Angel in the Shadows (11 page)

Madison turned on the shower, making the water as hot as she could stand it and climbed in, pulling the shower curtain closed behind her. Although she was no longer cold on the outside, inside, she felt like a block of ice. The hot water felt good but the moment it hit her back, she cried out sharply. The stinging in her back escalated several notches as the water washed over her cuts. Needles of pain shot through her, struggling not to jump out of the shower. With the hot water running over her, she allowed herself to think of the man in the alley. Inside the privacy of the shower, she relieved the horror of it all. She cringed but forced herself to relive it.

Her uncontrollable sobs were covered by the water as she scrubbed every inch of her skin until it was lobster red and throbbing with pain. It seemed to go on forever but slowly, she was able to regain control of herself. Her skin burned but she gritted her teeth, forcing herself to stand under the hot water until she felt clean.

Gradually, the pain and revulsion was dulled by the searing heat from the water as it flowed over the open wounds, leaving a blissful numbness in its place. When she could take no more, she turned off the water and stepped out, drying herself gently with the thick, fluffy towels. Dropping the towel to the floor, she wiped away the condensation from the mirror and bravely turned.

Long, ragged scratches ran almost the entire length of her backside. Staring just below her shoulder blades and ending at the small of her back, the deep lacerations were an angry shade of red, standing out even on her scalded skin. They were too painful to look at. Facing the mirror once again, she examined the unhealthy swell of her lip. She leaned in toward the mirror for a closer look when suddenly the door swung open. Jumping in surprise, she shrieked as Seth stepped into the small bathroom. Scrambling for her discarded towel, she quickly covered herself, before whirling around to face him, heat creeping up her cheeks.

Seth’s gaze was intense. “What the hell happened to your back?” he demanded, his voice rough and his blue eyes ablaze.

“Get out of here!” she yelled brokenly, pulling the towel tighter around herself. Shaking, she was overwhelmed with both anger and embarrassment.

Crossing the short distance between then, Seth ignored her outrage as if she hadn’t even spoken. She tried to shrink away but her ass was firmly pressed against the sink. There was nowhere for her to go. Swiftly, he grabbed her by one bare shoulder and spun her around, pinning her against the sink effortlessly. Seizing the towel, he yanked it down, exposing her entire backside.

“Now tell me what happened to your back.”

Madison tried desperately to pull the towel back into place but Seth had a firm grip on it and wasn’t letting go. She had no way to cover herself although he didn’t seem to be too concerned with her nakedness.

“It’s nothing. I scraped it a little when I climbed out of the window back at the apartment. I’m sure it will be fine.” She wasn’t sure of anything at this moment beyond her extreme and ever-growing embarrassment. She just wanted him out of there, away from her. She wanted his strong, warm hands off of her skin. More than that, she wanted to erase the strange, throbbing feelings of inadequacy she was constantly cursed with.

“The hell it will be,” Seth grumbled. “You’ve got the beginning of a very bad infection.”

“Well then, I’ll take care of it myself. I don’t need your help,” she said stubbornly.

“And just how do you plan to do that? You can’t even reach around to apply medicine to it.”

Not waiting for an objection, Seth reached past her and pulled out a brown, unlabeled bottle from the medicine cabinet.

“What’s that?” Madison asked suspiciously, craning her neck around to look at the bottle he held.

“Something that will take care of that infection,” he said, opening the bottle. “You know, it would be easier to put this on if you go lie on the bed.”

Her heart thumped wildly at the prospect of lying, naked, on the bed with him. Even for such an innocent reason as applying medicine to her back. She pushed the erotic images away and growled, “Go to hell. I am not getting on the bed with you.”

Seth leaned closer into her. She could feel the softness of his clothes against her naked skin. His breath was warm as it glided over her neck.

“Really, Maddie, does everything have to be about sex with you?” Seth whispered, his words playing gently in his ear. “I’m just trying to doctor your wounds. Now, would you like to lay down or stand?”

Damn him! Why did he have to make her so crazy?
She really needed to get control of herself. And if she laid down on that bed . . . No, that couldn’t happen. No way was she going to allow it. “I’ll stand, thank you.”

Shrugging, Seth replied, “Suit yourself. Hold still, this is going to sting a little.”

She barely had time to brace herself before she felt his fingers touch her back. The warm liquid did a lot more than sting. It lit her on fire. Immediately she stiffened against the pain, whimpering softly. Not caring anymore that she stood in front of him completely naked, she grabbed tightly onto the base of the sink and leaned over it, her hair framing her face, the tears stinging her eyes. The pain was like nothing she had ever felt before. The heat began in the open cuts, searing nerve endings as it sent fire coursing through her blood. It was if her skin were
melting. Sucking in her breath, she held it in tightly, a last effort to stave off the pain racing through her entire body. Her lungs were on fire and screaming for release but she just couldn’t let go. The pain was too severe and too immense.

“Breathe, Maddie,” she heard Seth say somewhere dimly behind her. His voice seemed to float to her over a long distance. Sluggishly, she shook her head, feeling lightheaded.

Faintly, she felt his hands on her arms as he spun her around making her instantly dizzy with the quick motion and the lack of air. Opening her tear-filled eyes, she stared up into Seth’s blazing blue ones. His face was filled with anger and she could see the violence simmering just below the surface.

“Damn it, I said breathe!” he yelled, shaking her roughly.

Not able to hold back any further, Madison let her breath go in a loud
whoosh
, immediately gasping for air. Her knees threatened to give way but Seth continued to hold her, steadying her and keeping her on her feet. Her lungs burned as she sucked in the air she had been denying herself. Breathing hurt almost as much as the lack of air and she stood, forcing herself to take small, even breaths. When she was finally able to breathe somewhat normally, she realized Seth still held her arms and she was standing completely naked in front of him, her towel pooled around her feet on the floor.

Alarmed, she tried to move away but he held tight, not allowing her to step back. Being close to him like this, she became even more aware of him as a man. The long, dark hair fell to brush the tops of his broad shoulders and framed his face, emphasizing his strength and beauty even as the unnatural depth of his eyes drew her in, threatening to mesmerize her. And his mouth . . . His mouth was so full and sensual she longed to taste it again, to feel it against hers. Even as she studied him, she saw his blue eyes drop to her feet and climb up the length of her body. Slowly. Her supreme self-doubt kicked in and she became even more conscious about her physical shortcomings. Nervously, she licked her lips, watching as his eyes shifted, following the movement of her tongue as it skimmed her mouth. Abruptly, Seth’s eyes deepened in color until they were nearly black and she felt her heart began to speed up in immediate feminine response. She wanted him. This revelation stunned her but it was true. She wanted him like she had never wanted anyone before. That scared her. Terrified her, in fact.

Without stopping to consider her actions, Madison stepped in, her chest pressed firmly against Seth’s and brought her lips to his, tasting his mouth, tasting those luscious lips. His body was hard with lean muscles, a strength effectively hidden underneath his clothing. The thought of those muscles, that strength, made her burn inside, made her press herself even tighter against him. For a moment, Seth stood completely still, like a block of stone and she worried that she had made a mistake, that she had read him wrong. But then he was kissing her back. She hungrily gave into her lust and opening her mouth, she ran her tongue over his lips, teasing, inviting him to open his. He groaned against her mouth and then the sudden flash of his tongue over hers sent an electrifying shock through her entire body from head to toe. Distantly, she felt Seth’s hands slide down her arms, gently stroking her still damp skin. Stifling a moan, she brought her arms up and began unbuttoning his shirt, letting her fingernails scrape against the smoothness of his muscled chest.

Seth’s fingers grazed her ribs and stomach causing her to inhale sharply against his lips. Caressing her skin softly, he grasped the smooth curves of her hips, yanking her closer to him with surprising force. The feel of his slacks created a delicious friction against her bare thighs and she couldn’t hold back a gasp of sudden need. She could feel him grow long and hard beneath the thin material separating them and rejoiced that she did have an effect on him. But then, just as roughly as he pulled her to him, he pushed her away, breaking their intimate contact. “I told you I wasn’t interested. Now get dressed Maddie,” Seth ordered brusquely.

Before she could even mutter a response, he turned around and left her standing naked and alone in the bathroom.

Chapter 13

Shit!
Seth stormed out of the bathroom and stomped toward the front door, his blood burning like liquid fire through his veins. Temptation was beating deep within his body, reverberating through every part of him. What the hell was he doing? He was supposed to be killing Madison, not trying to fuck her. But he’d already rejected that order. He was not going to kill her. But that didn’t mean that he had to get involved with her either. He had been lying, of course, when he told her he wasn’t interested. He was very interested in her. Too much in fact. At the moment, he felt as though he were going insane, going mad with desire. He had to be out of his fucking mind. He couldn’t have her but oh, how he wanted her, needed her. He wanted to touch her, taste her, be beside her, and be
inside
her. And none of it made any fucking sense.

Madison was so unlike the large variety of women he’d been involved with, affecting him like no one else ever had. And she wasn’t even his usual type. Hell, most of the women he’d fucked throughout his career were slim, gorgeous, and sensual. They knew all the ins and outs of sex, knew exactly what they wanted, and just how to get it. More often than not, they, too, were on a mission and not afraid to do whatever it took to accomplish their objective. They were trained for that type of high-level activity. But Madison . . . Madison was not an operative. She was pretty enough but she was shy and inhibited. She had no idea what she was doing. Yet right now, he was on fire like he had never been before and he wanted nothing more than to finish what he had started. He could see the desire burning in her eyes and that was like a drug to him.

Images of her, fresh out of the shower, leapt once again into his mind, sizzling his brain with all of the heat of a raging forest fire. Her soft, blond hair, damp from the shower, laying on her naked shoulders and those full lips, trembling slightly, as her small pink tongue licked them nervously. The fresh, clean scent of her had filled his nose, nearly obliterating his common sense. He could still feel the soft, silky skin underneath his fingertips and her smooth, creamy breasts pressing against his chest. It would be so easy to turn around and take her right there on the bathroom floor. God, the waves of heat flooding through his system was enough to make him feel as though he might reach a virtual meltdown.

Damn it, he was thinking with his dick instead of his head. That kind of thinking was dangerous and would more than likely get them both killed. He couldn’t risk that. There was too much on the line for him to be distracted by sex and he couldn’t let
any
woman get in the way of the job. He wouldn’t fuck up the entire mission just because he couldn’t keep it in his pants.

But it was more than that. It wasn’t just the sexual need that was driving him to the brink of madness. He was beginning to see beneath her exterior. He was beginning to see her as a real person. A person with emotions. A person with a soul. A person worth saving. And maybe even dying for.

He had to get away from here, away from
her
. He knew he had done the right thing, pushing her away like that. But the way she looked at him with those huge, brown eyes . . . Oh, he had cut her to the quick with that move. But that was good. She needed to stay the hell away from him. She needed to realize that he was a dangerous man and nobody she wanted to fuck around with. And if he had to hurt her to do it, then by God, he would do what it took. He should never have let it get this far. Holy shit, what the fuck was she doing to him?

Slamming the front door shut behind him, Seth leaned against the closed door and took a deep breath, inhaling the crisp cool air into his lungs. The coldness stung but it helped to clear his head but didn’t do much about the rest of the flames surging through his blood.

Damn Charlie and this fucking life . . .

Seth always had a healthy respect for Charlie and everything she must have seen and lived through to become the cold, determined woman she was, but he still cursed her for her absolute ruthlessness. She was hard enough inside to be able to casually order the death of an innocent without a second thought. Her reasons for that ultimate decision was simple. Kill one to save many. The life of one or two innocents was not worth the death of thousands, perhaps millions. To make that decision, to give that order took a callousness he didn’t possess. And one he wasn’t sure he ever wanted to.

Since he’d been recruited by the Perfect Order at seventeen, his entire life had been dedicated to protecting innocent lives. And he’d suffered much in those sixteen years. More than most people had in an entire lifetime. But it had all been worth it because it had been the right thing to do. He’d done terrible things to ensure that normal, everyday people didn’t know about the evil surrounding them. To let them be comfortably ignorant about the world they lived in so that they might feel secure enough to live a regular life. But now, Charlie had ordered him to kill one of those he’d spent his whole life protecting.

More and more, he found himself questioning her orders as he’d never done before. It had always been black and white, good and evil but now, there were shades of grey filtering in. And those were fucking with his way of thinking, with his job. He could not going to follow orders as far as Madison was concerned but he would finish the mission. He would see it through even though that meant that he had to keep Madison safe as well. He just wished to hell that Charlie would give him the order to finish Vance now. But he understood that they had to find a way to stop the poison that he’d come up with from entering the water system. They didn’t know if killing Vance would be enough to prevent that. His death might only be the trigger that set it off.

He just hoped to God that he could fix this. He had to, there was no other choice. The story he was going to tell Vance came to him quickly as he entered the garage. Climbing into the Explorer, he listened to the loud rumble of the engine, nothing like the low, seductive purr of his Porsche but it would be much easier to handle in the ice and snow. The overcast sky promised more snow so he better get moving. He had to fill Vance in before he got too nervous and decided to do some investigating of his own.

Shifting the SUV into gear, he pulled out of the garage, leaving the snow-covered cabin and Madison behind. Maybe by the time he returned, the fire inside him would have cooled enough that he could figure out how to keep her safely out of reach from everyone. Including him.

Madison stood unmoving in the bathroom, hearing the door slam. She was alone again. Her heart was pounding in her chest, her blood boiling, her breath ragged. Stooping down, she retrieved her discarded bath towel, wrapping it around herself tightly. The fire raging inside her had been immediately extinguished, only to be replaced with successive waves of shame that left her chilled inside and out.
What in God’s name had she been thinking?
The answer came to her quickly. She wanted him, pure and simple. She had wanted him in a way that she had never wanted anyone in her life. Even Mitch hadn’t aroused that much passion in her and they had been together for three months. She had only known Seth for two days. That realization was terrifying. How could she possibly feel that way? She didn’t even know who he really was. But she wanted to. She wanted to know everything about him. Who he was, where he came from, what drove him to be so protective yet so harsh and remote? And that wanting scared the hell out of her.

Shaken, she wandered into the bedroom and pulled the dresser drawers open. Inside was an array of garments, all neatly folded. She glanced at the tags and her anger flared up again, replacing the desire. Somehow the jerk had even managed to get her clothing size right. Or more likely, one of his ‘secret’ partners had supplied the items. Everything from the soft, lacy underwear and bras down to the jeans and butter-soft T-shirts.
The bastard!
He knew everything about her, even down to her taste in clothing. She had never felt so completely and utterly violated. This man had entered her personal life, gone snooping where he wasn’t welcome, and left a mark on her that she was sure she would never be able to remove.

Taking a few tremulous breaths, she managed to regain most of her senses. She needed to get out of here but she was all but certain that it was not going to be possible this time. Seth would make sure of that. He wasn’t going to let her get away that easily. So just what in the hell was she going to do?

Obviously, she needed to get her bearings straight and get the lay of the prison she was currently in. That information might come in handy later. Pulling the lacy underwear from the drawer, she felt her stomach begin to rumble, reminding her that she hadn’t eaten anything in almost twenty-four hours. She could only assume that if Seth had clothing to fit her then he would also have food in the kitchen. But first thing first. She needed to see just what chances she had of escaping while he was gone.

Tugging on a pair of jeans and a black T-shirt, she went to investigate.

She studied each room and found each room was essentially the same. Empty, impersonal. No real sign of life to them. It only reinforced the idea that this place was not one for enjoyment but its basis being more inclined to slightly other devious activities. Kind of like Seth. Well, not completely. Several times she had seen a softer side to him, a heated side as well. Best not to think of that right now, she thought. Instead, she tried the doors but they were locked of course. The windows weren’t an option either. She even went so far as to try and break one with a metal poker from the fireplace. The result had been nothing more than a few scratches on the glass and two throbbing arms.

“Just great. Just fucking great,” she grumbled, her voice sounding strained to her own ears.

As far as she could see, there was no way out. She had no idea where she was and she was trapped. The despair tried to wash over her but she swiftly cut it down. There had to be a way to escape. She would not give up that easily.

Her stomach complained again, reminding her of one of the more basic necessities of life. She could keep searching her prison but she had a feeling that it was futile. Seth had overlooked nothing this time. She was here to stay and there was nothing she could do about it at the moment. But she could take care of the hunger pains invading her stomach.

The small kitchen was fully stocked with everything a person could want from potato chips and lunch meat to the more necessary supplies like candles and matches. Opting for something simple, she made a hefty ham and cheese sandwich with a side of ruffle potato chips and an ice-cold Dr. Pepper. Eating slowly, she enjoyed every bite, every swallow. It was like Heaven.

Now that her stomach was sated, she was left with nothing to do but wait for Seth to come back and see what he had in store for her next. He said he wasn’t going to kill her and strangely enough, she believed him. After all, he’d had plenty of chances to do it. But he hadn’t. Maybe he was going to get her out of his mess alive. And if he managed to do that, then regardless of everything he’d put her through, she would be grateful for that. But until then, she was still held captive in this God forsaken cabin in the middle of nowhere.
Damn him.

Hands clasped tightly behind his back, Vance paced back and forth in his office. Where the hell was Andre? He should have returned by now. With the tap on Robert Sutton’s phone, it had been all too easy to intercept the phone call from Madison. It should have been a walk in the park to pick her up. Andre was one of the most ruthless men he had and although he had an abnormal obsession for women, he knew his orders were to bring Madison back, unharmed and untouched. Very aware of the price for disobeying, he would not go against Vance’s wishes. Not if he valued his life. And as sleazy and corrupt as that Greek bastard was, Vance had no doubt that he did.

Stopping in mid-stride, he poured himself a drink and settled himself behind the massive desk and turned on his computer, reviewing the latest message he had received. Plans were underway to take care of Jonathan effectively. By tomorrow, he would cease to be a problem. Once he was out of the way, Jonathan’s apartment would be ransacked and his computer dissected only to be rebooted with the new information implicating him in the upcoming disaster. It was perfect really. Jonathan would take the fall for creating the deadly toxin that was introduced into the water system while Vance found the cure for its lethal side effects becoming the hero. And Jonathan would not be around to say otherwise. In less a short amount of time, thousands would come to appreciate his existence and his supreme intellect. Intelligence that no one could outwit or outmatch. He knew he was the greatest and he was going to damn well make sure everyone else realized it too. Hell, he was God and nobody could touch him. They wouldn’t dare.

The private phone beside him rang shrilly and he answered it without hesitation. Andre had finally managed to get back with him. It was about fucking time.

“There was a problem with the girl,” the soft voice said on the other end.

“Seth?” Vance asked, surprised. His assistant was the last one he expected a call from concerning his ‘plans’ for Ms. Sinclair. “A problem with the girl? What girl?”

“The photographer,” Seth answered simply.

“Really? And how do you know this?” Vance questioned, mildly intrigued. It was really amazing how his assistant seemed aware of everything at all times. He might have been suspicious of him but seeing firsthand how well Seth performed other tasks, there was no doubt he could trust him.

“I decided to follow Andre, knowing how unpredictable he can be with women.”

“Yes, he is a loose cannon at times. Well, what happened?” Vance replied. Whatever it was, he was sure that Seth had taken the appropriate measures to fix the problem.

“Andre got sloppy. The girl’s friend showed up before he got there and Andre took him out, public-style. I caught up with him in the alleyway trying to rape her. I tried to stop him and he lost his temper. Things went bad. I’ve already arranged for his body to be removed.”

Stunned, Vance stilled, digesting the information. That Greek son of a bitch! He knew his orders and he fucked them up anyway. Anger flooded through him and he gripped the receiver tightly, taking deep breaths before he said anything else. Andre had been expendable after all. People got murdered all the time in New York. One more dead immigrant was nothing to lose sleep over.

“And the girl?” Madison, however, was of great concern to him. His libido was held in check for now but it wouldn’t be for long. And Madison was just the one to take care of that for him, whether she liked it or not.