Hide & Seek Read online

  “No, I… I didn’t mean to imply that—”

  Bella put a finger to Rora’s lips and smiled. “Don’t you worry, we’re together now,” she whispered and leaned forward.

  Sliding her finger off Rora’s lips, Bella’s mouth quickly replaced it. Kissing her was different to kissing any man; her lips were softer, confident, but slick with gloss. Pulling back when Bella’s tongue touched her lip, Rora let her eyes drop. “I haven’t ever… with a woman, I mean.”

  “Duckie,” Bella said, opening her palms on her face to hold their eyes on each other. Her simmering need was recognizable; some things were no different no matter the gender. Desire was desire. “I’ll look after you.”

  Pulling her to her feet, Bella was first to slide off her shoes and unzip her dress. When she was in her underwear, she leaned in to kiss Rora again, seeking the zip on the back of her dress to pull it down. The dress cascaded onto the floor and she stepped out of it when Bella began to advance, easing Rora around the bench and the end of the bed.

  Rora had no choice except to lie down when Bella stroked her hands up and down her arms and then took her waist to boost her onto the mattress. She didn’t stop stroking. Bella’s hands went down her sides to her waist, her hips and then up over her breasts.

  “You’re so sweet,” Bella said, bowing to kiss the mound of each of her breasts.

  Her hands went to Rora’s thighs and Bella’s lit eyes met hers when she slid her hands between them to urge Rora’s legs apart.

  Her heart was pounding. A quake of anxiety shook her gullet. Her lips were dry too. But Bella didn’t seem to notice Rora’s discomfort when she bowed to kiss her again. So far, she’d avoided doing any touching of her own. Rora wasn’t really sure what she should be doing. Not that she didn’t know what felt good; as a woman, she had the inside track on that. But she worried that Bella might be able to tell her touch wasn’t genuine.

  “What the fuck…” Strike’s voice startled her. Bella tossed her hair to look over her shoulder. The break in the kiss let Rora see he was storming up the length of the bed. “What the hell is this? What did you do to her?”

  “Nothing, our prince,” Bella said, pouncing to her knees to lunge over and grab Strike’s hand. “Join us.”

  Pulling his hand to her mouth, Bella began to kiss his knuckles and tugged him closer to cover the back of his hand and wrist in kisses. Bella kept advancing up his arm, but he didn’t seem to notice because he was focused on the woman laid out on the mattress and ignoring the kissing woman.

  Staying on her back beneath Bella who was kneeling between her thighs, Rora said nothing when Bella lay across her thigh to pull up the front of Strike’s tee-shirt.

  “No,” he said, pushing his ex’s hand away, but she fought to reach his fly. All the time, he stayed fixated on Rora, lying on the bed. “She doesn’t want this.”

  “Of course she does,” Bella said, grinning and running a hand from Rora’s chin down to her cleavage. Tugging him once again, Bella squashed his hand down onto Rora’s breast. “Just like you’ve done with her a thousand times.” But they hadn’t. Strike didn’t acknowledge where his hand was even when Bella sandwiched it between hers and Rora’s breast and began to massage. “She’s so soft, isn’t she?”

  Bella squealed and lowered to kiss Rora again, but it wasn’t as easy for Rora to do this with Strike’s hand on her body, or with his disapproving glare looming over her.

  Strike grabbed Bella’s shoulder and pulled her back. “No,” he said. “Get your hands off her, Bell.”

  Snatching Rora’s wrist, he dragged her off the bed with such a fierce tug that she tumbled to the floor. “No,” Rora said, using his leg to pull herself onto her knees. “I want this.”

  “No, you don’t,” he said, pulling her from his leg to toss her to the floor again. “You’re being manipulated.”

  “Maybe I’m manipulating her,” Rora argued.

  Bella laughed, her face appearing off the edge of the bed for a brief second before she pounced to her knees. “Yes, if you don’t want to play, go away, and leave us to manipulate each other.”

  “You are not putting your hands on her again,” he snarled, shoving Bella back onto the bed and lunging down to grab Rora to pull her onto her feet. “Put your fucking clothes on.”

  “Who the hell are you?” Bella called, flying off the bed onto Strike.

  Scratching and screaming like a banshee, Bella locked her legs around his hips while punching at his shoulders. She attacked without restraint, and after opening her mouth to shout, she tossed her head forward to latch her teeth to his lip.

  Strike swore and threw her onto the bed so hard that she bounced twice. “What the fuck, Bell!” he said, touching his lip to then look at the blood smudged on his finger.

  “Flame!” Rora said, rushing to his side to touch the lip Bella had bitten. “Baby.”

  “I’m ok,” he said, and tried to push her aside.

  But Rora slid in between him and the bed and cupped his face running her thumbs over his lips. “My baby, you’re hurt,” she whispered. “You’re bleeding.”

  Putting an arm around her, he kept his forearm tucked at the base of her skull and with his finger still on his lip, he looked down at her. “What’d I tell you about scrapping, huh?”

  “Baby,” she murmured, still stroking him. “This was my fault, this was…”

  But it wasn’t her who’d hurt him. Fury burst inside her and she spun around, not caring for a second that Bella was stunned and probably angry too. Rora opened her hand and swung hard, slapping Bella across the face so hard that the beauty fell to the side.

  Bella screamed and leaped up, grabbing for Rora’s hair and hauling her onto the bed again. But Rora grabbed her hair too, pulling and kicking, wrestling the woman on the mattress.

  “Hey! Whoa!”

  Strike was still somewhere nearby, but Rora was too consumed by the anger caused by the sight of his blood. This bitch had caused him to bleed! Her formidable Strike was hurt because of this evil wench and if he wouldn’t fight back, Rora would fight for him.

  Forcing Bella to her back, Rora straddled her, ignoring the woman’s hollering even after she slapped her again. But an arm too strong for her to fight came around her waist and she was hauled away backwards.

  “No!” Rora screamed, reaching forward.

  But it didn’t matter, Strike dragged her off the bed, his solid arm locked around her ribs, he pinned her back to his torso beneath his arm.

  With her hair tangled across her face, Rora couldn’t see anything, but she could feel Strike’s tension. “Move and you get one in the head,” Strike snarled.

  Tossing her head back, Rora did what she could to get her hair out of her eyes and when she thought it felt like Strike had loosened his hold on her, she tried to leap on the bed again. But it was futile, he was ready for her and she sprang back against him when his arm tightened.

  He turned his body to twist her further away from the bed and it was that move that revealed the gun he was holding in his other hand, aimed at a huffing Bella who was on her knees in the middle of the mattress.

  Strike turned his mouth into Rora’s hair. “Would you calm your goddamn jets, Cupcake?”

  “Are you… comforting her?” Bella laughed. “Well that’s no fun! You want to beat me, Exile, do it. I’ll still expect you to fuck me and her.”

  “Not gonna happen,” he said, squeezing Rora so hard that her lungs tightened. “We’re done, Bell. You’re not going to lay another finger on her. Not one.”

  “I’d say that’s up to me now, isn’t it?” Bella said. When she slid one knee closer to the edge of the bed, he took a step back, taking Rora with him. “Are we playing a game, prince? Do you want me to beg for her? To fight you for her?” Curving her hands around to her back, Bella unhooked her bra and dropped it to the floor. “Maybe you want us to fight over you? You should worship the ground we walk on. You and your kind, all of you. You think you can take what yo
u want from us, that we work for you. We don’t. Your life should be dedicated to serving us…” With a sultry tip of her chin, she smiled. “Should we take this to the basement? I had no idea she was so adept in the sexual arts, you’ve taught her well in such a short time.”

  But Strike wasn’t playing. “I’ve taught her nothing and this isn’t a game.”

  Bella wasn’t dissuaded. “Everything’s a game,” she said. “You taught me that when you turned the tables on my family and slit their throats in front of me.”

  “I should never have done that,” he said, his focus staying on Bella though he kept Rora tight against him. “I told you that was wrong.”

  Something so perverse crossed Bella’s face that Rora was taken aback, then the woman tossed her head back and laughed. “I begged you, Exile,” she called, opening her arms like she was reliving some kind of release. “I begged you to kill them. I promised you freedom if you destroyed them and you did. You did everything I asked of you and more.”

  “It damaged you.”

  “No!” Bella snapped. “It freed me! Freed me from them and their disgusting hands! Their disgusting bodies! You gave them what they deserved. I welcome the debt I owe you if it frees me from their bounds.”

  “Repay that debt now,” he said and her eyes narrowed. “Repay it by letting Aurora and Gallagher go. Send your guy out tonight, my plane is right there, fueled and ready to go. Send them away… You can still have me.”

  Rora gasped and clawed at his arm, trying to pull it from her body so she could turn around, but he was too strong.

  “No,” Rora cried. “I’m not leaving you here.”

  His mouth bumped her head. “I told you, consent or not,” he snarled down at her.

  sixteen

  Picking her feet from the floor, Rora tried to use her whole body to shake his arm loose, but he barely bent an inch, he simply took the weight she gave him and held her to him.

  “So you can violate her, but I can’t?” Bella asked. “You never had a problem sharing me, or sharing any woman. What’s different about this one? What does she do to you that you don’t want me to see? You can’t get it up for her? You last three seconds? Never been a problem for you before. Maybe it’s her ass you like, I have no problem with her eating my pussy while you—”

  “Enough,” he snapped.

  “No,” Bella said, dropping her hands to her hips and arching her back, thrusting out her breasts. “I want to know what you’re so scared of me seeing.” A mocking smile threatened her lips. “Are you sweet with her? Is that it? Do you expect me to believe that you take it all slow and vanilla with her? Does she go crazy nuts when you make her come… or maybe that’s it, you can’t make her come? Don’t worry, prince, I’ll take care of that, you just do your male thrusting thing and I’ll take care of our innocent cherub.”

  Bella leaned forward, but Strike twisted, hauling Rora back again, out of her reach. “You don’t touch her. Make me say it again, Bella, please. I fucking dare you.”

  Her brow came down when she fell back to sit on her feet. “I have never seen you like this, Exile. You don’t want me to start worrying my pretty little head, do you?”

  “I don’t give a damn about your head, Bell. I haven’t given a damn about any part of you for a long time.”

  “But you give a damn about her,” Bella said, nodding at Rora without looking at her. “I want to know what her pussy does to your dick that’s so special.”

  “It’s nothing to do with her pussy.”

  “You’re a man, everything’s about pussy,” she said, her hand loose on her wrist when she waved it. “Obviously something about sex with her is spectacular and you shouldn’t keep that treat to yourself. Would you let my men have her?”

  Bending his elbow, Strike put the gun to the side of Rora’s head. She gasped and squeezed her eyes closed. “I’d put a bullet in her head before I’d let them near her.”

  Squealing with delight, Bella clapped. “Now that’s more like it, I can work with that. How many of them would you kill for touching her? I can have all of them here in a minute… Let’s play and find out!”

  “Flame,” Rora whispered, turning her face away from Bella and the gun to hide her tears in his upper arm.

  Hauling her up again, he pressed his mouth into her crown. “I got you, baby. You’re safe. No one will touch you. No one. You know your body’s safe with me. It’s safe from every man, including this one.”

  “Wait a minute,” Bella drawled, and the gun moved away from Rora’s head. “You have fucked her, Exile… haven’t you?” He didn’t respond. Her tone got more angry and urgent. “Tell me right now that you’ve had sex with her!” Still he didn’t say anything. Bella shrieked. “No! You bastard!”

  The sound of a gunshot made Rora scream. When she turned back to the bed, she saw Bella clutching a wound on her shoulder. “Do not move!” Strike shouted.

  Bella didn’t even appear to be in pain, her face was a picture of seething rage. “You bastard! You fell in love with her! Goddamn you!”

  “Fuck you, Bella!”

  The door opened and men poured in. “Bring Benjamin here, this minute!” Bella screamed. Strike pushed Rora behind him, blocking her from the half-dozen security men who’d just stormed the room. Cowering behind Strike, Rora didn’t know what would happen next, or how they’d get out of there. “We need more men to take Ex down! We need all of them! It took twelve guys, a heavy shot of ketamine and a near fatal knife wound to capture him last time.”

  “You know what happens if I flatline, Belladonna,” he said. Rora didn’t know what would happen, but if there was one thing Strike was good at, it was contingencies. “And you need me.”

  “Your precious Aurora is expendable,” she barked. “Get her! Strip her! String her up!”

  Another gunshot sounded, making Rora jump. “One minion down, who’s next?” Strike barked. “Take one step over here and I’ll gut you bastards… All you gotta do is let her go, Bella, and all this will be over.”

  “No,” she snapped. “Not until I get my answer.”

  “The answer,” he said, and some of the tension left his body. “Tell her, Ro, tell her what’s the point?”

  And then what? She’d get to walk? But she couldn’t break her promise to Benjamin, and there were goodness knows how many people in the room. Too many. She couldn’t see anything around Strike because she was pinned between him and the wall with the nightstand blocking her right side. But she couldn’t tell all these people the secret.

  “Aurora!” Strike snapped.

  She eased away from his back. “I… I can’t.”

  He sidestepped, keeping the gun on the guards at the foot of the bed, but twisting to frown at her. “What? Yes, you fucking can. Tell her.”

  But she shook her head. “I can’t… I promised Benjamin.”

  “Benjamin,” Bella said.

  The men at the door spread, putting Strike back on guard, but he relaxed when Benjamin was brought to the head of the pack. “Oh my god, Aurora, what’s he doing to you?”

  “Benjamin,” she said.

  When she tried to rush forward, Strike put an arm out to block her. “Answer the question, Rora.”

  “The question?” Benjamin asked, searching those he could see. “No! Don’t! She’ll never let us go.”

  Bella leaped onto her feet on the bed and thrust a finger toward Benjamin. “Keep him away from her!”

  “Benjamin!” Rora called when the security men pulled him back into their throngs.

  “Aurora!” Bella barked, bouncing to face her. “What’s the point?”

  Lost, she had no idea what to do, no idea what was right. Her gaze darted to Benjamin who was stuck surrounded by security. “You promised me, Morning Sun. You promised not to!”

  Strike leaped forward a step. “You shut your fucking mouth, you fuck!” he snapped. “She’s here ‘cause of you. Let her save her life!”

  That glorious optimism had faded from her fri
end. “Jewel will never let her leave,” Benjamin said. “We’re all doomed. We’re at her mercy, locked in this hell until she ends our lives.”

  Bella laughed. “Oh, I love that! The truth is pure!”

  Benjamin was right, the only way they were getting out of here was without their bodies. “Ben,” she whispered, her eyes locking onto his. “Please, Benjamin.”

  “I’m sorry, Aurora,” he said.

  Less than a breath passed. A tear slipped from her eye. Benjamin pitched sideways, grabbed something from the belt of a guard and then there was a pop. It was that fast. The world didn’t slow down until his body began to fall to the floor.

  “No!” she screamed and ran toward him. Something stopped her from getting there; both of Strike’s arms had locked tight around her waist. “No! Benjamin!”

  Pushing at Strike’s arms, she tried to free herself, tried to get away from the man restraining her. With her feet off the floor, she curled her legs up to her stomach, the pain of grief a weight of horror in her chest, making her stomach heave.

  “Damn him,” Bella hissed.

  Going limp, Rora was ready to give up, ready to admit defeat. Benjamin’s body was there on the floor, lifeless, blood seeping from the hole on the side of his head, trickling down his face. Her great, brilliant, kind, wonderful Benjamin was gone. A bullet was his freedom. A final chance to take control. His death was meant to save the innocent people of the world from falling under Bella’s control.

  Strike turned around, putting his back to the guards to put her onto her feet. Before he could turn back to the room, her hand slipped over his, over the gun.

  “Give it to me,” she said, her weak voice barely a whisper.

  “What?” he said, his attention leaping from her to the gun and back, but she barely saw it or registered his angry horror.

  Sliding her fingers around the butt, her finger curved around to the trigger. “I need it.”