Capturing Victory (Driven Hearts Book 3)

by Nikita Slater

  “Well learn fast,” Ivan said coldly. “Because I want Jaya to warm up to me and I don’t think, given the way things have been going, that her emotions are leaning that way.”

  Keane snickered. “You ain’t kiddin’ about that.”

  Ivan shot him a look that wiped the laughter from his face and told him he’d better get working on the immediate problem of making Jaya soften up. Keane slumped in his seat and looked completely stumped. He was definitely a fuck em’ and leave em’ kind of guy. Ivan was partially responsible for that. Under his employment, women weren’t allowed on the island unless they were there to cook or clean and the men were under strict no fraternizing or die instructions.

  “Ah, fuck me, boss,” he growled, his Irish accent even more pronounced than usual. “Don’t women like pretty, glittery things, like clothes and jewels and shit?”

  “I’ve given her all that,” Ivan said dismissively. “She doesn’t care. She could afford clothes and jewels well before we picked her up. She chose not to spend her money on frivolous things. What else do women like?”

  Keane looked as though he’d rather be eating a bowl of live grenades than having this conversation. “Cats!” he burst out, relief lighting up his bearded face.

  “What?” Ivan asked, his lip curling derisively.

  “I once dated this looney little bitch that had five freakin’ cats. Nearly killed one when I got up in the middle of the night to take a piss and stepped on it. She shot me in the arm with my own damn gun before shovin’ my naked ass out her back door and then throwin’ all my fucking clothes out the window. Bitch cared more about her cats than anything else,” Keane grumbled and rubbed his arm. “Women like cats.”

  Ivan was pretty sure not all women liked cats based on Keane’s single experience, but he gave the idea some merit. Jaya had spent the majority of her life alone, running for her freedom. As far as he knew she’d never stopped long enough to form any solid attachments. Perhaps she would enjoy the company of something small and helpless, something dependant. Something that might bond with her and banish some of her loneliness.

  The sneer playing around his mouth slowly softened. Yes, he would get Jaya a kitten. Give her the gift of a bond. And perhaps she would appreciate his present so much she might soften her attitude toward him. He thought about tasking the job to someone else, but the idea was distasteful. No, he would find the beast himself. He would have it flown in that very evening and give it to her with his own two hands. He wanted to see her face when she opened his gift and realized that he was capable of more than bloody vengeance.

  Without looking up, he said, “Dismissed.” He was no longer interested in the security reports; he had a cat to find.

  Jaya didn’t bother turning around when the door to her dungeon opened. It would be her evening meal delivery. She continued doing what she’d been doing for the past several hours, tearing pages out of Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe in an attempt to teach herself the art of origami. She’d deemed the book unreadable with a stupid title and thus the best choice for paper cranes, butterflies and whatever else she might be capable of. At the moment her bed was littered in failed attempts. Maybe she should request a book on how origami worked. Apparently it was a lot harder than she thought.

  “You’ve ruined my book,” Ivan’s voice drawled from behind her.

  Jaya twisted around so suddenly her finger slid along the page she was tearing, cutting painfully into her skin. “Ouch!” she yelped and automatically stuck her finger in her mouth. She narrowed her eyes at Ivan as he approached her. She scrambled off the bed, not wanting to be at a disadvantage around him.

  The book fell to the floor, landing on her foot. She pursed her lips in annoyance as pain shot through her. She was beginning to hate Ivanhoe almost as much as she hated the real Ivan.

  He frowned, his icy façade cracking. “Are you hurt?”

  She ignored his apparent concern and, taking her finger out of her mouth, pointed at the box under his arm. “What’s that? Finally giving me a laptop? I’ve only asked about sixty times, but no big deal. I know these things take time, especially when they have to ship it UPS to an evil crimelord’s secret lair. I promise not to use it to escape,” she said sarcastically.

  The man hadn’t given her so much as an electric toothbrush or a flashlight. There was no way he was giving her a laptop. Besides the box under his arm was the wrong shape and size. It was perfectly square, about a half a foot wide and high. It was white with a red ribbon and a bow on top, like something you might see in a movie. It was probably another ridiculous sari he wanted her to wear for yet another episode of the bachelor billionaire’s kidnapped date.

  Instead of answering, he dropped the box on the bed and reached for her hand. His fingers felt rough against her skin. She was surprised. She assumed he ran his evil empire from an office and let his minions do all the heavy lifting. She studied him while he examined her ridiculously small cut. He had shown amazingly fast reflexes on several occasions and she really didn’t think the appallingly easy way he’d dispatched the poor serving man had been a fluke. So Ivan was incredibly skilled at hand-to-hand combat, which meant he trained to become that way. And he probably trained often. The promise of hard muscles beneath his well-cut, expensive clothing weren’t fake either, she’d felt against her body during their chess match and that time he’d held her down on the bed.

  She sighed and rolled her eyes, tugging uselessly at her hand. “Really, Ivan? After everything you’ve done to me, you’re this concerned over a little papercut?”

  He dropped her hand, the frown that had been furrowing his eyebrows smoothing into his usual sculpted expression. “There’s the Ivan I know and hate,” she murmured, stepping back until her thighs met the edge of the bed. “I was worried you might be growing a conscience.”

  He reached for the box, scooped it up in a large hand and thrust it at her. “Take it,” he snapped.

  “And if I don’t accept your generosity you’ll put me in a cage, blah, blah, blah.” She accepted the box, curious despite herself. She nearly dropped the damn thing when it made a horrific yowling, pleading sound. “What the fuck, Ivan, it’s alive!”

  “Yes, and I’m not entirely certain how long it’s been in there, so you may want to unwrap it,” he said coolly.

  “What the fuck!” she screeched again, wrenching the bow off the box and tearing the top off. Inside was a tiny, shivering ball of striped grey and white fur with wide, terrified eyes. She carefully reached into the box and pulled the kitten out, cuddling it against her chest, then lifted accusing eyes to Ivan. “You monster!”

  He lifted his hands as if to say, ‘what did I do?’ but before he could say a word, Jaya stepped into his space and started yelling, “How could you possibly think it was a good idea to stuff this poor, tiny little creature in a box for god knows how long? What kind of cruel monster are you, anyway? You thought it was a good idea to give me something that was living? Is this your idea of a new torture technique? You’re just going to take it to the next level, are you? Get me attached to this poor helpless little cutie and then tear it away. Well… well, it’s not going to work!”

  “It’s not?” he asked, looking genuinely baffled for the first time since she met him.

  “No!” she shouted, clutching the kitten under her neck.

  “And why is that?” he asked, beginning to look a little more cautiously optimistic. Especially now that she’d opened the box and wasn’t outright rejecting his gift.

  “Because I refuse to fall for your sadistic tricks,” she snapped. “You can just… just go away. We don’t want you in our dungeon right now.”

  His lip twitched and he gave her a brief nod. “I will leave for now, Jaya. But I am coming back and I expect a friendlier reception.”

  He turned and walked away, leaving her alone with her small shivering bundle. Before he reached the door, she called out to him. “Ivan.”

  He half turned to her and raised an eyebrow. “Yes, Jay
a?”

  “We will require a litter box, a supply of fresh litter and kitten food,” she said in a voice that made it clear her terms were non-negotiable.

  He nodded. “They’ll be sent down with your supper.”

  She turned her back on him, focusing entirely on her new companion. She barely heard the door bang shut and for once the sound of the lock engaging didn’t send a shaft of near-panic straight through her. Jaya set the kitten gently down on the bed and climbed in after it. They studied each other for a moment and when it became clear that she would have to make the first move, Jaya reached out and picked the creature back up, cuddling it against her chest.

  She had no idea how old it was, having no experience with animals, but given its size she thought it must be very young. “Did that evil, horrible, villainous human take you away from your home too?” she asked. When the kitten didn’t respond, she kissed it and said. “Because he really is the worst, so I believe he’s capable of tearing kittens away from their mommies.” She glanced down at its wide, frightened eyes and murmured, “I’ll be your new mom. At least until we find a way to escape and we can find your real cat mom.”

  The kitten made a sound. Jaya pulled it away from her neck and held it out so she could examine it. “What was that?” she asked, cocking her head to the side. “You think we should find a way to kill Ivan on our way out of this place? Wow, you are a bloodthirsty little thing.”

  Its eyes started to close and within seconds it fell asleep in her hands. And just like that, she knew she’d fallen for Ivan’s devilishly manipulative plan, whatever it might be; she was in love with his beastly gift. She sighed and tucked it into her lap, running her finger soothingly over the top of its head.

  “Alright fine, if you insist, we’ll murder him,” she murmured with a grin. “But I’m calling you Hatyaara, or Haty for short. If you’re going to act like a killer, then we’ll give you a killer name.”

  Chapter Eight

  Haty changed everything for Jaya. For the first time since childhood, she had a companion that belonged solely to her. The possibilities in her new buddy were both inherently wonderful and terrifying. In the days that followed, she bonded with her new furry friend, carrying her around everywhere, talking to her, planning with and feeding her; cleaning up after and scolding her. Haty quickly became attached to Jaya as well, hopping along after her, dogging her every footstep and using her tiny claws to climb her new mama when she wasn’t paying enough attention. But Jaya was also terrified for her new friend. Ivan could too easily use the kitten against her. Threaten Haty’s life or hurt her in retaliation, maybe use her as a way of getting Jaya to submit. Or what if Haty just got sick and died? Jaya didn’t think she’d survive that scenario either.

  She contemplated the fluffy critter as it batted around a ball of string that she’d unravelled from her pillowcase. “What am I going to do with you?” she asked. The kitten did what she usually did, ignored Jaya in favour of her current activity.

  Jaya studied the tiny creature, which was thriving under her constant attention. Her little belly was rounding from a nonstop supply of high-fat kitten food and her paws were growing bigger by the day. After Jaya showed Haty to the litterbox once, she took to the sand like a duck to water, kicking it everywhere. Her request for a broom and dustpan had been granted, along with some newspaper to help keep the spread of litter to a minimum.

  “One day we’re going to have to have the grown-up girl talk, Haty,” Jaya said, lolling idly against the edge of her bed and gazing at the kitten. “I’ll leave the choice up to you, but I’ve heard the responsible thing to do these days is spay and neuter. I think since you’re a girl, you’ll get spayed, but I’m not sure. Although, if this is what you look like as a baby, can you imagine what your baby kittens would look like! Damn, girl! Anyway, we have a few more months before we need to have that talk,” she said in her best parenting voice. “But I would like to talk about the amount of treats you’ve been begging for. And you really need to stop making eyes at the guards. They are not our friends.”

  Jaya jumped when the door to her dungeon slammed open, hitting the wall. It wasn’t her supper time and the servants were usually a little more respectful of her space. She scrambled off the bed as Keane stalked in. It was a damn good thing she’d decided to start changing in the washroom in case of moments like these. She frowned at him.

  “Boss wants to see you,” he grunted.

  She so badly wanted to say, ‘your boss can go fuck himself,’ but Keane was twice the size of anyone else and had an aura of psychotic bloodthirstiness that made her keep her nastier comments to herself. Given Ivan’s evil tendencies, she wasn’t at all surprised that this guy seemed to enjoy a level of prestige in the arms dealer’s organization. She nodded and silently followed him out the door. She was confused. She wasn’t given a sari to wear and she wasn’t being shown to the pool area. Instead she was led through a series of wide stone hallways. She stared around her, trying to stamp every twist and turn on her mind while she hurried to keep up with Keane’s long strides. They climbed a set of stairs and followed another long hall. This one had open stone archways that showed a gorgeous view of the ocean. Jaya gaped at its raw beauty as they passed, nearly slamming into Keane’s back as he stopped moving. Looking up, she realized they’d stopped in front of another door, this one was wooden, weathered, like an antique. She was beginning to suspect she was actually inside of a castle.

  Keane used his bulk to open the heavy door and waved her through. “He’s expecting you.”

  Jaya stepped into what could only be Ivan’s personal office. It was big, lovely and sparse. Like the man himself, until a person got a glimpse inside his twisted head. Ivan stood next to one of the open windows with his back to her. When she entered he turned, his face smooth and cool. For just a moment though, the mask slipped, and she saw a flash of longing mixed with fury. Then he shuttered the expression and stepped toward her.

  He didn’t bother with his games this time, no preliminaries. He got directly to the root of her summons. “How do you know the things you know about me?”

  “What?” she asked, confused.

  “Don’t play innocent,” he said sharply, stepping toward her. “You will weigh your words carefully when you are in here, Jaya. When we are outside, by the pool, we play the game, but in here you give me the answers I want or you will suffer the consequences. Now tell me what I want to know.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Ivan!” she said backing away from him.

  “You know exactly what I’m talking about. You know things about me that no one else knows. Things that have been buried so deep, you leave me no choice but to either bury you or keep you.”

  Jaya gasped, her hand flying up to cover her lips. She should never have let her temper get the better of her, never have let Ivan know that she knew about him. Now he might guess her secret. And the moment he did, she was a dead woman. He stalked toward her.

  “Tell me!” he snarled.

  “It was a lucky guess!” she cried.

  “No!” he shouted, his voice booming unexpectedly in the airy room. She flinched. “You couldn’t have guessed all that based on a perceived accent. Impossible. I’ve collected all your stuff from Portugal, had my people pick it apart with a fine-tooth comb and they’ve found nothing. All your stuff is encrypted to hell and back. Now you’ll give me access and you’ll tell me what I want to know.”

  She could feel the blood draining from her face. Really, she should be surprised Ivan hadn’t demanded this of her sooner. But she absolutely couldn’t allow him access to her data. He’d tear it apart, not only discover her secret, but gain access to all of her former clients. He could use that information against everyone she’d ever worked with. Some of them probably deserved to be stripped down and torn apart, but the majority most certainly didn’t deserve to have a man like Ivan come after them.

  Despite her terror of the towering, enraged man, Jaya lifted her
chin, crossed her arms and said, “Absolutely not, my database holds confidential information. Neither you, nor anyone else, will ever be allowed access.”

  He laughed coolly, cruelly. “You think not?”

  She shook her head and stuck to her guns. “I’m the best, Ivan. There isn’t a person on this planet that can hack my encryption codes.”

  He nodded his head thoughtfully and then stepped up to her. “Yes, it would seem that my people agree. You are the best.” He ran a finger down her cheek and then circled her throat. He didn’t squeeze, but he held her pinned, trapped like a butterfly, awaiting his torment. “Even the best can be cracked.”

  Her eyes widened. She knew he didn’t mean the encryption, he meant her personally.

  His eyes lingered on her face and lips. “How to do that without destroying all this perfection?” he said, almost to himself. “There are so many techniques that would give me what I want quickly but would mar all this beauty.” He ran his fingers down her hair and arm. She shuddered, her stomach rolling at the implication of torture. He cupped the back of her head. “But do I want to crack this incredible mind wide open and look inside?”

  Jaya licked her lips and then stopped when his eyes followed the movement. “I don’t know, do you?” she whispered.

  He didn’t say anything for a moment and then a flash of disappointment crossed his face. That one look sent a shaft of terror through her heart. Somehow, she knew she wasn’t going to be sent back to her cozy little dungeon to carry on with her kidnapping undisturbed.

  “Last chance, Jaya. Tell me what I want to know.”

  She stared up at him, struck once more by how handsome he was. She could feel herself beginning to weaken. Not because of his sheer male beauty. No, simply because Ivan had been taking care of her. In his own twisted way, Ivan had been providing for her needs, basic and otherwise. For once in her life, Jaya hadn’t been forced to fend for herself and, as insane as it was, a part of her liked it. Sort of like being on vacation, with the downside being she was under the care of a psychotic evil crime lord.