Protected by Shadows (36 page)

The sun had barely peeked over the mountains when someone stood at her doorway.

“Get up,” he barked.

She slowly rolled off the narrow mattress and walked toward him. “Is there a place I can wash up?”

“This isn’t a hotel,” he sneered.

“No shit, Sherlock,” she retorted. “No hotel would be caught dead with piss-poor accommodations like this.”

He stepped closer and shoved one thick finger in her face. “Be careful, girly. There are ways you can get hurt around here that Trevor will never know ab—”

She stared at him as he sank to the ground clutching his balls, face a mottled red as he fought the tears leaking from the corners of his eyes. “Don’t threaten me,” she said, her drawl thick with anger. “And don’t put your fuckin’ finger in my face.”

Lexy stepped over him and went outside. The early morning was cool and she was grateful to at least have pants on. A longer-sleeved shirt would have been nice, but she wasn’t too bad. Through the growing light, she could see people moving around and beginning their day. Wherever they were, the people here had stuff down to an art—everything looked like it was running smoothly.

“I’ll make you pay for that, bitch.”

“Get in line. I have to go to the bathroom.”

She headed off in that direction, the man behind her muttering under his breath. Lexy was more alert today and paid a lot more attention to things as she went through the camp. Still, she was unable to figure out where she was. Some people had accents and some didn’t. After she visited the latrine, she used the gel she’d gotten from the other guy.

“Trevor wants to see you.” The man pointed her where he wanted her to go.

She spent the walk across the compound telling herself to mind her tongue and not piss off this lead psychopath. He nudged her none too gently inside a building, shoved her in a seat then moved to position himself by the door.

The room looked like it was a dining hall. Long rows of tables and numerous chairs. She could smell food cooking and her stomach rumbled.

“Hungry?”

Trevor moved up from behind her silently. It bothered her that she’d not heard him coming.

“Yes.”

“Would you like something to eat?”

Her caustic retort dangled from the tip of her tongue. It took her a second to insure it didn’t slip free. “Yes, I would.”

Trevor waved her up from the seat and she followed him into a kitchen she never would have expected to see out here. It was pristine, filled with stainless steel appliances, and huge. Four people worked in there together making breakfast.

“Good morning,” Trevor said.

“Morning, sir.” They all answered together. They looked at her but didn’t speak, just went about their business.

He handed her a plate and encouraged her along. She scooped out hot scrambled eggs, toast and hash browns. They had fresh fruit and, bless them, coffee. When it came to the silverware, he plucked the metal from her hands and gave her plastic. She was so hungry she didn’t care.

Trevor guided her to a table and sat. “Sit,” he said. She did. “We say grace here.”

She lowered her head and said a prayer about being rescued. Quickly. Then dug into her food with relish.

“It’s not so bad here,” Trevor said around a bite of his toast.

“Wasn’t bad for me at my house, which apparently I don’t have any more now thanks to you and your people.”

His fingers curved about his coffee mug. “That was John’s doing. He obviously is dead. You saw me take his life.”

“You killed him,” she agreed.
Without a single shred of remorse.

“You will stay with—” He broke off as a door across from the one she’d entered through opened and another woman entered.

Lexy couldn’t believe how pale her skin was. She looked like a geisha doll, given how white her skin was and the jet black of her hair. She wasn’t Asian, but that was Lexy’s first thought. The nearer she got, Lexy took in the incredible china blue of her eyes. Beautiful in an eerie and freaky sense.

That gaze focused on her and although nothing changed on her face, Lexy knew this was his number one woman. Or wife. Whatever they wanted to call themselves. And she’d just been marked as the enemy.

“Good morning, love. Have you met the newest addition to the family? This is Lexy. Alexsa Cassano.”

Blue eyes widened slightly and Lexy sat there tense, waiting for her to do something. Apparently this woman knew of Valentino as well. She looked from Lexy to Trevor and back again.

Trevor’s laugh was cold and chilling. “You guessed it. She’s the new wife of Valentino. And I’m going to have so much fun taking another from him.”

Lexy didn’t watch Trevor, she kept her attention on the woman. The anger in her eyes was the warning Lexy didn’t want to ignore. There was nothing in them when he looked at the doll-like woman, only when his focus was elsewhere.

Trevor looked at Lexy and said, “Hurry up and finish. She’s going to put you to work.”

Great. This isn’t going to go well. Not for me anyway.
Lexy ate and finished her coffee then stood and trailed the woman outside. They were followed by the man with the rifle. This mysterious woman moved like a model, all grace and poise. But she never spoke.

Lexy was taller yet she wasn’t ready to let down her guard. Not at all. They approached a pen that held several hogs. The silent woman pushed her and she stumbled into the railing, falling in to the muck.

Furious, Lexy bounded up and reached over the wood to yank the woman in with her. “Don’t you fuckin’ push me into shit like this again!” she yelled at the woman who was fighting to regain her feet.

She finally made it, hog waste and mud mixture all over her dress. Those blue eyes shot lightning, but Lexy didn’t care. She’d had enough of this and wasn’t going to put up with it. The man holding the rifle lifted the other woman out and placed her on the hard ground.

People had gathered and at the back, Lexy saw Trevor making his way through the gawkers. He stared at his woman then looked at Lexy. A slight shake of his head.

“Bring her.” He turned on his heels and walked off.

“Come on,” rifleman said.

Stepping over the rails, Lexy shook some of the mud off, smirking to herself when it splattered a few people. This had to be the end for her but damn it, she hadn’t been able to control her fury at being shoved into a bunch of hog shit.
If you’re alive and coming for me, Val, now would be a
really
great time to show up. Just saying.

She was taken to the back of a building. Trevor stood there pointing at a shower, which was reminiscent of the systems she’d seen at beaches—she’d have to pull the chain for water to come out.

“Strip,” he ordered. “And get cleaned up.”

She almost argued but knew she’d end up naked anyway. Might as well do it herself. Stepping to the showerhead, she faced away from the men and took her smelly clothes off then pulled the chain. Warm water streamed over her. There was soap and shampoo beside her and she made use of them.

Shutting out the fact there were at least two men behind her watching, she got all the muck and grime of the past few days off. A towel was handed to her as she finished and she gratefully wrapped it around her. Then she turned to face Trevor. He leaned against a tree and was using the tip of his huge knife to clean under his nails.

“Thank you for the shower.”

He barely glanced at her. Another woman entered the area, carrying a stack of clothing. This woman set them beside her, shot her a glare and left without saying a word.

Must be another wife.
Her own clothes had been removed while she’d showered so she put these on. She bypassed the underwear but put on the bra. The jeans were a little big for her but they were clean and dry so she was good with it. The shirt was worn but also clean. She wrung out her hair as best she could and let it hang over her shoulder. She wasn’t given socks or shoes.

Trevor approached her and backhanded her to the ground before she knew what was coming. Blood dripped into her mouth and she wiped it away.

“You ever do something like that again and I’ll kill you.”

Lexy got to her feet and defiantly spat blood to the ground. “Tell her to not be pushing me into shit, and we’ll be fine.” If he was going to kill her, there wasn’t anything she could do about it. Why be anything she wasn’t meant to be?

He stepped up to her so their toes met. “Don’t mistake me for a nice guy, Lexy. I’ll let you in on a secret. I enjoy torturing people, brings me a thrill not even sex can meet. And the thought of having you to work on makes my cock hard with anticipation. You keep pissing my people off and I’ll forget I want you as my wife and put you on a table for what it is I love to do.” He sheathed his knife. “And while you’re tied up, I’ll kill every dog in front of you. Slowly, so they suffer. You won’t be able to close your eyes and look away. I’ll tape or sew your lids open. You’ll watch me gut them. Skin them. And do other things to them.”

Bile rushed up and she battled it back. This man was certifiable. “Leave the dogs alone. I’ll be good.”
Although if you want Val so bad, I don’t think you’d kill me. Then again, you’re not exactly stable in the head.

His nod was knowing. “Answer something for me,” he said in a calm voice as if he’d never just threatened what he had. Or in his case, promised.

“What’s that?”

“Why does it not bother you if I threaten a person but it does a dog?”

She mulled over her answer. “Honestly?”

“Yes.”

“The people made a choice to be here with you. So I don’t give a damn what happens to them, they’re buying into this shit you’re selling. The dogs don’t have a choice of who they’re with.”

“You care more for animals than people.”

“Generally speaking, yes. It’s why I became a vet.” She walked beside him, trying to avoid painful things digging into her feet.

“You will work here for the day. Listen to Maya and do as she says. You know what will happen if you disobey again.” He gestured to the woman who’d brought her clothing then left. She had her hair braided and wore a dress.

The woman also backhanded her, but Lexy remained standing. She saw Trevor watching her.

“You will wish you’d never pushed her into that.”

Lexy narrowed her gaze. “And you’ll wish you hadn’t hit me.” She spat out more blood. “Going to have to hit better than that if you want to bother me.”

“Get to work.”

She didn’t need to ask what they were doing. Harvesting vegetables. This she could do no problem. “Where do I start?”

Maya handed her a basket and pointed where she needed to go. There were others in there working already. All of them looked at her with distrust.
This is going to be awesome
, her brain remarked sarcastically.

Chapter Twenty-Two

“Valentino! Valentino!” Gio hollered as he ran toward him.

He pushed away from the quiet helicopter and watched his brother approach. The man had his cell phone up to his ear and a huge-ass grin on his face.

“What?”

He was tired and cranky. The UAVs hadn’t worked. The forests had been too dense in some parts for the thermal imaging to get a good read. In some places it had worked awesomely—came up empty but worked awesomely.

“Get Masters on the phone, we have a lead.”

His heart tripped and he shook his head. “What are you talking about?”

“Your wife sent mine an email.”

Lord, he wanted to be optimistic, but everything in him screamed it was a setup. “Trap?”

Gio gave him a smile. “Not a chance. This is how they communicated when Jaydee was at Annapolis.”

“Where is she? What did she say?” He gripped his brother’s arm and shook him slightly.

“The email had one word on it. Your name. Jaydee’s tracing where the IP address came from.”

“I love your wife, man. Tell her I owe her whatever she wants. It’s on me.”

Gio nodded and went back to the call. Valentino did as he’d suggested and put his own through to Masters.

“What do you have, Cassano?” Masters asked immediately.

“She found a way to contact someone. They’re tracing the address now. We’ll be airborne the moment we get the location.”

“You tell me where and I’ll send in troops.” Papers shuffling. “You need to wait for everyone to be in place, so it can be a well-timed attack.”

“My wife is in there, Masters. I’m not waiting for anything.”

“Be rational about this.”

“I’ve not been rational since she was taken and I won’t be until I have her back. I have the best pilot with me”—Gio thrust his shoulders back and smirked—“or the second best,” he amended just to annoy Gio. “And I know what I’m doing.”

“I’m nearly there.”

Valentino frowned. “Nearly where?”

“To where you are.”

“You’re coming here?”

“Yes. And this is a direct order. You wait for me.”

“Why are you coming here?”