Twisted Desire (22 page)

“What are you doing out here?”

I turned around to see Theo standing behind me, gun in his hand. I nodded my head toward it. “What’s up?”

“I’ve been looking all over for you. Roman’s going ballistic. Fiona’s dead.”

I jerked at that. Dead. She’d gone to our room last night to warn Penny about something, and now she was dead. Convenient.
 

I stayed calm. “What happened?”

“Appears she took a bottle of pills. He just found her a few minutes ago.”

I folded my arms across my chest. “What does he want me to do?”

“The usual, dude. He wants you to help me get rid of the body, to make it look like she was never here.”

I let out a huff. “Of course.”

“What’s your problem, man? We’ve done this a million times before; it’s not a big deal. C’mon.”

Pretending that this shit was normal to me was getting harder and harder. Soon enough, I’d finally be off this yacht and getting Penny to safety. Once again, I reminded myself to be patient.

I followed Theo into the yacht and down the hall. We walked into Roman’s quarters and saw him on the couch. He put his phone down next to him when he saw us coming.

“There you are, Tag. I don’t appreciate you not being accessible to me. Your help is needed, as I’m sure Theo told you.”

I stood in front of him and nodded, playing the part. “Yes, my condolences. Where is she?”

Roman stood and indicated for us to follow him. We walked into his bedroom and saw her on the bed. She was dressed in only a long black T-shirt, a prescription bottle next to her open hand. When I got closer to her, I saw that one of her eyes was bruised and she had two large welts on her thighs. Anger boiled inside me when I realized he’d beaten her, but I kept it hidden, only showing indifference to the two men in the room with me.

“If she wasn’t already dead, I’d kill her,”
Roman seethed.

“Where do you want us to take her, sir?”
Theo asked, ignoring his outburst.

Roman turned to him, a vein in his forehead throbbing. “Throw her overboard, for all I care. The bitch has caused me more trouble than she’s worth the past few days.”

This was a new answer from him. “Overboard?”
I asked.

He ran a hand down his face. “No, no.”
He walked closer to the bed and peered down at her. “Oh, Fiona, why? WHY?”
he yelled, slamming his fist against the wall.

Theo and I didn’t say anything, just stood there and watched. We knew not to question Roman, to let him do whatever he wanted. We waited patiently to be told what to really do.

He finally turned to look at us. “Take her downstairs to the storage area. We’ll dock in a few hours, then you can remove her and dump her at the local morgue, unidentified. They’ll take care of her…or not, I don’t care.”

He walked past us out of the room, not saying another word. Theo and I looked at each other, then he went to the bed and hoisted Fiona over his shoulder. I followed him out of the room and into Roman’s private elevator.

“Good thing he has this, or it’d be pretty awkward walking her down the hall like this,”
Theo commented.

I didn’t say anything, just rolled my eyes. We reached the lowest level and walked to the storage area. Nothing about this was normal, yet it was their normal. A dead body was nothing to the cartel.

I opened the door and turned on the lights. The room smelled stale and was cold. I moved a few boxes around and looked around for something to lay her on, then realized it didn’t matter.

“Over here,”
I directed Theo. He walked over to where I was, Fiona still slumped over his shoulder, and set her down on the floor.
 

He backed up a few steps, and we both just stood there, looking down at her. Roman said it was a bottle of pills, but who really knew. He could have killed her and we’d never know.
 

Just another day with the cartel.

“Let’s go, man,”
Theo said. “We’ll be back here soon enough to get rid of her.”

I shook my head as we walked out the door, locking it. If Penny had any idea what had just happened, she’d go crazy. My sweet girl was still so innocent; she could never know about all the shit I’d done.

“I gotta go take a piss, man,”
Theo informed me as he rounded the corner. “I’ll text you when it’s time to get her.”

I nodded as I walked up the stairs to my floor. Getting a text to say it’s time to get rid of the body. Fantastic.

“So how long before we can get off the yacht?”

Penny and I were sitting cross-legged on the bed, facing each other as I told her the plan was forming. She looked so hot in her white lace cami and purple boy shorts; it was all I could do to concentrate on her questions.

“I don’t have the answer for that yet,”
I replied. My hands were itching to touch her skin, to run up and down her body, to make her pant. “My contact is working on the details from land. He’ll be in touch soon.”

She tilted her head to the side. “You won’t tell me who this contact is, will you?”

I finally gave in and touched her, running my finger along her calf. I smiled at the intake of breath it caused from her. “Not yet, sweet girl. It’s still too early. This is extremely dangerous; we need to make it perfect. I’ll let you know things as you need to, okay?”

My hand went higher, lightly touching her thigh. Her eyes were mesmerized, following my every move. She just nodded and murmured, “Okay.”

I chuckled. “You cannot breathe a word of this, querida,”
I told her, suddenly serious. While I knew it was the right thing to do to get her out, it was still so dangerous, so risky. Just the thought of losing her had me literally freaking out inside. “If Roman or anyone heard anything, it’d be over.”

She raised her eyes to look at me. “I know that, Tag. I won’t say a word. I promise.”

I put my hand to her cheek. “That’s my girl. I love you.”

Her eyes warmed as she pressed her face into my hand. “I love you too. Being taken gave me one good thing, Tag…you.”

I pulled her to me and pressed my lips against hers. I didn’t deserve her or her love whatsoever, but now that I had them, I refused to let them go. She was mine, and I would get her out of danger, no matter the cost. I had to give her her freedom and safety back.

As her tongue touched my lips, there was a loud knock at the door. Freezing, thinking it would be Theo letting me know it was time, I cursed. Breaking our kiss, I walked over to the door and saw that it was Roman instead when I looked through the peephole.

I turned to look at Penny. “It’s Roman, querida. Go into the bathroom, put some more clothes on, and try and relax.”

Her face paled slightly, but she recovered and nodded, dashing into the bathroom. I smiled as she shut the door, then opened the door to our cabin. Roman stood there with his arms folded.

“Tag,”
he greeted.

“Hello, Roman,”
I responded. “What can I do for you?”

“We’re about ready to dock again ,so I’ll need you and Theo to take care of that job we discussed earlier.”
He said this as he looked over my shoulder, obviously trying to see if Penny was there listening. I didn’t let him know she was in the bathroom. He could squirm.
 

I just nodded. “Okay, we’ll do that.”

He eyed me suspiciously but didn’t say anything. “I also came by to tell you I’d like you and Penny to join me on shore tonight at a little nightclub I purchased last year. I need to go see how it’s doing, and I’d like nothing more than to show Ms. Santoro a night away from the yacht, with conditions, of course.”

Shock bolted through me like lightning. Take her off the yacht, to a club? Was he insane?
 

“I see your reaction, and I know it’s unusual, but I trust you’ll keep her by your side and safe. If I thought for a moment she would try to bolt, I wouldn’t do this, but she won’t. It’s time she gets off the yacht for a few hours, and this is the opportunity to do it. SanRisa will also be joining us. Penny met her the other night, so it will not be an awkward situation.”

I ran my hand over my head, still taken aback. “Uh, okay. I assume the conditions are letting her know to stay by my side, and if she tries to run, she’ll be brought straight back to the yacht with no chances of getting off again?”

Roman grinned, his top lip going under his tiny white mustache. “You know me well, my friend.”

Before I could respond, Penny stepped out of the bathroom wearing a tank top and black cotton shorts. When she saw Roman, she stilled. Looking at Roman, though, his face softened and his grin widened.

“Ms. Santoro,”
he said in a breathy tone. “Just who I was talking about.”
He took a step forward but stopped when he realized I blocked his way.
 

“Hello, Mr. Vitale,”
she replied.

“My dear, I was just telling Tag that we will be going off the yacht tonight to a little club I own. SanRisa will be meeting us there. You remember her. I felt it was time to get you off my yacht to enjoy a little nightlife on the island.”

Penny’s eyes bugged out of her head, clearly shocked at what he just said. I stayed still, not showing any reaction, my instincts kicking in.
 

“Uh, okay,”
she stammered. “I don’t know what to say.”

Roman chuckled. “You just need to say thank you. I trust you will stay by Tag’s side and not try anything foolish? If so, it will upset me greatly, and you will no longer have any opportunities to leave this yacht.”

“I won’t do anything foolish, sir.”

He smiled again. “Wonderful. Be ready by six sharp. Theo will text you when he’s ready for you, Tag.”
He walked off without another word or look behind him.

I shut the door and leaned back against it, stunned at this latest development. This was entirely out of character for Roman, and of course it made me even more suspicious of his plans. What the hell was he up to?

“What’s going on, Tag?”
 

Her quiet voice asking that question told me she was nervous. Walking over to stand in front of her, I took her hand in mine and raised it to my lips, pressing a gentle kiss to her wrist. “I don’t know, but it’ll be okay. This is very unexpected, and I’m not sure what to do with it.”

She started to tremble just a little, making me swear. I pulled her into my arms and held her close.
 

“I’m scared. I can’t stop thinking about what Fiona told me and the feelings I get when he’s around. He looks at me weirdly, and I hate it. I want to go home.”

Hearing her say Fiona’s name made me cringe, but I didn’t say anything. Instead, I just held her and told her everything would be okay. When she suddenly froze in my arms, I took a step back and looked at her.

“What is it, querida?”

Her eyes were full of fear. “What will happen to us once you get me off the yacht, Tag? What will happen to you? I can’t lose you. Please stay with me, please.”

My heart felt like a knife just twisted through it. I’d wondered when that would hit her and she’d ask. If everything went according to my plan, I was definitely going to stay with her. My life in the cartel would be over, and I’d be able to be free and move on, with her.

But…

I knew this life all too well, and the chances of escaping it were slim. If I survived getting her out, and my plan didn’t succeed, I’d be living a life on the run, and no way in hell would I drag her with me. I’d have to let her go, no matter how much it killed me.
 

I refused to tell her any of this now, so instead, I just pressed a short kiss to her lips and held her against me again. “Now that I’ve found you, sweet girl, there’s no way you’re getting rid of me.”

I felt her slump against me a bit, relieved, and I sighed, happy that she seemed to accept that with no questions. My girl was still naive, which I loved about her. She’d keep that innocence if I had any say in it.

“I can’t live without you,”
she whispered against my chest, making me feel powerful and weak at the same time.