Beautiful Prey 2: The Storm Series (BWWM Romance) (28 page)

Natasha repeatedly slammed her foot
into his face, continuing her assault on the bearded man, which prompted the
other men to intervene.

The two men that were unassumingly
quiet began to beat Natasha. She was punched in the face, body, and even her
legs. They kicked and stomped her into the floor of the aircraft. The pain was
debilitating. She curled into a ball to protect herself from the fierce blows.

Once the bearded man recovered, he
joined in on the beating. Fighting back was no use. She was overpowered. He
roughly ripped her bra and then her panties off. He positioned himself between
Natasha’s thighs. She tried to fight through the others punching her body and
pinning her down. Warm tears fell from her eyes as Natasha screamed for help.
That was when one of the men punched her so hard that she started to see red
spots before her beautiful eyes. Her vision blurred. The world was going black.
Pure terror ran through her, realizing that she was about to be raped.

In that moment, Natasha knew that
everything her commander said was bullshit. The department had hung her out to
dry.

“Miss Emma, I’ll get the door. Please put the baby down.”

Victoria dashed from the nursery and
hurried to the intercom. Whoever it was that was practically lying on the buzzer
was going to wake her fussy baby.

She shouted into the speaker, “Yes?”

“Vic, its Frankie! Open the gate!”

The urgency in his voice would’ve
been Victoria’s biggest fear if it weren't for the fact that Frankie had never come
to her house before. Victoria quickly buzzed the gate, allowing him entry. She
ran to the front door and waited for him to pull up. Headlights appeared, and a
car rounded the fountain. Frankie jumped out of the passenger’s seat, yelling,
“Have you heard from Tasha?!”

The look in Frankie’s face told
Victoria that something had to be wrong. “What? No. What’s going on?”

“We did a decoy mission tonight; a
human trafficking ring. The auction was over. Nobody gave the take down
signal.  We haven’t heard from Natasha, Deon, or Steve. Aurek came out,
saying that the deal was made, but Steve never called it. And now, we can’t
find any of them. I was just hoping that she reached out to you.”

“No! She didn’t reach out to me. Come
in,” Victoria said as she ran through her house and into the kitchen to get her
phone out of her purse. On her way back, she searched for any missed calls.
There were none. A feeling of dread came over Victoria. She dialed Natasha and
Steve’s number, no answer. She dialed Deon, nothing.

She gasped, “Oh God.”

Jack asked from behind, “Victoria,
what’s going on?”

“Natasha’s missing. So are Steve and
Deon,” Victoria responded, taking a deep breath, trying to stay calm.

Frankie explained the situation to
Jack, and Jack did what Jack does. He immediately came up with a solution.

“Don’t worry, if her phone is on, we
can track her.”

“Okay good. Can you do that? ‘Cuz the
department ain’t gonna do shit,” Frankie declared.

“I’m on it,” Jack told him, before
disappearing into his office.

           
“I gotta go. We’re combing the streets. Hit me if Jack finds something,”
Frankie said, running down the steps.

“Okay, I will. You hit me if you find
something,” Victoria shouted after him.

She closed the door and tried not to
freak out. She’d be no good to anyone if she were hysterical.

Gianni jumped from the sofa, where he’d fallen asleep. The
constant ringing of Natasha’s phone, wouldn’t allow him any rest. With the
intention of turning it off, he walked over to the counter where she’d left it.
And as soon as he picked it up, it rang again. It was an unknown number. Gianni
wanted to know why it was so important for, whomever the caller was, to get in
touch with Natasha so late at night. He pushed the talk button and answered.

He barked into the phone, “Yes?”

“Hello? I’m looking for Natalia.” The
woman said.

“Natalia? Do you mean Natasha?”

“Yeah, Natasha. Can I talk to her?”

“She’s working.”

           
The woman shouted into the phone, “Fuck!”

           
Gianni was alarmed by urgency in her voice.

Gianni asked, “This is her husband.
Who is this?”

“My name is Tammy. I think Natasha is
in trouble.”

Gianni’s heart slammed against his
chest as he began to panic. “What?! What kind of trouble? Who is this?”

           
“I’m someone that she knows from work. I’ve been trying to call her to tell her
that she was walking into a trap.”

The woman’s words were like a punch
in Gianni’s gut. He almost lost his footing, as he struggled to breathe. Fear
of losing Natasha crippled him. But he knew that he needed to pull himself
together because loosing Natasha was not an option.

He took a deep breath and exhaled
slowly.  “Where is she?”

“I don’t know.”

He searched the drawers for a pen and
paper. When he found what he needed, he asked Tammy, “Where are you?”

Gianni scribbled on the paper as
Tammy rattled off an address.

“Don’t move! I’m on my way!”

“Okay.”

           
Gianni hung up, but seconds later, the phone rang again. Victoria’s name
appeared. Gianni quickly answered. “Vic! Have you heard from Natasha?”

“Oh my God,” she sighed with
reluctance. “I was trying to call her.”

“She left her phone at home!” Gianni
shouted into the phone. “What the fuck is going on?!”

“Gianni, I don’t know. Frankie came
over and said that she was doing an undercover mission, and now she’s missing.
And so are Deon and Steve.”

Gianni could hear the fear in
Victoria’s voice. He slipped into his shoes, grabbed his keys, and stuffed his
phone in his pocket.

“Some woman named Tammy just called
her phone. She said that Natasha was walking into a trap. I’m on my way to her
house now.”

“Gianni, that could be dangerous. She
could be setting you up,” Victoria warned.

But Gianni was already out the door.

“Victoria, do you and Natasha know anyone
named Tammy?”

“No, I don’t. And I’ve never heard
Natasha mention anyone named Tammy.”

“I’ll let you know what I find out.”

Gianni was about to disconnect the
call, when Victoria shouted into the phone. “Gianni!”

“Yes?”

“Gimme the address. We’ll meet you
there.”

Jack stared out of the window of Tammy’s small apartment. He
watched as Frankie ran up the walkway. He had just listened to Tammy tell
Gianni and Victoria that she’d been sleeping with Deon for months. She said
that they met during an undercover mission, and he called her after she made
bond. Deon made her promise not to tell anyone, claiming that he would lose his
job. And she’d kept that promise until she overheard him on the phone talking
about setting Natasha up.

The doorbell chimed.

“That’s Frankie,” Jack yelled.

Tammy hopped up and buzzed the door.
Jack turned from the window and walked into the dining room, eager to hear if
Frankie had any updates. Victoria was beside herself with worry, and Jack was
hoping that Frankie had some good news. Everyone in the room looked at him
expectantly. But when Frankie shook his head, all expectations were crushed.
Gianni whipped out his phone and started speaking in rapid Italian, and Jack
knew that he was talking to Luca. His heart went out to his cousin. He knew
exactly how terrified Gianni had to be, after all; Jack had been in the same
situation, not too long ago. But he’d always thought that Deon was a decent
man. What could’ve happened to make him go dark? And where was Steve? There
were so many unanswered questions.

Jack looked at his wife. She was
devastated. Deon was her friend, and she loved him. He wanted to comfort her,
but he knew better than to coddle her when she was in police mode. She was on
her phone with her assistant, instructing her to get Aaron on the phone. 

“Airport!” Victoria’s shouting,
causing everyone to quiet. “Frankie... It’s a human trafficking ring running
out of Poland? Right?!”

“Yeah. The Ukrainian Mafia,” he
confirmed.

“Hey!” Tammy shouted, leaping from
her seat. “I heard that some Russian heavy hitters were in town. Supposedly,
doing some kind of model search. They’re staying at the Four Seasons downtown.
My guy is a valet there. I’ll call and see if they’re still at the hotel.”

           
Tammy grabbed her phone and dialed her friend. She talked for a few minutes
while they anxiously waited. She hung up, shaking her head.

“They checked out today,” she said,
defeated.

“Thanks anyway, Tammy,” Victoria said
as she paced back and forth. Clearly frustrated, she roughly ran her fingers
through her hair.

“They have a plane. They can’t
transport slaves on a commercial flight. But...” She paused to think. “They
won’t be flying out of a major airport. They won’t risk going through Midway or
O’Hare,” she muttered, more to herself.

Victoria was deep in thought. She
closed her eyes and massaged her temples. A few seconds later, her eyes popped
open.

“Mia,” she gasped. “Jack can you get
Amy on the phone? Her friend Mia works for the FAA. See if she can get her to
find any private aircrafts flying out of Chicago tonight.”

Jack pulled out his phone and dialed
Amy’s number.

“I’m gonna go home and grab my gear. I’ll meet you guys at
the airport,” Victoria told Frankie and Miguel.

Jack looked at Victoria like she had
lost her mind. “What?!”

“What do mean what? What did I say
that you didn’t understand?” Victoria asked, sarcastically. “Surely you know
that I’m going with them.”

“The hell you are,” Jack calmly replied.

Gianni didn’t have time to listen to
a lover’s quarrel. Amy had made some calls and found out that a flight landed
in Rockford, Illinois from Krakow, Poland a week ago, and it was scheduled to
take off twenty minutes ago. Gianni’s plane was also ready to take off, because
they were never going to make it to Rockford in time. Since Luca had already
been sitting on a tarmac in Paris for a while, waiting for Gianni to call him
with a location, he was already in the air. So were the men that Luca had coming
from Sicily.

Since the Ukrainians had a head
start, Amy would use her contacts to delay their landing. Their only chance of
saving Natasha was to intercept them at the airport in Krakow. Because once
they got her to Poland, she would be lost to them, not that Gianni would ever
stop searching for her.

“Victoria, Jack’s right. You need to
stay here. We got it covered,” Gianni assured.

Victoria tilted her head and narrowed
her eyes at Gianni. “Gianni, I know that Jack is your cousin, and you look out
for each other. But, not only is Natasha my friend, she also saved my life. Now
her life is at risk, and there is no way in the hell I’m gonna abandon her when
she needs me.”

Victoria’s hands landed on her hips,
and Gianni knew that there was no arguing with her. He’d let Jack handle her.
Right now he needed to get his wife back. He turned to Tammy and said, “Thank
you for everything. I’ll let you know when we find her.”

“Don’t thank me. She looked out for
me first. When you get her back, please call me,” she requested.

Gianni nodded his agreement and
followed Frankie and Miguel out the door.

“We’ll take the squad car. We need
the lights and sirens,” Miguel suggested when they got outside.

Gianni agreed and hopped into the
back of a police SUV. As they were pulling off, he saw Jack and Victoria emerge
from the apartment building. She was definitely strong–willed, but if Gianni
knew his cousin, Victoria wasn’t going to be on that airplane.

“Victoria, nothing that you’re saying is going to change my
mind about you going to Poland to invade the Russian Mafia,” Jack said calmly,
as he turned into their driveway.

Victoria fumed, “And what makes you
think that you have a say?”

The fact that Jack thought that she
needed his permission fueled her anger and the calmness in his tone only made
it worse. Jack didn’t even bother to respond. He rounded the fountain and
pulled in front of their house. He pulled the keys out of the ignition and got
out of the car. Jack was so calm that Victoria wouldn’t have known the extent
of his anger until he slammed the car door so hard that the window cracked.
Victoria jumped, startled by his display of emotions. Then it dawned on her;
Jack had never been really angry at her. She had seen him frustrated, maybe
even irritated, but never mad. She got out of the car and prepared for a fight
because she wasn’t giving in. She walked on the porch, just as Jack was
punching the code to unlock the door.

“Jack, I have to go,” Victoria
whispered as they walked through the front door.

           
“You’re not going,” he responded, keeping his voice down, not wanting to wake

Emma or the baby.

“I’m tired of you treating me like a
child,” Victoria huffed. “Who do you think you are?! Better yet, who do you
think I am?!”

She was taken by surprise when Jack
grabbed her shoulders and pinned her against the door.

“Who do I think I am?!” He shouted,
no longer trying to be quiet. “Who do I think you are?! You’re my fucking wife!
My wife! My daughter’s mother! Or did you fucking forget about her?!”

Victoria closed her eyes and took a
deep breath before saying, through gritted teeth, “Get your hands off of me.”

She didn’t like to be manhandled, and
Jack knew that. He looked as if he was ready to shake the shit out of her, but
his phone chimed, indicating that he had a text message. Jack held his hands up
and stepped back.

           
“Victoria, I love you, but this isn’t a fight that you’re going to win. I know
that Natasha is your friend, and you feel like you owe her for saving you, but
you’re not a cop anymore. You have a baby that needs you and a husband who
can’t live without you. Please just take a second to think about what you’re
trying to

do.”

Victoria’s head fell back against the
wall. Jack pulled his phone out of his pocket and turned to walk away. After
looking at his phone, Jack froze, startling Victoria.

She asked, fearing the worst, “What?
Is it about Natasha?”

Jack tossed his phone on the table
beside the door and took off running through the house.

Victoria shouted to his back,
hurrying over to the table. “What is it?!”

She grabbed his phone and looked at
the message.

“IF YOU EVER WANT TO SEE YOUR BUNDLE
OF JOY AGAIN, YOU’LL DO AS YOU’RE TOLD. CALL THE POLICE AND I’LL MAIL HER
LITTLE CORPSE TO YOU. WAIT FOR FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS.”

Victoria’s heart seized. With the
wind knocked out of her, she fell to her knees, gasping for air.