Page 64 of Fire and Ice

Jack set his bowl down and leaned into her. "I can think of some fun activities."

"I'm sure you can."

He took her bowl away.

"Hey, I'm still eating that."

"Later, need to give you a kiss right now," Jack whispered as he kissed her gently, lightly teasing her lips. He had his hands on opposite sides of her. Maia got impatient and wrapped her arms around his neck to draw him closer.

"I don't want to hurt you."

"Stop treating me as if I'm made out of crystal."

She deepened the kiss and pushed her tongue through his mouth. Jack groaned and started devouring her lips. After a few seconds, he reluctantly pulled away.

"No, you're not strong enough."

"You started it."

Jack grinned ruefully before picking up her bowl and handing it back to her. Before he could say anything they heard an explosion and the lights went out.

"Must be the transformer, but the generator should have kicked in automatically," Jack said.

He got up and walked to the window to peek outside. "Yep, it looks like the wind took out a whole section of the neighborhood. I see a swath of darkness all around us."

Moving to the bureau by the fireplace where two semi-automatic pistols lay, he picked one up and tucked it behind him while he handed the other one to Maia.

"I'm going to check it out. You'll be okay?"

"I'll be fine."

Maia woke up with a start. She must have dozed off for a bit again. The food and meds combined made her very groggy. Where was Jack? How long had she been out? She checked the clock, and it looked like he had been gone for less than 10 minutes. But hadn't she been woken up by a sound?

It was then that she noticed something that sent ice coursing through her veins. She had put the pistol Jack had given her down on the coffee table and now it was gone. Before she could move, a hand clamped down on her mouth and she was jerked to her feet. Another arm wrapped painfully around her waist locking in both her arms as she was slammed into a hard chest.

A sinister voice rasped beside her ear, "Sergei says hello, suka. Now you pay."

Spinning her around he backhanded her viciously, causing her to crash onto the coffee table and shatter the glass top. He pounced on her instantly, dragging her by her hair to pull her up to face him. He was huge, almost six foot six of bulky muscle; she recognized him as the third man from the boat—the sniper. Maia spat at his face in defiance. She tasted blood and quickly checked her teeth—all still there.

"Such a waste. Your man is out back fucking with a generator while his woman gets fucked inside."

The man continued to hold her by her hair while telling her what he intended to do to her: how he was going to make her pay for killing his comrades, how he was going to shoot her after he fucked her.

Maia kicked out but he blocked it and threw her off balance as she fell on the floor and hit her head. Her head exploded in pain as she felt a heavy weight settle on her legs immobilizing her lower body.

She felt the cold barrel of a gun under her chin as his hand began roaming under her shirt to squeeze her breasts.

"Scream. He can't hear you. Fight me. I want you to fight me." He ground his crotch against her thighs.

God, he was a sadistic sonafabitch, Maia thought frantically. She was greatful that real lust was winning over blood lust, because he could simply have shot her. She knew of some assassins who liked to play with their mark. She bucked beneath him, but he was too strong so she grabbed his hand that held the gun and squeezed with all she had. It was an exercise in futility. She was no match for his strength especially in the condition she was in.

"Ah, such a little fighter, you make me hard, you red-haired witch. Just a taste, then I shoot your brains out, suka."

Maia felt her shirt rip.

***

The generator exhibited no immediate signs of malfunction that Jack could determine. It didn't help that the wind and rain were relentless and made troubleshooting the faulty machinery challenging. The natural gas line was open and feeding correctly, and all the fuel lines and connections were intact. Jack shone his flashlight across the casing and then frowned—one of the screws that held the panel cover for the internals of the generator was 1/8 of an inch from being fully tightened. It had been tampered with.

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