Wicked Ties (Steele Security Series) (23 page)

She was really leaving the safe haven she’d found in Bull’s home. 
Safe in his arms.

Chaise lifted up on her tiptoes and wrapped her arms around his neck.  His arms wrapped around her waist but the look on his face remained pensive.  Covering his mouth with hers, she kissed him like she would never see him again.  She poured all of her heart, all of her love
, and all of her feelings into the kiss, willing him to feel it and return it to her.

When she pulled away from him, the only sign that the kiss had affected him was the furrow
in his brow.  Not knowing how to take that, she picked up her suitcase and turned to follow Noah and Brianna out the front door. 

Bull walked them out and watched them drive away.  When they were out of sight, he walked back in his house,
wandered around, and recalled all the moments he’d spent with Chaise.  He walked to the bedroom and stared at the bed.  He still smelled her sweet perfume scent, heard the echoes of her moans of pleasure at his hand, and felt the love she had given him.  Walking back to the den, he punched a hole in the sheetrock wall.

Three days.  Chaise hadn’t seen Bull in three days and she was going mad.  She’d tried
to ask Noah and Brianna about him in a round about way, but neither of them gave her any real information about him.  She had a suspicion they were both acting and avoiding telling her what they knew she wanted to know.  He hadn’t called or come by to see her and she was miserable.  All they would tell her was that Noah had sent him off on an assignment as a security escort for some corporate CEO. 

Noah had to go into the downtown office of Steele Security for the day and Brianna had hotel business to attend to for her father.  Chaise couldn’t stand being cooped up in the house any longer.  She grabbed her keys and left a note on the kitchen counter letting them know she had gone out.

Just getting out and driving around in the warm, Miami air made her feel better.  She had been avoiding going back to the luxury condominium Viboro Distributing had set her up with but decided she couldn’t put it off any longer.  She had to pack the rest of her belongings and start looking for her own place.  She already felt like a third wheel in the home of the newlyweds.

“Hi, Paul,” she called to the security guard as she pulled up to the gate.

“Hello, Miss Steele!  Long time, no see,” he smiled warmly.  “What brings you back here?”

“I have some personal belongings left in the condo, Paul.  I just need to run up and finish packing.  Can I drop my keys off with you when I’m finished?”

“Sure thing,” he replied genially as he opened the gate for her.  “Let me know if you need any help with anything at all.”

“Thank you!  I appreciate that,” she replied as she pulled through the gate.

Chaise had been in the condo for almost an hour, packing her clothes and various other items, when the hairs on the back of her neck suddenly stood at attention.  She felt the electricity in the air change and knew she wasn’t alone.  Turning quickly to look behind her, she shrieked as she took a few steps back. 

“What are you doing here?” she demanded, fear and anger mixed in her voice.

“I’m here for you.  What else?” the suave, Spanish accent answered.

“They arrested you.  How did you get out?” Chaise asked.

“It’s good to have many different kinds of friends, Miss Steele,” he answered.

“Ricardo, you need to leave right now.  The security guard knows I’m here and he will be here to check on me any minute now,” she lied.

Ricardo smiled knowingly, “I don’t think so, Chaise.  You see, Chaise, Paul works for me.  He called me the instant you showed up here.”

Chaise turned and ran
toward the door, leaving her packed suitcases behind.  As she reached for the doorknob, two very large, very scary men grabbed her from behind.  One of the men grabbed her upper arm and squeezed, tightening his grip on her and leaving finger-shaped bruises in his wake.  She twisted and turned, trying to break his hold, but that only made her arm hurt worse.

“I am going to allow you to leave here for one reason only.  I want the flash drive with all the information you gathered from
Viboro and you’re going to bring it to me,” Ricardo explained.

“Why would I do that?” Chaise asked.

Ricardo pinned her with a look of pure evil in his eyes, “Because I have Aura.  If you don’t show up, I will kill her and feed her body to the sharks.  Then, I will do the same to everyone else you know.  No one will be safe.”

Chaise believed him.

“You will be followed.  If you tell anyone else, or if anyone follows you…well, you know what will happen. Don’t you, Chaise?”

“Yes,” she replied meekly.

“Good girl,” he replied sardonically, as though he were praising as dog.  “Come back here when you have it.”

Ricardo and his men watched her leave.  She refused to turn her back to them again as she backed out of the apartment. 

“You know she’ll go get her brother and his team,” one of the men said to Ricardo.

“I’m counting on it,” Ricardo answered.

Chaise ran all the way to her car and shot Paul a dirty look as she tore out of the parking area.  He had the audacity to smile and wave at her as she drove away.  Taking a page from Bull’s playbook, she flung her hand out of the window and gave Paul the middle finger salute.

Grabbing her cell phone from her purse, she called Aura and Ana’s mother first.  When Gabriela answered the phone, Chaise immediately knew Ricardo had told the truth.  “Chaise!  Chaise!  Where is Aura?  Where is my daughter?”

“Ricardo Cordova has her, Gabriela.  I will get her back.  I know what he wants,” Chaise explained.

After several minutes of trying to console the frantic woman, Chaise disconnected and immediately called Noah.

“Noah, do you have my flash drive?  The one with all the evidence against the Cordovas on it?” Chaise asked.

“No, John took it as evidence.  Why?” Noah asked suspiciously.

“Are the files from it still on the computer?”

“Yes.  What’s going on, Chaise?”

“I need a copy of it.  If I bring a flash drive, can you copy the files for me?” she asked, avoiding his question.

“Sure, come on by,” Noah answered.

After an hour of Noah’s brand of interrogation tactics, Chaise was finally leaving the Steele Security building with the data-packed flash drive.  She was a nervous wreck just thinking about going back to that condo alone.   

Chaise sat in her car, in the parking lot, for what seemed like an eternity.  She played out every scenario she could dream up in her head but they all ended in disaster.  She knew it had to be a
trap--Ricardo wasn’t stupid enough to believe he could simply take the documents and his case would be dropped.

She leaned over and put her forehead on her steering wheel.  Anxiety and uncertainty flooded her senses so she just solely focused on breathing.  Drawing from her memories, she imagined Bull’s protective arms wrapped around her, his possessive voice telling her that she was his, and felt his masculine aura giving her strength.  Lifting her head, she fished her cell phone from her purse.

“Noah?  I need help,” she confessed.

The deep, rumbling chuckled reverberated through her phone.  “Yeah, little sis, I know.  I’m waiting for you to leave so I can tail you.”

“What do you know, exactly?” Chaise asked, her hackles now raised in suspicion.

“I know all kinds of things.  But right now, I know you need my help and I’m not letting you go alone.  They don’t need to see me with you, though, so just do what you had planned to do and know that I’m with you,” Noah reassured.

Chaise hesitated for a second too long, her mind asking where Bull was and why he wasn’t protecting her.  “It’ll be fine, little sis.  No one will hurt you.  You can trust me,” Noah urged.

“I know, Noah.  It’s just difficult for me.  I’m going now.”  Chaise hung up and pulled out onto the street, heading back to the last place she really wanted to go.  She had some modicum of relief in the knowledge that the head of one of the best security firms in the world was close behind her.

Chaise repeatedly searched for Noah in her rearview mirror, trying to make sure she didn’t lose him at a red light.  She never found him in all the Miami traffic, though, and had to concede that if he knew what he was doing, she would never find him in the crowd of cars.  Ricardo said she was being followed by one of his men, too, but she didn’t see them, either.

She didn’t even stop to talk to Paul when she entered the security gate.  His sneer was enough to turn her stomach, and though she wasn’t normally a violent person, she considered using torture tactics on him that would make waterboarding seem appealing.  When she was past him, she hung her arm out of her window and flipped him off
again—just for good measure.

Before exiting her car in the parking garage, Chaise searched her car for a tissue to wipe her eyes.  She had held back the tears as long as she could but
had lost the battle.  Determined to not show her weakness, she wanted to hide any remnants of her mini-breakdown before Ricardo saw her.

When she opened her glove compartment, she gasped in relief.  Bull must have hidden the
Ruger LCR .357 she used at the shooting range in her car because it was staring her in the face.  She grabbed the low profile, concealable revolver and slipped it in the back band of her pants. 

She wiped her palms on her pants and made the lonely walk to the elevators. She still hadn’t seen Noah anywhere but she had to trust him to handle the situation the way he knew best.  Chaise tried to keep her thoughts on Aura and the possibility of saving her.

Once she reached the condo door, she took a deep breath and tentatively opened the door.  The foyer opened up into the large living area, giving her a good vantage point to see where the enemy was waiting.  She quickly slipped the gun out of her waistband and slid it behind a large flower vase on the table just inside the entrance.

“Ah, Chaise.  So nice of you to join us,” Ricardo’s smooth voice called out.  His men chuckled at Ricardo’s sick joke.  Aura was sitting in a chair that had been moved from the dining room.  Chaise realized Aura’s hands and feet were taped to the chair arms and legs.  She also realized that without Noah’s help, neither of them would get out of
the situation alive.

“You didn’t leave me any choice, Ricardo,” she replied sarcastically.  She reached into her pocket and removed the flash drive.  “Here, take this and let her go,” she said, extending her palm to offer the evidence.

Ricardo laughed heartily, “I love that you are so trusting.  I don’t need that, Chaise.  I have you—that’s all I need.”

“I don’t understand,” Chaise stalled.  “What do you mean?”

Ricardo smiled at her but his eyes held no mirth.  They were black, cold, and void of compassion.  “I think you know exactly what I mean.  You’re very clever.”

“Ricardo, you asked me for the data I found at
Viboro Distributing.  I got that for you and I came back here on my own.  Now, take what you asked for and let Aura go,” she replied with a stern voice.

“No!  Neither of you are leaving here alive, Chaise!  You will pay for what you did to Rico!  Your boyfriend will pay, too!”

Ricardo seemed to have suddenly snapped.  He started rambling nonsensical words, muttering to himself and pacing back and forth.  Fire danced in his eyes and he flexed and contracted his fists over and over.  As he passed one of his men, he grabbed the gun from the man’s side and pointed it at Aura’s head.

“You can watch her die, Chaise.  That’ll be a good punishment for you since you care about her so much,” Ricardo laughed maniacally.

“She hasn’t done anything to you, Ricardo.  I’m the one you want.  Let her go and do what you have to do to me,” Chaise bargained.

Ricardo studied Chaise for a moment before he apparently had an epiphany.  His face lit up and a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.  He moved the gun away from Aura’s head and signaled to one of the men to cut her bonds.

“You can go now, Aura.  If you stay, you will be shot,” Ricardo said dryly.

Aura gave Chaise a panicked look before Chaise said, “It’s
okay, Aura.  Get out of here.  Now.”

Aura reluctantly left and Chaise exhaled when she heard the door click and knew that Aura was safely out of Ricardo’s reach.  He walked
toward Chaise and grabbed her by her shirt.  He shoved the gun against her temple and spat his intentions out at her.

“I’m going to shoot you.  Right here. 
Right in the fucking head.
  Then, I’m going to hang your body off the side of the balcony. 
Like a fucking beacon for your boyfriend to find you.
  And when he finds you, I will give him enough time to cut your dead, broken body down before I shoot
him
in the fucking head, too.”

Ricardo walked her
backward toward the balcony.  His gun hand was shaking with excitement and anticipation of carrying out his evil plan. When Chaise’s back hit the glass door, she prepared for the worst.  Noah hadn’t made it inside yet and it would be too late for her.

All the things she wished she’d said to
Bull suddenly rushed to the forefront of her thoughts.  She was scared beyond the capacity of rational thought as she faced the certainty that she was about to die.  Coping with that fact was more than overwhelming, but adding unrequited love and longing for Bull to the equation was downright debilitating.

The tears rolled unchecked down her face as she watched the madness grow in Ricardo’s eyes.  “Can you give him a message from me first?”  She didn’t know where she found her voice, but there was something she had to say to Colton. 

“Oh, please, let me deliver your final words to him.
Such poetic justice
,” he crooned.

“Tell
him…..Tell him that I love him and I wish, more than anything in the world, that I had stayed at his house.  I don’t care that I only knew him a few weeks.  I don’t need more time than that to know he’s the only one for me.  I only wish we had more time together,” Chaise said.