Vengeance (SSU Trilogy Book 1) (6 page)

He let her go to put his hands to his ear, cursing all the while. Jenna ignored him and darted down the hall. But her skirt was too tight and too short, and her heels were too high. She tripped, righted herself, then hiked up her skirt and ran.

Please, let me make it—

Something hard hit her in the back of the head, knocking her onto her hands and knees. Her hat tumbled to the dirt-encrusted floor. Silver dots danced in front of her eyes.

No. She had to get up.

The man kicked her in the butt, sending her sprawling onto her stomach, then reached down and grabbed her by the rhinestone choker. He yanked her up and into a headlock, his forearm pressing against her windpipe, cutting off her air.

The edges of the choker cut into her skin and her vision melted into a whirlpool of color. Her legs gave out. She was dimly aware that the only thing holding her upright was the pressure the man had on her throat.

She floated between consciousness and darkness.

Fight! You have a mission. Don’t give up. Don’t leave your family unavenged.

The pain of her forehead hitting something cold and hard brought her back to herself. She opened her eyes. Her head was slammed once, twice onto the sharp edge of a faucet, then dropped into a basin full of water.

Sputtering, fighting another wave of dizziness, she levered herself out of the basin. She caught a glimpse of a urinal out of the corner of her eye before a wide palm slammed her head back into the water.

She held her breath and pushed her head up against his hand, trying to break free. But he only pressed harder.

So she let her body go limp.

Convinced she was done fighting, her attacker grabbed her hips and positioned them so they were pointing straight back.

He shoved her skirt up to her waist and tore off her panties. Jammed them into the water under her nose to help block the drain better.

Cool air slid across her buttocks. She felt him lower his zipper.

No! She would
not
be raped again.

Patches of color flashed across her closed eyelids. If she didn’t get air soon, she’d lose consciousness.

Her attacker stepped closer. He rubbed himself against her, bare flesh to bare flesh. In his excitement, his grip loosened.

Jenna lunged up. The back of her head smacked with a satisfying crunch against his face.

She spun to the side. He grabbed for her with one hand. She ducked and he overbalanced. She kicked the heel of her stiletto into the side of his kneecap, balled her fists together and hit him on the back of the neck. He staggered, but didn’t fall.

So she hit him again. And again.

All the rage she’d been keeping inside broke free. She was done with being a victim. Done with feeling out of control.

She’d show this man she wasn’t helpless. Not to mess with her.

She hadn’t been able to successfully fight back the night of the attack, but this time she could. Venting her anger over what had been done, she hit him. Her blows hammered down in time with her rapid exhales. She ignored the punches from the man’s fists that smashed against her head and torso.

“Hurt,” she snarled as she kicked him, barely registering that her voice had returned. “I want you to hurt. Like you were going to hurt me. There! How does that feel? Or that?” The man slammed face down onto the floor but Jenna kept pummeling him.

“I. Am. Not. A. Victim!” she yelled.

A few moments later her blows stopped. Her body shuddered and she sank to her knees. Fighting back now didn’t change the truth.

“They’re dead. They’re all dead,” she sobbed. “And now I’m all alone!”

She hugged her chest and rocked back and forth. But she couldn’t stop the ache. And she was so cold.

Cold and alone.

God, she missed her family so much!

Tears surged down her face.

Jenna collapsed to the floor and curled up in a fetal position.

“Don’t leave me here alone!”

Chapter 4

From his table at the back of the barroom, Niko kept one eye on Tonelli and one eye on the entrance to the back hall. Jenna had disappeared toward the restroom over ten minutes ago, but Tonelli was too busy flirting with a couple of young blondes in tight jeans to notice Jenna’s extended absence.

Niko checked his watch again, unease gnawing at him. So far, no one had followed Jenna down the hall, but every man in the place had given her a long, assessing look as she passed. Hell, even Niko had been hit by a surge of lust at seeing her in that skintight dress. Odds were good that some asshole would make a move. And since Tonelli was too distracted to notice…

An older couple entered the room, arm-in-arm. When they registered the lack of empty tables, their faces fell and they turned to go. Niko checked for Jenna again, but she hadn’t appeared. Waving his hand to catch the attention of the gentleman, Niko pointed to his table and stood up. The relief on the couple’s face made Niko want to squirm.

The couple was within two feet of him when a rowdy occupant of the next table flung out his arm. He caught the woman on the shoulder and she fell against her companion.

Niko jumped forward to help them, but not in time to stop the couple from falling onto another table, sending glasses crashing to the floor. It took ten minutes to straighten everyone out, get someone to clean up the spilled drinks, and settle the couple at the table.

Niko accepted another round of thanks from the couple and stepped away. Drink in hand, he scanned the room. Still no sign of Jenna.

To hell with it. He set his drink on the bar and headed toward the restrooms. If Jenna just needed a break and was hiding from Tonelli, no harm. He’d apologize and go on his way. But something definitely didn’t feel right, and Tonelli wasn’t paying attention to anything but the tits in front of him.

Bastard.

The lighting in the hallway was dim, so Niko almost missed Jenna’s purse lying against the wall. Fuck.

Niko slid his weapon from its shoulder holster and scanned the end of the hallway, making sure no one was hiding in the shadows. Assured he was alone, he reached down and snagged the purse, then strode to the ladies’ room door and pushed it open.

Empty. He quickly checked the stalls, then exited and continued down the hallway. As he drew even with the men’s room he heard quiet sobbing from inside.

Weapon leading, Niko slowly pushed open the door. Jenna lay curled in a fetal position on the floor by the sink. The battered body of a large man was sprawled face down an arm’s length away from her.

Niko checked to make sure the rest of the room was clear before he stepped inside and holstered his weapon. He knelt beside the man to verify he was unconscious, then pulled a zip-tie from his pocket and secured the man’s hands behind his back. Only then did he turn to Jenna. Her eyes were squeezed tightly closed and she gave no sign she knew he’d entered the room.

She was rocking back and forth. Keening softly and occasionally murmuring something too garbled by tears for him to understand. Her hat was missing and the hair from her wig hung in a sodden mess around her face. The skirt of her dress was up around her waist, revealing a thin strand of ragged red elastic that was all that was left of her panties. He quickly glanced away, grateful that because she was positioned with her head closest to him, he hadn’t seen anything more private than the curve of her ass. He didn’t see any blood, but that didn’t mean the bastard hadn’t hurt her.

“Jenna,” he said gently, trying to break through her crying. “Jenna, shhh. It’s okay. You’re safe now.”

At first his words didn’t seem to get through to her. Then her eyes flew open, revealing nothing but animal panic. Before he could stop her, Jenna scrambled away from him.

Her back bumped against the wall and she pushed to her feet.

Too fast. Her knees buckled.

Niko leapt forward just in time to get his arm around her before she hit the floor. He hauled her against him.

The bathroom door banged open. “What’s going on?” a slurred voice demanded in Russian.

Niko glanced up. A skinny, balding man in coveralls was staring at the body on the floor with a mix of disgust and fascination.

“Call the police,” Niko snapped in Russian. “Bastard tried to rape this woman.”

The man raised rheumy eyes, taking in Jenna’s limp body, which Niko could feel beginning to come to life. He had to get their visitor out of here before Jenna woke up and freaked out.

Niko scowled. “Go!”

The man backed out of the room not a moment too soon. Jenna opened her eyes and immediately started struggling.

“Easy, Jenna,” Niko soothed. He loosened his hold and let her move away from him. Her foot slipped on the tile and he automatically reached forward to steady her. She flinched and darted out of reach, coming to rest with her back against the side of the stalls.

Her eyes were huge with pure, primal terror.

He held his hands up to show he didn’t have a weapon and slowly took a step back.

“Jenna, you’re safe, okay? I’m not going to hurt you. I’m Niko Andros with the SSU. Remember me? I was a guest trainer on the hostage rescue exercise. Ryker sent me as backup to you and Tonelli. You remember the safe word, yeah? Brontosaurus?”

For a long breath Niko didn’t think his words were getting through to her. Then Jenna’s body sagged and her lids flickered down to shield her eyes while she took in the information.

Niko watched a drop of water make its way from her sodden wig down to the point of her chin, then slip free. Jesus, she looked like hell. One cheek was red and puffy, her lip was split and there was a large square cut oozing blood in the center of her forehead that he couldn’t figure out.

“How badly are you hurt, Jenna? Did he…” Shit. “Did the bastard rape you?”

Not meeting his eyes, Jenna shook her head. “I’m okay,” she rasped so quietly he had to strain to hear her. “I stopped him before…” Her whole body shuddered and she wrapped her arms around her torso.

She was okay? Yeah, right. The shivers and her wild eyes gave the lie to her words. Her dress was still bunched around her waist and it didn’t take much imagination to picture how close her attacker must have come to raping her before she’d fought him off. The asshole was lucky he was still breathing.

Dammit. He wanted to put his arms around her and let her lean on him, but being close to a male at this point would probably scare her. So Niko shoved his hands into his pants pockets.

Where the hell was Tonelli? Hadn’t he managed to take his attention off the bimbos at the bar long enough to notice Jenna was missing?

Jenna eyed the body on the floor and chewed on her lower lip. “Is he dead?”

“Nah, he’s alive. Too bad, really, the as—” Niko coughed. “The bastard doesn’t deserve to live. But we can’t afford to have you up on murder charges. It’s going to be bad enough to get through the questions from the cops.” Niko grabbed some paper towel from the dispenser and went to turn on the faucet. Her panties were jammed in the drain, holding back a small puddle of water.

Jesus H. Christ. Blinding rage blocked out the room for an instant.

Now he knew where the square mark on her forehead had come from. The faucet. The bastard had used the sink to stop her from fighting. Shit. He closed his eyes and grit his teeth until his temper was under control. He had to keep it together. Jenna needed him to stay rational and get her out of this mess. Another violent male would only add to her stress.

When he thought he could talk without sounding homicidal, he said, “Our story is that I interrupted the attempted rape and I beat the guy up.” Niko fished the panties out of the drain, wrung them out, and put them in his coat pocket. Then he wet the paper towels and handed them to Jenna. “Wipe the blood off your hands. And don’t look the cops in the eyes while they’re here. They do better with subservient women.” Any cop worth the name would take one look at Jenna’s battered face and terrified eyes and see victim. Still, Niko wasn’t taking any chances.

Jenna was leaving here with him. The sooner, the better.

Jenna scrubbed at her hands with the paper towel until it was pink, then moved over to the sink. She paused, staring at the faucet. Her bottom lip trembled.

“Here, let me wet you some more paper towels.” He stepped forward, but she raised her chin and shook her head. Then she moved up to the sink and turned on the water.

Good girl. She still looked to be in shock, but she had the spine to keep going.

Niko knelt next to her attacker. “Don’t watch,” he told Jenna. When Jenna turned her back, Niko shook the man until he started to come around. Then he leaned in close and told the man in gutter Russian exactly what would happen if he assaulted another woman.

Certain he had the man’s attention, he landed a few punches aimed at hard, bony places on the would-be rapist’s body. He needed to make his hands appear to have been in a fight without leaving his blood on any of the bathroom’s surfaces, just in case they ended up with a hyper-vigilant cop. When the skin over Niko’s left index knuckle split, he let the man’s face drop.

The man howled as his broken nose hit the floor, then blacked out.

Niko stood up and brushed his pants off. “Let me see your hands, Jenna.”

Her knuckles were worse than his, dammit. Any idiot would take one look at them and tell she’d been whaling on something…or someone.

“Shit.”

Jenna pulled her hands free. “Wait.” She spotted her purse on the floor where he’d dropped it when he entered the bathroom.

“It was lying in the hallway,” Niko explained. “That’s how I knew something was wrong.”

Jenna nodded absently. She opened the purse and dug around inside. A second later she pulled out a pair of elbow length gloves.

“Perfect.”

Jenna pulled on the gloves. Then to his surprise she pulled a gun out of her purse. “I don’t think the police will want to see me with this, will they?” she said, handing it to him. “Can you keep it for me?”

Why was he surprised? Of course she’d be packing. She considered herself an operator. He shook his head and slid the gun under his waistband.