Heart Ache (Bound by a Touch Novels #1) (28 page)

Just then, as he tried to come up with a way to get Gabby back, Vincent appeared in the office. He looked around the room at the chaos and at Nikolai, who stood with his arms braced against the wall, his head lolling on his neck.

“
Anything new?” Vincent asked Stephon quietly.

Nikolai didn’t react to the voices or the movement. He was probably so numbly angry he couldn’t even think. Again, understandable. Stephon handed Vincent the cell phone. The message had been added to the rotation of the camera angles.

Vincent watched in silence as each new picture showed on the screen. He tensed, muscles getting more and more taut with each flicking image. “Oh, sweet Goddess.”

His face turned an unhealthy green color and he was just handing the phone back when he yanked it back, holding it close to his face.

“
Wait! What the hell does that mea- … Oh, shit!” His black brows pulled together in concentration. His blue eyes narrowed. Then he let out a bark of laughter.

Nikolai whirled around, and in a flash had the male against the wall with his hand around his throat. “You sonofabitch!” he growled, spittle covering Vincent’s face. “You find something funny about my heartmate’s torture?”

With a shove, Vincent liberated himself. “Back off, Nik.”

Niko glared at the other male. Breath sawed in and out of his nose causing his nostrils to flare. His fists clenched at his sides. “You’d better explain yourself, man, ‘cause I’m having a real hard time keeping my hands from beating your face in.”

“
Easy.” Vincent held his hands up in surrender. “That female of yours is a smart one.” He turned the phone around to show them the screen. “Look at her hand. N-I-K-O. It’s American Sign Language. That was the sign for I love you.” He grinned and slapped his thigh with his palm. “That female is one in a million!”

It took two camera changes before they could see her hand again. “-K-O. I love you. N-A-…” Camera change. “E. See there, she flattens her hand, like she’s starting over. N-I-K-O.” Camera change. “-A-N-A-”

“
Ana? What the hell does that mean?” Frustration bubbled in Stephon’s gut.

The threat came up again, followed by the flashing images.

“
-T-A-S-”

The rotating images made it hard to figure out what she was saying. Then the rhythm changed. “H-A-N-A-T-A-S-H-A-N-A-”

“
Natasha!
” Nikolai said as if it were a curse.

Stephon had less than a split second to know what would happen next, but he anticipated correctly. Closing his eyes he landed on the porch in front of Natasha’s house seconds after Nikolai did. He grabbed on to Niko’s arm.

“
You can’t just bust in there, man.”

Niko looked sick, determined, and royally pissed off. “She’s in there, Stephon. I know she is. I can feel her.”

“
Fine. She’s in there.” Yeah, well, she wasn’t the only one in there.

Thump-thump.

His heart only did that around one female. Dammit, he’d hoped she wouldn’t be here. Dealing with her right now was not a complication he had time or energy for.

“
What if she’s not alone in there? You don’t want an innocent to get hurt in the rescue.”

Nikolai sucked in a deep breath and Stephon knew the male was considering his options. He had options of his own to consider. The beating of his heart meant he knew there was at least one other person inside the house. If she was in on this, he wasn’t sure what he would do. Could he kill his own heartmate in order to rescue Niko’s?

“
We’re going in,” Nikolai said in a low, deep, don’t-screw-with-me tone.

Stephon nodded. “You go to Gabby. I’ll search the rest of the house. Be careful, my man. We don’t know who all’s involved in this horror show.”

He’d barely finished his warning before Nikolai was through the door and rushing toward the back of the house. Stephon, though, wasn’t quite as eager to head where his heart told him to go. He walked slowly to the grand staircase and paused. She was up there, almost directly above him, just as sure as he stood right here, right now.

Raising a shaking hand, he rubbed at his heart then took the stairs three at a time. He turned to the right, rounding the corner into a bedroom decorated in white lace and pink linen. Exactly the kind of room he would expect from the female who owned his heart. Two suitcases lay open on the bed in various stages of unpacking—or packing?

He could hear her soft singing, and cautiously, quietly, made his way across the room to the open door. His heart stuttered. His throat clenched. A long leg draped over the edge of the white porcelain tub. Her long curly blond locks were piled high on her head. Her head rested against a little pillow thing and her long, black lashes formed perfect crescents on the soft pads of her cheeks.

His mind began to imagine what was under those bubbles, and other
lower
parts of his body reacted to her. That was unacceptable under the circumstances. He cleared his throat, but the iPod buds in her ears kept her oblivious.

“
Elizabeth,” he said loudly. Still no reaction. “Elizabeth!” he shouted.

Her eyes flipped open. Panic flooded her face. She stood up in the tub, shrieking.

Holy … mother of …
“Shit, female! Cover yourself!” He turned his back to her, when all he wanted to do was look, touch, savor.

“
What the hell are you doing here?” He could hear the soft splashes and whispers of fabric, and turned to answer her.

“
I should ask you the same thing,” he grumbled.

“
This is
my
house,
my
bathroom. I
live
here! What the hell’s your excuse?” Her fingers trembled as she hastily tied her robe closed.

He rushed at her, pinning her against the wall. Her body was soft against his. He could feel every curve, especially those of her breasts as her breaths raced in and out of her lungs. She screamed, and he wanted to muffle those screams with his mouth. He wanted to cause her to scream in pleasure. He’d had over a hundred years of fantasizing—and he had a vivid imagination. Instead he swallowed hard and used his hand to silence her.

“
What do you know about Gabrielle Ryan?” His voice was rough with need.

Her eyes narrowed, the blue turning electric. Then she bit the pad of his palm. He jerked his hand back. She smiled and said, “I know Natasha hates the poor human girl. Somewhere in Nat’s warped sense of reality Nikolai is her one-and-only. Why?” She tipped her head to the side and a curl lazily fell to come to rest on her shoulder.

He released her and stepped back. Relief consumed him—for the moment anyway. He’d still have to get all the facts before he could completely exonerate her, but it seemed she didn’t know anything.

Watching her carefully, he continued his interrogation, “Do you have a concrete room here in the house somewhere?”

“
Yes,” she said suspiciously. “My greenroom. Why?”

“
You have to show me where it is. Quickly.”

“
Oh, Goddess. She didn’t.” Her robe flapped as she took off on a run. “Stephon, follow me. Hurry!”

Nikolai stood outside the solid gold door and cursed. The lock mechanism had been broken, its disemboweled insides dangling from the metal box. Niko jammed a fist into the wall above it, ignoring the crack of his knuckles and the stab of pain that ricocheted up his arm.

Using numb fingers, Niko poked and prodded the door and walls for a way inside the room. Helplessness swamped him as his intestines slithered around his gut. There was a window in the door giving him a perfect view of the fragile innocent woman dying on the table inside.

Frantic.

He was frantic. And panicked. And quickly … very, very quickly nearing the edge of complete riotous terror. He threw himself against the door, but only bruised his shoulder.

Again and again Nikolai pounded the door with his hands, launched his body into it. His grunts filled the air around him and he hated he wasn’t strong enough to get inside. The steady thudding of approaching footsteps made him turn. Breath panted from his lungs and he squinted to see into the darkness.

He crouched down, ready to attack if the person coming down the corridor was an enemy. When Elizabeth rounded the corner, followed closely by Stephon, Niko couldn’t find an ounce of relief. In fact, he narrowed his eyes, his hands tightening into fists as he considered taking his frustrations out on the female standing in front of him.

The threat of death must have registered on his face because her blue eyes shot wide and she retreated until she backed into Stephon. The male eased her behind him and planted his feet in challenge.

“
She’s cool,” Stephon informed Niko.

“
How do we get in here?” Nikolai growled at Elizabeth.

“
There’s a—” She moved toward the lock and cursed softly. The word sounded so foreign, so wrong coming from her. She shook her head. “I am going to kill her for this.”

“
You’ll have to get in line,” Nikolai muttered through gritted teeth.

She either didn’t hear him—which wasn’t likely—or chose to ignore him and went to work on getting the door open. Her slender fingers moved deftly over the damaged entry box, sending electrical charges jumping between the exposed wires.

Nikolai couldn’t form a single thought more than getting inside. If the room hadn’t been lined with gold he would have been in and out before the other two had even come down the stairs. As hell closed in around him, Niko knew he was present, knew he was hearing and seeing the exchanges between Elizabeth and Stephon, but felt like he was doing it from outside his body. The world seemed to sway beneath his feet, his vision swam, and he concentrated on the shallow breaths and the slow steady beat of his heart.

“
Is there another way?” Niko asked, taking her none-too-gently by the arm.

Somewhere in the back of his brain he registered the low, threatening growl from Stephon. Elizabeth shot a quick look at the male before nodding.

“
Follow me.” She walked quickly toward a dead-ended hallway. She tipped a candelabrum on the wall and a passageway opened up. “Hurry.”

“
What is this place?” Stephon asked as they followed her into the darkness.

“
Daddy used the basement as his sanctuary. He always seemed a little paranoid, but knowing how he was killed, his cautious side wasn’t so far-fetched.”

She shrugged, leading the way deeper into the ground. They hurried along a downward slope for an eternity. Niko fought the urge to bust out in front of the group and run headlong into the darkness.

“
After mother died, there was no one to stop me from changing things. She hated it down here,” Elizabeth explained, her robe fluttering behind her as she ran further into the darkness of the passageway. “My greenroom used to be his safe. That’s why it’s lined. Natasha and Daddy didn’t get along—I think they were too much alike—so she didn’t know about the passageways.”

She stopped suddenly, and Stephon scooped her into his arms instead of plowing her over. He held her close for a moment longer than necessary, and Nikolai could have sworn the blond male sniffed her hair.

“
This is it,” she said, struggling in Stephon’s arms. “Thank you.” She sighed when her feet were back on the ground. Her eyes were dreamy as she looked up into his face.

“
Get me in that room.
Now!
”

Elizabeth’s fingers moved over various stones then she pushed a large boulder in the middle of the wall. It shifted and groaned and lifted up into the room where Gabby bled out. Ultraviolet light burned their unshielded eyes and Niko stumbled back.

“
Can we get those off?” He used his arm to protect his eyes.

“
I’ll work on it,” she said, her arm going to her eyes as well.

While she went to work on another panel near the hole they’d just exposed, Nikolai raced to Gabby. His footsteps made squishy, slurping noises causing his insides to twist like a snake’s pit. She was bleeding out.

Darkness consumed them for just a moment before the bald light bulbs flicked on. He could have seen in the dark, but was glad he didn’t have to. He fought the urge to gather Gabby in his arms and hug her tight. Grabbing hold of the IV, he yanked it from her arm then pressed his tongue to the wound. Fear was all he knew then. She was so close to death, he could taste it.

“
She’s bad, man.” Stephon’s fingers went to Gabby’s throat. “You’re going to have to change her.”

Niko swallowed hard. She’d mentioned she wanted to be changed, but did she really? Could he take her choice away from her?

“
I’ll take her home and then—”

Stephon shook his head. “There
is
no ‘and then’. Change her now or you’re going to lose her forever.”

Nikolai looked down at her. Every inch of beautiful creamy skin was bruised and bloodied. He choked on the bile that hit the back of his throat. Elizabeth laid a soft, gentle hand on his shoulder.

“
Nikolai,” she whispered, “I can do it if—”

“
No!” he growled, whirling on her. “If Gabrielle is changed,
I
will be the one to do it.” He turned his attention back to his beloved. He stroked her hair, her cheek, her lips.