Page 20 of Capturing Victory

“She’s blinding us, sir.”

“For what purpose,” Ivan growled, pacing like a caged animal. It occurred to him that she was doing to him exactly what he’d been doing to her. Cutting off his senses one at a time and taking away his power. “Tell me what she’s up to.”

Keane stepped between Ivan and the technician. “Let the man work, boss,” he growled, holding up his hands when Ivan looked as though he’d get physical. “Might I suggest that he will update you as soon as he knows something.”

Ivan breathed heavily through his nose and jerked his head in a nod, turning to stride across the room, pacing the length. The room, which was more than large enough to contain six grown men before, now five and a body, seemed the size of a shoebox. He wanted to punch something. He wanted to leave, stalk his home until he found her and lock her up tighter than before. Ensure she never escaped him again. Never put herself in harm’s way again. He couldn’t abide the idea of Jaya running free, attempting to leave him. No matter that he’d been the one to sanction the experiment. He wanted her locked back up immediately and all her toys taken away.

“Fuck me.”

Ivan whipped around to look at the man who’d spoken. Camera feeds were flickering to life, but they were completely screwed up. Some feeds didn’t register, some were completely blacked out and some were crossed with ones they shouldn’t be.

“She found her way into a separate security feed,” one of the other techs said.

“Does that tell us where she is?” Ivan asked, trying to sound like he wasn’t about to murder another of them.

“Possibly, there are only so many access panels on the roof.”

Before the guy could explain, Keane’s radio interrupted. “She’s not on the roof anymore.”

Ivan took a deep breath and reminded himself that this was a good thing. At least she wasn’t at risk for falling. “Exactly how many electrical panels does she have access to now that we don’t have eyes on her and she’s no longer on the roof?”

The first guy checked the original blueprint, cleared his throat and said, “Uh, around two dozen, give or take.”

Ivan gritted his teeth and snarled, “Send men out to those panels. They are to detain her without touching. Any man that lays a hand on her dies.”

“Yes, sir,” Keane said and then relayed the order to his men. He turned back to Ivan. “Andrew says there’re power cuts all over the building and they’ve been locked out of certain sections. Somehow she’s gained access to our security system.”

Ivan was equal parts angry and deeply impressed with Jaya. She was turning out to be a formidable opponent. He might be able to dominate her on the chess board, but she was quick on her feet. He would bet half his empire she’d been waiting for this moment. Maybe even guessed he would test her eventually. She probably sifted through dozens of potential scenarios in her brain until she settled on the one that would seem most unlikely to him and be difficult for her to manage, but not impossible. And she had nothing but weeks of time to lay around, first in a dungeon room and then a cage, and think about how best to escape when he presented her with the opportunity.

Ivan’s cock twitched in appreciation of the woman who finally decided to show him her hand. He suddenly realized that she probably could have maneuvered an opportunity for escape far sooner. He frowned. Why wouldn’t she have taken the chance to run when he wasn’t expecting it?

Because she wouldn’t have gotten far. Not with his men at their checkpoints. He’d cleared them from their individual stations for this exact exercise. She’d been biding her time, waiting for him to hand her this opportunity on a silver platter. She probably figured out he would clear a path for her. Hide his men, essentially giving her the opportunity to go invisible once she left the room and cut the cameras. And it wouldn’t take more than an educated guess to place Ivan, his head of security and four of his technicians in a room together.

“Keane,” Ivan said calmly. “Check the door.”

Keane frowned, then strode to the door and tried to open it. Exactly as Ivan feared it was locked from the outside. Ivan dropped his head and for the first time since the entire fiasco had begun, for the first time in years, he grinned. He had vastly underestimated his prisoner. It was actually laughable how much he had underestimated her. In fact, as emotion poured through him, he realized he was proud and extremely turned on by her; as though he sensed a worthy foe and was finally giving himself permission to take her as a mate.

He was also extremely relieved. If she had planned this well, it was highly unlikely she would hurt herself. She was showing far too much forethought and skill. When he’d been worried about her, he thought she was simply frantically trying to escape.

Ivan looked toward Keane who was trying to force the door with one arm, muscles bulging as he strained and shouted instructions to his men over the radio. “The doors are electronically controlled. All the offices and security are in this wing. She probably has the entire area on lockdown.” He nodded toward the guys sitting at the consoles. “Let them work on getting us out. There’s no point in you trying to break it down, it’s meant to withstand a bomb.” Keane stepped away from the door, clearly seething now that he was on the receiving end of Jaya’s tricks. “Not so cute now, is she?”

“When I get my hands on our canary, I’m going to fuckin’…” Keane snarled.

“No one touches her,” Ivan repeated his earlier order. “That includes you.”

Keane fell silent for a moment and then nodded respectfully. The men had worked together for years. Ivan wouldn’t call him a friend; Ivan wouldn’t call anyone a friend. But he did trust in Keane’s loyalty. He’d bought the Irishman’s mercenary contract from a group that had chipped him with a deadly explosive that would kill him if he either turned on them or went off the grid. Expecting similar treatment from Ivan, Keane had been shocked when his new employer had immediately had the chip removed and offered him an extremely generous compensation package if he agreed to work for him.

Keane had thanked Ivan by punching him in the face, beating up some of his best men and then drinking himself stupid in the nearest town. He then attempted to impregnate half the single female population of the same town before returning to Ivan and accepting his offer. After Keane had signed on the dotted line, Ivan had returned the Irishman’s right hook to the jaw, knocking him flat. Then he’d stood over his new hungover second and very succinctly explained the chain of command.

“Where do you think she’ll go?” Ivan asked quietly so only Keane could hear. They’d run through the scenarios already, but he was no longer confident that he’d chosen the most likely outcome.

Keane looked a lot less confident too. “Still think she’ll hide and try to wait us out until she finds a way off the island.”

Ivan shook his head. “No, she’s fast and she thinks on her feet. She’ll look for a way off right now, while she has the advantage. We need to stop underestimating her and start believing that she can actually pull this off.”

“Fuck!” Keane snarled, clearly thinking ahead. He started to speak into his radio and then stopped, making eye contact with Ivan. “What’s it gonna be, boss? We’re starting to spread the men too thin. Do they cover electrical panels, come find a way to get us out, or cover the boat dock, airstrip and helicopter pad?”

Ivan closed his eyes and shook his head. This is what she wanted. Him locked in a room and his men scattered and scrambling. “What a fucking beautiful mind,” he murmured. “Genius.”

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