Stolen Seduction (36 page)

Her jaw clenched. And slowly she lifted the sculpture until it was chest high. “Then you can have it,

you bastard.”

She heaved the statue hard, a chest pass the NBA would be proud of. But McIntosh saw it coming,

and his hand holding the 9mm lifted.

“Goddammit!” That roar erupted in Shane’s brain. He threw himself in front of the gun, tackled

McIntosh before he could get a shot off. The bronze hit the ground. The gun slid from McIntosh’s

grip with a thud against the floor. As they grappled, Shane faintly heard screaming, feet pounding

and the sound of a gunshot out in the hall. He had enough time to lift his head and see Hailey heading for the door, just before McIntosh’s fist slammed into his jaw. “Prick!”

They wrestled, but it didn’t take long for Shane to get the upper hand. He shoved his knee hard into

McIntosh’s spine and yanked up on his arm until the man cried out in pain. He glanced up and

around for something to secure the man’s wrists. Nicole was crouched behind a stack of boxes, eyes

wide. Shane hollered for her to bring him some wire from the crates.

When McIntosh tried to get up, Shane shoved him face-first into the concrete. “Stay down, asshole.” He wiped his mouth, glanced down at the blood on his hand as Nicole cautiously brought

over the wire. The man grunted as Shane wrapped the wire tight around his wrists. “Where’s your

goddamn sister?” he barked at Nicole.

“I…I don’t know.”

“Fuck this.” He shoved off McIntosh. Reached for the gun on the ground and checked the safety.

Then he handed the firearm to Nicole. “Stand here. Keep this pointed at the son of a bitch. If he so

much as moves, shoot his ass.”

McIntosh whimpered. Nicole’s eyes grew so big, the whites could be seen all around her dark irises.

The gun trembled in her hand. “Wh-where are you going?”

“To kick your sister’s ass.”

Hailey and Billy were dragging a dirty and sobbing Lucy Walthers back toward the storage room

when Shane reached the hallway. He should have been relieved, happy Hailey wasn’t hurt, but at

the moment all he saw was red. She hadn’t listened to him. Again. Was she trying to get herself

killed?

He jerked Walthers out of their grasp and dumped her on the ground next to McIntosh.

Hailey looked at Billy. “Do you have that phone?”

He tossed it to her, went to Nicole and gently took the gun from her hand, wrapping one arm around

her and cradling her against him.

Hailey immediately dialed. “Allie? Yeah, it’s me. Listen, I’ve got some trash that needs to be picked

up.” As she disappeared out into the hall to talk to Alice Hargrove, Shane was left with nothing to

do but watch her go.

He walked across the floor while Billy spoke quietly to Nicole. Shane’s adrenaline was still pumping as he picked up the bronze and looked at the two entwined lovers.

Last Seduction? He didn’t see that. All he saw was greed. And revenge. And a woman who was so

goddamn independent, the only way to get through to her was by force.

Hailey’s voice drifted into the room. He heard her giving Allie their location on the island. He

looked over at Billy and Nicole. “Police are on their way. Hailey and I have to make tracks. They’ll

ask questions, we’ll get pulled in—”

“And you two will never figure out the rest of this,” Billy said, arm still around Nicole. “We’ll wait

for the cops. You two just get lost before they get here.”

Shane nodded. Took one more look at Walthers and McIntosh on the ground, then turned for the

door with the bronze tucked under his arm. And told himself not to lose his temper with Hailey. Not

yet, at least.

Shane hadn’t spoken a word to her on the boat ride back to Marathon. Hadn’t asked if she was okay

or even looked her way. And Hailey tried not to read anything into that. Tried to tell herself she

didn’t care whether he was worried about her mental health.

But it was hard. Especially when they climbed on the Roarke Bombardier and she gave the pilot the

coordinates from her father’s letter, found out they were heading to Jamaica, told Shane, and he still

didn’t say a single word in response. Just strapped in and waited for takeoff with clenched jaw and

eyes that seemed to look off into space.

Okay, he was ticked. Didn’t take a brainiac to figure that one out. She twiddled her thumbs while

the plane gained momentum and they shot into the air. The second they were high enough, she

flipped off her seat belt and hit the galley for something to drink to settle her nerves.

She was pouring her second shot when Shane picked her up by the elbows and turned her around to

face him. The bottle of bourbon slipped from her fingers and hit the counter with a crack. “What the

hell are you—”

His mouth was over hers before the words were even past her lips, but she knew instinctively this

wasn’t a gentle kiss. Wasn’t a loving kiss. Wasn’t even an I’m sorry for everything you’ve been

through kiss. It was hard and wet and a little bit mean as his teeth sank into her bottom lip hard

enough for a lick of pain to shoot though her skin. He didn’t give her a chance to say yes or no or

anything in between, because he was yanking her off the floor and pushing her through the door into the private cabin and shoving her down to the mattress before she even realized they were moving.

He was pissed. She could feel the anger pumping off him in hot, rolling waves. Knew he was replaying what she’d done in that bunker and using it to punish her. And while her brain told her

rough, angry sex was a really bad idea, especially after the way things had gone last night and this

morning, her own adrenaline was still so high, she didn’t care.

She thrust her tongue into his mouth, found the edge of his shirt and scored her nails up underneath

and across his bare back until he roared. He answered by biting her lip again, then ripping her Tshirt open right down the center to expose her bra and stomach.

She gasped. Barely had time to react before he was pulling her breasts free without even unlatching

her bra and devouring them with his mouth. His arousal rubbed against her hip. Electricity rushed

over her skin.

Oh, God…

Bad, awful, really dangerous idea. So how come with him it felt so right?

His teeth scraped her nipple as his hands found the snap on her jeans, ripped them open and stripped

her bare. “Goddamn, you’re going to listen to me,” he growled. “Even if I have to force you to.”

She moaned as his mouth ran low, lower, until he was pushing her legs wide and dragging his

tongue up her cleft.

“Shane…”

Her back arched. Her fingers slid into his hair. Light flashed behind her eyes as he worked his

tongue over and around, taking her places she’d never been. And when he pushed two fingers inside

her, thrust deep in time with his tongue, all that adrenaline and anger and pent-up rage tipped the

scales into a mind-blowing orgasm that rocketed through her entire body.

He flicked his tongue over her as she came down the other side, then sank his teeth into the pressure

point between her thigh and torso until she groaned.

It didn’t hurt. If anything, it superheated her blood all over again. She pushed her hips up against

him as he licked and sucked the spot, and reached for him, desperate to have him inside her like

he’d been last night.

But before she could wrap her hands about his shoulders, he was off the bed, wiping his mouth with

the back of his hand and pacing the small room like a caged tiger ready to strike.

Her brain was still nothing but sex-fuzz as she pushed up on her elbows to look for him. Why

wasn’t he inside her right this second? She glanced down the length of his body and discovered—to

her surprise—he wasn’t hard anymore.

A chill spread through her veins, forcing out all that sultry heat. And in that moment she became

achingly aware of the sound of the jet’s engines, the air hissing through the vent above, the heave

and draw of his breath across the room. He was completely clothed, and her breasts were hanging

out of her bra, her panties were ripped and her jeans were dangling from one leg.

That wasn’t sex. That wasn’t pleasure. That was a point, which he’d made crystal clear. He didn’t

need her. He didn’t want her. But he was in charge.

A sick feeling settled in her stomach. She fixed her bra, pulled on her jeans and looked around for

her bag so she could find a shirt not shredded by his hands.

“When I tell you to do something,” he said in a low voice from across the room, “that means do it.

It doesn’t mean lose your fucking common sense.”

“Go to hell,” she snapped.

She jerked on a shirt, managed to get the collar over her head before he grabbed her by the arm and

whipped her back to face him. “I can’t keep you safe if you don’t listen to me!”

She shoved his chest, enough to get him to stumble back a few steps so she could yank her shirt

down. “I don’t need you to protect me. I’ve been doing it all on my own my whole life. Who the

hell do you think you are anyway?”

He took a step toward her. “Goddamn it, Hailey—”

“I’m not Julie, Shane!”

He stopped midstep. And something unreadable crossed his face.

And that’s when it hit her, like a blast to the sternum that stole her breath. “Oh, my God. You’re not

here because of me.”

“What?”

Her eyes grew wide. “Why didn’t I see it before? All this time I thought you came down here with

me because of how you felt about me. Because you wanted to help me.” She shook her head as she

thought about how he’d walked away from his department without a second thought, taken her dagger from evidence, lied to his partner on the phone. “But that’s not why, is it?”

“Yes, it is.”

“No.” She shook her head, his actions and words and the way he’d tried to keep personal distance

between them all finally making sense in her head. “You’re here because of her. So you can prove

you can save the girl and still get the bad guy in the end. And that’s why you’re so angry with me

now. Because you can’t do that if I don’t play the helpless female who needs you to protect her.”

She knew she was right when guilt crept into his eyes. “Hailey—”

“Oh, God.” The room spun, and her stomach rolled. And when he moved toward her, she flinched

out of his reach so his heat couldn’t brand her skin. “I can’t believe I was a complete fool.”

“That’s not what this is—”

“Don’t lie to me!” She held up her hands to block him, clenched them into fists as her stupidity registered. And felt her heart crack, right there in the silence between them. She closed her eyes and

took a calming breath. “Just…do me the courtesy of at least not lying about it now.”

He didn’t answer. And as she stood there gathering herself, she tried to figure out what it was about

her and men. Why did she keep falling for guys who didn’t really want her?

Slowly, she opened her eyes, only to find him watching her cautiously. The anger that had driven

him before was gone, replaced with a guilt-ridden look that said, yep, she’d been right.

Her chest tightened, so much so she thought it might just implode. And then in a rush, all that betrayal and rage slid out on a wave and was replaced with a numb feeling that seemed to grow from

her core and radiate outward until all she felt was…nothing. Nothing but empty and utterly alone.

She made a decision then, the only one she had left to make.

“When we land, I want you to leave. I want you off my plane and out of my life for good.”

“I’m not leaving you when—”

“Don’t.” She held up a hand to keep him from touching her. But she didn’t yell. Didn’t snap. Didn’t

have enough left in her to lash out at him. “Don’t take away what little dignity I have left. Just…

don’t.”

She left him standing in the bedroom alone, made her way through the cabin and up to the cockpit

where she sank into the copilot’s seat and stared out at the clouds like a sea of white ahead of her.

White and vast and empty. A lot like her life.

Steve glanced sideways at her, and she knew without even asking he’d heard at least part of what

had transpired. “You okay?”

She should be embarrassed. Humiliated. Seething over what Shane had done. But she couldn’t

muster up enough emotion to feel anything but numb. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just get me to Jamaica,

Steve. From there…I’ll figure things out on my own. Just like I always do.”

C HAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Hailey pushed her sunglasses into her hair as the Jeep she’d rented at Ken Jones Airport outside

Port Antonio, Jamaica, passed through a shaded section of the twisting two-lane road that ran up a

steep hill. The air was thick and hot, and sweat slid down her spine as she glanced from the trees to

the road, then to the family she passed dragging a cart filled with vegetables.

Steve had offered to come with her, but she needed to do this on her own. She lifted the map from

the passenger seat, glanced at the circle she’d made on the other side of Port Antonio that matched

the coordinates from her father’s letter. She’d left Steve at the airport with directions to wait for a

call from her. And she’d walked away from Shane without a second look.

Her hands tightened on the wheel as she thought about Shane. What had her last evaluation with the

Key West PD said? Competent but impulsive. And her captain had made a point of adding that she

was especially impetuous when a situation became personal.

She glanced at the passenger seat, where The Last Seduction sat in a bag along with the photo of her