Jaya yawned and then untangled her hand from the blankets to smother the yawn well after it was already finished. Someone nearby chuckled which prompted her to open her eyes. She tried the left one first since she was laying on her right side. Ivan was propped up on an elbow, his naked chest directly in front of her, his eyes on her face. The vision of his rippling, muscular torso was enough to prompt her to open the other eye, though she wasn’t a morning person so the whole eye-opening thing was a pretty big sacrifice.

“Good morning, beautiful,” Ivan said, his deep voice more relaxed than usual.

She tilted her head back on the pillow to give him a good looking over. The lines around his eyes and mouth seemed smoother, less severe. She licked her lips and blinked some of the sleep away. “Coffee?” she asked hopefully. Since coming to the island, she rarely woke up until her breakfast was served. What was the point? With an entire day of staring at walls and teaching Haty to spill the blood of their enemies, Jaya didn’t really feel the need to rise early.

“Here,” Ivan replied, reaching behind him for a cup.

Jaya sniffed the air and immediately perked up. She fought with the blankets for a few seconds and then shoved her way into a sitting position. As soon as she was up she remembered that she was naked. She grabbed for the falling cover and yanked it back up to her armpits, tucking it firmly into place. When she reached for her coffee, her eyes met Ivan’s amused gaze. Her cheeks heated under his look and she squirmed a little, feeling the soreness between her thighs.

This prompted her to glance sideways down at her arm. Sure enough, fingerprint bruises were beginning to show against her dark skin. She chewed on her lip a little and then gave the other side a quick glance. Yup, there too. She knew she should be upset, but oddly the visible marks of his possession caused creeping warmth in her belly that swept lower.

She accepted the coffee and took a sip, watching him over the rim. The look he was giving her held a wealth of masculine possession. Even in her relative innocence, she recognized it. But there was something else there, something that sent an arrow of concern through her. Men like Ivan, men with more wealth and power than they could possibly use in several lifetimes, held the things they considered precious close.

She was about to ask him about the cage and her prisoner status when the sound of an airplane flying low overhead startled her and made Ivan frown. “What the fuck?” he snarled. He leapt to his feet and reached for his pants, yanking them on without underwear. He buckled his belt and pointed at her. “Stay here.”

Jaya nodded, her eyes wide and guileless as he slammed out of the bedroom, leaving her alone and naked in the middle of the bed. She quickly remedied the latter by pulling on a long brightly patterned skirt and white blouse. Then she sat on the edge of the bed, sipped her coffee and did her best to calm her heart rate. She fully expected Ivan to return quickly. It wouldn’t take him long to figure out what was happening and why there were suddenly aircraft flying over his private island. A private island with a military no fly zone order and a communications scrambler.

“Are we under attack?” Ivan demanded, throwing the door to his security room open. Keane was already present along with two other men.

“Not yet, sir,” Keane was quick to supply. “But this bird is not friendly. This is definitely reconnaissance. Next step will be a strike team and if they’re organized they’ll be here inside of ten minutes. With half of our security systems still down from the canary’s escape attempt yesterday, we need to get the fuck out of here.”

Ivan nodded. “Give the order, clear the island. Walk with me.” Keane fell into step with Ivan as he strode down the corridors, retracing his steps toward his private quarters. “We’ll go with exit plan Delta since Jaya took out the helicopter.”

Keane cleared his throat. “Hate to say it boss, but the first thing the girl did up on the roof was black out our communications. Must’ve been her that sent a signal.”

Ivan stopped walking and looked at his second-in-command, his eyes cold and flat. “Do you think I wouldn’t have realized that the moment I heard the UFA?”

“Sorry boss,” Keane grunted.

They continued moving. “Don’t waste my time again with useless speculation. Jaya will be questioned and dealt with appropriately. I want you to make sure all sensitive information is taken care of and the island is abandoned. You have seven minutes. I’ll deal with the prisoner.”

They split off. Keane jogged back toward the communications and security wing while Ivan threw open the door to his room. She was sitting cross-legged on the middle of his bed, her feet tucked under a long frilly skirt, her kitten curled in her lap and her book balanced on a knee. She looked up at him as he strode into the room, her dark hair streaming over her shoulders. Her eyes were speculative and wary but not curious. Absent was the question that should have been there if she’d been innocent.

“Did you reach the part where Cathy betrays Heathcliff?” Ivan asked, bitterness leaking into his voice. He knew he had no right to feel this way, knew that she wasn’t actively trying to betray him by leaving or sending a signal for help. But the irrational part of him wanted her to pay. She was his, belonged to him. She’d touched something inside of him, mired herself within the blackness of his heart, and dammit, he wasn’t going to let her claw her way out.

Jaya carefully slid a piece of paper between the pages, a torn page from another book she used as a bookmark, and closed Wuthering Heights. She tilted her chin up and stared at Ivan. “Yes, I’ve reached that point. But I don’t see Cathy’s seeking the comfort and luxury of another home as betrayal. Heathcliff left her to the dubious and abusive care of her older brother. She couldn’t possibly stay where she was, waiting for him to come rescue her.”

“He loved her, would have done anything for her,” Ivan said, staring back at her, searching her face for answers. Something was off. She was more relaxed, more confident than he’d seen her since he’d taken her from her home. As though she knew something. “She should have waited for him.”

“Why?” Jaya snapped, her brows drawing together in annoyance. “She had no guarantee that he would come for her. She only knew that her situation was bad and going to stay that way unless she went with the best opportunity in the neighborhood. It’s the same story for women all over the world.”

Ivan made an impatient sound and reached for her arm, dragging her off the bed. Haty hissed and leapt off Jaya’s lap, bounding off the edge of the bed and onto the floor. “We don’t have time for this. I need to know right now who’s coming to this island and what they’re planning. Don’t bother denying you had anything to do with it. We already know you sent a signal out when you knocked out our communications.”

“I wasn’t going to deny anything,” she snapped, shoving against his chest. “Of course I did!”

Ivan didn’t check his strength, he released her arm and as she tried to straighten, he slapped her. His open palm caught her hard on the side of the face spinning her halfway around and sending her back into the side of the bed. He dropped to his knee next to her and lifted his fist again but realized if he hit her like that with his full strength he really would cause damage. But fuck, she was tearing him apart. He wasn’t used to these emotions, wasn’t used to caring what another person did to him. If anyone near him got close enough to cause such harm, whether it was warranted or not, he would not hesitate to put that person down.

Ivan pulled the gun from his holster and pressed it against her temple. He expected fear. Complete and utter terror, like he’d seen on her face the day he’d killed the waiter in front of her. Instead, when Jaya turned her face to him, her cheek burning bright from his slap, her eyes held a maniacal fury. As though she were inviting him with her eyes to go ahead and shoot her in the head, because she would get the last laugh. And she would. Because Ivan knew, no matter how many more years he lived, he would not find another woman like Jaya. Even if she’d spent half their time together acting, lulling him into complacency. It just proved she was an even worthier partner than he’d ever believed.

“Tell me who you contacted and what the plan is,” Ivan demanded, pressing the gun harder against her.

She didn’t flinch or speak. It became clear that she wouldn’t. Ivan knew he could get it out of her quickly, but the methods he would have to use would be brutal and she would be damaged beyond repair. He weighed his options while staring into the face of the beautiful, treacherous woman that had come to mean too much to him. Since he wanted her intact, he would have to get most of the information he needed later when he could use less invasive methods for extraction.

For now, he would earn her hatred another way. He pointed his gun at Haty, who was busy cleaning her fur a few feet away from the bottom of the bed. “Speak now, tell me the attack plan, or I kill your cat.” Her mouth fell open and she lunged forward. Ivan slashed an arm around her middle, flinging her back and trapping her against the bed. “Speak!” he shouted in her face. “You have three seconds.”

“Okay,” she relented, staring at Haty, who was still oblivious to their fight. “I don’t know the exact plan. He said he would come rescue me when I sent a message and try to capture you. I don’t know anything else. Honest!”

“Who, Jaya?” Ivan demanded. “I want a name.”

“I can’t tell you!” she cried desperately, staring at her cat with wide, teriffied eyes. “I don’t know his name.”

Ivan shoved a frustrated hand through his hair. He believed her. He stood up, reholstered his gun and hauled her to her feet. She stumbled and then stood staring stonily past him. She sniffed and swiped at her eyes. “I always knew you were going to use her against me,” she whispered stiffly.

“We’ll discuss this later, and Jaya.” He shook her until she looked at him. “You will tell me everything I want to know.”

She stuck her chin out and gave him a coolly blank look. He didn’t like it. It reminded him too much of soldiers he’d worked with; people sent to do the work of men who had programmed them for certain jobs. Jobs that didn’t necessarily require their survival. He gritted his teeth and pushed her toward her cage where Haty had taken refuge. “You have thirty seconds to grab whatever items you want to keep, we’re leaving and we won’t be back.”

She didn’t hesitate, she bent to grab her book, which had fallen to the floor when Ivan had hauled her off the bed and then she lunged toward Haty. She ran toward the bed, tipped one of the pillows upside down and shook the pillow out. Then she shoved her book and the protesting kitten inside. Ivan reached for her wrist and pulled her out of the room just as he heard the first plane approach the island.

“Motherfucker!” he shouted.

Jaya’s eyes went wide and she stared at Ivan, her mouth opening in shock. As if she couldn’t believe Armageddon was about to fall upon their heads while she was still in the compound. “Hang on to that pillowcase,” he snapped and scooped her up, tossing her over his shoulder.

The first explosion hit the west wing, taking out his security rooms. The entire castle shook beneath his feet as he ran. Jaya clung to his back but thankfully didn’t struggle and didn’t make a sound. She just hung on as he hurtled through the deserted corridors. He hoped Keane and the rest of his team got out before the missile strike. He trusted his orders were being carried out swiftly and the men were waiting in the caverns with the submersible boats.

Another explosion hit the servants’ quarters seconds later, rocking the building and sending a flash of heat over Ivan’s head. Jaya let out a yelp as fire licked their backs. Ivan growled and dropped to his knee cradling her against his chest while they waited for the heat to abate. She clung to him, her arms snaking around his neck. Her lips found his throat and she mumbled something over and over.

Ivan dropped his head to listen. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know,” she whispered hoarsely. “I didn’t know. I killed them all.”

Ivan shook his head, took her hair in his fist and tilted her head so he could see her face. “Shh, sweetheart,” he whispered against her. “No one’s hurt, they all got off the island. Don’t worry about them.” He didn’t know if everyone was safe and, at the moment, he didn’t care. He just needed Jaya to hold her shit together long enough for him to get her to safety.

She shook her head, tears dripping down her cheeks and chin. “No, no, no!” she cried. “They’re all dead, all blown to pieces. I should’ve died too. I should die with them. It’s my fault.”

Ivan realized then that she wasn’t there with him, that she was locked in the horrors of her past. That the confrontation with him in the bedroom and the subsequent explosions were throwing her into a panic or a PTSD episode. He gripped her face between his hands and kissed her forehead then held her close against his chest. He had to get her out of there while they were still in one piece. Whoever she had sent a message to either thought she’d managed to escape or didn’t give a fuck about her. If they survived the siege on his property Ivan was going to find out who the fucker was and dismember him. If it turned out the bastard knew Jaya was inside the castle when he started bombing, then Ivan was going to find new and creative ways to prolong his suffering.

“Time to go,” he said gruffly and lifted her in his arms, making sure her wiggling suitcase was still cradled in her arms.

“I’m s-sorry,” she mumbled and turned her head into his neck as he began to run again.

“I know, sweetheart.”

The next explosion took out his guard station on the outside of the building. The percussive force rattled the castle and nearly knocked him off his feet, but he stayed upright and continued running. The next boom he heard came from the island and the one after that from over the island. He grinned and shouted, “Ground-to-air heat-seeking missiles!” as he approached Keane, who was standing at the end of the hallway, holding open the door to the underground tunnels.

“Thanks to the Saudis, these motherfuckers won’t know what hit ‘em,” Keane said returning Ivan’s grin. “What a beautiful sight that was.” Keane nodded toward Jaya. “Get what you needed?”

Ivan shook his head. “We’ll find out soon enough. Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

Keane grunted and let the giant fire door slam shut behind them. He locked it and set a timer so no one could follow them through. Now that they’d knocked the enemy bird out of the sky, it was a fair bet the island would soon be overrun with foot soldiers. They ran for miles through the subterranean tunnels until they reached the caverns where Ivan kept several submersible boats. Keane used to tease him about how Bond villain-esque the keeping of such contraptions were. Now they were all breathing a little easier as they had a guaranteed escape route that was highly unlikely to be blown out of the water.

Ivan climbed on board the nearest one with his package held firmly in his arms. She didn’t even try to struggle, just sat quietly with her bundle on her lap. As the boat sped away from the island he turned to watch his home go up in flames just before they submerged.

“I’m sorry,” Jaya whispered again, her head under his chin. The pillowcase was held firmly in her arms. It had finally stopped struggling but was still shaking.

Ivan nodded and kissed the top of her head breathing in her delicious scent. “You don’t need to be sorry, my love,” he said quietly, for her ears alone. “I’ll fix everything so this this doesn’t happen again.”