Chapter Ten

Ciska

5210 Interbay Blvd, Ballast Point, Tampa, Florida...

"Ugh! Freaking go and hound some other woman, you stupid asshat!"

Ciska sat upright in her bed. A glance at the bedside clock confirmed it was just past midnight. Another sleepless night— again. Wrought with tossing and turning, while her mind was filled with visions of sweating bodies— wild, undulating, and straining against each other in the woes of unbridled lust.

Not just any bodies. No. Her stupid brain just couldn't let go of reminding her how completely unhinged she had become during that tantric touch scene, which had turned her into a complete nymphomaniac. All she could see when she closed her eyes at night was Jax Crowthorne's devilish grin and his glowing eyes, then felt heat exploding on her skin as if he was there, touching and arousing her.

"A week," she wailed. "It's almost been a week, and I just can't move past it. Surely, the man is the Devil's spawn. How else is it possible for him to invade my mind... every single damn night?" She lowered her face into her hands and all but sobbed, "I. Need. Sleep! Do you hear me, brain? Switch the freaking hell off so I can find some peace."

If only the alpha-hole would disappear into the mist and leave her alone. Maybe then, she'd be able to forget how explosive the sex was. How rough, raw... and beautiful.

"Damn! Why was something that wild so beautiful?"

Except Jax didn't retreat. He had been phoning daily... and she had ignored every phone call. He never left messages.

"Of course, he wouldn't. The high and mighty player is above something as trivial as leaving a voice note." She snorted as she reached for the glass of water on her bedside table and swallowed a couple of sips. "It would be better if he did because if I hear that self-satisfied smirk in his voice that he had reduced me to a puddle of Jello with less effort than a two-hour session at the gym, I will easily tell him to go to hell."

Well, it was a sound theory and one she stood by. Perhaps the next time he phoned, she should pick up, just to have the satisfaction of ending the call after telling him to go fly with the pigs.

"Freaking jingling bells," she exclaimed in fright as her cell phone started ringing as if on demand.

"Phew! At least it's not Jax. Now that would've been just too damn freaky." She stared at the phone. "Except, who could be phoning me this late from an undisclosed number?"

Normally, she wouldn't answer such a call, but since it was in the middle of the night, it could be an emergency, so she reluctantly picked up the phone.

"Ciska speaking."

"Ah, the little IT fairy who performs miracles on the dark web."

Ciska turned to stone at the all-too-familiar voice crooning in her ear. She had come to hate that moniker... especially since it was this man who had christened her with it and the one responsible for her landing in jail.

"Fuck off." The words slammed against the walls and echoed back at her as she summarily ended the call. It started ringing almost immediately again. "Not again, you motherfucker," she sneered and switched off the phone. The curse words falling unchecked from her lips were more than an indication of how angry, upset, and unimaginably scared she was.

Angry he had the audacity to reach out to her, upset she had answered the call, and terrified at what he wanted from her. A man like Theo Gulliver never did anything without a purpose. He definitely didn't phone just to find out how she was doing since her release from prison— which, she realized with a start, was exactly five years ago today.

"God! Will I never be able to walk away from the apeshit life I'd been handed?" Her voice sounded hoarse in the silent room.

Yes, she'd made a mess of her life, but surely spending five years in jail and wasting almost half of her young adult life in prison was enough punishment?

The decision to flee the Fowler foster home at sixteen wasn't just impulsive— it was born of desperation. Ciska's heart had raced when she boarded the bus from Texas to Chicago, her meager savings clutched tightly in her trembling hands. The enormity of what lay ahead had threatened to overwhelm her. Alone in a vast, uncaring city where she'd have to fend for herself. Every mile that had passed increased her terror, but sheer determination kept her on course.

"I was so scared," Ciska murmured, lost in the memory. "But I knew anything was better than staying in Texas."

Chicago's harsh reality had hit her like a brick wall. Her savings evaporated quickly, leaving her with two stark choices— sell her body or live on the streets. The former was immediately discarded— her innocence in matters of physical intimacy was matched only by her stubbornness.

"No way was I going to sell my body for money," she muttered. "Besides, I was still a virgin. Apart from knowing what appendage went where, I was completely innocent in the wants and desires of men."

Finding legitimate work had proved nearly impossible. Every job opening had a line of desperate youths wrapped around the block. Ciska's saving grace came from an unexpected source— her self-taught computer skills since she was ten years old.

"Lucky for me, I had a flair for IT systems and programs," she said with a hint of pride creeping into her voice.

Those skills became her lifeline. Ciska threw herself into the digital world, designing accounting software for small businesses online and computer games and apps. The work was challenging, but it kept her afloat. She drifted from shelter to shelter, her laptop her most prized possession as she worked tirelessly to finish school while building her reputation in online forums.

But it was the hacking jobs that really paid. Ciska's fingers had flown across the keyboard as she broke through firewalls and security systems with ease. Each successful hack brought a rush of adrenaline... along with a wave of guilt.

"I knew what I was doing was wrong," she whispered in a voice colored with regret. "But the money... God, the money was so good."

By eighteen, Ciska had moved into her own apartment, and her bank balance was substantial enough to fulfill her lifelong dream of attending college. But newfound freedom and attention from older men proved a dangerous combination.

She fell in with a crowd that recognized her talents and exploited them ruthlessly. One man, in particular, used her affection to manipulate her into increasingly risky hacks. The thrill of being untouchable became addictive, overshadowing her earlier dreams of independence and honor.

"It was like a drug," Ciska remembered in a hollow voice. "Living for the high, thinking I was invincible."

Until that day it all came crashing down. Betrayed by the very man she thought she loved, Ciska found herself facing the harsh reality of her choices.

"Yeah, I swapped the tight-fisted control of foster life for prison," she said bitterly. "Whoopee, how quaint."

The irony wasn't lost on her. She'd fought so hard for her freedom, only to end up in a different kind of cage.

"Yeah, a cage of my own making." The realization that she had destroyed everything she'd worked for as a determined teenager had been a bitter pill to swallow. "In the end, I got what I deserved." Although she had been young, she wasn't stupid. She had willfully become an illegal hacker. It was bound to fall apart at some point. "I just wished I realized it sooner."

But even as she reflected on her past mistakes, a spark of that old determination flickered in Ciska's eyes.

"I survived from the worst of odds. I rebuilt my life here in Florida, and I refuse to have it all robbed from me again. Never again. Especially not by that bastard."

Except where he had only been a leader of soldiers before, she had recently stumbled across information that now sparked her fear from afresh.

Theo Gulliver was now a Street Boss for one of the most feared mafia groups in the Northern U.S., The Sandolens Group.

They had become well known for their white-collar criminal activities not only in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York but more recently from right here in Florida. She didn't have to be a genius to know why Theo reached out to her.

"Fuck you twice over, Gulliver. You stole five years of my life. I will never bow down to any of your demands again. Even if it means I have to uproot and leave the goddamn country." Her heart contracted at the thought of totally uprooting her life.

"Except I have a life here. For the first time ever, I'm happy. I have a beautiful home and a legitimate job I love." She squared her shoulders resolutely. "I'm not running again. This time, I will stand up to the bastard. I refuse to be used again. You've had your turn, Theo Gulliver. There are no second runs. The sooner you realize it, the better."

Opening the bedside table drawer, she searched for the bottle of sleeping tablets.

"I need to sleep if I want to be ready for him tomorrow," she muttered as she swallowed it down.

For if there was one thing Ciska knew without certainty, it was that he would call again.