Sexual Games [The Heroes of Silver Springs 8] (Siren Publishing Classic) (30 page)

* * * *

Mallory forced herself to sit up, gritting her teeth against the pain that seemed to have become a constant part of her new existence. How long has she been here? A day? A week? A month? Her head didn’t feel as scrambled and foggy as it had every other time she had awakened since Forbes had brought her here.

Wherever here is.

This room looked different than the others, save for the bed she sat on being the only furnishing. The walls were painted a pale blue rather than the stark white of the room where she had met Sophie.

Sophie
. God, was the girl still in that room? Had Forbes done something to her after he had taken Mallory out? Why hadn’t he put Mallory back in that room with her?

The rattle of the doorknob cut off her questions, and her heart leapt to her throat. She slid off the bed, no longer caring that she didn’t have anything to cover herself with, as the door opened and Wade Forbes walked into the room. He closed the door, locking it behind him with one hand, a gun aimed steadily at her in the other.

Mallory flicked a glance at each of the four corners in the room. She didn’t see any cameras but figured he must have some hidden. He seemed to always know when she woke.

“Where am I?” She fixed her attention back on him, on the gun pointed dead center at her chest. Time was running out. She knew it. She felt it in her bones. He hadn’t done more to her so far than rough her up a bit, drug her, and take pictures of her naked body. The unbalanced look in his eyes told her that was about to change.

“In a room.” He advanced on her slowly.

Her heart pounded furiously with each step he took. “Where is Sophie? What have you done to her?”

A devious smile tilted his lips. How had she ever thought this man was handsome? “Where she’s always been. I haven’t done anything to her…yet. Well, other than break the news to her of her brother’s death.” He wrinkled his brows, perplexed. “She didn’t take it as hard as I expected. Surely she hoped he would come to her rescue.” He laughed. “He actually thought I would let him have her. Stupid bastard.”

“That’s what you told him, isn’t it? If he did what you told him to do, if he murdered Erin, if he burned Stardust, you told him you would give him Sophie. Instead, you set it up so he would die in the fire.”

“He didn’t die in that fire, but I made him wish he had. He thought he could hide from me. He was wrong. I’m sure your buddies at the FBI will find him, or what is left of him, eventually.”

Mallory’s blood turned to ice in her veins. “They will find me, too. It’s only a matter of time. You’re slipping up, making too many mistakes.”

“Shut up.” He screamed at her, his expression contorting to one of pure, deranged fury. “I don’t make mistakes. I know exactly what I’m doing. Right now, I’m going to do what I’ve been waiting days to do. You. Now get on the bed.”

No. Oh, God, no.

Mallory didn’t move. Her gaze locked on the gun, on the fact that it was cocked and loaded and ready to shoot. Her mind scrambled, fighting to think through the fear.

He took another step closer, and she took an involuntary step back. “I won’t hesitate to shoot you, bitch. I’ll be happy to fuck your brains out while you lay dying beneath me.”

Mallory inched away until the backs of her knees hit the mattress. Terror made her whole body shiver as she slowly sat down. There had to be a way out of this. Damnit, she had to do something!

“Lay down,” he ordered through gritted teeth, the gun now inches from her chest.

Mallory scooted to the center of the bed, turned, and lay back, her sole focus on the gun. Without that gun, she knew she could take him. If it hadn’t been for Carl Jordan back in the office at Stardust, she would have taken Forbes out then.

Forbes moved to the foot of the bed, the gun never wavering from its bead on her chest. He grabbed her right leg with his free hand, somehow managing to hold it down and belt a leather strap around her ankle without ever lowering that gun. He did the same with her left ankle, then returned to the side of the bed.

He would have to put that gun down at some point, wouldn’t he? He reached for her left arm next, stretching it above her head and fastening it to the headboard with the same kind of belted strap that was now around both of her ankles. By the time he put the gun down, she would be bound to the bed, unable to move.

Think, Mallory. Dear God, think!

He climbed onto the side of the bed and the gun wavered a fraction, but he still didn’t lower it.

She would let him shoot her. It was her only option. She had one hand left free. As soon as he got close enough, she would go for the gun, angle it away from her heart, and pray for the best.

Fear clogged her throat and threatened to cloud her mind as he started to move over her.

“You’re going to make a great whore. Did I tell you I found you a new master already? I knew it wouldn’t take long. He has big plans for you, too.”

Mallory watched him, the world seeming to spin in slow motion now as he reached for her right arm. The knock at the door startled them both.

“Go away.” Forbes didn’t look away from her, didn’t move the gun, didn’t stop reaching for her free arm.

“Get the fuck out here,” Betty bellowed through the locked door. “We’ve got to talk now.”

“Whatever it is can wait.” Forbes yelled back, his fingers a scant inch from Mallory’s wrist.

She flexed the muscle in her arm, readying herself to fight.

“The Feds got Leroy,” Betty yelled. “They found Lexie Stratus. They got Holder and Marcum, too.”

Forbes’s eyes widened in shock and he whipped his head toward the door.

Mallory balled her fist and swung. Her forearm connected with the gun, the force behind the blow knocking it out of his hand. A shot fired as the gun hit the floor. She didn’t spare a second wondering where the bullet hit. She fisted her hand in Forbes’s hair, lifted her head, and head butted him hard enough to make herself see stars. He screamed and she bucked, miraculously hard enough to send him bouncing off the bed. She heard him hit the floor, heard him scrambling to get back up. She fumbled with the strap on her left wrist and managed to get it free just as he got to his feet.

He didn’t bother to go for the gun.
And the man said he didn’t make mistakes.
He came after her barehanded, and she was ready for him. She lunged at him, going straight for his eyes, and dug her nails into his flesh. She felt the blood start to trickle beneath her fingernails and dimly heard the door to the room slam open over the adrenaline pounding in her ears.

“Christ, get him off of her,” someone, she could’ve sworn it was Cooper’s voice, shouted, but she held on tight, determined to claw the bastard’s eyes from his skull.

Before she knew what was happening, a pair of arms appeared around Forbes’s neck and he was yanked back away from her.

“No!” she screamed as a different pair of arms came around her shoulders from behind her. She twisted away from them, going for the bindings around her ankles. Sheer fury controlled her movements as she jerked the belts free and jumped off the bed.

Tarantino had Forbes in a neck lock, but Mallory lunged for him anyway. “I’ll kill you, you fucking cock-sucking bastard.”

“Mal, stop.” An arm snaked around her waist and yanked her back. She didn’t need to see the hard body behind her. The feel of Jackson’s body against hers was enough for her to know it was him. “We got him, baby.”

“I’ll get him, too, if you’ll let go of me,” she fired back, but she stopped trying to get out of Jackson’s embrace. “Damnit, I want to kill him. Please, let me kill him.”

Cooper moved into her line of sight, and she could have sworn she saw him actually considering her request before he shook his head. “Get him out of here,” he ordered Tarantino. Then he lowered his voice and spoke directly to Mallory. “Are you hurt? Do I need to get medical personnel in here?”

“I’m pissed,” Mallory said through gritted teeth.

Cooper’s lips actually twitched. “Yeah, I got that.”

She felt Jackson shifting behind her. He released her long enough to drape his jacket over her shoulders before enveloping her in an embrace hard enough to crack her already bruised ribs.

“Jesus, Mal,” he whispered against the side of her neck. “Please tell me he didn’t hurt you.”

All the fight left her at the sound of his voice, at the worry and heartbreak that made his words crack. She turned in his arms, lifted her head, and met his gaze. The glimmer of tears in his eyes nearly destroyed her. “He didn’t hurt me.”

Jackson swallowed, nodded, then kissed her.

Where had the man learned to kiss? She didn’t know, but damn if he wasn’t a pro at it. She melted in his arms and lost herself in his scent, in the taste of him, in the feel of having his body pressed to hers. She forgot about the other agents in the room, about her boss watching them, and kissed him back.

Several long, breathtaking moments later, someone cleared his throat.

“Sis, we need to get back to HQ.”

Cameron.
Mallory pulled back from Jackson, turned slightly, and found her brother standing in arm’s reach. She threw her arms around him and hugged him tight as emotions clogged her throat.

“I knew you guys would get me out of here.”

“From the look of things when we barged in, you were doing a pretty damn good job at getting out of here yourself,” Cooper told her, his tone full of pride.

Mallory shot him a grin. “I was working on it.” She stepped back from Cameron and pulled Jackson’s jacket tighter around her. “There’s at least one more girl here. Sophie. She’s Kenneth Reese’s sister.”

Cooper nodded. “We already found her.”

Mallory nodded once and turned, meeting first Cameron’s gaze and then Jackson’s. “Then I’m ready to go now.”

* * * *

“Call him.” Terri jabbed the top of Thaddeus’s cell phone into his chest.

Thaddeus stepped back a fraction but didn’t take the phone. “Jeez, when did you become my mother?”

Terri lifted a quizzical brow. “Is that what your mother would tell you to do?”

Thaddeus barked a half laugh. “No, my mother would tell me to marry you.”

“Which explains why you’ve been practically avoiding your parents like the plague since we’ve been in town. Yeah, I figured as much. I’ll duke it out with you later over that one when we have more time.” Terri jabbed him with the phone again. “Right now, Vegister, time is running out. Call him before it’s too late.”

Thaddeus sighed and raked a hand through his hair. “I’ll call him tonight, okay?”

“You’ll call him now.” Terri growled like a pit bull, proving she wouldn’t let up until she got her way. “We’ve got a good ten minutes before this thing starts. If you don’t call him now, you’re going to go into the challenge with your head wrapping around what you want to say to him when you finally do call him instead of what you’re supposed to be doing. Do you really want to deal with me if we lose this thing today because your focus is in the wrong place?”

No, he didn’t, any more than he wanted to let his partner down. He knew better than to go into a fire scene with his head in the wrong place. And, okay, today wasn’t a fire scene, but the challenge was equally important at this point in time. Terri was right, too. At the moment, his mind
was
wrapped around Adrien and what he would say when he talked to the man, instead of concentrating on the events they were about to endure.

Thaddeus sighed again and took his cell phone from Terri’s outstretched hand. He held her gaze, letting his annoyance show as he thumbed through his contact list and found Adrien’s number. The man answered on the first ring.

“Shouldn’t you be racing against a clock right about now, sweetie?”

Thaddeus closed his eyes at the sound of Adrien’s voice. Flashbacks of last night hit him, bringing with them a truckload of guilt he knew deep down he really shouldn’t feel. “In about ten minutes.”

“Ten minutes you should be using to get in the zone,” Adrien countered.

Thaddeus glanced at Terri. “Yeah, so I’ve been told. Cameron told me you called this morning.”

“To wish you luck.”

“Adrien, I—”

“Don’t have to explain, sweetie,” Adrien cut him off. “Actually, I wish you wouldn’t. If either of us owes the other an explanation, it should be me giving you one. I thought I would do that when you got back. When I asked if we could get together and talk, that’s what I had in mind. Which was stupid of me.” He laughed, but there was no humor in the tone. “I should have done that before you left, not after the fact.”

“It’s okay. I understand. Really, meeting Cameron has made it easier to figure out what has been going on the last few years.”

“You mean it’s made it easier to figure out why I’m so fucked up?”

Thaddeus chuckled. “Yeah, a guy like Cameron can do that to a man.”

“You noticed, huh?” A trace of jealously sounded in Adrien’s tone.

Thaddeus thought about Cameron, all six-feet-plus of pure temptation wrapped in nearly irresistible sex appeal. “Yeah, I noticed.”