Isa wasn't in bed but curled up in the chair. Her head leaned on her shoulder as she slept. I'd need to remember to change the bedding when I brought her food in a little while. The blood clearly made her uncomfortable, and I could imagine it would take some time for her to get as used to it as I'd become at a young age.
I wouldn't flinch at the sight of blood, but even I wouldn't want to sleep in a bed stained with it.
I picked my cell phone up off the desktop, dialing Ryker's number and waiting for Matteo's famed executioner to answer the phone. It was early evening in Spain, meaning that Ryker wouldn't want to kill me for calling since it wasn't as early as it would have been had I called when I first wanted to.
"How's Isa?" he asked in lieu of a greeting.
"Distressed," I admitted.
"I take it your plan didn't work out so well?" he asked, a low whistle as he followed the line of thought. "She'll come around if she's really meant to be yours. Just treat her right and give her some time."
"Like you gave Calla?" I asked, pursing my lips as he chuckled.
"Fair enough. Just treat her right and everything else will follow. You're a sick bastard, Rafael. Don't take it out on her that she never stood a chance," he said. "If you want her to love you, you can't treat her like she's one of your marks and torture her into it."
"I didn't call you for relationship advice," I growled. "I'll treat her well enough that my agreement with Matteo will be met. I've no interest in abusing her."
"If you didn't call for advice, then what the fuck do you want?"
"I want you to find the cop who filed the accident report when Isa fell in the river. She's hiding something, and I want to know what."
"And if he's not on Matteo's payroll and doesn't want to talk? What would you like me to do?"
"I don't give a fuck who you have to kill, but I want answers. I want to know what really happened and not the bullshit cover story of a girl falling into the river."
He paused. "Matteo won't like that. I'll see what I can find out and go from there," he said, trying to appease the monster clawing at the surface. Over sixteen months had passed, and I was still no closer to understanding why Isa felt so obligated to her family or why her sister hated her so much.
"Fine," I snapped, hanging up the phone. I should have worked. I had shit to catch up on if I wanted to be able to spend quality time with Isa when she was ready to get more acclimated to her new life.
Instead, I snuck into the bedroom and changed the bedding while she slept. Then I tucked her into bed while she protested my touch on her in her sleep.
Like being stabbed in the chest, I fled the room before she became fully lucid. Leaving her to sleep alone for a few hours before I joined her.
I had a feeling she'd need the rest with the days coming our way.
7
Isa
My eyes fluttered open as the weight at my back shifted and Rafael's arm drifted off my waist. Feeling like I'd slept forever, I rolled to my back as slowly as possible. As my head turned to look at him, I half expected to find the shock of his eyes meeting mine.
Instead his remained closed, his breathing even as he slept. The shards of glass he'd left on the nightstand still remained, and I wondered at the level of trust he placed in me by sleeping soundly with a weapon so close by.
The smart choice would be to stab him while he slept. To rid the world of a monster and escape him once and for all.
But I proved I'd never been smart when I turned my gaze away from the glass, unable to even consider the reality of killing him. As horrible as he was, a world without Rafael in it seemed…
Empty.
Even if we weren't together, I didn't want to exist in a world where his overwhelming presence didn’t exist. Where I didn't think back to Ibiza and wonder if I'd see him if I returned.
He'd made doing that impossible. But that didn't mean I could kill him and the fantasy of it all at once.
Instead, I sat up in bed slowly. Swinging my legs over the side, I stood on the hardwood floor and ignored the pain making my feet throb. Keeping my eyes on him as I backed away from the bed, I didn't make the same mistake I'd made the first time I tried to sneak out in the night. I didn't waste time grabbing shoes, just moved straight for the door and turned the knob slowly. Keeping my body as relaxed as I could, I pulled it open and stepped into the doorway just as the bed creaked behind me and I froze solid.
"Are you going somewhere, Princesa?" he asked, echoing the same words he'd spoken what felt like a lifetime ago. With my heart in my chest, I turned my head to look back at him. Sitting on the bed with his feet on the floor, with his hands curled around the edges of the mattress violently as he studied me. With his face tilted down in the shadows of the night, all I saw was the vividness of his eyes as he watched me.
Like a panther staring out from the darkness, daring his prey to play a game with him.
I turned and ran down the hallway, nearly stumbling over my own feet in my panic to escape him. The house was enormous, a maze of hallways that I had to navigate.
City blocks with chess pieces flashed in my mind, driving me forward. Rafael followed me, his hands tucked into the pockets of his black silk pajama bottoms as he walked quickly to keep up. But there was no stress on his face.
Only confidence, and the realization made me stumble as I emerged from the labyrinth of back hallways to a main room. There was a kitchen and a dining room, and an enormous living area. The door loomed at the front of the house, calling to me as I sprinted across the open space. My bare feet slapped against the wood floors, sounding too loud in the silence of the night. When I grabbed the doorknob in my hand and turned it frantically, I dared a glance back at Rafael as he walked toward me.
He stopped in the middle of the room, tilting his head to the side as I fumbled with the locks.
"Remember what happens when I catch you, Princesa," he murmured, the words striking me across the distance between us. When the lock finally turned, I pulled the door open and sprinted into the night, despite the terror that built in my body from his words.
His warning that day at the waterfall echoed in my head, the question of what he would do loud and clear as I ran through the pavilion at the front of the house. There wasn't a person in sight as I raced down the hill, the pavement tearing open the wounds on my feet as the bandages slipped free. The driveway took me down a hill, making me stumble as I tried to slow my pace and not land on my face.
Still, he followed behind me at his brisk walk. His features stayed calm, his arrogance making me feel more panicked.
He knew something I didn't know, and whatever it was, I was left with the distinct impression I'd walked right into a trap.
"Somebody help me!" I screamed, the sound fading into the night when nobody returned my plea. I kept running, turning right on the road at the bottom of the driveway.
I ran, and I ran, and then I ran some more, until fatigue threatened to overtake me.
Until Rafael's presence at my back became a certainty that he would catch me, whereas before I'd had a distant hope. Just as my body sagged and desolation threatened to claim me, I stumbled into a village where people lurked outside despite the late hour. They drank in groups, celebrating among themselves as I burst into the streets between their houses. "Help," I gasped, laying my hands on my knees as I tried to breathe. "He's chasing me. Please," I begged.
Hope bloomed in my chest even as I struggled not to collapse to the ground in the middle of the street. People meant safety, but a glance back at Rafael confirmed he just stared at me intently. Never breaking his fixation on me or bothering to hide his presence for fear of the repercussions.
"El Diablo," the people around us murmured oddly, bowing their heads with a glance at Rafael. I knew I'd heard the words before, but as I pressed onward to find someone who would help me, I couldn't stop to think about them. Nobody moved to help me, only turning their attention to where Rafael hovered at my back, his face menacing and cr
uel as he watched me beg for help. One woman stepped up to him, turning her eyes to me worriedly as she spoke to him in Spanish.
He shook his head, and she ducked into her home and left me to my fate. I choked back a sob as true helplessness claimed me, turning and sprinting up the hill that the town street climbed up. "Please!" I screamed with a broken sob, waiting for someone to help me.
But as I reached the end of the town, everyone disappeared inside their homes and abandoned me to Rafael's fate. I stumbled, my bloodied feet slipping along the stone. I pushed myself up and continued up the hill, until the little town was lost to the darkness behind me and there was only the night and trees to either side of the road. It turned to dirt, fading into a space with nothing surrounding it as I climbed as quickly as I could. When I reached the top of the hill, I stopped, staring around in horror.
From the tallest vantage point, I remembered what Rafael had told me about living on a remote island. I'd thought the words a lie, assumed it was just another one of many he'd told me in our time together. Instead, I stared out at the darkness of the Mediterranean as I spun.
There was nothing. Just nothing but the water to surround us. The small town below was lit with lights and Rafael's home illuminated another part of the island just below where I stood. I could make out the pool in the back and realized I'd have saved myself a lot of time and running if I'd just gone out the back door.
There was just nothing, and the people who lived here weren't inclined to help me. They were determined to obey Rafael and leave me to my fate.
I turned to face him as he strolled up and over the crest of the hilltop, his cold face appearing as his eyes landed on mine.
My heart stalled in my chest, because I knew what came next.
And there was nowhere left to run.
8
Rafael
Her chest sunk, her body dropping as if she might fall where she stood. She caught herself, her bottom lip trembling as tears trailed down her flushed cheeks. I'd known the moment I went to bed that I'd taken my life in my hands by leaving the shards there.
I needed to know what Isa would do, given a choice, and the fact that, despite all I'd done, she couldn't bring herself to truly hurt me spoke volumes about the feelings that still consumed her.
They were just hidden beneath the surface of her anger. Of her fear.
She'd chosen to run instead, proving something I wanted to show her. Something she needed to discover for herself.
No matter what she did, or where she tried to go, there would be no getting off El Infierno without my knowledge. If I wanted it that way, she would never leave the fucking island again.
"Do you understand now, mi princesa?" I asked, slowly closing the distance between us. She backed up a step, as though she might try to flee again. Stopping herself at the last possible moment, a ragged moan tore from her lips as she forced her body to be still despite the fear waging war on her body.
"Why wouldn't they help me?" she asked. The innocence in the question tugged at whatever remained of my heart. My poor Isa was so naïve to the ways of the world, so lost with the wide eyes of her youth, that she didn't realize the simple truth that drove our world to spin.
People were selfish. She'd spoken the words to me once, but now she would fully understand the truth of it. "Because I put food on their table. Because I am El Diablo, and they worship me as their King."
Her legs shook as she fought to remain upright, pushing through her fear of what was coming as I closed the distance between us. She jolted when I reached up a hand to cup her cheek, running my thumb through the tears on her cheekbones as she turned stunning eyes to mine.
They were always vibrant, but they intensified when she cried, turning a bottled green that women everywhere would envy.
"I own this island. I own the people. If I wanted, they would watch me slaughter you and not so much as move a muscle to help you. There is nobody who can save you from me, Princesa. It is time to come to terms with your new life." She didn't move as I touched my other hand to her hip, sliding my fingers inside the hem of her t-shirt.
Her eyes danced with movement as her brain tried to find an escape. As she frantically fought against the truth she now knew.
She'd be mine until her dying breath, and then I would chase her into the afterlife.
"Why are you doing this?" she murmured, her voice quivering as she asked the question. I slid my hands down to her thighs, grasping her around the backs of them and lifting her into my arms. "I don't understand what I did."
She was so close to breaking, so close to the point of no return where I needed to put her in order to rebuild her the way she'd always been meant to be. Anger pulsed in my body, uncontrollable and all consuming, but with her hollow eyes on mine and the sight of her lips quivering in my face, I lowered her to the ground more gently than I might have.
I wanted to shove her body into the tree and ravage her, to show her everything I would take and all that she would give me willingly. Instead, I placed her on the ground carefully and sealed my weight over hers.
The lights of the village twinkled out slowly as my people went to bed for the night, forced into their homes earlier than they might have planned because of Isa’s moonlit run.
She couldn’t possibly know they’d been celebrating my return with my bride to be in tow. That El Diablo would finally have his heirs to continue the Ibarra legacy and give them the stability I’d been unable to provide without Isa.
I touched a hand to her hair, brushing it back gently as I pushed her legs wider and settled my hips between them. She flinched back from the touch, her body able to feel the violence barely restrained in me.
The time would quickly come when I showed Isa what it could mean to be with me. If she didn’t want to accept the man, then the nightmare would fuck her in the dirt and break her body into submission.
The choice was hers to make.
"I knew the moment I saw you that you would be my wife," I murmured. Her eyes widened at my words, and I wondered how they could come as a surprise. My intention to get her pregnant should have been enough to communicate to Isa that this was not a temporary situation for me.
"But I don't want to be your wife. I just want to go home." The words faded, the melancholy sound like that of a woman as she realized her home was gone. That it had been destroyed, and in a way it had.
It would never be her home again.
The shorts clinging to her sweat-slicked body kept me from touching what was mine. I grasped her around the back of her thighs, lifting her legs and ass off the ground to rest against my body. Sliding my hands into the elastic waistband, I pulled them down and over her ass while she stared up at me.
"You will never try to leave me again. I am sure you can see that it is pointless now," I said, watching as she nodded slowly. The movement was as hesitant as I would have expected, as if she was barely there.
Drifting away in the ocean, lost to the tide of my possession.
It would take the flames of Hell to bring her back to life, to resurrect her as Mi Reina so she could withstand the fires to stand by my side.
I dragged the shorts up and over the tops of her thighs as she watched me, blinking up at me in her shock. Tossing them to the side, I shoved her legs back down to part around me so that I could lean forward and pull the collar of her tank top down until her breasts spilled free.
I placed her bandaged hands on my chest, longing to feel her bare skin on me. To feel the torn flesh of her hands as she touched me and know that the marks on her skin were mine.
That they were part of us, for better or worse.
Even as I wanted her to look at me as if I was the man she'd fallen in love with in Ibiza, I couldn't deny the appeal of knowing she saw the darkness in me. That she stared in the face of the nightmare and held her ground where others might have continued to run. Isa could play innocent all she wanted, but she'd always seen hints of the darkness in my eyes.
She'd seen i
t, felt it against her skin, and she’d welcomed it with open arms. Like coming home to the place her soul was always meant to belong.
She didn't speak, just stared up at me with teary eyes as she shook her head from side to side. I knew there was nothing left she could say as she tried to work her way through the inescapable nature of her life with me, but accepting it was the first step in our battle toward happiness.
I reached between our bodies, dragging the waistband of my pajama shorts down until my cock sprung free in the gap. I notched my head against her clit, dragging it through her pussy and rubbing up and down through her until I was wet with the arousal she wouldn’t want to acknowledge.
The brokenness faded from her eyes, the little demon rising in response to my attempt at sweet seduction. Isa had never been one to simply let me make love to her, instead preferring to push me until I couldn't resist the temptation to take her roughly. To push her past the limits she'd probably thought she had for herself.
But there were no limits to what I would do to Isa. No parts of her that I wouldn't claim as mine.
Even understanding that the defiance came from a place of not wanting sweet and romantic from a man she was determined to hate, that it was a defense mechanism as strong as any, I still felt nothing but frustration as I met her glare with one of my own.
"I did warn you what would happen if I caught you, Princesa," I warned as I lined my cock up and drove inside her. She screamed as I filled her, crying out into the night with the violence of my possession.
I covered her body with mine, shoving myself as deep as I could go in my attempt to fuse our bodies together. If I could spend my life inside her, I would.
I never wanted to be anywhere else.
Until Forever Ends: A Dark Mafia Romance Page 5