Hidden Currents (9 page)

“Look at him, sweetness,” Stavros commanded, his low voice almost like silk. “Look into his eyes.”

Her gaze jumped to Drako’s face. Stavros whipped out a gun, shoved the barrel into Drako’s mouth and pulled the trigger. Drako’s body jerked and blood splattered across the floor and on the walls. His body dropped to the floor at her knees. Elle screamed, but no sound emerged.

Stavros tightened his fingers around her throat. “Do you understand now? Or shall I bring in another man? Because I can keep this up all night.” His hand tightened, cutting off her air as he shook her. “Answer me. Tell me you understand, because there isn’t a man in this world that would be safe if they touched you.”

She nodded her head, tears streaming down her face.

“No one touches you. No one. Not ever. If another man dares to put his hands on you, or his mouth or his cock inside you, I’ll have him killed. Do you understand me, Sheena? Are we clear? There is nowhere in this world you can go. No one you’ll ever be safe with. You can stay on your knees and pray for forgiveness while you watch him rot.”

He let go of her throat and walked out, leaving her with the blood streaming around her in a thick puddle. She heard herself screaming. Once she started she couldn’t stop.

JACKSON heard his own raw cry, and he slammed his fist deep into the mosaic tiles. The floor softened under his punch, absorbing his flesh, allowing him to punch through as if the floor was gel and not solid. He swore, over and over, a vicious, steady, relentless spewing of every brutal term he’d ever learned in the bayou, the biker camps and the army.

Elle. Baby. I know where you are. I’m coming to get you.

He hit the floor again out of sheer impotence, seeing her broken, torn body, feeling her shattered soul. He had been a prisoner of war, brutally tortured, his mind fragmented, just as hers was. The Drakes had sent him soaring across the ocean so that he was in her mind, in her head, living her experiences and God help him, he wanted to murder someone. He found himself on his hands and knees, fighting not to vomit, feeling every humiliation, every lash, knowing exactly how broken she felt. He’d been there, exposed, brutalized and it had been her voice that had saved his sanity.
Elle.

She kept screaming in her mind. He had to find a way to bring her back. Stavros was far closer to breaking her than he could imagine. She was trying to crawl inside her own mind and escape. Jackson could feel that she was partially there. Her sisters were worn-out and sooner or later the bridge between them would fail. It was only the tremendous love they had for their sister that kept them going past the point of sanity. Using the amount of psychic energy to bridge an ocean would leave the Drakes unable to move for hours, but he needed to stay with Elle as long as possible, at least until Stavros relented and took the body away.

Jackson didn’t dare take his mind off Elle even for a moment to warn her sisters he needed to keep talking to her. He hoped they could see by his reactions that it was imperative to use every ounce of strength they had to hold the bridge.

I’m going to keep talking to you, baby. Concentrate on my voice and forget everything else around you. You aren’t there. You’re with me.

Jackson.
The moment she whispered his name, seeking him, needing him, reaching out for strength, for hope, the energy field burned through her brain, an electric shock that had her screaming in pain.

Jackson felt the tears on his face. “Don’t!” he pleaded with her, unaware he’d spoken aloud as well as in his mind. He even reached out for her, trying to touch her, to let her feel him. He took a breath and tried to keep himself together.
Don’t talk, Elle. Don’t try to reach me. Let me just be with you this way. The bridge isn’t going to last, you know that. Your sisters are sending you love and strength and we have you now. Hold on for us. Jonas is here. Ilya, too. Matt and Aleksandr will be with us. You know we’ll come.

He felt the stirring in his mind, knew her thoughts, although she remained silent. She didn’t want them to come. She was too afraid of Stavros. She believed he would kill them all—maybe even find and kill her sisters.

He shook his head.
You know Jonas. You know me. You’ve seen inside me, Elle. I don’t kill so easy. None of us do. Take a breath, baby, don’t look at the floor. Look out the window at the storm. We sent that to you, across the ocean, we found you and we sent you a storm.

He felt her again and this time there was determination. She was building her strength and he held his breath knowing she was steeling herself for the crashing pain when she sent another message.

Stavros is psychic.

She screamed again and Jackson tasted blood in his mouth. The pain drove him down to the tiles again. A hand slid over his forehead, cooling, easing the terrible pain—easing it for both of them.

Powerful. Has a brother.

Each time Elle sent to him, the shocking current grew stronger. Libby gasped and jerked her hand away. They smelled the scent of burned flesh. The bridge wavered.

“No!” Jackson implored. “For God’s sake, hold it.”
Elle, stop. We’ll lose the bridge. You have to stay quiet. Keep looking out the window and just let me hold you in my arms for a few moments.
Because the Drake sisters were trembling under the terrible effort.
When the next storm comes, baby, be ready. We’ll be there to get you. All of us together may be able to short-circuit the energy field.

He felt her sudden awareness of Stavros and he stayed quiet, waiting with her. Stavros wasn’t alone and fear pounded through Elle, but then he felt some of the tension slip away. She recognized the other man. A bodyguard.

ELLE felt Jackson slipping away from her and she wanted to cry out, to reach for him and hold him inside her. Instead she kept her lashes down, trying to quiet the sobs escaping, trying to be as small as possible.

“What the hell have you done to her?” Sid demanded. “If you’re going to kill her, put a bullet in her brain, don’t turn her into a vegetable.” He ripped the sheet off the bed and wrapped Elle’s body in it, kicking Drako’s leg out of his way as he removed the rope from her wrists. “She needs a doctor, Stavros. She’s bleeding from her nose and mouth and around her ears. You know what that means? A brain bleed. You said you were going to keep her, not torture her.”

Stavros rushed to the bed as Sid put her down. Elle rolled to her side and curled up in the fetal position, trying to disappear. Everywhere they touched her hurt. Her head pounded with agony. Her ability to think, to reason, was fast slipping away.

“Sheena,” Stavros’s voice was low, almost a caress. “Look at me, sweetness. It’s going to be all right now. I’ve forgiven you and no one will hurt you again.” He smoothed back her hair with gentle fingers, leaned down to press a kiss against her temple. “Don’t fight me anymore, my sweet, just let me take care of you.”

Sid wiped gently at the blood on her face with a warm washcloth. “Call a doctor, Stavros. You’re going to lose her.”

“If you’re certain, but I’ll have to kill him after he sees her.”

“Pay him off like you do everyone else.”

Stavros shook his head. “No one knows about her and lives.”

Sid straightened slowly, his gaze ice-cold. “Is that why you killed Drako?”

“Not you, Sid,” Stavros sounded genuinely shocked. “You’re the only one I can trust. Drako died because he was betraying me to my brother. We do business together, but we don’t trust each other. That’s why I never talk to him unless we’re here on this island. He’s a strong psychic, Sid, and he wants power. He hates that I’m accepted in the world and he’s chosen a life that keeps him on the outside. But he likes his image and the fear he instills in everyone.”

All the while he talked, Stavros gently stroked Elle’s hair, his hands almost tender as they moved through the silken strands. Anyone looking at him, at the expression on his face, would have thought he was deeply in love with her.

“Get rid of the body, Sid. I’ll call a doctor.” He kissed each temple and the corner of Elle’s mouth. “Don’t worry, sweetness, I’ll take care of you.” His fingers brushed at the tears sliding down her face. “It will be all right. Leave everything to me.”

4

THE large ship anchored a few miles out in the Aegean Sea. A small bird—helicopter—sat on the pad waiting, sleek and black and very maneuverable. Men moved around, loading weapons in a quiet, controlled manner. A few smiled and made jokes, but most were silent, faces grim, dark stripes covering light skin, to match their dark clothing.

Jonas glanced at his watch. “So far everything is running by the numbers. The first storm took out his power with a nicely aimed lightning strike, and just as expected, the backup generator kicked in. But for fifteen seconds, his psychic barrier was down. Ilya tested it. It came on as soon as the generator kicked in. We intercepted his call for the electricians and our men will be going in soon.” Jonas was proud of Hannah for that. She had created the storm and precisely aimed the bolt of lightning, scoring a hit first time out. That was his woman—deadly when needed.

“This is his home turf, his little empire, both on and off the island. Did he buy the excuse that the storm was too dangerous and the electricians would come at the first break?” Sarah asked. She leaned against the railing and looked out toward the island where her youngest sister was being held prisoner. Her hand gripped the railing hard enough to turn her knuckles white.

Jonas wrapped his arm around her. “Hannah kept the lightning strikes close to his villa. So, yes, he bought it. Don’t worry, honey, we’ll get Elle back. We know what we’re doing. Each man here is a good friend and trained in combat and rescue. We won’t leave any evidence behind that he—or anyone else—could trace back to us.”

“I know.” There was determination in Sarah’s voice.

“They’ve called for the electricians and our first team will make an entry in a few minutes. They’ll go in and Gratsos will have guards to take them to the east side of the island where the power plant is. Four divers will move in with the boat, which will give us seven men on the island. The main dock is to the south with a smaller one on the north side. We’re hoping to get lucky and have them direct our men to use the main dock. Our divers will have to hump it through enemy territory a shorter distance.”

“Can we get the helicopter in the air to protect them?”

Jonas shook his head. “We can’t risk it. If they bought the weather reports and the lightning strike, then we’re good. And I don’t see why they wouldn’t.”

Sarah watched him closely. “Who are you sending in to protect them?”

He inwardly cursed. “Matt’s going.” Matt Granite was Kate Drake’s fiancé and hell on wheels in a fight. “He’s leading the second team in.”

Sarah laid her head on his shoulder for comfort, briefly closing her eyes. “I hate this. That everyone we love is at risk, but this is for Elle. Has Jackson said anything at all to you?”

Jonas shook his head. “He won’t talk, but he’s back to the man he used to be before he came home with me. Colder. Edgier. Jackson is like Ilya, Sarah, and as much as I respect Ilya, he isn’t an easy man.”

“If these men deal in human trafficking, I’m terrified to think what could have happened to her this last month.”

Jonas looked away. Jackson knew and his reaction had been scary. Sarah didn’t want to know on some level, it was just too painful. Deliberately he glanced toward the cabins. “Hannah was sick most of the trip. I should have made her stay home.”

“She would have followed us.”

Jonas made a face. “That’s why I didn’t bother giving her an order. She never listens anyway.”

Sarah smiled for the first time. “I’m sure that doesn’t surprise you. Libby’s with her and truly, we need her. She can command the wind like no one else; not even Ilya is quite as adept.”

Jonas would have tried to stop Hannah if they were going after anyone but her baby sister. There would be no stopping his wife, pregnant or not. Not with Elle prisoner and Jackson losing his mind inch by slow inch.

“Team one is going in.” Ilya’s voice resonated in his ear.

“We have a go,” Jonas announced aloud. “Tell the others to get ready.”

Hannah would have to bring the storm in hard and they would have to trust Ilya’s ability to keep a helicopter stabilized in violent winds if they were going to pull off the rescue, because they’d have to send it in later to back up the rescue team. But first, they had to bring down the energy field Gratsos protected himself with.

As if reading his thoughts, Sarah paused and turned back to him. “You know, Jonas, when that field comes down, Gratsos can use psychic energy as well. We don’t know him, we don’t know what he’s capable of, so be careful.”

Jonas locked his gaze with hers and a shiver went down her spine.

“I saw Jackson pounding the hell out of the floor, half out of his mind. Whatever that man did to Elle, he’s going to pay, Sarah, one way or another. I don’t give a damn how psychic he is. I’d bet on you against him any day of the week. Multiply that by your other sisters, and the man doesn’t have a chance.”

Jonas walked to Jackson’s side where he was giving last-minute instructions to the team heading out in the boat. The three men going to the island to “fix” the power went in unarmed on a smaller boat. He knew these men, good friends willing to risk their lives to help Jonas and Jackson get Elle back. They were going into a war zone without a weapon other than their trained bodies.

“Team two will be right behind you,” Jackson assured them, looking at the four divers, already in scuba gear, positioning themselves low in the boat. “Matt, you and Tom have to move fast. Our men will be at risk until you take out their guards and get their weapons to them, and we won’t have anyone up in the air until you give us the signal.” Jackson trusted Kate Drake’s fiancé. He was a former Army Ranger and both Jonas and Jackson had worked with him numerous times.