Desperate Domination (Bought by the Billionaire #3) (14 page)

Jackson’s head snapped back, but it was too dark to see much of the plane aside from the breadth of the wings and the red stripe running from the nose down toward the belly, illuminated in the spill of the headlights. He didn’t know who owned the plane, but he would bet his fortune that Adam was flying the aircraft, which meant his own plane was useless.

He couldn’t fly a plane or follow the men who had taken Hannah. He couldn’t do anything but stand and watch the aircraft move farther away from the island, heading north before veering slightly to the east and gradually disappearing from sight.

When the sky was empty once more, he did a sweep of the small, shuttered outbuildings and the field, finding two golf carts parked by the gate in the glow of the lamp lighting the area, but there was no sign of Hannah. There was no sign of a struggle either, simply the imprints of her bare feet in the dust next to Adam’s larger ones. There was another set of prints, too, slightly smaller than Adam’s that tapered at the toe and had no pattern on the bottom of the shoe. A dress shoe, he guessed, which told him nothing.

He had no idea who Adam was working with, why his most trusted employee had betrayed him, or what he planned to do with Hannah. He only knew that he had never felt more helpless than he did right now, not even on the day he was led away to a cell and locked away for a crime he hadn’t committed.

“I’m going to find you,” he said softly, staring up at the star-flecked sky in the direction where the plane had flown away. “I’ll find you and if they’ve hurt you, they will pay for it. I swear it.”

The vow helped calm the impotent rage burning in his gut. If there was one thing he was good at, it was tracking down people who didn’t want to be found. He would find Adam, and the man would pay the price for betrayal. He would pay in pain, suffering ten times the torment for every mark he left on Hannah’s skin.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Hannah

Someone else was flying the plane, but Hannah didn’t know who it was. She supposed in some part of her mind, she had assumed it was Dominic. Adam had said that Dominic sent him, after all, and Dominic was the first one to approach her about the dangerous people who might be coming to the island.

But when the aircraft reached cruising altitude and Adam slipped into the cockpit to take over the controls, it wasn’t Dom’s dark head that ducked through the door leading into the cabin. It was an enormous, silver-haired man with broad shoulders, a strong jaw, and the most familiar pair of brown eyes in his lightly tanned face.

They were Jackson’s eyes, but so much colder. Colder even than the day he’d pulled off her blindfold and glared down at her with a ferocity that had made his contempt for her abundantly clear.

Hate was a terrifying thing to see in another person’s eyes, but at least it meant that the person still had the capacity to feel deeply. Love and hate were opposite sides of the same coin and shared far more similarities than differences. They both came from the heart and the heart could be reasoned with, appealed to, even changed from time to time. The heart knew how to forgive, and as long as forgiveness was a possibility, hope was never beyond reach.

But this man’s eyes were…empty. The windows to his soul had been blown out and any mercy he might once have possessed had escaped into the ether, never to be seen again.

One look at him and Hannah’s gut sensed the approach of an enemy. It was all she could do not to cringe in her chair as the terrifying man began to speak.

“Hello, Miss Mason. I’m Ian Hawke. I’ve come to take you to your sister.”

A sudden surge of delight streaked through her fear, but it was gone in an instant, excitement at the thought of seeing Harley too fragile to survive the terror swelling inside her.

Jackson had betrayed her trust in the worst way, but not everything out of his mouth had been a lie. She believed his stories about his father, the cruel man who had never given his son the love a child deserved and had abandoned Jackson without bothering to find out if the charges against his son were true or false. No matter what Ian Hawke said next, she knew the fact that Jackson’s father was here wasn’t a good thing.

“Why?” she asked. “Why are you taking me to Harley? What do you want?”

The older man smiled, but it was nothing like Jackson’s smile. There was no light or joy in it. He was simply baring his teeth, the smile an implied threat that made her pulse speed faster. “You’re clever, but not as clever as your sister. We had to drug her to get her onto the plane. She knew better than to trust anyone but herself.”

Adrenaline dumped into Hannah’s bloodstream, her most primitive instincts screaming for her to run, but there was nowhere to run to. She was trapped in a plane above the ocean with a man who made Jackson look like a teddy bear in comparison, and there would be no escape.

“As for what I want,” Ian continued, settling onto the small leather couch next to her seat. “I want your father to pay his debt. If he does, you will be allowed to live.”

The tension fisting in her middle eased a bit. If Ian wanted money, her father certainly had enough of it, and he wouldn’t hesitate to pay her ransom. For all his faults, Stewart Mason valued her life as much as he valued his fortune. She was about to tell Ian as much when he spoke again.

“I think he’ll choose you, anyway,” he said, smiling that terrible smile. “You’re the good girl, aren’t you? The one who always did as she was told? I understand your sister was his favorite once, but when he realizes he can only keep one daughter, I suspect he’ll see the wisdom in sparing your life instead of hers.”

Only keep one daughter. Only one.

He was taking her to her sister, but she might only have hours with Harley before one of them was murdered.

Acid surged up Hannah’s throat. A moment later she was bent double, retching on the floor of the private jet whisking her away to meet the fate she’d been running from for six long years.

Jackson and Hannah’s story concludes in DIVINE DOMINATION

releasing in August 2015.

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About the Author
Lili Valente has slept under the stars in Greece, eaten dinner at midnight with French men who couldn’t be trusted to keep their mouths on their food, and walked alone through Munich’s red light district after dark and lived to tell the tale.

These days you can find her writing in a tent beside the sea, drinking coconut water and thinking delightfully dirty thoughts.

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Also By Lili Valente

The complete Under His Command Series is

Available Now:

Controlling Her Pleasure
(Book One)
Commanding Her Trust
(Book Two)
Claiming Her Heart
(Book Three)

The Bought By the Billionaire Series releases

Summer of 2015:

Dark Domination
(Book One)
Deep Domination
(Book Two)
Desperate Domination
(Book Three-July)
Divine Domination (Book Four-August)