Chapter Fifteen
Skye
I’m running out of adjectives to describe the turn my life has taken, but bizarre probably wins.
I don’t know what is going on, but I can’t trust anyone. Not even Agent Philips.
“Okay, knock it off, you two. You’re done showing off your new martial arts moves. You’re beginning to scare our little guest,” Eason says.
Eason Durand.
I can’t trust him either. They’re all friends. So it’s me against them. I watch in utter disbelief as they all suddenly shake hands, hug like men do, and seem genuinely happy to see each other.
What in the world is happening?
I’m too scared to get off the bed, worried my legs won’t be able to carry me, but I do check my phone that Eason broke into my apartment to bring to me. How nice of him.
I check my messages.
There’s one from Esmeralda—the owner of Babes, Babes, and Babes.
They managed a workaround regarding my account, and I’m set for my virgin auction tomorrow.
It starts at ten. She ends her message with congratulations written in caps followed by a string of celebratory emojis, then adds that I’ve had pre-offers already, and they’re very hefty sums.
The answer to all my problems is a day away. I need to get back home. I rise from the bed, wobbly at first, but my fight instinct kicks in. While they’re still having their reunion, I look for a weapon. And then I spot one. A gun lying on a desk. Yes. Finally, my universe decides to help me.
I don’t even know if it’s loaded. But I’m willing to take the chance. My dad used to shoot, and he taught me a bit about guns. How to hold one. How to pull the trigger. I’m not going to kill anyone, obviously. But I’m getting out of here one way or another.
I wrap the soft cashmere throw properly around my body, tuck it under my arms, and raise my hand.
“You’re not an FBI agent, are you?” I say directly to Alex Philips, the gun trained on him. “You told me you’re an FBI agent. Are you or aren’t you?”
“He’s not,” Kai says.
“I was,” Alex counters.
“For five minutes, yes,” Eason says.
“Five months. I didn’t like it. So technically.”
“There’s no technically . You pretended to be an FBI agent; I’m sure that’s a crime in itself. And the lady you were with? Agent Harriet Montgomery?”
“An actor. I also do assassins for the government, so I get leeway.”
“Oh my god. There I was thinking you were a gentleman when you turned around to give me some privacy when I had to take off my clothes for this guy over here—”
“I—” Kai begins.
“You’ll get your turn,” I say, cutting him off before turning to Alex again. “You could see everything in the mirror, couldn’t you? And you knew you would.”
Alex gives me a slow, sexy smile that makes my very nipples betray me all over again.
“You were mine the moment I saw you, Princess,” he says. Yeah, right.
“Argh,” I say, dismissing Alex. “And you,” I carry on, pointing the gun at Kai. “You kidnapped me. We don’t do that in the civilized world.”
“You asked me to.”
“It’s called role play,” I say, rolling my eyes.
“I’m never going to stop kidnapping you and bringing you to my bed, Princess.”
I shake my head, lost for words.
“You’re all villains here, aren’t you?”
“Not me; I’m a doctor, not a villain.”
“Oh no. You’re as villainous as they are. You pushed me.” I played that event over and over in my head. “You pushed me and then blamed an innocent man instead. That’s why he kept saying you were nuts; he wasn’t trying to mug me.”
“Okay, but how was I going to know if you were the one if I didn’t also catch you and hold you against my body?” Eason asks smoothly, softly.
What? No. They’re all insane. I take a deep breath.
“I don’t understand; what is all this about?”
“Well, it’s a game we play once we come back from an intense undercover operation. We take a bet and then see who can track the other person down. I had to track Kai down this time,” Alex supplies.
“It’s all a game?” I cry.
“Pretty much, but the instant Alex brought you in to help him, I knew I had to see you, as well,” Eason says.
“Why me?”
“I got lucky and found the only woman in the world that would bring Kai out into the open. You see, that same woman is the only woman in the world who would bring us all out into the open, risking everything, game or not,” Alex says.
I can’t trust them. They’re just saying things to me.
“Well, I don’t care about your games. All I want is to leave this place right now.
I have a virgin auction to attend tomorrow, and if I don’t, a very angry mafia man whose entire personality is to chop off people’s legs will have a go at mine.
So unless you’re going to pay me to take my virginity, please get out of my way so I can leave. ”
“What do you mean, you have a virgin auction tomorrow? With the site Babes, Babes, and Babes?” Alex asks.
“It’s none of your business, but yes.”
“I hacked the site; you shouldn’t have been able to get on there again,” Alex continues.
“So did I,” Kai says, frowning. “No other fucking men were supposed to look at you.”
“Excuse me, I was the one who hacked into the BBB site and prevented our princess from opening another account.”
“You?” Alex asks Eason.
“Just because I’m a doctor doesn’t mean I can’t do some basic hacking.”
“Yes, it does. Stick with the scalpel, brain surgeon, and leave the code alone,” Kai says, and they chuckle.
“Enough,” I shout. This is getting out of hand.
“I need to get out of here.”
“You can’t. Snowstorm,” Eason says.
No. No. No. No.
I rush to the glass wall, and already I can see the beginnings of a storm. Then I look down and stagger backward. We’re in a cabin wedged into the face of a mountain, and this room we’re in juts out of it.
We’re all going to die. This whole thing is going to fall into the ravine below, and that’s it. After everything I did…
My phone, still clutched tightly in my hand, beeps. I glance at it. It’s a banking notification. Frowning, I open the app. It feels as if I’m going blind.
There’s an amount in my account with way too many zeroes. I blink, over and over again, and instantly decide it's a banking error. I turn my attention back to the men in the room. The need to fall to my knees and just cry myself into a pathetic heap of nothing rears strongly.
“We just paid for your virginity,” Alex says, slipping his phone into his pocket.
“Three, point three, three, three, three, three, and so on, for each of us,” Eason says.
“You’re ours, Princess. No one else gets to touch you. Ever,” Kai says.