Think. Think, dammit.
Avery glanced around the empty room. The sound of water against steel told her they were in the hold of some kind of ship. An arched door formed a cutout to her right.
She pushed to her feet, wobbled but caught herself. Her palm closed around the angled handle. Just as she was about to turn, the door pushed open, knocking her back a step.
A tall, slim brunette dressed in tailored slacks and a white sleeveless blouse stepped into the room. She pinned Avery with a hard look. “Going somewhere, Mrs. Black? Or should I call you Ms. Scott?”
Avery’s mind searched for the connection. She recognized the face but couldn’t figure out from where.
“You’ve caused quite a bit of trouble for me,” the woman went on. “We had to move the shipment up a day thanks to your nosiness. But we’ll fetch a pretty penny for your look-alike face when we reach Curacao.” She stepped forward, wrapped her hand around Avery’s chin, and squeezed. “Don’t worry, you’ll make it up to me.”
“You won’t get away with this. People will notice I’m missing.”
“Perhaps,” the woman answered with a smug smile. A smile Avery suddenly recognized. Patrice. The woman who’d checked them in when they’d arrived at Indulgence. The one who’d been salivating over Cade. “I can already see the headlines tomorrow. Actress Avery Scott Goes Missing at Swingers Club.” She snapped the fingers of her free hand. “Oh, wait. Your studio would never let that go to print, now would they? After all, you are America’s sweetheart. There’s an image to uphold. Now that I think about it, there’ll probably be a messy cover-up. They’ll say you disappeared while swimming off your fancy yacht, or your private jet went down somewhere in the Caribbean and no one can find you. No, I’m sure no one will link you and me, because that would cause all kinds of trouble for all sorts of people, wouldn’t it?”
The confident way she spoke told Avery there were more people involved in this than she or Melody thought. They had to have someone on the inside, at the local police department, probably, fudging info about missing persons. If that was the case… Her heart sank—and any hope she had about Cade finding her took a major nosedive.
Patrice jerked her hand away from Avery, snapping Avery’s chin to the side. Pain shot across Avery’s jaw. To the two burly men at Avery’s back, Patrice said, “Bring her. I think she needs a little lesson as to who’s in charge on this ship.”
The big man on the right with a machine gun slung over his shoulder—Ramon…it was Ramon, the bartender from the club—stepped in and grasped Avery by the bicep. Fear and adrenaline raced through Avery’s body, followed by another burst of pain from his tight grip. He pulled her toward the door. “Come on, don’t do something stupid here.”
Something stupid? Like dropping her guard and giving everything away? Her stomach rolled, and whimpers echoed from the corner of the room, but Avery didn’t have time to turn and look. They pulled her into the hall and slammed the door at her back with a deafening clap.
She was dragged along a small hallway and up a flight of stairs. Her stomach lurched into her throat when Patrice stopped outside another arched door and gestured for her to move inside.
“This will be your new room for a few days,” she said. “Oh, it’s not as nice as Indulgence’s accommodations, I know, but it’ll get the job done. Trust me. Our clients like their women well trained.”
Ramon shoved her into the room. Avery caught her footing before she went down, then turned and looked past him toward the woman in the doorway.
“I would tell you to relax,” Patrice said, “let your stress go, and indulge in every one of your fantasies, but…I just realized this is probably more like a nightmare.” She grinned a sickeningly sweet smile. “You will go for top dollar. A Hollywood look-alike. We just got lucky.”
Ramon dropped his weapon outside the door and stepped into the room. His face was no longer friendly but menacing and disturbingly…aroused. His words in the bar—when he’d been arguing with the other guy—ran back through her mind. “I just wanted to have a little fun with her.”
He’d spiked her drink last night. When she’d been sitting at the bar waiting for Cade. Probably hoping for a little fun then too when her man was distracted somewhere else. Her sudden blackout and memory loss made total sense. How many other women had he done this to?
Avery’s stomach twisted and turned. Instinctively, she moved back a step, but there was nowhere to go. The small room held a tiny table, two chairs, and a bed. There wasn’t even a window to try to escape through. No weapon to use to defend herself. She swallowed hard.
“I’m sure Ramon here will at least have fun,” Patrice said. “I’ll see you both later.”
She pulled the door closed. The clank echoed through the small room with a deafening boom. Ramon inched closer.
Avery held up a hand and stumbled back another step, until the backs of her legs hit the dingy mattress. “Hold on, Ramon. Just—”
“Don’t fight it,” he said in a low voice. “Just let it happen. Be easier that way.”
Fuck that. Every muscle in her body shook. She held up her hands to keep him back.
No, no, no. This wasn’t happening. This wasn’t real. This wasn’t—
Some kind of commotion echoed from behind the steel door. Ramon turned to look that way. Knowing it was her only chance, Avery grasped the back of the metal chair nearby, lifted it over her head, and swung as hard as she could.
A grunt sounded through the room. She didn’t wait to see if Ramon responded. She swung out and back again, nailing him on the side of the head. He went down with a thunk. Heart thundering, Avery dropped the chair, jumped over him, and reached for the door.
Don’t be locked, don’t be locked…
Her hand closed around the handle, and she pulled. The door gave with a hiss and pulled inward. She stumbled out into the small hallway. Footsteps pounded to her right. Fear clawed its way up her throat. She turned and ran. A hand closed over her arm and yanked her back.
“No!” she screamed.
“Ava, it’s me. Ava!”
Strong arms pulled her in. Avery took one whiff of that familiar scent and fell into Cade’s chest.
“I’ve got you.” His voice shook. One hand closed over the back of her head, holding her close. “I’ve got you.”
Footsteps pounded. From above, Avery heard him say, “Through there.”
She pulled back and looked up. “Cade—”
He gripped her face in both hands, his worried gaze searching her face. “Are you okay? Did they—”
“I’m okay. They didn’t hurt me.” Three people raced by them in the hallway, all decked out in dark blue clothing with white letters she couldn’t make out. “H-how did you find me?”
A relieved smile spread across his familiar face, and he trailed one finger down to the pendant hanging from her neck. “Tracking device.”
The necklace. The one he’d told her to wear on the plane. She sank into him and wrapped her arms around his waist. “You have no idea how glad I am to see you.”
“Yeah, I do.” His voice hitched, and he held her tight against him again. “You scared the crap out of me, princess. When I couldn’t find you, I thought…”
Princess. The word warmed her from the inside out. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. I—”
She pushed back quickly and looked up. “Melody. Oh my God, Cade, she’s here. There are others—”
“Shh…” He smoothed the hair back from her temple. “I know. We found them. DEA already has them out.”
“DEA?”
“They were at the resort undercover, about to take down Luis’s contact. They were more than happy to step in and help out with this.”
Two DEA agents hauled Ramon out to her right. She looked their way, then buried her face in Cade’s chest again, not wanting to think about…to see…what could have happened in that room.
Cade mumbled something she couldn’t make out and held her close. Foot
steps faded. After several moments, he whispered, “You saved those women’s lives, you know. Especially Melody’s.”
She thought back to Melody’s vacant eyes, and her heart hurt for her friend. “I just wish we’d found them sooner.”
“You can’t think like that. You have to think about the positive.”
She eased back and looked up at him. “It was Patrice. She was the one who checked us in at the resort. I saw her—”
A woman’s voice screeched, “Don’t touch me!” and Cade stiffened, dragging Avery closer to the wall. His jaw clenched. She turned to look over her shoulder. Two more DEA agents had Patrice handcuffed and were leading her toward the stairs. She glared their way, then hollered, “I want my lawyer. You can’t prove anything!”
The DEA agent on her right muttered something that sounded like, “You bet your ass we can,” but Avery couldn’t be sure.
Their footsteps pounded up the metal steps, then disappeared as they went topside. When they were gone, Cade tipped Avery’s chin his way. “It wasn’t just her. She had the local District Constable under her thumb, fudging missing persons reports, along with two other guys who worked at various other resorts. They were looking for tourists who wouldn’t be missed. They chose poorly when they picked your friend Melody.”
“Melody’s boyfriend went after her when he realized what was going on. She doesn’t know what happened to him.”
“The federal authorities will find him. We’ll make sure.”
Avery closed her eyes on a wave of despair.
He rubbed a finger across her cheek. “You saved my life too, you know. If something had happened to you, I wouldn’t be able to go on. Look at me, Ava.”
Slowly, she opened her eyes and caught her breath at the emotions she saw brewing in his dark irises. “I love you, Avery Scott. I’ve loved you since I was eighteen. I’ve loved every stupid movie you’ve ever made, and I hate every single guy you’ve kissed on-screen and off.”
She laughed. She wasn’t sure why. A combination of relief and disbelief and, yes, love. The same love he was suddenly talking about.
“I’ve made so many mistakes,” he went on, “but on the way out here to find you, I promised myself I wasn’t going to make them again. And I plan on spending the rest of my life fixing everything I’ve broken. If you’ll let me.”
“Cade.” Her heart swelled, and she reached up to brush her fingers over the edge of his scar near his jaw. A jaw she’d kissed and licked only hours ago. A jaw she wanted to explore all over again as soon as they were alone. “We’ve both made mistakes. I don’t blame you for any of them.”
“Are you sure? You walked away from me pretty easy.”
“I was…confused. I’ve spent a long time blaming you for things you didn’t deserve. I wasn’t running. I was just trying to make sense of them in my head.”
“Do they? Make sense?”
“No,” she huffed “Nothing with you has ever made sense.” Sobering, she looked deep into his eyes, and in the silence, her heart felt like it kick-started to life. She lifted her hand to brush her fingers against his stubbly jaw. “But nothing has ever felt as right either.”
He closed his eyes and pulled her in for a tight hug, as if he never wanted to release her, and she found her arms winding around his shoulders, her heart beating fast and strong next to his.
Could she let go of the past? Yeah, she already had. The moment she’d told him about their daughter. Closure, Melody had called it, and this time Avery wasn’t acting. The question was, could she open that door and take a chance on the future with him all over again?
She drew in a deep whiff of his scent and knew this was right. Everything else—the past, the hurt, all those years apart—they didn’t matter. All that mattered was the two of them, together the way they should have been so long ago.
“Hollywood’s a crappy place to raise a child, you know.”
He stilled against her. “It is?”
Easing back, she nodded. Hope bloomed across his rugged features. A hope that gave her strength. “And since I’m not taking that part, I’m thinking a nice long break from Hollywood is in order.”
A slow smile spread across his face. “What do you have in mind?”
She fingered the edge of his collar. “I hear Kentucky’s pretty. Rolling hills, good weather, kids.” Her gaze lifted to his. “Zach, right?”
He nodded slowly. A nervous incline of his head that warmed her heart even more.
“He’s a part of you, and that makes him special to me. I can’t wait to meet him. If, that is, you’ll let me.”
He framed her face, lowered his head, and took her lips in a soft, sweet kiss that melted every muscle in her body. “I love you,” he whispered. “I love you more than you will ever know.”
“I love you too.” She gripped his shoulders and kissed him back. Gave him everything he was giving her and more.
She pulled back. “One thing, though.”
His brow lifted.
“No more swingers resorts. It sets a bad example.”
He laughed and closed his arms around her again. “Anything you want, Mrs. Black.”
She held him close and sighed, loving the sound of that. “It’s Blackwell. And I could get used to hearing that.”
“You will. I promise, princess, you will.”
Thank you for reading FIRST EXPOSURE.
I hope you enjoyed Cade and Avery’s story! Look for the first full-length novel about the team at Aegis Security, coming in 2014! Each story will focus on a different member of the team. And if you’d like to read the novella that launched the series, look for my novella, ACAPULCO HEAT, in the BODYGURADS IN BED Anthology.
If you would like to know when my next book is available, you can sign up for my new release email list at www.ElisabethNaughton.com. Follow me on Twitter (ElisNaughton), or like my Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/elisabeth.naughton1.
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First Rapture
By
Alexandra Ivy
CHAPTER ONE
Madison Philips knew she was dreaming.
Not only was she suddenly eight years younger, but there was that weird sense of floating outside her body as she watched the last of the teenage girls drive away from the cramped trailer on the outskirts of Las Vegas.
It was a familiar dream.
Too damned familiar.
Grimly, Madison tried to call on her well-honed skill at yanking herself out of the nightmare. She’d done it a hundred times over the years. But tonight, she found herself floundering. Instead of waking, she discovered herself sinking even deeper into the dream.
Until she was no longer watching the past unfold, but actually reliving the event.
Lost in the dream, it felt shockingly real as she tidied the shabby living room before heading to the back of the trailer.
It’d been a fun enough birthday party with her friends, she acknowledged, once again that young, shockingly innocent girl. In fact it’d been her best party ever, as long as she didn’t dwell on the two notable no-shows.
It wasn’t as if she’d actually expected her mother to remember it was her only child’s eighteenth birthday. Hell, Connie Philips hadn’t been to the trailer in two weeks. Madison assumed she was still holed up in some sleazy hotel with her latest lover.
And of course, she’d been an idiot to think for a second that Luc Angeli, the Dark Angel, who was three years older than her and the focus of her avid teenage fantasies, would actually stop by.
It’d obviously been a figment of her imagination to think there’d been a spark of interest in his dark eyes when she’d gone to his house and practically begged him to stop by for…well, she’d said she wanted him to share a slice of birthday cake, but they both knew what she was truly offering.
Unli
ke most of her friends, she’d avoided becoming sexually involved with any of the boys she dated. A part of her refused to walk in her mother’s failed footsteps, sleeping with every man who would pay her attention.
But a larger part was longing to give her virginity to the man who’d filled her dreams for the past three years.
And she hadn’t kept her desire a secret.
Luc was well aware that she wanted him to initiate her into her burgeoning sensuality.
Heaving a sigh, Maddy pushed open the door to her bedroom, flipping on the table light that bathed the small room in a muted glow. She preferred to keep most of the room in shadows, not wanting to dwell on the shabbiness of her surroundings.
In her mind this wasn’t her home. It was just a place she stayed until she moved on to bigger and better things.
But tonight, there was an unexpected bonus waiting for her.
The one and only birthday present she truly wanted.
Automatically closing the door behind her, Maddy leaned against it as her astonished gaze took in the sight of Luc Angeli stretched on her bed, his hands locked behind his head. He’d obviously used the back door to enter the trailer while she was watching her friends leave.
Her heart slammed against her ribs. God almighty. He looked too beautiful to be real.
His black hair was left just long enough to curl at his nape. His skin was darkly bronzed. His velvet eyes were as black as a midnight sky and framed by a tangle of impossibly long lashes. His features were so finely honed they might have been pretty if he weren’t so potently male. And his lean body was rock hard from his summers spent working construction.
“Luc?” she breathed in shock, briefly wondering if she was hallucinating as he slowly rose to his feet, his muscles moving with liquid ease beneath his faded jeans and tight black T-shirt. “What are you doing here?”
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