Her lungs constricted, her body prickled with heat and her pulse raced. She tried to open her eyes but icy black claws threaded through her vision. She heard a whimper and realized it was her own.
“Look at me.”
Her head jerked up at James’s sharp command, and she fought back the blackness to look into his steel-blue eyes, calm and safe. And then he said the words that sent the memories away.
“Do you remember your safe word from when we played together that one time before?”
“Thrash,” she whispered.
“Works the same here. Say the word and we stop. In the end, you control this, babe. Nothing happens that you don’t want. Just keep your eyes on me and breathe slow and deep.” He trailed his finger along her jaw and down her throat. Lana took a few deep breaths and the darkness began to recede.
I control this. I can make it stop.
“Better now?” He inched his finger down to the swell of her breasts and lightly caressed her heated skin. Fire replaced the ice in her veins, burning a trail down to her core.
She nodded, not trusting herself to speak.
James looked over his shoulder and jerked his head at the couple. The man nodded and they walked away. Lana breathed out a sigh and she managed a half smile.
“Ready to play?” he murmured.
Emboldened by the power she’d never had with Levi, she answered quickly, “Yes.”
He slid his hand into the low V of her dress and gently palmed her breast, stroking the soft swell with his thumb. “Your body likes being restrained. I can see it in the flush of your cheeks and I can feel it here.” He ran his thumb over her nipple, already painfully hard.
Lana struggled against the restraints as his touch unleashed a firestorm of desire through her veins.
“Be still.” His sharp tone locked her in place.
Bracing himself with one arm on the post, he leaned closer and pushed down her clothing, releasing her breasts from their restraint. When his lips found her nipple, a zing of sensation flashed straight to Lana’s clit and her hands yanked against the chains.
“Oh God.”
James chuckled. “No, babe. Just me.”
With calm deliberation, he tormented first one nipple and then the other until her breasts swelled, the nipples tight and throbbing. Pressure built inside her, a deep aching need, and she moaned and writhed, straining against the chains, arching her body toward him, desperate for more.
“You have the most amazing breasts,” he murmured as he pulled away.
Lana groaned when he covered her up. “Apparently not amazing enough.”
James smoothed his hand down her stomach, leaving a trail of fire in his wake. He rested his palm over her mound, his fingers barely brushing over where fingers should do more than brush.
Panting, she stared up at him, willing him to touch, to take, to rip off her panties and plunge his fingers inside her aching center.
Instead, he kissed her. His lips crushed hers, claiming her with a passionate intensity that took her breath away. His tongue dove into her mouth, possessive and demanding, and he deepened the kiss until her bones turned liquid and she sagged against the restraints.
“You’re doing well, babe.” The raw sensuality in his voice almost made her come right then. With a light stroking tease of his hand, he reached under her dress, parted her legs and pressed his palm, warm and firm, against the curve of her sex.
Lana’s head snapped back at the delicious heat of his hand over her barely there G-string panties, and a thin whine escaped her lips.
“Keep going, should I?” He gave her a wicked smile and shoved her panties aside, then slicked his finger along her wet folds. Fire swept through her body, incinerating everything in its path.
“Are you still afraid?” With one finger he stroked up and around her clit, then down through her wetness, and up again, barely brushing over the throbbing bundle of nerves begging for attention.
“I’m afraid you’ll stop,” she panted.
His lips curled into a sensual smile. “I can go all night. Or I can stop and leave you hanging. Or I can make you come in front of everyone here. I can make you scream your pleasure, and you can’t do anything about it.”
Moisture flooded her sex at his carnal words. She strained against the cuffs, and her inability to move, her vulnerability, started a shaking deep inside her. Did she truly trust him to keep her safe?
A disturbance at the door drew her attention away from his steady gaze. A verbal altercation. Shouting. Yelling. A crease formed between her brows. The voices were familiar.
Seconds later, an angry Rex pushed his way into the room, Angel by his side. Two bouncers grabbed them and hauled them back. Even as her face heated in embarrassment, Lana’s heart sank. They were back together. Angel wouldn’t need her anymore.
James shifted his position, hiding her from Rex. “That’s my fault,” he muttered. “I should never have organized a meeting here. Rex liked it so much he pestered Tony for a membership. Tony only gave in because he figured the club’s surveillance system might catch something that would help put Rex behind bars faster.” He stroked a finger over her cheek. “Don’t worry. He won’t get down here. You’re safe.”
The door slammed open again and Lana heard the rough growl of Rex’s voice and the high-pitched rasp of Angel’s tirade of verbal abuse.
And then she heard another voice. A cold, cruel, sharp snarl that cut her to the core. She sucked in a sharp breath and her body tensed, as it had been conditioned to do.
No.
“We have an important guest,” Rex shouted. “I want to show him around.”
The other voice again. A man. Louder now. More insistent. Angry. Her lungs seized.
Terror spread icy tendrils through her veins. She knew that voice. She heard it in her nightmares. She heard it on street corners and in restaurants, in coffee shops and bars. And always her heart would pound and her eyes would widen, and she would fight the urge to run.
Run. She needed to run.
Lana yanked on the cuffs but they held fast. Body trembling, heart hammering, pulse racing, she forced her words through a rapidly tightening throat. “Let me go, James. Let me go.”
James’s eyes widened and his face creased with concern. “What’s wrong?”
“Thrash,” she screamed as a scorching tide of terror crashed through her body. Her eyes fixed on the partially open door, her ears attuned to only one voice. His voice.
“Thrash,” she screamed again. And then she just screamed the word over and over because, although James moved fast, he wasn’t fast enough. And the door was opening; a hand was creeping around the corner. A big hand. With a big ring. The head of a Wolverine.
And then she was free.
Arms banded around her. Strong. Safe. But there was no
safe
. Not from Levi.
Tears burned her eyes as she remembered the thud of fists on her body, the burn of ropes whipping across her skin, the sting of a palm hitting flesh, the utter helplessness of having nowhere to go and no one to help her. A sob rose in her throat. She pushed James away and ran toward the welcoming red neon sign marking the emergency exit.
“Lana.”
She hit the door running. An alarm went off but she didn’t stop. Couldn’t stop. She ran and she ran and she ran. Then she threw up and ran some more.
Chapter Eighteen
“Jackie. Open the fucking door. I know she’s in there.”
James pounded on Jackie’s apartment door, determined to break it down if it didn’t open in the next thirty seconds.
“Quiet down,” she shouted. “You’ll wake my neighbors. I waited a year to get this place. I’m not about to be kicked out because you can’t wait long enough for me to undo the lock. And don’t even think of breaking down the door.”
Finally, the door opened and a furious Jackie glared at James. “Like I told you earlier when you called, she’s not here. But feel free to come in and stomp around and check for yourself.” She stepped to the side and James stormed into her tiny apartment.
“What happened here?” He looked around at the piles of clothes, pizza boxes, disguises and half-open suitcases.
“Nothing happened. I live like this,” Jackie huffed. “I’m not a clean freak like Lana. I like things to be relaxed.”
James gritted his teeth. “I could search through this place for a week and never find her.”
“You’re a smooth talker, J. I can see why she fell so hard for you. You keep buttering me up like that and I’ll be kissing your shoes in no time flat. But you don’t have to worry about sullying your hands with my filth. Like I told you, she’s not here.”
The knot that had formed in James’s gut when Lana had run out of the club tightened. After spending the night looking for her, he’d come to the conclusion she had to be hiding out at Jackie’s place. He had been so certain of the fact, for a moment he felt utterly lost.
“Did she call you?”
“Yeah, she called me,” Jackie said. “She was totally hysterical. She wouldn’t tell me where she was. All I got from her was you took her to some club and she ran away. What the hell did you do to her?”
James gritted his teeth and shrugged off the question that had tormented him all night. If she wasn’t here, where could she be? With the help of Tony, Ryder and Kickstand, all bases had been covered: apartment, office, local restaurants and bars. He had her car keys so he knew she was on foot. Jackie had been calling Lana’s friends and acquaintances until she’d suddenly cut off all communication without a word of explanation. How could Lana not be here?
For the first time in his life he didn’t know what to do.
Jackie tilted her head to one side and studied him. Her face softened and her voice dropped to a quiet murmur. “Okay. I can see you’re worried and pretty beat up. I’ll tone it down. You need anything? Glass of water? Something stronger?”
He shook his head. “It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have taken her there. I should have asked her more about her past. I pushed too hard and something set her off.” He paused. “Maybe it was Rex. He was trying to get in.”
“She’s not that scared of Rex.” Jackie wove her way through the clothes and boxes piled on the floor. “Not scared enough to run. Only one guy I know she would run from, but he’s somewhere in the US.”
“Levi?”
“She told you?”
James nodded. “Not everything. We were interrupted.”
Jackie walked over to the window and stared out into the night. “She thought she’d been recognized last week and he would be coming for her. That’s why she had the suitcase packed. She ran from him once before. Took her three years to escape. Any chance she might have been right? Do you think he’s in town?”
A chill raced down his spine. Why hadn’t he even considered she would’ve had to run? Abusers rarely let their women walk away. But why would Levi be in Vancouver? Would he still be hunting for her after so many years? If so, how did he find her? Or was he here by chance, perhaps to form an alliance with Hades? It didn’t make sense.
“If Levi is here, I haven’t heard about it.” He brushed his thumb over his bottom lip as he considered the possibility. “If he did come to the Lower Mainland, he would’ve had to stop at Hades to pay his respects. And if he showed up at the clubhouse, Rex would be shouting it out to the world. The Wolverines are a very powerful West Coast club. And I only saw Rex and Angel at Carpe Noctem, no one else.” His voice broke. “It was me, Jackie. It was my fault. I just can’t do right by her.”
She looked at him aghast. “It has nothing to do with you…I’m sure of it.”
“Easy to say. Hard to believe.”
His cell buzzed against his hip and he sighed heavily before he accepted the call.
“Bones.”
Bones didn’t waste time on social niceties. “We need you at the clubhouse right away. We’ve got an unexpected drop tonight at Kirkland Island. Rex wants the inner circle on the pickup team. You need to come in for a briefing.”
James scraped a hand through his hair. For the first time in his life he wasn’t going to do his duty and it didn’t even give him pause. “Tell Rex I can’t make it. Roxie’s missing and I’m trying to find her.”
“You want me to tell Rex you can’t make it because you’re chasing after your old lady? You got a death wish? I’m telling him you’ll be here within the hour. Don’t be late.”
The phone went dead.
James stared at his cell for a full three seconds then threw it as hard as he could against the wall. The impact made a satisfying crack and the phone fell to the ground.
“Fuck.” He sank into a chair, his head between his hands. The DEU would have heard that call and no doubt would be calling his broken phone to ask why he’d refused Bones’s request. It was a perfect setup for a raid. Isolated island. Inner circle together. Hard evidence of drug smuggling.
Openmouthed, wide-eyed, Jackie asked lightly, “Bad news?”
“That was Bones. I’m supposed to meet the inner circle at the club and then head out to Kirkland Island tonight. I told him I couldn’t make it, but it’s something I’ve been waiting for a long time. Something that could bring down Hades for good.”
Kneeling in front of him, Jackie gently stroked a hand over his bowed head. “Look at me.”