Capturing Victory (Driven Hearts Book 3)

by Nikita Slater

  She shook her head and said, “No.”

  “Very well,” he said coldly. “Your cage has just shrunk.”

  Chapter Nine

  “Pssst, Haty,” Jaya whispered.

  The kitten scampered to her, fitting easily through the bars. She scooped the small bundle up and held the purring creature against her chest, settling back against the pillows of her makeshift bed. Her prison had indeed shrunk… to the size of a cage. It was just high enough for her to stand up and long enough for her to lay down. She was only allowed a thick cushion and some blankets to lay on, along with a few of Ivan’s books. She wasn’t sure why he kept giving them to her. She certainly didn’t read them.

  She was let out of her cage a few times a day to attend to her basic needs, to shower and to change. Otherwise, she was left alone to contemplate her new reality. Her cellmate didn’t seem to care about their predicament. Mostly because Haty was still small enough to fit through the metal bars.

  “I don’t know why you like his bed better,” Jaya sighed, rubbing the kitten under her chin. “He’s an asshole and he snores.”

  “I don’t snore.”

  Jaya sat up so fast she startled Haty, who yowled in protest and ran straight through the bars to Ivan. Without slowing his long strides, he scooped the animal up in one hand and tossed her up on his shoulder. Haty dug in and clung to him as Ivan made his way to Jaya’s cage. She glared at him, making sure he knew via the fire in her eyes that she was not impressed with her new bedroom inside his bedroom.

  “You know,” she said heatedly. “It takes a sick man to keep a woman in a cage in his bedroom.”

  He shrugged carelessly and crossed his arms over his broad chest. She tried not to gaze at his bulging biceps. It didn’t help when Haty slid from his shoulder, down his arm to settle in the crook of his elbow for a snooze. Jaya really didn’t think Haty understood the concept of supreme evil yet. From the moment they were moved to Ivan’s living quarters yesterday, Haty took to Ivan as though determined to make him her new daddy. The big man didn’t exactly return the cat’s affection, but he didn’t reject it either, just accepted it as his due.

  “I don’t play by any standard rules, sweetheart,” Ivan said, his tone bored. “You need to stop forgetting this or you’ll end up hurt. For now, my fascination is all that’s keeping you alive. Stop testing my patience and you may continue to breathe a little longer.”

  Her mouth fell open and for a moment she was speechless. She knew he was an evil bastard, knew he played horrific games, but he’d never threatened her life so blatantly. Either this was a new game or he was tiring of her constant resistance. She curled against herself, bringing her knees up to her chest and hugging them. His sharp eyes caught the movement. He dropped Haty on his giant bed, with its fluffy white duvet, and crouched next to Jaya’s cage, only a few feet from the bed.

  They stared at each other. Oddly, some of the antagonism, the power struggle that always waged between them, seemed to drain away. She saw a flash of something like regret in his face. He leaned against the bars and watched her intently. “You are the most alluring, most unique woman I’ve ever met,” he said, his voice a little rough. “And I don’t understand why.”

  Jaya tried hard to keep her feelings close, to not give him anything, but when he looked at her that way, spoke to her that way, stripped bare, it was like he wanted… no needed something from her. It was too hard not to give him something in return. Perhaps if she gave him a crumb of the honesty he was looking for, he might relent and let her out of the cage. She loosened her arms, climbed to her knees and crawled toward him.

  She stopped about a foot away and watched him, her eyes searching his features while she spoke. “You scare me, Ivan.”

  He dipped his head in a nod, his grey gaze devouring her as though she were his next meal. “I know. It’s better this way, better you fear me.”

  Tears filled her eyes and she blinked, not wanting to cry in front of him. She didn’t want to show weakness, because she hoped, no, she needed to use this moment to negotiate with her captor. She sensed that, for once, his agile brain wasn’t on the hunt, that he was willing to give her some leeway, some insight into his complicated mind.

  “I’m terrified that you’ll decide I’m not worth it, that you’ll have me killed at any moment,” she whispered, searching his face for a hint of compassion. When she saw nothing but cold, bottomless grey, she slumped back on her heels, her shoulders bowing. There was no getting through to him. Not a remorseless killer like Ivan Vogel.

  After what felt like endless minutes he finally spoke. He didn’t give her what she’d been hoping for, didn’t promise not to kill her, but he gave her something he probably never gave anyone else. An admission. “I wanted you here in my space,” he said gruffly. “I wanted you where I could see you, smell you, breathe you in all the time. Not just the brief moments you were paraded out on the pool deck. But I had no reason, no excuse. So I made one up and here you are.”

  Jaya’s mouth fell open again. She needed to process this information, figure out how she felt. At the moment, she was feeling only confusion. “B-but why didn’t you just take me? You own everything around you? You can do anything you want. I don’t understand.”

  Fire seemed to leap into his eyes creating a storm of emotion unlike anything she’d seen on his face before. She tried to back up, but he was too fast. He reached between the bars and grabbed her arm, yanking her against the solid metal. She yelped and reached out to grip the bars, stopping herself from being painfully jarred.

  Though his face was still several inches from hers, she could feel the intensity, see the vein in his forehead stand out and the pulse in his neck jump in agitation. His carefully tended mask was slipping. It was falling away, showing her the monster and the man that lay beneath, and he hated it. Her heart picked up speed until it was thundering, and he nodded as if reading her thoughts.

  “I should have had my men kill you,” he said, his voice rough with all the emotions he’d been hiding from her. “Then we wouldn’t be here. You may prefer death over what I’ll do to you by the time I’m finished, Jaya. Because this is uncharted territory and the only thing left inside me is blacker than pitch.”

  “Please, Ivan,” she begged him. “You’re scaring me.”

  He ignored her. “You want to know why I haven’t touched you yet? Why I haven’t taken you and fucked you?” She shook her head, her whole body quaking now. “Because I don’t know what will happen once I’ve had you, Jaya. Maybe this obsession will break. Maybe I’ll have you killed after all. Or maybe this feeling will only grow stronger. And then what? I chain you to my side for the rest of your life and you belong to one of the worst, most hunted sons-of-bitches on the planet.”

  Tears dripped down her cheeks now. She was powerless to stop them, frozen in his hands, terrified of his next move. “D-don’t, Ivan. Please just let me out, let me go. I’ll d-disappear. Like you never met me.”

  His lips curved up in a terrible smile and she knew what his next words were going to be before he even spoke. “It’s far too late for that, my lovely captive.”

  He yanked her hard, up against the bars. She cried out as her cheek hit the metal, but he swallowed the sound in a kiss. His tongue invaded her mouth, capturing, conquering her as though she were virgin territory he was intent on discovering. When she didn’t open wide enough for him, he gripped her face in both hands and dug his thumbs into her cheeks, forcing her mouth wider. He plundered the tender recesses, taking everything she refused to give.

  Jaya gripped the bars as though her life depended on it. She couldn’t move away from his assault, though she tried. She began to weaken under the onslaught until she was sliding down the metal, away from his brutal kiss. Ivan growled against the loss. He reached as far as he could between the bars, took her by the waist and yanked her back up, smashing her against the unyielding metal.

  “Ivan, please don’t,” she whimpered and tried to turn her face awa
y from him. He ignored her plea and kissed her stinging, swollen lips. This time he tempered the brutality, licking and nibbling, attempting to coax a response from her. Jaya moaned and turned her face to the side, laying weakly against his arm. She hoped that he would stop soon and leave her, prayed that he wouldn’t open the door to her cage and finish what they’d been dancing around for weeks.

  He cupped her face and tilted it against the bars, more gently this time, so he could kiss her wherever he could reach. He pressed his lips against her cheek, her chin and her forehead. He twisted her head to the side and explored her ear, then groaned against her when it became clear he wanted to continue a path down her neck but was prevented.

  “Want you so fucking bad, Jaya,” he mumbled against her. “I should just end this for both of us and take you now.”

  Jaya shivered at his words and the rush of heat that shot through her. Though she despised him, his kisses enflamed parts of her that usually lay dormant. She flexed her fingers against the muscles of his side and suddenly realized that she had reached through the bars and was clutching him, holding herself up using his rock-solid body. She snatched her hands back with a gasp and Ivan released her. She rocked back so hard that she fell on her butt, hitting the edge of her cushion and scattering the books that were on her blanket.

  Ivan sat back on his heels for a moment, watching her intently, his eyes going from dark and stormy to ice grey. His breathing evened out before hers did. His gaze flickered to the books scattered across the bottom of her cage and landed on the one closest to her.

  “Wuthering Heights,” he said coolly. “I thought you might enjoy that one, its dark and romantic, like you.”

  She glared at him and made a production of using her sleeve to wipe her mouth. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, I’m no romantic.” Her gaze flitted down to the book. The copy looked old and well used, as though it had been read several times. “And I don’t like reading.”

  He stood and looked down at her, his own gaze dispassionate. “I don’t care how you pass your time, but you may want to consider cracking that one. Find out what happens to Cathy when she crosses the man obsessed with her.”

  “Fuck you, Ivan.” Jaya snatched the book up and threw it at the bars. It hit one and rebounded, falling harmlessly to the floor.

  “You’d better hope not, sweetheart. I don’t think either of us wants to find out what happens after I’ve fucked you.” He strode from the room, slamming and locking the door behind him.

  Jaya slumped against her bed and turned her glare on the tiny bundle of sleeping kitten laying in the centre of Ivan’s giant bed, completely oblivious to the fireworks that just went off all around her.

  “You could at least scratch his eyes out for me!” She scowled and reached for Wuthering Heights.

  Chapter Ten

  “Shut the light off, I want to go to sleep,” Jaya demanded, doing her best to be as annoying as possible.

  New strategy.

  Annoy Ivan until he sends her back to the dungeon. At least she had more space down there, she got to go out to the pool patio once in awhile and she didn’t have to suffer through Ivan’s presence during the night. So far her strategy wasn’t working even a little. Ivan seemed incapable of being annoyed. He was like a robot, turning his emotions on and off, ignoring her most of the time and then deciding when to pay attention to her.

  Jaya lay on her back counting the bars of her cage. Twenty-five across the top, thirty-three along each side. She’d abandoned Wuthering Heights almost as soon as Ivan entered the room, not wanting him to catch her reading the book he recommended. He was right though, the dark gothic romance did appeal to her. The vivid scenery and character drama helped her mentally escape from her own predicament. And she so badly wanted to see if Cathy ended up with Heathcliff. She doubted it, given Ivan’s earlier comment. But for some reason Jaya found herself as helplessly attracted to the dark, villainous character as Cathy was.

  Rolling onto her side, Jaya thrust an arm under her head and stared absently out the open balcony doors leading outside of Ivan’s bedroom. She could smell fresh sea air, like her home in Portugal only it was a slightly different scent, more humid. And she seriously doubted she was anywhere near Portugal. In her time with Ivan she’d seen very little of his home, or wherever he was keeping her, beyond the dungeon room, the pool patio and her current cage. When she’d arrived there was a bag over her head.

  “Ivan?” she asked softly. “Where are we? Like where on a map are we located.”

  Her tone of voice must have captured his attention because he looked up from the book he was reading and, for the first time since entering his room that evening, gave her his attention. She glanced out the window into the dark night, a question clear on her face. He seemed to understand. He sat up, swinging his long legs over the edge of his bed and leaning his arms across his knees.

  He studied her for a moment before answering. “We’re on my private island, a few hundred kilometres northeast of Jakarta, Indonesia.”

  Her jaw dropped in surprise. She’d known they must be on some kind of coastline, had even batted around the idea of an island, but had not in a million years considered that she’d been brought this far from her home. She thought back to the terrifying ordeal of her kidnapping and frowned. It couldn’t have been more than a few hours. She’d been moved from a van to a helicopter and then the helicopter to an aircraft of some sort. Her head had been covered through most of the trip so she hadn’t known where she was going, not that she could have oriented herself had she been able to see, everything had happened in such a dramatic rush.

  Ivan must’ve caught the drift of her thoughts because he interjected. “You were brought here on my Citation X, one of the fastest light aircraft available. It took eight hours. You were given a sedative; you probably don’t remember much of the flight.”

  “I was not!” she protested, frowning. “I would remember being sedated.”

  He studied her dispassionately. “It was done under my orders.”

  Jaya squeezed her eyes shut and thought back to that horrific day. She’d been shoved around and grabbed so many times, it was actually quite likely someone had managed to drug her without her knowledge; poked her in the arm with a needle while hustling her from vehicle to vehicle. And that would explain how she’d managed to lose several hours of flying time. But the thought of being alone and incapacitated in the company of so many immoral, rough men was utterly horrifying. She simply couldn’t go there. Instead she opened her eyes again, took several deep, calming breaths and concentrated on the sea air.

  There was a reason she’d chosen Portugal for her home, beyond her need for privacy. She usually chose small out of the way places in seaside towns to settle for a few months to a few years at a time before moving on. She was trapped by her own insecurities and thus used the ocean for escape. It always felt so wild and free to her. When her small home and internet community became stifling she would wander down to the beach and breathe the air into her lungs, feel the sand between her toes and think about how small she really was in comparison to mother nature.

  “Can I please go outside, Ivan?” she asked tentatively, hopefully. “Just for a few minutes.”

  He watched her intently, devouring the hope on her face and sucking the need for freedom from her. Gradually she watched the cold calculating Ivan that she’d spent weeks battling with take hold. She knew what his answer would be.

  Still, she had to try. “Please, Ivan,” she begged, curling her legs underneath her so she would look as defenceless as possible. “I’ll be good, I just want to smell and feel the fresh air on my skin.”

  His lip curled up in a cruel semi-smile and he stared coldly down at her for a moment then shook his head. “A slave doesn’t need fresh air.”

  She clenched her fists in the bedding and glared at him thrusting her chin out. “The moment my cage door is open, I’m out of here.” They both knew she meant figuratively, as in, as soon
as the opportunity arose she would attempt escape, since she was let out of her cage a few times per day. Her guards were always present though, never allowing her the opportunity to escape.

  He nodded, his eyes flicking back to his book. He reached for it and settled back on the bed. “I’ve no doubt you will try.”

  Jaya lay back on her bed and fumed until he finished reading and begin his bedtime ritual. She tried really hard not to peek when he rolled off the bed and strode toward a walk-in closet. She sighed in defeat and allowed herself to linger on the deeply tanned skin of his back, stretched taut over sculpted muscles and moving in beautiful concert as he yanked his T-shirt over his head. She bit her lip as he hooked his thumbs into the waistband of his sweatpants and started sliding them down just before disappearing into the other room. She got to see a tiny bit of ass and then he was gone.

  Jaya realized that she’d pushed herself up on an elbow to get a better look. She fell back with a groan and covered her face. “Pull yourself together. Don’t drool over the criminal warlord.”

  “You need something?”

  Jaya pulled her hand away and looked guiltily up at Ivan who was standing right next to her bed on the outside of her cage. Her eyes widened when she realized he was wearing nothing more than a pair of tight men’s boxer briefs. And they left nothing to the imagination.

  Without thinking she blurted out, “Why on earth do you need to resort to kidnapping women? Look at you! Holy hell, Ivan, you are built! You should be dating Scarlett Johansen or some other super hottie, not locking someone like me up in a cage.” Then her brain caught up with her mouth and she felt her face begin to flame. She was thankful then for her darker skin tone.