“Stand.” Pressure pushed into back and I closed my eyes, tightening my jaw. Slowly, I stood, glancing back over my shoulder. Just one man. I didn’t give him time to react. I grabbed the barrel of the AK 47 and pulled it toward me, only to slam it into his face. Fire in my shoulder nearly brought me to my knees and I fought against the lightheadedness as I lunged forward and spun the man around, twisting his neck and letting him fall to the ground. Fuck. Stars danced in front of my eyes and I knew I had reopened the wound. It had been a graze at the top of my shoulder, but a damn deep one. It had taken me awhile to get it to stop bleeding and I was still feeling the effects of blood loss. Not to mention hunger and dehydration.
A radio went off quietly and I looked down at the man’s belt where it was attached. If I didn’t get out of here fast, all hell was going to break loose. I grabbed my bag and the phone from the ground and started jogging at a fast pace toward the area where I’d parked the car. I looked down and hit Elle’s number, bringing it to my ear. Ringing was ended by an out of breath voice. One that sent my heart racing. I hadn’t expected her to answer.
“Gaige?”
“Elle, God, where are you?”
“I’m in Mexico. Where are you? We’ve all been looking for you.”
Shit. Panic had the pain increasing and warmth was already soaking through my stained shirt. I forced myself faster. “You have to leave. Tell me you’re with Mr. Viceroy.”
“I am, but what’s going on? Where are you? Let us know so we can come get you. Please.” The last word was the most heart wrenching plea I’d ever heard. Not keeping communication was the biggest mistake I could have made. She may have been with my boss, but I still didn’t feel safe with her so close.
“I’m a few miles from Marco’s. Tell me where you’re stay—” I broke through the trees and slid to a stop at the group of men surrounding the car. All of their guns were trained on me and I spun to run back, but there were already men coming up from behind. “Fuck. I have to go, baby. Listen to me closely,” I said, walking to the side. “I’m in trouble. Some men are going to take me.” They were already rushing forward, shouting threats in Spanish. “I love you, Elle. God, I’m fucking sorry.” Marco had found me. Not her. And he was going to use it to his advantage. Everything became so clear in that moment and I could have cursed myself.
The phone was ripped from my hand and the butt of the weapon was slammed into the side of my head. Light faded and I felt myself land on my knees. I knew I was beginning to fall forward, but all I heard was Elle’s screams through the speaker. Softer they grew until they faded out completely. Darkness consumed me and I was powerless to fight it.
****
Voices broke through, distant and muffled. A very familiar voice became distinguishable. I blinked, my heavy eyes only able to detect a flash of blurred colors before they closed again. A musty smell hung in the air and cold hardness rested below me. Flashes of a scene played in my mind and I scrambled to decipher the rush of men. I knew it was important, but I couldn’t make sense of what I was seeing. Then screaming. A woman’s voice.
“Elle.” The name came out of my mouth almost unrecognizable. My eyes opened again and a dim room slowly came into focus. The walls were bare. Dirt, I suddenly realized. My head lifted and the legs of a chair registered not far away. Dark slacks walked into my line of sight and I tilted my neck back to see Marco staring down. The kick to the face had bright colors blinding me and rolling me to my back.
“I’ve been waiting so long to do that.” He leaned down, pulling me up to stand. For a lean man, he was a lot stronger than I gave him credit for. My legs almost gave out, but I fought against my weak limbs and throbbing head.
“Get your fucking hands off of me.” I jerked from his grasp, noticing three men to the side of the room with their guns aimed right at me. One looked familiar and I remembered the picture of the undercover agent Crux had slid across the table and shown me. I glanced back to Marco, a smile coming to my face. I might die, but he’d go down for it. “So, what is this? A man can’t go on a hiking trip in this country without getting beaten and kidnapped, or is this a special occasion?”
“Cut the bullshit,” Marco said, glaring. “I know who you are. You took my wife for your own and I want her back.”
My mouth twisted and I moved to the side, more to put my back to the wall. I didn’t want any surprises. If someone came near me I could take care of them myself. It was the guns that changed the game. But only from a distance. Up close, it’d become mine.
“Sorry, I can’t do that. And you’re wrong, you know. She’s not my wife.” My smile got bigger. “Not yet, at least.” The wideness of my lips being spread had the ache in my cheek increasing.
His nostrils flared and he took a step closer. “Not ever,” he said, his voice shaking with suppressed violence and hatred.
“Wrong.” I glanced toward the agent and the other two men who were still standing at the far end of the room. “You know, Marco. For someone who took a kidnapped girl away from the only life she’d ever known, only to beat, enslave, and rape her, I can’t believe you have the audacity to call her your wife. She’s your victim. Not your spouse.”
The speed at which his arm raised was shocking, but nothing I couldn’t handle. I caught his wrist, spinning his around. My other arm wrapped around his neck, pulling him against me as I pushed up against his hand, bringing it closer toward his head. A grunt came from him and he tried to pull away from me. The feeling from the wound on my shoulder was nauseating, but I blocked the pain away as much as I could. The men rushed to the middle of the room and I flexed my bicep tighter around his neck, cutting off the air.
“Let go of me or I tell them to shoot.”
I waited for the agent to break away from the other two. To come to my aid, but he didn’t. I squeezed even more, knowing he was skirting along the edge of unconsciousness. The men grew closer and began to shout.
“Let go,” Marco choked out.
“I love her, you know,” I whispered into his ear. “I’ll never let you have her. And if you think there’s no distance I’m willing to go to save or prove it to her, you’re wrong.” I moved the hand I was holding his wrist with over to his index finger, and snapped it to the side, breaking it. His body thrashed weakly as he fought and tried to yell.
One of the men broke to the left and the other on the opposite end followed suit, moving to my right side.
“Let him go, or we shoot,” the man said in English.
There was no doubt in my mind he was telling the truth. I let go, shoving him forward to go sprawling across the ground like the piece of shit he was. Coughing wracked his body as he tried to suck in air. My eyes cut over to the agent. There was something behind his gaze, but I had no idea what it was.
“Lock him into the chair.” Marco’s voice sounded raw as he pushed to his feet. Dust billowed out around him while he slapped at the dirt covering his clothes. The rage was evident, but so was the fear. I let it feed me as I noticed the two men at my sides didn’t move. Only the agent came forward, pulling at my shirt and slamming me into the bolted down chair. Rope weaved around me, binding my chest to the back and my feet to the thick wooden legs. I held eye contact as much as I could, somehow trying to get him to see that I knew who he was.
“I’m going to call Elizabeth and you’re going to tell her it’s over between the two of you. You’ll convince her she needs to come home to me.”
It was almost laughable. I gave Marco a disgusted look. “You don’t seriously believe she’s just going to hop on a plane and fly back to your abusive arms, do you? Certainly, you don’t think she’s that stupid.”
“You’re going to make her want to!” His fist slammed against my cheek, once, then a second time. The second blow landed right where he’d kicked me and my whole world shifted at the pain. He stepped back, shaking the hand he’d hit me with while he somewhat held his injured one close to his chest. My phone appeared as he pulled it from his pocket an
d stared down, pressing buttons, taking his time looking through it.
“No pictures of the two of you?” He glanced up. “I would have thought your phone would be overflowing with memories. You say you love her. I don’t see any evidence that you do.”
I kept quiet. There was no use arguing with him. Elizabeth wasn’t there for one reason. And he was standing in front of me.
“I guess I don’t have to ask which number is hers. Smart not programming them in, but I’m going to venture out and say the last person you called was my wife.” He took out another phone, switching mine to his injured hand and using his good one to dial. I smiled, keeping quiet as he hit the speakerphone button.
“Dave and Diablo’s Pizza. Will this be dine in or carry out?”
Marco’s eyebrows drew in. He hung up and dialed the next number from his phone. A sexy voice came over the line.
“Hi there, big boy. I’ve been waiting for you to call. For the low price of two-ninety-nine a minute, I can make your wildest—” He hung up, glaring up at me. He moved down the list, dialing the third number.
“Barry’s Dry Cleaners.”
Marco hung up and dropped his hand. There was no way he’d get ahold of Elle by calling those fake numbers. The phone was programmed to change them randomly after the call was connected and it never stored the real one in its true form. Not even if I missed the call.
“Very clever trick.” He put the phones back in his pocket. “Mr. Sullivan, is it? Gaige…Sullivan. Son of Maggie and Stephen.” He smiled. “Brother to Carson Sullivan. The Carson Sullivan I’ve heard so much about all these years.”
My hands clenched.
“You see, I’ve known who you are for quite some time. Actually, I suspected it before you even disappeared with my Elizabeth. It’s in the eyes, you know. The way you would looked at her. Such…anger. Yet there was something more. Pride, maybe? I saw that look once. It was followed by an expression that set who you were into stone for me. It was horror.”
He walked more directly in my path. “When you saw Elizabeth cuffed to the bed, bruises all over her body, you made the same exact expression as he did when I pointed my gun right between his eyes. You were unprepared for what you were seeing, much like he was. Yet, you outsmarted me by taking her when you did. I had every intention of you showing up the next morning so I could kill you then. Have your blood splatter all over my tile floor, just like his did on the road. It felt good to knock him to the ground and then pulled the trigger. Such a beautiful spray blood leaves behind. Each one different, yet the same.”
My anger melted away as if I were doused in ice water. “You’re such a liar, Marco. I bet even you believe what comes out of your mouth. You never knew who I was when I was at your house. If you did, you would have killed me on the spot. And I know you’re lying, because when you realized there was someone at the door who wasn’t me, all that was on your mind was the only thing you love. Money. You thought by me showing up that night, you’d be able to get more. There was no suspicion on your behalf, just jealousy. You knew who the better man for her was. And it wasn’t you.” I continued before he could say anything. “I’m curious. When you saw us together in Tahoe, was it evident how much she loved me? Did you get a good glimpse of how much I love her? I bet it blew you away to see two people so into each other that nothing else mattered. You never even came close to having that with her. I’m going to just guess here, but I bet you were really pissed, huh?” Two could play his game and I knew I was making things worse, but I wanted him to see what he could never have. Elle belonged to me. Body and mind. And it was the same with her. She owned me completely.
Marco spun to the side, grabbing the knife from one of his mens’ belt. “You brainwashed her,” he said, lunging forward and pressing the edge against the side of my neck. “Had I known you were going to be there, I would have killed you then. Right there on those fucking steps. I would have made her bathe in your blood before I laid her down right in it and fucked her like the whore she is.”
Stinging traveled across my skin, followed by the tickling of blood running down to the collar of my shirt.
“That’s a little sick, don’t you think? To fuck her in my blood?”
The hit got the blade away from my throat, but my eye took the brunt of his anger.
“I’m about to show you sick. When I get done carving you up, you’ll look just as unrecognizable as the rest.”
“More sex slaves?” I threw in.
He laughed. “No. I just fucked a few of those before I sold them to the highest bidder. I killed people who thought they could outsmart me. Like you thought you did.” He pointed the knife in my direction when a phone rang. He paused, hesitating before pulling his and mine from his pocket. A smile came to his face and he flashed the screen in my direction, his finger crooked to the side as he balanced the other with the knife. “If it’s her, you tell her to come home. Or else.” He left the threat open as he shoved his phone in his pocket and hit the button.
“Gaige?” A sob echoed loudly around the room. “Gaige, are you there? Talk to me, please. Are you hurt?”
My lips pressed together and I turned my head away, sick that this was the exact situation I was in with Crux, only now I was on the other end. It was what had drove me temporarily mad with revenge. If Elle heard me get killed…no. I couldn’t think about that.
“Gaige!” She yelled, crying even harder.
“I’m fine,” I said, calmly. “I…” Marco’s hand motioned and I knew what he wanted to me to say, but I couldn’t do that. “Do you remember the first time I told you I loved you?”
She sniffled. “I do. It was at our three month anniversary. You were so nervous and I could tell you wanted to say something important, but let’s talk about that in person. Not right now. Where are you? Gaige, please. Give me something.”
The way she said it...I looked around. Were they close? Looking for me? I knew the signal had to be pinging the towers close by, but that could be mile radiuses and sometimes it took hours to get permission to even run them. Well, legally. We had hackers; brilliant people who knew their way around all the small things like the law. “Well, truthfully, I’m not sure what to tell you. It looks like I’m underground.”
Marco’s hand covered the speaker on the phone. “Enough. I want her on her way home or I end things right now.”
“What are you trying to do? Keep yourself clear of another kidnapping charge? You have way bigger problems than that.”
“What do you mean?” He shifted and pressed his hand against the speaker harder. I looked toward the agent who had at some point moved more behind the other two men.
“You’re done for, Marco. I’m a secret agent for the US Government. We know who you really are. What you do. Right now that phone you’re holding is being tracked. In a matter of minutes, this place is going to be swarmed with every law enforcement officer within a thirty mile radius. Maybe further. You see, I’ve been off the grid…until I put the battery back in just outside of your estate. Not only is it pointing them to our location, but it’s recording everything you’ve said and everything the camera has been in contact with.”
His tanned skin paled and he looked down to his hand.
“Covering the speaker or destroying the phone won’t help you. It’s all back at headquarters and is a matter of record now. Every second that goes by its collecting more data. Anything else you want to confess? Maybe about how you’re funding Los Banditos Del Sur to assassinate political figures in the States? Governor Wilcox, for one. He would have made a hell of a president. What was it? His stance on closing the borders? His views on cracking down on the drugs crossing over? What made him such a target?”
A curse in Spanish fell from his lips.
“What about Lord Diaz? Would you like to say anything about his involvement? Does he give you the orders of who to murder personally or do you decide?”
“Shut up! You know nothing.”
“Sounds like I know a lo
t. So, who is it? You? Him? I bet you don’t decide shit. He’s the lord, after all. You’re probably just as low as you ever were, groveling at his feet and kissing his ass while he decides everything.”
The blade moved more in my direction as a wild look crossed over his eyes. “He’s all politics. I run the real shit! I move drugs. The kids. I fucking rule this country while he doesn’t do anything. He wants someone dead, fine I’ll take care of it. But other than calling shots, he’s no leader. I’m the leader. I control everyone and everything.”
I shook my head. “Not everyone. Not me, and not Elle. She’s mine. She’ll always belong to me.”
The phone fell to the floor and I saw him move before I should have. Everything slowed as his arm reared back over his shoulder only to lunge toward my chest. Red covered my vision and it took me a minute to process the expression change on Marco’s face as he fell toward me. I knew I was covered in blood. Had seen the droplets flying toward me, getting in my eyes, but I never heard anything. Not a shot or a bang. Nothing over the loud pulse in my ears.
“Don’t move or I’ll shoot.” The agent had his gun trained on the other two men who were standing there in just as much shock as I was. Was this really over? Like this? I had wanted to kill him, yet…he almost killed me.
Marco fell from my lap to my feet, leaving a pool of blood to begin forming around his head. If I could have moved, I might have kicked him from the pure fear he made me feel. He’d come so close to stabbing me. If he would have…
“Get me the fuck out of here,” I said, jerking against the ropes. I had to get back on the phone with Elle. To find her and hold her in my arms.
The agent walked over, never once taking his eyes off of the other two men. The ropes fell to the floor and I reached down, grabbing the phone. “Thank you,” I said, before bringing it up. “I owe you my life. I mean that. You ever need anything…”
He nodded, wiping the sweat from his brow. “Just doing my job. Go ahead and calm your girl.”
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