Sexual Games [The Heroes of Silver Springs 8] (Siren Publishing Classic) (24 page)

Yeah, Cameron doubted it, too. He also knew there was no way anyone could get her out of that building without them seeing. Only two doors led in or out of the place, and they had their eyes on both.

“She and that Betty chick are probably talking shop. Mallory will draw it out as long as she can, ask every question she can think of that won’t raise suspicion trying to find out what happened to those women. All we can do is sit here and wait.”

Fuck.
Cameron hated waiting. Patience had never been one of his virtues, though he was forced to utilize it all the time on the job.

“All right,” he reluctantly agreed. “But if she’s not out by noon, you’re going in.”

“Damn right I am.”

They fell silent, watching, freaking waiting. Cameron forced himself not to look at the clock, keeping his gaze trained on the building door, scanning the area for activity as the minutes ticked by.

“Son of a bitch.” Tarantino broke the silence, alarm heavy in his tone. “Are you seeing this?”

Cameron spotted it at the same time Tarantino did. He gripped the steering wheel and leaned forward, angling his head to see the top of the building through the windshield. Smoke, stark black and thick, had started seeping through the roof.

“Fuck, the damn place is on fire.” Tarantino swore again, and Cameron heard a rustling sound through the cellular waves.

Cameron bolted out of the SUV and started running across the street. “Call the fire department,” he ordered Tarantino. “I’m going in.”

Heart pounding out of his chest, fear for Mallory surging through his veins, he reached the front door of Stardust, wrenched it open…

And found himself face-to-face with a wall of flames.

* * * *

Mallory gritted her teeth against the pain shooting through her shoulder blades. She stiffened reflexively as the van hit a pothole and her body bounced on the unforgiving metal floor. Forbes had taken her out of the club via some sort of underground passage that ended in the field where she had picked up Jackson a few nights ago. Bruno and the other goon had been waiting there for them with the van.

Forbes had shoved her in the back of the van, pushed her to the floor, and tied her hands and ankles together. Naked, cold, and scared out of her wits, though she would never let them know it, she lay there now, her mind reeling.

Forbes had ordered the goon to wait until they saw the first signs of smoke coming from the club before they sped away. Betty had argued about leaving Kenneth Reese behind and had gotten smacked hard enough for it to be heard for her trouble.

Mallory couldn’t see where the van had come out of the field, but she suspected it was somewhere out of sight of where Cameron and Tarantino were parked. Without the GPS on her ankle, they wouldn’t know she had been taken from the building until the fire was put out.

“That was probably the stupidest thing you could’ve done.” It hurt to talk, but she did it anyway. She swallowed, wincing at the pain in her throat. It felt scratchy, bruised, but she didn’t think Forbes had done any permanent damage when he had choked her. “You murdered at least two people back there.”

“Kenneth will take the fall for it.” Forbes sat on the bench seat lining the sidewall of the van, his elbows on his knees as he hovered over her, a larger menace than the devil himself. He smiled, a devious tilt to his lips that sent an evil fear down her spine. “If he managed to make it out alive.”

“You set him up. No one is going to believe that fire started accidentally.”

“Of course they won’t. But they will believe a jilted cop went crazy after learning about the death of his girlfriend and sought revenge. Did you know Carl Jordan was fucking Erin Griffin, too? They’re both getting what they had coming. They should have kept their hands off of her. She belonged to me.”

“Is that why you killed her?” Mallory’s head spun as she tried to piece it together. Had Forbes been in love with Erin Griffin, too? Why was Kenneth Reese still following his orders? None of it made any sense.

“Kenneth Reese killed her.” His smile turned sardonic. “Although, I did hold a gun to his head while he tortured her. She screamed and pleaded for her life. It was a truly classic sight. I wish you had been there to see it.”

Bile rose in Mallory’s throat. Forbes talked about Erin’s death as if it had been something fun, a spectator sport where he had been the victor. The changes in him were almost instantaneous. The night she met him, she had somehow known he was dangerous, but she hadn’t suspected for a second that he was insane. Back in the office, he had seemed in control. He still did, but something inside him had obviously snapped somewhere along the line. Had ordering Erin’s death, watching as she had been tortured beyond recognition, done that to him? Had it lit a fuse that waited until now to detonate?

“Where are you taking me?” Mallory shifted and tried to sit up, but the van picked that moment to make a sharp turn and she fell onto her back again. She briefly closed her eyes on the pain that shot through her head, solar plexus, and belly. Forbes had done some damage with his powerful kicks, though she didn’t know how much. He hadn’t broken a rib. She was sure of that, but he had definitely bruised a few.

“Somewhere private where you and I can finish what you started in the office.” He reached for her. She attempted to scoot away from his touch, but the floor of the van didn’t offer enough space. He circled her right breast with a fingertip.

Please, God, no.

“I told you I have plans for you.” His finger trailed down her abdomen, her stomach, lower.

“Don’t touch me, you bastard.” She tried to buck away, lifting her bent knees both to shield her pussy and in hopes of somehow hitting him. She had to fight back. She couldn’t simply lie here while he pawed at her, while he…
Oh, God
. She didn’t want to think what he might do next.

She saw the back of his hand flying toward her face right before he backhanded her. Stars exploded in her vision. Her cheek screamed. Her teeth bit into her tongue at the blow, and the sweet, metallic taste of blood filled her mouth. She spit it in his face.

Fury filled his eyes as he wiped the spit from his face. “You bitch.” He caught her nipple, pinched and twisted it until she cried out from the sharp pain. “You’re in no position to make demands.” He reached for her other nipple and delivered the same punishing pinch.

Involuntary tears leaked from Mallory’s eyes. Her back lifted off the floor of the van and she bit back the pleas she knew would only give him satisfaction.

“You spit at me again, you try to hit me again, and what I do to you in just a little while will be far worse than anything you can imagine.”

“You can’t harm her, Wade.” Betty’s stern voice came from the front of the van where she sat between Bruno and the goon. “Our buyers don’t want damaged girls.”

“She will heal, just like Lexie did. Then we’ll put her up in a private auction.”

He released Mallory’s nipples and her chest heaved. The fire in her breasts made it hard to control her breathing.

“I’ve decided not to let Lexie’s master have her.” One hand flattened between her breasts, and he slid it down between her legs to cup her pussy. “We’ll get more for this body than he has in any bank account.”

“That body belongs to an FBI agent,” Betty reminded him crossly. “We need to get rid of her as fast as possible. She’s right about one thing, you fucked up back there. You handed Kenneth Reese to the damn feds on a red-hot platter.”

“They won’t find her.” The confidence in Forbes’s tone was almost enough to send a death-nail through Mallory’s hopes.

They
would
find her. She believed that in her soul. But would they find her before it was too late?

* * * *

“Where is she, Toshie?” Cooper punched the gas pedal of his SUV and flew through a stale yellow light at top-notch speed. He weaved through traffic, narrowly missing the rear bumper of a car as he swerved into the opposite lane to go around.

“She’s still in Stardust, sir.” Toshie’s voice filled the SUV through Cooper’s phone set on speaker mode. “She hasn’t left that building.”

Fear, red-hot and all consuming, tightened around Jackson’s heart. He exchanged a worried glance with Cooper then leaned forward in his seat for a better view of the sky. He immediately wished he hadn’t. They were less than a mile from Stardust and he could already see the billowing smoke filling the sky.

“Don’t move from that monitor,” Cooper ordered. “If that signal so much as budges, I want to know about it.”

“Yes, sir.” Toshie disconnected the call, and a heavy, worried silence enveloped the air of the SUV.

“I know the lieutenant on duty,” Cooper said, his attention not leaving the road. “He and his crew are some of the best Waterston FD has to offer.”

It was an inane attempt to ease their concern and they both knew it. The best firefighters in the world didn’t stand a chance at saving someone’s life if they were trapped in the kind of seemingly instant blaze Cameron had described to them on the phone. Stone had tried to get into the building the moment he had noticed the smoke and had gotten burned for his efforts. Jackson didn’t know how badly. He only knew all signs indicated that Mallory was somewhere inside those flames.

“She didn’t follow protocol the last time I put her on an assignment like this. I chewed her ass for it, and now I’m praying she disobeyed me again.”

Jackson remembered the last thing she said to him before leaving his office that morning.
Don’t worry. I know what happens to people who lose someone they love. Damn you for making me think about that now.

He wouldn’t think about the ramifications. He couldn’t. Those words had been a promise to him that she would follow protocol this time, if for no other reason than to keep him from worrying.

And he damned himself for asking her to make that promise.

* * * *

Flames licked the smoke-filled sky. Thaddeus had smelled it even before the building came into view. He parked a block away from the scene and slid out of the car, sheer adrenaline pumping through his veins. A scattering of onlookers stood on the sidewalks, watching the action from a safe distance. Uniformed officers had set up a perimeter around the scene. Rescue 14 and Engine 14 had set up a stage at the front of the building, hoses pulled and firefighters already battling the raging beast. One firefighter stood at the deck gun above the pump panel on Engine 14, spraying gallons of water a minute on the flames.

“It took us, what, ten minutes tops to get here, and that place is already fully involved.” Terri jogged to catch up with him as he walked toward the closest officers. “Thad, if there are people trapped inside, there is no way the firefighters will get to them in time.”

Yeah, the realization of that had already hit Thaddeus’s mind. He had been on more fire scenes than he bothered to count in his career, and the sight before him ranked at the top of his personal holy shit list.

“They’re trying to surround and drown it,” Thaddeus said, noting the position of the firefighters he could see. “They’re going to need more men than they obviously have to pull that off.” He heard the wailing sirens growing louder in the distance, no doubt trucks from a neighboring department attempting to make the scene.

“Hey, get back on the sidewalk.”

Thaddeus ignored the officer, walking instead straight to the man. “We’re firefighters. I’m Thaddeus Carter. Who is incident command on scene?”

“Thaddeus Carter?”

He saw the name register with the officer in an instant. His family was heavy supporters of the Waterston PD. He didn’t like using the connections that came with the family name, hadn’t intended to today, but one look at the fire and the lack of men struggling to get it under control changed his decision.

“Lieutenant Tommy Vance.” The officer turned, pointing to a tall, beefy man a few feet away. “Go on through. They need all the help they can get on this one.”

“Thank you.” Thaddeus weaved his way through other officers and personnel to the lieutenant in charge of the scene. His step faltered when the lieutenant shifted slightly and Thaddeus saw the man the lieutenant was speaking to.

“Isn’t that…” Terri let her question trail off.

Cameron.
Yes, it was.

“We’re doing all we can,” the lieutenant was telling Cameron. “That building is a fireball. Both entrances are blocked. I can’t get a man close to that place, let alone inside the damn thing. It’s just not safe. I can’t endanger the lives of my men more than I have to. I radioed for help as soon as we got here. Two more trucks have already taken up position in the back, and there are more on the way. All the fucking firefighters in this city right now, and I’m shorthanded on a monster like this. I—”

“Excuse me, Lieutenant Vance?” The lieutenant’s head snapped Thaddeus’s direction, and he saw surprise move through Cameron’s expression when he spotted him. Thaddeus extended a hand to the lieutenant. “Thaddeus Carter, firefighter engineer with Silver Springs FD. This is Terri Vega, firefighter/EMT.”

The lieutenant gave both of them a once-over gaze as he quickly shook Thaddeus’s hand. “Today you’re both Waterston FD, son, if you’re here to help.”