“Are you still afraid?” With one finger he stroked up and around her clit, then down through her wetness, and up again, barely brushing over the throbbing bundle of nerves begging for attention.
“I’m afraid you’ll stop,” she panted.
His lips curled into a sensual smile. “I can go all night. Or I can stop and leave you hanging. Or I can make you come in front of everyone here. I can make you scream your pleasure, and you can’t do anything about it.”
Moisture flooded her sex at his carnal words. She strained against the cuffs, and her inability to move, her vulnerability, started a shaking deep inside her. Did she truly trust him to keep her safe?
A disturbance at the door drew her attention away from his steady gaze. A verbal altercation. Shouting. Yelling. A crease formed between her brows. The voices were familiar.
Seconds later, an angry Rex pushed his way into the room, Angel by his side. Two bouncers grabbed them and hauled them back. Even as her face heated in embarrassment, Lana’s heart sank. They were back together. Angel wouldn’t need her anymore.
James shifted his position, hiding her from Rex. “That’s my fault,” he muttered. “I should never have organized a meeting here. Rex liked it so much he pestered Tony for a membership. Tony only gave in because he figured the club’s surveillance system might catch something that would help put Rex behind bars faster.” He stroked a finger over her cheek. “Don’t worry. He won’t get down here. You’re safe.”
The door slammed open again and Lana heard the rough growl of Rex’s voice and the high-pitched rasp of Angel’s tirade of verbal abuse.
And then she heard another voice. A cold, cruel, sharp snarl that cut her to the core. She sucked in a sharp breath and her body tensed, as it had been conditioned to do.
No.
“We have an important guest,” Rex shouted. “I want to show him around.”
The other voice again. A man. Louder now. More insistent. Angry. Her lungs seized. Terror spread icy tendrils through her veins. She knew that voice. She heard it in her nightmares. She heard it on street corners and in restaurants, in coffee shops and bars. And always her heart would pound and her eyes would widen, and she would fight the urge to run.
Run. She needed to run.
Lana yanked on the cuffs but they held fast. Body trembling, heart hammering, pulse racing, she forced her words through a rapidly tightening throat. “Let me go, James. Let me go.”
James’s eyes widened and his face creased with concern. “What’s wrong?”
“Thrash,” she screamed as a scorching tide of terror crashed through her body. Her eyes fixed on the partially open door, her ears attuned to only one voice. His voice.
“Thrash,” she screamed again. And then she just screamed the word over and over because, although James moved fast, he wasn’t fast enough. And the door was opening; a hand was creeping around the corner. A big hand. With a big ring. The head of a Wolverine.
And then she was free.
Arms banded around her. Strong. Safe. But there was no safe. Not from Levi.
Tears burned her eyes as she remembered the thud of fists on her body, the burn of ropes whipping across her skin, the sting of a palm hitting flesh, the utter helplessness of having nowhere to go and no one to help her. A sob rose in her throat. She pushed James away and ran toward the welcoming red neon sign marking the emergency exit.
“Lana.”
She hit the door running. An alarm went off but she didn’t stop. Couldn’t stop. She ran and she ran and she ran. Then she threw up and ran some more.
Chapter Eighteen
“Jackie. Open the fucking door. I know she’s in there.”
James pounded on Jackie’s apartment door, determined to break it down if it didn’t open in the next thirty seconds.
“Quiet down,” she shouted. “You’ll wake my neighbors. I waited a year to get this place. I’m not about to be kicked out because you can’t wait long enough for me to undo the lock. And don’t even think of breaking down the door.”
Finally, the door opened and a furious Jackie glared at James. “Like I told you earlier when you called, she’s not here. But feel free to come in and stomp around and check for yourself.” She stepped to the side and James stormed into her tiny apartment.
“What happened here?” He looked around at the piles of clothes, pizza boxes, disguises and half-open suitcases.
“Nothing happened. I live like this,” Jackie huffed. “I’m not a clean freak like Lana. I like things to be relaxed.”
James gritted his teeth. “I could search through this place for a week and never find her.”