Atlas (Billionaire Titans) (19 page)

A
tlas was down
.

I watched the scene unfold on our security cameras, Atlas shooting the man in front of the house and then killing the man who snuck up on him. Despite losing another camera, I watched as an unseen assailant, moving through the trees like a ghost, came up behind Atlas and zapped him. I don’t know a better word for it than that.

I wanted to scream at my man to turn around, but I knew I was in a soundproof room and it wouldn’t do a bit of good. Instead, I fought back tears and bit my lip until I tasted blood. I’d lost sight of Ronnie, but I’d found the first man to breach the house. He was moving from room to room carefully, looking for us. Through the kitchen to the dining room, poking his head into the bathroom and then moving up the stairs.

I was shaking with rage.

My attention was torn between Atlas and the intruder. Atlas had been handcuffed and leaned up against a tree sitting down, a cord tied around his throat and the trunk. He wasn’t moving.

The man in the house concluded his upstairs search, pausing in our bedroom. I watched him open a dresser drawer, my underwear drawer, and lift out a pair of my panties with his knife before stuffing the trophy in his pack.

My blood boiled as the violation just got deeper and deeper.

I dropped my robe and changed into something more appropriate for close quarters combat; black yoga pants and a black t-shirt, obviously put in this room before my pregnancy, as it barely stretched to cover my belly.

I tucked a handgun into the back of my pants and grabbed extra ammo for the shotgun. The man with Atlas appeared to be trying to revive him. The pervert who took my panties was moving in the direction of the stairs. I watched him pause and bring a hand to his ear, probably getting news from his partner outside regarding Atlas’s capture.

Atlas had given me clear orders, and I knew the room I was in was as close to impenetrable as it got, but I’d spent months training with Atlas Titan. And I was carrying his daughter in my womb. I had to act.

Saying a silent prayer asking God to protect my baby, I took a final look at the monitor and exited the safe room and past the bookcase. The sliding wall made a sound, but I hoped it was quiet enough to allow me to catch whomever came down the stairs completely unaware.

I
woke
up bound to a tree, hands cuffed, and head pounding. A rat-faced man in his forties with dark hair sneered at me and spoke in heavily-accented English.

“The girl. Where is she? You get chance now to tell me and things maybe go, eh, not so bad for you. But you lie to me, you try to hide her, things get very bad. For both of you.”

I couldn’t imagine they had any genuine interest in Piper, she was simply a loose end they needed to trim. I’d done enough of this kind of work to know that I was probably supposed to be brought in alive, if possible, but that she was expendable.

“Untie me and I’ll take you right to her,” I answered.

“Nice try, Titan. Only place you go is nice boat ride. Or Hell. Your choice. She already made her decision by picking you. Very bad decision, no?”

“Who’s paying you, scumbag? And how did you get onto my island? Where are my dogs?” I was working the cuffs, trying every trick I knew, but making no progress. I wanted to keep him talking, agitate him, get him to make a mistake.

The unmistakable sound of a shotgun blast from inside the house, followed by a second, interrupted our conversation.

“Ah, that sounds like the wildcat now,” my captor said, his attention on the house and then on his earpiece, as he spoke in rapid-fire what I guessed was Bosnian into a microphone extending to near his mouth.

“She’s got some pretty sharp claws,” I said. “Nobody answering you on that radio, is there? I’ll make
you
a deal. Untie me now and I’ll let you swim for it. Best offer you’re going to get.”

He looked unsure as to how to proceed and didn’t seem to be receiving any instructions in his earpiece.

“You go back to sleep now,” he stated flatly, hitting me with the taser again. Everything went black.

H
e was big
, every bit the mass of Atlas, but a sawed-off shotgun at point blank range put him flat on his back. His foot hit the bottom step just as I pulled the trigger. His body armor kept him intact, but all the fight in him was gone.

I’d been shooting with Atlas for months, but only at targets. Approaching him, my weapon again ready to fire, I vomited. Whether the baby was to blame or the fact that I’d just shot someone, I didn’t know. I got near enough to see that he was still breathing, and his big body was blocking the stairs. I kept my gun trained on him, and when he began to sit up, I pulled the trigger again. The result this time was a mess, and there was no doubt he was dead. I fought back tears and reloaded, moving back into my safe room to check the monitors.

I sat down and realized that my hands were shaking. I pulled my knees up to me as tightly as my pregnant belly would allow and I let myself cry. I was terrified. I’d killed a man. I felt no remorse, but neither did I enjoy the experience. How did Atlas do it?

I watched Atlas receive another blast from the taser, and his head hung down as he blacked out again. Movement got my attention on one of the remaining outside monitors. It was VZ, walking in a curious, haphazard manner. He had blood on his muzzle like Ronnie had, but he didn’t have an obvious injury. He looked more drunk than anything. My best guess was that he was shaking off the effects of a tranquilizer.

VZ stopped and sniffed, then bolted. I lost sight of him, but then found him again as he reunited with Ronnie. The two of them touched noses and Ronnie nuzzled against VZ. The alpha dog sniffed at Ronnie’s leg and licked away some of the blood around his mouth before they both broke into a trot, Ronnie admirably trying to keep pace, and they disappeared off-camera.

They broke back into view moments later, right in front of the house. The victim of Atlas and his sniper rifle stood no chance. I had to turn away, despite my hatred of the men who’d attacked us, as the attack by the dogs was more vicious and primal than anything I’d ever seen.

When I looked again, Ronnie was laying down next to what was left of the man they’d attacked. He was clearly suffering, and I wanted to weep for him, but no more tears would come.

My emotional roller coaster had descended into rage. The last man standing, the one who had taken Atlas down, was alone now, and I was in the head space now to join VZ in taking him apart.

I gathered up my shotgun and watched the snarling pack leader slowly circling the house while the remaining bad guy circled away, almost on the direct opposite side of the house. He’d reach the side entrance from which Atlas exited soon, and I was determined to stop him then and there.

Stepping over the man at the bottom of the stairs, I climbed them by twos, a thought popping into my head.

I wonder if Dr. DeGraff has ever had a patient kill someone while they were pregnant
?
I have to be the first. I hope.

I stayed low and moved into the kitchen. From upstairs, I could hear VZ angrily growling and barking, but the bad guy was missing.

Suddenly, VZ went silent and I heard automatic weapon fire.

I raced to the side door to see the man in camouflage rolling on the ground with our alpha dog, jamming his gun sideways into VZ’s mouth and struggling to protect himself from the wolf’s gnashing teeth. Just as VZ assumed a dominant position, I stepped through the door and leveled my shotgun at the man’s head. I gave VZ a command to cease his attack, which he did, but he remained in place, snarling over his enemy’s prone form.

“Toss your weapon into the woods or I give the attack command, you piece of shit!” I spat at him, and a quick glance in my direction was all it took to let him know I meant business.

His eyes darted from mine, to the barrels of my weapon, to VZ’s bared teeth, and back to my eyes. He flung his weapon toward the trees and put both hands up in front of his face.

“Easy, boy,” I reminded the leader of our pack. He hadn’t stopped snarling, and it seemed he might resume his attack at any moment.

“You handcuffed Atlas in the woods. The key. Slowly.”

He made a great show of using just his fingertips to open a pouch at his waist and retrieve a small set of keys, holding them up to dangle.

“Throw them over here. At my feet.”

His throw was weak, it seemed intentionally so, landing just out of his reach but in a place that would require me to get closer to him than I wanted to.

The debate in my mind was ended for me.

Before I knew what was happening, the two missing members of our quartet of wolf hybrids, Stevie and Johnny, came tearing around the corner of the house. Evidently, whatever sedative was used to put them down had worn off.

I didn’t have time to give a command, and the man on the ground had time only to shriek. The dogs were consumed with bloodlust, and their attack was brutal. I managed to use the barrel of my weapon to drag the keys from the fracas, and I made my way into the woods in search of Atlas.

I
awoke to a tongue
.

Whimpering and licking my face, my eyelids fluttered open to find a blood-soaked Ronnie, his breath ragged and his movements lurching, painful lunges.

When it was apparent that I was awake, he nuzzled himself into my neck and then lay down across my lap. I wanted desperately to wrap my arms around him, to pet him, to somehow ease his pain, but all I could do was whisper to him.

“Good boy. You’re such a good boy. I’m so proud of you. Good, good boy.”

I heard gunshots from down by the house, a dog barking, and voices, but I was too far away to make them out. I hoped my mind wasn’t playing tricks on me when I heard Piper’s voice, which seemed to carry an authoritative tone.

Ronnie whimpered and shook, and then fell silent on my lap.

The tears which burned behind my eyes became pure, white-hot rage. I pulled so hard at my cuffs that I was sure both shoulders would dislocate if I applied any more measurable force. My wrist bled, I could feel that, as did my throat, from trying to escape there as well.

Suddenly, a frenzy of activity echoed up from down below, a scream and the sound of wolves going completely feral.

I turned my head as far as I was able in the direction of the sound, which began to die down, and then I heard someone approaching.

I saw her before she saw me, Piper dressed as a special ops badass. A pregnant badass, but still.

When she was close enough to make eye contact with me, she saw Ronnie’s blood-stained, lifeless body stretched out across me.

“Oh, no,” she said in a quiet voice.

She approached slowly dropping to her knees.

“Is he…?”

I nodded grimly.

“I think so. He revived me. He came up here to lick my face and say goodbye.”

Just then, we were joined by our fallen comrade’s brothers, who circled from a distance and then came closer, sniffing and licking tentatively as Piper cut me loose and released my wrists.

Once they were convinced of what happened, VZ’s nose went skyward and she called loudly to a moon that was still hours from appearing in the sky. Soon, a chorus joined in, a choir that included my voice and Piper’s.

We sat there a good, long while, the five of us.

“Before it gets too dark, I’ve got to do recon. Make sure we didn’t miss anything. Figure out what happened,” I told Piper, brushing hair out of her face and tucking it behind her ear.

“I need to stay with you. I don’t care what happens, what we see, I’m not leaving your side,” she said to me.

I nodded and we gathered up our weapons, hitting another cache nearby that included water and Powerbars, and we headed out to explore what was left of our sanctuary.

W
e moved
off into the woods alone, just the two of us. The dogs wouldn’t leave Ronnie’s side.

The gate to our dock was open, a small motorized vessel moored next to our speedboat.

We locked the gate and moved to where we first heard the commotion.

One the far side of the island, we found three small gliders. Atlas surmised that the men had hiked to the craggy overlook across the water and waited for the wind to be right to make their silent approach. They must have encountered the dogs right away, because near where their gear was stashed, the bloody remains of a man in camo was found. He held a large knife in his hand, probably the weapon that started the bleed that ended Ronny’s life. The hand was no longer attached to its owner.

After neutralizing the animals, they opened the gate, allowing two more men to join the fray.

Atlas meticulously examined everything he could get his hands on, and on the body of the man in the house, the one I’d killed, he found a thumb drive.

We retreated into our safe room and found the drive empty but for a .wav file.

Opening it, we heard a voice we both recognized: QB.

“Well, Paul and Vicki, if you’re hearing this, then my Bosnians failed. I had such high hopes for them. They were eager and well-equipped, but you’re a different kettle of fish, Atlas.

“I just wanted to let you know I hadn’t forgotten you, either of you, and that you still have a lot to answer for. I’ll be in touch.”

With that, the room fell silent.

“What does this mean, baby? Are we still in danger?” I pressed Atlas for information, although I knew that he probably only knew what I did.

“It means,” he replied, “that yes, we’re in definite danger. We can run, but from this guy we can’t hide. Clearly.”

“So what’s next for us? And for
her
?” I asked
,
rubbing my belly to emphasize the question.

“Best I can figure; we stay down here tonight. In the morning, we pack what we can carry and we get the hell off this island. Did Ujarak ever reply to your message?”

I shook my head.

“He may be compromised,” Atlas explained.

“We have burner phones. Tomorrow, I’ll make a few calls, try to plan something. In the meantime, I’ll send word to Durham.”

I watched him log into his same M/M Missed Connections page, fruitlessly scanning for a new message and leaving one of his own.

“Haven’t heard from U, fear the worst. Not sure you can EVER forgive me for what happened. Houseguests turned hostile. Sad news for common friend in Georgia as well. Times one. Tractor. Toaster.”

Atlas sighed and logged off.

He turned and looked at me with
that
look.

“You disobeyed me, Piper. I told you specifically to stay in this room.”

I wasn’t sure if he was truly angry, if the stress of the day had gotten the best of him, or if he was playing at something.

“Thanks to my ‘disobedience,’ we’re both alive right now, don’t you think?” I replied.

His eyes were intense, and I could tell he needed to destress. I knew I did.

“But if you disagree, by all means, punish me.”

I pulled off the shirt and bra I’d picked up earlier in the safe room and then made a show of peeling the yoga pants down and kicking them away, leaving me completely naked. I climbed onto the bed on all fours, with my ass in the air facing him.

His voice was deepened by lust.

“You’ve never been as sexy, Piper. Pregnancy has turned your body into this lush playground for me.” As he spoke, he moved behind me and ran his fingertips from the crevice of the backs of my knees slowly up my hamstrings. His thumbs caressed the place where my legs met my ass, and he spread me open gently, making me gasp as I buried my face in a pillow.

He repeated the motion several times, opening and closing me, all the time having an intimate view of my most private areas.

“You’re very wet, Piper. Tell me why.”

“Because I need it, Atlas, my body needs it so bad.” I pleaded with him desperately.

And it was true. As nonsensical as it was, I needed Atlas’s body. I needed to feel pleasure to numb myself from all the uncertainty we were now faced with.

He reached down and cupped my sex, massaging it with slow steady pressure.

“You have to tell me more. Tell me exactly what your curvy, delicious body needs.”

“It needs you, Atlas, I need you to
fuck
me. Please.”

“You should have just said so in the first place, Piper. When you need
this,”
At the word ‘this’, he plunged into me, burying what may as well have been a telephone pole into my core. “All you have to do is ask.”

My hands clawed at the sheets, balling them up, and I screamed into the pillow as he gave me a barrage of hard, deep thrusts.

As suddenly as it began, he stopped, leaving himself just barely inside me. “I want to believe you, Piper, I really do, but I need more convincing. Show me how badly you need it.” His command sent chills down my spine.

I looked back over my shoulder and into his eyes. He was standing stone still, hands on his hips, his cock perpendicular to his body, at rest inside me. He flexed both his pecs. I surrendered completely to the most magnificent man I’d ever known.

My hips bucked back against him, my body doing all the work, determined to demonstrate just how fully he owned my body and every bit of my sexual need.

I rolled and rocked, reaching back to touch myself as I worked his length with every fiber of my being.

My orgasms came easily, one crashing into the next, my entire universe centered on the waves of pleasure.

“Remember when you told me how your body needed my seed? To keep the baby happy and healthy?”

“Yes!” I screamed like a wild banshee.

He took hold of my hips and quickened his pace, no longer content to let me control the speed and depth. His knees pushed mine wider apart and he lifted and pulled back, hitting me in a secret place, deep inside.

I felt his hand in my hair, forcing my back to arch so that my eyes could meet his.

“I love you, Piper!” he shouted, emptying himself into my overcharged body, giving me the medicine I craved so deeply.

When he finally finished, he rolled behind me, wrapping his powerful arms around my shoulders, pushing my hair aside so he could kiss the back of my neck as we dozed off to sleep.