Finding Her Fantasy (16 page)

“We know that,” Jon replied, his voice full of warning.

They’d screwed up. They should’ve taken this threat much more seriously. They’d underestimated
him, and it was a mistake Erik would make sure he didn’t make again.

* * * *

Melinda twisted her wrist beneath the ropes, ignoring the sting as they bit at her
flesh. She had to get out of here. Warm blood trickled down her fingers and dripped
onto the floor. She gritted her teeth and forced herself to work past the pain, to
ignore it.

She was so close.

The door to the small room opened, and she froze. Her heart sped up, increasing the
pounding in her head and making her wince. The room was warm, and sweat slid down
her forehead and into the corner of her eye. She blinked against the salty sting before
glaring at Clark as he came to a stop just a few feet in front of her.

“Well, well,” he purred. “If I had known you liked two men at once, I would’ve shared
you with my friends a long time ago. We would’ve had a much more adventurous sex life.
Don’t you think?”

She didn’t say anything. She didn’t trust herself to. She just glared at him.

He snorted softly and walked over to turn on the computer. “I put up with you, slept
with you, in the hopes of one day getting it all. If I had known about that trust,
I would’ve never bothered, but damn, two hundred million is hard to pass up, even
if it does include you.”

She snarled her lip, but kept her mouth shut.

“Then I found out I can never touch any of it. Ever. Nor could I get your passcodes.”
Clark turned and looked at her. “For someone who was supposedly in love, you certainly
didn’t trust me. Maybe you’re more like your grandfather than you realize.”

“I’m not giving you the codes, Clark,” she said.

“I’m not asking you for them.”

The computer screen turned on, and she could see herself in the small screen in the
corner. He was calling someone on Skype.

“Marcus isn’t going to give them to you, either,” she said.

The smile on Clark’s face was pure, wicked evil. When Clark turned to face her, Melinda’s
heart almost stopped at the sight of the jagged knife in his hand.

He walked over and used the blade of the knife to tip her chin up. Melinda pressed
her lips tightly together to keep them from trembling. She refused to show this jerk
any fear. Not now. Not ever.

“Clark!” she heard Marcus yell through the computer speakers. “If you hurt her, I
swear, I’ll—”

“You’ll what?” Clark sneered.

He kept Melinda’s chin up with the blade of the knife, but turned his face toward
the computer. Melinda tried to see out of the corner of her eye, but her peripheral
wasn’t good enough to make anything out.

“What do you want, you son of a bitch?” Marcus growled.

“I want what was denied me.”

“No, Marcus. Don’t!”

Clark dropped the knife and slapped the side of her face with the back of his hand.
Lightning exploded behind her eyes and the metallic taste of blood filled her mouth
from where the blow had split her lip. She felt dazed for several seconds, her mind
a complete blank as pain throbbed behind her cheek.

She worked her lower jaw back and forth, then winced at the blinding pain. Had he
broken her jaw?

Clark gripped her chin and forced her to meet his angry stare. His fingers bit into
her flesh, and she whined at the pain in her jaw, despite herself. In the background
she could hear Marcus yelling, but everything was too foggy to make out what he said.

“Do that again, bitch, and see what you get,” Clark snarled.

* * * *

Erik and Jon both paced the office as Marcus’s friend, Andrew, opened up another Skype
screen.

“He’s contacted Marcus. We’re running a trace now,” Andrew said.

“How long?” Erik asked, anxious to find her.

He had no idea what this guy might be capable of. They needed to find her before it
was too late.

“It depends on how well he is at covering his tracks,” Andrew replied.

Erik froze when he heard Marcus yell from the other room through Andrew’s connection.
“What the hell just happened?” he demanded.

Andrew turned to look behind him, then back at the screen. He looked tense and angry.
“I don’t know.”

Erik had a feeling the man was lying, but right now wasn’t the time to argue over
it. Erik had a terrible feeling things were about to go incredibly wrong.

“How are they doing?” Erik asked as he began to pace once more.

“The security team is on it. They’re tracing the signal back. He’s routed through
somewhere overseas.”

“That asshole’s not that smart,” Jon said in frustration. “Did the mercenary team
he hired to kidnap her set this up?”

“Possibly, but they haven’t lost the trace yet, so be patient,” Andrew replied.

“We don’t have time to be patient,” Erik snapped.

Andrew leaned over and nodded. “Looks like we might have something.”

“What?” Erik asked.

The constable and three other officers stood up in preparation to move.

“Oh my God,” Andrew murmured. “He’s less than fifteen minutes from you.”

* * * *

“You have ten minutes to make your choice, Marcus,” Clark said as he walked over to
the computer. “Or she gets more than a slap to the face.”

He hit the Off button, disconnecting the Skype call. Melinda kept her eyes straight
ahead and her breathing as even as possible. The last thing she wanted to do was panic,
but she doubted rescue was even in the cards. Images of Jon and Erik on the bedroom
floor flashed through her mind again, and she swallowed past the huge lump that had
taken up residence in her throat.

Were they dead? She had no idea, but the very thought threatened to send her into
a pit of misery. She’d fought her feelings for them since arriving only to realize
now just how much she was attracted to them—just how much she wanted to be with them.

And now it was too late.

Tears escaped the corners of her eyes and slid down her cheeks. Clark walked over
and brushed those tears away, but she jerked her head to the side. Like he gave a
rat’s ass about her or her feelings.

“Are you truly that upset about losing your money?” he drawled, his voice laced with
amusement.

“You killed them,” she whispered.

“Who?” he asked. “Those two men you were fucking? Please. Dicks are a dime a dozen.”

She growled and tried to rise out of the chair, only to be slammed back down by her
restraints.

His gaze dropped to her breasts and an ugly sneer warped his features. Why had she
never seen this ugly side of him? Was he really that good of an actor, or was she
just that blind?

“When you do that, your breasts jiggle very nicely. Perhaps I should get one more
taste of that pussy before I take everything you have.”

“Don’t touch me,” she barked.

His evil laugh sent a shiver up her spine.

“Have you not realized yet, I can do anything I want to you right now. Who’s going
to come save you? Your fuck buddies? You’re mine now, Mel. Now that I think about
it, maybe I should hang onto you for a while. Share you with a few of my friends.”

Fear unlike anything Melinda had ever known raced through her entire body.

He bent down and brought his face close to hers. “It might be fun to actually break
you.”

She leaned her head back and spit, hitting him on the cheek. Clark curled his lip
and rubbed it away with disgust. Standing, he pulled his hand back. Melinda closed
her eyes, bracing for the impact of his hand.

Tensing up might not have been such a good idea. Pain worse than from the first hit
exploded behind her eye. Her vision blackened, then blurred. She could see nothing
out of her left eye. Tears slid down her cheeks as she bit back sobs of misery.

She was doomed and right now there was nothing she could do about it.

Erik and Jon stood back in the thick shrubbery surrounding the small cabin. Andrew
had been right. Clark had actually been less than fifteen minutes from them. They
only saw one car parked outside, but that didn’t mean the team he’d hired wasn’t still
there.

The officers searched the perimeter, but found no traces of anyone else. Did they
have the right spot?

Erik looked through his binoculars and into the window of the cabin. Unfortunately,
it was covered so they couldn’t see inside. They would have to go in blind and pray
they didn’t screw up.

He lowered his binoculars and glanced over at the constable, who lowered his as well.

“I want you and Jon to stay behind us,” the constable said.

Erik started to argue the point and then changed his mind. They weren’t police officers.
The last thing they wanted was for some stupid technicality to cost them being able
to put Clark in jail. He nodded begrudgingly as the constable and his officers started
toward the cabin.

Jon came over and squatted next to him behind the tropical bush they’d been hiding
behind. “The second they’re through that door, we’re going in as well, right?”

Erik snorted. “Damn right.”

Both men stood and watched as the police burst through the front door of the cabin.
Jon slapped Erik on his arm and pointed toward the back corner. Erik narrowed his
eyes as he watched Clark climb out a small window and take off at a run.

“Go in there and check on Mel. I’m going after that son of a bitch,” Erik said as
he ran toward where Clark had entered the thick brush.

He could see him just ahead, a flash of light blue shirt against the green. Anger
boiled up inside him. He’d never wanted to kill a man as much as he wanted to kill
this guy. His fingers itched to get around his neck and squeeze.

He could hear the rustle of brush behind him and the constable’s angry voice. “Let
me handle this, Erik!”

Erik ignored him. He had him in his sights. He refused to let him go.

* * * *

Jon pushed past the officers in the small room and ran toward Melinda. She was tied
to a chair and naked, her limbs shaking almost uncontrollably. Jon quickly removed
his shirt and rushed forward to cover her trembling body.

Her eyes were closed, one swollen shut. Her bottom lip had begun to turn blue and
had dried blood caked in the corner. Her cheek was swollen as well, and Jon wondered
what the bastard had done to her.

“Hey, sweetheart,” he said softly.

Melinda opened her eyes and stared at him. She looked confused at first, and then
her eyes went wide and sobs racked her whole body. “Oh God. I thought you were dead!”

He smiled and shook his head. “No. They just shot us with tranquilizers. They’re about
the size of a BB pellet and dissolve inside the body.”

Her lip trembled as she spoke. “Erik’s okay?”

“Yeah, baby. He’s fine.”

The officers finally got the last of her ropes undone, allowing Jon to pull her up
and into his arms. She used his shirt to cover herself as best she could. Jon held
her tight as she wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his neck.

“I didn’t think I would ever see you again,” she sobbed.

Jon’s heart broke for her. She was in pain, afraid, and had believed he and Erik had
died. If anything had happened to her, he wasn’t sure what he would’ve done. He’d
never really felt for another woman what he felt for her.

He’d teased Erik earlier about falling for her, but damned if he hadn’t fallen himself.
This was a damn mess they’d all gotten themselves into, and they needed to talk. But
right now, his first priority was Melinda and getting her checked out.

He stopped by the side of the driveway and waited for the ambulance to come to a halt.

“He didn’t get it,” she whispered.

“I don’t care about that, Mel. All I care about right now is you.”

“Where’s Erik?” she asked.

“Clark ran off into the woods, and Erik went after him.” She tightened her arms around
his neck. “He’ll get him, sweetheart. I promise. Erik isn’t going to let him get away
with what he did to you.”

* * * *

Erik closed the distance between him and Clark, the constable close on their heels.
Ahead, Clark stumbled, allowing Erik to catch up. Erik grabbed the back of Clark’s
shirt and jerked him backward.

Clark hit the ground with a grunt and tried to roll away. Erik turned him over, straddled
his thighs, and slammed the heel of his palm into Clark’s jaw.

Clark groaned as his face jerked to the left. Blood coated his lip, but Erik reared
back to hit him again.

“Enough, Erik,” the constable yelled.

“The hell it is,” Erik growled.

The constable raised his gun and pointed it at him. “I mean it, Erik. Enough. I can’t
let you kill him.”

Clark watched him warily, but at the constable’s words, his expression turned almost
arrogant. Erik lowered his arm and grasped Clark by the collar of his shirt. He gave
him a hard shake, forcing the back of his head against the ground. Erik felt a small
amount of satisfaction at the wince that tightened Clark’s features, but not nearly
enough. He wanted to see the man suffer, to see him howl in pain.

“You come near Melinda again, Clark, and I’ll kill you regardless of who else is there,”
Erik snarled.

Erik gave him a final shake before climbing to his feet. Clark followed and wobbled
slightly between Erik and the constable. When the constable turned to let the other
officers know where they were, Clark reached behind him and pulled out a gun. Was
the asshole really going to be that stupid?

Moving quickly, Erik pulled his own gun. Both men fired at the same time.

Everything seemed to move in slow motion. The constable turned at the sound of the
guns going off and pointed his own. A burning pain seared across Erik’s shoulder,
and blood coated his arm.

Clark bent forward with a jerk before falling to his knees on the sandy ground. His
eyes were wide, his face pale as he stared up at Erik as though surprised it was going
to end this way. Red seeped through the material of his shirt quickly as it escaped
the wound in his chest.