KIDNAPPED, A Romantic Suspense Novel (14 page)

The same anger he felt then, overwhelmed him again. No kid should have to be that alone, that ignored by the world. Even when his own father lost himself in his job on the police force, he and his brother still had their grandmother there for them. Never once did they feel abandoned.

Setting Samantha away from him, he stood to poke at the logs in the fire. They sparked, cracked and flamed again. He leaned his arm on the mantel, pressing his forehead against his arm. Staring into the flames, he thought about how he’d treated Nicky.

When his chance came along to give someone that same feeling of belonging, that same safety factor he’d gotten from his grandmother, what had he done? Nothing.

Guilt welled up inside him. He growled with frustration. “You’re right. I should have gotten him out of there the first day.”

A soft hand settled on his shoulder. He looked around at her.

The censure was gone from her. Understanding and empathy filled her eyes, but no sign of pity.

“I shouldn’t have come down so hard on you. If his life is in that much danger, perhaps your plan is the best. We find a way to put the Kreshins away so they can’t ever hurt him. The question is, where do we go from here?”

He leaned his back against the mantel. A loose hair hung over her shoulder. He tucked it behind her ear, letting his fingers caress her cheek. “You’re amazing. I pulled you into this mess, without thinking it would endanger you as much as Nicky and me. By all rights you should hate me. Instead, here you make my problem
our
problem. Why?”

She glanced at the small boy in the bed. “Because he needs us both. And because you need my help.”

“I can’t ask you to help me more than you have, Samantha. I think the best plan is to find a safe place for you and Nicky, then go after the Kreshnins myself.”

“You do everything alone, don’t you?”

“In my line of work it’s best not to trust too many people with your secrets. Trust the wrong person and you wind up dead.”

“This time you don’t have to do it alone.”

Tenderness filled her voice, tempting him to tell her more—to explain this gnawing fear that his job would cost him more than he’d ever thought before—her and Nicky. This wasn’t the time or place to confess his inner demons. Their future was tenuous at best. Right now, he could think of something he’d much rather share with her than the burden of his soul.

His hand slid over her cheek and around her neck to grip the back of her head. He pulled her to him, his lips pressing against hers in the softest of kisses.

Just like paper in fire, it was sudden combustion. His lungs ached with lack of air. Her lips parted, and his tongue slid in to claim the taste of her. She wrapped her arms around him. He gripped her hair tight in one fist, reaching down the other hand to cup her bottom. Then the other joined it. He lifted her, pressing her into his now aching erection.

“Mmm,” she moaned against him.

He released her lips, trailing kisses against the hot flesh of her exposed neck. At the juncture of her shoulder and neck he stopped to suck softly on the pulse point throbbing there. She lifted one leg to wind it around his hips and thigh, pressing so close he could feel her heat through their clothes.

“Sami, now honey, please.”

“Mmm, yes, oh god yes.”

Neither one wanted to break their embrace. He edged her backward to the bedroom door. Managing to maneuver them both into the bedroom, he kicked the door closed behind them.

When the door banged, they froze.

Over the pounding of blood in his ears, Jake strained to hear any movement in the cabin’s main room. Releasing her, he eased the door open enough to peek at the bed. Nicky hadn’t budged an inch. When he closed the door this time, he made sure it clicked softly.

“Is he still asleep?” Samantha whispered behind him.

He grinned at her. “Snug as a bug.

A giggle escaped her, followed by a sudden redness to her face. “I’ve never…done…Maybe,” she mumbled, moving away from him.

With more patience than he felt, he leaned against the door, hands behind him. “Samantha?”

She stopped her retreat. “Jake?”

“I want you so much, I may just die from it, but…” He waited for his words to sink in. “This has to be what you want, too.”

Sami stared across the small chasm of the room. There, pressed against the exit stood the man of her secret fantasies. His lean body, accented by his skintight jeans, slouched in his bad boy stance sent her heart racing a little faster. Her eyes traveled to his face, over the lips she knew would set her on fire, to the eyes that spoke of his need and promised her a passion she hadn’t felt in years, if ever. Her body flushed with anticipation. Heat surged through her breasts, both nipples drawing taut in response to the primal need of a woman for her man. Liquid fire settled in the juncture of her thighs.

And he wanted her so much, he just might die from it.

For the first time in her life she knew the true power of a woman. Not breaking eye contact with those promises, she unzipped her jeans, shoving them over her hips, down her thighs, stepping out of them.

“Jake.” She reached a hand out to him.

He descended on her like a mid-western tornado. He let his hands pull her close at the same time stripping her remaining clothes. Sami worked just as feverishly to reveal the feel of his skin against her own. A deep moan filled the room when her hand encircled him.

“Yes, sweetheart. Mmm…just like that.”

The need in his voice filled her with confidence. She let her hands stroke him. The control lay entirely with her. Even as he moved her toward the bed, she felt him waiting for her directions. When he handed her the foil pack, she knew he still left the decision in her corner.

She pulled away, slowly stretching the latex condom on him. Where he had gotten it from, she didn’t want to ask. The fact he thought to protect her fed her desire for him.

She cupped his face. “I need you, Jake. Now!” She whispered against his lips, as they landed on the bed.

With little grace, he surged deep inside her. “Sami…you feel…so good,” he murmured between deep, soul wrenching kisses.

“Been…so…long,” she murmured, thrusting to meet his hips as he drove them further and further back on the bed.

“Yes, baby.” With a gentle tug he bit her lip.

She reached behind him, cupping his buttocks to pull him in tighter. Her legs wrapped around him, riding him as he drove deeper. “Mmm, yes Jake, please.”

“Baby, now, please now.” He reached between them, his fingers finding her and stroking her own desire further.

Sami’s body arched, her head pressed into the pillows, every muscle tightening as her orgasm shot through her. “Jake!”

He smothered her moan with his mouth, claiming it for his own as his release shot through him.

It took eons for him come back to reality after his explosion. He realized he squished her into the mattress.

Carefully, he rolled to the side, pulling her up against him. He pushed the wet tendrils of dark hair off her face, bending to kiss her forehead. “I’m sorry it didn’t last longer, sweetheart.”

She shushed him with a finger to his lips. “I would’ve died if it had.”

A rumble sounded in his chest. Lord the woman made him laugh more than anyone had in a long time. “So would I.”

He held her in the waning afternoon light, his hand stroking her passion flushed skin. A peaceful contentment settled over him. If he could he’d stay like this with her forever.

“How are you going to go after the Kreshnins?” Her soft words floated through the sensual tide around them, breaking the spell and bringing them back to reality.

“That’s a good question. I have a contact in the DA’s office I could get in touch with. The local police department’s leak limits how much I can depend on their help.” He sighed in exasperation. “I really want to nail whoever set up the captain yesterday. The electric chair is too tame for what they deserve.”

“Did he have family?”

Jake nodded. “A wife, a son in college and a daughter in high school. He took me under his wing when I got my first undercover assignment with the Bureau and has supported me ever since.” He pinched the bridge of his nose to stop the stinging in his eyes. “Tom was a good friend as much as he was a boss.”

“I’m sorry.” She wrapped her arms around him. “Watching him go down like that, yesterday. It was so...so awful to see. It had to be even harder for you.”

He pressed his lips to Samantha’s hair. Her arms wrapped so tight around him, it felt like she wanted to protect him from the pain and grief over losing his friend.

When was the last time someone had tried to comfort him? Years? With all the pain she’d had in her life, how did she have anything left to give him, or Nicky?

“Tell me about your daughter. What was her name?”

“Aimee.”

Samantha tensed in his arms. He ran his hand down her arm and up her back until she relaxed again.

“What was she like?”

“Little. That’s the first thing anyone said about her when they met her. She looked just like a little china doll. She was always so petite. She never could gain enough weight, even as a baby.”

“Did she look like you?”

“She had my hair, and nose. But she had these big brown eyes, like her dad. And a very good sense of humor. No matter how bad her disease or the treatments seemed to get—blood tests, radiation, chemo—she always tried to make her care-givers laugh.”

A shudder ran through her.

With an open palm he softly stroked her back. “Tell me about her last day.”

“She was so frail by then, lying in her bed at home. Michael, her father, wanted her to go to the hospital. But I’d promised her she could stay in her bed with her favorite animals around her, and the big clouds I’d painted on her walls so she could feel like she was outside again. He wouldn’t listen to me. Against both our wishes he called the ambulance and whisked her away. I had to sit in the cold hospital room holding her hand while she gasped for every breath. In the one thing she ever asked of me, to die at home, I failed her.”

The words came out in one big rush, as if she’d dammed them behind a wall that finally burst open.

Samantha’s body shuddered against him. “Her last words to me were it’s okay, Mommy.” She hiccuped a harsh laugh. “She was the one dying and she wanted to make me feel better for disappointing her.”

Hot tears fell onto his chest. Jake pulled her closer, holding her while she cried.

“I miss her so much,” she said after a few minutes. “Funny, I should be talking to you about her last day. I haven’t talked about it to anyone. Not once since that day four years ago.”

“Thank you.”

Sami leaned up on her elbow to study him in the fading evening light. “For what?”

“For trusting me with your memory of her. It must be painful.

“Not as painful as I might’ve thought. Maybe the old adage is right. Time heals.”

He gazed into her clear green eyes, his body stirring to life again. He gripped her hair in his hands, bringing her to him once more. He sampled her mouth, pulling first on her lower lip, then tugging on the upper one. His tongue lightly stroking them. She parted hers, offering him more. Still he nibbled, licked, sucked; feeding in his desire to taste and savor the essence of her.

A sound came through the door.

“Sami?” They both heard Nicky call her.

With great self-control, Jake released her.

Samantha rose off the bed. The early evening sun cast a golden glow over her creamy sex dampened flesh. She was the picture of feminity. He started to get up with her, she pushed him down. “You rest, I’ll go to him. Besides I need to look at his wounds.”

He watched her wiggle into her jeans. The urge to pull them off her washed over him. He didn’t know why she made him want to touch her, kiss her, hold her, but if he wasn’t careful he could get very used to having her around.

She slipped out the door, sending him a shy smile as she closed it behind her.

God, he wanted to trust her. It had been such a long time since he felt this close to someone, maybe the very first time since his mother died. It felt good these past two days having someone to share the load. But she was here under duress. How could he trust her?

Going against the Kreshnins alone was crazy. Even he knew that. If there were two of them, maybe they could divide and conquer. But how to keep her safe and still put the Kreshnins out of commission?

He closed his eyes, flopping one arm over them. Contemplating letting her help him without some other sort of back up, was even crazier. The loss of her daughter and abandonment by her husband had hurt her deep inside, but if he let her stay with him, the danger wouldn’t just be emotional. Could he allow her to put her life on the line?

The light slowly faded, casting shadows throughout the room. Jake listened to the noises of Samantha and Nicky in the other room. He also listened to the quiet outside his window. The wind rustling the few leaves left on the trees.

Then the quiet changed.

It came so silently, he almost missed the sound of the snow and gravel crunching under the tires.

Jake surged off the bed, standing to the side of the window in time to see the gray vehicle pull up beside the house. Two men stepped out.

CHAPTER EIGHT

The bedroom door crashed open behind Sami. Jake stood in the threshold struggling to pull up his jeans, his gun in his hand. “Get down, Samantha.”

“Why? What’s going on?” She looked from him to the window, recognizing the two figures approaching the porch. “Oh God, what are
they
doing here?” She ran to the front door. She had to stop them before bullets started flying.

“Samantha, get down!” Jake stepped between the cabin entrance and where Nicky sat on the bed.

The instant Sami opened the door she was pulled into the arms of her brother, Luke. The two of them were shoved to the side, as Matt pushed his way into the cabin. She could only stare in horror as her older brother took a police stance with his weapon drawn with both hands. Her eyes followed his line of site to where Jake, looking sexy in his half-zipped jeans, naked chest and bare feet, took a similar position.