Devil May Care: Boxed Set (71 page)

I felt the weight of the cell phone in my pocket. If I could just slip outside for a moment, I could place a quick call to the clubhouse and get Jawbone on the phone. It was too risky to send a text, with all the eyes in here. Besides, this would require a thorough explanation. I had to tell him about the mole, too. Security was at a premium.

Just as I started to formulate an excuse to go outside, I felt the weight of everyone’s attention shift to me. Panic seized my throat, constricting it, reducing my supply of air down to a tiny trickle.

“Did you hear me, Dominic?” Antonio said softly.

I looked at him blankly.

“I want you on the raid tonight,” he told me. “We could use a man of your…talents
.
”

There was only one word I knew that was appropriate for a situation like this.
Fuck.

Isabel

I paced in tight circles around the bedroom, gnawing at my fingernails. It felt like my body and mind were tearing apart. Powerful emotions were pulling me in every direction. I couldn’t get a handle on what was happening inside me. My brain was a hornet’s nest of conflicting thoughts.

I was deciding if I should run.

“You can’t go,” I muttered to myself out loud, fully aware of how crazy it sounded to be talking to myself in an empty room. “Where would you even run to? Don’t be an idiot. You don’t know how to do anything, how to get away. The Capparellis have people everywhere. Dominic will know the second you hit the street that you’re trying to escape. Do you really think he’d just let you take off without so much as a glance back?”

I twisted on my heel and started moving in the opposite direction. “You have to go. Don’t you remember what Frank told you? ‘Stand up for yourself, Isabel.’ You know damn well that, if Dominic is here, you aren’t going to be to do anything like that. You’ll be his forever. You might not get another chance like this. You have to.”

I stopped in my tracks and looked at the open window. A fire escape snaked downwards from it, descending to the back alley below. Even if the Capparellis did have eyes on this place, it was doubtful that they’d notice me sneaking out the back.

“No, don’t be ridiculous,” I said, resuming my pacing. “You’re helpless. You’re a victim. You always have been and always will be. That’s just what you are, Isabel. Get used to it and stop trying to be something you’re not. That’s going to get you killed. The people here are too dangerous to test like that. It doesn’t take much to get hurt. Remember Caroline? Yeah, of course you do,” I scolded myself as the harsh memory of her sticky sobs came hurtling back to the forefront of my mind’s eye. “You remember her very well. All she did was whisper. What do you think would happen if you ran?”

I changed direction again, back to clockwise circuits around the mattress. “Stop being such a coward! Stand up, stand up, stand up! And then fucking run, you dumb idiot!
Run!
There won’t be another chance this good to hit the pavement and just keep going. Get out of the city, out of the state. Hell, get out of the country, if you can find a way. The only rule is keep moving. They won’t be able to catch up if I have a head start.”

I stopped in place once more and looked at the closet. A few of Dominic’s shirts hung there. I walked slowly over to them and took the sleeve of one in my hand. Bringing it to my face, I inhaled deeply. His scent filled my nostrils. It was spicy, musky, intoxicating. If I closed my eyes, I could picture him in front of me, that broad chest filling up my entire field of vision, dominating me without lifting a finger.

It felt almost like my body was betraying me by how quickly it had become addicted to the thought of him. And not just the thought, but his presence, his touch. Even now, when he was God only knew where doing God only knew what, his smell was enough to bring me to my knees. The urge to submit to him utterly and completely was powerful.

And hadn’t I promised him that much? Didn’t I swear to obey his every word? He’d said for me to stay put. The thought of disobeying him frightened me. I could just picture his wrath, dark and purple, stealing over his face. I didn’t know what he was capable of doing to me.

But the memory of the ice kept resurfacing, unheeded. He’d cooled me down, swept my body with a touch gentler than I would have ever thought possible. There was a degree of caring in his touch that surprised me. It was impossible to fake that kind of thing. At least, I believed it was. Somewhere below that grizzled exterior was a man with a serious hold on me. It was more than just dominance. It was a connection. I didn’t understand it or know how it had happened, but it was there, whether I liked it or not.

I looked out the window again. The world beckoned. A life beyond the shallow husk of what I’d known. It had been a series of subjugations from the second I was born until now. One after the other, an unbroken chain of “Come here, Isabel,” and “Do this, Isabel,” and “Don’t even think about doing that.” For once, wouldn’t it be nice to do what I wanted? To stand, walk, run, however and whenever I pleased?

I’d go to Mexico. With my dark hair, I could blend in there. It wouldn’t take me long to get enough of a tan to pass off as a local. As long as it was away from here, then I could make it work. I just had to leave. Now.

Before I could stop myself, I shrugged on the shirt of Dominic’s I held in my hand. I buttoned it up. It was long enough to serve as a dress. Besides, I had no other clothing. This would have to do.

Three quick steps and I was at the window. I put my hands on the windowsill and paused just long enough to take a deep breath. Then I was out, leaping through the opening and going down the fire escape.

I hoped I’d made the right decision.

Dominic

My heart pounded like a drum in my chest. Somehow, I found the presence of mind to nod and say, “Got it, boss.”

He wanted me on the raid. Fucking hell. This wouldn’t be good.

Antonio’s phone rang where it sat on the table. He frowned as he looked at the caller ID. “I’ll be right back,” he announced, and he stepped outside, phone in hand. Other men lit fresh cigarettes or checked their own cell phones.

“I gotta go take a piss,” I mumbled to nobody in particular. Then I stood and followed Antonio out of the room before anyone could say anything to stop me.

I stepped into a long hallway. Antonio was nowhere to be seen. Looking both ways, I decided to head left. I walked a few dozen yards. It hooked to the right and I kept walking, looking for somewhere I could duck down to call Jawbone. I came to a dead end and cursed. This would have to do.

Wedging myself into the corner as well as I could, I pulled out my phone and began tapping out Jaw’s number on the keypad as quickly as my fingers would allow. I hit the dial button and held it to my ear. “C’mon, c’mon, you bastard,” I muttered into the mouthpiece as it rang.

“Hello?” came his quiet voice.

“Jaw,” I began, talking rapidly, “listen closely. I don’t have much time.”

“Go,” he ordered.

“They know everything. They know about the weapons, the Yakuza, the trade. They fucking know, Jaw!”

“Shit!” he swore. I heard the sound of something breaking on his end of the line. If I were a betting man, my money would be that he’d thrown the ashtray off his desk. “How the fuck did they find out?”

“There’s a rat in the clubhouse,” I hissed urgently. “We need to abort that shit ASAP, smoke him out, and plug the hole. You gotta call off the deal.”

There was a long pause. “We can’t do that,” he said finally.

“Are you not hearing me? They know everything! This is a suicide mission!”

“It’s already in motion. We can’t turn back now. The weapons are here and they’re hot. The longer we hold onto them, the more we expose ourselves to some bad shit. Rivals of the Yakuza, the feds…the list goes on and on. No, we have to do the swap.”

“I don’t think you’re listening,” I argued. “If you bring that shit, it will blow up in our faces, literally and figuratively.”

“Like I said, Dom, we don’t have a choice.”

I screamed silent curses. Why was he being so fucking stubborn? Didn’t he see that this was jeopardizing everything? We needed to pull back and regroup, not charge blindly into a massacre.

“Jawbone, just listen for one second—”

“No,” he interrupted, “it doesn’t matter. We’re moving forward with the plan. We’re just going to have to have an ace in the hole.”

“What fucking ace do we have?” I screeched.

I could hear Jawbone humming to himself as he thought. His fingers snapped. “Gordo. I’ll have him lead a counterraid. Wait until the Capparellis step out, then he’ll swoop in and settle the issue before it gets out of hand.”

“Jaw, I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” I said. I didn’t like that shit one bit. There were too many variables. I couldn’t predict what the outcome of the fight would be. Even though I was going to be on the Capparelli side of the raid, I didn’t know the details yet and I didn’t know if I’d have a chance to communicate them to Jawbone and Gordo before it was too late. We had all our eggs in one basket, and Antonio was gunning headlong for it.

“You’re gonna have to deal with it. Be safe, Dom.” The line went dead.

Isabel

I was going down the street as fast as I could without drawing unnecessary attention. I kept my head down and my footsteps quick, one after the other, focusing only on the next step.

My plan was to make it to the bus station. I could beg the cashier at the ticket counter for some help with the fare, or, if worse came to worse, I’d just try to sneak my way on. For right now, it didn’t make a difference where I went, as long as it was somewhere away from the city.

The sky was gray and foreboding. I snuck a glance overhead. It always struck me as funny how the weather seemed to reflect what I was feeling. Gray day, gray sky. A perfect fucking match.

I kept moving. That was the only way to keep the thoughts at bay. If I paused for even a second, I didn’t think I’d ever get started again. Dominic’s voice was ringing in the back of my head.
Stay put, Isabel. You’re mine.
I felt a visceral twinge every time I closed my eyes and pictured him, his hand resting on my throat, as he looked at me and slid his fingers down between my legs. I could sense myself growing wet at the mere thought.

What was I leaving behind? An unbelievable amount of pain and misery, that was for certain. If I never saw my father’s restaurant ever again, if I never heard the name Capparelli, that would be just fine with me. Preferable, even. There was nothing but darkness and sadness associated with the places where I’d spent the vast majority of my unfortunate life.

But for the first time since I could remember, there was something in that life that might just be worthwhile. What a twisted way for me to stumble into it. A man bought me from an auction block, and I fell for him? That couldn’t be real. The world didn’t work that way. And yet, it had worked that way. I’d been purchased like a stock animal, like a horse being sent off to the glue factory, and instead of being fed through the machinery of whatever torture might have been waiting for me in another scenario, I tumbled straight into the arms of a walking, talking, sexy as hell enigma. One with a name that could, all by itself, send heat racing through my thighs and a chill down my spine.

I reached a crosswalk. The blinking red hand told me to stay in place as cars whizzed past in front of me. All these people had such normal lives. They were accountants and dentists, housewives, children headed off to school, and none of them had ever even heard of something like a sex slave auction, much less been aware that it took place right under their noses. What a thing it was to be so blissfully ignorant. I’d never had that kind of luck.

Too impatient to stand still and wait for the signal to change, I decided to cross to the other side of the street.
Keep moving, keep moving
—that was the mantra. Let my legs work and my brain stay silent. I hurried across the street, barely glancing to make sure that no one had chosen to barrel through the red light and mow me down. Although, to be fair, that might not have been the worst thing in the world.

There was a white van idling on the corner. I walked in front of it and turned my attention to the sidewalk unfolding ahead of me. I was three or four blocks away from the bus station.
Mexico, here I come,
I thought to myself.

That was when the hands grabbed me.

The door to the van slid open as four men leaped out of the vehicle towards me, picking me up and covering my mouth to stop me from screaming. I thrashed wildly like a trapped animal, but I never had a chance.

“No, no!” I screamed when they had thrown me on the floor of the van and shut the door. I felt a lurch as the driver pressed hard on the gas, sending it careening down the street, straight through the red light. Horns blared and angry drivers protested, but the van didn’t stop. We kept on moving.

In the back, I was throwing elbows and knees around like flails. I connected with the temple of one of the men. He cursed and threw all his weight against my leg, trapping it against the floor. The other three did the same.

Behind me, someone stuffed a rag in my mouth to silence me. The man holding my right arm shoved up the sleeve of the shirt of Dominic’s that I’d stolen and yanked my wrist towards him so that the underside of my arm was exposed.

“Shh,” said a voice that was sickeningly familiar. Angela emerged from the back row with a glistening needle in her hand. “Don’t worry, hon.” She smiled coldly. “Everything is going to be just fine.” She jabbed the needle into one of the green veins wending along the crook of my elbow. Sleep slugged through me immediately. I fought it hard. But my body could only hold out for a few seconds.

The last thing I saw before I blacked out was Angela’s face. “It will all be over soon,” she told me. “Very soon.”