Captured in Croatia (6 page)

“
Stani!
”
Stop.

I
really don’t think so!

I glance
in the rearview mirror just as Zoran swiftly rounds the back of the car and pounds once on my side window with such force that I believe he’ll surely shatter the thing. There is a gun in his other hand. My eyes widen in panic and I throw the car into gear.

He
yells in an even louder, angry snarl, “
Stani!
”

I’m petrified and can’t look at him as he
yanks on the locked doors. I’m thankful that he’s not shooting at me through the glass but I’m too scared to take the time to analyze why not.

I
stomp on the gas and rip out of the circular drive. I have no idea if I ran over his foot or even if I’m dragging him along. The only thought banging about in my brain is:
Damn, they’re going to be on me within moments! Drive, girl, drive!

Two shots ring out from behind me,
miraculously missing the back window and tires. I’m thankful this is a moonless night.
As I speed down the shadowed, cobblestone drive to the gate, I’m so eager to get the hell away that I’m half-tempted to bust through it but instead slow down and enter the code ….
Come on!

I
t opens and I squeeze through when it’s just wide enough for my little compact to fit. With a fearful glance back, I see two sets of headlights coming after me, ripping their way down the drive at breakneck speed.

Oh God
! Time to put all those driving lessons to good use.

T
he gate is already closing behind me, which fortunately will buy me a little time to get a head start away from this mess.

A
chill slithers up my spine. I have a horrible feeling that this won’t be the last I see of the sexy, enigmatic Zoran.

T
he girl has proven herself to be very difficult to control. I warned her. Twice. This never happens. I am accustomed to instant compliance. Period. Yet after I gave her the out in the hallway of the club, she still chose to continue in her pursuit of whatever she was after from Juric. I never doubted that her pretty little model act was nothing but a means to an end, but I had no way of telling my employer that. He has a weakness for gorgeous women and thinks they are harmless creatures incapable of deception. Had I tried to stop her, Juric would have only wanted her more. That’s just his nature, I’ve come to learn. Maybe now he’s learned his lesson. But she’s nothing I can’t handle.

As
I stand outside of her smoking, demolished vehicle, I know that I should finish this. I should put a bullet in her head and put this disaster of a night behind me. But I can’t. There is something irresistible about this puzzling girl, and I can’t help but be intrigued.

S
he’s wild and untamed. So much so that I surprise myself by choosing not to walk away from the car. It would be far easier for me to just take her out. But no. I want her to explain in detail who she is and what the fuck she was after from my employer. She doesn’t know it but she’s about to be mine in every way possible.

She’s trying not to moan but even now
I can hear her soft sounds of distress. I couldn’t risk losing her during the pursuit, so I took out her rear tire with my Sig Sauer. She should’ve listened to me when I told her to ‘stop’ earlier. Then I wouldn’t have to deal with this fucked up mess.

The fact that she broke through the guard rail was unexpected
, but at least she seems to have made it through the crash. She’d better not have any serious injuries because a hospital is the last fucking place she’s headed.

I
crouch beside her window. “Vi ste moja sadasnja, princeza.”
You’re mine now, princess
.

I
feel it’s only fair to inform her of her fate. I decide to switch to English, wanting to be certain that she understands me clearly so she doesn’t fight back while I retrieve her from the wreckage.

“Hold still now.”

From what I can see of her face through her silky blonde hair, she seems to be teetering on the edge of blacking out; her grass-green eyes are unfocused, her breathing shallow. Her fresh-faced, golden glow has faded into a pale shadow of her earlier radiance, probably because of the blood loss. She seems to have a deep gash on her arm, and I can see that she is bruised and battered. Her small, feminine mouth opens as if she is going to protest, but she shuts it rather than question me. My eyes linger on her lips, which are plump and rosy.

She understood
me, though. I can tell by the way her trembling increased after I spoke to her. I’m aware of how thick my accent is when I speak in English, so it’s good that she’s paying attention.

Before I retrieve her from the car,
I remain crouched to assess the damage before taking any action. I always think my plans through before acting on them. That is simply my way.

Realizing th
at I will have to lie flat on my stomach amid the crushed safety glass in order to get her out, I maneuver my large frame down with caution and work my upper body inside the car. I can feel cuts on my hands from the debris. They barely register to me. I’ve crawled across worse. Far worse.

The girl i
s completely terrified. I watch her tremble, and her fear is so intense that I can nearly smell it on her. Even in this state, she is so gorgeous. Fighting back the torrent of lust that’s flowing hotly through my body, from her delicate floral scent to that silky blonde hair, I push hard against the seat belt latch at her hip. Nothing. Thinking that it’s jammed, I reach into my interior suit pocket and pull out a black Gerber tactical folding knife.

The weapon opens with a smooth snick as it locks into place, and a
small gasp comes from my pretty prey. The blade glints perilously close to her porcelain face. If I had a sense of humor, I might smile right about now. She’s so frightened of me, as well she should be. I’m a stone cold killer. I have been ever since I was sixteen years old.

Whether she likes it or not
, my beautiful little captive is going to learn a tough lesson in obedience. I’ve always been aroused by a challenge. I’ve always taken the hard road and over time I’ve even learned to yearn for it.

***

“You’re mine now, princess. Hold still now.” His deep, bass voice is hard to understand, but I catch the meaning.
Please, please make it quick!
That’s all I can hope for as he slowly works his head and those impossibly wide shoulders inside the car.

T
he deadly knife comes forward out of his breast pocket. He opens it with a practiced motion and my shaking increases tenfold.
Where is he going to stick me with the awful serrated instrument? The throat? My chest?
I try my best to hold still, not knowing what else to do. I’m sure as hell not about to beg him to spare me. I’m far too proud for that.

I feel
a strong tug and then a back and forth motion against my hip. He’s cutting me out of the jammed seatbelt, not stabbing me to death with his gruesome weapon. I nearly sob out loud in gratitude. As the belt gives way there is nowhere to go but down, and I fall directly onto him in the dark confines of the wrecked space.

“Ugh, oh!” I can’t
help but cry out pitifully as the cuts along my arms and my wrist explodes in agony. I definitely must have sprained it during the crash.

I moan
pathetically, the pain all-consuming, yet he says nothing to me as I try in vain to shift my weight off his imposing frame. Before I know it, his arms are around me and he’s swiftly working us through the small space to the outside of the car.

It’s too dark to see b
ut I know that I’m bleeding significantly. I can smell the metallic scent of my blood and feel the wet stickiness on me. I’m lightheaded but I’m uncertain whether it’s from being banged about during the crash or the blood loss.

A primal part of my brain tells me to use the last reserves of my a
drenaline and try to run, to hide somewhere within the darkness. I push up slowly with my good hand and do my best to scramble back away from him, but I’m as weak as a kitten and mindful of my injuries. He has me in the steel trap of his arms. To my dismay, I get nowhere.

I shudder inwardly
, thinking that even on my best day, and with two functioning hands, it would be a challenge to break away. This guy’s a fighter. That’s crystal clear.

F
ading fast, I waver on the precipice of unconsciousness. I breathe in the cold air while fighting to stay lucid.

Damn
, I bet he’s going to take me straight back to Juric, and they’re going to torture the hell out of me until they get the truth. Either that, or give him the sick satisfaction of watching me die a slow death. That’s what’s done to spies who are unlucky enough to get caught with their mitts in the cookie jar, right? I was fully aware of worst case scenario when I agreed to this assignment. And man, this is it, without a doubt.

Before I can blink
, he’s standing upright and has pulled me along with him. In seconds I’m pressed firmly against his torso, like a floppy rag doll. My world tilts sideways as he lifts me up into his strong arms. With no words exchanged between us, he swiftly eats up the distance between us and his car.

“N
-no,” I manage to sputter as I try to shift out of his grasp.

A
tighter hold is all he offers. I’m an optimist by nature but I’m not dense.
This is bad.
I’m doomed. I can’t hold on much longer, and soon I pass out.

***

It’s a damned good thing that I live for order and duty because if there was ever a temptation to relinquish my tight control, this stunningly beautiful creature would certainly be it. Pushing the heady thought aside, I jog with her held tightly in my arms back up the incline to the Maserati. Cops or curious civilians will soon notice the broken guardrail, and I don’t need any additional fucking complications tonight.

I
grabbed her small black purse, fairly sure that this was all she had with her. If not, everything else is staying inside the crushed car. She has all that she fled the mansion with tonight and that’s all that matters to me.

There is no way that she could have ma
de it more than a foot or two on her own. She’s clearly disoriented from the crash and the blood loss is only adding to her weakened state. I feel how cold she is and bring her in closer to my body as I round the shredded guardrail.

S
he’s compliant for the moment, which is a relief. After her one small objection she realized there was no escape. Her left wrist is sprained badly. She cried out in pain when I dislodged her and it’s clear that she favors the swollen wrist. The deep cut on her arm needs tending to. She’ll have to wait until I have time to tend to both, which will unfortunately be over an hour from now. I’m not worried. She’ll make it.

At this point
I’m uncertain of the extent of her training. I’ll get that out of her soon enough. She’s confident to the point of arrogance, but that’s innate, not taught. She must have some sort of martial arts background. One of my guards phoned my mobile while I was in pursuit to inform me that she had used a sleeper hold to choke Juric out and that the boss was pissed as fuck that she’d tricked him.

He wants her dead
, or at the very least returned to him immediately so he can handle her himself. Neither will be happening. Not tonight. Not on my watch.

As I place
her in the passenger seat of the car, I realize that I’ll need to come up with a cover story to explain why she was inside of it. The blood attests to the fact she was in my possession.

She fad
es in and out as I lean across her slim frame to buckle her in. She’s not tense with fear anymore. She’s too out of it to register that emotion.

Before rounding the car
, I turn to hit the camera icon on my iPhone. After taking several images of both the demolished rail and car resting below, I feel confident that Juric is going to believe my story.

After s
liding into the driver’s seat, I rip out onto the highway and speed across the city toward a nearby abandoned lot. There I can stem the bleeding on her arm. That’s all that can be done until I get her back to my home, which lies near the Bosnia and Herzegovina border.

My
ancestral home is deep within a forest on the outskirts of the Plitvice Lakes National Park. Plitvice is famous throughout Europe for its multitude of waterfalls and clear lakes. In my opinion, it’s the most unique and beautiful place on the planet. It is also exceedingly isolated.

There she will be secure. Even Juric
has no concept of where I live. I’m just as cautious, if not more so, with my own personal security. My brother and I wouldn’t still be alive if I wasn’t.

***

A warm, weighted touch on my bare shoulder brings me around. My eyes open and I see that we are in the parking lot of a dilapidated warehouse. Two starving stray dogs amble past the misty beams of the headlights.

As I l
ift my eyes to connect with his, I’m sternly told, “Don’t make a sound.”

I nod once, too
weak and frightened to do anything else. I watch as he hits a button on his mobile. Someone speaks first but it’s too faint for me to hear. Zoran listens and then replies, his voice firm with terse confidence. “
Da, mrtva je
.” Yes, she’s dead.

Fighting tears
, I begin to tremble at his horrific statement. Realizing from my reaction that I understood him, Zoran immediately clamps a firm hand across my mouth. I wouldn’t have made a sound, but he really must not want the person on the phone to hear me.
Is it Juric?

My eye
s flare open in panic and try to meet his, but he’s staring straight ahead, obviously very focused. I listen as he finishes a conversation that my brain is too freaked out to properly translate. Zoran’s face is mostly in shadows, making him appear even more ominous, if that’s possible. He hits the disconnect button on the touch screen and slowly removes his hand from my lips. I slink back against the door, thinking that he’s about to make good on his statement.

“Don’t move.”

He has his hand on his door handle and is outside of the car before I can manage a reply.

Shit, shit!
So not good, Carew. Think!

My options are
few, and my hope for escape is next to none at this point.

There has to be a solution. Every problem has one
, right? Calm down and think ….

What he does next makes me quest
ion his sanity. I peek nervously out of the driver’s side window as he quickly and efficiently strips off his suit jacket, followed by his tie and dress shirt. He lays them out on the roof of the Maserati and proceeds to whip his short-sleeved, white cotton t-shirt over his head.