Hijacked (A Retribution Novel) (4 page)

She made to rise. “I really should be going. This was never meant to be anything other than sex.”

He let her go this time, but followed her up. Before she could take two steps, he caught her arm. “Hey, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry.”

“You didn’t.” She tugged, trying to get him to release her. “It’s fine.”

He took her chin in his hand and tilted her face toward him. “It’s obviously not. Maybe I can help?”

Tears caught in the back of her throat. She couldn’t deal with his tenderness. “Really, it’s not your concern. He disappeared on the streets over a year ago. There’s nothing anyone can do that I haven’t already tried.”

He leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on her lips. “I’m sorry you’re hurting. I won’t press the issue, but I have a few connections with people on the streets. I could ask around.”

She slipped from his grasp and snatched her panties from the carpet. “I’ve already done that. No one has seen him in a while. He’s either left town or he’s…” She couldn’t speak her worst fear.

“Okay.”

She escaped the room and headed for the living area where she’d left the rest of her clothing, feeling naked in more than one way. She slid into her skirt, not bothering with her bra or shirt. With hasty movements, she stuffed her clothes into her bag and donned her jacket.

“Are you sure you have to be in such a hurry?” He leaned against a wall at the end of the hallway, still gloriously nude.

“It’s late.” Her heart raced, leaving her anxious. She hadn’t experience a panic attack in a long time, but now, the world seemed to crash in around her and she struggled to breathe. “I have to work tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow is Saturday.”

It was? “I know. I’ll be putting in some overtime.” She glanced at her belongings to be sure she had everything. When she was certain she did, she hurried to him and placed a quick kiss on his lips, trying not to stare at his beautiful body. “Thank you. You were amazing.”

With that, she hurried for his front door, opened and closed it before he could say anything else. Once she was on the other side, she zipped her jacket tightly closed and tried to catch her breath as she descended the metal stairs.

Cool, moist air filtered into her lungs, giving her a sense of control once again. She scrambled down the steps, praying the door wouldn’t open behind her.

What the hell had she been thinking going home with a stranger? Doing something like that was risky at best. Or downright dangerous as tonight proved. She reached the bottom of the stairs and dashed for her car.

Once inside, she locked the doors and started the engine. As she put her vehicle in drive, she glanced up at Christian’s apartment and found the magnificent man standing on the balcony staring at her. She gave the accelerator gas, her tires squealing as she pulled away.

She couldn’t explain why, but she felt as though the devil chased at her heels. If he caught her, her life would never be the same.

Christian opened the door as soon as he had his pants on, but Eliana was already in her car and pulling away. “Fuck almighty.” He leaned against the railing and took a moment to clear his head of the aftereffects of lust the woman had left behind. He’d had no idea screwing a beautiful, vivacious woman could be so complicated. Especially one who wanted nothing from him but sex.

Funny how that worked. He’d gotten what he’d wanted, so why the hell should he be so worked up right now? Most guys would count their lucky stars their fuck for the night had hightailed it out without wanting snuggles and breakfast.

“Dammit.”

He strode into his apartment and slammed the door. He didn’t bother to flip on the lights as he moved to the kitchen. Inside his fridge, a cold one waited for him, and he focused on the hiss as he opened a bottle of his favorite brew. Cool liquid chilled his dry throat, but it did nothing to quench the fire burning inside him. Crazy thoughts rattled around in his brain, instead.

Who was she? Why did she seem so familiar?

He knew her first name and her profession so he wouldn’t have a hard time tracking her down if he wanted to, but did he want to? She obviously wanted nothing more than a quick fuck. Best to leave it at that, right?

Back in the living room, he sank into the recliner and lifted his phone. Five rings sounded before Hunter answered.

“Yo. Give me some good news.” Hunter was just as hell bent as he was to bring down Angel Hardy and Georgio Donati. Not that the other guys in Hunter’s gang of vigilantes weren’t as committed, but Hunter had a special place in his heart for the bastards. So did Christian.

He exhaled. “No luck. My brother didn’t show.”

“Fuck. It’s like we’ve gone three hundred miles down a dark road, thinking we were close to reaching our destination, only to find we took a wrong turn.” Frustration and something close to despair echoed from the man’s words. Out of all of them, Hunter had lost the most. First his wife and kids. Then the woman he thought might give him a second chance at happiness.

What remained was a dark and dangerous shell of a man, made more so because he had nothing left to lose. Georgio Donati had stripped him bare, leaving Hunter a mass of barely contained, raging pain.

Christian understood, at least to a point, that hollow, endlessly aching emptiness that filled the space where his own soul should be. “I’ll try again tomorrow. I think this vein will pay off in the end. We just need to be patient.”

At least he hoped so. He’d invested a lot in hoping information from his brother would pan out. When he’d discovered Gideon was involved, Christian had opened old, painful wounds in order to further their investigation. Anything to end this string of violence.

Christian had hit bottom when he’d watched a man bleed out from a bullet hole he’d put in his gut. The inhuman sounds of pleading to end his rival’s suffering still echoed in his mind. Yeah, he’d only been fifteen, and his older brother had more or less been the force behind the trigger. Still, Christian had shot the gun. The man’s blood was on his hands, and he had a lifetime of atoning to do.

“Might not be much intel to gather right now, anyway,” Hunter grumbled. “Hardy’s been spotted along the coast, in Guy Contreras’s old territory. Now that Guy is dead, it sounds like Hardy wants to take over. I’m unsure if Donati will let him, but that might be the best place to focus our efforts right now.”

“I’m not sure Donati has a choice.” Hardy had grown increasingly more aggressive during the past six months since he’d taken out his competition. It had been Hunter’s idea to pit the two factions of Donati’s organization against each other in an effort to draw out Guy Contreras and help their buddy Ryan clear his name.

Instead of garnering the desired results, Guy was now dead, Ryan’s name may very well stay muddied forever, and they’d stirred up a shitstorm of activity in the underground drug world that ruled Portland and the surrounding towns. Already, three different men had tried to control the area. All of them were now dead.

When all was said and done, none of Christian’s vigilante brothers knew how Donati’s organization would end up.

“Is Ryan able to keep a handle on things in that area? Maybe one of us needs to head to the beach.” Christian would be the one most likely to go since the other two had daytime jobs that required them to be in town a good portion of the time, and he could leave Nicole, his trusted employee to run the bar.

“I offered help. He said no,” Hunter said. “He reported that things are percolating again, but nothing’s close to blowing yet. If he needs me, I’m not far.”

Christian hesitated. “If you say so. My gut tells me more’s going on than we think.”

“You got anything to back that up?” Hunter asked in a gruff voice.

“Nothing concrete.” He wished he had a better answer. Wished he could have learned something that night at Gideon’s bar.

“All right. Keep me posted. Ryan’s expecting another shipment of heroin to route up Highway One tomorrow night. We’re planning to ambush just outside Rockaway after midnight. It’s not much, but hopefully, it’s enough they’ll feel the sting.”

“Anything that might slow them down,” Christian agreed. Mentally, he and the other guys were ready for whatever might come, but he couldn’t help the uneasiness churning in his gut.

“Exactly. I’m going to hang up. I need to finish modifications on the latest security program. I’ve kept the G-men waiting too long as it is. If I don’t produce in another week, they’ll start looking elsewhere for a programmer.”

“Damn,” he said quietly as though big brother might actually be listening. “As long as you give it to ‘em as specified by your contract, they can’t say shit.”

Hunter chuckled. “Unfortunately, timelines only apply to others when it comes to the government. Talk soon, bro.”

Christian hung up as a weight settled heavier on his chest. He needed to finish this, needed to bring down his brother and the Donati crime family while he still had a semblance of sanity left. Each day that passed, each person who died because of their organization ate another piece of his heart and mind, especially now that he knew his own brother was involved. If Christian and his friends didn’t hurry to end them, there would be nothing left of his soul to salvage.

*        *        *

Weak morning light filtered between Eliana’s eyelids, gently teasing her brain, taunting her with light instead of darkness. She groaned and rolled over, snuggling deeper into her covers. Buttery soft sheets caressed her skin, and she allowed the siren’s lullaby of sleep to drag her back into its cozy depths.

“Shit!” The word rang through her head before exploding from her mouth. She jerked awake and sat up, her heart rampaging through her chest. She needed to get her ass out of bed and head to the park to check on Howard. Thoughts of his festering wound had haunted her throughout the night, along with a certain dark-haired lover who’d teased her until she’d cried out. She’d had a hell of a hard time sleeping, and though she was tired as all get out, she wouldn’t rest until she’d taken care of Howard. She knew damn well he wouldn’t seek medical attention, but nothing stopped her from taking what he needed to him.

It took her little time to dress and hit the road, bringing along her medical kit and a fried egg sandwich. Parking spaces were quickly disappearing with vendors preparing to sell their wares at the Saturday Market near the waterfront. Howard wouldn’t be on the wall today, preferring to stay away from the crowds who flooded the area on weekends. Some of his friends took advantage of the increase of potential money donors. Not Howard.

Streaks of sunlight poured through holes in the clouds like prisoners finding a secret way out of the dungeon. God rays as she and her brother had called them when they were younger. Shafts of light sent from above as a reminder that good things existed in the world, things beyond their darkened existence, paths that would someday lead them away from their house of pain.

“Goddammit.” She shut off her engine and pounded the palms of her hands against the steering wheel as a familiar wave of heartbreak rolled through her. Where on God’s green earth could her brother have gone, and why couldn’t he have held on for a little longer? Why was he the one to mentally break and not her?

She sniffed back unwanted tears and exited her car. Someday, when she least expected it, she’d find him again. She had to believe that.

With her packages stored in her large bag, she headed toward the back alley looking for Howard’s taupe overcoat. Most of the people she encountered seemed to recognize her. She smiled at a few, but many treated her like the intruder she was. These people were Howard’s family, she reminded herself. She was only an outsider, not looking to get in, but definitely wanting to get him out.

“Have you seen Howard?” she asked an older woman with a dull mixture of brown and gray hair.

“On the wall,” the woman replied.

“But it’s Saturday,” Eliana said as though that would explain everything.

The woman only shrugged.

Disquiet churned as Eliana hustled down the side street, back to Natio Parkway, and then turned again toward the park. In the distance, she spotted Howard’s hulking taupe form sitting on the cement wall, and she took comfort from the fact he was indeed upright. Her fears had been for nothing.

In fact, he had a friend visiting with him and that made her smile. She liked knowing that even though he didn’t have a permanent shelter over his head, these people, this little homeless community, looked out for each other, too.

As she drew closer, her perception changed. A man in the dark blue jacket with a hood over his head leaned in and gripped Howard’s shoulder in a rough manner, setting off her alarms.

“Hey!” She called out, but she was too far away for them to hear. Panic exploded through her, and she shot forward.

He gripped Howard’s throat, drawing another holler from her. Why the hell would anyone accost him? He had nothing to steal. He wasn’t a spiteful or mean person. Howard was one of the gentlest souls she knew.

The man harassing him leaned close and then stood up a second later. He glanced around as Howard slumped forward, and then he took off in the opposite direction.

“No,” she screamed as her feet pumped beneath her as fast as they could go, her heart racing wildly, her lungs trying to supply her with enough oxygen to sustain her.

She reached her friend, and the world stopped. Her breath lodged in her throat at the sight of his slumped form. “Howard!” She pushed his shoulders back and then released him with a jolt when she caught sight of the crimson slice across his neck. Blood ran from it in streams, covering his neck and chest.

“No!” she wailed. “No, no, no!”

Lifeless eyes stared back at her. Wisps of his thinning gray hair danced about in the quiet morning breeze as though they had no idea their time had come to an end. Just like that, he’d been taken from her, and the realization that she could never turn back time covered her like a sodden, dirty blanket that threatened to suffocate her.

She jerked her gaze toward the disappearing thug, knowing she couldn’t catch up to him, knowing she couldn’t leave Howard though he’d already left her.

“Bastard,” she whispered. “Somehow, some way, I’ll find you and make you pay.”

Tears rushed forth, and she rapidly blinked, trying to keep them at bay long enough to see to dial her cell phone. She stayed with Howard, holding his limp hand until the police arrived. With a mechanical voice, she gave them what little information she knew.

The EMTs arrived and immediately determined they couldn’t help him. As they moved Howard’s body to a gurney, more streaks of red cascaded down the cement wall to a pool below. The sight brought on another round of nausea accompanied by a vicious headache. The throng of onlookers who’d gathered whispered amongst themselves, and she wanted to scream at them to leave, to stop gawking at the lifeless body of her dear, dear friend.

“I don’t know how this all works,” she said with a shaky voice to one of the EMTs after he and his partner loaded Howard’s body into the ambulance.

Sympathy burned in the younger Asian man’s eyes. “How what works, ma’am?”

“What happens to his body? He’s homeless. From what he’s told me, he doesn’t have any family, but I’m not entirely sure that’s true. He’s been my friend for a while now, but I don’t even know his last name.” Her voice broke, and she knew she rambled.

She exhaled and tried again. “I’m sorry. What I’m trying to say is I’d like to cover the costs of his burial, but I don’t know where to start.”

The EMT nodded in understanding. “It’s okay. I know this is a shock. If I were you, I’d start by contacting Providence Medical Center. That’s where we’ll deliver the body. Did you give your information to the cops? They’ll work on identifying him, and I don’t think they’d object to sharing that information with you.”

She wiped her tears. “Okay. That’s good. I do have a friend at the police department. I think he’d help me.” It was a start, a direction that left her hopeful.

“That’s good.”

The EMT’s female partner came up beside him, indicating they were ready to transport. He agreed and turned his focus back to Eliana. “We’re going to take him now, but I promise we’ll take good care of him. Talk to the cops. Check in with the hospital and let them know of your plans. If you have a specific mortuary in mind, you’ll want to let them know.”