Denied (9 page)

Monster (Present Day)

The plane touched
down with a bump and a jolt, and a sudden rush of g-force. It came to a standstill, and Monster finally allowed himself to peel his fingers from the armrests. Flying had given him one of the most unnerving experiences of his life, and he’d been through plenty. At one point they’d hit turbulence, and the plane had dropped as though it was going to fall out of the sky. He didn’t like to feel he wasn’t in control, and flying had done just that.

Although he couldn’t wait to get off the aircraft, he remained in his seat, the belt done up, until both the pilot and co-pilot came out of the cockpit and he was absolutely certain the plane wouldn’t be moving again.

At least now he would be standing on the same soil as Flower. Something about that both soothed his soul, while firing his rage. He wasn’t angry at her. Some asshole guy had come along when she was fragile and was taking advantage of her. This hadn’t been his plan when he’d sent her back home. He’d known she would have been angry with him, too, but he’d never imagined she would be getting involved with someone else so soon.

His anger ratcheted up a notch. She was his. No one else’s. He’d cut the hands off another man who had touched her.

The door of the airplane opened, and he stepped out into the sunshine. It was a different kind of heat than Cuba—less humid—and the air had a different scent. This was the first time he’d been out of the country of his birth, though he knew his father had regularly traveled between countries. Part of him didn’t know what to expect, while the other part felt like he already recognized the place. With so much outside culture coming from the United States, it was hard to be completely uninfluenced by the country.

As he walked down the narrow metal steps onto the runway, he pulled his suit jacket together, securing it with the buttons. He was used to wearing a suit in the heat, and fastening the jacket somehow made him feel like he’d cast off the nervous man he’d discovered on the flight, and taken him back to his cool, professional self.

Another man in a suit—this one a lot less expensive than his own—came hurrying across the asphalt toward him. Chapman held a cell phone in his hand, his expression anxious.

Monster felt the other man’s pale blue eyes flick to the side of his face where the birthmark was still present. This was the first time they’d met in person, and his employee hadn’t known about the affliction. Lily had done an amazing job of fading the mark so it no longer looked like someone had flooded ink down one side of his face, but it was still noticeable. He hated that the birthmark made him self-conscious. Not that anyone would dare say anything.

“Have you switched on your phone yet?” Chapman asked him. “Rodriguez Mendes is trying to reach you.”

His heart hardened. Rodriguez Mendes was a distant relative to the Gonzalez-Larrinaga brothers, and he knew hearing from the other man was never going to bring good news.

“No,” he said. “I had it switched off during the flight.” He didn’t want to discuss his business with Chapman. “Do you still have eyes on Lily Drayton?”

He nodded. “Of course, but she’s on the move. Sean Hamilton is tailing her. She left Los Angeles with the neighbor a little over an hour ago.”

“Fuck. Where is she going?”

“We’re not completely sure, but she’s heading in the direction of San Diego.”

“And you said she’s gone with the neighbor?”

“Yes, in his car.”

His shoulders tensed. “Is he forcing her?”

“Didn’t look like it. She seems to be with him of her own free will.” He glanced away briefly. “Sorry.”

Unless you’re the one fucking her, you don’t need to be sorry,
he almost said, but held himself back. Chapman didn’t need to know any more of his business than he already did.

“I want her brought to me,” he said, instead.

Chapman’s lips twisted. “How?”

He snapped his dark glare on the other man. “That’s what I’m paying you to figure out. Can you do your job, or do I need to find someone else to do it?”

His employee shook his head. “No, no, of course not. But please, call Mr. Mendes. He didn’t sound happy.”

“Let me worry about that. You just concentrate on getting the girl.”

Chapman gave a slight nod. “Your car and driver are waiting on the other side of the hangar,” he said, before turning and walking away.

With gritted teeth, Monster took his cell phone from his pocket and switched it on. The screen lit up and it took a few moments to locate a local network. The phone started to buzz in his hand. Damn. Seven missed calls, all from the same number. Rodriguez Mendes.

He exhaled a deep breath through his nostrils and hit the call button.

“Merrick,” came the voice at the end of the line. “Birdies are telling me you’ve left the country. You know you have a debt you haven’t yet paid.”

Monster held back a growl. “I’m on a business trip. It’s not as though I’m not coming back.”

The other man gave a snort of laughter. “Since when do you take business trips? Merrick, the mysterious recluse?”

“Things change.”

“Don’t make me chase you down, Merrick. You know I’m capable of it.”

“Don’t threaten me,” he snapped

“It’s not a threat, it’s just a friendly reminder. You took something of mine, and now you owe me something of yours.”

Monster clenched his fists, his jaw rigid with anger. “I have plenty of money. I’ll buy you out for whatever you think I owe you.”

The other man laughed. “I don’t need any more money. You took flesh and blood from me. I want flesh and blood back again.”

“I don’t have any. Your boys shot the only people I had in my life, remember?”

“And then you shot them.”

Monster knew he wouldn’t be able to argue his way out of this one over the phone. A life was a life. It didn’t matter in Rodriguez’s mind if the brothers deserved to be killed.

“I’ll be back in a couple of days. We’ll talk then.”

He sighed. “I don’t know, Merrick. Maybe I’m sick of talking.”

And the phone went dead.

Monster resisted the urge to throw the phone to the ground and grind it into the asphalt with his foot. Instead, he clutched it tight enough for his knuckles to turn white. Only the knowledge that the phone was the only way for his men to contact him about Flower stopped him from smashing it into a thousand pieces.

They’d landed at another private airstrip, so Monster didn’t need to worry about appeasing government officials, though he had faith the fake passport in the inside pocket of his suit jacket would pass any scrutiny.

His driver was waiting in a black SUV. He got out to open the back door for Monster, who slid into the leather seats. A suite in a hotel had been booked, and as the driver had already been told where they were headed, Monster didn’t need to say anything to be taken there.

He was glad not to talk. The phone call had rattled him. Was he doing the wrong thing by trying to find Flower again? Was he doing so because he worried she was in danger, or because he hated the idea of her being with another man? He’d gone to such trouble to send her back to America, he wasn’t even sure what he would do when he found her. Would he bring her back to Cuba again? If he did that, Rodriguez Mendes would come after her for sure, just as Monster had always feared. He’d never thought the deaths of the Gonzalez-Larrinaga brothers would go unpunished. What he really needed to do was convince her that she needed to disappear. She needed to leave her apartment, change her name, and move to a new city. If she continued to insist on talking to the police, or newspaper reporters, she’d be found for sure, and he hated to think what kind of future she would have then.

Rodriguez Mendes would make the brothers look like a couple of school boys acting up.

Eleven

If it wasn’t
for the constant nerves twisting her stomach, and the gun in her purse, Lily would have thought it a good day for a road trip.

The sky was a brilliant blue overhead, and when she caught sight of the ocean, it twinkled and sparkled, reflecting the sunlight. Lily kept her eyes glued to the window, hoping to spot something that would give her a clue as to where she’d been held, but so far everything appeared far too touristy. Also, they’d only been in the car for less than an hour, and she was certain she’d been taken a greater distance from L.A. than this, though, because she’d been unconscious for a part of the journey, it was impossible to know for sure.

Cameron took guesses as to what she was looking for, his relaxed, cheerful manner the complete opposite to what was going on inside Lily. But though he asked questions jokingly, she knew he was still trying to get information out of her.

“It has to be something to do with the coast,” he mused, his face scrunched up a little as he thought. “So is it a boat? You’re looking for a boat.”

“Nope.”

“A certain beach, then, where you spent time as a child and want to find again.”

“Way off,” she said.

“Hmm …” He rubbed his chin, scratching the couple of days’ growth of stubble. “A beach bar where you once had an evening of unsuitable sex before never seeing the guy again!”

“Cameron!” she exclaimed. “Definitely not.”

“So put me out of my misery and give me a clue.”

“Not a chance. I already told you I can’t tell you anything, and now you’re distracting me. Do your job and concentrate on the road.”

He sighed. “You’re a slave driver, anyone ever tell you that?”

“Yeah, the last slave who died of exhaustion. Now quit it.”

But the mention of the word slave had hit close to home. She’d covered her emotions with a little banter, but hadn’t that almost been her fate? And, while she might have escaped, all those other girls she’d been locked up with hadn’t.

“You okay?” he asked, glancing over at her. He must have sensed her change in mood. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to push you.”

“It’s okay, I’m fine. I just need to concentrate.”

She twisted in her seat to check out the rear window and make sure she hadn’t missed anything. Lily frowned. A black sedan was behind them—not so far away that they would lose sight of it, but not close enough to see any details about the vehicle either.

She turned forward, chewing her lip. She didn’t know why the car had set off all her internal alarms. They were on a fairly busy road, of course there were going to be other vehicles. It was nothing. She was just jumpy and suspicious at the moment.

Even so, she turned back again. The car had fallen farther behind, so it was almost out of view, but she saw the blinker come on for the next turn off.

She twisted around to the front and relaxed a fraction. She was being paranoid.

After an hour, they stopped at a roadside café to grab more coffee. By this point Lily was wondering if she really needed anything else hyping up her nerves. But she was still hungry—as though her body wanted her to make up for all the meals she’d missed—and wanted to pick up a sandwich as well. They left the car in the lot and went inside. The place was bustling with people, a line of customers waiting at the counter. Cameron joined the queue while she used the restroom, and then they switched. When they reached the front of the queue, she chose a pastrami and rye, and they got their food to go. They’d eat in the car while Cameron drove.

Lily stepped out of the café and froze.

The black car she’d seen behind them was parked across the other side of the lot.

“What’s wrong?” asked Cameron as she stood, staring.

She shook her head. “I’m not sure. It’s probably nothing, but that car was behind us most of the way here.”

He shrugged. “It’s pretty much a single lane, so that’s not unsurprising.”

“But why has it stopped here?”

“Plenty of people have stopped here. It looks like a popular place to eat.”

“Yeah, I know,” she glanced over at the black sedan again—a Lexus, she could see now. “I’m sure you’re right.”

“Of course I’m right.”

She forced a smile and followed Cameron toward their vehicle. She pulled open the passenger door and climbed inside, but the presence of the Lexus worried at her like a stone in her shoe. She tried to shake it off. Cameron was right—there were plenty of other vehicles on the road that had stopped off here. Why was that particular car giving her the chills?
Instincts,
she told herself.
Trust your instincts.
She hadn’t the night she’d been taken, and look where that had gotten her.

“Wait here a moment,” she said, getting back out of the car.

“Lily?” he called after her, but she didn’t answer. Breaking into a trot, she hurried toward the car. She glanced around, trying to see if anyone was approaching. She waited for the yell of someone asking what she was doing around their car, but none came. The car was big and expensive, and she knew it would be alarmed, so she didn’t bother tugging on the handle to see if the door had been left unlocked. Instead, she cupped her hands either side of her face to peer in the driver’s window.

She didn’t know what she thought she might see. It wasn’t as though a photograph of herself was sitting on the passenger seat. The interior appeared immaculate, and she didn’t spot any clues as to who was driving.

Lily straightened and stepped away from the Lexus, glancing around.

No one had rushed out of the café demanding to know what she was doing with their car. She could go back into the café and ask who owned the vehicle, but then what would she say? Were you following me? She’d only make herself look like a crazy person, and if someone
was
following her, then she’d just let him know she was onto him. Plus, it wasn’t as though he was going to say yes.

She walked back to Cameron’s car, her eyes glued to the café in case someone was watching her from one of the windows, though no one caught her eye. Without saying anything, she climbed back in the car.

“Feel better now?” Cameron asked.

“No, not really, but I guess I’ll be keeping an eye out for that car as well.”

“As well as this mysterious thing we’re looking for?”

“That’s right.”

She was aware she must sound like an extremely paranoid crazy person. A crazy person with a gun in her purse. Suddenly filled with a fresh burst of paranoia, she checked her purse. The gun was exactly where she’d left it. It occurred to her that she really should have taken her purse with her when she’d gone to check out the other vehicle. She sighed and shook her head at herself. Maybe she wasn’t cut out for all this shit.

“We’ll be hitting the freeway soon,” said Cameron, taking her sigh for worry rather than annoyance at herself. “No one’s going to be able to follow us on there.”

He reached out and touched her cheek lightly with his knuckle.

All at once, a memory flooded back to her. She was lying in Monster’s bed, him beside her, but fully dressed. They weren’t alone. Another man was in the room with them, on the other side of the bed, opposite Monster. He appeared to be touching her arm. No, not touching, tapping.

“What’s going ...?” she managed to ask.

But then a jab of pain spiked through her arm. She hissed air in over her teeth and tried to jerk her arm away, but already a strange warmth flowed through her body, and she felt the pull of sleep trying to drag her under.

“What ...?” She tried to ask the question again.
What’s going on?
But now her tongue felt thick, and her mouth didn’t move as she wanted it to.

Monster reached out and touched her cheek with his knuckles. “I’m so sorry, Flower. I had no idea it would come to this. I love you and I only want you to be safe.”

She tried to reply, but this time all she could do was make a distant moan. She knew she should be frightened, but only a drowsy sense of calm settled inside her. Though she wanted to keep her eyes open and find out what was going on, her eyelids suddenly felt like the heaviest things in the world.

As they slipped shut, she heard him say, “You gave me no other choice ...”