Beyond Ransom (The Ransom Series) (18 page)

Perfect

I’m not sure how long we’ve been
driving.  It seems like hours upon hours, but I know it hasn’t been that long. 
Being separated from Leo just makes the time go by slower.  It’s my first real
separation from him since
we’ve become so close
, and
it hurts.  My body aches to be back with him even if that means being stuck in
that strange building that has become my new prison.

Phillips hasn’t said more than a few
words to me the entire time we’ve been in the car.  I secretly pray that it
doesn’t mean he’s nervous.  If we’re both on edge going into this
,
there’s no way we’re going to make it out of there alive.

I’m sure Phillips has as much at stake
in this as I do.  He’s the typical new guy.  He made the cut to join Mark’s
crew but has yet to prove himself.  If he can pull this off with me
,
I have a feeling we’ll both reap huge rewards.  Mark is a creepy,
fucked
-
up, psychotic asshole
,
but he also holds my life and Leo’s life in his grasp.  He can tighten his grip
to make us feel pain or smash us completely leaving us with nothing, all at his
own discretion.  If I can do anything to make Mark loosen his grip on us, I
will.

The vehicle comes to a stop with an
eerie squeak from the brakes.  When the engine shuts off
,
I know we’re not
just
at a stoplight. 
We’ve hit our destination, and it’s about to be go time.

Holy hell
.

The doors to the vehicle open and close
and open again
,
and Phillips is suddenly right next to
me in the back seat.  I flinch at his touch near my face and automatically turn
away from him.

“It’s okay.  I’m just getting you out
of these.”

I try to relax as he pulls the
blindfold off my head and unties my hands.  I expected to be blinded by the
light after all that time in the darkness, but my eyes don’t have much to
adjust to.  The windows of the large SUV we’re in are heavily tinted, and I’m
hidden away in the back seat.

I turn to Phillips next to me, unsure
of what’s to happen next.  “This is it, then?”

He
nods.  “You ready?”

“Yes.”  In the racing pace of my heart
and the sweat beading at the back of my neck
,
I know
that my words betray me.  I’m not ready.  I don’t have a fucking clue what I’m
doing or how I
talked
myself into this position.

Phillips shuffles himself out of the
car
before
reaching back to offer me his hand.  I take
it hesitantly.  He’s not Leo
,
or my parents, or anyone
I know or really trust, but he’s all I have at this moment.  We’re in this
together.

My legs feel a little shaky as I try to
find my feet in these heels on the pavement.  In the moment it takes Phillips
to close the door and put the keys in his pocket
,
I
quickly take in the area around me, the tiny side of me that still believes in
the possibility of escape searching for some sign of where the hell we are.

Unfortunately my immediate surroundings
don’t give me much to go by.  It’s an urban area with parked cars on the
streets
,
but
it
otherwise
seem
s
deserted.  I see a few signs for storefronts
that look so decrepit they m
ust
be out of business.

There are no trees around, no mountains
in the distance, so I must still be in the desert somewhere.  That means I’m
not all that far from home.

Home.

I can’t think of it now.  I can’t.

With one deep breath, I pull myself
together, standing up straighter and linking my arm with Phillips
’ elbow
as if he’s escorting me to a grand event.  He seems surprised by
my sudden move at first but quickly settles into his role.  He smiles at me,
catching a look at my cleavage still bursting out of my dress before walking us
to
ward the
looming white brick building in front of
us.

Large windows with blocked-out glass
frame each side of the front door so that we have no idea what we’re walking
into.  Phillips opens the door for me, which would be a gentlemanly gesture if
he weren’t showing me into the building of a man we’re about to
completely
piss off.

Just inside the door
,
I’m promptly met by a man in a gray button-up shirt, black slacks,
and shiny black shoes, quite the formalwear for a sentry posted at the
entrance
.  He takes one look at me, and not even to
look
at me,
before turning his attention to Phillips entering from the door behind me.  His
question is loud and clear in the creases of his brow and slight snarl of his
lip.

“Ryan Phillips.  Ruiz is expecting me,”
Phillips says confidently.

Sentry man holds
Phillips’
gaze for a moment before
quickly patting both of us down to
check for weapons.  When he’s done, he steps back and
nod
s
to a door behind him.  Phillips pulls me with him to the door
without another word.

We walk
further
into the space that looks like an abandoned restaurant.  There’s a
bar on
one
side of the room covered with dusty
glassware and bottles of liquor.  Small square tables litter the rest of the
space with wooden chairs turned upside down on top of them.  We continue past
them to the door at the back that opens into an empty kitchen.  My attention is
immediately drawn to the sound of men laughing coming from the hallway to the
right.  We move toward the sound until we’re just outside the door.

Phillips leads the way this time,
knocking
briefly then
opening the door into a wide office, larger and
more elaborate than Mark’s space.  The furniture is jet black and shiny.  The
entire room screams control and formality except for the abstract artwork on
the walls, beautiful paintings of
wild
colors and
shapes and lines that sharply contrast everything else about the dark and order
ly
space.

A man stands on each side of the front
of the room, dressed almost identically to the sentry out front.  Between them
seated at the desk is an imposing man, large in both height and weight.  I’m
relieved that he’s sitting
,
because I’m
confident
he would tower a foot over me if I were to stand next to him.  The
dark gray suit jacket he wears does little to hide the potbelly trying to burst
through his button-up shirt.  He’s shaved bald with just a hint of a goatee.

My feet are moving me toward him, but
my brain is telling me to run away.  This is
a horrible
idea.  I shouldn’t be here.

Phillips works his hand around my back
so that he’s pulling me to him by my waist as we walk.  I don’t know if he
senses my willpower seeping away or if he’s trying to comfort me or
just
looking for an excuse to get a feel on me.  My worry at his
touch lasts only a moment before being overpowered by the source of my true
concern, my mind coming into complete focus about the real threat in this room.

“Mr. Phillips,” the man behind the desk
greets with a smile as they shake hands.  “Miguel Ruiz.  So nice of you to join
me today and to bring this beautiful woman with you.”  He gives me a once
-
over, and in the flush of his cheeks I can instantly tell he likes
what he sees.  “I must admit I am jealous.  You are a lucky man.”

Phillips tightens his hold around me,
my cue to join in
on
this charade and play my part.  I
lean into his touch, draping my arm over him and running a finger from his chin
all the way down his chest.  His lips part briefly with a breathless exhale,
and
I
quickly realize I’m doing a little too good of a
job here.

It takes a moment, but Phillips finally
figures out how to speak again.  “She is something, isn’t she?  Reeled this one
in and she didn’t want to leave.”

Ruiz doesn’t get the double
meaning in Phillips’ words, but they hit
me like a sharp slap to the face.  They cut me deeper than I’m willing to
admit.

“I see you two may have some business
to attend to soon, so let
us
get to it, shall we?  I am
told you have an interest in becoming a distributor.”  Ruiz motions to the
chairs in front of his desk.  Phillips takes a seat, but I remain standing
behind him, rubbing his neck and shoulders in a gentle massage as I steal
glances around Ruiz’s desk and office looking for this little black book of
vital information that is the purpose of our presence here.

I’m only half
paying attention to the conversation taking place between them as I
search.  Internally I’m panicking.  What if it’s in his desk?  What if
he
keeps it
in his pocket?  Phillips can’t talk to him forever. 
Eventually we’ll have to leave, and returning to Mark without achieving our
goal is not an option.

“
G
lad to have
you.  I expect great things,” Ruiz says as Phillips moves away from my touch to
shake the hand of his fake new boss.

When I see the leather
black
book being removed from Ruiz’s jacket pocket
,
my first instinct is to grab it from his hand and run for the
door, but I know it won’t be that easy.  I wouldn’t get two feet before his bodyguards
would be on top of me.  In my choice between prisons
,
I will take Mark’s any day over even the thought of being trapped in this place
with these unknown men.

Ruiz writes some information in the
book, and with each movement of his hand I see our opportunity to get the book
slipping
further
away.  I make a decision, perhaps a
stupid one, but I make it nonetheless.

The moment
Ruiz
clicks the tip of the pen shut
,
I move
around the desk and practically throw myself at him, straddling his thigh
between my legs and rocking back and forth on it.

I see the bodyguards move toward us in
my peripheral vision, but Ruiz lifts both hands to stop their advance.  He
looks at me, directly in my eyes as I grasp his shoulders with my hands and
begin to lift myself up and down on him slightly, pressing into him, bringing
the tops of my breasts within inches of his face.

“It would seem your woman could not
help herself,” Ruiz says with a laugh,
looking
around
me to Phillips.  I need to see what Phillips is doing and check on the black
book, so I quickly turn around and continue to grind against Ruiz.

Phillips is staring at me, wide eyes,
open mouth, and all.  I glance down at the black book still sitting on the
table.

“I’m not opposed to sharing,” Phillips
says casually.  “W
hy
don’t you have a go at her
,
and
I’ll
wait outside?”

My heart drops.  This is not what I had
in mind when I made a move on Ruiz.  This is not the improvised plan I just
came up with
that Phillips is supposed to easily understand
.  The whole point of this was for me to distract Ruiz and his men long
enough for Phillips to swipe the black book without anyone seeing, and now
Phillips is abandoning me.

He has to see the fear and concern in
my eyes at what he’s doing, but he still stands up and walks away from me
toward the door.

Ruiz has his hands on my breasts now,
easing them out of the top of the dress that barely contained them before.  The
last thing I see before I close my eyes is Phillips disappearing through the
doorway.

“Leave us,” Ruiz instructs, and though
I would have been the happiest person ever to have the bodyguards leave five
minutes earlier, I wish they were still here now to prevent what’s about to
happen.

I’m on my own.

Ruiz’s breaths become heavy.  “Turn. 
Let me see you.”

I cringe at his words
but
slowly and reluctantly turn around on his lap so that he can see
my
face and
the full extent of my breasts that he spilled out of
my bra.

“You are perfect,” he says, grasping
them in his palms and squeezing slightly.

This is wrong.  It’s all wrong.  I’m
losing
this game
I
initiated
just moments before.  I need to regain control and slow this the hell down.

Snatching his hands away from my
breasts, I move them to my hips
where
he quickly finds
my ass, cupping me and squeezing me there even harder while I rub my chest
against him and work my hands over his smooth head and neck.

My fingers curl around his chin and
force him to look
up
from the rest of my body to stare
into my eyes.  “Let me freshen up before we continue,” I suggest, scooting back
from him slightly.  “I want to be perfect for you.”

“Remember what I said?  You
are
already perfect.  We should keep going.”

I shake my head and reach behind me to
grab his hands.  I pull them to his lap between us and press them down firmly
on his cock
that is
clea
rly
ready to work its way out of his pants.  I force him to rub himself, and his
breathing
quickens with short gasps in between
.  He’s
thoroughly distracted and enjoying this development even more than I could have
hoped.