Chapter Seven
CHAPTER SEVEN
W ith a grunt and a jerk of his hips, the terrible fucking charade was finally over.
The audience leapt to its feet and gave them a hearty standing ovation. Nash did his best not to puke as he withdrew from Haisley, then wiped himself on the sheet and zipped up.
God, this had been one of the most wretched nights of his life.
A glance down at Haisley twisted his heart until he physically hurt. Though everything they’d done tonight had been an act, she looked wrecked. Shellshocked. Shattered.
The sight shook him to the core. He fucking wanted to wrap his arms around her and promise it would never happen again.
He couldn’t do either.
Instead, he lunged for the restraints shackling Haisley’s wrists. Her skin was clammy beneath his touch, her pulse racing at her throat. Fuck, she was terrified and bravely trying to play her part. He had to get her the hell out of here.
His fingers trembled as he released her cuffs and yanked her slip down to cover as much of her as possible. Finally, he jerked upright, hauled her to her feet, and wrapped his cape around her nearly naked body, sheltering her from the audience’s predatory gazes.
“What an evening of delights!” Mr. Gray’s voice rang out across the Midnight Sanctuary. “Our finale ended with quite the ‘bang,’ wouldn't you say?” Raucous laughter rolled through the crowd. “For those already inquiring about our next event, merchandise is being procured as we speak. Those who didn’t claim a prize this time, join us next month for another spectacular auction. You might get lucky.” He winked.
As the crowd of perverts and degenerates clapped, Nash lifted her into his arms. She curled against his chest, seeking his protection. As if she’d been well and truly conquered, she lowered her stare.
Holding her close, he carried her down the steps and toward the rabid onlookers wearing designer suits that reeked of wealth and privilege. As the crowd parted for them, diamonds glinted on raised champagne glasses. Their wild gazes held a mixture of envy and raw lust that made Nash clutch Haisley even tighter. He vowed to destroy every one of these motherfuckers.
“You broke her in good,” someone called out. “Good job, man!”
“Fucking her is like fucking a tiger, isn’t it? All hissing and claws…until you make her kitty purr.”
It was a particularly vile comment, but Nash never wavered, playing the arrogant, entitled buyer proudly displaying his conquest. Inside, his heart bled for Haisley with every step. The way she played her role perfectly—defeated, subservient, broken—while he felt her fingers grip his shirt. Two performances in perfect sync, both of them dying inside.
“Dude! You’re the man. Looks like she was worth every one of those ten million bucks.”
Nash clenched his jaw, forcing himself to ignore their bullshit and back slapping. Instead, he fixed his face into a possessive smirk that said he couldn’t wait to get his prize alone.
As he strode from the Midnight Sanctuary, exhaustion tugged at him. He was spent on every level, and each step felt heavier than the last. But he couldn’t show weakness. Not here. Not now. Haisley shuddered in his arms, her breath coming in shallow pants against his neck, her body trembling with fatigue and stress.
The walk to their suite felt endless. A thousand apologies sat on the tip of his tongue. He forced himself to swallow them, focusing on his every step echoing through the marble corridors, not the homicidal rage boiling his blood.
Finally—mercifully—he reached the door to their suite. He wrenched it open, then kicked it shut behind them before stalking into the bathroom and setting Haisley on her unsteady feet.
She glanced up at him, trembling and trying bravely to hold herself together. His fury must have bled into his expression because she shrank back in fear. It nearly ripped him apart.
Nash resolved to make it up to her.
“Shower,” he ordered for the microphones as he tore the flimsy silk shift from her body. “Now.”
Haisley shivered and covered herself with her hands.
Jaw clenched, he prowled through the suite and turned on the built-in speaker system. A classic hard rock song filled the room.
With the music and water spray combined, he could buy them a few precious minutes of privacy. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but he and Haisley had to talk. Right now, before she crumbled. Before the trust between them was damaged irreparably.
He’d save the Santiagos’ sound-blocking technology for later to minimize suspicion.
Nash stomped back to the bathroom. She watched, wide-eyed, as he stripped and herded her under the warm spray, then followed, covering her body with his larger frame.
In the Midnight Sanctuary, he’d been all dominance and ownership. Now, despite having to maintain appearances for the cameras, his touch was gentle where it could be. He needed her to feel the difference, to know which Nash was real.
He slid his lips up her neck before settling his mouth at her ear. “We’re still being monitored.”
“I know.”
“Can you play along a little more?”
She hesitated, then nodded almost imperceptibly.
Thank fuck she trusted him at least that much. “Tonight has been awful. I’m so fucking sorry. Are you all right?”
She thrashed against him as if fighting the battle he’d already won on stage. “I don’t know.”
But she didn’t sound unsure at all. She sounded devastated.
“Did anything…happen to you before I got here?” he breathed against her neck. “Has anyone hurt you?”
She shook her head as if trying to ward him off. “Threatened. Leered. Made lewd remarks, but no one touched me.”
Thank god. He’d done enough damage tonight. He was glad someone else hadn’t compounded it.
“I’m scared.” Her voice cracked.
It nearly killed him. “I’m sorry. I’ve been so fucking worried, baby. I almost died when I realized you’d been taken. I got here as soon as I could.” He caressed his way down her side and pulled her leg over his hip, gliding his fingers to her ass for the cameras.
She shivered. “Why come undercover as a buyer? Why not…burst in the front door and take people down?”
He hoped like hell that, after tonight, she wasn’t afraid of him. “Too risky. We’re outnumbered. This place is a fortress. We need backup or inside intel.” His lips found her ear. “Kane’s here. Ethan came, too, but he’s taking Kaylee Wright home later today.”
“Thank god. But Amy,” she whispered. “The girl who was in my cell… We have to help her, too.”
“The plan is to save as many as we can.” He pressed Haisley against the tile, his hands wandering down her body. “But we have to be smart. Careful.”
She nodded. “D-did they tell you… They won’t let me leave with you until I’m pregnant.”
“We’ll be gone long before then.”
“But if we’re not.” She bit her lip, looking rattled. “Would you… Would we have to…”
The question gutted Nash. She seemed so rattled by that possibility. Part of him wanted to ask if having his baby would be the worst thing in the world, but she’d been through too much tonight. Too much in the last week. She was understandably emotional. And of course she didn’t want to conceive a child in this hellhole of rape and trauma.
“I’ll do everything I can to ensure it won’t come to that,” he vowed.
Some of the tension left her body. “And Jasper? Why did you choose that name?”
Nash winced. He’d known she would get to this question, but he’d hoped to have more time to win back her trust before he had to undermine it again. “I thought that name might set you at ease if you already ‘knew’ me from Crime Solvers International.”
Hurt filled her eyes. “So…when I was talking to you, telling you my feelings and secrets…that was you? You catfished me and pretended to be a stranger? You lied to me?”
“You wouldn’t talk to me. I wanted to know where your head was. If there was still hope. If you still cared.”
“Let me get this straight: you hoped to rekindle things between us by deceiving me?” She tried to push him away.
Nash wasn’t having it. He couldn’t with all the cameras.
He pressed her wrists against the shower tiles and plastered her body with his. “I’m sorry.”
When he lowered his mouth to hers, she turned her head. “Don’t.”
Why was everything with Haisley one step forward and two steps back?
Normally, he’d let her cool down, but with cameras all over the place, he didn’t have that luxury. “We need to table this discussion until we’re safe. Or did you forget where we are?”
“Of course not,” she hissed. “But?—”
“Your ‘owner’ would never allow such defiance,” he reminded her sharply, swiping his tongue up her neck.
She pursed her lips angrily but nodded. They stood under the spray in tense silence, steam rising around them.
Nash’s mind drifted to the auction, to Gray’s words about her history. He probably shouldn’t ask when she was already hurt and angry, when the night had been so long and harrowing. But if her past presented any danger to their present, he needed to know. And the question was eating him alive.
“What they said during the auction…” he began carefully. “Your previous pregnancy. Was that true?”
The color drained from her face. Despite the hot water cascading over them, her skin turned cold.
Without a word, she wrenched away, nearly slipping in her haste to escape. He watched, gut twisting, as she wrapped herself in a silk robe with trembling hands and fled to the bedroom. He cut off the shower and followed, towel around his waist, to find her staring out the window at the moonlit ocean, arms wrapped protectively around her middle.
“Listen…” He stepped behind her, taking her hips in his hands.
She stiffened and refused to look at him.
The silence stretched, heavy with unspoken words. As frustrating as it was, they had zero privacy out of the shower. In the thick of the night wasn’t the time to push her, especially since they were both running on zero sleep.
Tamping down his frustration, he pulled her to the bed and wrapped himself around her, his gaze promising that he’d extract answers later. “Close your eyes. Rest.”
She raised her chin in defiance and fought him. But he was bigger, stronger. She soon realized the futility of pushing him away and rolled to her side with a huff, curling into a ball.
With a growl, he dragged her against his naked body. His mind raced. She hadn’t denied being pregnant at some point in the past. But when? And…by whom? If it had been his child, she would have told him. Wouldn’t she?
Soon, he’d need that answer—and they’d have to deal with everything that had happened on that goddamn stage. Once this nightmare fucking ended, they’d tackle whatever had caused her to run from him two years ago. He loved her. He wanted to spend his life with her. She couldn’t keep running from the truth. He couldn’t allow it.
He just prayed they both lived long enough to reconcile everything causing this rift between them.
Pink tinged the horizon the following morning as Nash followed the curved path to the beach, bare feet sinking into sand still cool from the night. The rising sun painted the Caribbean waters gold.
A beautiful view that felt obscene, given the horrors that happened in this place.
Haisley had finally fallen into an exhausted sleep, curled tightly against his chest, until he’d carefully extracted himself. He hated to leave her alone and potentially vulnerable, but duty called.
Near the private dock, he spotted Ethan. Kaylee shivered beside him in a borrowed sundress that hung loose on her delicate frame, arms wrapped around herself protectively. The barrettes pinning back her dark hair made her look impossibly young in the dawning light. Dark circles shadowed eyes haunted by trauma. Her parents must be out of their minds with worry.
Kane materialized from the shadows of a palm grove to join them, his expensive loafers clicking on the wooden pier before he positioned himself close enough to Kaylee to make her flinch. He pasted on a predatory smile that was pure performance as he ran a finger down her arm. “Quite a prize, Fischer. Sure you don’t want to share before you go? She still looks deliciously innocent. If you didn’t give her a proper deflowering, I will.”
The girl shrank from Kane’s touch.
“I did. Back the fuck off, Manford.” Ethan’s jaw tightened, a muscle jumping beneath his skin. “This one’s mine. Every. Last. Inch.”
“Greedy bastard.” Kane charged Ethan, shoving him off the dock and onto the beach, close to the shoreline.
Nash followed their act, herding them a few extra feet toward the waves as he pretended to break up their scuffle and far enough from the surveillance equipment to talk. The morning breeze should carry their words to the wind. The waves would conceal the rest.
“We succeeded last night. No one questioned anything,” Ethan murmured, voice low.
Thank god . “How did you simulate showing her virgin blood on stage?”
Ethan flipped a hand over to reveal a small cut, now scabbing over. “Rubbed it on myself. Seems to have worked. She’s still exactly as advertised—completely untouched. But the poor girl is going to need therapy.”
No doubt. “Good job faking it.”
Garrison dragged Kaylee to his side and slung his arm around her, resting it possessively on her hip. “Hunter contacted her parents, so the moment we hit the mainland, she’ll be back with them.”
For the benefit of the cameras, Kane crowded closer to the shivering girl, looking as if he was still angling for a trade. His fingers toyed with her exposed collarbone as he spoke under his breath. “Listen. I found something useful during my nocturnal wandering last night. While most everyone was busy with the auction, I chatted up this guard. Martinez—local guy, been here three years. He’s got a conscience and a sick kid who needs surgery. For five grand, he showed me a maintenance access point. Perfect spot to upload Stone’s security crawler without detection.”
“Nice work.” Nash clapped Kane’s shoulder, playing the role of impressed colleague while his mind raced through implications. “Where can I find it?”
“Southeast corner, hidden service tunnel behind the spa building. Martinez will be on duty at two a.m. when that section of the security grid goes down briefly for maintenance. That’s our window.”
Before they could say more, the ferry appeared on the horizon, a white slash against the bright Caribbean water.
Ethan grabbed Kaylee’s arm, his grip looking harder than it was, as he hauled her back to the pier—and back within range of the surveillance. “Time to go, pet.” He turned to the others with a wolfish grin that didn’t reach his eyes. “Try not to have too much fun without me. When I get bored with Little Miss Please-Don’t, I’ll be back.”
“If we save any pussy for you,” Nash called after him, the words tasting like acid.
Kane leered one last time at Kaylee before Ethan dragged her onto the boat. Once the vessel cast off and disappeared into the morning haze, Nash breathed a sigh of relief as he and Kane strolled the shoreline. At least they’d managed to save one innocent girl. They just had to figure out how to save the rest—and who wanted to enslave them in the first place.
“Martinez says the maintenance access leads to their central hub,” Kane murmured. “If you can get Trees in remotely through that portal, we might be able to access their whole system.”
“Including surveillance feeds?”
“Everything, I think. But we’ll need a distraction to cover your movements.”
They worked out the details, timing each step. Kane would create a commotion that made all the cameras hiccup while Nash accessed the tunnel. They’d have maybe ten minutes total.
With the mission set, Nash headed back to check on Haisley. She was still curled on her side, face seemingly peaceful in sleep, fiery hair spread across the pillow. The sight made his chest ache.
Exhaustion pummeled him. After last night’s ordeal, they both needed rest. He eased onto the bed, careful not to wake her as he pulled her close. Within moments, his eyes grew heavy…until a knock startled Nash awake.
He blinked, stunned to find the sun high in the sky. Hours had passed. He jumped into a pair of sweatpants, wondering who the fuck was disturbing them and why. Was Gray or one of his henchmen onto them?
Haisley sat up in bed, sheet pulled over her breasts as she gasped and looked his way, seemingly frozen in fear. He tried to send her a reassuring expression as he headed across the room to open the door.
Room service wheeled in an elaborate champagne brunch and set up a linen-clad table near the ocean-view window.
“If you require anything else, sir, use the house phone to call the concierge.” Then, with a bow, the waiter disappeared.
“Hungry?” Nash asked.
“No.”
After last night, he didn’t blame her, but she needed to keep up her strength. “You should eat.”
Haisley hesitated, looking as if she intended to argue. Instead, she nodded and rose, slipping back into the silk robe. “Give me a minute.”
He’d rather not. He ached to hold her close and talk about last night—what had happened onstage, what they’d discussed in the shower, the past she kept avoiding. Instead, he gestured her to the bathroom, his heart twisting as she closed the door between them.
Damn it, it wasn’t merely the physical distance she put between them that disturbed him. It was the mental distance. The emotional distance. It was palpable.
She felt betrayed.
Haisley returned a few minutes later with clean teeth, a freshly scrubbed face, and a gaze that wouldn’t meet his.
Swallowing a curse, he marched to the bathroom and reached for his toothbrush, wondering what the hell to do.
He’d fucking tried to protect her the best he could. She knew that logically, but that didn’t stop the feelings she must have of being exposed, of being taken in public. Then the Jasper thing and the ill-timed pregnancy question…
He spit out his toothpaste, then stared at himself in the mirror. He looked tired as fuck, and the danger was nowhere near over. How the hell could he repair what was between them if they couldn’t talk?
With more questions than answers, he settled himself at the table where Haisley sat picking at scrambled eggs and swallowing champagne. The tension between them made the celebratory spread of crystal and silver feel like a mockery.
He’d had enough.
After knocking back half a cup of black coffee, he dug out the Santiago brothers’ tech, disguised in a shaving can, and activated it. It might be reckless, but this couldn’t go on.
The green light on the device told him the signals had been scrambled.
“We have two minutes of privacy,” he murmured as he dropped back into his chair. “Talk to me. Are you okay?”
“Maybe. I don’t know.” Her voice cracked. “Last night…”
Of course she was reeling.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t have a choice.”
She nodded…but still steadfastly kept her eyes on her plate. “How much longer?”
“We’re doing everything we can. I promise. Look, I’m sorry about the Jasper business. If I had a do-over, I wouldn’t do it at all. When you got back to town, I just…wanted to talk to you. I missed you like hell.”
Haisley hesitated. “I get it. I know you weren’t deceiving me maliciously, but…”
Fuck . “Look, I?—”
“I know you’ve risked everything to rescue me?—”
“I don’t regret it. I’d do it again and again.”
Haisley bit her lip. “I’m trying to remember that and not…everything else.”
The seconds they had left to talk were counting down. He couldn’t scramble the signal again without raising questions, and they were nowhere near resolved. “Why won’t you talk to me about your pregnancy? What happened?”
She leapt to her feet and looked out the window, as if she were a million miles away. “It’s in the past. Leave it there.”
“Not when it’s affecting our present.” He crossed the room to her and grabbed her shoulders so she couldn’t run from him again. “And our future.”
Across the room, the device beeped in warning. Security had already reset their “glitching” surveillance, ending the signal scramble. Back to silence. Back to pretending she was a stranger he owned.
Frustration tore through him. He’d barely been here twenty-four hours, and he already hated every minute of this shit.
They spent the afternoon in strained silence. Nash pretended to watch reruns while Haisley curled in a window seat with a book she wasn’t really reading. They sat less than ten feet apart, but the distance between them felt vast. Occasionally, their eyes would meet, then quickly dart away. So much unsaid. So much he didn’t know when they would get to say.
Darkness fell. After another dinner in their suite, they went through the motions of preparing for bed. Tension lay thick between them. Nash waited until Haisley’s breathing evened out before he shut his eyes.
They popped open a few hours later when his sat phone dinged. Kane’s distraction—a carefully orchestrated power surge in the main building that would take down surveillance for precious minutes without raising major alarms—right on schedule.
Nash reached for Haisley, to clue her in. Then he pulled his hand back. Why wake her? He couldn’t tell her anything, and she would only worry. Instead, he dressed and slipped out of their suite.
As he crossed the compound, the lights flickered. They stabilized as he approached the building that housed the spa. Perfect. The security cameras should take a few minutes more to finish rebooting, giving him the window he needed to slip inside.
The service tunnel was situated exactly where Kane described, camouflaged behind tropical foliage and a maintenance door. The musty space smelled of mold and stagnant salt air.
Nash’s sat phone connected to his brother’s cell on the first try, the encryption bypassing the island’s security. Thankfully, he didn’t see any surveillance equipment in the dusty tunnel.
“In position?” Trees asked without preamble.
“Yeah. Talk me through it.”
Nash withdrew the flash drive and adapter he’d smuggled in his luggage. His brother guided him through the complex upload sequence in low tones.
As they waited, Trees filled him in on the investigation stateside. “Bad news. We found nothing useful or incriminating from the servers in Benedict’s office. And the police can’t confirm IDs on the bodies without dental records, so those IDs will take time. Fire department saved what they could, but…”
Another setback. “Damn it.” Nash watched the progress bar creep forward with agonizing slowness, sweat trickling down his spine in the humid tunnel. “Once we’re in, how long before you can access the system on this island?”
“If everything goes perfectly? Hours. Realistically? Days. This is serious military-grade encryption, definitely partitioned. Might even have quantum security protocols. I’ll have to move like a ghost—one wrong step and they’ll detect the intrusion.”
“Just…be as quick as you can. And careful.”
“You too, little brother.” Trees’s voice softened. “How’s Haisley holding up?”
Nash ran a hand over his face, stubble scratching his palm. “Not great. Shit went down at the ‘claiming ceremony,’ and she’s shaken. She also knows I was JasperThePrivateDick on that amateur crime-solving site. Her trust in me…isn’t strong right now. And my gut tells me she’s hiding something else. This pregnancy in her past… She won’t talk about it.”
“I know it’s frustrating, but none of that is priority one now. Focus on keeping her safe. The rest can wait until you’re free from that hellhole.”
Nash wasn’t so sure. The distance in Haisley’s eyes scared him more than any guard with a gun.
If she couldn’t trust him, how could they survive this ordeal? And if her faith in him was so shaken, how the hell could he keep her safe?