“Jenna? You sure?”
She started to nod, but before her chin had lowered more than a quarter of an inch, Niko’s hands were all over her. Pulling her mouth to his for a long, thirsty kiss. Stroking up and down her arms. Making patterns on her back. Teasing her breasts.
Yet never caging her or pressing her with enough force to make her feel threatened.
Instead, she felt cherished. Desired.
Until finally, she couldn’t take the pressure any more. She had to have him. Now.
She scooted back and slowly positioned herself to take him in. Her body was wet, open, weeping for this. She took him in hand, and for an instant, froze in doubt. What if this hurt? What if she panicked?
“It’s okay, Jenna,” Niko said in a voice almost unrecognizable with lust. “Take as long as you like. Stop if you have to. I’ll…survive.”
The flare of denial she felt at his words gave her the confidence to slowly bring him inside her.
And there wasn’t pain. An uncomfortable fullness, yes. Almost like she was a virgin again. But her body gradually opened, accepting him. And, like a dancer revisiting a routine she hadn’t performed in years, Jenna felt the exhilaration of muscles taking up a rhythm beyond her control. Remembering moves she couldn’t have predicted to save her life.
She looked into Niko’s eyes and the pride she saw shining back sent her even higher. He gripped her hips, matching her rhythm and steadying her for his deeper thrusts.
Music whirled through her blood. Bright, shining notes carried her into the heavens. Stars pierced the sky, welcoming her with long, brilliant pulses.
Somewhere far below, a woman’s voice cried out in ecstasy. “Niko!”
Jenna floated in the clouds, starting a slow, gentle descent back to earth. Niko’s arms cradled her against his body and she cuddled against him, drowsily content.
Niko’s lips pressed a kiss into her hair. “You okay?”
She nodded. She was more than okay. Fabulous. Limp with pleasure. Truly alive for the first time since she’d watched her mother die.
She jerked upright. No!
Her mother. Isabel. They’d never experience pleasure ever again. What right did Jenna have to feel such overwhelming pleasure? Could she be more selfish?
She pushed away from Niko and scrambled out of the tub. No! Her lips formed the words but no sound came out.
“Jenna? What’s wrong, querida?”
Her foot slipped and she went down on one knee. No, she couldn’t fall. She had to get out of here. She couldn’t have—
She pushed to her feet and bolted for the bedroom door.
“Jenna?” Niko’s voice was sharp with alarm now. “Did I hurt you? Dammit, talk to me!”
She heard his feet slap wetly at the tile. Tried to tell him to leave her alone, but couldn’t speak the words. So she just shook her head frantically at him.
She bolted into the bedroom and locked the door behind her just as a tsunami of screams burst through her mental defenses, driving her to her knees.
Isabel’s scream, ending with a whimpered, “It hurts.”
Justin’s scream of rage and helplessness as his twin was raped.
Her father’s protest, “No! Kai—” never completed.
Her mother’s hoarse command, “Run, Jenna!”
Her own screams rising, falling, burning their way out of her throat. Pain. Fear.
Pleasure.
Pleasure? Oh, God, what had she done? She’d betrayed them.
Tears ran down her face into her open mouth. How could she?
Forgive me, please forgive me. I didn’t mean to find pleasure. I’m sorry.
She was cold. So cold.
She put her back against the door, pulled her knees up to her chest, and held on while grief devoured her body.
#
Jesus H. Christ. What was wrong with Jenna?
Niko stared at the bedroom door. When she’d pushed away from him, he’d been afraid he’d hurt her. But one look at her face and he realized her pain wasn’t physical.
She’d been on the verge of an emotional meltdown.
Which didn’t make him feel any less like a total shit. He ran his hand over his hair. Should he go in there? Or give her space?
He thought about the look on her face. About the sheer horror and panic in her eyes. Like a wild animal caught in a hunter’s trap.
He could hear her crying through the door.
Okay, probably not a good idea to go after her. Let her calm down.
But shit…he hated the idea of her suffering alone. So he knocked on the door.
He heard a hitch in her sobbing, which he took to mean she was listening.
“Jenna, knock once if I hurt you, twice if you’re physically okay.”
One heartbeat. Two. Come on, sweetheart, answer.
Two knocks.
Ah, thank God.
“Okay, so…I’ll be out in the sitting room if you want a hug or to talk or anything.” Je-sus could he possibly sound any lamer?
She didn’t knock back.
He barely resisted the urge to walk around to the door from the sitting room into the bedroom to see for himself how she was doing. Ignoring the voice that demanded he fix whatever was bothering Jenna, Niko walked over to the shower.
But even after he’d showered and ordered a snack from room service, Jenna still hadn’t emerged from the bedroom. He couldn’t hear anything through the door, and this time he figured he was justified in checking on her.
Jenna was curled up on the floor, fast asleep, snuffling wetly with every other breath.
Ah, querida. Niko’s heart did a long, slow roll.
He picked her up, amazed at how light she was despite her muscles. He tucked her in bed without her breathing breaking rhythm.
As he watched her sleeping, his hands clenched into fists. She didn’t belong here. Tonight’s breakdown proved she wasn’t ready to handle the coming fight with Alvarez.
He glanced at the clock radio on the bedside table. It wasn’t too late to call Ryker and set up a bodyguard for Jenna. Someone to protect her on a commercial flight home.
Niko grabbed the second pillow and a spare blanket, and headed into the sitting room.
Thank God Rafe had returned to his hotel. His brother would take one look at the open sofa bed and bust a gut laughing.
Niko shook his head and dialed Ryker. His boss agreed to the bodyguard and was able to do one better. He’d ask a friend with a private plane to make a special trip down to Mexico. Jenna could hitch a ride back the next afternoon.
As Niko ended the call, the room phone rang.
#
Jenna stood at the door that led from the bedroom into the short hallway to the sitting room. The door was cracked open enough that she’d been able to hear Niko’s call to Ryker, but not wide enough to let Niko know she was awake.
She was drained, and shaky with it. All she wanted was to crawl back into bed and pull the covers over her head. But Niko was sending her away, and she couldn’t allow that.
She closed her eyes and tightened the lock on the box holding her emotions. Making love with Niko had been wrong on so many levels, but she was focused now. Not even Niko could distract her from her vengeance again.
The phone rang. Jenna listened as Niko instructed the front desk to send up the envelope that had arrived for him.
She opened the door a bit wider so she was able to see Niko’s expression as he dumped the contents onto the coffee table. His mouth flatlined and his hands clenched. With a vicious curse, he kicked the coffee table onto its side, spilling photos and the hotel’s plant arrangement onto the floor. Then Niko stormed into the bathroom.
Jenna crept down the hall.
Good. The bathroom door was shut.
Keeping her ears trained for any sign that Niko was returning, she knelt down and looked at the photographs.
Oh, dear God. Bile rose in her throat and she clamped a trembling hand over her mouth.
The photos were of an older Hispanic woman being raped. Her mouth was contorted in a scream and her body was bruised and bloody.
Jenna bit her lip to stop from crying out again, but…oh, God, she felt like she was being ripped apart. The man pulled the woman’s hips higher, his next thrust so hard and deep, she screamed.
Jenna shoved the photos and her memories away. As she pushed to her feet, her hand slipped on a sheet of plain white paper. She glanced down.
You have thirty-six hours to bring the girl to Ixtapa, or you will never see your aunt again. And I will enjoy her this way every night for the rest of her short life. –A
Jenna couldn’t breathe. The room shimmered like she was viewing it through a waterfall. No. She couldn’t faint. Niko would know she’d seen the photos.
She turned and fled back to the bedroom. Then she crawled into bed.
She tried to shut out the images of Niko’s aunt. Of her mother lying on the dining room carpet next to Jenna while they were both raped.
Stop. Stop. Stop! She pushed her hands against her eyes, as if the physical pressure could turn off the video playing in her head.
This had to end. Niko would never hand her over to Alvarez. He would try to save his aunt and protect Jenna.
She didn’t need his protection. If she turned herself in, maybe Alvarez would release Niko’s aunt. And if she was really lucky, she’d find a way to get to Kai and finally end this.
Chapter 24
Wednesday, Morning
Ixtapa, Mexico
Kai surfaced slowly from unconsciousness, floating in and out of awareness. When he tried to roll onto his back sharp needles of pain brought him gasping awake. He must have cried out, because he heard the angry squeak of rats as they scampered away. He pressed his cheek against the cold dirt floor and cursed the fact that his cell had neither window or light source. From the few times his guards let him out, and let light in, he knew the walls were several feet away from him, but in his mind, they pressed closer with every breath.
Claustrophobia. Another souvenir from the days he’d spent in that Indonesian prison. His cell there had been closer to a crypt. With barely enough room to roll over, never mind stretch out to his full length.
In comparison, this cell was a palace. If only he could convince himself of that.
He breathed shallowly, focusing on the pain instead of the fear.
His right shoulder was dislocated. Left shin—broken. Bullet wounds in left upper back and buttock. Breathing was excruciating, so three or four of his ribs were cracked.
Jesus, Alvarez’s men gave the Indonesians a run for their money. They knew just how much pain to inflict to keep him coherent enough to answer Alvarez’s persistent questions.
Kai’s lips twitched. Alvarez had lost it this morning when Kai again refused to give up the location of the chip. The bastard had grabbed a whip and starting whaling on Kai’s back. The lash bit over and over in the same place until skin and muscle split, then moved on to decimate a new patch. Unconsciousness had been a welcome relief, until he came to on a scream of agony, salt water burning the wounds.
His back still throbbed. So he lay on his side, trying hard not to move. Trying not to wonder if he had any skin left on his back at all.
To distract himself from the pain, he considered his odds of escaping. Not good. Even if he managed to get to his feet and stay upright long enough to make a break for it, he’d overheard the guards betting on how soon Alvarez would turn him over to the dogs.
There was no way, bleeding like he was, he could evade dogs. He’d be like a walking piece of raw steak, the scent of blood screaming, “Come get me!”
Face it, bud, the only way you’re getting free of here is through death.
Hell, no.
His family had been slaughtered in retaliation for Kai failing to turn the chip over to Alvarez. He’d be damned if he died before he destroyed Nevsky’s data and sent Alvarez on a slow journey into hell.
As long as Alvarez thought he knew where the chip was, Kai knew he wasn’t going to be killed. So he’d just have to be ready to take advantage of any opportunity to get himself out of here.
Which meant forcing his body to move. He couldn’t afford to stiffen up. So he inched his way through pain into a sitting position.
Ah, shit. In the total darkness he didn’t know which way was up or down. His head swam and the world tilted like he’d just stepped off a carnival ride.
Before he regained his equilibrium, the door at the far end of the corridor banged open. A moment later, his guards dragged him out of his cell and up the ninety-four stairs to the patio.
Yeah, he’d actually counted the stairs the first time he’d been hauled up out of the dungeon. How many days ago had that been? One? Two?
Shit.
He shook his head and tried to focus through the pain-induced haze. Two nights. One day.
Jesus. He’d only been here a little over a day?
As Kai was thrown onto the slate tiles in front of Alvarez, he glanced up. Two black, remorseless eyes looked back at him.
“Señor Paterson, have you any news to give me this morning?”
Kai forced the syllable past clenched teeth. “No.”
“Pity.” Alvarez’s eyes were alight with anticipation. He held out his hand.
Kai squinted through the glare off the glass dining table, trying to make out what tool Alvarez was using today.
Pliers.
Ah, God, this was going to hurt.
#
Wednesday, Mid-Morning
Highway 200, Mexico, between Acapulco and Ixtapa
Niko pushed his crappy rental car faster along the winding highway toward Ixtapa.
God damn it, what the hell was Jenna thinking, leaving him like that?
She’d still been sleeping the last he checked on her before he bunked down on the sofa bed. This morning when he’d poked his head in, he’d found pillows lumped beneath the covers and a note propped against the beside lamp.
Good-bye, the note said. Thank you for your help, but I have something I need to do. Alone. When it’s over, you’ll have your aunt back.
As soon as he’d been able to speak through the icy lump in his throat, he’d called Rafe, knowing they had to move fast to intercept Jenna. If word got out she was on her own, she’d be in even more danger.
He could barely see the road through a black haze of terror. Good thing he knew the route well enough to drive blind. He instinctively knew where he could floor it and where he needed to slow down. Where there were likely to be checkpoints, and where there were speed ramps that would send the car airborne if he hit them at too high a speed.
He’d swallowed his pride and called Ryker to ask for backup. But Gonzales and his partner had moved offshore, working a joint training operation with the military. And Niko didn’t trust Tonelli.
So it was just Niko and Rafe. And he preferred it this way. Rafe was the only other person he’d trust with Jenna’s life.
Christ, how stupid had he been? He’d treated Jenna like a partner instead of a prisoner, believing she’d given up any thoughts of heading out on her own.
Sucker.
She’d snuck away from Tonelli dressed as a boy, and from the responses Niko and Rafe had received to their discrete questioning, she’d done the same thing here.
Just before dawn, a boy that had to be Jenna had boarded a bus heading to Ixtapa. The ticket seller thought it strange because the sun wasn’t up yet, but the boy wore sunglasses.
The bus was scheduled to get into the station in Ixtapa in half an hour. Normal driving time would put him and Rafe there at least an hour later.
At the rate Niko was driving, they’d reach the station maybe ten minutes after the bus.
“You going to tell me what the hell is going on?” Rafe demanded.
Niko didn’t want to think about it, let alone talk about it. He’d been such a goddamn fool, he might as well be a rookie. But last night he’d seen the woman she once
was. Sensual. Playful. Knowing exactly what she wanted and not afraid to take it. And he would have done anything she asked.
Anything but put in her in danger.
“Alvarez sent more photos last night,” he told Rafe. “Along with a note demanding I turn Jenna over within forty-eight hours if I want to see Aunt Madalena again.”
Rafe cursed in Greek. “Jenna saw the photos. She read the note.”
“Yeah.” If he could, he’d go back and kick his own ass. “I thought she was asleep. She had…” To hell with it. If she was going to run off, then he could let Rafe in on what had been a private moment. “Jenna had a meltdown and was sleeping it off. But the phone must have woken her up. She probably snuck out to look at the photos when I was in the bathroom.” He’d been so sickened by the pictures of his aunt, and terrified of Jenna ending up like that, he hadn’t been listening for sounds from the sitting room.
“She’s going to turn herself over to Alvarez.” Rafe made it a statement.
Niko’s stranglehold on the steering wheel made the car swerve right. He fought to get them back on a straight line before answering. “Yeah, that’s what I figure. She said that when she’s done, we’ll have our aunt back.” And the note fucking said good-bye, he wanted to shout. She’d brushed him off like a mosquito, as if making love last night hadn’t changed everything. As if she didn’t feel the wrenching pain he did at the thought of never seeing her again.
“So…ah…you do something to set Jenna off?” Rafe asked.
Fuck. No way in hell was he telling his brother he’d made love to Jenna. That was none of his goddamn business.
“Yeah.” Niko said. He could feel Rafe’s curiosity sizzling in the hot air sluggishly circulating through the underpowered car vents. But thank God his brother didn’t push him.
They didn’t have time for him to stop and beat the curiosity out of his brother.
“What’s the plan?” Rafe asked, confident Niko would have one.
Niko was both glad of his brother’s calm presence and pissed that Rafe wasn’t as freaked out about Jenna as he was.
“Alvarez will follow-through on his threat. Once we have Jenna, I’m going to put word out she escaped me. That will divert Alvarez’s attention for at least a day while he searches for her. Give us time to plan our assault.”
Vengeance (SSU Trilogy Book 1) Page 24