Save Your Soul (Body & Soul #2)
Read Save Your Soul (Body & Soul #2) Online
Authors: Rochelle Paige
Tags: #alpha male romance, #contemporary romance, #dirty talking hero
Save Your Soul
Body & Soul Series 2
Rochelle Paige
Copyright © 2016 Rochelle Paige Popovic
All rights reserved.
Edited by PREMA Romance Editing
Cover designed by Elle Christensen
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used factiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons or living or dead, events or locales are entirely coincidental.
The author acknowledges the trademark status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/ Use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owner.
What’s Next From Rochelle Paige?
F
or my readers who asked me to write a story for Brecken. Thank you for putting the idea in my head!
Hadley
T
he day I’d discovered my dad was an illegal arms dealer was the worst in my life. Or so I’d thought, until six months later when I woke up to find myself on a cement floor with my arms tied behind my back. When I’d fallen asleep, I’d been safe and sound in my dorm room. I never thought I’d see the day when I regretted my decision to move into a single room instead of a double. If I’d still been in a double, my roommate would have been with me. Or if I’d somehow found a way to forgive my dad, I might have been home with him and my mom, sheltered behind the security of their estate.
After my time in this hellhole, I wasn’t sure if I hated my dad more than I had before I’d been kidnapped or less. I’d been beaten the first day, all so they could take pictures to send to him. I didn’t understand much of the Spanish they spoke, damn my decision to take French in high school, but their leader took great delight in informing me of the reason I’d been taken in the first place. My father had snubbed him, rejecting a lucrative deal, and I was to be the leverage they used to make him change his mind.
They hadn’t really touched me since then, except to force drugs on me a couple times when they needed me to be docile for another photo. The drugs made me easier to control, and I hated how weak I felt afterwards. I couldn’t even be certain how many days had passed since I’d been taken. I thought it was thirteen days, but when they gave me the drugs it messed with my head. I might have missed a day or two. Either way, too much time had passed.
There was only one thing I knew for certain. I had no hope of being rescued. Not anymore. I’d been so certain my father would cave to their demands and give them the guns they wanted to save me. Even though I’d screamed hateful words at him the last time we’d spoken, I knew he loved me. He was my father. He would do whatever it took to get me back.
Right?
Apparently not, because the days had passed without any sign from my captors that he’d yielded to their demands. Their treatment of me hadn’t improved in preparation to return me to my family, either. If anything, it had worsened. My meals, if you could call them that, were spaced further and further apart. It felt as though I’d become an afterthought, forgotten by my captors—and my family.
It was all I could to do to survive one day at a time. I was weak and virtually starving. My chances of getting out of this hellhole were slim to none, but I did my best to stay alert. If ever I found an opening, no matter how slight, I was going to take it. I might have been down, but I wasn’t out. Not yet. I still had some fight left in me. If nobody was coming for me, then I just needed to figure a way out by myself.
Brecken
Two Days Later
T
he Nicaraguan jungle wasn’t a place I’d ever hoped to visit. It was hot as hell, unfamiliar territory and buggy as shit. I felt the sweat dripping down my back as quickly as I was wiping it from my forehead. When I’d gotten the call from General Whitehall, asking me to meet with Raymond Gresham about the kidnapping of his daughter, I hadn’t wanted to say yes. The team and I had just returned home from a difficult case where we’d been too late to save our target. The oil executive had been killed one day prior to our rescue attempt, and I was pissed the fuck off at the needlessness of his death. If his employer had called us in as soon as they received the ransom demand, we would have arrived in time to save his life. Unfortunately, I didn’t deal in
if onlys
in my line of business. Just like I couldn’t afford to tell an Army General no when he personally asked me to accept a case, no matter how many questions I had about why he was reaching out to me for help.
When I’d glanced at the photo my client had shown me of his daughter, my hesitation ceased to exist. Only one thing mattered—saving Hadley from the men who’d taken her. The sight of her broad smile and bright green eyes staring up at me from her picture froze me in my tracks. Brown hair so dark it almost appeared black, flowed over her shoulders, stopping just above her tits. Her perky, luscious tits which looked huge on her tiny frame. I got a hard-on from seeing her picture while sitting across from her father and discussing her kidnapping. It was insane. I’d never had a reaction like this to a woman, let alone from a damn picture at a time like this.
It was almost as insane as the feeling of possessiveness which swamped me when Whit whistled softly under his breath while glancing at her picture. We’d been together since boot camp, and I’d been lucky when he decided not to re-up at the same time as me. It meant I was able to open my security firm with Whit at my side, just like I’d started my military career. At his sign of male appreciation, I wanted nothing more than to demonstrate exactly what I’d do if he ever laid a hand on her.
“Back the fuck off,” I hissed at him, sending his eyebrows into his hairline before he moved to the wall and leaned against it. I was sure to hear about this later, but I didn’t give a fuck. She was mine, but first I needed to get her out of this mess. It had taken me two days to track down her captors and determine where they were most likely holding her. Whit had only mentioned Hadley’s looks once, and that was to warn Devon about my reaction to her photo. I was acting out of character, but none of my team called me out on it. They followed my orders and trusted I wouldn’t let my fascination with Hadley pull us into a situation we couldn’t handle.
Glancing down at my GPS, I confirmed I was less than half a mile from the camp where my intel said she was being held. I’d walked several miles through the jungle since I’d parted from my team, dodging trees and obstacles in my path at a brisk pace. Our recon had indicated that an approach by a lone operator had the best odds of success. In and out with the girl, undetected, that was the plan. With their perimeter security, adding another body upped the chances of exposure. Sera had followed the same route as I’d taken but waited a mile outside the camp. I wanted her close in case Hadley needed the comfort of another woman. It was the smart play, but the need for it made me want to rush into the camp and kill every motherfucker in there.
Devon stayed in town, guarding our transport, while Whit had set up a makeshift clinic. A red haze had clouded my vision at the thought of Hadley needing medical attention, but I’d forced it out of my head and focused on what needed to be done. I couldn’t afford to focus on what might have happened to the sexy but sweet girl from the photo, not when her life depended on me keeping a level head. Getting her out of there was going to be tricky enough, but the walk back with Hadley was likely to be worse. She’d been taken in the middle of the night more than two weeks ago. My fists clenched at the thought of what her condition might be when I found her, knowing damn well it wasn’t likely to be good. At least I carried appropriate clothing and boots for her in my pack, based on the sizes her mother had provided. If that wasn’t good enough, the bottom line was I’d carry her the whole way if that’s what it took to get her out of here.
As I neared the target, I slowed my pace and searched for a place to wait until I found the perfect opening. Kneeling down, I lowered myself to my belly in the underbrush. The darkness of the jungle hid my location as I bided my time. Hadley was depending on me, even though she didn’t know it, and I wasn’t about to let her down. I’d gained a reputation for following through on my missions, and my determination to succeed this time was at an all-time high. I might not have officially met the girl yet, but I was already thinking of her as mine—to rescue, to protect and to keep.
I ran through the plan in my head, weighing all the factors before moving on to plan B, and then C and even D. I was known for being precise in my planning and setting up solid backup plans, but even my team had been surprised by how anal I’d been while preparing for this one. I’d tried to prepare for anything, but I’d experienced enough missions going sideways during my years in the Army to know there was no such thing as a foolproof plan. If this mission went FUBAR, I needed to know I had enough available options to keep Hadley safe.
I waited until it was a little past midnight and pitch black outside. The camp was silent, with the exception of several guards whose rotation I’d memorized a couple hours ago. The building where Hadley was most likely being kept was the center of the guards’ pattern. Nobody had come or gone during the time I’d been watching. I took this as a good sign because it most likely meant that she was alone in there. As soon as the tallest guard rounded the far corner after passing it, I moved swiftly and silently towards the side closest to me. Pulling my E-tool from my pack, I carefully removed two bottom boards, giving me just enough room to squeeze through the opening.
I entered quietly, unsure of what I was going to find in the room, and pulled the boards back into place behind me. Hugging the wall, I held still for a moment and searched the dark room for any sign of Hadley. Going clockwise from the left, my heart was practically in my throat by the time I got to my two o’clock and found a mattress on the floor with a petite body huddled under a thin blanket. She was turned away from me, but I’d recognize that dark hair anywhere.
Thank fuck!
Our intel had been right and I’d found her.
“Hadley,” I whispered, dropping to my knees at her side and giving her shoulder a brief touch.
She jerked, rolling away and gasping when her head turned and she caught sight of me. I put my hand over her mouth, silencing her scream. “My name is Brecken Kane. Your father sent me.” Her eyes widened, tears leaking from the corners as hope warred with doubt in her gaze. I offered her the only reassurance I could and hoped like hell she’d understand what her father had told me to say. It was for damn sure the silliest code word I’ve ever used on a mission, but he’d been insistent it was the only thing which would convince her he’d sent me to get her out of here. “Fluffy.”
Hadley
A
t first I thought I was hallucinating, that I’d finally broken and was seeing things. Then the word the man had spoken penetrated and it dawned on me what was happening. The man, dressed in all black and wearing a large pack on his back, was really here to rescue me. My dad hadn’t left me here to die. He’d sent someone to take me home. He could have only been sent by my father because nobody but my parents knew about the puppy I’d owned for one week when I was five years old before we realized I was allergic to her. I’d named her Fluffy and had refused to even so much as consider another name, much to my dad’s dismay.
“Thank God,” I breathed, the sound muffled by his hand.
The man, Brecken he’d called himself, moved his hand away when the tension left my body. He slid the bag from his back and pulled out a long-sleeved shirt, cargo pants, socks and boots. All black, a perfect match for what he was wearing but much smaller considering his muscular build.
“Take off your night shirt and put these on.” His voice was somehow both gentle and abrupt.
“I can’t,” I admitted softly, moving my wrist and making the chain attached to it clang, drawing his attention to it.
“Fuck,” he hissed, eyes sliding to the door my captors used when they needed to come into the room. He was clearly furious on my behalf, and it alleviated some of my embarrassment at my current condition. I was filthy and stinky, dressed in the same oversized nightshirt with a cartoon character on the front and panties I’d worn to bed the night I was taken, and I was chained to a wall in God only knows where. He pulled a tool of some kind from a pocket of his cargo pants and got to work on the lock. Even though I looked and smelled awful, I could have sworn Brecken’s eyes flared with desire as he worked to free my hand from the band wrapped around my wrist.