Bad Romance (17 page)

But…

We just stared at one another for far too long. He knew I’d figured it out. I swallowed hard and tried to regain my balance as he pulled me even rougher for show when Marcus snapped his fingers. We headed towards an elevator bank and I tried to look around. It was a whole lot of black marble, black leather, and a huge security guard behind a bank of televisions keeping an eye on the property. He gave me a sharp glance and I quickly averted my gaze. We were in the elevator for too long. Going up, up. I mean, the guy used a key to unlock the top floor button. While we travelled, Marcus moved in close to me. I tried not to look. I swear I didn’t
want to instigate the man, but—

“That was quite a show you put on with my son. You know, when he was at my side we used to share all our women.” I felt his vile, slimy hand against my lower back. “I’m pretty sure he’d get turned on as fuck watching your hot little mouth suck my cock.”

Ding.

My heart was like a jackhammer in my chest and I could feel the ache of tears all the way to my throat. I would not cry and give this man power over me.

The doors slipped open and the man holding me yanked me forward into a huge foyer of white marble. My bare feet padded on the ground. It was so empty and mausoleum-like. The man holding me pulled me faster. I dared a glance behind me and there was Marcus hot on our heels. I whimpered and looked up at the man pulling me. I was so hoping I wasn’t wrong about this man. If I was right, he was undercover and I was smart enough to not blow it for him. I let my tears free as I watched his jaw muscles work. He was pissed. Todd did that when he was pissed and I saw it all. He was Todd’s father.

I wanted so bad to breathe a sigh of relief and collapse against him. But I played up my struggle until he tossed me into a room with the lights off. My legs tangled and I hit the ground. I was in total darkness and I could hear the two men shouting at each other from the other side of the door. Sitting on my butt, I hugged my legs and got in the smallest possible ball to make sure no one could see me if they did storm my room. My body broke out in revolted shivers when I thought of Dax’s father trying to shove his greasy member in my mouth.

The shouting faded out and then doors were slammed and I was alone.

I breathed out that sigh of relief and crawled through the room until I found the wall. I felt around for a switch and flicked it. The room illuminated in a dull glow. I turned around and sucked in my breath. The room was all white. The bed was huge and was raised up high. It had a white fabric headboard and was against a wall of windows. Turning my head to the side, I saw a tiny remote device on the low dresser that reached to about my hip. I scrolled through options until I got to the curtains and with a low hum they opened up to display the city of Los Angeles before me. I even had a view of the Hollywood sign.

“Holy shit!”

I walked over to the wall of glass and looked over the moving city below. They were totally aimless. Moving about and selfishly assuming all was right with the world. I was making silent wishes to the Powers that Be to help me. Hoping that that man who looked very much like Todd was in fact going to keep Marcus’s gross body away from me.

Please find me, Dax.

Chapter Seventeen

Dax

“What the fuck is taking so long?”

I could hear Todd behind me, pacing. I knew I was being a douchecanoe, but I didn’t fucking care. My sadist fuck of a father had my girl. On top of that we had just called away her only hope of protection.

Todd’s father.

He’d assured us last night—too late for my liking—on the phone that Clara would be looked after. Nothing was going to happen to her. Yeah, how was anyone going to assure that when he was fucking on his way over here with us?

A car door shutting drew both our attention and we waited before Paul came striding in the door looking like an older version of his son. If Clara didn’t put two and two together then she wasn’t as clever as I thought she was.

He could see the look of pure rage on my face and held up a hand.

“Son, keep it down. She knows. I dropped her a few hints when we were in the car. I could see her potential for a meltdown and had to do something. She was about to blow, Dax.”

I clenched my fists at my sides and had to close my eyes. My chest was on fire and the ache was pure fucking agony. The one thing I wanted more than anything in the fucking world was now at risk—because of me. I felt strong hands squeeze my shoulder and I looked back at Paul.

“She’s good. I locked her in the guest suite. Literally, only me and one other guard has the code and he’s part of my team. He ain’t getting in. Marcus did that shit on purpose so not everyone had every code. He was pretty fucking pissed, though.” He walked away from me and into the kitchen. Todd and I followed. Paul pulled a beer from the fridge and tossed it my way. “Fucking let it go. I got this. You really think I’m going to let anything happen to your girl? Give me and my team some fucking credit. I’ve been with that fuck since we got you out.” I popped the top and took a long swig.

Todd was looking between us both and took a very cautious seat at the table in the corner. “So, what’s the plan, Dad?”

It was weird seeing Todd call Paul dad. They were rarely around one another but the bond was unfuckingbreakable. Todd told me his mother bolted when he was ten, unable to handle Paul’s job, or a kid, or anything in the adult sphere. When Paul was away, which was most of the time, Todd’s aunt took care of us. She was nice, everything a mother should be. Then she’d died of cancer last year. Beat both of us the fuck up.

Paul leaned back against the counter and chugged down that beer like it was the nectar of the fucking gods.

“We’ve actually had more than enough to take him down for over a year now. The thing is, one of the big time Mexican cartel bosses just got off. There were some threats on jurors and a few witnesses were tracked down in witness protection.” He shrugged. “We were being cautious.”

He paused and pinned me with that fucking stare Todd did when he was all ready to drop some serious bomb on me. “We knew he was watching you. I figured we were safe—all of you were safe so long as my team was in with him. I had no fucking clue he would take Clara. Fuck.” He stabbed his fingers through his hair and leaned his head down. Fuck. I’d never seen this guy beat himself up before. He was always so strong, arrogant, and alpha fucking male to the max. To see him taken down a few notches—it did something to the pit of my stomach. I wanted to fucking vomit. “I figured he would just come for you. He’s never let it go. He wants to watch you suffer. When he talked to Clara in the elevator, I knew…” He trailed off. Oh, fuck no!

I rose to my feet so fast the chair clattered to the floor behind me. “What the fuck did he do?”

Paul was in front of me, his hands on my shoulders and kneading them like I dig into Clara’s ass when she’s riding me. “Listen. He implied a few things, said you both shared.”

“Not fucking willingly! Every fucking chick I brought home he would seduce and fuck in front of me just to prove he could. They loved it. Clara—” I shoved away from Paul and turned, punching the wall one, two, three, four—hole. I scrubbed my hands down my face.

“
FUCK!” I screamed into my hands. When I turned back to Paul he looked pained and helpless. “With Clara it will be rape, Paul. She won’t let him just have her like the others. She’s not like that.” My voice cracked
on a few words and Paul nodded.

“I swear I won’t let that happen to her. If I have to blow the whole job and take him down—I will. I’ve dealt with a lot of bullshit with this sick fuck. I won’t let Clara end up like you.”

I nodded and looked away. I took another swig of my beer as I gazed out my kitchen window which faced her now empty house. Shannon hadn’t come home yet and that was a good thing. How the fuck was I supposed to explain to her best friend how I let Clara
walk off with a fucking madman?

“So what’s the plan?” Taking another swig, I didn’t look away from her house. I think I was half expecting to see her pass by one of the windows and give me that blushing smirk.

“Well, you’re going to go to the drop. It is a weapons drop. He’s selling to some big guys out of Argentina whose boss is based in L.A. What they don’t know is a member of my team is in with them. I had him manipulate the drop at that location so we could not only drop Marcus but get Clara back in one piece. I have men inside that will keep her safe. Todd, you’ll be going in for her on the all clear. Dax will be busy at the docks and I can’t have her risked inside any more than she already is. The other right hand is a fuck. He was one of your main tormentors. He doesn’t know the keycode but I don’t put it past him to be able to torture it out of one of my guys.”

I turned. Paul blew out a breath and pulled me into a tight hug. He was the closest I had to a proper father. Todd a brother. “She’ll be okay. If she’s not you can skin my fucking ass.”

I clapped him on the back. “I’m holding you to that.”

“
We have a week. Sit tight and I’ll send Todd updates to his disposable. Here.” He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a disposable phone. “Take this. I’ll send texts to both so you are u
p to date if anything changes.”

I took the phone and Paul turned to leave. “Oh. One more thing. Dax, why the fucking video?”

I went tight and hot all over. Shame was a living thing inside my fucking belly and I couldn’t make eye contact. “I was fucking stupid.”

“Got that right. Let’s not blow it. I like Clara. She’s strong but not enough to deal with you and your father.”

I could only nod as he turned and left. Todd came up behind me. “Want to get really fucking drunk?”

I smirked, “Yeah.”

Any fucking distraction would be good.

***

Clara

I’d been left alone for most of the night and next day. I found that I was totally okay with that. Around noon that mysterious man showed up with lunch, showed me how to use the television and that a small tablet device in the bedside table worked with an Amazon Kindle account and I could have at it. Although I didn’t touch the tablet, I allowed myself to binge on a few Netflix things I was behind on. At around three in the afternoon someone fussed with my knob. Then, that voice dripped through the door.

“Answer the door, little Clara.” Marcus.

My heartbeat pitched up a few notches and I curled up in bed and threw the sheets over me. Like that was going to stop the demon from opening the door and doing vile things to me. His misleading soothing tones kept trying to coax me out. “Little girl. I want to show you something. I have food, wine, all kinds of things. Not to mention I need to wet my dick in young pussy. It’s been a whole twenty-four hours.” He paused. “I figured since you were here, and you liked to wet my son’s dick. I’m much bigger than him.”

His voice was like sludge all over my body. I felt like I needed a shower. Throwing the sheets off me, I ran to the bathroom and locked the door. I could hear pounding, then I flicked on the shower. It had about three different points of impact so I successfully drowned out the asshole.

I didn’t shower.

I waited out the beast until I was totally sure that he was gone. The water had gone cold. No more steam filled the room when I shut it off and went back out and gazed at the city. Night was coming fast now. I’d only been in this place for one day and I had no clue how I was going to survive a week. Maybe that man would visit me. It was an easy comfort that he resembled Todd and didn’t treat me like a piece of ass, or something to horribly violate. He had this softness in those aqua hues and I wanted to run to him and beg him to comfort me. If he was Todd’s father, though, I knew that he couldn’t blow his cover.

As splashes of orange, pink, purple, and blue slashed over the horizon, my door slipped open and I turned to face the man I believed to be Todd’s father. He shut the door behind him and came over slowly. It was like he was walking towards a feral animal. I wasn’t crazy. I barely fought when I was taken. Maybe I had that crazy captive look to me that screamed I was about to break any minute. I felt like I was going to break any minute. Being locked up wasn’t my thing. Yes, I could spend hours in a Starbucks with headphones on, locked away with my studying or reading. But I was still in a crowd with the white noise of society.

The man slipped up next to me, his arms behind his back, keeping that nice bubble of space between us. I personally would’ve loved a hug.

“You know?”

My gaze turned from the beautiful landscape of Los Angeles at dusk and looked up at him. I sucked in my bottom lip and felt that ache in my throat as I nodded. He reached out a hand, balled his fist before he was about to touch me, then dropped his hand.

“
Please
─” I whimpered.

His eyes went wide and he pulled me into a hug and I snapped. I gripped the front of his shirt and screamed against his chest as I cried. I let it all out. Slammed against his powerful pecks and just vented out. After what seemed like a goo
d hour, but I knew was really minutes, he cupped my cheeks and forced me to look up at him.