Danger and Desire: Ten Full-Length Steamy Romantic Suspense Novels

by Pamela Clare

  Facinetti’s dark eyes narrowed. “What would that be?”

  “Just a little more time with her.” Tanner bent his head and nuzzled her neck. A shock of sensation whistled through her blood. Jess hated her body’s betrayal. She struggled to be free, but he only held her closer and whispered something in her ear. Her pulse pounded too hard to hear him. His lips brushed her lobe, and she fought harder for her freedom, but he only chuckled as his lips grazed her neck. “See,” he said, raising his head and talking to Facinetti. “She can’t wait to be with me again.”

  The creep had to add again. She sure knew how to rack up the disappointment points. Not to mention the humiliation ones. She didn’t have the courage to look at any family members.

  “Look,” Tanner continued, “I’m still going to take care of all of them. I just want some extra time with Jess so I can give her a proper goodbye.” He bent his head near her ear. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you sweetheart? One last screw before you die?”

  “You scum sucking maggot.” Jess threw her weight forward and back, tried to dislodge herself, but Tanner only chuckled again.

  “Hold still,” he told her. “I wouldn’t want you to get hurt.” He waved the gun in front of her face and she froze. “Atta girl.” He glanced up at Facinetti. “She’s real good at taking orders.

  “Look, you’re right,” Tanner told Facinetti, still waving the gun around. “You don’t know me and you don’t trust me.” He squeezed her during the last two words. Was that supposed to be a message? Trust me. Was she crazy? “But I have no problem showing good faith.” In one quick move, Tanner turned, aimed at her dad and fired the gun.

  Jess screamed along with her mother, and her dad jolted as pain seared his face. A red spot on his thigh grew as the blood ate up his khaki pants. Her brothers all went ballistic and Jess fought like a demon to get out of Tanner’s grasp.

  “No, no,” he told her very carefully. “Don’t move unless you want me to do that to your mother too.”

  Jess froze. Her eyes stung as she watched the agony on her dad’s face. “Daddy,” she whispered. “Daddy, I’m sorry.” He couldn’t have heard her with her brothers making so much noise and her mother talking to him. Noise, there was so much noise and the room started spinning.

  Another man showed up and Facinetti said something but Jess didn’t hear it. He nodded, put his gun away and left the room. Then Tanner told the goon about her puking at the sight of blood which wasn’t true, she just passed out, but the next thing she knew, Tanner had pushed her forward and the guy took her down the hall to the bathroom. He closed the door on her and Jess sank to the floor in a heap of defeat and misery.

  He’d shot her father at close range. Without a second’s hesitation, and right after he’d told her to trust him, Tanner had shot her dad. The bastard had used her just as her father had guessed. Once he’d realized who she was, he’d helped her so he could follow his own agenda. She’d been too naïve to see it. What if he intended to torture her dad? What if he tortured her whole family for revenge against her dad? A sick wave of nausea rolled through her stomach and to her utter horror, Jess puked into the toilet. A few minutes later, she splashed cold water on her face and took a deep breath.

  Tanner wanted her alive, but no way in hell was she going down without a fight. She’d fight to her death because that was in the cards either way she looked at it.

  Jay concentrated on deep, focused breaths. If his hands had been free he would’ve put pressure on the wound, but that wasn’t an option. The hole in his leg wasn’t giant, but it was still a gunshot and burned like hell. His leg was on fire and blood continued to slowly eat away at his pants.

  After the other guy had taken Jess out of the room, Bryant crouched next to his bag and removed half a dozen blue plastic tarps. Next came two handfuls of packets of some kind. To say that Bryant wasn’t going to get away with this would’ve been stupid, so Jay kept the comment to himself. Clearly the man knew he could.

  “Sorry about your leg,” Bryant said over his shoulder as he moved to Brendan who was furthest away from Jay. “I had to do something to make Facinetti trust me.” Bryant bent next to Brendan and lifted his shirt. Brendan wasn’t strong enough to fight him.

  Jay couldn’t see what was happening. “What the hell are you doing?” If this son of a bitch hurt his boys he was going to haunt him from the grave.

  “I don’t have much time for this,” Bryant said, crouching next to Blake. He did the same thing, lifted his shirt and placed something on his chest. Blake let him. “These are blood packs,” he explained quietly, moving onto Danny. “I’ve got another gun filled with blanks. When I shoot, you all play dead.” He moved to Eric and placed a pack under his shirt. “It’s the only way I can get you out of here.” He talked fast and worked faster.

  Bryant glanced at Jay with serious eyes as he moved toward Terry. “I don’t know if this is going to work. Sorry, ma’am,” he said as he lifted her shirt and placed a pack over her heart. “There’s double stick tape on this. It should hold, but don’t move around too much in case I’m wrong.” He adjusted Terry’s shirt in place. “I need to get close enough for the blank to break open the pack, but if I’m too close I’ll break open a chest.”

  Terry paled.

  Jay was still processing Bryant’s words. Sorry about your leg and play dead. “So shooting me was an act?”

  “Yeah. Mostly.” Bryant crouched next to him, looked him in the eye. “Did you know what Juneau had planned at the trial?”

  The moment of truth. Jay knew it was coming. It was real possible that Bryant would kill him if he told the truth, but the man deserved it. It explained the hesitation on Bryant’s part. Every other family member got the pack in place without a word, yet now, Bryant waited for an answer. Jay could lie and tell him he didn’t know, but that seemed like the coward’s way out.

  “Not at the beginning. I suspected toward the end, but I didn’t know for sure until after the trial when I heard Alex talking to Maurice. They either didn’t know that I was close by or didn’t care.”

  “You didn’t say anything?” Bryant asked.

  Shame reared up and bit Jay in the ass. “No. I didn’t. Breaking client confidentiality would get me disbarred. I couldn’t afford it. I had too many people relying on me.” Jay looked around the room at his boys, his wife, and met Bryant’s gaze.

  Bryant looked around the room too. He nodded, lifted Jay’s shirt and placed a pack on his chest. Holding back his sigh, Jay silently took back every bad thought he had about Tanner Bryant. More than that, he regretted the pain the man had gone through for so many years. The tape pulled at Jay’s chest hair, but the annoyance didn’t compare to the fire in his leg or the heaviness in his chest.

  Bryant went back to his bag and retrieved another gun. This one was much bigger than the first. He twisted a suppressor on the end and Jay’s pulse revved higher. None of this looked fake. That was one big honkin’ gun.

  “Does Jess know about this?” Jay asked.

  Bryant shook his head. “Not yet. No way to tell her, but I will if I get a chance.”

  “Why’d you send her out of here?” Terry asked.

  “I needed the other guy to leave so I could set the packs and make sure you went along with the plan. If they think I’m keeping her alive for my own reasons, I can do this and leave here with all of you in my car.”

  “Sure hope you have one big ass car,” Eric muttered.

  “It’s big enough to carry six corpses,” Bryant said dryly. That comment sobered the whole family.

  “We have to find a way to tell Jess,” Terry said. “If she thinks we’re dead, when she sees us…” She shook her head, her eyes shone with tears. “We can’t do that to her.”

  “If I can, I will,” Bryant said. “But I won’t blow the chance to get you all out of here if warning Jess means getting caught.”

  “He’s right.” Jay looked at Terry. The last thing Jay wanted was to give his daughter more grief,
but he didn’t see any way around it. “I hate it as much as you do, but we don’t have another option.”

  Jess wiped her eyes and took one last deep breath. She had to do something. She tested the knob, surprised to find it open. In a flash, she yanked it wide, caught the goon off guard and slammed him against the wall as she ran toward her family. A muted pop sounded as she rushed in the room. Just as quickly as she took in the site of Brendan with blood streaming from his chest and his body lying lifeless on the floor, the goon caught up to her and yanked her back.

  “No!” She screamed as Tanner grabbed Blake by the hair and shot him at close range. Tanner’s body blocked the action, but the jolt of Blake’s body said it all. “No!” She screamed the word over and over, pain searing through her as if she’d been shot, her voice wailing in the freakishly quiet room.

  Ignoring her, Tanner moved to Danny and did the same thing. Grabbed his hair to hold him still and shot his chest. The suppressor whispered in the room and Jess only heard the roaring in her ears as she screamed.

  Blood splattered everywhere, seeped from her brothers’ bodies onto the cold floor.

  She screamed his name, her brothers’ names. She screamed for him to stop. Begged for him to stop. Anguish, fear and desperation ruptured in her chest and with every shot that took the life of a family member, Tanner killed a part of her. Tears cascaded down her cheeks. The unbearable pain of loss tore her apart. Guilt, desperation and panic collided and made her dizzy, but still she struggled for freedom.

  After methodically killing her siblings one by one, Tanner moved on to her parents.

  The goon behind her held her by the waist, kept her back while Tanner stopped in front of her mother. The horrific scene made her nauseous.

  “Just do it,” Terry told him, her eyes bright with tears.

  “Mom! No! Tanner, no!” She screamed the words, but almost nothing came out of her wrecked voice.

  The shot whispered out and Terry jolted and drooped against the wall. Blood was everywhere, covering her chest, splattered behind her on the wall. Rage swelled and the room spun as dizziness swamped Jess. She held on long enough to see Tanner stand in front of her father and extend his gun.

  She knew at that moment she had nothing to live for. No reason to exist. Without her family she had nothing. Tanner would kill her too, but she wouldn’t give him what he wanted beforehand. She’d fight him so hard he’d have to kill her.

  Tanner and her father shared a look and her dad nodded.

  Tanner shot him in the chest.

  That was the last thing Jess saw before blackness swallowed her whole.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  “Killing” the St. Johns had been easier once Jess passed out. The room had grown deathly quiet as Tanner wrapped each body in a blue tarp. One by one, he released the cuffs and eased their arms forward, knowing how painful it would feel after being stuck in the same position for so long. They all looked pretty damn lifeless. What if he had killed them? What if he’d missed the blood packs or the blanks had been too close and he’d actually shot them?

  A sick wave tightened Tanner’s gut and he tamped down the urge to vomit.

  He tossed the last pair of cuffs to the mammoth, Kwami, standing next to Jess. With his broad forehead and bushy beard he definitely gave off a don’t-fuck-with-me attitude. “Put these on her,” Tanner said. “I don’t want her doing another Houdini before we get our alone time.”

  Kwami eyed him, his thick brows nearly met. “You’re one cold motherfucker.”

  Tanner forced a grin. “You have no idea.” His older sister had once told him the bigger the lie, the more people were inclined to believe. Tanner sure as hell hoped so.

  Facinetti insisted they use Kwami’s truck for the job. Tanner wondered if the man trusted him after all. Maybe the truck had some kind of GPS so Facinetti could follow him at a distance. The idea didn’t sit well with Tanner, but he didn’t see a way out. Kwami backed into the two-car garage. It took time to load all the St. Johns. Tanner worked up a healthy sweat as he stacked the family three across and two high. He put the healthiest ones on the bottom and the most injured on top. Twice, he heard a groan and a gasp and he huffed and puffed to cover the sound. The noise told him that at least two of the St. John’s were alive, but what about the others? Once everyone was loaded, he carried an unconscious—and handcuffed—Jess to the passenger seat and buckled her in. His heart pounded harder with each step he took to the driver’s side.

  Almost there. Almost there.

  All he had to do was start the truck and go.

  Tanner stuck the key in the ignition and someone rapped on the window. He nearly jumped out of his skin and turned to see Facinetti. He cranked the engine and rolled down the window.

  “I wasn’t sure about you,” Facinetti said. “But Kwami told me you really took care of everything. No hassle.” It was true. Kwami had watched him wrap up every member of the family in the tarps. Tanner hadn’t said a word as he’d done the job and Kwami hadn’t seemed intent on helping.

  “That’s me. No hassle. You want something done, I’ll do it, but I expect compensation. The next time won’t be free.”

  “I wouldn’t dream of it.” Facinetti gestured toward Jess. “Your girlfriend is waking up.” He smiled. “I’m guessing she’s not going to be as cooperative as she was the first time.”

  Tanner shrugged. “Not a problem. I don’t need cooperation.”

  “Come back when you’re finished. We’ll talk about something permanent.” Facinetti’s eyes held a chilling sincerity. As if this were a routine business matter he dealt with on a regular basis. He punched a remote control and backed away from the truck as the garage door slowly opened.

  “Stop him!” A voice called. “It was a set up! It’s not real blood! He’s—”

  Tanner didn’t wait for the rest. Neither did he wait for the garage door to finish going up. Bright sunlight streamed in front of him screaming freedom, and Tanner slammed his foot on the gas as the garage door stopped and started going down again. Tires squealing, Tanner busted through the door, the sound of ripping metal and aluminum roaring in his ears along with gunshots behind him.

  Jess came fully awake with a start just as a bullet zipped between them, ripping a hole in the front windshield.

  “Get down!” Tanner shouted, yanking her down out of the line of fire. Shit, what if one of those bullets penetrated the truck and hit someone in back? Adrenaline zipped through his blood stream and his palms sweat fiercely.

  “Don’t touch me!” she railed back. She struggled against him and Tanner couldn’t really blame her. She had no clue what had happened or what was currently happening.

  “Jess, take it easy,” Tanner said, trying to control the truck and her at the same time, but she squirmed beneath him and turned, lashing out with her legs and nailing him hard in the thigh. “I didn’t—”

  “I hate you. Go to hell, you heartless bastard!” Jess nearly spit the words, her voice a hoarse whisper after all the screaming she’d already done. “You’re a scum sucking maggot and you deserve to die a horrible death and live in hell the rest of your life.” She continued to lay into him with every vile word in her vocabulary, calling him every name she could come up with as she continued to literally kick the hell out of him.

  “Dammit, Jess, listen to me. I didn’t—” Another bullet went through the windshield. “Get down before you get shot!”

  “I don’t care!” she screamed. “It doesn’t matter! Nothing matters anymore!”

  Bullets still riddled the truck as Tanner pushed it faster. He looked in the rearview mirror as he continued down the street. Two cars loaded with Facinetti’s men gave chase. He glanced forward again. “What the hell?” he muttered. Two police cruisers headed toward him. Their lights and sirens came on as he watched. Facinetti’s men or the real thing? Tanner didn’t know.

  Jess wasn’t paying attention to anything but kicking his ass. “I’d rather die from one of their bullets
than—”

  “Don’t you wonder why they’re shooting at us?” he roared.

  Under a hailstorm of bullets, a tire exploded. Tanner white knuckled the steering wheel as the police passed him. The truck spun, slamming Jess into her door as they skidded to a halt. They had front row seats as more police cars came out of the woodwork and surrounded Facinetti’s men in the first car. The second car pulled a U-turn and the police began pursuit.

  Tanner moved to pounce on Jess in case more bullets started flying, but Facinetti’s men dropped their guns out of the windows as a dozen officers swarmed both cars with weapons drawn.

  Jess looked on, confusion in her eyes as she tried to get out of the truck, screaming for help with her hoarse voice.

  “Jess, they’re okay,” Tanner said, opening his door. He’d spun out at the edge of the residential neighborhood. Another block or two would’ve put them in the heart of Santa Monica. “They’re okay. Let me do this.” Tanner didn’t waste time when three of the St. Johns were being crushed by three other family members. Not to mention the spinning halt he’d come to after the tire had been shot out. Jesus, what if one of those bullets had ricocheted in the bed of the truck. He bolted toward the back, opened the tailgate and raised the tarp covering the bodies as Jess watched him from inside the cab.

  He lifted the lightest tarp on the edge—Jess’s mom—and unwrapped her. He looked over Terry’s shoulder and caught Jess’s wide-eyed unbelieving stare.

  Two ambulances pulled up with lights and sirens blazing. Tanner reached for another tarp and unveiled Jess’s youngest brother.

  Terry squirmed out of her plastic wrap, her shirt wet with fake blood, and ran around to the passenger seat. “Jess, honey, it’s okay. We’re okay.” She opened the door and threw her arms around Jess.

  Tanner couldn’t look. Seeing that family bond, knowing he’d severed his own relationship with his family, he forced his gaze away. Hearing them cry was hard enough as it was. One by one, with help from paramedics, he unrolled tarps and released St. Johns.