Chapter 15 – Vivian
B y the time we picked up the new-old vehicle and drove to the rental cottage, my resolve returned. If this was another life, another situation, I could close the distance and enjoy the man standing across the brick patio from me. But the facts were plain. He was my kidnapper, and I needed to escape.
The one-bedroom beach hut was a loner’s paradise. Secluded in the woods, with miles of raw coastline running along the water. Luka whistled a tune as he poked at the charcoal in the small Weber grill. It was imperative that I pretend to be resigned and tired. Tonight was my best chance at running away.
“Want to eat down by the water?” Luka jerked his chin toward the expanse of blue-green.
The Emerald Coast did call my name. Sadly, I couldn’t enjoy the Gulf the way I wanted. I had a part to play.
“Sure, why not,” I grumbled.
My captor pursed his lips. “You’ve been quiet and crabby all afternoon. And I know you’re not hangry!”
I rolled my eyes.
Luka let out a long sigh. “I’m trying to make the best of this. I could lock you up, you know.”
Sparks crackled through me. “Am I supposed to thank you for the consideration, mister kidnapper?”
For once, there wasn’t a smile on his face. “It’s just a job, Vivian. It’s not personal.”
Unbelievable!
Reason came to the rescue. Calm the hell down .
I’d already screwed up. My temper was going to ruin any chance I had. I took the plate, put a bun on it, and grabbed the condiments.
“You seem like a good guy, Luka. You should do the right thing.” I stuck out my plate for him to drop a wiener onto.
He didn’t meet my eyes. “Morality is a twisted creature when left to the machinations of the feeble minds of men.”
I didn’t have the first idea how to interpret that. There was an unopened bag of Takis on the table, and I poured a healthy dose on my plate. Not waiting for my jailer, I trudged down to the water.
The steady rush of the waves soothed my racing pulse.
I demolished most of the hotdog by the time Luka joined me. He’d brought the bags of chips and the container of dogs. I plucked another meat link from the glass pan, content to eat it with my chips.
“Who did you want me to kill?” Luka asked quietly.
The pieces of beef and chip nearly caught in my throat. I coughed, spluttering around the bite.
“This no touching rule, does it exclude instances where your life is in peril?” Luka smirked.
“Ass!” I rasped.
He bit down and took half his dog in his mouth at once. “Give me a name,” he garbled around the food.
Not having brought a drink, I rubbed my chest and debated going back to the house. But this conversation interested me. “The conditions of withdrawing from our family’s capital are contingent on me meeting certain criteria.”
The intensity of his interest bore into me. It felt as though it was stripping back the layers, threatening to peel me until I was exposed.
It took every ounce of strength not to squirm.
“Who do I have to kill?” Luka repeated.
I took a deep breath. “Our family lawyer. If he’s out of the way, the contingencies can be altered, and I can be released from their hold.”
And the rotten bastard, the demon who’d twisted the course of my life, would never hurt me again. The idea of his death was almost too sweet to wish for.
Luka nodded once. “I see.”
It wasn’t a yes. Not a no.
“Look at this one.” Luka leaned forward and plucked a lightning whelk. The shell was twisted at the top and descended into a long, sharp point. Most of the ones I found were broken.
I nodded, failing to maintain interest in the shell. When he didn’t say anything else about the harder problems, I felt the rush of hopelessness swell inside.
Clearing my throat, I pushed to my feet. “Thanks for dinner.”
Proud that my voice sounded breezy and light, I returned to the house. We would be leaving at dawn, so if I was going to escape, it had to be tonight. Because I would be running through the wilderness, there was no point in showering. But I needed the privacy of the hot spray to break down.
Leaving my clothes on the sink, I paused only long enough to twist my hair into a knot on the top of my head before sliding into the scalding spray. The grout was black in spots, so I didn’t lean against the wall no matter how badly I wanted to.
My shoulders shook now that I finally allowed myself to fall apart.
First becoming an orphaned teen, then being plagued by my legal guardian, being forced into a no-win situation with our lawyer, now being kidnapped…. Could I not catch a break? Life sure had a funny way of making things go from bad to hell. Every time I thought things were turning around, I was faced with another backhanded slap.
You’re getting out!
And what? There was no getting through to him. He was determined to complete this mission. This Russian had connections. He escaped the cops, and now his trail was being erased! Only the worst criminals had that kind of power. Which meant I would be forced to run far and cover my tracks well. That took money, which I didn’t have.
You will win. They don’t get to write your story!
A sob choked me. I could be strong and brave in a little while. Right now, I just needed to feel the crushing impossibility of a choiceless life.
I cried and cried until there was nothing left to spill. But like every time before, when the cards were stacked against me, I pulled myself together and refused to let the bad times win. There was one man I truly hated, the source of all the misery. And it wasn’t the monster outside. Compared to defying my nightmare, this new problem wasn’t as difficult to handle.
I slid back into my shorts and tank. The pair of shoes were tucked under the bed, and I climbed into it.
Eventually, the noise stopped in the kitchen. The light blinked out.
I forced my breathing to stay even.
The door creaked, and soft footsteps pattered across the floor.
Really? The nerve! I don’t know how I managed to keep my breathing even. But I did.
There was the scrape of fabric on flesh. A pause. My heart banged against my ribs. The mattress dipped as a full weight descended on the opposite side.
The bastard was sleeping next to me! Again.
I watched the red lines that made up the numbers on the digital clock change shape and arrangement. Battling back sleep, I waited the torturous hour and thirty minutes before I moved.
I sat up.
Luka remained still. His deep breathing filled the bedroom.
Pushing to my feet, I looked behind me. He was sleeping.
Finally, a break.
Shoes in my hand, I padded to the door and slid between the crack. Another small break, that door would have squeaked too loud and woken my captor.
A fine sheen of sweat broke over my skin, despite the chill of the air conditioner. As I passed the kitchen counter, a gleam caught my eye. No way….
It was too easy.
I snatched the keys and whispered out the front door. The symphony of insects rivaled any high school band. Their shrill calls filled the night. Humidity grappled with the clammy stickiness. I was a mess.
“Run fast, run far,” I instructed myself.
The car Luka brought back was…old.
Oh well, it would carry me away just the same. I pressed the overhead light off. Key jammed in the ignition, my foot stabbed the break. A terrible grinding filled the night air.
No. No! Luka drove the car here. It had to work. I scanned the dash for any button to push, but there were limited switches and the only buttons were for the brand new radio.
“Where’s the starter!” I hissed through clenched teeth. If the key didn’t work, there had to be another way to start it!
The car was on when the key turned. I cranked it again, and the terrible grinding noise screamed through the night.
“Let’s start over,” I whispered, trying to calm my frantic pulse.
I clicked the key to on but didn’t crank it.
“Okay, check.” I bit down hard on my cheek. “Pressing break. Okay.”
Now, turn the key.
It was like the bones of the dead cackling at me. Panic beat as a war drum in my veins. Air refused to pull into my lungs. I had to escape!
My foot hit something.
I tried to see in the limited light, but it was easier to feel. “One…. Two…. Three! ”
Why the hell were there three peddles?!
Some random cache of memory trickled through my mind from high school. A rugby player I dated, a foreign exchange student from Europe, drove his grandparent’s German car. It had three pedals and a—
“Stick shift,” I breathed, fingers reaching out for the shaft and ball in the center console.
“You don’t know how to handle a stick, do you, darlin?” a deep chuckle asked from the door.
The beast of a man leaned casually, one arm braced on the hood as he stared down. The other held the door open wide. There was something draped over that forearm, but my brain couldn’t comprehend it through the blast of red. This rotten bastard had come out of the house, probably watched me struggle, and opened the thick metal car door without me noticing. And now—
And now!
Laughter scarred his face.
Every bad experience suffered over the past few days rose up inside.
I struck out and was rewarded with my fist connecting with his balls. Luka’s groan of pain was a thunderclap. I darted around him.
My bare feet pounded across the ground, refusing to let the stones, prickles, or uneven expanse throw me. The sea was my best hope. Luka wasn’t a great swimmer. I could escape him there better than in the woods.
Unless he was fooling you.
I rolled my eyes.
“Then I’ll drown him!” I hissed.
But no sooner did my feet hit the sand than something smacked into my back. I fell flat on the ground. A great umph exploded from my throat. It was more from pain than despair.
I wriggled, but I was trapped. Arms pinned at my sides, I couldn’t squirm away.
“No!” I wailed, that one word extending into the night.
“Hush now,” Luka ground out. “I won’t hurt you. Although…you deserve a punishment for that punch,” he added with a rough, brutal chuckle.
“I do not.” The words came out as a sob. “I’m just fighting for my freedom! That’s all I’ve ever been doing.”
Luka stilled. “Freedom? Is that why you ran to Florida?”
“Yes,” I ground out.
“I don’t want to do this either, Vivian, but you were in danger there,” Luka sighed.
“I can take care of myself,” I pleaded. “Just let me go.”
“I can’t.” Luka adjusted his grip. “They’ll just send someone far worse than me.”
“As if there was anyone worse than you,” I spat bitterly, even though I knew as I said it that it wasn’t true.
There were demonic sonsofbitches far worse, but I wasn’t plagued by mine anymore.
I shifted against him. And that was when I realized he’d wrapped me in a blanket. It had been thrown over his arm and now it restricted my movements. Breathing hard, I shimmied against him. No matter how hard I struggled to break free, I was stuck.
“Babe.” That one word drew out long across his tongue. “You’ve got to stop, because that’s testing my limits.”
My nostrils flared with the force of my exhale. “You said you wouldn’t touch me, so get the hell off of me!”
“We’re not touching.”
The blanket. The damn blanket!
I screamed, throwing my head back as my neck muscles strained to release the furious noise. “A freaking technicality,” I gasped. “You’ve got to be kidding me!”
Luka pressed his hips into me, slowly, torturously rolling them against my pelvis. The forbidden, sensual movement sent a shockwave of heat through me.
I stiffened.
The rotten bastard above me knew exactly what the hell he was doing.
Refusing to give him the satisfaction, I clamped down on my demanding libido. The aching little witch between my legs wailed in protest.
“Nice try, darlin, but you can’t hide from me,” Luka grinned.
That just made me mad. I wanted him to hurt. I wanted to strangle him to—
No, not to death.
But there were other ways to torment him. This game that he’d proposed was one I could win at.
I fluttered my lashes and let out a breathy huff. It was my turn to move against him.
Luka took a second look at me.
Gotcha!
Leaning my head to the side, I exposed my neck. At the same time, I arched my body—as best I could—into his. The effect was instantaneous. A sharp inhale sounded above me. My captor reared back.
I could have used the motion to wriggle free to fight or flee. But both of those scenarios would have been hopeless.
Kicking the blanket, I wrapped my legs around his waist. My hands clapped on either side of his head, and I brought his mouth to mine. Only…I didn’t kiss him. Not on the lips. That would be too intimate given our struggle for power. So I nipped. I licked. I scored a path across that hard jaw to find the place on his throat. That sensitive, albeit prickly, patch of skin I tongued, I sucked—I bruised.
Cursing violently in Russian, not that I knew for certain what he said, but it was the logical conclusion, Luka tried to rip me away.
I sank my teeth into his throat, while rubbing the hard bulge in his pants against my pussy. It was nothing but heat and need. We weren’t even skin-to-skin, but it was the hottest encounter I’d ever experienced.
The moment my captor snapped was like a small explosion. He grabbed me, clutching my body against his. Those hips thrust against me with an unforgiving savagery. He ground into me, offering me the sweet relief I needed.
A needy whimper escaped my lips.
“Fuck, Vivian, you deserve to be adored,” Luka rasped. “You deserve to be fucked until you can’t stand straight.”
He could do it. He could be the one who gave me that deadly combination.
If he wasn’t my damn kidnapper.
A rough growl bubbled in the back of my throat. I clawed at Luka’s back. My hips bucked frantically, desperate to soak up every delicious hit of friction.
The telltale coil tightened deep in my core. I worried his skin with my teeth, urging him on. Luka drove his hips and sent me over the edge.
Because his throat was between my teeth, my scream turned into a feral bite. A metallic tang broke over my tongue. I swallowed some before I realized what I’d done.
I pulled back in shock, my dizzy brain still flooded as my muscles pulsed in pleasure.
“Harder!” Luka growled. “Bite. Me. Harder!”
Heaven forgive me, I did. I sank my teeth into him and clamped my jaw down with the full weight of my fury.
Luka stiffened, driving me into the sand. Air whistled between his teeth as he struggled to battle down whatever masculine sound of approval vied for dominance. The heat in his eyes glittered. The air left my lungs. I couldn’t breathe, but for the moment, it was more beautiful to know I brought this monster to this desperate state rather than fill my lungs.