The Laughing Assassin [Assassin's Diary] (Siren Publishing Classic) (25 page)

The moment she had the thought, Jonah looked at her and she forgot about the men who watched just feet away. Jonah would never let any of them touch her. She trusted he would kill every man in the room before that could happen, or die trying. And that was the crux of her dilemma. She wanted him to live no matter what.

“Take this cock, my bitch.” The last word was hissed, and Jaden felt herself quiver inside from the use of the derogative.

Before she could let her thoughts take her out of the moment, Jonah pinched her nipples roughly, and the unexpected touch was enough to bring her too close to the edge. She heard herself scream, and Jonah silenced the noise with one hand roughly cupped over her mouth. The gag of digits and palm didn’t keep the screams silent, but merely kept them muffled. When she panted for breath, he pulled his hand from her lips and let his fingers trail over her chin.

When his fingerprints scalded her jaw with dangerous erotic heat, he danced the digits over her neck and cupped his hand over her throat. He gave another vicious thrust with his cock that made her forget what he was about to do. As she sucked in a breath to cry aloud, his hand tightened and there was nowhere for the sound to go. She panicked and struggled within her bondage, but he wouldn’t let her gasp for air. As soon as she was sure that she would have to cry uncle and drop the cloth, he let her go and continued thrusting as if his life depended on it.

Jaden was so stuck on trying to get enough oxygen that her starved lungs couldn’t support the moans she wanted to make. Instead she emitted a brief burst of growls and pants that matched his. They sounded like animals in heat, and his cock made her weak from the neck down. When he placed his hand at her throat this time, she was ready.

But this time, she felt no fear like before, and the lack of oxygen was a high all of its own that pushed her over the peak. She heard the faintest gurgle, and she realized the sound came from her own throat. When his hand released her this time, she shuddered and felt her pussy squirt juices between them. The wetness made Jonah even wilder than before, and he bucked harder and fiercer until she quivered and writhed beneath him to the full extent the bonds would allow.

Jonah lowered his forehead to hers and rubbed over the column of throat with the same fingers just used to choke her. Their gasps were hungry bursts of breath that dueled in tandem, and they only needed mere inches to meet lips. By the time he came, she could feel the spurts of thick cum wash her pussy and whip over the mouth of her womb. Jaden was embarrassed at how crazy she was for his cock. But despite her shame, the hunger deep within her cunt sought just one more thrust to milk her pleasure even farther.

For long moments later, she lay against the metal, sticky and limp.

When she had relaxed from the inordinate desire, Jonah had freed the restraints from her arms and legs. Her skirt was straightened along with her top. There was the echo of clapping around her, and she was unsure what was next. This was the area where their hasty new plan had delved into a slapstick improvisation, due to their lack of time to hash it out properly beforehand. She waited for Jonah to give even a thin cue she could follow. But she sat upright and slid off of the table anyway. It was better that she be ready to act however she needed to when the time came.

Rather than make her stand right next to him, she knelt beside him and adopted the proper waiting posture at his side. The guard with short hair, also missing a neck like the previous guards, bade them to follow him in the hall where two denuded women stood with their hands extended.

It was then that the male asked Jonah to come with him.

“Where I go, she goes.” Jonah’s sharp reply was quickly issued, but the guard’s refusal was in his demeanor without a word.

But the man appeared disgruntled, and his face turned red. “You have no choice in the matter. The patron would like to speak with you. Your slave will be sent down the hall to wait for now.”

Jonah looked at her, and Jaden could see he was irate with the change in plans. The information he’d received beforehand was all wrong, and that was the worst part of the espionage game. The slightest misstep in action or mistake in the planning phases had grave consequences down the road, and the only way to see the pitfalls was to trip into them. But she knew he didn’t have a choice in the matter. Neither of them did. They had to act according to the prescribed roles. Their farce was the only thing that kept them alive.

“I’ll be back shortly,” he said to her and looked at the guard again. “She is not to be touched in any way while I speak with the patron.”

The guard nodded as if he understood, but Jaden didn’t hear the man verbally confirm the request. That was enough to put her on high alert. “Sun and Fire, take Mr. Blue’s slave to the waiting room.”

Two perfectly matching bookends of women walked with her back down the corridor. They wore no clothing, save a set of manacled anklets that sported bells like the ones that belly dancers preferred. The women both had hair dyed fire-engine red that fell to their hips, and each had a matching brand on the right shoulder. The symbol was strange, but she knew it from somewhere. She couldn’t recall, and she decided to let the sense of déjà vu pass while she thought her next move out.

Jaden kept her head low and watched everything around her, and she felt the beginnings of an idea tickle her brain. The women stopped and opened the door to a small room just on the outskirts of the spiraled labyrinth of hallway. The red twins bade her to sit and wait as they left the room, though her instincts told her that they were given instructions to stand outside of the door. She looked around the room covertly in case she was being watched and plotted escape from the plush dungeon prison.

But her gut told her that she couldn’t wait any longer and that something was terribly wrong. She had to leave now. Whatever happened, she had to get to Jonah. He may have only been out of her sight for fifteen minutes, but Jaden had a bad feeling about the entire setup.

Best Laid Plans

Jonah knew he was being set up for something, though he wasn’t sure what. His identity was tight, and he knew the original performer, Lanham, couldn’t have rolled over on him. The man was still in lockdown with some of the away team. But if not Lanham, then who set him up?

He walked alongside the guard and kept his ears and eyes open for any knowledge he could glean from the surroundings. Jaden was all that mattered. At the moment, he had no choice but to leave her nearly defenseless and alone. The handful of twists and turns he had to take to make it to where he was headed were simple, and he could make his way back to her, no matter how he had to make it happen. Jonah would kill every person on this island bare-handed to make it happen.

She was on the other side of the dungeon, but she could take care of herself just as well as he could. And that was the only thought that kept him sane. When he was directed to a small doorway just to the left of where he and Jaden performed, he was sure he was about to be ambushed.

But when the door opened he saw an older man, maybe in his fifties or even sixty-five with good living. He knew this man from somewhere. The man still wore his mask the same as Jonah did. All possible clues to identities were closely concealed with the execution as the leader of this group was smart and wily.

“Have a seat and cigar, Mr. Blue.” Jonah didn’t want to sit down, as the single chair was poorly positioned and his back would be to the door.

But he knew he had little choice. If he moved the seat, he may have to answer questions that may not be in the man’s mind this moment or give his training away. “So I can presume you are Mr. Black?” At the man’s nod in agreement, Jonah continued. “I’ll take the seat, but no cigar. Thank you anyway.”

“They are Cuban. It’s your loss.”

“I don’t personally smoke, but the smell is not offensive.” The man gave a large belly laugh as he puffed the fat stub of tobacco. The pungent scent of the smoke let Jonah know that it was indeed a Cuban, and the best quality at that.

“I saw that nothing at tonight’s showing was to your liking. That actually distresses me, as your payment was a discount from your personal purchase.”

“No. The women tonight were for the most part naïve or spineless. Plus, I like my slaves with a bit more meat on their bones. Makes it easier to mark their flesh. Perhaps we can see next time what you have to offer.” Jonah thought that this may work out perfectly. It would leave him an open window of opportunity to return to another auction, and maybe the next time he could have a Special Ops team clean up behind him. Then the team could end this mess once and for all.

That was until the next one arose from the ashes of this group and started the process all over again. But next time, Jonah planned to let someone else deal with it.

“Ah. You mean like the one you performed with? She has heavy curves, and she is richly sensual. Which actually brings me to the reason for my request”—the man smiled as if he asked politely, when in fact he made a demand that Jonah reluctantly acceded to—“for this unsolicited meeting. I want your slave.”

“Excuse me, but she is not for sale at any price.” The query took him aback slightly, as he wasn’t expecting it. He had a feeling that this would require more than a firmly spouted simple brush-off to quell, however.

He was right. “Everything has a price, and she would be a pleasure to break. Name yours, Blue.”

“My slave was not brought here to be auctioned. She came as a guest of the compound.”

“Not even five million dollars would change your tune?”

“Not even then.”

“Ten?”

“It doesn’t matter what you offer. She is not for sale. I came to make a purchase, not to sell any of my own stock. She is perfectly trained to my liking, and I will not waste my investment in her and train another.”

“What about for the night?”

“Not even then.” Jonah stood and bowed before the man. “If that is all?”

“You should have taken my offer. At least then I would have some reason to trust you. I know one thing…” The man’s words trailed off into the air as if he waited for Jonah to take the apparent bait the lack of words offered.

It couldn’t hurt to play the game by the man’s rules. Jonah would just change them later when it was feasible. “Yes?” he queried, and left the nature of the response just as open-ended as the statement it answered.

“I don’t know who you are, but I do know who you aren’t.” No sooner than Black finished speaking, Jonah knew that his odds of escaping this mission unscathed were slim to none. But how?

“I don’t understand.” Jonah didn’t, and the statement was as innocuous as possible.

“That would make sense, considering that I haven’t explained it all to you.” Black shrugged one silk-clad shoulder. “No matter. All I do know is that I found a woman specifically requested by my entertainer, yet there was not one bid on her by the man who made the request. That in itself is a reason for concern. Especially when I think of the favors I had to call in to bring her here.”

Fuck! Jonah thought, Lanham had truly found a way to set him up, and all without ruffling the cozy nest he had as evidence. The one simple piece of information was crucial, and Jonah didn’t have it, nor did the man offer it up during any of the conversations they had.
I will slit Lanham’s throat for this.

Who did Lanham want? Was it Iris? Or the meek blonde? What was her name?

Jonah tried a quick descent into levity with a small joke. “I decided not to purchase her, and I didn’t see that it was an issue. You certainly made enough money in the bidding that my lack of participation was no deterrent from her sale.” The attempted levity seemed to fall flat, as if the punch lines were lost amid the weight of the truth and the lies built in to his cover identity.

“That is true, but I rigged the bids for you to get her at the agreed-upon price. Not to mention, that was very disrespectful. I was forced to use favors that I wanted to hold onto for a later date with some influential persons to capture the most prized Princess Jewel and pluck her from her white bed filled with stuffed animals. Not to mention that she would have gone for much more if her true identity was revealed. So I lost in more than one way, due to your change of heart.” Until now, Jonah had no idea the first girl, dubbed “Iris” was actually Jewel Oxendine, a former child star, heiress, and current cosmetics mogul whose products were worn by almost any teenaged girl in dozens of countries across the world.

There had been rumors about her recent disappearance, though none were substantiated, and it was assumed Jewel was on sabbatical. But it appeared that everyone, especially the tabloids, were wrong.

The young woman was reputed to be a virgin, although claims were made frequently about many males who supposedly had the privilege of divesting the girl of her chastity. And now, America’s sweetheart was in the hands of monsters who would have no problem using the beauty until her mind and body became housed as separate things entirely.

Not to mention, his cover was blown sky high. The mission was screwed, and he was fucked, with a capital
F.

Jonah heard the door open behind him, even though the heavy wood made no true sound. But when he turned to face the threat, he was outnumbered five to one. He had seen worse odds, but he would have to be tricky about it due to the guns they all trained on him.