Dirty Souls (Sins Duet Book 2)

by Karina Halle

  It isn’t lost on her either how Javier is treating her more like a guest than anything. She’s not sure if he’s being delusional or just playing his usual game. He’s the cat, she’s the mouse, and it’s his style to toy with her for a bit, have a little fun.

  She’s not sure if pain and torture await her in the hut, but she is sure that Javier isn’t done with her yet. Not by a long-shot.

  “Here we are, Ellie,” Javier says while Barrera opens the door with a key card. High tech. Maybe it really is supposed to be a hotel.

  The lights flick on.

  He wasn’t kidding, it is pretty nice in here.

  Terracotta tile floors connect a small dining area and kitchen with two bedrooms and a bathroom. Big windows are all around, plus what looks to be French doors leading out to a lanai.

  It’s only if you look closely that you realize there’s a difference to the room. All windows have bars on them, probably coupled with unbreakable glass. All furniture seems to be glued into the floor.

  Ellie automatically looks around for the nearest escape route and the closest weapon, but finds neither. She’s certain none of the cupboards hold any plates, utensils, anything at all. There are no lamps. There’s absolutely nothing you could use to hurt another, other than brute force and that’s something Ellie lacks. She’s tough and in shape but she’s not sure she could take on Javier, even if he was weaponless.

  Doesn’t mean she won’t try, though.

  And as they stop in the middle of the hut, Javier’s eyes follow hers.

  “You’ll be free to do what you wish in here. There’s water, coffee. I’m sure we can bring you food later. Luisa has a few trees here that give the best bananas and avocados you’ve ever tasted. I guarantee.”

  Right. The wife. She oughta be a work of art, Ellie thinks, hoping though that Luisa has a shred of conscience and won’t hurt Violet.

  Violet.

  She can’t let Javier forget why she’s here, even though she knows that’s what he’s trying to do.

  Javier watches her for a moment, thinking, then looks to Barrera. “I’ll take it from here. Perhaps go check on Vicente and Violet.”

  Ellie snaps to attention. “They’re together?”

  Javier nods. “Si. We couldn’t keep those two apart. We tried, believe me. I know you tried too. But they’re something else. They put us to shame, don’t you think?”

  Ellie sucks in an impatient breath, trying to play her cards right, but she’s starting to fail. Her weakness is showing. If she pushes too much, she won’t be able to see Violet. It’s Javier’s game and she has to play it his way. She knew that would be his strategy. He’d pretend for as long as he could that she was here because she wanted to be.

  “Si, patron,” Barrera says. He glances at Ellie with an expression she can’t read and then leaves.

  When the door shuts behind him, sealing them in, that’s when Ellie really starts to panic.

  She’s alone with Javier.

  Instinctively she takes a step back.

  Javier cocks his head, frowns. “You have nowhere to run Ellie. It’s just me and you now.” He licks his lips. “I have waited a long time for this.”

  “For what?”

  “To see you again. Don’t tell me you haven’t felt the same way.”

  Her look hardens. “You know why I’m here, Javier, so cut out the bullshit.”

  “Ah, there she is. The angry girl I know. I was wondering when you would show up.”

  “I showed up because you have my daughter. I am here to get her back.”

  “Yet you walked right up to my gate and asked for me,” he says, stepping toward her. “You asked for me because you wanted to see me.”

  “I don’t want to see you,” Ellie grinds out, trying to keep her rage in check. “I know it’s the only way I’ll save Violet.”

  “Again, I admire you, how protective you are over her,” he says. “Mind you, she doesn’t really need it. She’s tougher than you’ll ever be. Yet soft. Such a strange combination.”

  “Did she do this to you?” she gestures to his wound and wonders what would happen if she drove her fist in there. Surely it would stun him.

  “No, that was Vicente,” he says.

  She looks at him in surprise. “Vicente?”

  A flash of something hot and sour comes across Javier’s eyes. It’s painful for him to talk about it, she can see this. “You know kids. They don’t listen to their parents.”

  Don’t even think about relating to him, she tells herself and goes back to focusing on his wound.

  Before she can say something else, Javier reaches out and grabs her by her hair, making a fist in it, holding it tightly.

  Ellie cries out as he pulls her right against him and leers down at her.

  “Don’t even think about it,” he whispers harshly, as if they aren’t alone. “I feel nothing right now except the satisfaction that you’re here. You try for the cheap shot and I have no problems in making things worse for you. I’d say the same for Violet, but I don’t think things can get worse for her. But we’ll see.”

  Her vision fills with pain and white hot rage. He doesn’t let go of her. His eyes stay latched on hers, burning away.

  “There is so much I want to talk to you about. So much I want to do. I don’t even know where to start.” His fist tightens, releasing a cry from her lips. “You do know you’re the villain in all of this, don’t you?”

  Ellie can barely speak. He shakes her, bringing her face up so it’s inches from his. She wishes she could look away but she’s caught in his eyes as she so often used to be. Not from the lust that used to plague her, or even the love that seems like it never happened, but from the sheer curiosity of what he’s going to do next.

  “You’re the villain,” he says again, seeming to compose himself. His grip loosens in her hair, her scalp throbbing with sweet relief. “I was fine. I had a good job, I had plans and goals. And you came into my life with your perfect tits and your blonde hair and your limp, god it was fucking adorable. I immediately wanted to both fuck you and protect you and I did that. I did. I would have done anything for you and you knew it.”

  He’s staring at her lips now, his hand sliding down to the back of her neck. She remembers very well how he used to hold her there possessively, even in public. “To think how easy it would have been to just spend the rest of my life with you. Marry you. Father your children. Back then, that’s what I assumed would happen. But you never saw it that way because the whole time you were with me, you were lying. It was all a lie. And then you left me.”

  Ellie knows she shouldn’t try and defend herself but she can’t help it. They’ve been over it a million times and it still won’t fucking die. “I caught you sleeping with someone else.”

  “It was just business. You know that.”

  She shakes her head. That’s what she gets for trying to get a word in, that’s what she gets for caring at a time like this.

  “You know I loved you, I really did,” Javier says. “But we were fools back then.”

  “Is that why you’re still obsessed over me, you never stopped being a fool?”

  “Perhaps, Ellie,” he says, his grip on her neck tightening. “But you never did pay for your crimes against me. That was just the first one. Then there’s the time you left me handcuffed to a fence so the feds could haul me off to jail.”

  “Don’t forget when I pulled the trigger.”

  “Ah yes. How could I? You tried to kill me. Wasn’t very nice of you. So you see, all of this that’s happening now, is because of you.”

  She exhales, trying to keep her wits with her and not get sucked into this spiral of the past. If Javier wants to brandish her a villain, he can go right ahead. “I just want you to let Violet go.”

  “Let Violet go?” he asks.

  She doesn’t like how surprised he looks.

  “You have me now,” she says. “Let her go. You’ve got what you want.”

  “No, no, n
o,” he says, releasing her and strolling away, hands behind his back. “That’s not how this works at all. You really thought this was a trade?” He looks over his shoulder at her. “My god, you still have quite the ego, don’t you?”

  She doesn’t understand. Stares at him, trying to figure out his reasoning, trying to quell the fiery coal of horror in her chest.

  He comes back to her, stops a foot away, crossing his arms across his chest. “If my own son begs for me to let her go and I don’t, why would I do it for you? No. You’re a nice bonus. A dream come true. Something I hoped would happen. But even if you never showed up, I still would have gotten my revenge.”

  “What revenge?” she whispers.

  “I lost because of you,” he says simply. “Now you must lose because of me.”

  Oh god.

  Oh fucking god.

  He means to kill her. He might mean to kill both of them. This isn’t at all what she thought would happen.

  He’s more savage than she ever could have ever predicted.

  And that was her fault. Cloudy memories. Lured by the past. Thinking he was bad, evil, wicked but still redeemable. Not an absolute monster.

  Her father was right.

  Time was an incubator for him.

  And here the monster was hatching.

  “Please, Javier,” she says, shaking her head. “Don’t do this. Don’t hurt her. Hurt me but let her go.”

  “I like it when you beg,” he says. “She never did.”

  Ellie tries to swallow. “Please.”

  He stares right into her eyes but his expression doesn’t change. She searches for an ounce of humanity but doesn’t find it.

  “You know, it’s not just about you either,” he says. “Vicente should have known better than to fall in love with her. I’m doing him a favor really. If she’s anything like you. It’s so much better, cleaner, that I break him before she does.”

  “You’re fucking crazy!” Ellie yells at him and without thinking slams her hands into his chest, pushing him backward. “You’ve lost your fucking mind, you sick fuck!”

  Javier stares at her in surprise before it switches over to anger, grabs her arm and throws her against the opposite wall. He pins her there, his body pressed against hers.

  “My mind has never been better,” he says roughly, practically hissing into her ear. “I’ve never been sharper. You just can’t see it because you happen to be on the losing end of this. For once. But what I’m doing will make everything better. For my family. For me. You would do the same if you had the fucking guts.”

  “I’m sorry it comes at your expense,” he goes on, tone softening as he pulls back slightly to gaze at her face. “Yeah. I actually am sorry for that.” He shrugs, as if surprised. “But I don’t feel bad for what I’m doing. I feel no guilt. This is how I’ve survived. You’ve made me into this man, the man I needed to be.”

  Ellie doesn’t know how to reason. How to bargain. How to beg.

  But she does it anyway. “Please.”

  “Please what?”

  “Let her go. You’ve won. I’ve lost. Let her go.”

  “And then what? Keep you here forever as what? My slave? My wife probably wouldn’t be happy about that. Or maybe she would. It’s hard to say with her, sometimes she surprises me.”

  She looks him dead in the eye. “I will do anything.”

  He smirks. “I know you will, Ellie. All in good time.” He slips one hand over to her waist, slides it underneath her tank top. Closes his eyes briefly. “You know the last time I was this close to you, we were in a similar situation. Do you remember?”

  Ellie closes her eyes, her body stiffening.

  “So you do,” he says. “You know I wonder if you still feel the same, taste the same.”

  His hand slips lower to the front of her jean shorts.

  He slowly undoes the button.

  Ellie swallows hard, feels his erection growing, pressing against her thigh.

  She is not at all surprised that this is where this is all going.

  But that doesn’t make her any less disgusted, any less scared.

  Which, again, is Javier’s whole point.

  “The only difference is we’re both married now,” Ellie manages to say, closing her eyes, hoping to ride it out, just as he unzips them, the sound echoing in the room.

  “Yes,” Javier says. “That is a big difference.” His fingers slip between her underwear and her skin, going lower. Her whole body tenses. “I wouldn’t dream of being unfaithful to her,” he goes on. “Oh, I’ve made mistakes in the past. Mistakes that never meant much but they hurt her, still.”

  “And you cared enough to stop?” she asks as his finger brushes over her clit. Luckily, thankfully, she feels nothing but anger. And humiliation. There’s that too.

  “Of course,” he says, his lips going to her neck. “I’m not an animal.”

  If there was anything funny about this, Ellie would laugh.

  He licks her from the base of her neck, all the way up to her jaw.

  She pinches her eyes even more shut, ready to sucker punch him.

  But then again, she did say she would do anything he wanted.

  As long as she got Violet back.

  It takes everything she has to stop herself from shuddering with horror.

  “This pussy used to be mine,” Javier says, reaching down further, rubbing around her entrance. “Do you remember how I used to fuck you? You were a fucking dirty angel, weren’t you? Would let me do whatever I wanted. I could choke you, fuck your sweet ass, you’d take my cock all fucking day. Fuck you so hard you’d feel it in your fucking throat. Wanted it, begged for it. Couldn’t get enough of it. Now look at you. I can’t even make you wet. You can make me hard though, but it’s mainly because I know how bad I’m making you feel right now.”

  He removes his hand and pulls down his sweat pants until his erection springs free, cock hot and throbbing as it’s pressed against her.

  Ellie tries to retreat to a better place inside her head.

  “And you’ll let Violet go if I let you do this?” she whispers.

  He pauses. “This?”

  “You’re going to fuck me, aren’t you?”

  He laughs. “Fuck you? Ellie. Have some respect. I just said I would never be unfaithful to my wife again. She means the whole fucking world to me. She’s the reason I do what I do. Why you’re even here. What’s the point in trying to rule the world if you have no one to rule it with?”

  Ellie’s eyes snap open. She’s relieved but unable to comprehend any of this. “What?”

  He reaches down and starts stroking his cock before slipping it back into his pants. “Sorry to get you all worked up.”

  “Fuck you,” she snarls at him, holding back the urge to grab his dick and twist it before jabbing her thumb into his eye. Javier, always playing the ultimate mind-fuck.

  He grins at her, delighting in how easily disturbed she is. “Ah, maybe in another life. For now, though, I’m just going to keep you here. I might even send my wife in, just so you know the woman I married. God forbid you actually get along.”

  Then Javier turns and strolls away toward the door.

  Ellie is too humiliated, angry and stunned to do anything but watch him go.

  He flicks his own keycard from his pocket and it opens. He glances at her over his shoulder. “I’m not even close to being done with you, Ellie Watt. This is only the beginning.”

  Then he steps out.

  Leaving her his prisoner.

  But as disturbing as that all was, Ellie refuses to feel hopeless.

  Whether Javier plans to let Violet go or not, Ellie will get her out.

  She knows this.

  And then there’s Ben, waiting in the jungle somewhere.

  Waiting for just the right time when everything he needs to line up gets lined up.

  She just prays the right time happens before it’s too late.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Vicente


  I’ve never had a lot of patience.

  I’ve tried to but it’s not something that comes naturally.

  In some ways I wonder if that will hamper me when it comes to running a cartel.

  In other ways, I realize my father has no patience either and if he can do it, so can I.

  I just know I won’t be running this cartel.

  Unless I kill him.

  And I hate to admit it, but that’s still a distinct possibility.

  It especially becomes one after I discovered what happened to Violet’s leg.

  She was trying so hard to hide that injury, even after what had happened to her wrist and her cheek. But every time she moved her leg, she’d wince in pain. The fabric of her pant leg brushing against the burns.

  She finally had to rip the pant leg off at the knee to let her skin breathe and be free.

  I nearly lost it.

  In fact, I did lose it.

  Seeing that pink and red skin bubbled up all over her calf and shin, knowing what had happened to her mother, made me lose all sense of control, all sense of right and wrong.

  I roared like a wild animal.

  I broke the chairs.

  Smashed the table.

  I ruined the room while Violet watched me with wide eyes.

  And then I fired the gun at the door.

  I had just enough control and skill to aim for the lock.

  The bullet blasted through it.

  That was supposed to happen.

  Eventually.

  When Violet had a bit of strength to make our escape.

  I pulled the literal trigger too early.

  But it doesn’t matter now.

  Because the door is open and I’m fueled by vengeance.

  I turn around and grab Violet by her bicep, helping her to her feet.

  “This is our chance,” I tell her. “Can you run?”

  She nods, frightened. “Yes.”

  “Okay. Stay behind me.”

  I take off for the door, pausing for a moment before kicking it wide open.

  The door swings back and I leap into the hallway, my gun drawn.