Beautiful Prey 2: The Storm Series (BWWM Romance) (29 page)

Natasha’s body went limp, and as she fought to stay
conscious, the voices of the men that were taunting her became muffled. But,
one voice became clear. He shouted a word Natasha didn’t understand, but
whatever he said caused the men to back away from Natasha. His voice peeled
Natasha out of the blackness. She blinked until her vision was clear and looked
up. A man that she hadn’t seen before her beating appeared before her eyes. He
was a giant of a man; tall, intimidating, and muscular, with long blonde hair
and icy cold blue eyes.

“Hello, Officer Walker,” he said
smugly. “Welcome aboard.”

He tossed a blanket over her naked
body and picked her up off of the floor.

Natasha winced from pain as he carried her down the aisle and
placed her into a seat. He sat next to her, and the plane took off.

“Don’t worry. The men will not harm
you again,” he said, fastening her seatbelt. “I picked you specifically for
myself, and I have special plans for you.”

           
Natasha peered at him reluctantly. “You know I’m a cop?”

           
His chuckle was demonic. “Yes. And now you’re back where you belong...
slavery
.”

           
Natasha was tempted to knock the shit out of him, but he was huge, and she was
sure that she had a few broken ribs. So she pulled the blanket to her chin and
looked straight ahead. She needed time to come up with a plan. If he knew that
she was a cop that means that she’d been set up, and she couldn’t rely on the
department to save her. She closed her eyes and imagined her life with Gianni
in Paris... her motivation to survive.

When Gianni’s pilot announced that they were starting their
descent into Krakow, Gianni and the other men jumped from their seats and began
to suit up. Thanks to Amy, the aircraft holding Natasha was circling the
airport, waiting for permission to land. They’d been in the air for almost
eleven hours, but since the flight from Sicily is only a couple of hours, Luca
and his crew were already set up on the ground.

           
Miguel, Frankie, and Hank, a biker type with a long goatee were onboard.
Frankie tossed a Kevlar vest at Gianni. Gianni caught it and tossed it back.

           
“I’m good. Thanks,” Gianni said, removing his seat cushion.

           
Frankie and Miguel leaned over and looked into a virtual treasure chest of
weapons. Gianni reached into an overhead bin and pulled out his bullet proof
vest. He threw it over his head and connected the Velcro. He slapped on a
shoulder holster and reached into his bin, pulling out his .45. All three
officers of the law stared at him in silence, until he pulled an AR 15 from the
bin.

Surprised at the level of weaponry,
Frankie shouted, “Dude! What the fuck?!”

“What? What if we had engine trouble?
There’s no telling where we might land,”

Gianni retorted.

Frankie shook his head in disbelief.

Twenty minutes later the plane was on
the ground. They began to quickly disembark and ran towards a waiting van that
was being driven by his cousin Frank. The pilot was instructed to conceal the
plane, so he taxied into a close by hangar. 

Frank drove the van behind the hangar
and parked, inconspicuously, next to other vehicles.

Gianni asked, “Everyone in place?”

“Yeah. Call your friend. Tell her to
let them land,” Frank replied.

After calling Mia, Gianni pulled out
his .45 and racked the slide, chambering a bullet.

After what seemed like an eternity in the air, Natasha was
shoved off the plane. She had concocted an escape plan. Once she was on the
ground, she planned to run screaming until she had the attention of every
living soul within one hundred feet of the aircraft. She knew that it wasn’t
the best plan, but it was all she had. Surely a naked, black woman, screaming
at the top of her lungs, in whatever European country she was in, would cause
attention.

The sun was out, and Natasha had no
idea where she was. She walked down the steps, behind the bearded man,
preparing to make a scene. But when she looked around, there was no one in
sight. Who would she scream to? By the time Natasha reached the bottom step,
she was beginning to lose all hopes of breaking free.

Suddenly, she heard the familiar
sound of a gunshot, followed by a rapid succession of

shots. She instinctively tried to duck behind the man with a
beard, but he fell to the ground. Natasha looked down at the body of the man
that beat her without remorse, not at all sympathetic that there was now a
gaping hole in his head. As the men pulled out their weapons, she realized that
they were under attack. Natasha scrambled to find shielding, but since her
captors were dropping like flies, there was none. She was a sitting duck. She
had no other choice but to take off running, but she was grabbed from behind.
Natasha turned swiftly, and elbowed the man that intended to revert her back
into historical slavery, right in the face. He stumbled backward and clutched
his nose, seemingly surprised that Natasha had struck him. He looked down at
the blood in his hand, then back to Natasha. His expression was murderous. When
he pointed his gun directly at her head, Natasha closed her eyes and waited for
the end.

Thoughts of Gianni flooded her mind.
Her short time with him. The future with him that she’d never have. And then,
she heard it. One loud blast, followed by an excruciating pain. She clutched
her head, terrified by the wetness that she felt. Natasha stared at the blood
on her hand as the world faded away. She heard muffled voices and looked up,
just long enough to imagine a GI Joe version of Gianni running toward her. But
before Gianni could reach her, she hit the ground.  

Jack untucked his shirt and stuffed his handgun in the back
of his pants. Victoria stood in the corner of her bedroom and watched Jack get
ready for his rendezvous with the kidnapper. Their baby had been gone for more
than twelve hours with no further instructions; until Jack received a text
message from the same number, instructing him to come to an abandoned paint
factory on the south side. The text said to come alone, and warned not to
contact the police.

He kissed his teary-eyed wife goodbye
and told her how much he loved her. Her anguish was obvious when Jack left
their house and got into his car. He knew that Victoria was having a fit. It
took a lot of convincing to keep Victoria from following him. She was sure that
he was being set up, and so was he. But it wasn’t like he had a choice. He
couldn’t risk losing either one of them. He drove the twenty minutes that it
took to get to the south side and pulled into the parking lot of the abandoned
factory. He closed his eyes and thought of his beautiful wife and Jasmine’s
bright blue eyes. Jack could still picture her batting her little eyelashes at
him. For the two of them, he would die easily. He got out of his car and walked
toward the door.

           
Looking up at the broken windows, Jack expected a sniper to take him out in any
second. When he made it to the door without being shot, he stepped into
blackness. He walked slowly down a dark corridor. He slid a big metal door open
and stepped into the manufacturing plant. In the middle of the room was a
bassinet. Jack carefully looked around before advancing forward. He stood over
the bassinet and stared down at his sleeping daughter. But before he could
reach for her, he heard the sound of a shotgun being cocked behind him.

           
“Well, there you are. I’m so glad that you could make it,” said the familiar
voice.

Jack turned to find Caroline pointing
a sawed–off twelve gauge shotgun at him. Since the recoil of the shotgun would,
more than likely, knock Caroline clean off of her feet, Jack wondered why she’d
be brandishing such a weapon. She had a crazed look in her eye. And even now,
she was wearing a ridiculously tight dress and impossibly tall heels. She
smiled sadistically and nodded her head toward a chair next to the bassinet.
“Sit!”

Jack took another peak into the
bassinet.

“Don’t worry. I didn’t hurt your
precious child. Now I can’t say the same for that bitch you married. Deon is
probably killing her right now as we speak.”

Jack’s eyes snapped back to Caroline.

“Aww, but don’t worry, I’m sure that
he’s going to have a little fun with her before he slices her throat,” she
taunted.

Caroline’s face lit up as she spoke
of Victoria’s death. She was outright giddy. Jack ignored her glee and thought
of Victoria. She was right; it was a set up. Except she was the target. He
needed to get that shotgun away from her and get home to his wife. So instead
of sitting, he casually stepped away from the bassinet. Since she was pointing a
weapon at him, he needed to distance himself from his baby.

“So, Caroline, do you plan to kill
me?”

“Do I plan to kill you? Well, now
that depends. Before that blue collared piece of trash entered our lives, we
had something special. We could’ve had a wonderful life together. And, since
you had a taste for the taboo, I was even willing to share. But that selfish
bitch refused. She even unleashed that rabid dog, Natasha, on me. Oh, but don’t
worry. By now that bitch is being ass fucked by a bunch of Russians.”

To Jack, Caroline’s depravity was
unbelievable, but he needed to keep her talking.

Easing closer to her, Jack asked,
“How did you get my daughter?”

“Oh, now that was easy.” She beamed.
“
Emma
. Everyone has a weakness. For Emma, it’s her good for nothing son
and his gambling addiction. It seems that he owed a large amount of money to
some very bad men. Well, let’s just say that she chose the life of her child
over yours.”

Jack was enraged. He’d trusted Emma
to care for his child, and she handed her right over to a nut job. In his mind,
Jack was narrowing down ways to make her pay.

           
“Don’t worry, Jack. She’s dead.” Caroline was, apparently, reading his mind.
“Knew too much,” she added with a shrug.

Jack didn’t have time for Caroline’s
gloating; he needed to get to Victoria. He stepped closer to Caroline and
whispered, “Thank you for killing her.”

He needed to get her within arm’s
length. And when she shoved the barrel of  the shotgun into his chest and
shouted for him to step back, she gave him the opening that he needed. Jack
stepped sideways, and with very little effort, he yanked the gun out of
Caroline’s hand. He turned the shotgun and slapped her in the head with the
butt of the gun, knocking her to the floor. When Jack pointed the shotgun at Caroline,
she crab walked backwards. As he held her at gunpoint, he reached for his
phone. He needed to warn Victoria, but there was no answer.

As he dialed her number again, Caroline’s expression went
from fear to rage.

“Your ghetto rat is dead,” she sneered
with an evil laugh.

“Now you can have a wife more
befitting of a man of your status. Someone with proper breeding that can fit in
the circles that you move in, without embarrassing you. I compliment you. Now,
you can be with me.”

Jack slipped the phone back into his
pocket and pointed the shotgun at Caroline.

Looking her right in the eye, Jack
responded. “I’ll pass,” he said, before squeezing the trigger. The slug tore
through her chest, and she was dead.

Startled by the loud blast, Jasmine
began to scream. Jack rushed over to her. He sat the gun down on the chair and
carefully lifted her out of the bassinet. He placed her over his shoulder and
softly shushed, while patting her back.

Just as he turned around to grab his
gun and make his exit, he was stopped by Deon pointing a gun at him.

Gianni stopped running and attempted to control his
breathing. One of the Russian’s was aiming a weapon at Natasha’s head. Gianni
only had one shot to take him down. He inhaled a breath and held it in, raised
his weapon to eye level, lined his sights, and took the shot. The kidnapper’s
head nearly exploded, but somehow he was still able to jerk the trigger.

Gianni looked at the woman that he loved,
naked and clutching her head and his heart stopped. She was going down. Running
as fast as he could, he reached her in just enough time to prevent her head
from hitting the ground. He held her close to him and inspected her wound.
Relief flooded through him when he noticed that the bullet hadn’t penetrated
her skull. Instead, it was only a superficial wound. He kissed her face while
laughing hysterically. In his eyes were unshed tears.

           
He heard Frank shout from behind. “Gianni! Polizia! Andiamo!”

           
Gianni heard sirens in the distance. He stood, lifting Natasha in his arms, and
jogged to his plane. He carried Natasha up the steps and looked back at his
men, who were still on the ground.

He rushed Natasha on–board, sat her
down in one of the seats, and buckled her seatbelt. She was still out from
shock. Since no one else was on the plane, he ran over to a window in order to
see if they needed his help. Frankie, followed by Hank, Miguel, and Luca were
running up the steps. Gianni stepped back in order to allow them entry.
      

Gianni asked Luca, “Why aren’t they
boarding the other plane?”

“They’re gonna hold them off so that
we can take off,” Luca responded, while closing the aircraft doors.

Gianni yelled, “Francis is out there Luca.”

Gianni was well aware that there was
about to be an even bigger gun battle. Some of the Polish police officers,
along with some of Luca’s men were possibly going to die. And Gianni definitely
wasn’t ok leaving his cousin out there.

“He knows what he’s doing. Sit
cugino. Fasten your seatbelt,” Luca urged.

Luca stuck his head in the cockpit
and ordered to the pilot, “Let’s go.”

Gianni sat next Natasha and stared
out of the window as they taxied to the runway. Luca sat in front of him.

“Gianni, we have to refuel in Czech.
We may or may not run into resistance. But if we do, we’ll have to hold them
off until the other plane lands,” Luca explained.

           
Frank yelled in shock. “What the hell?! Private planes, filled with weapons; shoot-outs
with Ukrainian mobsters; resistance in Czech... Who are you people?! Damn, I
ain’t never been to Europe. Can’t we go someplace where they ain’t shooting at
us?”

Gianni laughed. He turned to Luca and
said, “See if we got enough fuel to go home.”

Luca nodded and picked up the phone
to call the pilot.

Frankie asked, “Where’s home?”

“Palermo.”

Frankie asked, excited, “Sicily?”

“Yes.”

“Oh yeah. Strippers that don’t speak
English,” Frankie said, laughing.

“Your wife is gonna cut your dick
off,” Miguel chuckled.

“Ugh. You had to mention her? My dick
just got soft,” Frankie belted out, causing everyone on the plane to laugh.

When they were at a cruising
altitude, Gianni unbuckled Natasha’s seatbelt and lifted her still unconscious
body from the seat. He carried her into the bedroom and placed her on the bed.
He covered her with a blanket and climbed in next to her, awaiting the moment
she opened her eyes.