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)
Gross.
It’s a small and rusty old tin cup. Empty, of course.
The universe is mocking me when it knows how thirsty I am.
My stomach lets out a growl.
Guess I’m hungry too.
I pick up the cup, stand, walk to the bars of my cell, and fling it back and forth to make a loud clacking sound.
No one responds.
“Is anyone around?” I yell. “Help! Help me!” I clatter the cup for a few more minutes until my arm gets tired. Then I plunk back down on the cot.
So this is my life.
This is where I die.
Not in Romania. I escaped that hell only to, eight years later, die on a smelly cot.
What the hell even happened? Some psycho must’ve found me at the de la Fuente place.
Someone was watching me. Someone knew I was researching—
“No,” I say out loud.
This could be totally unrelated to what’s happening in my family right now.
I mean, girls from rich families are targets all the time. And once again, I’ve gotten in over my head.
I stand again, pace around the small cell, until—
I gasp.
A shadow, just out of my eyesight. I can’t see the person the shadow belongs to, but it’s there.
Then a deep voice. “You don’t need to be afraid,”
“Where the hell am I?” I demand.
“You’re okay,” the voice says. “You’re safe. And you’ll be able to go home safely if you cooperate.”
“If I cooperate? Are you kidding me?” My words sound brave, but inside I’m shuddering. “What are you going to do? Rape me? Is that what you mean by cooperate?”
“You don’t owe me anything.”
“Then why am I here?” I ask, this time tempering my voice.
“If I could tell you, I would,” he says. “I’m just a cog in a much larger machine.”
I can’t help but laugh at that. “So I have a choice. Cooperate or not. Seems to me that you have the choice. You don’t have to be a cog, or whatever. You don’t have to abduct innocent women. You don’t have to work for bad people.”
“Bad people?” He lets out a low chuckle that sounds more like a growl. “I’m not sure anyone is ever truly good or bad. People are complex.”
I roll my eyes. “Complex? There’s nothing complex about abducting a woman. That’s bad no matter how you look at it.”
“What about breaking into someone’s private property?” he asks. “Would you classify that as good or bad?”
I let my mouth hang for a moment. “That’s… That’s different. And you know it. I’m trying to find out what’s going on with my family. And the property I was—”
“Enough,” he says more harshly this time. “It doesn’t really matter what you were doing there. You’re here now.”
I swallow. I probably said too much. Right now my only defense is my wits. I can’t give this guy any more ammunition than he already has. “Are you going to tell me where I am at least?” I ask again.
He pauses. “Colombia.”
I nearly lose my footing, but steady myself by grabbing on to one of the bars.
Colombia. Where Vinnie was when he found Daniela. The home of Jacinto Agudelo, Hernando Reyes, and the others.
“How the hell did I get here?”
He doesn’t reply.
“Does this have anything to do with Diego Vega?”
The voice chuckles, again sounding more like a growl. “You’re in way over your head, querida.”
Querida? That’s Spanish. For “loved one” or “sweetheart” or something.
“You should be more careful,” he says.
I draw in a breath and let it out slowly, willing my pulse to steady.
He’s not wrong.
Why didn’t I tell anyone where I was going?
I didn’t want to bother Hawk because he’s busy taking care of Daniela, who’s been through so much. Eagle is still in the hospital, as is my father. My mother is useless. Vinnie and Raven are tending to Belinda.
But I could’ve told Falcon.
He would’ve had my back.
Déjà vu.
Déjà fucking vu.
Just like Romania. And I’m lucky to have made it out of that alive.
“Show your face,” I say, gathering my courage. “Or are you afraid to face the woman you wronged?”
Footsteps, and then—
I drop my jaw.
The shadows part, and light falls onto his face.
And in front of me stands the most gorgeous man I’ve ever laid eyes on.
8
CRUZ
Robin Bellamy is even more beautiful when she’s conscious.
Her personality is like wildfire. I wasn’t expecting that. Most little rich girls are so entitled that they simply beg to get back to their money and their designer clothes.
Robin isn’t the first woman I’ve abducted, but she’s the first one who’s thrown my own words back in my face. She’s not begging for anything. She’s challenging.
I should be annoyed by her.
Instead?
She’s drawing me in.
“Who are you?” she demands. “What’s your name?”
“I’m not sure you’re in a position to be asking questions,” I tell her. “Why were you in that house in Texas?”
“None of your business,” she scoffs.
“Actually, it is my business,” I say, keeping my voice cool. “And if you want to return home in one piece, you’d better be straight with me.”