Page 4 of Hideaway

“You’re a mouthy little bitch, aren’t you?”Jace asked spitefully as he considered the best retaliation for the her disrespect.

Kara’s cheek stung, but the pain felt better than being powerless. She couldn’t believe that she’d been attracted to that prick when he first walked in the library. Of course, he’d be a fucking psychopath.Kara watched as Jace’s eyes lit with the fire of cruel machinations; he just hadn’t picked which torment he would carry out. Though her words had sparked whatever hell Jace was about to put her through, Kara didn’t regret them. Revenge would take precedence over retrieving the text she would sacrifice everything to preserve. And perhaps, if he went far enough, his cruelty would turn Declan to her aide. Kara took a deep breath and braced herself for Jace’s assault.

“Declan, go upstairs and make sure everything is secure,”Jace commanded without taking his predatory eyes off Kara.

Shit.That had not been part of Kara’s plan. She needed Declan there; he was her only possible ally. The thought of what harm might befall her after being left alone in a room with Jace was terrifying. Suddenly, the fire of resolve and determination that had fueled her resistance vanished like a flame beneath the wind. Kara looked to Declan to implore mercy.

“Jace, I’m not sure that’s such a good idea,”Declan argued, the same fear of Jace’s intentions clearly present in his countenance. He’d signed up for robbery, not assault. Or worse.

“Trust me kid, you don’t have the stomach for what comes next,”Jace assured the younger man. He didn’t want to ruin the kid’s taste for the job his first night out. Sometimes their line of work wouldn’t always provide pretty solutions, but that was a lesson for another time when Declan had more experience to understand the need for force. Perhaps the kid would even grow to enjoy the violence as its own source of fun like he had.

Against his better judgment, Declan gave one last sympathetic look to the women tied to the chair and headed for the stairs. He took no pleasure in leaving anyone helpless to the whims of Jace’s perverse amusement, but he didn’t have the pull of rank to intervene. Declan ignored the urge to steal a last glance at the scene below as he exited and shut the door soundly behind him.

Kara tried to steady her breathing as trepidation threatened to consume every fiber of her being. Whatever harsh fate awaited her at Jace’s hands, he wanted no witnesses. His violence was for her alone. Kara attempted to steel her will for the sake of preserving something greater than herself. Judging from the eager cruelty of Jace’s expression, the path to academic martyrdom would not be pretty.

“You know, doctor, I’m glad you put up a fight,”Jace stated amicably as he stalked toward her. Without warning, his hand shot out and made brutal contact with Kara’s other cheek. Both sides of her face burned with the force of Jace’s abuse, but she didn’t back down or lower her gaze.“It’s so much more fun when you struggle.”

He slapped her again. Hard. Kara fought the first swell of tears, angered by her body’s natural response to the pain, as the nauseating, coppery tang of blood filled her mouth. Cruel fingers dug into her jaw as Jace bent to draw her closer, so close that the musky scent of his cologne suffocated her senses. Kara could hear the thundering of his heartbeat, pumping with adrenaline and what she sickeningly suspected was arousal. His lips brushed against her ear almost gently, but his breath was hard and fast against her neck.

“And the victory will be so much sweeter when you finally break,”Jace whispered, his voice full of dark anticipation as his fingers tightened painfully around her face.

Taking advantage of the repulsive closeness of Jace’s body against her own, Kara made the most of her unbound limbs and thrust her knee up as hard as she could in the hopes of incapacitating him with a sharp hit to the balls. With a misfortune of aim, Kara’s knee caught him in the hip. Grunting in pain and irritation, Jace lunged for her throat, inescapable fingers mercilessly crushing her windpipe. Judging from his unrelenting fury, Jace knew exactly what she had been aiming for. All too quickly, the room began to darken as consciousness slipped from Kara’s reach.

Just as she had resigned herself to Jace’s destruction, the door above opened again. A man who was not Declan emerged with a countenance full of concern. Against all odds, Kara had been granted a liberator. Jace turned to scowl at the intruder, but when he met the stranger’s gaze, his stance shifted completely. Deference replaced the dominant arrogance that had ruled Jace just moments before. Kara studied the stranger as he descended the stairs with an authority that was undeniable. He didn’t belong to the faculty, and he was at least a decade older than the usual student population. If he wasn’t associated with the university, then what chance of fate had brought him to her aide at that moment?

“What is going on here?”the man demanded in a tone that fell between frustration and fury.

His voice held a refined lull that belonged more to the upper class of London than to the streets of Chicago. The stranger was able to meet Jace at eye level, an impressive feat as the latter was certainly over six feet tall. He didn’t possess Jace’s broad muscularity, but the perfect tailoring of his suit suggested his form was lean and toned. His pale face was constructed of hardened angles outlined by the slightest shadow of stubble and framed by inky waves that had an unruly tendency to fall to one side. There was a resting harshness to his expression, a furrowed brow that hinted at perpetual discontent. He had hardened eyes of captivating depth that held melded hues of green and gold, like summer leaves tinged with the whisper of autumn. Kara mentally catalogued each detail of his appearance as she would an ancient text full of undiscovered secrets. The visage of her savior would remain engrained in her thoughts for as long as she had breath to sustain them.

Kara’s romanticizing of the new arrival came to a earth-shattering halt as Declan followed down the stairs at the same time as Jace’s next words.

“I had it under control, Ashford. There was no need for you to involve yourself.”

“Clearly,”Cade replied acidly with a pointed look at Kara’s battered face and makeshift restraints.

Kara froze as the realization that the two men were acquainted crept into consciousness.Ashford.The name of her savior turned assailant. She fixated on the name with all the black hatred she could gather as the alluring features she’d been fantasizing about turned dark and menacing beneath her gaze—tinged by the haze of contempt.

Cade felt the heat of her fury as he turned reproachfully toward Jace.“Declan contacted me with some concerns regarding your technique, and I felt obligated to come down here and supervise your handling of the situation. You know I don’t like exposing my identity while a job is in progress unless absolutely necessary, but it appears young Declan’s misgivings were warranted. May I ask what the hell were you thinking?”

“The bitch wasn’t cooperating, so I resorted to less orthodox means of persuasion. I assumed my methods wouldn’t be subject to scrutiny provided the book was obtained,”Jace rationalized, shooting Declan a deadly glare.

“I see. So you are in possession of the book?”

“Not yet,”Jace responded through gritted teeth.

“So this small, insignificant girl has been threatened, disheveled, assaulted, and held hostage, but you still don’t have anything to show for it? It seems my top acquisitioner might be losing his touch,”Cade critiqued, irritated that such a simple operation had yet to yield results, but also annoyed that Jace hadn’t had the forethought to avoid a hostile, hostage situation in the basement of a public establishment.

Jace’s face contorted with anger at the insinuation of his incompetence, but he bit back the first choice words that came to mind.“The girl has been stubborn. She just needs a bit of rough persuasion, and I’m more than willing to oblige. Trust me, she’ll break easy enough.”

“She’s a librarian, not MI6 for Christ’s sake,”Cade said in exasperation. He too was inclined toward a rougher approach, but, unlike Jace, he knew when the situation warranted it. He looked at the girl who appeared so fragile in her bound state and assumed delicacy would be the best form of action for obtaining the text they required.

“Think you can do any better, boss? Be my guest,”Jace said curtly, gesturing to Kara like she was a nicely wrapped gift.

Though that was certainly how he liked his presents wrapped, Cade wasn’t sure that the librarian was the kind of gift he would enjoy. He ran a hand through his unruly waves in frustration; it was one of his tells when he was stressed. The movement caught the girl’s attention, and she turned dark, disdainful eyes to his. The last remnants of Cade’s cool composure vanished beneath the gaze of her wide eyes that held an all consuming fire of defiance. He smothered the unnerving urge to protect her, overcompensating with a glare that was a little crueler than intended; she recoiled from the intensity.

“Miss Caine,”Cade addressed her with a smug superiority that was typically sincere, though at the moment felt constructed for the sake of preserving authority.

“It’s Dr. Caine,”Kara corrected matter of factly.

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