Hide My Soul: A Romantic Suspense Thriller Novel (Hide Me Series Book 4) (8 page)

Something about the complete stillness, the total absence of striving or seeking for the release made it that much more powerful. It went on and on as she stared at her man and tried to keep the noises escaping her low and controlled. She felt herself clench and release around West's erection again and again, an intimate caress.

"So fucking hot," West snarled under his breath, as her spasms finally came to an end, leaving her with only a few delicious aftershocks. West withdrew only once and slammed into her, burying himself back inside her, as his face contorted and his breathing quickened. She felt his hot release spill inside her and her own satisfaction spread. The man was a God, able to make her come without even moving, and he made her feel like a Goddess in every way.

West kicked and clawed his way out of a deep even sleep, towards the something that tickled his ear and called to him.

"West, wake up, sleepyhead," Katerina said.

West mumbled and turned over, trying to pull Katerina in his arms. She scooted back, then pinned his hand to the bed and whispered in his ear again. "Did you ever get to try guava yet?"

"No," West mumbled, then fell back asleep into dreams of the life he and his new wife were about to share.

***

Sometime later, West woke up, sure the earlier conversation had just been a dream. He felt around the bed for Katerina, his eyes still closed. The memory of the night before came flooding back to him. After their erotic experience in the pool, they had made love with abandon in the cabana, then finally retired back to the suite and made love a third time before collapsing into sleep.

His hands found nothing. He was alone in the bed.

"Kat?" He called, opening his eyes to look around the suite. The room sat empty and still, except for him.

She's in the bathroom,
he thought, but his heart gripped with electric fear. Completely awake, he stood up quickly and strode to the bathroom. The light was off and the door stood ajar. No one in there. West whirled and sprinted to the balcony. Empty.

He thought back on what had happened earlier. She hadn't said she was going out, but she must have. He hated the fear that seized him, threatening to choke the air out of him. Foreboding, worse than even the bullet that had pierced his heart, fell heavy on his midsection.

West pulled his clothes on quickly and found his phone and wallet, then ran out the door. He called Blaise's room, just to be sure, but he had a sneaking suspicion he knew where she had gone. The farmer's market. He had never told her not to go anywhere without him, not thinking it was necessary. Not wanting it to be necessary. She should be able to go anywhere she wanted. She should never have to have a bodyguard.

He hated himself a little bit for not warning her, not telling her to stay put. He knew instinctively that something bad must have happened.

Jordan answered and confirmed his second worst suspicions. No, Katerina wasn't there, and no she hadn't been there all morning.

"Jordan," he choked out. "Have Blaise meet me at the farmer's market on the corner. Tell him it's important."

He hung up the phone and prayed he was wrong, bargained with God that he would look like a fool in a few minutes. He entered the elevator and pushed the buttons impatiently, the time it took to reach the lobby seeming like a million years.

He ran through the foyer, his head swinging right and left, looking for Katerina. Nothing. West sprinted out the front doors and forced his body into a run. Within two minutes he was at the farmer's market. It encompassed a small section of the block, put up every morning for only a few hours, then taken down and rebuilt the next morning.

It was late enough, that they were already taking it down. West could see at a glance that there was nobody under the tarps who didn't work there.

She could already be back at the room
, he chanted inside his head, much like a plea to the universe.

He ran as fast as he could, past tourists and locals alike, jumping around them and occasionally shoving his way past, earning stares and muttered curses.

West streaked by the valets and bellman at the front of the hotel and slowed to a walk, taking a closer look around the lobby. He walked straight to the front desk. The woman there smiled at him. They'd spoken to her several times over the last few weeks but he couldn't remember her name right now. He couldn't even remember his own name. Only one name beat with his pulse inside his brain.
Katerina. Katerina
.

"Good morning, Mister Shepherd. Congratulations on your wedding," the bright young Polynesian woman told him with an authentic smile.

"Thank you," came out of his mouth automatically. He leaned forward and asked intently, "Have you seen my wife this morning?" His heart soared and clenched at the words
my wife
.

"Oh yes, she just came back from the farmer's market. I saw her in the lobby no more than fifteen or twenty minutes ago. She went towards the bathroom, and then I assume up to your room." The young woman pointed down a hallway.

West whirled and ran that way, leaving the woman confused. The hall was long and many closed doors sat on either side. Halfway down he saw a crumpled paper bag with exotic tropical flowers sticking out of the top. A lump formed in his throat and he ran to the bag, picking it up.

West ripped the birds of paradise, one of Katerina's favorite flowers, out of the bag to see what else was in it. Two guavas, sitting like bullets to his head in the very bottom of the bag.

West's heart tore in two.

West stood, completely unable to think or act for several minutes. No one passed him in the winding hallway.
He finally was able to force one word through his hurting brain.
No!
The word ended his paralysis and pushed his legs into motion. He ran back the way he had come, to the elevators, and pushed the button for Agnes's floor, holding the crumpled paper bag and flowers in his hands.

When he reached Agnes's floor, he ran to her door and pounded on it. When she opened the door, he didn't say a word. Instead, thrust the bag and the flowers into her bare hands. Agnes stared at him in wonder and fear, and then he saw horror take over her expression.

"Oh no, West," she whispered. "Someone came up behind her and covered her mouth with his hand. She dropped the bag to fight."

Her horror was replaced with an all-consuming pity. "That's all I can see."

Oh God
. West's legs buckled and he pushed up against the wall so as not to fall to the carpet. Where did he even begin to look for her?

His phone rang in his hand and he answered it automatically.

"West, I'm down here at the farmer's market. Where are you? What's the emergency?"

"Blaise, someone has Katerina," he croaked, his voice barely working.

"What?! Tell me everything."

West did his best to recount what had happened that morning. Blaise was silent for only a moment. "Okay, I'm calling the cops, and I'm going to talk to all the employees and people who were in the lobby. I'll talk to valets and bellmen also, and see if we can get a description on anybody who looked suspicious in the last thirty minutes. It's somewhere to start. Don't lose your head, we'll find her, I swear it."

West groaned into the phone and slid down the wall to the floor, his terror mounting. It seemed so inadequate. Katerina could even be dead by now.

Blaise fell strangely silent but didn't hang up, then seemed to be talking to himself. "Unless ... No."

West shot to his feet. "What? Tell me!"

Blaise started slowly. "Well, last night, at the nightclub, there was a man who seemed to be watching you and Katerina. I didn't think anything of it. Lots of people were watching you – you were still wearing your wedding clothes and you both looked so happy and vibrant – but something about him was off. I made up my mind to go talk to him, but he disappeared."

West gritted his teeth until he felt like his jaw might snap. The thought of someone out there having kidnapped Katerina, having her in his possession for fifteen minutes now made him sick to his stomach.

"What did he look like?" West forced out.

"Not too tall, maybe five foot ten inches. He was wearing a dark Fedora pulled over his face. Plain features, wearing jeans and a T-shirt. Muscular."

West forced back vomit. "I remember that guy. He sat at the small table in the corner, right?"

"That was him - look West, it doesn't mean anything by itself. Let me get the police down here, we'll have a sketch drawn up. If somebody can place him in the lobby, then we have a suspect and can get -"

West cut him off. He had an idea. "Great, Blaise, you do that."

He pressed end call and shoved the phone into his pocket, turning to Agnes who was still standing in her doorway, her face a mask of pain and grief. He grabbed her hand and pulled her into the hallway, spilling the bag to the floor. "We know who took her," he said. "I need you to tell me who he is."

Agnes did not protest. She tried to keep up with him as he pulled her into the elevator and out to the lobby. West kept his face pointed towards the double doors at the end of the large room. Let Blaise take care of what was going on down here. He had more important things to do.

He pulled Agnes to the nightclub next door and began to bang on the door. The sign out front said it would open at four in the afternoon, but he prayed someone was in there now. If not, he would break in.

After a moment, a man came to the door and shook his head, then pointed to the sign stating open hours. "Just open the door, please," West shouted. "We have to tell you something."

The man stared at him hard, and then drew back the thumb bolt, opening the door. West pushed inside. "We were here last night, and a man was here also. He kidnapped my wife this morning. We have to go upstairs and see if he left anything up there."

The man held up his hands, his face warring between pity and outrage. "There's nothing up there. The cleaning crew has already been through. They would have thrown away anything that anyone left."

West didn't have time to waste. He reached his hand out and grasped the man above the elbow, speaking with a low urgency. "Let us go upstairs to look around. You go back to whatever you were doing."

A glazed look came over the man's face and he nodded briefly, then turned around and wandered away. Agnes looked at West strangely and reached her hand out to touch him. He pushed her hand away almost angrily. "Don't worry about me right now! All that matters is Katerina!"

Agnes nodded and West pulled her up the stairs to the second floor. "Right here," he said, pointing out the table the man had been sitting at. "He sat right in this chair and his arms were on the table all night."

Agnes went right to the table and fluttered her hands over the top of it. Her face took on a pained expression and then she touched the chair, and returned her hands to the top of the table. She closed her eyes and began to speak, her voice pinched and tight. "The plan was to take her to a plane at Hickam Air Force Base, where she was to be flown to Nevada. Another base. I can't get a name on that. It's fuzzy. I can't tell you for sure if it happened or not, I just know that's what he was thinking last night. They think she's got a weapon or something?"

West felt his heart burn in terror in his chest at her words. "Who? Who is they?"

Agnes opened her eyes and looked at him, torment filling her expression. "Our government, West. Who else?"

West shot down the fear that was threatening to immobilize him. The government? How could he fight the government? He forced his spinning mind to focus.

"Is he staying in a hotel?"

Agnes nodded, her eyes falling closed again. "He's staying at the Royal Hawaiian."

West clenched his hands into fists. "Our hotel."

"Room 1512."

"The room right next to us," West whispered, wondering if they'd been watching he and Katerina, listening to them talk and make plans and make love for the last two weeks.

"But he's checking out soon. He only had one more piece of business to take care of here once Katerina was kidnapped."

"What?"

Agnes opened her eyes and her gaze chilled his soul. "Killing you."

West's fingernails dug into his palms hard enough to draw blood. He'd see who killed who.

"What's his name?" he whispered.

Agnes shook her head. "All I get is Raven."

"Can you tell me anything else that will help me?"

Agnes closed her eyes again and ran her fingers over every inch of the table. She even ran them up and down the table legs, then touched the chair again. Finally she stood. "Only that he's devious. He has no conscience. He's killed many times, and not always on orders."

West nodded, knowing he was up against the worst threat he had ever faced. But he had to find Katerina. Had to save her. Luckily, he had a secret weapon. He turned and ran down the stairs, hearing Agnes hurrying behind him.

Out in the street, he left Agnes behind quickly, sprinting back to the hotel. Police cars were everywhere. He skirted around the building to the back. He couldn't get caught up in police questioning right now. Besides, how did he know they weren't in on it too? The government was the government. How could he trust anyone in a uniform ever again?

His phone beeped in his pocket. He pulled it out and looked at it. Blaise, wanting him to come to the lobby. West shove his phone back in his pocket and ran around to the back of the hotel, entering a tiny door in the corner that he'd seen wait staff use before.

The door brought him to an empty hallway with a service elevator at the end. He ran to it and pressed the button. It opened and was empty. He said a small prayer of thanks and got in, pressing the button for the fifteenth floor. His plans only extended as far as room 1512. If he found it empty, he didn't know what he would do. He would figure that out when he got there.

West stepped out of the elevator and broke into a run, slowing as he rounded the corner that would lead him to his room. A man was already in the hallway, walking towards West. The man had a baseball cap over his face and was staring at the ground. West's heart slammed heavily in his chest. He hadn't seen where the man had come from, but there were only four rooms down here. A 50-50 chance that the man had been either at his room or room 1512.

West stared hard at him, willing the man to look up, calling into detail the face from the night before. Every nerve sang on high alert as he prepared to fight to the death if he had to. He watched the man's hands for the tiniest movement.

He and the man drew abreast, then just past each other, but West knew. It was him. West reached out and grabbed the man by the throat, slamming him into the wall. The man's hands flew up as he tried to wrestle West's hand away from his throat, but West dug in instead, slamming the man's head against the wall again. With his other hand, West groped in his pocket for his room key. He found it and pulled the man to his room, opening the door and throwing the man inside before anyone could show up and end their little party.

The man fell to his knees on the carpet, making retching sounds as West slammed the door behind them.
He kicked the man
He kicked the man high on his chest, flipping him to his back. West dropped to his knees onto the man's chest, forcing the air out of him, his hands closing around the man's throat. He wanted to see terror in the man's eyes. He wanted the disgusting little worm to know he was about to die.

But West couldn't kill him and he knew it. West had never killed anyone in his life, but he could start now, for this dirt bag, if this guy wasn't his only line to Katerina.

There was no terror in the man's eyes. Only cold calculation. He knew West wouldn't kill him. West suddenly realized he didn't know where the man's hands were. At the same time, he felt a cold, hard length of steel slide on his arm and press into his side. He only had seconds before he was dead.

"Don't shoot!" he screamed, his hands still around the man's throat. "Drop the gun!"

The man's eyes went unfocused and the gun clattered to the carpet.

Thank God.

West grabbed for the gun and scrambled backwards quickly, pointing the gun at the man's head. The man still looked out of it. As soon as West's hands left his throat, he coughed and rubbed his neck, but his gaze still floated off somewhere past the ceiling.

I've never tested it. I don't have any idea what this ability of mine can do.

West wanted to kick himself in his own ass for not testing how his ability worked, but he never expected to use it again in his life.

West noticed a change coming over the worm on the floor. His eyes were focusing again and his movements had more rhythm.

West made up a plan of attack and jumped into action. He dropped to one knee and grabbed the man by the throat again, holding the gun at eye level.

"Where's my wife?" he screamed.

The man only looked at him, his eyes narrowing.

"Tell me where my wife is!"

The answer came, flat and unmotivated. "On a plane."

West's heart sunk. Was she already gone?

"Where is she going? Tell me!"

"Operation Arma."

"Where is that?"

"Nevada. Under Area 51."

"Under it? What does that mean?"

"Under it. It's an underground facility." The man spoke remotely, his tone completely without emotion. His eyes stared off and never met West's face.

West couldn't help but feel like he was wasting time. But what could he do? Should he bring the cops up here? If he did that, would the government swoop in and shut down the investigation. Would he and Katerina disappear forever? He couldn't chance it.

"When did the plane leave?"

"Didn't."

West felt something small building in his chest. Hope.

"When is it leaving?"

"2:05."

He had three hours to save Katerina before she went off to some government facility that he would never have any hopes of reaching. But how?

West let the gun drop a little, but kept his hand on the man. "Stay still. Don't move."

He thought furiously. What were his options? The press? Would that even work?

He looked back down at the man under his hand. The guy's face was ashen, and he looked like he might throw up. West shook him. "What would happen if the press found out about your little plane and the underground facility in Nevada? About you kidnapping United States citizens?"

The man didn't speak. His eyes glazed over and his complexion turned yellow. West shook him and dug his fingers into his throat, seeking out the trachea and tugging on it, knowing the pain would be exquisite. "Tell me! Answer every question I ask!"

"Nothing. We would deny it. You can't prove anything and if anyone got too close, we would take care of them."

West stood up and hauled the man up by his shirt front, his decision made. He would have to go after Katerina himself. They had very little chance of surviving if he did, but she had none if he didn't. "Can you get close to this plane?"

"Yes. I have clearance."

"What are you driving?"

"I have four sedans nearby that I can access."

"Pick the closest one. Let's go."

***

West looked out the window, knowing Hickam Air Force Base was drawing close. He wouldn't allow himself to think of everything that would probably go wrong in the next few minutes. He would just keep driving forward, pushing, seeking, not stopping until he had Katerina or he was dead.

He had determined on the drive over that the man's name was Edgar Snoot, but he liked to go by Raven. He had a strange affinity for code names. He also learned that the government wanted Katerina to study her powers and possibly to turn her into a weapon. What they really wanted was someone who could use their mind to kill people from a distance, and make it look like an accident. They wanted to study Katerina and see exactly what she could do.

Raven drove directly up to the front gate of Hickam Air Force Base and flashed his security badge. The airmen guarding the gate asked to see his ID. West kept a guiding finger on Raven's elbow, whispering instructions to him, but it didn't seem to be necessary. Raven stayed robot-like and compliant, as long as West's hands weren't off of him for too long.

The airmen at the gate inspected the underside of Raven's car with the mirror, then ran a dog in a circle around the vehicle. Then they were waved through. Raven drove through the maze of streets and eventually pulled up in front of a hangar. He sat and stared out the front window.

"Which plane is she on?" West asked, eyeing the humongous airplanes lining the runway.

"That one," Raven said, pointing at the biggest plane.

The very back of the plane was open, and men in military uniforms were shuttling crates into the belly of the flying monster. West saw two men with rifles guarding each entrance onto the plane.

"What kind of a crew is on that plane?"

"I don't know. I just delivered the woman."

West itched to pound the man's face in. Katerina was not 'the woman.' She was someone important, with a name and a life.

"How can I get on there?"

Raven shrugged and didn't say a word.

West grabbed Raven's tricep and squeezed as hard as he could. He screamed into Raven's face, all the anger and frustration he'd been dealing with since he woke up that morning spilling out. "Think of something!"

Raven grimaced and blood burst from his nose.

"Fuck!" West yelled, pulling back. He looked around, opening the glove box, and pulling out a handful of napkins. He threw them at Raven. "Clean yourself up," he demanded.

Raven cleaned himself up mechanically, then spoke. "Let's check the supplies. They will fill that plane before they take off. Maybe you could hide inside of something."

West nodded. It was the best they could do for now.

Together, they walked inside like they belonged there, Raven holding a napkin to his nose. West surveyed the interior of the hangar, trying to stem the intense, seething hatred he was feeling. Crews worked diligently at the other end of the hangar where it was open to the air, but no one came near them or took notice of them. West gripped Raven's elbow and led him towards the rows of pallets stacked high with supplies stretched out in front of them.

"What's going on that plane?" West asked Raven, prodding him.

Raven strode forward and looked at a packing slip on a pallet that was so tightly wrapped with plastic West couldn't tell what was inside. "This is."

He strode to the next item. "This too." He walked to a Humvee. "This is going too."

The tiny light of hope inside of West grew slightly. There had to be something in here that he could hide inside. What about the Humvee? West circled it, eyeing the workers at the far end of the large building. No one was looking their way, and best of all, the very back of the Humvee was blocked from their sight by a monster pallet in front of it.

He looked back at Raven. He couldn't leave him here. No way. "Climb inside," he said indicating the back of the vehicle. Raven didn't move. West strode to him and pinched the back of his arm. "Climb inside," he said his voice low and deadly. Raven moved to comply instantly.

West looked around one last time, then followed him.