Ice Cold (An MMA Stepbrother Romance) (15 page)

I slipped out into the night as soon as it was full dark. My plan was half-baked at best, but it was the best that I had. I couldn’t go to the cops, and I knew that if I told my dad what was happening, that’s what he would insist on. Then everything could go to hell, and Lex would be the one to pay for it. I was going to take care of the situation myself. I would get Lex back, because it was my fault she was in the trouble to begin with. I knew what I was capable of. When push came to shove, it was all about who could shove the hardest. That was going to be me.

I found the apartment building easily. I stood outside for over an hour observing the people going in and out. As the lights came on, I watched for movement inside that would give me any clue as to which apartment the jackass who had taken the backpack was in. I needed a way to get in and a way to find Lex.

I took my phone out of my pocket. I dialed Lex’s number. Since I had dropped the money earlier, I hadn’t gotten any further instructions on what to do next, and I was growing concerned. I hoped that the kidnappers hadn’t decided to just take what I had given them and run.

“You aren’t supposed to be calling us. We’re supposed to be calling you.” It was a different voice as earlier.

“I want to know that Alexa is still okay,” I said. “I haven’t gotten any assurances of that since I gave you the money.”

“I sent you a picture earlier,” the man replied.

“I want something live, and I want it now,” I demanded. “Prove to me that she’s still okay.”

There was a pause. Then I saw a flash of light in one of the darkened windows on the second floor. A few seconds later, an image popped up on my screen. It was a picture of Lex, and she looked considerably worse than earlier. I could see tears streaked down her cheeks.

“That’s as good as you’re going to get,” the man said.

He had just taken a picture of her. They were in the second-floor apartment. So far, my half-baked plan wasn’t working out too bad. I had my location. I just had to find a way in.

“Fine,” I said in as brittle a tone as I could make it. “When and where do you want the rest of your money?”

“You’ll get a text in the morning from my associate,” the man said. “You just better be sure you have the rest of it or else.” Then he hung up.

They thought they had the upper hand. I was okay with that, because I had gotten used to being the underdog. That was what my career was built on. Men underestimating me. Thinking I didn’t have it in me to fight back when I was down. These assholes were going to pay.

I let that anger start to simmer in my gut. It wasn’t unlike what I did as part of my pre-fight warm-up, except this time, everything I cared about as on the line. These assholes had messed with the wrong man and the wrong woman. I couldn’t let myself analyze the emotions that rolled through me as I thought about the abuse that they had placed on my woman.

My woman. That was what spun through my brain and sent my thoughts hurtling off into some unknown place that I had never ventured into before, but it felt right. Lex was mine. She belonged to me. It was too bad that a couple of assholes figured that out before me.

I had to get her back. No matter what.

I slipped across the street and made my way up the steps. Unless I missed my calculation, someone moved through the locked door at least every couple of minutes. It was an active building it seemed. I glanced at the names on the buzzer. There appeared to be only two apartments per floor. I had no way of knowing which was the one in the front on the second floor. I started to push the ones on the first and third floor. As I hoped, the door buzzed a moment later without anyone asking for any further identification for entry.

There were two people approaching me, an older couple, and I ducked my head even as I held the door open for them. I didn’t expect that there were cameras anywhere, not in a building like this, but I kept my head scrunched inside the hood of my sweatshirt nonetheless. I saw an elevator directly ahead of me, but I cut to my right and took the stairs upward two at a time.

Once on the landing of the second floor, I swept my eyes up and down the hallway. It was empty, and it smelled. There was carpeting that lined the middle of the hallway as if it was trying to dress up the place, but it was stained in several places. The door to my right at the back of the building I had no interest in but focused on the one to my left closer to the front. That was the one that led into the apartment at the front of the building.

I moved as quietly as I could toward that door. I slipped the switchblade out of my pocket. I wasn’t planning on using it unless I had to. After all, I got paid a lot of money on a regular basis to beat men senseless with my fists, and that was exactly what I planned to do tonight.

Moving to the side of the door, I reached over and knocked on the door before pulling my arm back. Then I waited. I heard footsteps inside. There wasn’t any further noise as I assumed the guy was looking through the peephole. When I heard the click of the door lock and the squeak of the hinge as it started to open, I made my move. I swung around and slammed all my weight into the narrowed opening.

Luck with on my side. My movement caught the man inside unaware, and he was shoved backward by my momentum. My brain registered several things at once as I took in the scene in front of me. Lex, wide-eyed and tearful, sitting in a chair with duct tape on her mouth. The man who retrieved the backpack from the hotel, regaining his balance and roaring at the intrusion. He lifted his arm at me.

Lex ripped the duct tape off her mouth and shouted, “He’s got a gun!”

I ducked and ran forward hitting the man squarely in the gut as I wrapped my arms around his waist and hauled him up off his feet. My mind had already mentally calculated that he had at least fifty pounds on me, but that didn’t matter. I had blind rage on my side.

The gun flew out of the man’s hand and went scattering across the floor. As soon as his body landed on the floor with a heavy thud, I snaked my arm around his neck and started to squeeze. I had my knife under his chin, and I knew that it was probably drawing blood. I wrapped my legs around his chest and tightened my grip. His arms and legs flailed around me landing random punches against my body, but my mind had gone cold.

That was when the last thing registered in my mind from my hurried entrance into the room. Lex’s shirt had been ripped open in the front exposing her bra underneath, and the man wasn’t wearing a mask. Lex had been crying. The man had a gun. It hit me like a ton of bricks what he had been about to do to her, and that’s when something else unleashed in my mind.

I jerked my arm to the side with a hard twist. I heard the snap of bone. Then I felt the release as the man went limp in my arms. That was it.

Pushing up onto my haunches, I saw Lex staring at me. Her breath was coming in short gasps. I waited for the disgust to creep into her expression, but when it didn’t come, I got to my feet. I moved to her carefully. She didn’t back away. I brought her up into my arms. She was shaking like a leaf. “We need to get out here. Now,” I said. “Did you touch anything?” There was a pause, and I wondered if she heard me. “Lex? Did you touch anything?”

“The bathroom. The chair. The cabinet in the bathroom,” she whispered.

The door was still cracked open from my entrance, and I closed it. I did a quick assessment of the room. It was small and dirty. I saw a stained pillow on the bed, and I grabbed it and shook the pillow out. Then I took the pillowcase and began to wipe every surface in the room. I went through the kitchen and found the bathroom. I wiped the toilet, sink, and tub down. I wiped around the edges of the mirror.

When I made my way back into the living room, I saw Lex standing there staring down at the man’s body. She looked up at me, and I saw fresh tears forming in her eyes. I spied my backpack in the corner and the envelope of cash on the floor next to it. I swept it up into the backpack. I looked around the room again and tried to think what I was missing. My eyes landed on Lex’s purse behind her chair. I grabbed that and then remembered the last thing.

Frisking the man’s body, I found Lex’s cellphone in his back pocket. Lex’s purse and the phone went into my backpack as well. I was satisfied that I had thought of everything that could tie me or Lex to the room.

“Aren’t we going to call the police?” Lex asked.

I took her arm. She was holding the torn front of her shirt together. I hissed and quickly slipped off my sweatshirt and wound it around her shoulders.

“No. It’s time for us to go,” I announced.

He came for me. Shayne had come for me. That was the only thought that ran in a loop through my head. It was the reason I risked removing the tape from my mouth. I didn’t know what to do as I watched them struggle other than kicking the gun further away from Bill’s hand once Shayne got him to the floor.

The crack of Bill’s neck echoed through my mind. It would haunt my dreams. But the moment that I felt an iota of guilt or horror about it, I thought about what Bill had been doing just before the knock on the door. The way he took his knife slowly down the front of my top tearing the buttons and fabric while he pointed the gun at me. Telling me that he was bored, and we were going to play a game.

I shuddered even as Shayne’s arm went around my shoulders. I barely heard a sound or registered our movements as we left the building. Shayne guided me. I thought there was a chance I might fall apart. It took everything I had to keep my emotions from spilling over.

Shayne hailed a taxi and gently settled me inside. I didn’t hear the address, but I realized that it must have been his when we pulled up to the luxury high-rise in downtown Chicago complete with a doorman. Shayne ushered me inside with a nod to the doorman. He moved me into the elevator. He seemed to understand that I wasn’t ready to talk yet. When the elevators doors opened on his floor, I tripped stepping off the lift.

He caught me up in his arms even though I gave a weak protest. I let my face fall into the crook of his neck. He smelled so good. It was a welcome change to the stink of Bill’s breath and skin. Somehow Shayne managed to open the door still with me in his arms and stepped inside. I saw floor to ceiling windows across the large room from us that gave a breathtaking view of downtown. I would have appreciated it if I didn’t feel so cold. My teeth started to chatter.

“It’s okay, Lex. Hang on,” Shayne whispered in my ear. He moved down the hallway and then shifted into the room of to his left. He maneuvered us through a darkened room with barely a sound and through another doorway. He flipped on the light switch, and I saw that we were in a bathroom. He set me down on my feet, but I didn’t release him right away.

His arms closed around me, and I started to cry. All of the tears that I had been holding back let loose, and my chest heaved as the torrent of emotions came out. Shayne held me tightly and whispered against my ear that I was safe. I was okay. Nothing bad would happen to me again. I cried for what seemed like hours. When the sobs finally subsided, I felt the press of his lips against the top of my head.

He pulled away from me and looked down into my eyes. He stroked the side of my face and grimaced as he saw me wince at the sensitive, bruised area there. “Lex, I need to know if he hurt you…anywhere else.”

I shook my head mutely. I still wasn’t ready to talk. Not yet. He closed his eyes and took a long, shuddering breath. “Okay. You’re okay. Just sit here.” He settled me down on to the edge of the tub. It was a huge whirlpool tub, and I realized with a start that this was Shayne’s bathroom. He turned on the faucet, and I watched him put a stream of liquid bubble bath into the water.

He stayed on his knees as he turned to me and took my hands in his. They were so warm, and I felt so cold. They were so big compared to mine that it looked as if they swallowed mine whole. “I want you to take a bath. I’ll leave a t-shirt on the bed, and we’ll get you new clothes in the morning. You can crawl into bed and sleep. I’ll take the sofa. Take your time, Lex. I’m not going to leave you alone tonight.”

Fresh tears welled in my eyes at his kind words, and his gaze seemed to burn on my face. He brushed my tears away. “Don’t cry, Lex. It’s okay. Please, don’t cry.” I leaned my cheek against his palm and closed my eyes as I let out a deep breath. I felt his lips against my forehead. “If you need me, just call.”

Then he got up and left the room letting the door close quietly behind him I stared at the water and for a moment didn’t know what to do. But then I stood and started to strip away my clothes. Shayne seemed to have guessed that I wanted to feel clean again. Right now, I felt dirty. Abused. Shaken to my core.

I sat down in the warm water and let it start to warm me. I forced myself to empty my mind. As the water level rose, I started to feel my muscles unwind. I turned it off when the water was just a few inches from the top. I stretched and leaned back. I closed my eyes, and then I saw Bill’s face blow up in my mind. I sat up straight with a small cry. The door to the bathroom burst open, and Shayne was there beside the tub. He touched my shoulder. “Lex. What is it?”

The bubbles sat high enough on the surface of the water that most of my body was hidden, but I still saw his eyes slide down my body. I didn’t care. Shayne had done the unthinkable for me. I owed him my life. I just had no idea why he had done it.

“Why did you come for me?” My voice was hoarse as if I had been screaming for days.

An expression of surprise crossed his face. “Why would you think I wouldn’t come for you?”

“I’m a nobody,” I whispered. “They took me because they thought I was your girlfriend.” I gave a mirthless laugh. “It was because they were at the fight. Bill and his partner-in-crime heard what you said about me. Obviously they didn’t stick around long enough to see Marcus take that other girl back to your locker room, otherwise, they’d have known it wasn’t true.”

Shayne’s finger lifted my chin so that my eyes met his. “Lex, I didn’t have sex with that woman that night.”

I felt my heart start to race. “You didn’t? I saw the picture she posted on Twitter.”

He grimaced and then shook his head. “No, I didn’t sleep with her. I let her take a picture before she left. She was a bit enthusiastic about it. But I kicked her out. I didn’t want her.”

“Why?”

After a pause, I thought that he wasn’t going to answer me. Shayne sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “You’ve been through a lot today, Lex. I think there’s probably some other things we should talk about before we have this conversation. And when you look at me like that, I start thinking about other things, and I need to have a clear head. Finish your bath. Get some rest. We can talk in the morning.”

He squeezed my shoulder before getting to his feet. A moment later the door closed, and he was gone.

He hadn’t slept with that woman. I turned that information around in my mind. I sat there until the water had cooled thinking about this man who had come into my life and taken it by storm. I thought about what had happened in Bill’s apartment. I knew then that no matter what he said, Shayne had feelings for me. Just like I had feelings for him. But I wanted to hear him say it, and I wanted to tell him how I felt too. It felt more important than ever to talk about it as soon as possible.

I had fallen for Shayne Malone. For the first time, I didn’t care what anyone would think of that. He had saved me, and I would be forever grateful to him. It was time to find out the truth now, and I was determined to get it.

I got out of the tub and dried off. As I stepped into the darkened room next to the bathroom, I saw the t-shirt on the bed just like he’d told me. I slipped it over my head and looked back at my pile of clothes on the floor of the bathroom. I planned on burning them the first chance I got. I didn’t want any reminder ever of the horrible ordeal that I had gone through. I had to admit that the bed looked huge and inviting, but I wasn’t the least bit tired. In fact, I was keyed up. Plus, I didn’t want to be alone.

The door that faced the front of the apartment was open, and I made my way back out into the room that I had first seen when Shayne carried me through the door. The lights were off, but I saw his silhouette set against the backdrop of the buildings outside. He didn’t turn around.

“You should rest.” His words made me jump. I shouldn’t have tried to sneak up on him. He had a sensory perception honed by years of fighting against men who would try to sneak up on him to take him down.

“I’m not tired.” My body was awake in an entirely new way, and I felt a surge of warmth run through me. I crossed the room and put my hand on his arm. “I haven’t said thank you yet.”

“It’s my fault you were kidnapped in the first place,” he said. His voice was harsh and filled with anger, but I didn’t step back. Those emotions weren’t directed at me. I knew that there was a war of self-loathing going on in Shayne’s head, and I thought I understood why. “I’m sure you think I’m disgusting. What I did back there…”

“You saved my life,” I said simply. “That man, Bill, was going to rape me, Shayne. Then he was going to kill me. It didn’t matter if you paid the ransom or not. He was starting to play off the book. There was someone else he was working with, but I heard him say one thing to him and do another thing to me. Then, just before you got there, he went a little nuts. He cut my shirt, and said-“

Shayne covered my lips with his finger. “I’m not sorry I did it, Lex. That’s why you should stay away from me. I could have done something different. I knew what I could do with that hold, and I didn’t care. I knew what he had been trying to do, and I lost it just thinking about what would have happened if I hadn’t gotten there in time. That’s why I broke the guy’s neck. He’s dead, and he’ll never be able to touch you again. And hopefully, his partner understands the message that I’ll do the same thing to him if he tried anything else. I know I should feel guilty about it, but I don’t.”

His words hit me with brute force, but I could see that he was trying to use them to push me away. I wasn’t going to let him do that. He had to know that I wasn’t disgusted by what he had done. “I don’t care about that,” I said. “You saved me. Thank you.”

He pulled away from me. “That’s not the first time I’ve killed someone, Lex.”

I felt a ripple of shock through me. He saw my expression, and he laughed, but it held no humor. “Oh yes, Lex. You should run far, far away from me. Why do you think my dad is fine with keeping me at arm’s length too? It’s because of what happened with my mother.”

“What happened?” I whispered. I could see that he was full of pain. I wanted to take that pain away.

He closed his eyes and shuddered. Then he looked at me. His eyes were silver in the moonlight. He was breathtaking. “No more secrets. After what happened, you deserve to know the whole truth. Sit down, Lex, and I’ll tell you.”