Twisted Desire (27 page)

He gave me a little grin. “You’ve got it bad, asshole.”

Rolling my eyes, I brushed it off. “She’s hot…of course I’ve thought about doing her ten different ways.”

That made Theo utter a deep laugh as he smacked me on the back. Inside I felt like a major dick, talking about my girl that way. Thankfully she was so out of it, she didn’t hear.
 

“Well Roman has plenty of women to choose from to get rid of those desires, dude,”
Theo said as he headed for the door. He waited there, then nodded to Penny, telling me to pick her up.
 

Cursing up and down under my breath, I leaned over and gently lifted her into my arms. She mumbled a few words I didn’t understand, then sagged against my chest, never waking up. Checking to make sure my gun was still in place in my waistband, I followed Theo out the door.

When we reached the main house, Theo pointed to a room off of the main living area. “Put her in there. She’ll be safe.”
 

“Where are we supposed to go?”

He nodded his head down the hall. “The room at the end. Roman knows you’re bringing her, said to put her here.”

I looked at him like he was crazy. “Why didn’t you tell me that before?”

He chuckled. “Good question, man.”

That was all I’d get out of him. Twisting around, I set my beautiful girl on the large, king-size bed and covered her with a blanket. Whispering I wouldn’t be far and would be back soon, even though I knew she didn’t hear me, I stood and walked out the door.
 

“I still don’t feel right about just leaving her there, especially when the last place she knew she was was your room.”

Theo rolled his eyes. “Shit, man, chill out. She’ll be fine.”

Shutting the door, I followed him to the room at the end of the hall. When Theo opened the door, at first everything seemed fine. Music was lightly playing in the background and a few lamps were lit, making the room seem almost comfortable.
 

But when Theo walked in more, allowing me to follow behind, we both froze.

Roman was slumped over the arm of a sofa, a nasty bruise forming on his left temple. He was obviously unconscious. Theo and I both drew our guns instantly, looking all around the room. When we didn’t see anything, mainly Jamille, we both went over to him and Theo checked for a pulse.

“He’s breathing,”
he told me, sounding relieved. I, for one, was not.
 

I walked around the room, trying to figure out what had happened. “What the hell?”
I asked, turning to face Theo. “What did he say to you on the phone?”

Theo started searching as well, answering as he walked around, lifting papers and books. “He just said a problem had arisen and that he needed us both stat. He knew you had Penny, said to just put her in that room.”

“What kind of problem?”
I continued. “Besides the obvious one we now have.”

Theo looked up at me. “I don’t know, man, he didn’t say.”

“I think he was referring to me.”

We both whipped around at the voice. Jamille was standing in the doorway of the room, a gun raised in her hand. She started to walk into the room, a weird smile on her face.

“Do you boys always do what he says?”
She started to laugh then, a cackle almost. We both still stood where we were with our guns in our hands, trying to figure this out.

“Hello? Did you lose your stupid voices?”
she shouted. “Say something when I talk to you.”
She aimed her gun at me, then at Theo. We both stayed still, trained to not show any emotion.
 

Theo piped up. “He is our boss.”

That made her scowl as she looked back at him, gun pointed. “Who cares? He’s my boss too, but do you see me doing what I’m told?”

She walked over to Roman and plopped down on the couch next to him, still aiming her gun at us.
 

“So,”
I started, doing my best to act bored. “What’d you do to him?”

She looked at Roman, then leaned in to get a better look at the bruise on his temple. She put a hand to her mouth and gave a small gasp, like she was surprised at the wound. “He’s gonna pay for that one,”
she murmured with a smile. Looking back at me, her eyes went back to looking angry. “I hit him with the butt of this gun,”
she informed me, her smile growing wider.

I’m sure my face let on at the shock of what she just told me, though I tried my best not to show it. I heard Theo swear, but he did nothing more. Looking at her square in the face, I raised a brow.

“Mind telling us how that happened?”

She moved back to her spot on the couch and sat back, crossing her arms across her chest. The gun was still grasped tightly in her hand as she tapped it on her stomach. “Not at all,”
she started. “He hit me with his fist on the side of my head, temple to be more specific, which knocked me to the ground. That’s when he dismissed Theo here,”
she said, looking over at him. Turning back to me, she continued. “I let him think I was disoriented, dizzy from the blow, which to be honest, I was somewhat. He paced all around me like a babbling idiot, cursing me for being a pain in the ass, et cetera et cetera. I listened, moaning here and there for affect, until I knew he wasn’t paying close attention to me anymore.”

She paused and looked around, as if to see if we were listening to her. I stayed silent, waiting for her to continue.
 

“I’d noticed he had set his gun on the desk, so when his back was turned, I quietly got up and grabbed it. That’s when he noticed me and turned around. When he saw me standing in front of him and holding the gun, do you know what he did?”

Again she paused, this time for effect. Like she wanted us to gasp and ask what. Instead, I just shrugged. Seeing that was all she was going to get, she started up again. “He laughed, in my face. He told me how pathetic I was and how he had no use for me anymore, inside the bedroom or out of it.”

I must have made a face because she started laughing again.
 

“Hell, yeah, we’ve slept together!”
she cackled. “There’s a
 
major age difference, but that doesn’t matter to me one bit when the guy is amazing in the sheets, and trust me here, Roman Vitale —“

“Enough!”
I yelled, silencing her. She jolted at my tone, then gave me a look of fury. “I’m not here to listen about your sex life,”
I told her. “I have no interest in hearing about it. If you want to keep going, skip it and get to where you knocked him out.”

She squinted her eyes at me, ran her finger around the tip of the gun, then started once again. “Fine. So he’s spewing these horrible things, and my anger is just building and building, you know. I am totally seeing him in a different light, and all I want to do is kill him, which I tell him. He just laughed some more, telling me I didn’t have the guts. I walked around his desk and stood straight in front of him, pointing the gun at his chest. He looked down, then at me, and dared me to do it. The bastard dared me. So I took a step back, raised the gun for his head, then with a huge growl clocked him on the side of his head instead, sending him to the floor in a heap. Stupid old man,”
she spat, looking over at him.

“So you seriously just hit him?”
I asked. “He didn’t see that coming?”

“Brilliant, huh?”
She grinned, like she’d won the lottery or something. “He wasn’t expecting it, wasn’t prepared, so yeah, I hit him, and I hit him good.”

That she did. He was still completely out. It was then I wondered if we should get his doctor. Before I could say anything, though, Theo spoke up.

“Amazing story, Jamille. Have you thought about what you’re going to do when he wakes up?”

Shock traced over her eyes for a minute. She obviously hadn’t. I stayed still, having no desire to help her out in any way. The girl was obviously nuts.

“Shit, no,”
she whispered, her attitude completely disappearing. “He’s gonna kill me. Oh no, oh no, oh no,”
she babbled on and on.
 

Theo took a few steps toward her. “Yeah, he’s not gonna be happy. While you can be proud of yourself for outsmarting him once, I’m afraid you signed your death warrant with it.”

Horrible sobs erupted from her, making me wince. I was never good with a crying woman, especially one who made me want to puke. Roman had obviously been having some sort of a relationship with her for a while now, but why? This lady was not the one we met at the job Roman had sent us to. That lady was calm and confident. This one was a complete nutcase.

Roman decided then was the time to start to stir, making Jamille scream and jump off the sofa. Her hands were shaking, which wasn’t a good thing since she still held the gun. Theo went to her, trying to calm her down, but it only upset her more.

“Stay away from me!”
she screamed, raising the gun at him. “You’re only going to hand me over to him when he wakes up. You take one more step, and I blow your head off, asshole!”

Theo raised his hands in the surrender stance, staying still. I was still in the same place I’d been, now trying to figure out my next move. Roman continued to moan against the arm of the couch, while Jamille was shaking, still pointing the gun at Theo.

“Listen, lady,”
Theo said gently. “You can escape before he comes to. Just hand me the gun, and we’ll let you go.”

She started to shake her head. “No, you won’t. You’re lying. Even if you weren’t, he’d find me. He always has. I signed my life over to him the day I agreed to start helping him.”

That got my attention.

“When was that?”
was all I asked, trying to act like I didn’t care that much.

Roman stirred again and started to mumble. That made her cry out, then point the gun at him. Theo looked over to me, as if trying to communicate what to do next. I shook my head quickly so she wouldn’t catch it.

“Jamille,”
I said sharply to get her attention. Her head whipped to me, then back to Roman. “He’s still more unconscious than awake. You have time to leave. It’s that or risk his fury.”

Tears started to fall down her cheeks. “All I ever wanted was for him to love me the way he loved her.”
She made absolutely no sense, but I refused to stop her. She may say something of interest. “I kept thinking, if I keep doing what he asks, eventually he’ll see it’s me who’s loyal, it’s me who he wants, and we could be happy.”
 

Her eyes turned dark then, whatever she was thinking angering her. “But no,”
she continued. “That never happened. It was always her…always. Even when we were screwing, he’d call out her name more than not. Always. I’m such a fool,”
she cried. “I’m such a damn fool!”

She started to walk toward Roman, who was waking up more and more, and pressed the gun to his bruised temple. Theo started for her, but I held up my hand to stop him. He gave me a look telling me I was crazy.

“I HATE YOU!”
she screamed. “Why couldn’t you love me?? I did everything you asked, never once complaining. Why didn’t you ever see me the way you saw her?”

Just as the pieces were coming together in my head about Penny’s kidnapping, the door suddenly opened, and she took a step inside.
 

“Tag?”
she asked, still looking dazed from the drug I’d given her.

“Penny, no!”
I shouted.

Jamille turned around at that, her gun now pointed at my sweet girl. “And there she is,”
she seethed, taking a step closer to her. Dread started pouring down my body, everything becoming clear.
 

Penny looked up then, her face going pale and her jaw dropping. I started to run to her but froze when she spoke in a shaky voice.

“Kimberly?”

Chapter 27

I was staring down the barrel of a gun being held by my best friend. To say I was in shock would be putting it mildly. This had to be a dream.

“Kimberly?”
I asked, still not believing what was in front of me.

Her blonde curls framed her face, her once-beautiful blue-green eyes now dark and void of emotion. Her hands were shaking a bit as she pointed the gun at me, which still didn’t seem real. Why was she here, and why was she aiming a gun at me?