In the Still of the Night:Sexy Romantic Suspense (Book 2 The Blonde Barracuda's Sizzling Suspense Series) (27 page)

After her fourth class, she headed to her quarters. Too tired to eat, she decided that she deserved a luxurious bubble bath. Besides, Jake would be home soon and she wanted to be ready for him. He would be exhausted. After their long night of passion, he’d left before dawn. She thought of all the wonderful ways she would spoil him. She’d take care of him the way he took care of her. She’d light a fire, put on his silly Elvis songs, and pour his favorite whisky. Then she’d remind him that she also knew how to give erotic massages. And she thought, with a shiver of excitement, she’d take him in her mouth and love him the way he loved her, passionately, erotically. She grinned. She’d bring them both to their knees.

As she was preparing to sink in a tub full of fragrant bubbles, she saw that her phone was blinking. She grabbed it eagerly, hoping it was Jake telling her when he’d be home. She didn’t recognize the number on the caller ID, but hoped it wasn’t a needy student. She sighed. If it was she knew that her plans for the night would need to change. After she listened to the message for the third time, it was clear not only would her night be different than she’d planned, but her life would be as well.

~~~

Ming’s voice was terrified, shrill, her words contorted by sobs.

“Lexie, help me. Please help me. They took me. Awful men. They brought me here. I’m scared, Lexie. They said they’d kill me if you didn’t come. But Lexie, if you do they’ll kill you too. Don’t come… promise me you won’t—”

Her words ended in a terrifying scream. Lexie’s heart almost stopped beating listening to Ming’s terrified pleas as she begged her captors not to hurt her.

“Oh God, please no. Please, not that….Oh, my God, my God… help me—”

Ming released another hideous scream, and then there was silence.

The first time Lexie listened to the message she thought it ended with Ming’s horrifying scream. Her hand shook so hard she dropped the phone. As she picked it up, she heard an unfamiliar voice. It was soft. Definitely Asian.

“Your choice, Lexie. Don’t come, and know that she will be dead by 8 o’clock. At 7 o’clock, we will start raping her. There are six of us. If we hurry, we’ll all have time to have her by the 8 p.m. ‘deadline.’”

There was a long pause. After he gave her the address, he said, “We are watching you. If anyone follows you, or if you send this message to anyone, we will begin raping her now. Your choice, Lexie.”

It took Lexie several minutes with her head between her knees, taking deep breaths, to control her nausea. Over and over she fought the urge to vomit. When she was able to stand, she nearly fainted, dizziness swamping her. Using every centering technique she’d learned in years of practicing martial arts, she brought herself to a place of readiness. A place where she could think. Be strategic. Figure out how she could save Ming. By herself. She knew the cops stationed outside, and Jake’s men wherever they were, would see her leave. They’d follow her and the bad men—who were out there as well—would know she was being followed. And they’d kill Ming.

She forced herself to think. She had little more than an hour. At 7:00 they would begin to rape Ming. By 8:00 she’d be dead. If not before. Lexie knew Ming was correct. The men were likely to kill them both, but she would never forgive herself if she didn’t try to save Ming. As it was, the chances of ever forgiving herself for letting it happen were nil.

Fifteen minutes later she knocked on Master Wan’s door and entered. Ignoring his shock, she locked the door behind her.

“My God, Jai Li, I… I didn’t recognize you. Why are you dressed like that? Tell me you are not planning on going back to the brothels dressed like a streetwalker. Jai Li, I will not permit….”

Lexie tossed the strands of the long black Asian wig over her shoulder and tugged the tight spandex shorts over her butt cheeks. Without speaking, she switched on her telephone. Her heart ached, watching the shock play across Master Wan’s face when Ming cried out, screamed in pain. When the message ended, he stared at her until realization dawned in his eyes. At that moment she knew why she honored him, and loved him the way she did. Only he would simply nod, indicating he understood. Not only what she was planning to do, but why.

His voice was calm, only his hands clenched as if in prayer gave away his fear.

“Where is Jake?”

“I expect him shortly. You need to reach him. If he comes here and then tries to follow me, they will know. You have to call him before he gets here.”

Before he could answer, she laid the notes on his desk.

“I’ve been getting these for several days now. They’re also sending me text messages with the same kinds of pictures.”

Master Wan took each of the pictures in his hands and studied them one by one. When he looked up at her, she was surprised to see fury in his usually implacable gaze. His black eyes raged with a mix of anger and pain

“Who would do this, Jai Li?”

“I… I don’t know. I may have some ideas, but I don’t know for sure.”

His gaze darkened further.

“Has Jake seen these?”

From the pained look in his eyes, she knew she didn’t have to say anything. She blessed him silently for not blaming her for her secrecy. She blamed herself enough. They both knew Ming would be safe if only Lexie had been willing to bring Jake and all of his resources into the crisis. But then, she would have had to give up her independence, her control. Her chance to show that she could do anything, and no one could hurt her. But they could. They
could
hurt her, but first they would hurt Ming.

When she spoke, her voice was surprisingly calm.

“I must leave immediately. I have less than 45 minutes before the deadline. Give me ten minutes. Then call Jake. The cops out front won’t recognize me dressed like this. I’ll put a coat over my outfit when I get the bus on Van Ness. I’ll meet them on the corner as they instructed.

“But, Jai Li, how will we know where they have taken you?”

Lexie held up the cross on her neck.

“GPS. Give Jake this tracking number. He can follow me with this.” As she scribbled the number on one of the notes, she gave a hard laugh. “Let’s hope they won’t try and steal the cross.”

Master Wan shook his head.

“It is unlikely that they believe in any gods, Jai Li.”

She shrugged. “We can only pray that they’re superstitious and don’t want to mess with anyone else’s gods. Strike them dead and all that kind of stuff….”

He rose gracefully from his chair and took her in his arms. He was not a demonstrative man. He showed his love with quiet calm acceptance. Lexie fought back a sob.

“Thank you for not saying that this is all my fault. Even though we both know it is.”

He shook his head.

“Remember the first rule. A fighter’s energy is precious. You must use it wisely. Don’t waste energy that you will need when the fight begins. Blame is wasted energy. Focus on the fight, Jai Li.”

He put his hands on her head for a long moment.

“Now go.”

Chapter 27

Jake clutched the steering wheel. If he held it any harder it would come off in his hands. Master Wan’s voice was soft, controlled but with a vibration of anger Jake had never before heard in it.

“She had no choice. I know Jai Li. She could never live with herself if she didn’t try to get there by 7:00 p.m.”

Jake looked at the clock on the dash. She was likely there, inside. Brady had the suburban location on the screen and was speaking softly into his comm. Their team was fifteen minutes out. If the GPS was correct, the two of them were seven minutes away if you were driving the speed limit. Jake wasn’t.

He’d connected with Dan Rourke. Reluctantly, Dan had agreed to be back up to their team. Jake insisted that he and Brady direct the operation. Dan was wild that his men had missed her. Jake sympathized. His men did as well. Which was precisely what Lexie intended. It was a smart plan. If you ignored the fact Lexie was in imminent, irreversible danger, and about to enter a location with a minimum of six trained
Kkangpae
fighters. The likelihood of Lexie and Ming getting out alive depended on Jake and Brady getting there on time. The odds were not good.

“Describe the pictures. In detail.”

Master Wan’s voice deepened. Jake didn’t have to see him, to know the pain on his friend’s face.

“The first one depicts a man holding her in front of him, his large heavily muscled arm is across her neck and chest. He has a Hapkido dagger flat against her throat. There are numerous slashes on her body. She is….is naked from the waist up. She is bleeding profusely.”

Jake choked back his anger.

“When did she receive the photograph?”

“It is dated four days ago.”

Jake’s gut seized. She got it on the day before the hearing. The day after he’d stormed out of her house. Four days in which she chose not to tell him about the threat.

The thickness in Master Wan’s voice declared possible tears. He stopped several times as he tried to describe the next doctored photograph. “This one shows her… being… being raped… by a group of men. They are wearing hoods.” After a long moment he continued. “Her note says that she found it on the podium, at the hearing.”

Listening to Master Wan’s agonized descriptions of the hideous acts these degenerates envisioned doing to her left Jake fighting for breath. Moisture threatened his eyelids. He longed to hold Lexie in his arms, capture her with his strength. His fear was close to immobilizing him. Only his rage was more potent. Brady’s hand on his knee was a tenuous connection to sanity. He knew it was essential to move to a higher plane to do what he intended to do. Rip the bastards to shreds.

He drove at a fierce speed, skittering from one darkened street to another, slowing only when halted by a red light or cars in the oncoming lane. His 918 jerked dangerously from side to side as he roared around corners, the brakes squealing in protest.

Picturing in his mind the photograph she found this morning, he rasped. “Where did she find it?”

“It was shoved in her car door outside the restaurant where she—” Master Wan stopped.

Jake’s voice was sharp. “Go on. Where?”

“Where she was having breakfast with Peter Kim.”

Brady hissed. “Goddamn, Jake. One request. Promise me that I can start whaling on her when you are done?”

Jake threw him a dark glare, his voice choked with fury. “As long as you give her back to me when your hand gets tired, so I can finish the job.”

~~~

Lexie forced herself to take deep breaths, aiming to bring her heart rate down to fighting speed. She couldn’t afford the luxury of panic. She could easily take the man twisting her arm behind her back, his dagger at her throat. All it would take was catching his ankle with her boot, then driving a hook kick at his knee. He’d be down and out and she’d have the knife deep in the gut of the asshole on her right who had her wrist in a vicious grip. But she couldn’t give in to her need for blood. Not until she saw Ming alive. At that point she’d figure out how to take down the six men who’d captured Ming. She corrected herself. Eight men, if the bastard on the phone wasn’t counting the two dragging her inside.

The house was a nondescript seventies rambler. The only difference between it and the cookie cutter models along the quiet street was that it was centered on an oversized lot. Trees and bushes surrounded the house, obscuring the windows. The light from the corner streetlamp revealed slivers of light from behind heavy curtains. There were no cars in the driveway, no sign of movement inside. The goon with the dagger at her throat shoved her through the entrance to an open family room. A coffee table and end tables anchored a large sofa and overstuffed chairs, creating a deceptively homey familiar feeling. The furniture grouping was the sum total of anything you might expect in a typical house in a suburban neighborhood. The rest of the room was a war room. A long narrow table occupied one wall. A variety of computers, monitors and a mountain of other technical equipment were spread in an untidy mess of cords, devices and beer cans. Lexie startled at the images on the end computer. Three of the four images on the split screen featured her Center from different angles. The fourth screen was a moving image that she recognized as the exterior of the house they were in. It would be virtually impossible for a rescue squad to approach unseen. Her breath stuck in her throat.

Four Korean men rose slowly from the folding chairs parked in front of the table. They had that dazed ‘not quite there look’ of men who’d been staring at a computer screen too long. She saw it often on Dewa’s face. But unlike Dewa, each of them had a visible knife or a gun. Specialized weapons, kali sticks, fans, and Dan bong short sticks signaled highly trained Hapkido fighters. But their familiar
Kkangpae
tats confirmed that the weapons were overkill. The real power was their fighting-machine bodies.

She ignored their leers and lecherous comments about her revealing outfit. She didn’t need to speak Korean to understand what they were saying. It was a universal language and she’d heard it all her life. Through an archway she saw a kitchen table littered with the remnants of pizza boxes, bags of half-eaten munchies, beer cans and dozens of empty liquor bottles. The unmistakable smell of weed comforted her. Along with all the booze being consumed, it might slow their reflexes—or just make them horny as hell. The thug with the knife at her throat released his hold as they entered. He didn’t seem to notice when she eased away from him. He hollered something in Korean as he shoved her inside.

At his shout, two men came from a room at the end of the hallway, most likely a bedroom. Damn, Lexie thought, the two of them brought the count to eight. The slender man with a shock of thick black hair looked familiar. He nodded to her and the memory flooded back. He was one of the men at the hotel. One of Peter’s men. If he was the man she thought he was, she knew that he spoke English.

Lexie glared at him. “Where is she?”

When he just smiled at her and didn’t respond, she barked, “I asked you a question, you fucking asshole. So help me God, if you’ve hurt her…”