Deceived (Free Indeed Book 2), page 7
A vicious slap echoed through the small space as Gideon’s hand snaked out and flashed across her face. Cara’s head snapped back against the back of the couch as she inhaled a quick, sharp breath, blinking her eyes to try and clear away the fuzziness from the blow.
Dammit! Jake fumed silently next to her. He wanted to reach out and comfort her. Hell, he wanted to jump to his feet and beat Gideon to a bloody pulp for hitting on an innocent woman. Instead, he clenched his hands into fists and forced himself to remain still, keeping an impassive look on his face so he wouldn’t tip off either of the other men.
Paul just watched silently, an intrigued look crossing his face as he took everything in from his standpoint a couple of steps behind his patriarch. That man creeped him the hell out way more than Gideon ever did. Maybe it was just the silent way he was always there watching whatever was going on with a sick gleam that always seemed to be present in his eyes. As much of a monster Gideon was, Jake feared the real beast might actually be inside Paul.
“Where is it?” Gideon spat. All he got in return from Cara was a raised eyebrow. “I happen to know you wouldn’t have deleted everything unless you made a copy first,” he continued. “So I’ll ask you one more time. Where. Is. It?”
Cara stiffened next to him, raising her chin in stubbornness to her stepdad. Great, just great. Gideon was not going to take that very well.
Almost as soon as the thought entered his mind, a black cloud swept across Gideon’s visage as fury visibly consumed his body. Like a wild panther he was on her, raining blow after wrathful blow on Cara’s face and torso. She tried to raise her hands to ward off his attack, but he was too big and too strong for her to have any impact. His fists came so fast all she could do was huddle into a fetal position and let out a heartbreaking whimper.
Unable to stomach any more, Jake’s arm darted out and his hand locked onto Gideon’s in mid-air just before it made impact. The patriarch’s face snapped in his direction, fury radiating from his entire body at the fact that Jake would have the balls to actually stop him from what he was hellbent on doing.
“You need to take a step back.” The cold, steely words matched the vise-like grip he had on the other man’s fist. Without a second thought, Jake would happily kill this man here and now and never regret it for a second. Nothing disgusted him faster than a man who used force and brutality on women or children. And he had seen Gideon do both on several occasions making him sick to his stomach. But now was not the time. He had to keep the bigger picture in focus and try and tamp down on his emotions.
“You’ve made your point.” Jake relaxed his grip on the other man’s hand just enough to make sure he wasn’t going to hit Cara again. Satisfied that Gideon wasn’t rearing back for another blow, he released the man’s hand completely and watched as it fell down to hang at his side. “Now let me talk to her.”
He wasn’t sure if Gideon was going to agree or not. Considering how much rage was oozing off of the man right now, he may just turn his fists on Jake before finishing what he started. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the older man stepped back, gave Jake a small jerky nod, before turning to stalk to the easy chair on the other side of the room.
The breath Jake didn’t even realize he was holding slowly eased past his lips. Ok, so Gideon was giving him a chance to get Cara to tell him what he wanted. He couldn’t let the man down. As much as the thought of giving Gideon his data back galled him, he knew it was necessary to keep Cara alive right now.
Jake turned where he sat to face Cara next to him and leaned down so he could speak to her without anyone else overhearing.
“Cara, I need you to listen to me, ok? I know you don’t know me, and you certainly don’t trust me, but I’m not going to let Gideon hurt you.”
She snorted in response, “Kinda too late for that.” One of her shaky hands gestured weakly at the bruises and swelling on her face.
Jake winced at the visual truth of her words before continuing, “Tell him where the copied data is. He already knows you took it and put it in a safe place. As long as you have that information you’re a threat to him. Just give it back to him, Cara. Let it go and live to fight another day.” She needed to listen to him. At this point, he wanted to shake her until she finally saw reason but knew he’d never even be able to lay a finger on her after seeing the abuse she had suffered at Gideon’s hands.
Different emotions warred across her face as Jake watched. Finally, just when he thought she was going to tell him where he could stick his opinion, her shoulders slumped as his words started to penetrate. She really didn’t want to die, especially not in the middle of nowhere surrounded by bugs and religious zealots.
“How do I know he won’t just kill me if I give it to him?” she asked with a defiant chin tilt. Of course, she would think that. She had no guarantee Gideon would let her walk away from this after pissing him off like she had. And in all honesty, he probably wouldn’t. Gideon never did take any type of disobedience or lack of respect very well.
“He’ll have no reason to kill you.” Jake tried to reassure her softly, “All of what you think you know is just speculation. And any evidence you may have had is stored on the copy you made, which you couldn’t possibly have had enough time to look into very thoroughly before you were interrupted. I won’t let him kill you, Cara.”
A disgruntled snort escaped her lips, “And I’m supposed to believe the word of a dirty cop?”
Ouch. He really hated undercover work sometimes. But that was beside the point, and honestly, her thinking he was dirty would probably only help her think he knew what he was doing. “Do you have any other choice right now?”
“I really don’t like you,” she muttered before finally releasing a pent-up sigh.
Her blatant stubbornness made him smile. When she saw his grin, her little nose twitched in annoyance which only made his smile grow larger.
“There was a locket sitting out on his desk. I hid it behind one of the photos inside.”
Finally. Jake gave her hand a quick squeeze in thanks as he stood back to his feet. He turned back to face Gideon across the room. “The information’s inside the locket that was on your desk,” he explained to the agitated man.
What looked like immense relief briefly flashed across Gideon’s face before it quickly turned back to anger. “Paul and I will go back to make sure she’s telling the truth.” His gaze flickered from Jake’s to make eye contact with her, “If you’re lying to me, girl, I’ll come back here and make your life a living hell.”
With her chin held high in defiance, Cara stared back at him and mumbled through her puffy lips, “I’m not lying. You’ll find it in the locket.”
Without another word, Gideon and his minion stomped out of the cabin. They heard the car door slam a moment later followed by the sound of it speeding down the gravel road. A sigh of relief escaped Cara’s lips. Obviously, the further Gideon drove away from her, the safer she felt. Granted, she was still stuck in this place with what she thought was a dirty cop, but at least he didn’t seem to scare her nearly as much as her stepdad did.
Cara turned her gaze back to him as he stood next to her. “What now?” she asked.
“Now we wait for Gideon to get the card out of the locket,” he replied. “Once he gets it, he’s going to be busy getting everything reinstalled on his computer and everything back online. I’ll just give him a call and let him know I’m taking care of getting you out of here, along with convincing you never to come back.” He gave her a very pointed look to make sure he got his message across, “Which you will. Never come back here again.”
A very unladylike snort burst from her lips, “Oh trust me, I have no intention whatsoever of ever coming back to this shithole. You can also be assured I have no desire to ever lay eyes on Gideon again for the rest of my life. In fact, I think I just might go into hiding somewhere and change my name. That’s how serious I am about never seeing him again.”
“Good,” was his simple reply as he walked back to the couch and sank down into the overstuffed cushions.
Cara stayed huddled in the corner of the couch for a moment before her posture finally relaxed. May as well get comfortable and seating was limited in this place. They sat there, unspeaking just each in their own thoughts until finally, Cara whispered, “Thank you.” Jake’s head turned to look in her direction at her soft words. “I thought he was going to kill me,” her shaky voice continued. “Thank you for stopping him.”
Jake hesitated for a moment. He wanted to say something to comfort her or encourage her just to hang in there a little bit longer, but nothing seemed to be able to escape the tightness of his throat. She shouldn’t have to thank him for that. This mess should have never even touched her. Instead of being out with friends or studying for an exam, she was sequestered away in a cabin against her will, all because the man her mom married happened to be a horrible human being.
Instead of replying he reached over and grasped her trembling hand with one of his own. He gave it a comforting squeeze and nodded at her in silent acknowledgement. They sat that way for a while. Not saying anything, with Jake’s hand rubbing small circles into her own.
She seemed to relax as he massaged her hand, so he just kept at it. It was such a small hand. So petite and tiny, especially inside of his own. As small as the woman may seem she sure had enough fire and determination to stand up to an army. A small grin hiked up one side of his mouth. Cara really was a special woman. She deserved a whole lot better than having a bastard like Gideon in her life. She definitely didn’t deserve having her mom taken away like that. Conveniently enough, Gideon always seemed to leave a trail of dead bodies in his wake. Especially woman. Fuck, the man now had two dead wives. That was enough to raise anyone’s suspicions if they were looking. Of course, that’s the beauty of having an unlimited supply of identity theft victims at your disposal. The man could most likely get away with anything, and none of it would track back to him. God help him if Jake ever found proof that he killed either Cara’s mom or his first wife, Mary. He’d rain down hellfire on the man’s ass.
Turning his head off to the side to look at the woman lounging next to him, he took in her profile and winced. Damn. Gideon beat her up something awful. Anger welled up in his chest as he took in her swollen and puffy cheekbones with bruises spreading up to her temples. Her forearms were also quickly turning from an angry red to purple where she tried to defend herself against his blows.
“I’ll uh—get you some ice for the swelling,” Jake gestured to her swollen face.
“Ok,” came her soft reply.
After everything she had been through, she was tired and worn down. He could hear it in her voice, just from that one simple word. He heaved a frustrated sigh as he stood to his feet and headed into the small kitchen space. The truth of the matter was as much as he hated Gideon and wanted to take him down, he just couldn’t yet. His cover, this whole operation, all of it, he only had one chance, and he needed to get it right if it was going to stick and put Gideon away for good.
Unfortunately, that meant he couldn’t kick Gideon’s ass for beating up a really nice, but at the same time annoying woman. No matter how much he wanted to.
With a jerk, he pulled open the freezer door and ruffled around until he grabbed a fist full of ice. Jake turned letting the door slam shut behind him and grabbed a hand towel from the sink. He dumped the ice into the middle of the towel and folded it up to lock it inside. It would have to do.
Towel in hand, Jake ambled back the short distance to rejoin Cara on the couch. As he sat down, he lifted the towel and pressed it gently against the right side of Cara’s face. A wince of pain flickered across her face at the initial cold contact before she covered it back up with a look of blank impassiveness. Yep, she really was a trooper all right. For some odd reason, that realization made a strange warmth spread throughout his body. As his eyes traveled up and down her bruised body, he found himself wanting to kiss each of the wounds to try and ease her pain.
Well hell. Where had that thought come from? That was so not happening.
He inhaled deeply trying to purge the picture of Cara compliant in his arms with his mouth discovering every last inch of her from his mind. There was a job to do here, and he couldn’t afford to be distracted. Bad things happened from distractions.
Not that she would be interested in him anyway. For Pete’s sake, he was her captor. She had no way to know that he was an undercover agent and didn’t mean any harm to her. All she knew was that he was holding her against her will in an unknown location. Not exactly the impression to give if he wanted to ask her out.
Cara’s hand moved up to shift the towel to another position and cupped his hand in the process. At first she stilled, as if afraid to move. Then she slowly pulled her head further away from his reach sliding the towel from his fingers so she could grip it on her own.
Dropping his hand to the side, Jake just sat back and took in the impassive look on her face. Yeah, she was trying really hard to mask her features, and for some reason, it mattered to him a great deal as to what she was thinking.
Cara held the cold towel in her hand and shifted it to the left side of her face to try and keep down the swelling there. She couldn’t handle Jake’s hand or fingers on any part of her for another second. For some strange reason, her insides were doing flip flops at his touch. What she really needed was distance from the man. But the options in this dump of a cabin for seating were sorely limited.
Annoying, pesky Jake she could handle. But caring, worried about her Jake, well that was an entirely different story. One she didn’t really feel comfortable getting into right now based off of how her heart was racing at his nearness. She needed a distraction. Desperately.
“It’s ok for you to get mad,” Jake softly muttered next to her. “It may even make you feel better.”
All she managed was a heavy sigh. It hurt too much to get upset right now. Plus, it took way too much energy, and that was something she needed to work on regenerating since it was sorely depleted after the beating she had endured. Between her wounds and her severely messed up hormones, she couldn’t handle any other emotions.
Jake watched her intently for a moment before a small half smile ticked up the left side of his mouth. “Or it would just make me feel better anyway,” Cara finally glanced to the side to meet his eyes. “Scream, trash the cabin, drop some F-bombs...do something.”
“My momma always taught me a lady doesn’t drop F-bombs.” She deliberately made her reply sound as haughty as possible. When all else fails, there’s always the snotty card.
Jake chuckled before calling her out on it, “Oh, but shit is ok? Cause I’ve heard you drop that one a few times now.”
“Shit is an expletive. The F-word is vulgar.” Cara cast a sideways grin in his direction. “Everyone knows that.”
His chuckle turned into a full out laugh, and Cara couldn’t help but smile at the sound. The man had a really nice laugh. Full, deep, and sexy. For some reason that she really didn’t want to dwell on right now, it made her feel warm and cozy inside. A deep sigh made its way out of her heavy chest. This whole situation was going downhill fast and getting so far out of control that she didn’t know if she was going to make it out of here.
“Do you really think I’ll make it out of this place alive?” she asked softly as her eyes raised to meet Jake’s stare. May as well get the question out there.
“Cara, you have my word I’ll do everything I can to get you away from Gideon and this place as soon as possible.” His gaze was intense, and for just a small moment she started to believe that she may actually make it out of this in one piece.
“I don’t want any harm to come to you.” A small smirk spread across his lips, “Despite what you think about dirty cops, I don’t make a practice of hurting somewhat innocent women who are too damn stubborn for their own good.”
“Then what will you do if I try to escape?” Cara asked if for no other reason than to egg him on.
“I’ll forcibly detain you and tie your cute little ass to that chair,” he nodded toward the most uncomfortable and unpadded wooden chair at the opposite end of the room.
Hmmph. Well, no way was she doing anything to encourage that. This overstuffed, lumpy couch was bad enough. If she had to spend God knows how long sitting on that wooden torture device, her butt would be hurting for days.
When his head turned away from her for just a moment, Cara stuck her tongue out at him. So it was a juvenile thing to do, whatever. As if sensing something awry his head turned back to hers and her tongue darted back into her mouth with a snap. Her eyes enlarged innocently like nothing was amiss. The jawline of his face twitched like he was trying not to laugh, but the twinkle in his eyes gave it away.
“I’m going to make us something to eat.” Jake gave her a little wink before standing to his feet. “Sit tight, and keep that ice on your face.”
Well, that was nice of him, she supposed. For the first time since this whole mess started, she realized how hungry she actually was. It was late, and she hadn’t eaten anything since early this morning. The thought of food made her feel a little better, but just a little. She wasn’t going to give Jake an influx of brownie points just because her stomach decided to start rumbling. But, she supposed, he deserved a few at least.
“Do you have any coffee?” It couldn’t hurt to throw the question out there. The worst he could do is tell her no. But she really needed to ask because she really, really could use some coffee right now.
Jake stopped moving and turned back to look at her. He took in her big eyes and the slightly hopeful lilt to her voice before his face softened just a bit, “Coffee’s coming right up.” Then he continued into the kitchen.
Well ok then. Maybe he deserved a couple brownie points after all.
