The Captive Series (31 page)

“So I’ve been told,” she responded regretfully as the stewardess returned. Lana already hated the bitch, but the thought of Anika being one of Sergei’s lovers doubled the animosity she felt for the Russian tramp. Anika brought the drinks and sat them down on the small table between the two seats, then left them alone again. Lana wanted to drink her drink, but her hands were tied behind her back. Sergei took a drink of his with a smile. He knew she couldn’t drink it without being released or if he served it to her personally, and was relishing in it. She wanted to kick his ass so bad. Not that she could, but she’d give it the old college try.

“Um…” she pointedly tilted her head and looked at the glass, her hands still behind her back.

“Fine.” Sergei stood up walked around and took out a pocket knife. She felt the heat come from his body as he approached. Every step closer caused her heart to beat faster and her revulsion at her desire for him to be overwhelming.

“This is becoming a habit,” he chuckled to himself.
A habit? He’s done this before,
she thought.

Her detective skills kicked in and so did that focused persona that got her through a lot throughout the years. “Why? Do you have a habit of kidnapping women?”

“Mind your own business,” he ordered in a rumbled growl as he reached around her and cut the ties. His hands grazed across her fingers. They both had to feel the shiver from the soft touch, but they shook it off as nothing. She’d die if he knew how sensuous his touch felt to her. She didn’t have plans to fall for him—she had plans of escaping. So, game on.

Lana thought she was slick and that he’d given her chance to get away. The moment she was freed from her confines, she kicked Sergei in the shin and elbowed him in the nose as she tried to bulldoze her way past him. However, she underestimated his anger and brute strength.

~~~~~~

Despite the injuries, Sergei made his mad dash towards Lana and caught her before she could get more than a foot away. He pulled her to him, wrapping his arms around her chest, both of their hearts racing with the sudden burst of adrenaline. He growled near her ear. “Where the fuck do you think you’re going? Were you going to jump out of a moving plane? Stupid stubborn woman.”

“Let me go, you beast.” Her fight wasn’t as strong and her plea was weak, but she’d already pushed him further than he had patience for. He’d been so angry with her feeble but painful attempt to escape that he didn’t even enjoy having her wrapped up in his arms.

With a snarl, he said, “As you wish.” Sergei released her, only to push her back into the chair a little too roughly. The time for niceties was over. This time he cuffed one of her hands to the arm rest to teach her a lesson. He’d never hit a woman before, and he sure as hell would have never struck her, but Lord did he want to strike something. He was so pissed he felt like he could smash through the plane’s walls.

“You bastard! Let me go!” She tried to fight to loosen the cuff, but she had messed with a professional, and it was so tight it was cutting into her skin. The pain would be immediate as she started to feel the tearing flesh which stopped her from fidgeting. He wanted to care, but at the moment, he didn’t give a shit.

“What part of ‘no’ didn’t you comprehend?” He shook his head and pulled out his handkerchief from his suit, wiping away the blood from his nose. Sergei wasn’t sure if he’d untied her because he wanted her to like him or that he just didn’t have it in him to be so cruel to someone who wasn’t bad, but he’d learned his lesson. She was a tough broad, and he wasn’t going to give her a chance to do that to him again.

“Lana, you will learn I’m not a man to piss off. So far you have managed to do that more often than I would like, almost since from the first time we met. Women do not usually anger me like you do.” He growled as he looked at the blood on his suit. He unbuttoned his suit coat, took it off and tossed it on the seat next to him. He needed more than a drink to deal with this woman.

“What? Because you’re so charming?” Her dig stung, but he wasn’t going to let her get the better of him again. This woman had managed to discombobulate him at every turn. He didn’t know if he wanted to choke her or kiss her, but she wasn’t the shut up and take it type. No, he had a fight ahead of him.

“No, because I don’t usually let their mouths and tantrums affect me,” he stated calmly, showing no emotion. He took another drink from his glass, which thankfully hadn’t spilled during her feeble attempt to run.

Sergei could tell that she was getting more and more frustrated. Reaching the breaking point, she let her fear loosen her tongue. “What’s the point in this? Why don’t you just kill me already?”

He set out to piss her off like she’d done to him. “Miss Grey, why can’t you just enjoy a beautiful vacation?”

“Beautiful vacation?! You’re nuts! You’re fucking insane if you think I should consider this a vacation. What do you expect? For me just to enjoy myself? Did your last captive enjoy her vacation?”

“As a matter of fact she did. Now sit back, shut up and relax. You’ve given me a fucking headache,” he growled.
Why couldn’t I want someone like Bianca?
His head was pounding, and he was truly rethinking keeping her with him for the next two weeks. She was a real piece of work.

Pressing the button near his seat, he called Anika back out. Once she came near him, he asked Anika for some pain relievers as he wiped the last of the blood from his nose. She looked at him, then to Miss Grey, and shook her head at the captive. He knew Anika wouldn’t care for a young woman who refused to cooperate with Mr. Antonov, whom she adored. He’d been there when she had a serious family emergency, and there wasn’t anything she would do for him. Some say she had a crush, but he knew better. He’d been her hero and nothing more.

Lana stared at him with pure hatred and hissed, “I hope it’s broken.”

She had a lot of balls, he’d give her that. Sergei wanted to take her over his knee and let her feel the sting on her ass, but he let his calm nature ease him back into a relaxed mode. Not caring was the best way to get at her and he knew it, so he struck. “You hit hard for… a supposed lady, but no, you haven’t broken it.”

He ruffled her feathers with that insult, and she let him know it too. “Supposed lady?! You asshole. Just wait. Come near me again and see what happens.” He didn’t doubt she was pissed enough to do something about it, but he wasn’t afraid of her. She would learn that soon enough. He’d endured more in his life than a green rookie detective looking to break into the ranks with a fighting spirit.

“See? You continue to prove that you’re not a lady. Vulgar and rough like a man. I don’t care for it. It’s very unattractive.” He loved to tease her about her looks. In truth, he found her captivating, but he wouldn’t let her know how sexy he found her. Needing a distraction from the beautiful, stubborn captive, Sergei pulled a book from the briefcase he hadn’t read yet. He began to read and ignore the woman that drove him mad. He’d purchased the book on its release day because he loved to read, especially true crime novels. So far it was good, but her presence made it hard to get passed the first five pages. He could feel her eyes on him and the feeling was heady. He looked up angrily, attempting to dispel her power she had over him, but all it did was make him want to take her into the bedroom and strip her before burying his cock into her.

“Well, frankly I couldn’t give a fuck what you like,” she replied when he put his head back down and continued to ignore her.

“You are a real pain. As you can see I’m trying to read. Please be quiet,” he snarled.

“No,” she stated in the same manner that he had earlier, full of pure spite and blatant disregard.

“Very well.” He waited as Anika came with the pain medicine. He spoke to Anika sweetly, all the while ignoring Lana, then he requested duct tape in Russian. Anika turned to Lana and smirked before leaving them again. Sergei wanted to laugh at Anika’s annoyance, but that wouldn’t be good if he wanted to make Lana his woman.
Where did that come from? I need to stop thinking those kind of things. She’s not right for me. I need a subdued and demure woman, not this hellcat.

~~~~~~

“What was that about?” Lana hissed as she tilted her head toward Anika’s back as she walked away. She tried to fight the riotous feelings that confused her. On one hand she wanted him; on the other she hated all that he represented.

“You’ll see.” He smirk was different than the stewardess. His was menacing. Once she returned, she handed Sergei a large roll of duct tape. Memories started to flood her brain. Her heart began to race and panic set in. She didn’t want to be a victim ever again, and she hated that she was starting to feel this way. So far this was the first time that she actually felt like a victim. Strange, as she’d been a victim of her obsession with him for over a month now.

“You’re not really going to do that, are you?” Lana said fearfully. She started to fidget, afraid of what he was going to do to her. The tears started to gather in her eyes, but she managed to fight them back before looking at him again.

“What is that phrase? Silence is Golden. Ah yes…and this is silver.” He waved the duct tape in his hand with a cheerful smile. “Festive, it will be.”

“Please don’t,” Lana begged. The bravado that she had was starting to crack and the fear had crept in enough for Sergei to see it, plain as day. Her words had been shaky and full of fear, and she noticed that the look on his face changed from anger to actual concern.

“Then please just be quiet,” Sergei growled, and she knew he meant business.

~~~~~~

“You win,” she sighed in defeat. As much as he wanted her to be quiet and just do as he asked, he didn’t like the sudden change in her. The fear in her eyes and words had been real. As strong as she was, she’d blanched at the realization that he’d been serious about taping her up. It’s almost as if seeing the duct tape triggered a bad memory. He wondered what happened to her in the past. Did one of Santini’s enemies kidnap her? All of the sudden he felt like the bad guy, like she didn’t deserve his treatment toward her. Other than the actual kidnapping, he hadn’t really done anything cruel to her. As far as he was concerned, she should be grateful that he didn’t end her like most mobsters dealt with nosy-ass people who didn’t know when to quit.

Sergei scoffed, then responded regretfully, “I’d wished it’d been this easy to get you to back off before. If you had, we wouldn’t be here right now.”

“Me too,” she mumbled and looked down at her hands.

Having had enough of her and her temper, and his guilt, he returned to his book. He hoped that the book would help get rid of the need to comfort her.

He started to read and occasionally looked up from his book. Her anger subsided a bit as she started to drink the wine. Her wrist was hurting; he could see it because she was rubbing it. It bothered him, but he couldn’t trust her to behave. She leaned over and pressed her head against the plush back of the seat, closing her eyes to sleep. Her face was damn near perfect and innocent-looking, but he knew she was far from it.

He sat there watching, admiring her and thinking about how he’d snatched her up.

I stood outside in the light rain as I looked through the window. It was something I’d done for the last week. I hadn’t gotten the idea of her and another man out of my head. Once she’d confronted me in the store with him, I’d had enough. Now it was raining, and I needed to make this go down today before I let it go again. Wanting her for more than just to stop her from snooping had been becoming more obvious to me and everyone I was close to. The guys were on my case to make my move. She forced my hand—or so that’s the story I’m going with.

She had just changed into a light heather gray pajama short set. Her long dark hair was in a side ponytail flipped over her left shoulder. She had an innocent look going on, at least until I saw her banging body. She was built like a woman should be, tits and ass. I drooled like a schoolboy, or a perverted peeping tom. Her top was tight and revealed a great deal of her cleavage, something she’d always kept hidden. It was so sexy, the way her breasts were barely covered by that tank. The shorts exposed too much of her ass for my plan tonight, though. I’d have to make her dress fast because I didn’t want anyone of my men getting any fucked up ideas or fantasies about her.

It was a warm breezy night, so she hadn’t closed the windows; even the light rain didn’t stop her from letting the freshness enter her home.

That wasn’t a smart move on her part. Leaving a window open could be dangerous—someone might try to sneak in, I thought laughingly. I watched her move about with her ass cheeks sticking out of her shorts and a low growl came from within my chest. I didn’t understand the jealousy, or at least I wasn’t going to admit why I was jealous. She was so fucking beautiful but a huge pain in my ass. I wondered if she could be like Bianca and want me as much as Bee wanted Nikolai. That would be fantastic to have her grace my bed willingly. While absorbed in my thoughts, she turned out the light, and she walked out of the room. I knew it was go time.

My team had everything set up to make it look like she left town for an unspecified time. On my word, they would come in and empty the house. A letter had been generated and my best forger signed her resignation. She had no idea who she’d been dealing with. I was forced into this lifestyle, so the least I could do was be great at it. I learned all I could, and I learned it well.