by Pam Godwin
As they ironed out an action plan, they decided to leave in a week. That would give Cole time to train Tate on basic weaponry and self-defense.
Liv eventually emerged from the bedroom, and about five minutes later, someone knocked on the door.
Tate pulled his attention from the laptop as Josh greeted whoever was on the porch.
“Hey.” Confusion threaded through Josh’s voice. “I didn’t expect you guys tonight.”
“I called him.” Liv approached the door, opening it wider to reveal Van Quiso and his wife, Amber.
Kate, who had her nose in her phone for the last hour, shot from the couch. Shoulders hunching, she fumbled with her purse on the coffee table. “I need to…” She made a beeline to the door. “I’m gonna go.”
“Kate.” Josh moved to chase her.
“Let her go.” Tate cast a glare at Van. “She needs time.”
“She’s had four years.” With a grip on Amber’s hand, Van approached the couch with a casual gait, his gaze clapping onto Tate. “I don’t think time is what she needs.”
Probably not, but Van’s dark baleful presence wasn’t a cure for any of them.
Tate sent off a text to his roommates, letting them know Kate left Liv’s house. They would find her if she didn’t head home.
Cole stood from the couch and extended a hand to Van. “It’s good to finally meet you in person.”
“Same.” Van shook his hand and introduced his wife.
Tate could guess why Liv called Van here, but before he asked, he had another question.
“How do you know each other?” He gestured between Van and Cole.
“Traquero.” Van pulled a toothpick from his pocket and cut his eyes at Liv and Josh.
“What did you say?” Josh whispered, the blood draining from his face.
Traquero? The name was familiar, but Tate couldn’t place it. “Is that…?”
“The misogynist prick who was supposed to buy Josh.” Liv crossed the room, pausing in front of Van.
Right on her heels, Josh looped an arm around her waist, holding her against him as he spoke to Van. “Cole helped you find Traquero?”
With a nod, Van moved to the chair and settled Amber on his thigh. The room fell still as everyone focused on the cozy position of the odd couple.
Amber curled against Van’s chest, arms around his neck, clinging to him compulsively. It was one of her many tics that became acutely transparent whenever she left the safety of their house. All toned limbs and long brown hair, she had once been a renowned beauty pageant queen and fitness model. Something tragic had happened to her, ending her career and forcing her into isolation. Severe isolation. She didn’t leave her house for years. Van said she was recovering from agoraphobia and OCD, but the rapid heave of her breaths and the way her fingers dug into Van’s neck suggested she was still as nutty as ever.
Contrarily, Van reclined in the chair with a toothpick rolling between his lips. The six-inch scar on his cheek radiated intimidation and ice-cold confidence, as if to say, Stare all you want. I’m a mean son of a bitch, and I won’t apologize for it.
Mean was an understatement, but since his days of human trafficking, he’d taken steps to make amends, like slaughtering the man who sodomized Liv.
Traquero.
Heavy silence clotted the room. No doubt everyone was thinking about that atrocious meeting when Josh’s buyer raped Liv while Josh was forced to watch. When Van found out, he went ballistic and dismantled the whole sex slave operation. Shortly after, Traquero was murdered. Passionately. They all knew Van was responsible for that gruesome death. They just didn’t know he’d hired Cole Hartman to hunt down the slave buyer. Until now.
“I always wondered how you found Traquero,” Liv said quietly and turned her attention to Cole. “I guess I owe you my gratitude.”
“I didn’t kill him,” Cole said. “I’m not in the business of murdering—”
“Or kidnapping. We know.” Tate caught Liv’s steady gaze. “Why did you call Van here?”
“You’re going to the kidnap capital of the world. Who better to take as backup than—”
“The man who kidnapped me?” The man who chained me in an attic and raped me for ten weeks? He released a humorless laugh. “Are you serious?”
“He’s not that man anymore.” Amber straightened on Van’s lap, her eyes alight with fire. “I know he hurt you, all of you, but he’s driving himself into the grave to make it up to you!”
“Amber.” Van rubbed his hands along her upper arms, the affection at odds with the chill in his voice. “Calm down.”
“No, I won’t calm down.” She climbed off his lap and stepped into Tate’s space, glaring up at him. “When Liv called tonight and told him what you’re planning, he didn’t hesitate.” She pivoted and strode through the room, stopping to straighten a frame on the wall. “He’s here, willing to risk his life to help you.” She whipped around and thrust at finger at Tate. “So don’t you dare judge him.”
This, coming from the agoraphobic woman Van had abducted and raped because hey, she was a shiny new toy to play with. Yet she was still with him four years later. Married him, even.
A shudder rippled through her, and she clutched her hand, cracking her knuckles. Pop-pop-pop-pop. Another tic.
Van reached for her, but she sidestepped him and scanned the room wildly until her attention locked on the kitchen doorway. “Did you know there are dishes in the sink? Can I…?”
“Sure.” Josh said. “Have at it.”
When Amber left the room to feed her OCD, Liv arched a brow at Van, her voice low. “Did she stop going to therapy?”
“I am her therapy.” Van bit down on the toothpick, flashing her a grin.
“That makes me feel so much better,” she said dryly.
Cole remained quiet as his gaze pinged between Van and Liv. Did he know about the history they shared? That they had a daughter together? Livana technically lived with her adopted mother, but she spent most of her time either in this house or at Van and Amber’s two-hundred-acre property. Because of this shared custody, Van and Liv had grown into an amicable, trusting partnership.
Tate shifted toward Van, hands resting on his hips. “Are you actually considering this? Do you understand the stakes?”
“Yes.”
“What about Amber? You’re willing to leave your wife for weeks, if not months?”
A dish clanked in the kitchen, and Amber poked her head through the doorway. “I’m not a helpless ninny, Tate!”
Van cracked a smile, straining the scar on his cheek. “Come here, baby.”
“One minute.” She slipped back into the kitchen, and the sound of running water drifted from the sink.
Tate moved to the couch and took the seat closest to Van, keeping his voice soft. “What happens to Amber and your daughter if you’re captured or killed?”
“Liv explained the risks.” Van sat back, legs sprawled wide, taking up too much space. “I’m not going to Caracas to die, Tate.”
Bullheaded dumbass. He pinched the bridge of his nose, warring with the emotions that always accompanied interactions with Van Quiso. Tate forgave his former captor years ago, but had he ever admitted that aloud? Part of him wanted to hang onto the grudge, because what kind of man would he be if he made allowances for the monster who raped him?
The other part of him recognized this as what it was. An opportunity to wipe the slate clean. He wouldn’t forget those weeks in Van’s attic. He couldn’t. But he could hold out an olive branch to the man.
“I forgive you.” Tate lowered his hand and met Van’s eyes. “For all of it. I mean it. You. Are. Forgiven. So take your wife home and sleep easier knowing one less person in the world wants to castrate you.”
“Yeah? Well, here’s the thing.” Van plucked the toothpick from his mouth and pointed it at him. “I’m not doing this for forgiveness or preservation or whatever rose-colored reason you concocted in your head. I’m doing it because it’s the rig
ht thing to do, and I have the experience to impact how this turns out.” He turned his silver-bladed eyes to Cole. “When do we leave?”
CHAPTER 4
Deafening screams of agony chased Lucia out of the basement, sharpening the cramps that plagued her insides. She yanked off the balaclava face mask and dropped it in the hall.
Though she’d done nothing more than operate the camera this morning, she stayed long after the recording ended, ensuring she was the last one to leave the chamber. Tiago’s stooges enjoyed forcing themselves on the female captives, but it was Lucia’s ass on the line if the victim was too broken or lifeless to exchange for ransom.
The click-click of her heels along the spiral stone stairwell conjured power and confidence. She tried hard to exude that perception, even when she was alone, but she couldn’t stop herself from gripping the handrail and using its support for the upward climb.
Fuck, it hurts.
It always started with a rush of saliva over her tongue. Nausea and excruciating stomach pain came next. Then the loss of coordination and the tingling sensation of impending paralysis, like now.
Her ankle twisted, and she righted it, dragging herself around the final bend on the stairs. The doorway to the main floor came into view, and standing just beyond it was Tiago.
She breathed a sigh of relief.
His authoritative stance, hard lines of his lean body, unflinching intensity of his gaze—all of it embodied strength. Strength she so badly needed to scale those last few steps.
Her pulse weakened, and her legs wobbled as she struggled to close the distance. Tiago didn’t move, didn’t stretch out a hand to help her. He simply watched her, his disarmingly handsome features void of emotion.
When she finally reached him, she handed over the burner phone with the video footage from this morning. He turned, passing it off to one of his lackeys.
The video would be sent to the victim’s father, who would watch a faceless man rape and kick his daughter repeatedly with steel-toed boots. The woman was an American college student, whose vacation was cut short when she stumbled into the wrong alley. If her father didn’t pay the demand, her pretty face would be blown away by a shotgun.
“You look pale.” Tiago brushed the backs of his fingers across Lucia’s cheek with aching tenderness.
If he didn’t have an armed guard standing beside him, she would’ve drawn one of the Berettas from her waistband and shot him in the face.
“I feel worse than usual today.”
“I thought you might.” He offered her a bent elbow and stroked the hand she curled around the crook of his arm. “I’ll take care of you. I always do, don’t I?”
“Yes.” She canted against him as her abdomen clenched through a wave of pain. “Thank you.”
He wrapped an arm around her waist and led her through the dank halls toward his bedroom. Two armed guards flanked them. Others loitered in the doorways, lounge areas, and dining hall. All men.
Tiago kept women in the compound to entertain his gang, but the girls weren’t free to wander. Only she had that luxury. Because he knew she wouldn’t flee.
She leaned against his side and did her best to match his long-legged gait. Raised by Colombian parents, she could speak Spanish, but Tiago always reverted to English with her. He did so now as he told her about the new recruitments he hired, the shipment of high-velocity weapons he acquired—stole—and the recent intel he gathered. He knew most of the local private bodyguards, and when they felt they were underpaid, they gave him the information needed to kidnap their employers. In return, they received a cut of the ransom.
She stopped flinching at these conversations years ago. Violence and corruption was the way of life here. Embracing it was a means of survival.
Thankfully, her hard-earned position in his gang allowed her to live outside of the compound. Tiago gave her an apartment within walking distance. A room with four mildewed walls and intermittent electricity and running water. She couldn’t afford to furnish it or make it pretty, but it was a thousand times better than this crumbling dump.
Tiago’s hideout had once been a popular hotel in Caracas. Like the rest of the city, it was abandoned during the country’s economic crisis, and the squatters moved in. She didn’t know when Tiago had chased them out and made it his primary residence, didn’t know the locations of his other homes, but over the past eleven years, this was where he spent most of his time. And he’d done nothing to fix it up.
It smelled like smoke and death. Bullet holes riddled the concrete walls. Sheet metal covered every window. It was dark. So fucking dark and musty and packed with rotten, sweaty men. She didn’t trust any of them, and she didn’t think Tiago trusted them, either.
“With the new recruits,” she said as they rounded a turn in the corridor, “how many men do you have now?”
“Why do you ask?” He stared straight ahead, his expression empty, except for the twitch in his clean-shaved cheek.
Shit. She’d angered him. The man was suspicious of everyone and everything. Though he seemed to confide in her the most, she often wondered if he kept her the closest because he trusted her the least.
As for the size of his gang, it was a number he never confirmed. She estimated it exceeded two-hundred men, which was larger than the local police force. He was physically unstoppable. Not that anyone ever tried. As King of the City, he had lackeys and informants positioned in every nook and alley, including in the military and police.
They strolled down a long hall. Or rather, he strolled. She was lucky to line up one heeled shoe in front of the other without face-planting. By the time they reached his bedroom door, a sheen of perspiration blanketed her skin. Agony coiled her guts, and bile rose in her chest.
Two more guards waited on either side of the steel door. The old-fashioned dead bolt required an old-fashioned key, one that Tiago kept on his person at all times.
He didn’t move to unlock the door. She knew the drill. Clothes first.
The heels came off. Then she removed the handguns from her waistband, shimmied out of the jeans, the shirt, and unclasped the bra, setting everything on the wooden bench that existed only for this purpose. For her. As far as she knew, she was the only visitor he allowed in his room.
Clad in nothing but black panties, she rose to her full height, shoulders back, and waited for their inspection.
The two guards who had escorted them here remained at the entrance of the hall. The other two swept clinical hands over her butt and groin, digging fingers against the satin between her cheeks in search for weapons. She held still, muscles loose, and breathed.
Tiago watched with detachment until they finished. Then he stepped forward and combed his fingers through her hair, massaging her scalp. It wasn’t out of affection. He was searching for weapons.
Knowing that didn’t thwart a deep ache from swelling inside her. An ache for companionship. Desire. Love.
Oh, the hopeless dreams of a silly girl. She didn’t know that girl anymore, but sometimes she entertained thoughts of her, imagined what life would be like if she hadn’t been abducted from her beloved home in the citrus grove.
Satisfied with his search, Tiago unlocked the bedroom door, guided her inside, and bolted them in.
His living space was as spartan and crude as the rest of the compound. Deteriorated sheetrock peeled away from old stone walls. A small unmade bed was shoved into the corner. Two mismatched chairs sat in front of a fireplace filled with ash and cobwebs. A bare bulb glowed in the ceiling—the room’s only source of light.
It was a sad space. Humble. But Tiago Badell’s presence made it feel enigmatic, ominous, cloaked in secrets. He was one of the wealthiest men in the country, yet here he slept on a tiny old mattress in an abandoned hotel. Alone.
She stood near the chairs, as expected, while he opened a medium-size safe in the closet. The depth of the alcove prevented her from seeing the combination lock. She’d followed him to that side of the room once, hoping for a pee
k at the safe. But the punishment for doing so had been so grave she never did it again.
“Have you vomited this morning?” He removed her precious lifeline from the safe and relocked it.
“No. Just nauseous.” She remained as immobile as possible beside the chair, refusing to give him any reason to send her away.
“Coughing blood?” Rolling up his sleeves, he approached her slowly, like a lazy lion with all the power and strength in the world.
“No blood since last time.” Her attention fixated on the syringe cradled in his fingers. Please hurry.
He took his time walking toward her, knowing full well he held her life in his hands.
When he finally lowered in the chair and patted his thigh, she didn’t hesitate to sit on his lap and recline back against his hard chest.
Her leg moved on its own, hooking over the armrest and bringing her thigh within his reach. A tremble shook through her and her hands flexed, joints cracking and tendons straining—the anticipation all-consuming.
He cleaned the injection area with the supplies on the side table and plunged the needle into the middle of her thigh. It was just a prick, nothing compared to the aches that endlessly tormented her.
“Shhh.” He caressed her quivering abs, tracing the serrated scar from her breastbone to her hip. “It’ll feel better soon.”
“Thank you.” She relaxed against him and waited for the relief to come.
It would take fifteen, maybe twenty minutes to saturate her system. In the meantime, he would hold her in this position, as he did every morning, and use his hands to fuck with her head.
When he set the syringe aside, he trailed fingertips around her breasts, ribs, hips, and the crotch of her panties.
“You’re beautiful, Lucia.” He found the seam of her pussy and slid his touch along the slit, up and down, keeping that small scrap of satin between his finger and her flesh. “You love to fuck, even though you pretend otherwise.”
For as long as she could remember, she’d been a highly-sexual person. She gave her virginity to a Texan boy when she was fifteen and explored her sexuality with countless guys in high-school.