Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 80139 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 401(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80139 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 401(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
He holds her fate. She threatens his.
Robin Bellamy comes from a powerful family that would burn the world to protect its own. Now, that loyalty is being used against them.
Abducted and smuggled out of the country, Robin is held captive by men who want the Bellamys’ cooperation, and they’re willing to bruise her and break her to get it.
Cruz Moreno is the man ordered to make her suffer. Taken in at fifteen by a ruthless crime boss, Cruz learned that obedience keeps him alive and mercy gets people killed. But Robin is defiant, fearless, and way too tempting for a man who can’t afford a weakness.
She should hate him.
He should destroy her.
Instead, the heat between them grows more dangerous with every encounter.
But Cruz’s ties to the criminal world conceal secrets neither of them understands, and the truth could destroy them before they ever have the chance to claim their forbidden fate
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
PROLOGUE
ROBIN
I blink. I can’t see much. My vision is blurry. Are my eyes even open?
I swallow. My mouth is dry. My throat hurts.
I turn—
Ugh. That was a mistake. I hurt all over. And my mind…
Where am I? Who am I?
Robin. Robin Bellamy.
Yeah, that’s who I am.
I finally manage to sit up. My neck hurts. My shoulders feel like I lifted a boulder.
I move my head from side to side—God, the pain—and reach up to my neck, trying to massage it, when I feel—
What the hell is that?
It’s a small welt on the right side of my neck behind my ear.
Oh, God…
I remember now.
I felt something. A twinge of pain when I was looking around in the house—
Damn…
What the hell have I gotten myself into?
I blink rapidly and finally adjust to the dimness in this…whatever it is.
It’s a tiny cell with concrete walls and a concrete floor. The only light peers through a tiny window high on the wall. One side of the cell is barred. Anyone can see in. But no one is there.
I stand and grab the wall next to me for support.
Then I turn and look down. I was lying on a rigid cot. It looks like one of the old green cots Mom and Dad keep in the sheds. They’re for the ranch hands, when we have to hire extra help during spring and fall.
Funny. My brothers and I used to love sleeping on them when we were little. Playing ranch hand was a fun game. At the time, anyway.
Now?
This isn’t any fun at all.
My neck is stiff. Every part of me either hurts or feels strained. I don’t have my phone, my purse, or my watch.
What day is it? What time is it? Daytime, I guess, from the tiny bit of sunshine coming through the narrow window.
My heart beats against my sternum like a drum, and dizziness sweeps through me.
I sit back down on the cot.
I reach up, rub at my neck, find the small welt once more.
No.
Please, no.
This can’t be happening.
Not again.
1
ROBIN
A few days earlier…
I hate death.
Sure, everyone does, but as a veterinarian I see it all the time. I even induce it when it’s necessary. I understand I’m putting an innocent animal out of its misery, but I still hate it. Watching the little remaining life drain from its body takes a tiny piece of me every time.
So when my father tried to end his own life a couple weeks ago, I didn’t take it well.
I’m trained, as a veterinarian, to fix things when I can. Let them go when I can’t. Still, it breaks my heart every time. And the thought of losing my father?
Nope. I was not ready to go there. My mother? Maybe, though I hate death and I don’t want either of them to die. But my mother and I are like oil and water. I would take her demise a lot more easily.
So I began to watch, research, figure out what was going on with my father. With my brothers.
And everything seemed to point to a Colombian drug kingpin named Diego Vega.
My soon-to-be brother-in-law, Vinnie Gallo, who’s engaged to my twin sister, Raven, is the heir to the Bianchi crime family here in Texas. He’s gone legit. But that doesn’t mean parts of his prior life didn’t follow him.
My brother Hawk is involved with Daniela Agudelo, who Vinnie brought home from Colombia before she was eighteen. Long story short, Vinnie was working with Daniela’s father, Jacinto, who was pimping Daniela out to his friends and business associates. She was also engaged to a huge drug kingpin—Diego Vega.
And that wasn’t the first time our family encountered Vega.
Anyway, Vinnie swears he had Vega “taken care of” while he was in Colombia. He claims he has photographic proof. I trust Vinnie implicitly, but I’m skeptical. I mean, what good is photographic evidence in the age of AI?