I pull back and look at her face. She looks worried, but not surprised. She knows what I’m all about. She makes a show of sliding her hand against my waist and helping me to my feet. She blocks me from view as I plunge a hand into my shirt and drag the knife from the folds.
I nod at her and whisper, "Now, run."
She gives me a desperate look. "They’ll kill you!"
"No, they won’t. I’m too valuable."
She bites her lip and finally nods, releasing me and turning away.
I shove her and shout, "Run!"
She doesn’t pause, but streaks through the mountain clearing into the trees. Shouts rise up around us, as confusion sets in. I turn to the man who orchestrated my kidnapping and grin at him as he swings his gaze from Scarlett’s retreating back to me.
"What the fuck are you – ?"
His words are cut off as I slam my knife into his belly and swing the gun up. His eyes widen as I pull the trigger.
To be continued…
Coming soon…
Conclude Skye and Wolfe’s story in Skye’s Sanctuary!
Skye’s Sanctuary, coming June 29th, 2021.
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Sanctuary Series
Have you read the original Sanctuary trilogy?
Go back now and enjoy Taran and Diogo’s story in Sanctuary’s Warlord, Sanctuary on Fire, and The Last Sanctuary.
Have you read Nikita’s bestselling dark mafia romance novels?
Turn the page to read a couple of excerpts from Nikita’s most popular novels!
Excerpt: Scarred Queen
Ignacio Hernandez had never before brought a woman to a meet. Then, they’d never met at a club before. The entire scene was unprecedented. Reyes didn’t do unprecedented, but he was willing to make an exception because he was curious. He could sever the Miami connection if he had to. It would cause some shockwaves, but it wasn’t out of the question. Ignacio was beginning to annoy him anyway. His poor decisions were beginning to affect the Bolivian. Such as bringing a woman like her to a meet with a man like him. Something that was meant to show off Ignacio’s power and wealth would become a big mistake.
His gaze flickered over the woman, calmly drinking her champagne and orange juice as though she weren’t sitting at a table with four of the most dangerous men on the continental East coast. Two kingpins and their right hands. Only Reyes didn’t think she was as calm as she appeared. Her wrist trembled slightly, giving her away. She had enough presence to make sure that tiny shake ceased by the time it got to her slim fingers where they clenched the crystal of her glass. It wasn’t the fingers or her ability to remain coolly poised while the men around her talked business that captured his curiosity. It was the mark on the back of her delicate hand, permanent slash lines, viciously marring her porcelain skin.
Anger burned deep in his gut, surprising him. Reyes rarely felt anything. Ever. Certainly not for a woman. This was how he made effective decisions. How he moved trade across borders with ease and cool logic. Emotion had been removed from him. First by a ruthless father, then by a vicious military stint in his home country and finally by an unrelenting, merciless prison sentence that had systematically broken him before he had, in turn, broken down the prison itself and owned it from the inside out. By the time he was released it was into a world of his own making; a world shaped by him on the inside and ruled by him on the outside.
Yet the sight of this cool, blond beauty, so broken yet utterly resilient was doing something to him, forcing him to feel. He shifted in his seat, sliding his arm across the back of the leather, his eyes never leaving her while he listened to the other men speak. Negotiate terms. He didn’t need to add his voice. Alejandro, his right hand, knew the terms. Knew not to fuck up while in pursuit of new deals for the boss.
Reyes wanted her. The electrifying anger he felt when his eyes caressed that mark assured him he would take the woman and make her his. Not because it infuriated him that she had been abused. No, he was not a good enough man to care about that. He was under no illusions he would treat her any better than Ignacio. Hell, he’d probably treat her much worse. Because Ignacio undoubtedly set her up like a trophy in his great mausoleum of a house and then ignored the unapproachable beauty.
Reyes had no intention of ignoring her. He was going to take her and fuck every inch of her, just the way he wanted. Hard, brutal, mean. Exactly how he was. Exactly how this world had shaped him. Because he could. She was about to become spoils of war.
No, he wasn’t angry about the mark on her hand at all. He was pissed that the mark was twisted into the shape of an “H” and not an “R.” He wanted her to belong to him, to the King. When he got his hands on the woman, that would be the first thing he changed.
Finally, after nearly an hour of sitting in the booth together, his eyes rarely leaving her face, she lifted hers to meet his uncompromising gaze. And for the first time in his life, he felt his heart stop in his chest. He was unprepared for the impact. Her eyes – one startling green and the other amber brown – were vivid, stunning and unrelenting. Though her expression didn’t flicker once from the blank mask of icy beauty, he saw the burning disdain, the heated fury buried deep within those fiery orbs for the men that surrounded her. She despised all of them.
His lip lifted in an answering sneer. She refused to drop her eyes from his challenge, despite her husband sitting at the same table. He wanted nothing more, in that moment, than to take this scarred Queen from her throne and tame her. He vowed, then and there, that he would eventually have her.
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Excerpt: Because You’re Mine
"She's been hurt."
The three simple words sent a chill through Jay's heart, dissolving his annoyance at the interruption. He dismissed the two men he'd been meeting with and turned to Greg with a raised brow. Words weren't necessary. Greg had been his right hand for nine years. He understood exactly how much Allie meant to Jay.
"Allison was taken to the hospital in an ambulance twenty minutes ago. Preliminary reports say a knife wound to the arm and across her side. The cuts don't appear to be life threatening, but deep enough to need stitches."
Jay's fury rose with each word. Renowned as he was for icy calm and deliberate control, Allie was the only person that could draw this kind of feeling from him. He struggled to contain the rage so he could ask the requisite questions. It wasn't necessary. Greg knew exactly what he wanted.
"She was working in one of the addiction offices at the soup kitchen. Apparently, a fight broke out among the clients being served in line. She left her office and tried to intervene on her own."
"Of course she did," Jay managed from between gritted teeth.
He turned his back on Greg and stared out the window of his office to the dockyard beyond. It was just like Allie to think with her heart instead of her head. It was going to be the last time she would be allowed to do that. He'd stood in the shadows long enough. He gave her what she wanted. She'd lived her life the way she'd wanted. Now it was his turn.
"Her husband?" he snapped, knowing the answer, but needing to hear anyway.
Greg shook his head. "She sent him a text while she was waiting for the ambulance. Apparently, the little prick’s too busy to go to the hospital himself. Said he'd send someone to pick her up and take her home when she's been patched up."
Jay clenched his fingers on the windowsill and narrowed his eyes on a vessel slowly making dock. It was one of theirs. ”What did she say?"
"She told him not to worry. Said she wanted to catch a cab back to the kitchen. She has to meet with one more client before she goes home and then pick up her car. She plans on driving herself home."
"His response?" Jay demanded.
Greg hesitated, then replied, "He told her not to keep supper waiting for him, he's going to be working late again. I'm checking into it, but at a guess, he's meeting with his side whore."
Jay felt wrath rise up and kn
ew if Derrick were in the room with him he'd be on his knees begging for his life. Jay had despised the idea of this marriage, yet had allowed it to go forward, since it was what she wanted. And what Allie wanted was everything to him.
No more. He would harden his heart to the only thing in the world that could touch him. Her safety would come above all things, including her wishes. It was time. Past time.
"Get the plane ready, we're bringing my girl home."
Allie pulled her jacket tighter around her shoulders and tried to curl her legs into her chest without pulling on her fresh stitches. She tried to calm the shivers that wracked her body, but they kept coming. She was laying on a cot, tucked into the far corner of one of the wings of the emergency room in the Regina General Hospital. She wanted to ask for a blanket, but didn't want to disturb any of the busy staff that were rushing by her tiny curtained cubicle.
She'd been in the hospital for nearly three hours. The first hour had been waiting to get into the cubicle, the next had been waiting to see a doctor and the third had been waiting for her doctor to sign the release forms. She wished she could say it was just an extra busy day at the hospital. She knew better. It was always like this. She'd accompanied people there on more than one occasion.
She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to suppress another shiver. Sighing she ran her hand lightly over her arm, avoiding the heavy bandage on her bicep. Her fingers caught in the tangled strands of long dark hair. She shoved it out of the way impatiently and moaned when she jostled her arm. She wiggled her hips in an attempt to get more comfortable on the small metal frame bed when the curtain moved and light flooded her eyes.
Allie blinked up as a man stepped forward. He wasn't wearing scrubs like the nurses and doctors.
She frowned and blinked in the harsh light. "Derrick?"
She knew she was wrong though. Derrick said he wasn't coming. He barely cared enough to acknowledge her text. It was only her stupid heart that hoped he might rush to his injured wife's bedside that made her send that text in the first place. He wasn't even coming home from work to check on her. That was how much he cared. No, the man standing before her was not her husband.
"Hello, Allie."
Heart thundering, Allie pushed herself up using her good arm. She blinked against the brightness of the light, her mouth opening in disbelief. It was impossible. He couldn't be here with her. Could he? Yet the deep, measured voice could belong to no one else.
He looked so good it made her body ache in a way nothing else could. He looked older than she remembered. It had been five years since she last saw him briefly at Veronica’s wedding. His hair was completely grey now, prematurely, she thought. He was thirty-nine. His grey eyes looked wearier, harder than she remembered, framed by lines that weren't there before. His body leaner, as though he didn't eat enough. He exuded solid strength though, despite the lean frame.
"Jay," she whispered, tears filling her eyes.
His eyes caressed her face and the corner of his lip lifted in a tiny smile, softening the always present hard edge. The only time she'd ever seen Jay Le Croix smile was for her or her mother. Never for anyone else. Allie lifted her arms, ignoring the painful pull of her stitches and leaned forward trusting him to catch her as she slid forward off the bed. Strong arms enveloped her, holding her tight. She breathed in his familiar scent as he rocked her against the strength of his body. One hand cupped the back of her head, holding it against his shoulder, while the other hand swept down her back comfortingly. He was careful not to touch her where she’d been cut. Somehow, he’d found out about her injuries and come to her.
They stood that way for a long time, looking to all the world like a couple in love locked in an embrace. Finally, Allie indicated she was ready to pull away. Reluctantly Jay allowed her a few inches of space. She looked eagerly up at him, taking in all of his features. Jay ran his fingers lightly through her long, dark brown tresses, automatically restoring some order to the wavy chaos with his reassuring touch. Despite an age difference of ten years he had been her best friend for much of her life.
When Allie had been a child, her mother had watched over the orphan boy as though he were her own. Veronica had made sure he was fed when his foster homes forgot. More than once she'd given him a roof over his head when things got too bad to stay in his placement. When he was old enough to care for himself, he returned the favour by watching over Veronica and her young daughter. He made sure none of Veronica's clients got too rough and he helped Veronica get clean when she was ready to make the choice. When he was able to run a crew of his own, Jay worked his way up the streets until he was able to create enough legitimate business opportunities that he could get Veronica and Allie off the streets.
Allie adored Jay all of her life. Her mother assured her the infatuation would wane. It didn't. With each passing year it only grew until Allie became old enough that Jay began noticing Allie too. Veronica and Jay agreed that Allie was too good for the life he'd chosen. The life that had chosen him. She was destined for better things. When Allie turned eighteen and graduated from high school, her excellent grades and, unbeknownst to her, Jay’s maneuvering, earned her a scholarship to a university two provinces away. Allie didn't want to go. But Jay had insisted.
The separation had been difficult. She'd cried for him every night. She'd written him letters and phoned him. He never answered her letters and rarely picked up her calls. When he had, it was monosyllabic responses before abruptly ending the call. Confused and hurt, she'd finally decided to forge a life without him. When she visited her mother, she stubbornly avoided talking about him and almost never saw him. The last time she'd heard from Jay was three years ago to receive his decline to her wedding and an extremely beautiful pearl necklace as a wedding gift.
She'd only seen him twice in the ten years since he’d sent her away. The last time she'd actually seen Jay had been at Veronica's wedding five years ago. He'd walked the bride down the aisle, turned to Allie, held her close for several seconds pressing his lips against her temple and then leaving abruptly. The time before that was seven years ago when he'd come to her apartment out of the blue. She’d just graduated from the Addictions Education program and had accepted a job as an Addictions Counsellor. He wanted her to quit.
"It's too dangerous, Allison."
"Of course it's not! It’s perfect for me. It’s something that I've always wanted to do. With the way I grew up and my mother’s past, its practically the only think that makes sense for me. Why can't you just support me in this?" she'd pleaded with him.
"Support you? I pulled you out of the fucking gutter! Now you want to jump in head first. I refuse to support this shit."
"Jay! You don't get to dictate to me. You shut me out of your life years ago. Now I'm living it the way I want to."
"Tread carefully, little girl. I can wrap you in chains just as easily as I set you free."
But that was years ago. Now, as Allie looked up into the eyes of the man that used to possess her every thought, those same words echoed in her mind. His gaze hardened on her face. "What are you doing here?" she whispered.
"We're going home, Allie."
Now available! Keep reading!
Also by Nikita Slater
If you enjoyed this book, check out some other works by #1 International Bestselling Author, Nikita Slater. More titles are always in progress, so check back often to see what's new!
Angels & Assassins Series
Book One – The Assassin’s Wife
The Queens Series
Book One – Scarred Queen
Book Two - Queen’s Move
Book Three - Born a Queen
Book Four - The Red Queen (Coming 2021)
Alejandro’s Prey (a novella)
Fire & Vice Series
Book One – Prisoner of Fortune
Book Two – Fight or Flight
Book Three – King’s Command
Book Four – Savage Vendetta
Book Five – Fear in Her
Eyes
Book Six – Bound by Blood
Book Seven – In His Sights
Book Eight - Burning Beauty
Book Nine - Chasing Ecstasy (Coming soon!)
The Driven Hearts Series
Book One - Driven by Desire
Book Two - Thieving Hearts
Book Three - Capturing Victory
Novella - The Princess and Her Mercenary
The Sanctuary Series
Book One - Sanctuary’s Warlord
Book Two - Sanctuary on Fire
Book Three - The Last Sanctuary
Book Four - The Road to Wolfe
Book Five - Skye’s Sanctuary (COMING SOON!)
Standalone books
Because You're Mine
Mine to Keep (a novella)
Luna & Andres
Loving Vincent
Loving Jared
Stalked
After Dark
In collaboration with Jasmin Quinn
Collared: A Dark Captive Romance
Safeword: A Dark Romance
Chained: A Mafia Marriage Romance
Good Girl: A Captive BDSM Romance
Hostile Takeover: An Enemies to Lovers Romance
Visit nikitaslater.com for more information
and the latest updates!
The Road to Wolfe (The Sanctuary Series Book 4) Page 26