A Kiss of Revenge (Entangled Ignite) (10 page)

She tucked her necklace into her jeans pocket and left the clothing on a shelf. Then she forced her feet into the ridiculous red five-inch heels Skav had dropped at her feet, trying to psych herself up for getting naked in front of the skeeves.

You can do this. Nothing bad is going to happen. Griff has your back. You don’t have to let them touch you.

The light over her head hummed as electricity surged slightly, attracted by her agitation.
Shit
. No good. She had to be calm, controlled, or this would be over before she made it worthwhile.

A pounding on the door made her jump. Skav opened it before she recovered enough to respond. He eyed her up and down, raising goose bumps she had no doubt he’d interpret as excitement rather than disgust, and nodded. “Looks good. Talent should be happy.”

“What about me?” she couldn’t help asking. “I’m talent, too. Will I be happy?”

“Don’t know yet. He hasn’t taken it out.”

“Ugh.” She gagged, hanging back when Skav went into the bedroom. She wanted a look at what she was in for before the others saw her.

The film equipment was as it had been set up last night, only now it was all on. Her body almost sizzled with awareness of the power. Lights, cameras, recorders, video monitors, all of it hummed and crackled, though only to her.

Dob and Bark were calling figures to each other as they fiddled with the two cameras, both aimed at the center of the white satin–covered bed. Matching pillows were piled against the wrought-iron headboard. A box of what looked like sex toys sat to the right of the bed, but she couldn’t see what kind and really didn’t want to.

She shifted to her right and spotted Skav talking to another man. She’d been half expecting the guy from Artsfest, and half expecting the john/trick/talent to be horrifying. This guy was neither—not only a hunk, but a well-dressed, well-groomed hunk. A hunk with money, she guessed, and wondered if that was the key. Perhaps Big K was selling these porn videos to men with money and social status, but with tastes they didn’t want anyone to know about. It would explain the secrecy and the location. But it didn’t explain the girls. How they got them, what they told them, and if they were being prostituted—or worse.

“There she is.”

The man turned when Skav nodded to her, and he looked very much like a Boston businessman. His hair was perfectly trimmed and styled, and when he smiled, his teeth were the most perfect she had ever seen. He almost made the real silk shirt he wore with his leather pants seem mainstream.

“Hi.” He held out a hand. He hadn’t made eye contact, apparently caring more about the effects of the cold room. “Yeah, she’s perfect.” He nudged her elbow to make her pivot. “Nice. Yeah. Yeah, this’ll be great.”

She finished her slow spin in time to see him pulling hundred-dollar bills from his wallet, a wad nearly an inch thick. Nice to know her value, she thought, chuckling to herself. Her amusement fled when Skav waggled a finger at her.

“On the bed,” he said. “Flat on your back, up against the pillows. Grab the bars of the bed.”

“Wait a minute. When do
I
get paid?” Getting on the bed would rush the part of the evening she had to sabotage, and she hadn’t learned anything yet.

“When the job is done.” Skav loomed over her, his eyes glittering with anger. “If you don’t want to leave here with bruises that won’t show on camera, you’ll shut up and do as you’re told.”

She gulped and nodded, hoping her responding anger looked like the fear he expected. Electricity zipped into her, feeling almost gleeful at her lapse of control, but she didn’t fight it. She had to collect it, after all, and as long as she didn’t shock the “talent” too soon, this might work.

“Now get.”

She swallowed against her dry throat and glanced at the guy standing against the now-closed door of the room. He smiled, and she assumed he was trying to reassure her. “What am I supposed to be?” she asked, still trying to stall so she could get something, anything, to make this worth it. “I mean, I want to play my part well.”

“Get on the bed and we’ll tell you,” Skav ordered with exaggerated false patience. He’d picked up the box of toys. “Now.”

She circled the bed, passing one camera and one light as she did. She only considered for a second before she touched the lamp’s metal post and sent a jolt up the pole and into the socket. The bulb popped, and the room went even colder as the light faded.

Bark cursed and stomped from the room. Skav echoed him.

“All right, just sit there.” He pointed at Reese and then the bed. “We’ll be ready in a moment,” he told the “talent” in a much more deferential voice. “This happens once in a while.”

“Of course.” The tone was nearly British in its New England haughtiness. “I’ll just chat with my lovely here while we wait.” He sat on the other side of the bed and patted it. “Come closer, sweet.”

She slithered across the bed, suppressing a shudder. She didn’t want this guy to touch her. But she had to learn
something
to make it worth coming here and putting herself in this position. Maybe it would come from him.

“So, where you from? What do you do?” She tried a flirtatious, over-the-shoulder look, which prompted him to run his finger over that bare shoulder. More goosebumps rose in its wake, and he smiled. She wished she could tell him it was revulsion, not desire, but she smiled back instead.

“I’m a broker in New York but I live in Connecticut,” he told her, still stroking a single finger over her skin.

“Long way to come, for this. What got you into, um…” She leaned forward and whispered, “skin flicks?”

He smirked and tugged at the strap of her dress. “Why, you did, of course.” He lowered his voice and shifted even closer. His face was now right in front of hers, his mouth even with her chin as he braced himself on the bed, and his gaze directly on her cleavage.

“The opportunity to shag a delectable commodity such as yourself was irresistible.”

Commodity, huh?
She giggled to show she was flattered and began twisting her hair, a movement that gave her a few inches of space between them. “But why would you want to be in a porn film? I mean, you look like you’re pretty comfortable.” She eyed his Tag Heuer watch. “You don’t need the money, do you?”

He laughed outright. “Darling, I
pay
the money here, I do not
get
paid. And of course the movie isn’t to be sold.” He pointed to her chest, then his own. “It’s just between you…and…me.”

“All right, we’ve got the light fixed. Let’s get into positions.” The room lights went off and the set lights were aimed directly at the bed. A red light went on on each of the cameras.

Until now, she’d been calm. But it was go time. She couldn’t stall any more. Her breath became more difficult to control, coming in pants. Her heart began to pound in her chest. And the now-familiar tingling started in her scalp.

The man who’d paid for her had stripped off his shirt and set one knee on the bed.

“Up there,” he said, motioning toward the head of the bed. “Against the pillows.” She slithered up the bed, and he nodded. “Put your hands above your head. That’s it.” He knelt over her, straddling one leg, so he faced her without blocking the cameras. “Let’s unwrap this pretty package.” He yanked the edge of the dress to unsnap it. He let the fabric fall so it left her half-covered.

She tried to concentrate. She had to harness her power if she was going to get out of here without being violated. Or having Griffin come roaring to the rescue, disastrous as that would be.

A jingle pulled her attention away from the cameras, to the man looming over her, who now dangled a pair of handcuffs from his fingers and sported a much uglier leer.

“We’re gonna have some fun.”

She struggled to control her breathing. She could almost hear Griffin in his car, yelling at her to blast it now. Bark slapped his camera as it began to hum. The electricity fought to enter her, while her nervous tension battled it, trying to both pull it in and block it out. She could just let it go out of control and blow everything, but then people, including her, would get hurt. She had to
concentrate
.

She ignored the man reaching for her wrist and the men watching him do it, fixed the camera positions in her mind, and closed her eyes, imagining the current flowing smoothly through her and collecting in her right hand. She had to do this right. No bright balls of lightning. She aimed one finger at the near camera and let out a thin, invisible stream. She pushed it, forcing more and more electricity into the unit, until sparks suddenly flew and the red light went out.

“What the—!” Dob jerked back, rubbing the back of his hand and staring at a wisp of smoke swirling through the air. “The camera’s dead!”

While all attention was on him, she did the same thing to the other camera, with the same result.

“God damn it!” The talent, or john, or whatever he was, flung the handcuffs onto the bed. His affected tone disappeared, which didn’t surprise her. “For the money I’m paying, this should go a lot more smoothly. Forget the cameras. I’ll skip the souvenir. Let me just do her and be done.” He turned back to Reese and grabbed the edges of her dress.

Chapter Six

Reese gripped the dress in both fists, biting back a scream, and fought not to fling the rest of her gathered electricity at his face.

“Hey!” Skav pulled the guy back by the shoulder, his face livid. “Come out here a sec. We gotta talk.” He half dragged him into the hall.

She scooted to the edge of the bed and fixed her clothes. She couldn’t hear the conversation outside the nearly closed door, not with Bark and Dob complaining about the equipment.

“We can still film tonight,” one of them said, making her gut jump. “We’ll just have to use one of the other rooms.”

“It’ll take us two hours to get things set up in there.” Bark shook his head. “I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be working all night.”

“No, you’re right,” Dob agreed. “Me neither.”

Bark looked at Reese. “Looks like you’re coming back tomorrow.”

“I don’t like handcuffs,” she said, pouting, relieved tonight was almost over and she’d managed to skip the prostitution part of the evening, but frustrated near tears that she hadn’t gotten what she came for.

“Too bad, honey, it’s in the script.”

Dob snorted. “Yeah, in the script.”

“I didn’t get a script,” she said. They snickered. “What are they talking about out there, anyway?”

“Who knows?” Bark shrugged as he took a screwdriver to the camera case. “Tryin’ to talk him into sticking with the deal, I guess.”

She hunched into herself, her arms crossed against the room’s frigidity. They must spend a fortune on electricity—not to mention have heavy-duty circuitry—to support the air conditioning and the hot lights it combated far too effectively.

“That guy acted weird.” She tried to sound kind of vacant. “He talked like, like the point of this wasn’t the movie, it was the sex.”

Bark straightened and tossed his screwdriver onto the bed. “I gotta get more tools.” He left the room.

Dob looked back and forth at his retreating back and Reese, then mumbled something about getting Skav and made his own exit.

“Well, hell.” She couldn’t hear Skav and the client anymore. They must have moved farther down the hall. “I’m alone,” she muttered so Griff would know what was happening, “but there isn’t much worth snooping in here.” She bent and picked up the box Skav had drawn the handcuffs from. She shook it, loath to dig through the items. Nothing exciting in there.

She rose and circled the dead cameras. A metal table against the wall held a computer and case of DVDs, a sheet of labels, and an office-style telephone. Getting caught on the computer would be stupid, but she had an excuse for the phone. She lifted the receiver and pressed redial. A ten-digit number appeared on the readout. She was about to murmur it to Griff to write down when the door opened.

“What are you doing?”

She absorbed the surge of shock without jumping at Skav’s voice. Nonchalantly, she flipped her hair over her shoulder and turned only her head to look at him while depressing the button on the phone to hang up the call.

“I figured we’re done here tonight. I was calling for a ride.”

Skav scowled and walked over, making a “gimme” gesture with his fingers. She handed him the receiver and he slapped it down. “These phones are restricted. You’ll have to figure it out when you get out there. Come back tomorrow night and we’ll do this again.” He didn’t look at all happy.

“What about him?” She aimed a thumb at the door. “He seemed pretty mad.”

“He’ll be okay. The fluffer did too good a job, is all, and he got overexcited. He’ll be fine tomorrow.”

The image raised a burst of laughter she captured in her throat. “Same time, or a little earlier?” she managed to ask.

“Come at nine.”

The double entendre overwhelmed her control, and this time Skav chuckled with her. “Git outta here.” He tapped her on the back, and she went out into the deserted hall. Bark and Dob were arguing in another of the bedrooms, but the trick was nowhere in sight. She went into the dressing room and quickly changed back into her own clothes, then took a moment to open and close all the drawers in the vanity and look behind and between all the hangers. If Skav came in she’d just say she was checking out the clothes, but he didn’t, and she found nothing.

As she walked toward the stairs, she tested the knob of the room that had been locked the night before. Still locked. She bet if there was anything worth seeing here it was in that room, and wondered if she had time to force it open. It was a simple bedroom door lock and she didn’t doubt she could. But Skav was moving stuff behind her, and Dob and Bark were ahead of her, so she resisted temptation and moved on.

The trick loomed in front of her as she reached the bottom of the dark staircase.

“Oh!” She touched her fingers to her chest. “You startled me.”

“I just wanted to apologize for earlier.” His accent was gone, but he still had a refinement in his voice and she didn’t doubt he was who he’d said he was. “I got carried away. First job and all that. It won’t happen again.”

“It’s okay.” She smiled nervously and shifted her weight as if he made her uncomfortable. “Skav said the fluffer did too good a job.”

His face darkened. “Is that what he said? Who the hell do you think the fluffer would have been? I’m not letting one of those assholes touch me.” He collected himself. “He was just covering for me because I’m such a newbie. Anyway, no hard feelings?”

“Okay.” They shook hands, which felt absurd, and he walked her out the front door and turned to go to his right. Assuming this was the alternate access to the property she’d never found, she followed him instead of heading to the gate she always used. At the rear of the garage, a gravel drive went out another gate to a tree-lined alley formed by the walls of the neighboring properties. They went through the gate, and he closed it behind them. It latched but didn’t lock. They probably kept it open when they expected people, which she supposed explained why they didn’t ask her how she got onto the property yesterday.

Or maybe they were just stupid.

Mr. Fluffer jerked a thumb to a black BMW speedster parked in a circle carved into the woods. “You want a ride?”

“No, thanks. I’ve got someone coming for me.”

“Suit yourself.”

He didn’t seriously think she believed he was a fellow actor, did he? Not with a car like that. But maybe he just wasn’t that intelligent, either. He’d almost blown the whole thing with his confession, after all. She guessed Skav had reminded him what they were doing was illegal and if she found out he was paying to have sex with her and she didn’t know it, they could all go to jail.

She watched him drive off in a spray of gravel, then she turned left and walked up the narrow road. As soon as she emerged onto the main street, Griffin pulled up and opened the passenger door from inside. She climbed in, and he took off, looking grim.

“You okay?” was the first thing he asked.

“Fine.” She looked at the woman in the back seat and gasped. “
Kimmie?
”

Reese fastened her seatbelt, unable to hide her dismay. Kimmie’s eyes were huge. Her face practically glowed in the darkness, it had so little color, and she kept biting her lips. She’d wrapped her fingers tightly around each other.

“Oh, sweetie.
This
was the acting job you told me about?”

The young woman’s eyes filled with tears. “I answered an ad at a website that puts out calls for extras and stuff, you know, in movies and commercials? I totally thought it was legit. I asked all these questions they tell you to ask, and he told me—” She pressed her lips together, a sob catching in her throat.

Griff had pointed out how much they looked alike, which explained why Reese had gotten in so easily yesterday. But never in a million years would she have connected Kimmie’s acting job with what was going on in that house.

“What did you think the job was?” She tried hard to keep her voice free of judgment or sarcasm.

“Acting.” Kimmie pressed the back of her hand to her mouth for a moment. “He said lots of girls got their start in adult entertainment, and he knew people who’d recognize my star potential.”

“Oh, hon.” Reese’s heart ached for the girl, but how could anyone go through life believing such things?

Then again, she had believed Joey’s conviction that they’d be together forever, and Chris’s that he loved her. She’d even believed in Brian, and she’d been far older than Kimmie.

“They lied to you,” she said as gently as possible. “I think they’re taking money from rich men who want to have sex with strangers and film them doing it. They let the men do whatever they want with the women.”

Griff’s tension permeated the car, and Reese glanced at him. He was gripping the wheel so tightly his biceps looked like they’d tear his shirt.

“That’s prostitution, and it’s illegal.” She spared Kimmie the theory that they didn’t just let the women go afterward, both because she didn’t have true evidence of it, and because Kimmie clearly couldn’t handle it. The young woman had stopped even trying to hold back her tears.

“Please don’t tell the families I work for,” she begged, accepting the tissue Reese handed over the back of the seat. “They’ll fire me in a second, and I love those kids.”

Reese assured her she wouldn’t tell anyone. “What about your family? Your parents? Do you have anyone at home with you?” She had no idea what Kimmie’s overall situation was, just that she was nanny to four kids, was about twenty years old, and wanted to be an actress.

Kimmie settled against the back of the seat and stared out the window, the tissue limp on her lap. “My roommate should be home. She’ll think this is hilarious,” she grumbled. She’d clearly turned the corner, and by the time they pulled up in front of the apartment building she’d directed them to, Reese thought she’d be okay.

Griff stayed quiet until they were alone in the car. Then he exploded.

“I can’t
believe
you can talk about it so easily. I heard what almost happened, and it was all I could do to stay in this car.”

“You have to trust me,” Reese started, but he cut her off.

“You have no idea how much I trust you. If I didn’t trust you—and if you hadn’t blasted me last night and shown me how much power you have, even off a little cell phone battery—I’d never have let you go in there in the first place.”

She didn’t answer. He couldn’t have stopped her, not short of chaining her to the basement wall, but there was no point arguing. He couldn’t feel the pressure of time, of Brian’s surgery looming. Every minute they were on horseback today, and working together in the bakery, the craving for a normal life, one
she
created, that
she
dictated, had built within her. Now she admitted she was afraid. Afraid if she accepted the challenge she faced, allowed it to seem insurmountable, she’d stop. Give in.

Fail.

Every one of her husbands had failed her in some way. She wouldn’t fail Brian. Or herself. It had nothing to do with how he’d treated her. She needed to know she was better than that. That she would never fail those who loved her and depended on her. Ever. For her own peace of mind.

She let Griff simmer until a little slack appeared in his sleeve and his knuckles didn’t look like they’d bust through the skin.

“I’m going back in tomorrow.” She said it quietly, but with enough strength to keep him from arguing. “I need to get into the locked room. I know the information I need is in there.”

“And then what? What about Kimmie, and all the other women like her? How are you going to stop them from being exploited?”

She was afraid to answer, because she didn’t know. And given a choice between taking down this porn ring and going after Big K, she’d choose Big K. She couldn’t say that, either. Griff’s moral code wouldn’t tolerate it. The only reason he stayed with her on this, allowing the breaking and entering she’d done, was because he knew she’d never take anything from the houses, or hurt anyone. Otherwise, he’d no doubt have reported her to the cops and turned his back on her.

The thought made her throat ache.

“I’ll let Andrew know everything before I go after Big K,” she finally said.

“And tell him what? That you broke in here? Jail time will help a lot in finding Big K.”

He sounded so scathing. “What do you care? You don’t even want me to go after him. You’ve tried to talk me out of it every step of the way.”

“I just want this finished.” His jaw tightened around the words.

“Why?”

“Because it needs to be over. Until it is, you’ll never move on.” He pulled into her driveway and shut off the car.

“That’s my goal,” she said. He’d always known that, and she knew it wasn’t what he meant. She pushed the conversation back to the original thread. “So I have to go in tomorrow night or I may never reach it.”

He inhaled and let out a long, heavy sigh. “Fine.”

“Fine.” She got out and strode into the house, losing momentum as soon as she got inside. It had been a long, draining day. Had it been only a few hours since she was so relaxed and content at the stables? She couldn’t even think anymore.

Griff’s footsteps thumped up the front steps, and she escaped to her bedroom. She couldn’t handle being close to him. Her defenses had been obliterated, and she was afraid they’d end up fighting. Really fighting—the irreversible kind.

She sat on her bed and listened to him close the front door, check the back door and all the windows, and start down the hall. His footsteps paused in front of her room. She held her breath, but he continued into the guest room.

Instead of rising to get ready for bed she waited, eyes closed, her mind adding his movement to the sounds. A creak of bedsprings when he sat to unlace his boots, followed by a couple of thuds as he pulled them off and dropped them to the floor. Then silence for a minute. She imagined him undressing, maybe putting on a pair of soft pajama bottoms. Then his door opened and his footsteps, this time soft shushes across the wood floor, went into the bathroom next to her room. The toilet flushed, water ran, silence. Water again. Electric toothbrush, more water. She swayed a little as she mentally followed him back to the guest room, where he slid under the sheet and pulled out a book. He always read before he went to sleep.