by Bex Dane
Falcon (Men of Siege Book Four) © 2019 by Bex Dane.
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Published by Larken Romance
First Edition 2019
Cover by Elizabeth Mackey Designs
Falcon (Men of Siege Book Four)
The battle royale that ends with a big climax.
Aida
I want Falcon to make me moan.
Yes, he's a cold-hearted killer who cares about no one but himself.
And he's holding me hostage, forcing me to admit my life is a lie, before he gives me what I want.
He'll tease me till I beg but always stops before I reach the edge.
But he underestimates the woman I've become.
He still thinks of me as the lost child he rescued years ago.
I'm all grown up now and I have my own weapons to use in our war.
Falcon
Aida's testing all my limits.
Playing bodyguard to an opera diva is not my kind of mission.
I'd rather be out systematically dismantling my father's drug cartel.
But Aida's being targeted by a sophisticated enemy.
She needs me to keep her safe.
Oh, I'll make her moan. No doubt.
Rest assured, she'll give me her secrets first.
She may bring me to my knees, but I never lose.
Falcon is a standalone novel in the Men of Siege series. If you like opposites-attract, second-chance romance, you'll love Falcon.
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Contents
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Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
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"Don't be timid. Let it be grand. The woman has all the power. Let her seduce the man, and he will succumb to his weakness." — Ken Duffy
Chapter 1
Nuevo Laredo, Mexico
Twenty-two years ago
Primitivo (Falcon)
"Everyone out. Run!"
Startled eyes stared back at me.
The group of women in the brothel parlor didn't move. They had no idea they were sitting ducks before a massacre.
"Oscar's about to burst through that door and start shooting."
One of the women snapped out of it and ran.
"Get the fuck up and run!" I yelled at the rest of them.
Finally, they screamed and followed her.
"Claudia!" My call died in the chaos.
Shit, I should've located her first before sounding the alarm, but I panicked when Oscar left early. Weeks of planning and I fucked it up.
I slammed the butt of my rifle into the first bedroom door. "Get up. Now. Shooter at the front. Go out the back. Hurry. Hurry!"
Women dressed in miniskirts and underwear bumped in the narrow hallway, gasping in their frantic rush.
They raced without looking back. They ran for their lives.
"Claudia!"
No one answered me.
Where the hell was she? I found her daughter crouched in the hallway with her hands over her ears.
"Where's your mom?"
Magdalena's round, terrified eyes peered up at me. "She's gone."
"Gone? Where?"
"I…"
Fuck. We didn't have time to talk. "Get out. Wait by my truck. Go now!"
She scurried out the back just as my brother broke through the front door. He squeezed his eyes shut and opened fire. The bastard didn't even see me.
I took cover behind the couch with my rifle over the top as his wild shots blasted through the room. My heart racing, I took aim and shot him in the thigh.
He stopped shooting but didn't go down. "What the hell?"
"Drop your weapon, Oscar."
He opened his eyes and scanned the empty room.
In his cocaine haze, he didn't feel pain from the bullet in his leg.
"Drop the rifle, Oscar," I repeated.
His wild eyes zeroed in on me. "You shoot me, not them?" Spit came from his scowling mouth as he spoke.
I held my fire. I always protected my brothers. As the oldest son, the responsibility fell on me. I risked my life to save theirs many times. But when it came to killing women, I drew the line. I had to stop him, brotherly fidelity be damned.
"They did nothing to harm us." I tilted my head toward the back door.
Manuel, the leader of a rival gang, had brutally murdered the whores in my father's brothel last week. Fifteen dead. My father ordered this attack as retribution.
His eyes glanced to the door and back to me. "They killed ours, we kill theirs." Oscar rattled off the mantra my father had drilled into our heads since infancy.
"No. We don't kill innocent women over this turf war."
"We kill whoever we need to." He narrowed his gaze and trained his rifle on me.
"I don't want to shoot you, Oscar." I gave him his final warning.
"You betray the family?" His voice rasped with rage.
Yes. The ultimate betrayal of my family and our history. "You can't betray evil, only escape it."
His weapon shook as he pressed the trigger. He'd forced my hand. It was him or me.
I shot Oscar in the chest.
He gasped and fell. Thank God my mama wasn't alive to see me spill my own brother's blood. I grabbed his rifle and didn't spare a second to say goodbye. The survivors must carry on or become the dead.
At the back of the house, Magdalena stood crying on the passenger side of my truck.
Just a tiny thing, I towered over her. "Claudia's not here?"
"Manuel took her before you got here." Tears streaked through the dirt on her face. "She said she'd be back. She didn't know when." Her hair fell forward as she sobbed into her hands.
Goddammit. Manuel got to Claudia. I missed her by minutes. I should've planned this better. Of course Manuel would hear about the attack and run with Claudia, the one woman my father would want.
This left her daughter alone.
With me.
"Get in." I opened the door and shoved her inside.
After running around the front, I tossed the two rifles on the seat and started up the truck.
"We're leaving without her?" her timid voice asked me.
"We have no choice." A boat waited for us in the Gulf. We needed to be on it before my father realized someone had transferred his millions to offshore accounts.
Dust kicked up around us as the tires skidded in the dirt. She sat up and peered out the windshield as Nuevo Laredo faded in the distance.
Adios, Papá.
Chapter 2
When Soledad opened the door to her apartment in Ma
dison, New Jersey, it took a moment before her eyes flashed with recognition. Her mouth drew taut like she'd seen a ghost. Females often reacted with fear when I showed up. Primitivo de la Cruz on your doorstep rarely meant good news.
"Let us in."
She backed up to let us enter, but still eyed me cautiously.
"You're safe with me, Soledad. You know that. I need your help."
"Sure, Tivo. Whatever you need. I mean I owe you so much." She spoke quickly.
"You don't owe me anything. You helped me too. The route worked for us just as it did for you." A year ago she had bravely tested the escape route for me. She took a hired boat ride across the Gulf of Mexico to Texas where she borrowed a car to trek across the country, finally landing in New Jersey. Magdalena and I had done the same and made it safely.
Her shoulders relaxed and her big brown eyes crinkled with her smile. She had a long oval face framed by shiny straight sable hair. She was thin and tall, pert breasts, the body of a dancer.
"What's with the child?" she asked.
Magdalena curled her shoulders down and hid behind me. We hadn't talked to anyone but each other for a week. She'd been shy at first, but slowly opened up and started talking. I'd discovered she was crazy about lasagna and she liked to sing. She'd asked about her mom, and I'd promised her I would find her. Truth was, finding Manuel and Claudia would be a challenge, but I couldn't tell her that. She was too upset.
"She's clearly not a child." Magdalena had long legs, full round breasts, and a curvy ass. Pretty like her mother. More than once I caught her watching me dress, and more than once I was tempted to kiss her. But she was only fifteen, scared, and alone. Didn't ask her if she was a virgin, but either way, the last thing she needed was to kiss a gangster like me.
"Who is she?" Soledad repeated her question.
"She's Claudia's daughter."
Soledad stepped back and stared at Magdalena like she had leprosy.
Magdalena flinched and lowered her head.
My words lay heavy in the air. I'd informed Soledad of the heated quarrel between Manuel and my father over Claudia. Soledad had once been in the same position. She'd encouraged me to get Claudia away from the situation quickly.
Soledad took a deep breath and offered Magdalena a gentle smile. "What's your name, sweetheart?" She bent down to meet Magdalena's eyes.
"Magdalena." The vulnerability coming off the girl had to touch Soledad. Shoot. I felt it and I was a soulless killer.
Soledad looked up at me again. "Where is Claudia?" The stress in her voice told me she already had a good idea what had happened.
"My father ordered me to kill all of Manuel's girls but spare Claudia and her daughter. He wanted me to bring them to him."
"But you didn't?"
"No. I'd planned to help them escape. Manuel left with Claudia before I could get her out. I'm going to find her and bring her back. I need you to watch the girl for me."
Her brow scrunched. "How old is she?"
"Fifteen." Magdalena spoke for herself.
"Fifteen," Soledad repeated slowly and quietly. Her mind must be doing the math. If I didn't find her mother, Soledad would be taking her on for at least three years.
"Manuel had a quinceañera planned for her. We both know she's better off here."
All the girls who had a quinceañera were forced to prostitute like Claudia. I'd saved her just in time. Soledad knew this because she had been forced into prostitution at fifteen too. Not by Manuel, by my father.
"I can't take her." She looked down at her feet.
"Why not?" Soledad never said no to me. My disappointment with her response rang in my angry voice.
When she looked up, her eyes pleaded with me. "I'm leaving for New York. I'm enrolled at an art school. I have to pack. I'll be busy. She needs schooling and ID and many things I have no idea how to give her."
This was news to me. "Art school? Dance?'
"Yes." She grinned a shy smile.
A surge of pride passed through me. Soledad came alone to New Jersey, seized the opportunity, and was making a life for herself.
"You take her with you to New York. Enroll her in school too. She can sing."
Magdalena's head popped up.
"Sing the paloma song, Magdalena." Under the stars on a boat in the Gulf, she sang a sad song about a dove. She sang like an angel. A morbid, morose angel, but still talented.
"No, Tivo. Don't ask me to do that."
I turned my frown from her to Soledad. "Get her into high school in the same city, then get her into your art school."
Soledad shook her head. "I can't take Claudia's daughter with me to New York. It puts me right in the middle between Manuel and your father. I'll open my door one day and find a gun at my head. I can't risk it."
She stated the truth. There were huge risks here. "It's just temporary until I find Claudia and get her away from Manuel."
"I don't know."
I stepped closer to Soledad, and she sucked in a sharp breath. Not fear this time, attraction. She was eight years older than me, but we'd had sex a few times. Really good sex. Didn't mean anything. I was just showing her how good it could be after the misery she'd experienced under my father's rule. Pure physical pleasure. For both of us. I leaned down with my lips close to her ear. "It's late. Set Magdalena up on the couch."
Her questioning eyes looked into mine, and I gave her a slight nod.
"Okay." She said with a breathy smile and a bit of surrender.
Chapter 3
Magdalena
I came out of the shower and didn't see Tivo or his friend Soledad.
Relief rushed through me at not having to face them again. That whole conversation was so humiliating. My mother had become a pawn in a stupid turf war between two vicious gangs, and I was trouble by association.
Muted noises came from Soledad's closed bedroom door. Soft moans. Oh no. Was he hurting her? No. Tivo looked mean and carried lots of guns, but he wouldn't hurt a woman. Would he?
A blanket and sheet awaited me on the couch, so I unfolded them and tucked them in around the edges. The sheets felt soft on my skin. I loved the colors. Stripes in shades of purple that blended like a piece of art. Soledad lived in a nice place. Vibrant green plants in the corners looked happy and well maintained. She said Tivo had helped her. There were no signs she was unhappy or anything could be going wrong in the room.
I lay down and listened some more. The moans grew louder. Furniture creaked. Her bed? Rhythmic grunts joined the moans. Oh goodness. He wasn't hurting her. She was experiencing pleasure. Great pleasure. Like nothing I'd ever heard!
What could a man do to a woman to make them moan in pleasure like that? Were they having sex? My mom never moaned when she had sex with the johns at Manuel's brothel. Soledad clearly enjoyed intercourse. It sounded like Tivo was having fun too. The grunts and groans built to a crescendo and obvious climax. I bit my lip to keep my mouth from gaping open. Harsh breaths, some rustling, and Tivo's deep voice murmuring followed. Then silence.
I felt like crying. I'd spent a week crushing on Tivo and he never so much as held my hand. We'd been with Soledad only a few hours and he'd already had sex with her. Why didn't he want me?
I closed my eyes and pretended to sleep, but uncertainty and excitement danced and pinged around my head. My world felt rocked. My life of violence, drugs, and poverty faded in the distance. In the future, I spied a world with schools for girls who could sing where women could enjoy sex so much they moaned. A new world with luxuriously soft sheets.
I missed my mother and worried about her, but I trusted Tivo to find her. I already thought Tivo hung the sun and the moon, but now I knew. He was a superhero.
***
I lay quietly on the couch, trying to catch my breath after all the excitement of this week. Tivo opened the door to Soledad's room. His normally slicked back hair flopped forward as he looked down to button his baggy jeans. He fastened the top button only of a plaid shirt he wore over a whi
te tank top.
Of all Guillermo's sons, I found Tivo the most handsome. He had the longest lashes, the broadest shoulders, and an undeniable confidence the girls back home swooned over.
He bent down in front of me, resting his elbows on his knees. His eyes were light blue. Rare among the men of our town and unlike his father who had evil dark eyes. Maybe Tivo was the light to his darkness.
Tivo didn't appear to be happy like he should after just having great sex. He looked sad and drained.
"I'm leaving." His voice came out barely a whisper.
Leaving? A stone as heavy as a boulder dropped in my stomach. Tivo was all I had. I'd become attached to him.
"Please don't leave me, Tivo."
He shook his head. "You'll stay here with Soledad. She'll help you." He looked down at the floor. "I'll find your mother."
"I want that more than anything, but I don't want you to leave me to do it."
"I have to go. No one else can find her but me."
"I'm scared." A new country, a big city, a stranger's apartment. Everything felt unfamiliar and terrifying.
"I know. Be brave. Okay? Be like Soledad. She's doing well. She'll be a role model for you."
My eyes stung. I hiccuped, trying to hold it in, but I couldn't. I'd be all alone without Tivo. The tears fell and dropped onto my lap.
He looked up and examined my face. His hand came up slowly. The back of his index finger brushed a tear from the apple of my cheek.
"No crying." His pretty blue eyes went soft. "Don't cry. Sing."
I blinked a few times, not understanding him. "What?"
"Sing loud and strong and from your heart. Take all these tears and turn them into song. It's the way it should be. You should sing and cry and laugh. All the things a woman does in her life."
He wanted me to sing. Why? "And moan?" I don't know why I asked him that. His eyebrows curled high on his forehead.
"Repeat that, please."
"When I become a woman, should I moan? Like Soledad, my role model?"
He stood up and paced away from me. His hands gripped the long hair on the top of his head and tugged. He turned and pinned me with his light eyes. "You heard us?"
I looked down, feeling terrible after accusing him like that. "You made her moan."