Fatal, page 17
“Isn’t that overkill?” Raina asked.
Dex shook his head. “We aren’t taking any chances. The suite across the hall is ours, so it’s not like someone will be standing in the hallway and drawing attention to you. The others will blend in and not be noticed. We want you to feel safe, and to be safe.”
“Thank you,” Adam said.
Dex nodded and left them alone in the suite that already had their luggage, in separate bedrooms. Adam was a little impressed F-BOMB had pulled all of this off without him even noticing what was going on.
Raina stared at the door while Adam stared at Raina. He wasn’t sure where her head was, and he didn’t want to push the boundaries of what she wanted.
After a minute, she looked over at him with a sad smile. “I’m scared.”
Adam nodded and moved closer to her. He reached for her hand and held it loosely in his. “I am, too. But we’re safe here.”
She nodded. “I know. But I’m not safe out there.” She exhaled a shaky breath. “I’m not ready to face him.”
“I’m not going to leave your side. I’ll be with you every step of the way.”
She smiled up at him. “I know you want to, but you’ll have to leave me alone if Damon’s going to approach me and try to get to me.”
“I won’t go far.”
She stepped closer and wrapped her arms around his waist, resting her head on his chest.
Adam inhaled the scent of the shampoo he massaged into her hair that morning before they left Pittsburgh. It felt like far too long ago. Like a lifetime had passed since then.
“I know you’re upset with me, but I am grateful you’re going along with this.”
“I’m not mad at you. I’m scared for you. I don’t want to lose you. Now or after all this is over,” he admitted.
Raina pulled back to look up at him, a ghost of a smile lifting her lips. “I feel the same.”
Adam leaned down slowly, kissing her lips gently. Sharing breath and life and love, even if neither of them used the word. It hung right there, between them like it was a part of them.
“I’m not leaving you,” he whispered against her lips.
“I’m going to hold you to that,” she whispered back.
He kissed her again, then carried her to the large, soft bed in the room farther from the door and showed her how much he loved her all night long.
18
Did they think he was an idiot? For fuck’s sake, a rookie would be able to tell they were setting a fucking trap. And Damon was no rookie. But nothing had changed. Three weeks and Raina was still at the same store at the same time on the same day of the week.
How fucking stupid did they think he was?
Damon shook his head and snickered. They’d probably get bored eventually and try something new, but he was going to have a little fun. Raina’s protector was always right by her side, not going far enough away to give Damon a chance to grab her, if he was dumb enough to try. But they were getting comfortable. Lazy.
Sloppy.
Damon was a fan of sloppy work, as long as it wasn’t from someone he was in charge of. His employees didn’t get second chances. They learned how to take advantage of sloppiness in others. Which was exactly what Damon was going to do.
He moved closer to Raina, careful not to draw any attention to himself. The Agent was paying more attention to Raina than their surroundings, but there were others. The guy in the baseball hat two aisles over, the guy with the bulge in the back of his jeans at the end of the aisle, and the couple one aisle in the other direction. And that didn’t count the ones in the parking lot outside or the ones near the exit.
Damon wouldn’t be able to get Raina out of the store without someone stopping him, but that wasn’t the goal today. Today was about letting her know he wasn’t falling for it.
Raina and the Agent moved to the end of the aisle. Damon watched from ten feet away, knowing he’d get his chance soon. He smiled when Raina pointed to something and the stupid agent went to grab it for her, leaving Raina without anyone watching her as she turned down the new aisle.
“Hello, Raina,” Damon said, stepping up behind her so she was trapped.
The breath she sucked in hardened his dick. He inhaled the fear rolling off her and had to force himself not to slam her against the aisle and claim her right then and there.
“Damon,” she breathed, turning to look him in the eye.
Damon smirked at her, enjoying the panicked look in her eyes. “So nice to see you, my love. How’ve you been?”
“How have I been? Are you fucking kidding me? What is wrong with you?”
Damon’s smirk hardened to a glare. He didn’t tolerate her swearing at him. He stepped closer, backing her up against the metal shelves that separated the aisles. “Don’t you dare use that language with me.”
“What are you going to do about it? We’re over. We have been for a year. You’re the only one who can’t understand that.”
“We’re over when I say we’re over,” he growled. “And I don’t say we’re over. You’re still mine, and that agent who thinks he can touch you will learn again that it’s a bad idea to cross me.”
“Adam is twice the man you are,” she spat.
Damon reached up so fast she didn’t have time to react before his hand was around her throat, tightening. He grinned at the bravado slipping from her gaze, replaced by terror. It was his favorite look. The one that kept him going. The one that brought a smile to his face.
“Be careful what you say, Raina. It’s not nice to insult the man with his hand around your fucking throat.” Damon squeezed, feeling her airway shrink. It would be so easy to squeeze hard enough to kill her, but he didn’t want her dead yet. He had plans for her. Plans that involved his bed and handcuffs she’d never get off and a punishment that would teach her never to try to leave him again.
“Fuck… you,” she hissed, the words barely audible through her closing throat.
Damon chuckled. “Yes, that’s the plan. But not now. Your agent might be too stupid to stay by your side, but your other protectors are too close. I’ll find you again. Maybe at that hotel where you’re staying on the eighth floor. Or the house you go to in the city. Or maybe I’ll just crash into that black SUV they drive you around in and grab you from the backseat before any of them know what’s going on. If I’m lucky, I can kill two birds with one stone and get rid of your agent at the same time I bring you back to me.”
Each threat came with a widening of her eyes and a tensing of her body. The realization that he not only knew her routine, but he had planned ways to get her away from the people who were supposed to protect her made Raina stiff as a board.
She wasn’t the only one. If Damon had it his way, he’d shove her to her knees and fuck her mouth until she choked on his dick, but the bitch would probably bite it off.
A single tear trailed down Raina’s cheek, and Damon leaned in, licking it as she shivered in his hand. He kissed her cheek and whispered in her ear. “You’re always going to be mine, Raina. Until the day you die.”
Damon’s time was up, so he released her and walked away as she collapsed on the floor and gasped for breath.
He’d rounded a corner before the yelling started. Damon smiled as he walked down the aisle, away from Raina and her stupid agent who finally found her.
He was almost to the front of the store when someone caught his eye. He knew those legs, and the eyes.
Damon smirked and changed direction, knowing he had another minute to say hello to an old friend.
She gasped when she saw him heading toward her, but her instinct had her freezing instead of fleeing.
“It’s good to see you again, Edie. How have you been?”
She shook, her hands balled together in front of her. Her gaze was locked on his, not looking around. Too scared to do anything else.
“I see you didn’t die in that storm. Shame. I was hoping you had. Well, really, I was hoping we could have spent some time together. It’s been a while. But then Trevor claimed you as his, and I was out of luck. I would have treated you better than he did. I would have made sure you had all the drugs you wanted. I never would have let you lose your high so you were willing to leave with another man. Then again, your cousin was causing trouble. I’m glad I could take care of her, even though it wasn’t her I was after.” Damon laughed and shook his head. “Lucky accident, you know?”
Edie continued to stare at him.
Damon looked down at her hands and saw a knife clenched in her fist. He leaned closer so no one else would hear his words. “Aw, Edie. What do you think you’re going to do with that? We both know you’d never hurt me. Not after how good I was to you. I even let you orgasm when we were together. Didn’t punish you for it because your tight pussy felt good on my dick. And then I saved you from Trevor. Why would you hurt me?”
He pulled back and watched as tears streamed down her cheeks. Her eyes were clenched tight, her hands shaking again.
Damon patted her cheek. “It was so good to see you, Edie.”
He kissed her forehead, then turned and walked out of the store without anyone stopping him.
Just like he always did.
Raina couldn’t stop shaking. She thought she was so fucking brave. But she wasn’t. She nearly peed her pants when Damon wrapped his hand around her throat.
And then she cried, and he licked the tear.
The whole thing made her sick. God, how stupid was she? She thought Adam teaching her a few self-defense moves and being surrounded by people would make her feel safe, but she didn’t. Not even a little.
Especially when he made it clear he’d been watching her and knew her every move.
Everyone in the room was shouting over each other. They were angry. Damon made them all look incompetent. He made Raina feel like they were incompetent. She trusted the men and women who were yelling at each other. She thought they’d keep her safe.
She wasn’t safe. She’d never be safe. Damon told her that. He was more patient than she ever gave him credit for. He would wait until he could get her and then he’d take her.
He made it sound easy. And Raina knew it would be for him. Nothing had ever stopped him before. Even being the most wanted man in the city hadn’t stopped him from walking into a public place and wrapping his hand around her throat and squeezing until Raina almost blacked out.
She rubbed her neck, wishing she could erase the feeling of Damon’s hand on her. It wasn’t the first time he’d put his hands around her throat. She hated him.
“I’m sorry,” Edie whispered from the seat next to Raina. The two of them were huddled in the corner of the conference room, present but not involved in the discussion that didn’t include listening.
“Why would you be sorry?” Raina asked Edie.
Edie shook her head and swiped at her cheeks. “Because I let him get away.”
“There was nothing you could do.”
“I had a knife. But I froze.” She looked over at Raina, her eyes wide with fear and pain. “I knew him.”
Raina nodded. “You said he’s the one who got you out of that other house. Before Mackenzie and Holden found you.”
“No. I mean, yes, but no. I knew him before. He was… I recognized the way he smelled.”
“What?” Raina gasped. She turned in her chair to face Edie fully. “You slept with him?”
Edie looked at the others as the shouting quieted. Her gaze lowered to her hands, twisted in her lap. “It’s not like I was given a choice, but yeah. He was walking out of the store, but he turned toward me. I guess he recognized me. He said…”
“What did he say?” Raina whispered. She wasn’t sure why she needed to know, but she did.
“He said he remembered me. Told me… things.”
“What things?” one of the men barked.
Edie closed her eyes. “We would get punished if we had an orgasm during sex. We were supposed to just lay there and let them do what they wanted. Damon said he would let me… That he enjoyed it. Said he would have treated me better than Trevor if I’d stayed with him.”
“Jesus,” someone breathed.
“I’m so sorry, Raina. I don’t remember him. I was so drugged up that I barely remember anything. But I… I knew his scent.” Edie sucked in a scared, shaky breath.
“Scents are powerful,” Lorelei said. “We have a lot of memories tied to scents, and they’re used to recover memories, too.”
Edie nodded.
“Is that why you didn’t kill him?” one of the men asked. “Because he was good to you?”
Raina turned to glare at whoever asked the insulting question, but Edie answered before Raina could figure out who asked.
“Being pumped full of drugs and raped repeatedly is not my version of being treated well. No one involved in that organization treated me well. Death would have been welcome at times. I prayed for it. For the drugs to be laced with something that killed me or… something. Have you ever been so broken, so scared and sick and disgusted with yourself that you prayed to die? Have you ever thought death was a better option than life?”
“Yes,” some of the men answered.
One stepped forward. Slade, Kyra’s husband. “I was taken prisoner. For two weeks, I was tortured. Every single day, I thought I was going to die. I’d wake up and wonder if I was dead or not. It was a time in my life I wished for death. But it was only two weeks for me. I’m sorry for what you’ve been through. For what you’re still going through.”
“Thank you,” Edie whispered.
Slade looked around the room at the others. “Street knows our tactics. He knows what we’ve been doing. He knows more than we realize, far more.”
“But how?” Archer barked.
“It doesn’t fucking matter,” Dex said. “He knows. Which means we need to change everything we do to keep Raina and Edie safe.”
Edie looked up at them. “Me? I don’t have anything to do with this.”
“Street knows you’re involved now. He may have known before, but he definitely knows now. Whether he intends to do anything about it or not, it doesn’t matter. You were let down in the past. We’re not going to let it happen again.” Dex waited until Edie nodded at him to meet the gazes of the others in the room.
“Dex is right. The hotel isn’t an option. Coming here or going to English’s place are out. All the places we’ve had you going recently are not options,” Dunn said.
“Why would he tell her all of this? Why would he tip his hand and let her know he’s been following her? Why wouldn’t he just use the information he has and grab her?” Liam asked.
“Are you saying it’s a bad thing? That him admitting all of this so we can protect Raina is a disappointment?” Adam snapped.
Liam shook his head. “No. I’m saying it doesn’t make sense. He likes to be in control. He’s smart. He’s been ten steps ahead of us this whole time. Why tell us what he knows? Why eliminate the options he has for grabbing Raina? Obviously, he knew there were more people there today. He didn’t even try to take her.” Liam glanced at Raina. “Not that what he did was okay, but you’re here. It doesn’t make sense to me that he would show his cards.”
“Liam’s right,” Mason said. “He wants us to scramble. He thrives on creating chaos. He gets off on knowing that we’re all here trying to come up with new plans that he’s going to figure out again. New plans that might not be as well thought-out and might give him a new opportunity.”
“What are you suggesting?” Dunn asked.
Mason shrugged. “Don’t change a thing.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Adam shouted. Tension and anger radiated off of him. Raina wanted to soothe him and make him calm down, but he wasn’t wrong. “What the hell is wrong with you? Why the hell would we do that?”
“He might be right,” Dunn said, rubbing his jaw. “I know that’s not easy to swallow, but if Street knows what we’re going to do before we do, he’s ahead of us. If he tells us all the things he knows, and he thinks it’s going to force us to change tactics, he can anticipate what we’re going to do. He’s been studying us, all of us. He knows how we think and who we are. He probably has someone on all of our houses, plus all the safe houses we have access to. His network is bigger than we know. Officer Bernard was working for Street for years and no one had any idea. Bernard used another officer to murder someone in police custody. Street didn’t share what he knows because he fucked up. He did it to send us into a fit.”
“And you think continuing with things as they are is the best option?” Raina whispered.
Everyone in the room looked at her. She met their gazes, wishing she could sink into her chair and disappear.
“I think it might be, yes,” Dunn admitted. “We know what he knows. We can be more vigilant. We can add people to our routes and have an extra team stationed at the hotel. Street isn’t giving up, but neither are we.”
“Better not be. But we need a new plan. He knows we were watching. He knew we were there, but we didn’t know he was there. Putting Raina at risk and having that fucker walk up to her and put his hand around her throat is not an option again. You’re all the best of the best. Fucking fix this,” Adam yelled at the others.
“Adam,” Raina said.
Adam spun on her. “No. Don’t tell me you’re going back out there. That you’re willing to have that sick fucker get close to you again. I agreed once. We’ve been doing this for weeks. We all got complacent. And he pounced. I can’t… I won’t let anything happen to you. And neither should the rest of them.”
Adam glared at the others around the room, letting them all see and feel the anger pouring off him. When he finally looked at Raina again, all she felt was his love.
Adam would die for her. He would die to protect her. Raina was not going to let that happen. There had to be another way. Another way to get to Damon before he got to them again.
