Rock Chick 07 Regret (78 page)

His head came up and his hand went to his pocket.

“Fuck it,” he snapped.

I felt my lungs fill with anticipatory oxygen.

“Jerry, leave it. I’ve never done it cuffed to a bed,” I fake protested.

His eyes came to mine and his hand came out of his pocket. “I been waitin’ years for this, Sadie, and now that I got it, I want you to touch me,” he told me and I felt triumphant elation slide through me.

I hid it and muttered, “Whatever.”

He leaned up and uncuffed me, keeping the other cuff on my wrist, he slid the key back into his pocket and his eyes came back to mine. “You’re playin’ a game and you think to fuck me over, you’re back to bein’ cuffed, I’ll gag you and I don’t give a fuck if you enjoy it or not.”

I was a little surprised he wanted me to enjoy it at all but I shook this off, both my arms went around him, my mouth went to his, my eyes open and our gazes were locked again.

I smiled against his mouth and said, “You’re a pig, Jerry.”

Then I kissed him.

We went at it. There was a lot of rolling, hand action, more rolling, mouth action. I managed to evade him taking off any of my clothes (though I let him unbuckle my belt) but I got his shirt unbuttoned and used my mouth on his chest. Then, when I thought I had him, I rolled on top, straddled his hips, whipped off my sweater, exposing my lace-over-satin, blush-colored demi-bra, I pressed my hips into him and asked, “Do you have a condom?”

“Jesus,” was his whispered answer, his eyes were on my breasts, his hands sliding up the skin of my sides.

When he didn’t answer, I lied, “No worries, I do.”

I lifted a leg, rolled off him and jumped off the bed.

I was across the room and digging through my purse when his arms came around me from behind, his hands moving across my belly and ribcage, his mouth in my neck.

I tried to stay cool, not to tense and freak out. I kept digging through my purse, trying to find the stun gun, hoping I’d get it out without him seeing it.

I found it, closed my eyes tight, took in a deep breath, relaxed back into him as my fingers curled around the stun gun.

“Never thought you’d be like this, Sadie,” he said into my neck. “Thought of this a thousand fuckin’ times, never thought it’d be this good.”

I felt a shiver flow through me. It wasn’t pleasure, it was fear mingled with repulsion mingled with something bizarrely sad. Jerry mistook its meaning and smiled in my neck.

“Jerry?” I called. His head came out of my neck, I turned my own and kissed him, pulled out the stun gun, twisted in his arms, our lips still attached, I went up on tiptoe, pressed myself against him and my arms went around him.

My thumb searched for the on button as I stuck my tongue in his mouth and tried not to gag.

I found the switch.

I flipped it on.

He deepened the kiss.

I heard the crackling.

I positioned it, pressed into his body and touched the prongs to his back.

One…

His mouth tore from mine, he went still and I kept the prongs on him.

Two…

Three.

He went down.

I bent over him and went back in, touched the prongs to him again, his body jerked and I kept it pushed in, counting to three again for good measure.

Then I pulled away and, without delay, I ran to my sweater on the floor, yanked it on, grabbed my purse, left my shoes and, not looking back, I ran to the door, threw it open, was two steps away before I was nabbed at the waist and pulled back roughly.

 
I let out a little surprised scream. I twisted and stilled when I saw, to my shock and horror, Glover, another of my father’s henchmen.

“What the…!” he started but I still had the stun gun in my hand and it was on.

I put it to his shoulder, he tensed and I kept it there but a hand curled around my wrist, it was pulled back, Glover sagged against the wall but I didn’t watch, I whirled to see who had my wrist.

It was twisted, I cried out as pain shot up my arm and dropped the stun gun, looking up, I saw Cordell, another of my father’s gentleman army and he looked bizarrely confused.

Really, why, why,
why
was everything so fucking
difficult!

“Damn and blast!” I shouted in his face.

He bent down, put a shoulder in my belly and lifted me, carrying me back into the room.

I had the sinking feeling that, at this juncture, I was majorly screwed.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

I’m Sadie

Hector

“Find her,” Seth Townsend said in Hector’s ear.

Hector’s jaw clenched, his eyes on Eddie, his body tight.

“Jerry, Glover and Cordell have been off the radar since we did the raids yesterday. All night, the whole team and half the DPD have been turnin’ Denver inside out. No fuckin’ sign. You got any fuckin’ clue where they’d take her?” Hector, hating his need to make the call, ground out each word.

Hours had gone by since he got the call that Sadie had been nabbed. There was no sign, no word and now the fear was a constant, bitter ache in his gut.

“You boys are supposed to be the best. How’d this fucking happen?” Seth snapped.

Hector didn’t know how to answer him. He’d been asking himself the same fucking question for the last five hours.

“Her cell is tracked, she left it on the table at the club. We planted a device in her lipstick, she must have left it behind. The guy guarding her left his position but warned her he was goin’, explained when he’d be back and told her to sit tight. She was with fourteen people, but walked away from the table alone. One of the girls and men tried to follow but they got held up by the crowd. A witness who tried to help her told us she told him that they roofied her, she was dazed and not in control. He got clubbed on the side of the head with a gun butt, went unconscious and Sadie got taken.”

“Why weren’t
you
with her?” Seth clipped.

“Because I was huntin’ down your rogue soldiers,” Hector shot back.

“They went rogue because Sadie’s with you,” Seth returned.

Hector lost his patience and his temper. “They went rogue because they’re assholes, Seth. Don’t fuckin’ lay this shit on me. This whole trip is yours, from the Balduccis down. You left her alone, unprotected. You knew the Balduccis were out for revenge, you had boys at your disposal and you left her exposed.
You
put her in this position and I’ve been workin’ my ass off for six weeks tryin’ to pull her out.”

“Chavez –”

“She’s been raped, assaulted, kidnapped, now twice, once by you, I’ll remind you. She found out her mother was whacked, had her fuckin’ gallery torched and has been drugged against her will. She’s been holdin’ on but she’s gonna fuckin’ break. After all that, anyone would fuckin’ break.”

“Chavez –”

Hector cut him off, his voice had gone low and it shook with menace, “Seth, I find her and they’ve broken her, you’ll pay.”

When he spoke again, Seth’s voice had changed too, it had gone soft. “Hector –”

“No joke. You’ll pay,” Hector repeated.

The door opened to Lee’s office and Lee’s upper body swung in with it but he didn’t enter and he didn’t take his hand off the knob.

“Call came in. Darius spotted Jerry’s BMW in the parking lot, Hyatt Place Hotel, DIA.”
 

“Anyone close?” Eddie asked, already moving around the desk.

“Marcus is headin’ his way,” Lee replied. “Said he’d be there in five.”

“Hector, what’s happening?” Seth asked in his ear.

“We got a lead,” Hector replied to Seth. “Pray she’s not broken.” Then he flipped his phone shut and moved toward the door. “Let’s roll.”

* * * * *

Sadie

Cordell threw me on the bed.

I rolled off and scrambled. He cut off my exit, I feinted to the left (he followed) then to the right (he followed again!) then stopped and we went into a stare down.

Glover lurched in, closing the door behind him. His eyes went to Jerry, still on the floor but he was now moving around.

Great.

Just great!

Then Glover’s eyes came to me and he snapped, “What the fuck’s goin’ on?”

I looked at him then I put my hands on my hips and said, “Are you kidding me?”

Glover and Cordell stared at me.

I knew them both.

Like Jerry, Cordell had worked for my father for years, I didn’t know him very well but we’d chatted because, well, he was around and not to chat would be rude.

Glover had been a new recruit a few months before my father went down.

Both of them were good-looking, fit, well-dressed and well-groomed.

All of this slid through my mind in a flash.

But mostly all I thought about was the fact that I was done.

Done.

Done!

Did I say
done?

“Seriously!” I threw my hands out. “Did you think I’d just, I don’t know… what did you think I’d do?”

They kept staring at me.

“You roofied me!” I yelled.

Glover’s body jerked and his eyes shot to Cordell and I watched as Cordell’s brows drew together.

Then Cordell hissed, “Jesus, Sadie, keep your voice down.”
       

“Are you going to poison my father like you did Harvey?” I snapped and Cordell and Glover looked at each other while Jerry pulled himself up to sitting position. It would dawn on me later that they looked at each other in confusion. Since I was in a full blown hissy fit, I, unfortunately, didn’t notice it at the time.

“Well? Are you?” I pushed.

Everyone stayed silent.

“Whatever,” I snapped and put my hands back to my hips. “Let’s play let’s make a fucking deal. All right?”

Cordell and Glover just kept looking at me like I was some unknown entity as yet undiscovered, not like I was someone who served them coffee on more than one occasion.

“I need clothes, nice ones,” I went on. “I’m not going on an international flight without good clothes. We’ll call my father. I’ll get the Caymans account info. We’ll all go on a trip. You can have it. All of it. Every penny. You just promise to let me go at the end of it and promise you won’t poison my father or hurt him in any way.”

Glover’s eyebrows shot up and Jerry pulled himself unsteadily to his feet.

“Sadie –” Jerry started.

“You, shut the fuck up. I’m tired of talking to you,” I clipped at Jerry then, apparently not tired of talking to him, I went on, “And by the way, you’re cute but you’re a crap kisser.” So stuck in my hissy fit, I was on a roll, I looked back at Cordell then at Glover, both of their eyebrows were at their hairlines after my “crap kisser” comment. I ignored this and kept right on talking, “I call my father, warn him about the poison so you assholes don’t kill him anyway, just to be assholes, and he gives me the account numbers.”

“What’s she talkin’ about?” Glover asked Cordell.

Cordell shrugged.

It was my turn to stare.

“What do you mean, what am I talking about? Jerry poisoned Harvey Balducci and told me if I didn’t sleep with him, he’d put that same special sauce on my father’s breakfast,” I informed Glover and Cordell.

They both turned to Jerry.

“Jerry?” Cordell called and something in the room made me snap right out of the hissy fit and start to pay attention. “I thought we were runnin’ an errand for Seth. Gettin’ Sadie out of a bad fix, gettin’ her free from Chavez. What the fuck is this?” Cordell asked, turning away from me and toward Jerry.