Sexual Games [The Heroes of Silver Springs 8] (Siren Publishing Classic) (29 page)

“I’m still here,” the other man whispered. “I’m just, well, wow, you know?” He laughed again, the sound so heavy with shock it was almost tangible. “He told me he met you. I knew he would, given how close you are to Jackson. It’s just…”

“Nothing happened.” Cameron wanted to reassure the man. He had caught Adrien off guard by answering Thaddeus’s phone, surprised him, but he had hurt him, too. Cameron could hear the pain Adrien was obviously trying to hide.

“It’s none of my business,” Adrien said softly.

Cameron raked a hand through his hair and turned toward the hallway. Something tightened in his chest.

Hurt?
He had no right to be. He had given up his shot with Adrien, pushed the other man away because he knew he would never,
could
never, give Adrien what he deserved.

Guilt?
Yeah, that was probably it. He didn’t want to come between Thaddeus and Adrien, but what if he had? Thaddeus was the man for Adrien. Cameron had known that last night. Thaddeus was in love with Adrien. He could, and would, give Adrien everything he deserved and more.

“Yes, it is your business,” Cameron told Adrien and then proceeded to come completely clean. Maybe it would help if Adrien knew everything. “I asked him on a date the other night. We went for a walk and had a nice dinner. I kissed him, but it didn’t go any further. He came to my apartment last night and we talked, watched a movie, and fell asleep on the couch.”

“You kissed him, had him alone in your apartment, and you managed to fall asleep?” The surprise was back in Adrien’s voice, this time laced with true amusement.

Between being with Thaddeus and knowing that Mallory was still out there somewhere with Wade Forbes, Cameron couldn’t believe he’d gotten a wink of sleep either, much less three and a half hours of it.

“Sweetie, I knew you had a will of steel, but damn, it must be completely impenetrable.”

Cameron chuckled. He couldn’t help himself. “Yeah, he’s pretty amazing.” And,
damn
, the man could kiss. He had nearly lost it so many times last night, nearly threw every ounce of his resistance to the wind and said to hell with it all simply for the chance to taste Thaddeus again.

“Adrien, Mal has been kidnapped.”

“What?” Horror buried Adrien’s amusement in an instant. “Oh my God! When? How? Who?”

“We’ve been working a case, sex trafficking. She went undercover at a local club. That cover was blown and they got her.” Cameron recounted yesterday’s events, leaving nothing out.

“Jesus, sweetie,” Adrien said, genuinely concerned. “I can’t imagine what you’re going through.”

“It’s been a rough eighteen hours.” Cameron glanced at the clock on his cable box. It really had been eighteen hours since Mallory had gone missing, and for at least four of those he had thought she was dead.

“I’m glad Thaddeus was there for you.”

Adrien meant it. Cameron heard the sincerity of his words in the man’s tone. “Honestly, so am I. He—” Cameron broke off when the theme song from
Men In Black
started playing through the living room. His attention landed on his own cell phone dancing feverously on the coffee table. “Jackson is calling. I’ve got to go, baby. I’ll have Thaddeus call you back when he gets out of the shower.”

“Tell him not to worry about it. I know he’ll be busy with the firefighter challenge today.”

“I’m sure he’ll make time to call.” Cameron hung up Thaddeus’s phone with one hand, picking up his own and answering it with the other. “Tell me you’ve found her.”

Jackson didn’t miss a beat. “Not yet, but we’re one step closer. Platt is headed back to town. Cooper and I are on our way there now. We’re going in.”

“I’ll meet you there.” Cameron shoved his cell in the pocket of his shorts and slipped on his tennis shoes. Wearing yesterday’s clothes and with his cup of coffee forgotten, he headed for the door. He was reaching for the knob when he heard the shower shut off in the bathroom.

Shit.
He needed to tell Thaddeus he was leaving.

He snatched up Thaddeus’s cell phone as he hurried down the hall, pushed open the bathroom door, not thinking to knock, and froze. Thaddeus did, too, in his effort to snag the towel off the nearby rack. For a nanosecond, Cameron completely forgot why he had barged into the bathroom as his gaze moved over Thaddeus’s bare chest speckled with water drops. His attention followed the springy dark curls that thinned down the man’s abdomen, thickening again as it reached his groin.

“Good morning. I decided to take you up on last night’s offer of a shower before I left. I’ve got to get to Jackson’s apartment and pick up Terri so we can get to the challenge on time.”

Cameron’s gaze slammed into Thaddeus’s. The man’s eyes danced with amusement, heat, and a temptation Cameron knew would knock down his resistance if given enough time. That time was something he blessedly didn’t have right now.

“Sorry, baby. That’s why I came in here. Jackson just called. We got a break in the case.”

“Mallory?”

“Not yet, but we think we’re a step closer. God, I hope we’re a step closer.”

“Go. I can let myself out.”

Cameron nodded then, remembering Thaddeus’s phone in his hand, he set it on the bathroom counter. “It rang while you were taking a shower. The screen said unknown. I thought it might be important so I answered it. It was Adrien, baby. He recognized my voice. I told him nothing happened between us, but…” He trailed off and shook his head, remembering the hurt he had heard in Adrien’s voice. “I don’t think he believed me.”

A myriad of emotions moved through Thaddeus’s expression Cameron couldn’t define even if he’d had the time to try.

“Don’t worry about it.” Thaddeus pulled the towel from the rack and wrapped it around his lean hips. “I’ll call him when I get the chance. Thank you.”

“Thank
you
, for being here last night. I would’ve gone nuts without you here to take my mind off of this for a little while.”

“Anytime.”

Cameron left his apartment with Thaddeus’s smile clear in his mind and a world of confusion weighing heavy in his chest.

“Five minutes.” Cooper tossed his cell phone in the drink holder of his SUV, pulled his Glock from his shoulder holster, and checked the magazine.

Five minutes of fucking torture.
Jackson readied his Beretta as he stared out the windshield at the house a block ahead. Agents were in place surrounding Leroy Platt’s house, prepared to move in on Cooper’s order. In five minutes, less now, Platt would be pulling into the driveway. They would wait for him to approach the house, to unlock the front door, then make their move.

“What’s happening with the others, sir?” Scattered around town and back at HQ, other agents were feverously working to pin down the other leads Sharp had uncovered. They didn’t believe they would find Mallory at the same place as any of the other missing girls, but surly one of them or their “master” would lead them to where the girls were kept before being sold.

“We’ve got teams moving in on Roger Fuse and Hank Alvarez. Both appear to be at their residences. Our team at HQ is still trying to track down the others.” Cooper looked at Jackson, his expression hard, determined. “We’ll get them, Graham, and we’ll find Mallory. I want the teams to move as simultaneously as possible. If word somehow gets out we’re moving in, these bastards are going to scatter.”

And if news of the takedowns got to Forbes first, they might lose any chance they had of finding Mallory. She had been missing for too long already. And the other girls? Jackson didn’t want to think about what they had been going through or if they would even find any of them still alive.

The seconds ticked by, and his mind reeled with thoughts of Mallory. He saw her amazing smile, heard her sex-kitten voice, remembered the turmoil twisting with realizations in her eyes the last time he had seen her. Tarantino had been right. Jackson had finally gotten to her. He had shattered the wall she had so carefully built around her heart, worked his way in exactly where he had wanted to be, and now he didn’t have a fucking clue one what to do about it.

All these years he had thought he understood her, believed he had only to get her past her fears of loving him and everything would be okay. For the first time ever, he truly doubted his philosophy. Would either of them survive this? Christ, could either of them continue to live if one of them died?

“Move.”

Cooper’s single, harsh command ripped Jackson from his thoughts. His attention snapped to the driveway where Leroy Platt had just pulled in. From that point, the operation went like clockwork, each agent carrying out his duty with pristine precision. By the time Jackson and Cooper had double-timed it the block down the road, agents had Platt in custody and were entering the house.

The most terrified scream he had ever heard came from inside the house. Jackson saw every agent on the outside freeze, their gazes snapping to the house as he bolted for the front door. He took the stairs two at a time to the second floor, sensing Cooper at his heels. More agents were in the hallway, others blocking an open door, and he scarcely heard a voice attempting to talk through the screams.

Cooper pushed past him, through the agents blocking the door, and raced into the room. Jackson followed, stopping short just inside the doorway.

He immediately recognized the girl on the bed from the grainy driver’s-license photo. Lexie Stratus lay spread-eagle, stark naked and chained to the bed. She was jerking, her head lolling wildly in her attempts to get away from the agents surrounding her.

“I can’t get her to stop,” one of the agents told Cooper helplessly. “She had a ball gag in her mouth when we found her. I took it out and she started screaming. I can’t get her to listen.”

“Unchain her.” Cooper moved slowly across the last few feet to the bed and eased down onto the side.

“We’re trying, sir,” an agent answered loudly to be heard over Lexie’s continued screams. “We’ve got to get something to break the padlocks.”

Jackson stepped closer, noting the wounds on Lexie’s ankles and wrists, the blood gushing from the cuts. Not all of that had come from the last few seconds. The girl had obviously been chained to the bed the entire time Platt had been out of town, probably longer. More deep cuts and dark bruises covered her slender body. One of her eyes was swollen shut. Her lips were cracked, and her jaw looked to be broken. That didn’t stop her from screaming, though.

“Lexie, I’m FBI agent Adam Cooper.” Cooper spoke loudly, sternly, but his tone was full of compassion as he tried to get through to the girl. “We’re here to help you. You’re safe now.” He repeated it all again and again and again until finally his words started to calm her. Her screams turned to whimpers and she stopped thrashing, her one good eye locked on Cooper’s face.

“We’re here to help you,” Cooper said again, softer this time. He didn’t try to touch her. None of them did. Jackson knew, as he was certain they all did, that a touch from any man right now would likely send the woman back into hysterics.

“Get me a female agent in here,” Cooper demanded to the room at large, not looking away from Lexie.

Mallory.
Dear God, if Mallory were here she could calm the girl, comfort her. Of course, Mallory wasn’t the only female agent on the bureau, but if she were here, that would mean she wasn’t chained to a bed somewhere like Lexie had been, having the same horrid things being done to her.

Bile rose in Jackson’s throat and he forced it back down. He didn’t want to think they would find Mallory the same way. Lexie had been held hostage here for close to a month. He would be damned if it would take them that long to find Mallory.

Jackson stood back and watched as a female agent he barely knew rushed into the room carrying a blanket. Another agent was close at her heels with tools to bust the padlocks. In minutes, Lexie was free and sat in the bed, with the blanket wrapped around her. The female agent talked to her softly, asking if she could walk or if she would allow one of the men to carry her out.

Minutes stretched as Lexie obviously struggled to calm herself, to absorb the realization that she was being rescued. Cooper sent most of the agents out of the room with orders to continue searching the house, to look for anything that might lead them to where she had been held before being brought here.

“H–how did you find me?”

An instant silence fell in the room at Lexie’s softly asked question.

Cooper’s lips unfolded in a small, comforting smile. “Jennifer. She came to us and asked for our help. She’s been worried about you.”

Tears streaked Lexie’s face and continued to slide down her cheeks. It obviously hurt her to talk, but she did anyway. “Is she o–okay? They didn’t g–get her, too?”

“She’s safe. I saw her myself a few hours ago at work.”

Lexie’s good eye widened and filled with horror. “At Cinderella’s? No, you’ve got to get her out of there. She’s not safe there. They’ll get her. They’ll take her downstairs.”

“Is that where they took you?” Cooper asked, alarm in his tone.

“Son of a bitch.” Jackson didn’t wait for the girl’s answer. He spun around and collided with Cameron as he headed for the door. “Cinderella’s. That’s where he’s holding Mallory.”