Cuffed & Claimed

by Lori King

  Too much wine and festive cheer had the two of them going at it like rabbits in one of the upstairs bathrooms. Not his finest moment, he would have to admit. However, things hadn’t ended there. They had managed to stumble their way back to his apartment and had spent the entire weekend getting to know each other thoroughly.

  That’s when he realized she knew nothing about their world or what her friend’s family was truly capable of. Harper was an innocent.

  Knowing it was a mistake, but not able to make himself care, they spent more and more time together. Before he knew it, they had a regular standing date every Thursday night.

  And now she had a target on her back. All because he chose to encourage her presence within this circle of madness, instead of chasing her away from Annabella and himself.

  Nikolai glared at him and then stood. “Let’s grab them and get out of here.”

  “I still think we should…”

  As Travis trailed off, Nikolai frowned. “What?”

  Travis practically leaped out of his chair, eyes widened in horror. “Oh, fuck me.”

  Nikolai’s confusion didn’t last long as he glanced at the crowd where the women had been and let out a string of curses when he realized why Travis was freaking out. “Where the fuck are they?”

  * * *

  “Why do I ever listen to you?” Harper Lockwood muttered to her friend Annabella, swiping the drops of rain off her face as it continued to pour down on them. “Seriously, things never end well when we start the evening with you saying I have a great idea.”

  One of these days she was going to learn that Annabella’s great ideas were really the universe’s early warning sign to get the hell out of there before it’s too late. Really, any day now.

  Damn shame she didn’t start yesterday.

  Annabella always had a knack for getting them into trouble, which was remarkable, given her strict family. To Annabella’s credit, not even Harper had seen this coming. The group of men who were backing them into a corner were twice their size and didn’t look anywhere near as drunk as they had in the club. The fact that their so-called best friend, Corina, was standing with the men and encouraging them was a real kick in the ass as well.

  Harper was still reeling from seeing their former friend walk toward the group of men. She thought the woman had lost her mind until Corina had turned, pointed her finger in their direction, and informed the men that Annabella was the one they had been waiting for.

  Corina had been their best friend for years, and watching her betray them had felt like a knife in the gut to Harper. She had never had a reason not to trust Corina, though. Even when she had suggested parking in this lot, which was further away from the club, it hadn’t set off any of her usual alarms.

  Jeez, I must be losing my touch.

  “Cor, I don’t know what’s going on, but you need to stop this. Please,” she pleaded, her voice shaking toward the end.

  “Why would I do that?” Corina frowned. “This is exactly what I’ve been paid for.”

  Harper froze. “Paid for?”

  “Oh, God,” Annabella whispered nest to her.

  Harper peeked at Annabella, seeing recognition flash in her friend’s eyes. “Anna? What is this?”

  Corina laughed cruelly. “You really are that clueless, aren’t you? How have you managed to survive this long? You’re like one of those damsels in distress in movies. Too stupid to live.”

  “I’m sorry, Harper. I’m so sorry,” Annabella kept chanting at her. “I just wanted to be normal. Hanging with you made me feel normal. I didn’t think you’d get hurt.”

  “Bullshit.” Corina’s gaze hardened. “You’re not that much of an idiot. You knew exactly what position you were putting your so-called friend in.”

  Harper drowned in her confusion. Her friends may as well of been talking in another language.

  “Still lost? Okay, let me break it down for you. As Martinelli’s granddaughter, Annabella is worth a considerable amount.” Corina made the claim as if Harper should have known that. Who the hell cared who Annabella’s grandfather was? “You really shouldn’t have ditched those guards of yours, Annie. You made this really easy.”

  “Cor, think about this. Whatever you’re being paid, my family can double,” Annabella attempted to barter with her.

  Filled with turmoil and numb with shock, Harper watched as nothing more than a spectator as secrets were slowly revealed by the pair. She didn’t know these people at all.

  Corina laughed. “Sorry, honey, but I really doubt even you can match what the Romanos are paying for you. Your families are all the same, aren’t you? Always ready to throw money at a problem to make it go away. And when that doesn’t work, a swift bullet to the skull usually does the job, right? No matter how much they try to convince the outside world they have changed...once mafia, always mafia, huh?”

  An icy knot formed in the pit of her stomach. Mafia? Peering over to see Annabella’s reaction, Harper’s heart sank as she realized Corina wasn’t lying. Neither of her best friends were who they claimed to be.

  No, no, no. This is a freaking horrible nightmare. This is not happening.

  Sweeping her gaze over the dimly lit lot in the desperate hope of finding a way out, Harper noticed it was almost empty of cars. As the six large men stepped forward and closed in on them, she became more aware that there was no way anyone would hear her call for help. Even if they did, chances were it would be ignored.

  The sound of gravel shuffling under her feet echoed in her ears as they were backed against the metal fence. Harper’s heart beat so loudly and frantically that she was surprised she could hear anything else. Risking a quick glance at Annabella, she saw her fear mirrored in Annabella’s icy blue eyes.

  “I’m so sorry,” Annabella whispered, tears pooling in her eyes. “Please believe me. I thought I could keep you out of this. I thought you were safe.”

  Struggling to keep calm, at least on the outside, Harper tried to figure out a way to get them past the overgrown apes and Corina to someplace safe, where she totally intended to ream her friend a new one for keeping this shit from her. That would be easier said than done. Even if she could get them past these people, there had another twenty yards to where their car was parked.

  “C’mere, honey.” The middle man grinned as he spoke. Harper shivered in revulsion when the man’s eyes raked over her. Worse still was when he cupped his crotch and licked his lips like they were some sort of delicious meal he couldn’t wait to dig into. God, she was going to be sick.

  Annabella reached over and tightly gripped Harper’s hand. She could feel the tremors running through her friend’s body, but she was hiding it well.

  “Seems they think they’re too good for us.” The one with the dirty blond hair chuckled. He took a step forward, and Harper couldn’t contain the whimper of fear that passed her lips even as she stepped sideways to place herself in front of Annabella. She was the real target; Harper was just collateral. She recognized that and hoped if she could keep them from getting to Annabella, then maybe they stood a chance of getting out of this.

  “Well now, we’ll just have to change their minds. Won’t we, sweetheart?” the man closest to them said with a sneer.

  “Don’t be idiots. They are too good for you,” Corina snapped. “And they’re not yours to touch.”

  None of the men listened to Corina as they moved closer. A large, meaty hand reached out and shoved Harper into the fence, and she knocked her head hard. The move disorientated her, and she went down onto the cold, wet ground. Reaching for the back of her head, she winced when she saw that her hand was covered in blood.

  Well, that wasn’t good.

  From where she fell, Harper shoved at Annabella, moaning for her to run. Annabella grabbed her hand and tried to pull her up, but she couldn’t focus and continued to push her friend away. Picking up a large rock, she threw it at their attackers to draw their attention. Somewhere to her left, she heard Annabella scream her name,
and Harper was relieved it sounded farther away.

  The man standing above her gripped a fist full of hair and yanked her head back. When she responded by spitting on him, he raised his free hand and slapped her.

  Damn, that was going to leave a mark.

  Kicking her foot out, she managed to knock him off balance, which hadn’t been as hard as she thought. As he crashed to the ground, Harper managed to regain her footing and blocked the next hit as one of the other morons lashed out at her. Following it up with a right hook of her own, her fist collided with the man’s temple, and the guy went down with a grunt. All those years she had spent learning self-defense paid off, and by the look on the men’s faces, they hadn’t been expecting it. A small sliver of satisfaction ran through Harper. The bastards hadn’t counted on her fighting back.

  “Who’s next?” she spat out, anger fueling her fight.

  When she realized Corina and two of the men were missing, she panicked, knowing they had gone after Annabella.

  Helpless to do any more for her friend, she focused on the next guy. But it was too late, and she felt the cool press of metal against her forehead. A gun. Oh shit.

  “Stupid little bitch,” the armed man spat.

  She hadn’t thought they were armed, or at the very least weren’t interested in using their weapons since they hadn’t until this point.

  Their large hands clamped around her upper arms and held her tight. She struggled, refusing to give in, even though she knew it was useless.

  Dragging her to the ground, bile rose in her throat as she felt her top rip and another set of hands go for the zipper of her jeans, attempting to tear them open. The fight in her flared once again as the man pulled back the gun. She refused to give in. If she was going to die, she’d be damned if it would happen like this.

  A hand came down and clamped Harper’s jaw tightly with a strength that surprised her, and it locked her head in place. Staring into the eyes of her attacker, Harper felt her stomach drop at his malevolent sneer. The assholes were enjoying themselves, Harper could see it. Tears mixed with the blood running down Harper’s cheeks as she acknowledged she might not have the strength to save herself. She said a silent prayer that Annabella had gotten away and would never see this.

  Suddenly, a gunshot ripped through the lot from behind the men holding her down, taking them all by surprise. Then everything stopped.

  2

  As they exited the club into the pouring rain, Nikolai and Travis heard a shrill scream. Not needing to turn and check if Travis followed, Nikolai ran in the direction of the sound.

  Nearing the entrance to a nearby parking lot and turning the corner, Nikolai was taken by surprise as Annabella ploughed straight into him.

  “Nik? Oh, thank God. Nik, please help her…men…help,” she frantically yelled.

  It was then that he saw it…blood.

  Immediately, a haze of red clouded Nikolai’s sight. Passing Annabella off to Travis, Nikolai rounded the corner. The sight he found made him draw his gun before it even truly registered.

  Two men held Harper down as a third was ripping at her clothing. The more she struggled, the more the men seemed to enjoy it, laughing and tightening their hold. Seeing the pain and tears on her face broke the last thread of Nikolai’s control. In the next instance, he unloaded a round into the bastard who straddled her on the ground and raced forward to clock another with the butt of his gun. Nikolai’s hand wrapped around the closest guy’s throat and lifted him off the pavement and slammed him head first into the wall nearby. It took everything Nikolai had to rein in his instincts that were screaming at him to mow the fuckers down. Shooting the last guy in the leg, Nikolai focused on the young woman.

  “You’re gonna pay for that, you piece of shit,” wheezed the son of a bitch he’d slammed into the wall.

  “Doubt it,” Nikolai snarled aiming his gun at the man

  “Bitch means nothing to you. You got the other one.”

  The sound of a whimper drew Nikolai’s attention to the young woman on the ground behind him. Nikolai turned toward her, seeing her midnight-blue eyes full of fear and confusion as she curled in on herself and stared at him.

  “You okay?”

  “Nik?” Harper’s gaze darted back and forth between him and the other man, her eyes widening abruptly. “Behind you!”

  After that, too many things happened at once. Nikolai spun, giving himself just enough time to see a flash of metal before searing pain shot through his arm. Within seconds he looked up to see Travis put a bullet square between the fucker’s eyes.

  Behind him, Harper screamed and was out of reach before Nikolai could grab her. On her feet and racing out of the parking lot.

  “Jesus Christ!” he spat, and took off after her, as he shouted to Travis over his shoulder. “Get Annabella to the car. I’ll meet you there.”

  Seeing Harper in the distance with two men and a woman on her tail, Nikolai pushed himself forward, darting across the street and was nearly taken out by oncoming traffic. He didn’t care. He had to get to Harper before she told someone what she saw or worse. Better he gets hit by a car trying to stop her, than having to face the family and tell them he let a witness slip free.

  * * *

  Harper ran. Her legs burned, her chest was tight, and fear clogged her throat. It was so completely overwhelming that she knew any minute her entire body would give out on her. The heavy rain pelted down, and her small stature, with hardly any muscle or bulk, quivered from the strain. But she pushed herself through the pain and refused to give up.

  Her head throbbed and blood dripped from her wound, but the pure panic and fear she felt helped her to ignore it for the most part. She heard Nikolai call her name as soon as she veered into the park but she refused to stop. She admitted that she hadn’t known him well, and he had kept his distance from her, but she had never thought he was capable of murder. A flash of the man with a bullet through his brain slid through her mind. The blood, the flesh, the thoughts almost sent her careening off course.

  Harper swiped her raven hair out of her face so she could see better. The normally well-maintained locks hung plastered to her forehead by sweat and rain.

  “There she is!” a familiar voice shouted.

  Corina!

  Alarm shot through her when she realized Nikolai wasn’t the only one after her. A whimper broke free as she darted through the thick foliage and branches that cut through her skin. She almost lost her footing over a protruding tree root, but luckily she was able to leap at the last moment, landing firmly on her two feet.

  Just as she regained her stride, a heavy mass ploughed into her, sending her careening to the ground. Her skull collided with something hard, wet, and unyielding. An icy cold feeling encompassed her, leaving her trembling and terrified, and the last thing she saw before she blacked out was a furious Nikolai.

  * * *

  Eyes flying open with a start, Harper’s heart beat wildly as she desperately searched her surroundings. There was no slow progression, just the instinctual knowledge that she was in danger. Harper couldn’t remember how she’d gotten to the dimly-lit room, only that she wasn’t safe, and mostly naked under the soft sheet spread on top of her. Very naked, except underwear, but in her current state of distress, she wasn’t sure if that made much of a difference.

  Struggling to sit up, Harper sucked in a deep breath when she noticed her left wrist was bound to the bed with a pair of handcuffs. Not the fluffy ‘I’m about to have some orgasms’ handcuffs, but the ‘oh, shit – what mess have I gotten myself into’ handcuffs. She sincerely hoped they weren’t attached to the ‘only way I’m getting out of these is if I’m dead’ set of keys.

  “Shit. Shit, shit, shit. What the hell?” Her gaze darted around the room as Harper searched for anything that could help her. “This isn’t happening. This can’t be happening.”

  And then the memories hit her.

  A fight, gun, blood. There was running, falling, and so much cold and th
en...Nikolai.

  “Oh, fuck me,” she whispered.

  The rattling of the door handle startled her. Sucking in a breath and tensing, Harper lifted her gaze and watched in a strange mix of numb fear and curiosity as the door opened and revealed the man she was sure would haunt her nightmares for a long time to come. Well, that’s if she continued to live after this.

  Nikolai leaned against the door jam, one hand slipped into the pocket of his pants while the other held some sort of covered tray. She swallowed a sound of distress as she eyed the tray with apprehension. Every fiber in her body screamed that she probably didn’t want to know what was under the cover.

  “You’re awake,” Nikolai finally spoke, drawing her attention back to him.

  She fought her natural response to roll her eyes at the man’s obvious statement, proud that at least in a possible life and death situation her survival instincts were somewhat intact. “Where are we? And where are my clothes?”

  An arched eyebrow was her only response as the man moved further into the room and sat down on the edge of the bed. She tensed, not sure what to expect from a man she clearly knew nothing about. Harper flinched, then widened her eyes in disbelief when Nikolai presented her with the tray and removed the lid.

  No torture tools, no nasty looking devices...but that was one mean looking steak and steamed vegetable mix staring back at her.

  What the hell?

  “Your clothes are drying after you decided to take a header into a small pond mostly full of ice. They’ll be done soon. Hope you don’t mind, the steak is medium. Wasn’t sure if you were more of a rare girl,” he said with a smirk, amusement sparkling in his eyes at her reaction. Nikolai’s gaze traveled downward, giving Harper the feeling of being caressed as it slipped to where the sheet barely covered her breasts and back up again. “Though there is something to be said for being...well done.”

  She couldn’t help it. His comment, so much like the Nikolai she had come to know, made her laugh. Though if she were honest, it came out as more of a snort.