Torrez

by Bex Dane

  "And is she ready to run?" he asked who I assumed to be Zook.

  Was Cecelia ready to run? She was always too afraid. Would Zook coming here be enough to convince her? I hoped so. "Good to hear. Makes all this bullshit worth it."

  Yay! She was leaving with Zook, and I was leaving with Torrez! I sat up in the bed and watched Torrez pull on his tuxedo pants and shirt.

  "Sure." He sounded uncertain as he did up the buttons of his shirt. "Meet me in the garage in fifteen minutes. I'll have a car."

  Fifteen minutes? We had to hurry!

  I scrambled out of the bed and grabbed the closest item of clothing from my closet. The sheer dress I slipped over my head showed my nipples, but it was all I had for the moment and I was confused.

  He dropped his phone in his pocket and lifted a gun off the side table. He checked it before tucking it behind his back. A gun? How come I never saw it or felt it? When did he take it off? Was he wearing that when he ate me out a few hours ago?

  His eyes fell on me for the first time since he got out of bed. His whole demeanor had changed. The bright green in his eyes had dulled. No softness in his face, no sexy man. He was all Navy SEAL ready to take care of business. How lucky were Cecelia and I to have these two guys to help us escape?

  Doubt crept into my mind. Torrez was here for me, right? We hadn't had time to talk yet, but he wouldn't come for Cecelia and leave me behind, would he?

  "I have to go now." Torrez stood by the open window and slipped his arms into his jacket.

  "What?"

  "We're leaving early. Bye, princess." He propped one leg over the window sill.

  Leaving? "Wait. Wait. Come back. What about me? Aren't you taking me with you?" He froze with his shoulders hunched in the window frame, one foot out on the roof. "Take me with you."

  He swung his leg back over and stood by the window, staring at me. His eyes scanned my dress and my obvious nipples and moved back to my face. "You want to leave him?"

  Why was he asking this? Didn't he understand? We talked about it, right? "Of course. I've always wanted it." I guess we didn't discuss it. Darn. Why did I let the passion overtake me and not talk to him first? My stupid fantasies would get me killed one day.

  "Listen. I'm sorry if you're in a shitty situation with your husband, but I'm not your ticket outta here." His voice created a vast distance between us.

  My ticket out? Where did he get that idea? The spoiled princess in me reared her head and spat out something I didn't mean to say. "An honorable man would take me with him."

  Now I didn't know this man well, but anyone could read his face. The deep furrow growing in his forehead, his nostrils flaring, his green eyes turning dark emerald.

  His flat palm came up and pushed the air, like he was trying to ward off evil. "What do you know about honor? You ever fought in combat? You ever carried a dead brother through a hailstorm of bullets? You ever given up your dreams for someone you love? You know shit about honor. You've been hiding here in your palace where champagne flows from spigots. Don't talk to me about honor."

  Oh shoot. I said the wrong thing. I didn't mean to question his honor. Darn. Darn. This was going from awful to catastrophic fast.

  He huffed a short breath and pulled his shoulders back. The pain left his face and stinging bitterness took its place. I felt like the matador about to be scored by the sharp horns of an enraged bull. Finally, he spoke. "You set me up."

  Set him up? "What? No. I didn't..."

  "You set this whole thing up. How did I not see it? You want out of whatever fucked up situation you're in with Yegor, and you seduced me so I'd take you on."

  Oh my god, no. He thought I had planned this? I thought he planned this. "Zook's here to rescue Cecelia and you're here to rescue me, right? I mean, you have a gun and everything." It sounded pathetic when I said it out loud.

  "No." He spoke slowly, like I was stupid. "I have a weapon to provide backup for Zook. I didn't even know you'd be here."

  "But you came to my room."

  "To get information about Cecelia and the security in this place." His stone cold voice hit me like a smack. "The mission is extract Cecelia. Zook wasn't sure she'd be there last night, but she was. He's convinced her to leave with him. Now I need to go take his back. You are not part of the mission."

  Of course he wasn't here for me. He didn't even know me before last night. Why would he risk his life for a stranger? No one was ever coming for me. God, how could I be so naïve? I lost myself in a fantasy and totally misread everything.

  But Torrez and I had shared so much. He must've felt it too. I couldn't have mistaken his deep passion for… "Make me part of the mission. Please."

  I stepped to him and he took a step back.

  "You in on it with him?" he asked me.

  "In on what?"

  "You and Yegor sell women." He spoke low and deadly. "You sell yourself? You're a whore?"

  His words sliced sharp through my gut. He meant to hurt me. Last night it was fun. Now it cut deep into the wounds Yegor had etched into my soul. The outward physical bruises healed, but the shame scarred forever. Torrez didn't know what he was saying. No girl wants to be called a whore, but to me, it hurt so much more because Yegor had beaten me with the same words since I was seventeen. I froze and wrapped my arms around myself like Torrez had stabbed me. I made a mistake, but I didn't deserve this!

  "You're a lying, cheating whore."

  Oh god no. Stop. I'd triggered his attack mode. The vicious minotaur was preparing to destroy me.

  "You conned me good. Had me thinking you loved my cock. I know women like you. I was married to one. You'll fuck the next guy who rounds the corner and con him too to get what you want."

  "No." I dropped my head as tears flowed from my cheeks. "No." I spoke so quiet, he probably didn't even hear me.

  "I'm not taking you with me, you manipulative slut. Glad I used a fucking glove last night. Who knows what stank you're carrying in that cunt."

  I fell to my knees. Fire burned through me and singed me to the core. What he said wasn't true. He didn't understand. Nothing mattered. I was alone. Cecelia would be gone, and I'd be left behind with no chance of ever getting out. Even if we had time to talk, Torrez would never believe me. He'd made up his mind.

  When I looked up, he was gone. Only the curtain flailed in the breeze.

  ***

  I was crying in my bed when Yegor marched in an hour later.

  "Maksim is dead and Celiana is gone."

  "Gone?"

  "What do you know?"

  "Nothing. Nothing."

  "Did you hear an intruder?"

  "No. Nothing."

  His eyes narrowed. "Have you been crying?"

  "I was emotional after the ceremony. That's all."

  He stepped in and looked around my room. Luckily, I'd closed the window.

  "Where did Celiana go?" His words slurred, and he smelled like alcohol.

  "I don't know. I swear."

  "Liar!" He slugged my cheek and my knees collapsed.

  "Isolation then until you tell the truth."

  Chapter 4

  Soraya

  My hands shook as I stepped out of the taxi. The layer of sweat on my palms squeaked between my skin and the shiny blue surface of my American passport.

  An American passport for Soraya Merrington. The name I used in the States. A person who didn't exist. It didn't make any sense. My uncle, Ivan as he preferred me to refer to him, told me I was adopted as a baby from an American woman who lived here in Veranistaad. She was poor and dying from cancer when she gave me up for adoption.

  Ivan said because my mother was American, I was American too. I never knew her or my father, so I couldn't ask. I didn't question Ivan. He had warned against it, and I found it too painful to ask. But every time I signed my name Soraya Merrington, I wondered if that was my name before I was adopted.

  When Ivan told me I would marry his son Yegor, I cried all night. I didn't know him well because
I had been away at boarding schools, but I thought of him like a brother. I ran away before the wedding. Ran to the police station in Portul. They laughed at me and called Yegor to pick me up. That was when the beatings and shaming began. Yegor warned me with each strike "Never humiliate the family again." If I served my role, I'd be granted freedom to go to school wherever I wanted. I complied because I was scared and didn't want to leave Cecelia. She promised me we would escape once we had our degrees. We'd get new identities so Ivan couldn't find us. Since we'd been back, Cecelia had been too depressed to make plans. Thank God Zook came last week and forced her to leave.

  So now, ironically, I stood in front of the American Embassy with my American passport in my hands waiting to pick up my diploma from Hale University.

  I felt broken and terrified. Broken because my best friend and sister had been gone a week with no word. Broken by Torrez and the scornful wrath he bestowed upon me before he escaped out my window. I'd made a horrific mistake.

  And terrified because this felt wrong. Hale didn't deliver diplomas to embassies. They didn't send letters to the palace saying I must pick up my diploma in person and bring my passport. Cecelia and I graduated more than six months ago. I'd received my diploma in the mail before I left the States. So had she. And she didn't receive the letter from Hale instructing her to go on this wild goose chase of an errand I'd been sent on today.

  Yegor had questioned it. He came to the isolation room I'd been in for a week and asked me to explain. I couldn't because I didn't know anything about it. He was preoccupied dealing with funeral arrangements, publicity, and the business after the fallout of Maksim's death. Yegor barely looked at me and waved his hand for me to leave the isolation room. "Take Leonid. No side trips." He gave me my passport and Leonid drove me here.

  Nothing struck me as off on the street in front of the embassy. I felt Leonid's gaze on me as I scaled the steps up to the front gate. The guard sitting at the concierge desk in the vast white lobby looked up as I approached his window.

  "Uh, I'm Soraya Merrington." I set my passport on the counter, hoping he didn't notice the crumpled sweaty cover. "I'm here to pick up a letter from Hale University."

  He took my passport and typed into his computer. "Follow me." He stood and walked through thick double doors. My heart pounded as I followed him. The doors clicked shut, separating me from my world, locking me into another dimension.

  As he led me to a small sideroom, panic rose in my throat. He motioned for me to enter and left as the door closed behind me. This wasn't right. Why wouldn't he just hand me my diploma? Why did I have to go deep into the embassy?

  Inside the room, the back of a chair faced me. Tall suede work boots attached to huge legs crossed at the ankle rested on the desk. As the chair swiveled, closely shaved black hair, a killer jaw, and sparkling green eyes fixed on me.

  No.

  Torrez?

  My stomach plummeted like an elevator disconnected from its safety cables.

  He smirked at me.

  The elevator smashed into the bottom floor.

  Torrez came back? Why? To kill me?

  I spun and grabbed the door handle. It rattled. Locked. Shit! They locked me in here with a lunatic? Holy crow.

  I'm going to die.

  He must've gotten out of his chair fast because his arm around my waist pulled me back before I even tried to unlock it.

  The scream I let out died against the thick wooden door. The room had no windows. Only a desk and a chair. "Help!" I stretched my upper body forward and banged the door. "Help."

  He lifted me up and my feet kicked in the air.

  Think, Soraya. Self defense.

  What weapons did I have? I bent my leg and jabbed the spike of my heel into his knee.

  "Ow, fuck."

  Good. I hurt him. I bent my other leg to get him again…

  Whoosh!

  His immense body had me pinned to the floor, my face smashed to the cool tile.

  "Calm the fuck down." His mouth hovered right by my ear.

  Holy crow. He's not here to kill me. He's going to rape me.

  "No! Don't touch me. Help!" I struggled to get my hands underneath me but he grabbed them in his big mitts and immobilized me.

  "Settle down."

  "Argh!" His hands wrapped around my wrists like manacles and held mine to the floor on either side of me. I bucked my hips but he didn't budge. Heavy as a boulder. Was the man made of granite?

  "I'm not gonna hurt you." I could hear the forced patience in his tone.

  Fear still roiled in my stomach. "Yeah, right. You're gonna kill me or rape me."

  "I am not," he spat back.

  I wanted to believe him. First because I didn't want to be killed or raped, but also because the remnants of the naïve child deep inside me still held hope.

  He could be here for me.

  I stopped fighting and let my limbs go limp. "You're not?"

  "No." He dragged out the word like it was obvious.

  "Why are you here then?" I didn't want it to but darn, darn, hope reared its head and smiled.

  He could be here for me.

  "You done fighting so we can talk?"

  Was I? I still felt like fighting but I also wanted him off me. Because Torrez Lavonte's massive body on mine felt so good. All his power and strength over me. Now that I knew I wasn't going to die or get raped, I could enjoy the feel of his hard chest on my back, his breath in my ear, his chuckle…

  "Don't laugh at me."

  "You're funny." He didn't lift his weight as he enjoyed a laugh at my expense.

  "I am not funny." Idiot. "Get off me, you big oaf."

  His chest lifted but his hands stayed tight around my wrists. "No more screaming?"

  "Fine." God, get this man off me.

  The rest of his weight left me, and cold air pricked my skin where his heat had been. I took in a big breath since he wasn't crushing my lungs anymore. He offered me his hand but I ignored it. Not touching him again. Ever.

  I fixed my clothes and glared at him. Damn, his eyes glowed pretty in these lights. I'd forgotten how bulky he was. His dark jeans and a gunmetal gray Henley hugged all his bumps and curves. Torrez was a huge, gorgeous man. "Tell me why you're here." Crush my hopes before they take flight.

  He ran his hand over his head and pierced me with those green eyes and a repentant grin. "You still want out?"

  He was messing with me again. Leading me on only to crush me. "Out of what?"

  "Your marriage. This place." He looked up at the ceiling, but he meant Veranistaad. Well, I wasn't giving in so easy. He'd have to work for it if he was here for me.

  "What business of that is yours?"

  "You told me you wanted out. Cecelia and Zook filled me in on the details of what's happening here."

  "And what do you think is happening here?"

  "You were forced to marry Yegor. He treats you like a slave."

  The word hurt. We hadn't been called that before but that was what we were, Cecelia and I. We had freedom when we were at school, but it was all a temporary facade contingent on us ultimately coming back here and playing our roles.

  "I'm not a slave."

  "Do you have any freedom? Can you leave when you want?"

  "Yes." I lied.

  "You're lying."

  "I could leave if I chose."

  "Then why haven't you?"

  That question drove me insane. When something is beaten into you from a young age, and your first few attempts to escape fail, getting up the courage to try again seems impossible. I had a plan. I was about to implement it when Zook showed up. Then Yegor locked me up for a week and now we were here, facing the ugly truth. I hadn't escaped yet. I was twenty-three. I'd been under Ivan and Yegor's control for thirteen years, and I had not made the giant leap to leave.

  He answered for me. "Because Yegor would chase you down and beat you, shame you, kill you?"

  He knew. No point in lying to him now. I nodded. Embarrassed. "I ha
ve tried to escape. He finds me and brings me back. Only so many times a girl can take a verbal and physical beating before she gives up."

  His eyes softened and his head dipped. "You don't deserve that. It's not right. Leave with me. Today. He won't find you."

  There it was. Torrez came for me.

  "Private jet waiting at the airport. I'll take you to Boston. Protect you from him."

  A tense pause stretched out between us as we stared each other down. His offer was very tempting. But he'd also treated me like shit a week ago, proving he couldn't be trusted.

  "You shouldn't have come all this way." I turned away from him to create more space between us. I needed a buffer. Why did he have to be so gorgeous and such an ass? If this was all some sick kind of trick to strike me down again...

  "Pardon?"

  I had made it back to the door. If I unlocked it, I could make it to Leonid. Torrez might chase me, but at least I'd get out of this room. Maybe the clerk would help me or Leonid would see me running. But then Leonid would shoot Torrez, and as much as I hated him, I didn't want that. "You wasted a trip. You should've stayed in the States with Cecelia and Zook and left me here."

  His brow wrinkled and he took a slow step closer to me. "I never left."

  I paused with my hand on the doorknob. "What do you mean?"

  "I've been here a week. Never left you, Soraya." His voice was soft and gentle.

  He never left? Well that was nice. Hope sprung up again. Maybe he really was here for me. "Regardless, I can't trust you and therefore, I cannot put my life in your hands."

  "Why can't you trust me?"

  "Men can't be trusted. American, Veranistaadian, pretty much anyone with a cock, you can't trust."

  His eyes widened. "What are you afraid I'll do to you?"

  "Oh, I don't know. Disappear. Leave me standing alone in the snow. I may be treated like a slave, but at least I have shelter and food. Why would I leave with a man who thinks I'm a whore?"

  He took another step toward me. "Listen…"