.J. demanded.

  The European walked over and stroked Sarah’s head like a fond pet owner. “If yours is the winning bid, you will have all night to fondle, torture and otherwise violate our dear girl in our dungeon. But to protect me and my associates, you will be filmed while you’re amusing yourself.”

  T.J. grunted. “Anything else?”

  “Oh, yes.” Benton smiled with serene benevolence. “At dawn, you must kill her.”

  #

  As T.J. entered the private bar he noted that the competition had dwindled down to two. Benton’s special conditions had chased off everyone except a career knee-capper with crazy eyes, and a middle-aged woman dressed in a pink twin set and pearls. T.J. sat at the table between them and stretched out his long legs.

  “My, aren’t you a big boy?” Twin Set said, scanning him with an admiring eye before giving her salt-and-pepper coiffure a discreet pat. “Made, or freelance?”

  “Loser,” the thug on T.J.’s other side said. “The chickie is mine, man.” He leaned over to eye Twin Set. “And what’s with you, church lady? Winner’s supposed to rape her, and you ain’t even got a dick.”

  Twin Set heaved a regretful sigh. “Oh ye of little imagination.”

  The bordello’s madam came in with a struggling Sarah and shoved her to her knees in front of T.J. and the other bidders. “You are all ready, good. We will open the bidding at five hundred.”

  “Dollars?” the thug asked, laughing the word. “Shit, we’ll be here all freaking night.”

  “She means five hundred thousand, dear,” Twin Set advised him as she raised her hand.

  “Six hundred,” T.J. said, watching Sarah’s face. She’d outgrown her freckles and pigtails, and he didn’t remember her eyes being quite so dark brown. She also seemed very focused for a terrified hostage, which made him wonder if they’d drugged her.

  From that point the auction continued briskly. The thug grew angrier with every opposing bid, and when Twin Set offered two point five million for Sarah, he jumped out of his chair.

  “What are you, FBI or something?” Before the woman could reply, he turned on Consuela. “This is bull. She ain’t got that kind of cash on her.”

  “She does in the Caymans,” Consuela told him.

  “You’re still using currency, dear?” Twin Set clucked her tongue at the third bidder. “Where do you buy your weapons? Wal-Mart?”

  T.J. saw Sarah shift on her knees, bracing herself for a blow. When she turned her head to watch the thug he saw the two birthmarks under her right ear that she shared with her father. Vampire bites, she’d called them when they were kids. Although she hardly resembled the little girl he once knew, she was definitely Sarah.

  “I have two point five,” the madam said once the other bidders stopped bickering.

  “Three,” T.J. said.

  Consuela’s eyebrows rose. “I’ll have to see some assurance of that, amigo.” She watched as T.J. removed a sizable blue diamond from his pocket and handed it to her. “Flawless?” When he nodded she gave it back. “The bid is three. Do I hear three point five?”

  The thug cursed everyone as he stalked out of the bar.

  Twin Set pursed her lips. “How many of those did you bring, my dear?”

  T.J. regarded her steadily. “Enough.”

  “Well, since I like you, I’ll drop out now. Go content myself with some young morsel that I don’t have to strangle afterward.” The older woman reached over and patted his hand. “If you’re ever in Newark, stop by Martha’s Chocolates. We make the best penuche on the east coast.”

  As Twin Set left the bar, Consuela hauled Sarah to her feet and held out her hand. Once T.J. placed the diamond on her palm, the madam shoved her hostage at him.

  “Come with me,” the madam said. “I’ll show you to the torture room.”

  Chapter Three

  Sarah ignored the nightmare cell she’d been shoved in and focused on the man saving her life. T.J. stood talking quietly to Consuela, who had sent his diamond to be checked. No sign of a rescue team yet. Getting out would be a bitch, too. The basement dungeon had no windows and only one exit. The sole avenue of escape meant going back up through the bordello. If T.J. meant to get her out, he’d need explosives – or a wrecking ball of a ruse.

  Unless he wasn’t planning on getting her out at all.

  The snotty European appeared to murmur something to Consuela, who beamed up at the hitman. “Absolutely flawless. Worth a bit more than your final bid, too, amigo.”

  “Consider the overage a tip, Señora.” T.J. jerked his head toward the stairs. “Just make sure nobody interrupts me before dawn. I want the full night with her.”

  “Enjoy,” Benton said, and took the madam’s arm to lead her back upstairs.

  Sarah held out her bound wrists to T.J., who walked past her to look through the bars at the video camera set up outside on a tripod. He then swore softly as he made a complete circuit of the cell and then gave her a direct look, shaking his head a little.

  “I know I can’t escape,” she told him, her heart sinking. “You paid a lot of money to get to me. So what’s first? Rape or torture?”

  “What, you’re in a hurry?” He grabbed her and dragged her over to the manacles chained to one wall. “Let’s have some foreplay first.”

  Sarah resisted enough to make it look real, but once he shoved her back against the bricks, she went still. T.J. pinned her there, his hands stroking her sides as he buried his face in her tangled hair. She braced herself for the mauling she expected.

  “I’m for real,” T.J. whispered. “I won’t touch you unless it’s for show.”

  She believed him now, primarily because he had no more reason to lie. “So how do we get out?”

  “I was going to signal my guys, but my transmitter’s jammed,” he said, keeping his voice low. “She must have switched on a signal damper. But when my guys don’t hear from me, they’ll come any way. They’re good. They’ll get us out.”

  “How long will they wait before they come?” she muttered back.

  He lifted his head to look down at her, his gaze bleak. “Until sunrise. So we’ve got a long night ahead of us.”

  “The madam
won’t watch us, but Eurotrash will,” Sarah warned him. “He asked me to scream for him.”

  T.J. muttered something vile and strode over to the bars, reaching out to yank the tripod over to him. “The only one she screams for is me, pal,” he told the lens and pressed a button on the side of the camera.

  “I put it on mute,” he told her in a normal voice as he came back to her. “They can still see us, though, so we’ll just have to fake it, Rah-Rah.”

  “For seven hours?” She felt like screaming now. “T.J., these people aren’t fools. Kink is their bent, and sex is their business.”

  “Yeah, well, getting hostages out of hell is mine.” He gripped her waist and kissed her ear before he said, “Come on. It’ll be fun. Like when we played cops and robbers, and you frisked me behind your Dad’s boathouse. My turn to be the arresting officer.”

  She almost laughed out loud. “That was a long time ago.”

  “You were so cute as a cop.” T.J. lifted her bound wrists over his head, hanging her arms around his neck. “You stayed alive this long, and now I’m here. We’ll make it out of this, sweetheart.”

  Sarah could feel the massive bulge of his erection now, and it made her go hot and achy between her legs. That he could arouse her so easily dismayed and thrilled her. “But there’s a good chance we won’t.”

  “So we check out together.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “Better than dying alone, huh?”

  Sarah saw the loneliness in his mismatched eyes and felt the echo of it in her heart. The extreme danger they were in, and what they were expected to do, made the next decision very simple. “I haven’t had sex in almost two years. You?”

  He thought about it. “With someone else in the room? August.” He saw her expression and moved his shoulders. “I’ve been busy.”

  “I want to do it for real,” she told him. “I want to have sex with you. Right now.”

  His confined penis twitched against her, but he shook his head. “I don’t mind dying, sweetheart, but I’d rather not burn for all eternity.”

  “I’ll be with you,” she promised. “We can burn together.” She kissed him.