Indulgence (346 page)

“I’ve heard a little about an undercover operation going on
involving the Scorpions.”

“You are correct.”

“I’m friendly with a SEAL who is personally related, not
involved, mind you, but related to the gang.”

“You must mean Armando Guzman.”

“Exactly. I’ve met Mia a couple of times. She’s a real
firecracker. And with Armando, her brother, a SEAL, I imagine he’s going to
want to interfere.”

“That would be understating it.”

“
I
don’t want to interfere.”

“Yes. So, what’s your point?”

“I think he’s just helped you with your sweep.”

“Come again?” Kozinski didn’t think he had enough luck left
for this.

“Carlos tried to make a deal and the SEALs took him down.
You’ve got men down there at the harbor making the arrests now. ”

“They killed him?”

“Fuck, no. He’s sitting in the back seat of a patrol car
with his wrists and ankles tied together like an animal ready for slaughter.
I’d prefer that Guzman not get any grief for this.”

“He can have a tickertape parade, as far as I’m concerned.
He’s still at the scene? We let the arresting officers make the determination.”

“Surely he’s not a target.”

“He will be if he doesn’t stop inserting himself.”

Kozinski took down the address of the boat just as his other
phone began to ring. He knew that number to be the officers in charge.

Kozinski wondered where Gina was in all this. And he’d not
heard that Sam was a part of any of the arrests, not that he was supposed to
be. “Clark, I have a question for you. Is Gina Mancuso with them there?”

“Um, no. I don’t think so. I mean, Armando didn’t mention
her. Why?”

“She’s my undercover. Just thought maybe she was there.”
Kozinski wasn’t completely comfortable giving out this information, but with
most of the gang rounded up, and Carlos under wraps, he needed to get word to
her as soon as possible.

“If she is, I’ll have her give you a call,” Riverton
answered.

“No sir, I’ll call her myself. Thanks. And don’t tell
Armando I’m delighted he got Carlos, or he’ll be thinking he can moonlight
between deployments.”

“Wouldn’t be such a bad thing now, would it?” Riverton
chuckled.

“I think he does just fine at his current job.”

Kozinski called his senior task force officer back and was
briefed on the shipboard arrests. He hoped it wouldn’t get too messy for the
SEALs, who had probably stopped a firefight from the sounds of it. He was
actually starting to feel pretty good until he tried several times to get hold
of Gina, who was normally very good about answering his calls.

Gina awoke in a tiny, darkened room. She had no idea how
long she’d been sleeping, but her internal clock said she’d slept all night.
And hard. She mentally checked herself out. She was lying on a bed with…how
odd, with silk sheets. Nothing seemed to be hurt or missing. Her clothes were
still intact, although she was barefoot. She was unbound, but her wrists and
ankles hurt as if she had been tied up. She examined a red ring that was
especially tender around her right wrist.

The bed she was sleeping on had dark silk sheets, which
seemed very odd. She remembered hearing crying and then realized that’s what
woke her up.

It’s the sounds of my own weeping!

Crossing to the doorway, she found herself in the duplex
Tito led her to last night. In the daytime it didn’t look nearly as dangerous.
She listened for signs of anyone else and heard shuffling. The echoes of her
own voice had stopped. When she turned, she recognized Tito’s body, even though
the head was missing.

Gina’s stomach began to lurch. She felt dizzy.

“Come here, baby.” Sam’s chest appeared from the shadows. It
was streaked with sweat and dried, dark burgundy blood. A clump of what looked
like brain matter stuck to one of the loops of his belt. His eyes had that
vacant and hungry look he used to show her just before he trussed her all up
like a chicken at a Chinese market.

She pitched forward and heaved contents of her stomach,
nearly covering his boots.

“That’s it, baby. Get it all out. Everything’s over now.
You’re safe. I’ve got you and I’m never letting go.”

Then it hit her. He was completely telling the truth. Sam
would never let her go. He wasn’t the man she thought she knew at all. He was
someone who wanted to own her in every sense of the word. She knew she was in
mortal danger.

She ran across the dirty living room floor in her bare feet,
stepping on sharp pieces of glass and something metallic, but she kept on
running. She was looking for a doorway, for a way out. She stopped and vomited
all over her toes. When she looked up, she found an opening to what she hoped
was an exit.

Where was Sam?

She’d found a bathroom that was surprisingly clean. She fell
to her knees and worshiped the white toilet bowl, which smelled almost
pleasantly of cleaner. She heaved another round. Then she heard Sam come up
behind her. He turned on the faucet and she saw a clear glass of water handed
to her.

Before she could take it, she lurched again, but there
wasn’t anything left in her stomach. The dry heave was painful. Her head was
pounding. She should have felt happy her captor had been killed, but why was
Sam there?

She looked up and grabbed the water glass anyway. She needed
it. The water tasted heavenly. Sam’s stubby fingers were caked with a
combination of dirt and dark red ooze. But he didn’t hesitate to smooth his
callused palms over her shoulders, neck and down her arms as she drank her
fill.

After she finished, he took the glass from her and lifted
her by the waist, pulling her backside into his groin where she felt his
erection as she slid down when he let her feet touch the ground. He didn’t
remove his hands.

The room was spinning from her quick change of position. She
wondered why Sam didn’t put a blanket around her and she began to shiver.

“Let’s get you cleaned up, and then I’m going to tend to
you.”

He tried to sound gentle, but the huskiness of his voice was
ringing all the bells and alarms in her head. The man had devious intentions,
and though she wanted to protest, allowed herself to be led to a sparkling
white-tiled shower.

Steam began to fill the small bathroom.

Out of a fog she heard her own words, “I need to get home. I
have to make some calls,” she said with effort.

“They all know about it. I called it in.”

“But Sam, this doesn’t make sense. They’re going to have to
interview me. I can’t wash away all the evidence. And where’s Carlos?”

“Evidence?” His eyes were tiny slits as he licked his lips.
She thought he was going to kiss her he got so close, but he deflected at the
last minute and whispered into her ear, “We don’t need no evidence to convict
that sonofabitch. I blew his head clean off.”

She did remember the way Tito’s head looked like an exploded
ripe melon and she started to feel the sharp pain in her stomach again. Where
were Carlos and Mia? Was there anybody else?

She wrinkled her nose; the tips of her fingers began to feel
funny, too. “Why—why am I taking a shower?” she asked as she was led to the
steamy opening. Fuzzy cotton balls were bouncing around in her brain. She
recalled something about his appearance…oh yes, the brains on his pants. The
fact that he had no shirt on. She heard the tinkling of a belt buckle.

And now he has no pants, either. We are both naked. Is he
going to hurt me?

Yes. She remembered thinking that just a couple of minutes
ago. She held onto the wall behind her, only to find out it was his chest.

“Yes, baby, I’m here.”

“Why? Why did you—?”

“Because I had to save you.” He pressed himself against her.
“Come, let’s get clean. Then I’m gonna help you heal.”

“What happened to Mia? Where is she?” she whispered.

“I don’t know, but it turns out Tito was running his own
little scheme.”

“Tito? He’s just a kid.”

“I found a boatload of money on him. I think he was going to
sell you, sweetheart. If I hadn’t come, you’d be in Mexico already.”

It still didn’t make sense. “I’m dizzy. Something’s wrong. I
need a doctor.”

“I’m your doctor. I can fix what ails you now.”

Her head rolled back and onto his massive shoulder. Smelling
of sweat and death, he supported her back and head, lifting her over the lip of
the shower pan by her waist.

The water felt wonderful. She leaned into it and lost her
balance, but he caught her from behind and turned her around. Putting her under
the warm spray, she laid her head against his chest. She was suddenly calm, and
very tired. But it felt nice to be sheathed in the warm liquid.

“There you go. I’m gonna take good care of you, Gina. I’m
gonna love out all the rough parts until you won’t even remember this entire
nightmare. You’ll see. We will heal each other.”

She started to lift her head up but found she didn’t have
the strength. She smelled shower gel and the touch of his hands rubbing against
her back, her bottom and on the backs of her upper thighs. She couldn’t help but
lay against him as he leaned back, bracing her cheek on his shoulder, holding
her with one arm under the spray, rubbing her anus and crevice between her legs
from behind. She was losing consciousness, but she thought perhaps he inserted
a finger there just before the room went black.

Coming to, she realized she was back in the tiny dark room.
Her head hurt like hell, and when she tried to sit up she found she was fully
restrained. A collar around her neck held her down. Her arms hurt where they’d
been secured with velvet-covered handcuffs to the straight metal bedframe. She
tried to struggle, but it was useless. Her ankles were also immobilized with
hard steel cuffs. Her sex was wide open for anyone to see. Trying to
concentrate on her body and her breathing, she couldn’t find anything wrong,
and she didn’t think she’d been raped.

Yet.

She’d been fixed up for someone’s sick pleasure.

And she knew who that someone would be. A camera on a tripod
blinked with an eerie red light. She was being recorded.

“Sam?” she cried out. There was no answer. She remembered
the shower and it felt like her hair was still wet. “Sam!” she shouted. She
heard running footsteps coming down wooden stairs.

The door cracked open and a golden sliver of light
illuminated the hallway behind him. She could see enough of him to make out
that he was wearing leather chaps framing his thick hard-on, with a black mask
covering his eyes. He also wore long-sleeved plastic gloves that made a
crinkling noise. And he was barefoot.

“What’s going on here, Sam? Let me go.”

He responded by shushing her, then kneeling on the bed. He
grabbed his cock and stroked himself as he looked down on her. The fingers of
his gloves were peppered with small bumps and ridges she could hear traveling
over his flesh. She couldn’t see clearly, but thought maybe she could hear
evidence he’d covered himself with lube cream. Or he’d come. Either way, she
was disgusted. This was sick and twisted. She was in serious danger, because
she knew she would have to fight him, and what Sam had in mind might cause
pain, even death. But no way was she going to be a willing participant.

“Sam, no. Don’t do this,” she pleaded. “It’s not too late.
I’m not into this at all—”

“Hey baby, it takes some getting used to, but you’re gonna
purr like a kitten.”

“Stop it. Stop it now.”

Sam abruptly ended his self-fondling and straddled her hips,
bending over and placing a large, musk-scented paw over her mouth. “Shut the
fuck up or I’ll do it to you gagged and fully bound. Or is that how you want
it, baby?”

Not. Your. Baby.

She bit his hand and didn’t let go until he slapped her
across the face so hard she felt like he might have fractured her cheekbone.
She saw stars.

“I’m gonna take you, with or without your fuckin’
permission, Gina. You’re mine. You belong to me.”

He got up, adjusting himself, and walked into the bathroom.
From what little she could see, he held something in his right hand. Something
small.

And then she felt the pinprick of a needle in her arm. A
warm glow traveled instantly all over her body and her limbs felt like rubber.

“Yes, baby, let it come to you. You like?”

Seconds later, she was drooling on the pillow, unable to say
anything. She worked hard to keep her eyes open. Her headache went away,
replaced by a haze that left her powerless to do anything to help herself

So this is how it ends. Captured, forced to do things.
Maybe he’s already done them. I must stay alive to see to it he doesn’t get
away with it. Stay alive to—to see—Armando. Where is Armando?

She began to mumble. He was fondling her sex with the ridged
glove, probing and tickling her. She had to say something to make him stop. Or,
if there was a chance, maybe, pass out so she wouldn’t have to remember what he
was going to do to her. That would be better. Nothing else she could do, so she
used the only tool she had left.

Her spirit.

Her tongue was thick but she managed to groan, mumbling
words in a gurgling whisper.

“What’s that, baby? You like my little foreplay? Did he ever
do this to you, honey? I think not. I think I got there just in time. Tito
coulda fucked you up real good. But I figured it out. He had his own little
angle going. So sorry it was almost too late, but I’ve got you now. I saved
you, sweet Gina. You’re a lucky girl, Gina. I’m here now.”

She tried to force out the words. She was beginning to lose
consciousness. She had to do it now or it would be too late.

“Mmm. Mmm,” she groaned.

He leaned over her mouth to listen. She felt the soft hairs
of his ear brush against her lips so she opened them just enough to be able to
bite down on the velvety cartilage of his right ear.