by Anna Blakely
Someone had whispered something in her ear, and then…nothing.
Oh, God. I was drugged.
Forcing her eyes to open, it took several, quick blinks before everything finally came into focus. The first thing Gabby noticed was that she was still fully clothed.
A feeling of relief rushed through her. Most rapists didn’t bother re-dressing their victims. A fact she knew first-hand.
That same relief vanished quickly when Gabby tried to stand but couldn’t because her wrists and ankles were bound to the chair she’d been placed in.
“What the hell?” she mumbled to herself.
Panic set in, and Gabby’s breathing picked up at an alarming pace. Blood rushed past her ears as she began pulling and twisting, attempting to break free of the plastic ties keeping her in place.
The only thing she managed to accomplish was to rub the skin at her wrists raw.
Needing to get herself under control, she squeezed her eyes shut and tried to calm her racing heart. After several slow, deep breaths, Gabby opened her eyes again and began looking around the small room for something, anything to tell her where she was or who had taken her.
Paint was peeling from the plaster walls and water stains marked several spots in the ceiling. The floor beneath her feet was made of worn and cracked tile, and there was one open window centered on the wall to her right.
From where she sat, the only furniture Gabby could see was the chair she was in and a small, wooden table positioned a few feet in front of her.
A bead of sweat ran down the center of her back as her mind raced to make sense of what had happened. One minute she was at the club, the next she’s waking up here. Tied to a freaking chair.
Hector Andino.
Gabby closed her eyes again, mentally chastising herself for being so stupid. She’d asked about Andino in hopes he’d come looking for her but not like this.
Her plan had been to catch his eye and make her interest known. Get close enough to him to find out where he kept his girls.
She must have come off too strong when she’d talked to the bartender, and now she was stuck here with no means of escape.
Muted male voices reached her ear from the other side of the door, and Gabby’s eyes flew open. A large man entered the room, his muscular build and strong, scruff-covered jaw made him surprisingly handsome.
His intense stare made her nervous as hell.
Evil comes in all forms.
It was a lesson she learned years ago.
“You’re awake,” the man’s deep voice rumbled. Dressed in jeans and a gray T that stretched across a set of broad shoulders, he walked toward her with a bottle of water in his hand.
“I’m guessing you could use this.”
That he looked and sounded American didn’t surprise her. From what she’d learned, Hector Andino employed several men and women from the United States to do his dirty work.
Gabby watched as the man unscrewed the bottle’s lid and began advancing toward her. When he brought the water toward her face, she turned her head and pulled away as far as the chair would allow.
The man halted his movements, his head becoming slightly tilted as his brown eyes studied her.
“You think I’m trying to poison you?”
Gabby remained silent.
He sighed and took a big swig from the bottle before swallowing it down. Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, the man raised a brow.
“Happy?”
Is he serious?
Glaring up at him, Gabby cleared her dry throat, a move that ignited the drumming in her head. “Let’s see. You drugged me, kidnapped me, and have me tied to a chair. Not to mention my head feels like it’s about to explode. Happy isn’t the word I’d use to describe what I’m feeling.”
Keeping his expression unreadable, the man tipped his chin. “Fair enough. But that pounding in your head is due to dehydration. An unfortunate side effect of the drug you were given.” He held the water up again. “This will help.”
As much as she wanted to act the martyr, her mouth did feel like she’d swallowed half of the Sahara.
With a jerk of her head—damn, she really needed to not do that—he brought the top of the bottle to her lips. Tilting her head back, Gabby allowed him to help her take a drink. She barely held back a moan of appreciation as the cool liquid quenched her parched throat.
After a few more swallows, the man replaced the lid and set the near-empty bottle onto the table behind him.
“Who are you?” Her voice came out stronger than before. “Why did you bring me here?”
“I’ll answer your questions, if I’m able.” He faced her once more. “But first, you’re going to answer mine.”
“What do you want to know?”
“Let’s start with your name.”
“Gabriella Smith.” She didn’t hesitate to lie. “I’m here with a group of friends who are probably worried sick about m—”
“Your real name,” he cut her off.
Gabby looked him in the eye and lied again. “That is my real name. Check my ID.” She looked around. “I’m assuming my purse is here, somewhere.”
She was certain he already had, which was why she’d given him the same name as the one on the driver’s license currently in her wallet. The asshole probably stole what little cash she had left, too.
The man’s mouth curved up into a half-smile. “You know, this will go a lot easier for the both of us if you’re honest with me.”
“Well, why didn’t you say so?” Gabby’s sarcastic tone filled the tiny room. “After all, making things easier for guys like you is my goal in life.” She batted her eyes, her lips curling.
Like I’d do anything to help one of Andino’s men.
A muscle in the guy’s chiseled jaw twitched before he turned away from her. Sliding one hip onto the table, he bent that leg a bit while his other foot remained on the floor.
With his hands clasped loosely in front of him, he stared back at her. “We’ll come back to your name. Tell me something different.”
“There once was a man from Nantucket…” she recited the first line in a crude joke she was taught years ago.
“Funny.” The man didn’t smile. “That’s one of my favorites, but I’m not in the mood for jokes.”
“No?” Gabby let her eyes travel down the length of his toned body. “What are you in the mood for, big guy? Maybe we can work something out.”
The words made her want to vomit. Even though the man had that whole Silver Fox thing going on, he worked for a monster.
Like you’d do anything with him even if he didn’t.
The voice in her head was right. It had been a month since she’d last seen Zade, but when it came to him, time didn’t seem to matter. Since then, handsome men had tried to get her attention. They’d failed miserably.
There was only one man Gabby wanted. One man she craved. And it was not the one staring back at her.
Stop thinking about him!
Damn it, the voice was right again. Zade wasn’t who mattered, now. Only Sam.
The only thing that mattered was finding her. She was the important one, here.
I’ll do whatever it takes to save her.
“Appreciate the offer, but I’m not really in the mood for that, either. Pretty sure you aren’t, either, so let’s start with something easy. Why don’t you explain what you were doing in Grand Isle a few weeks ago.”
What the hell?
Shocked by the unexpected question, Gabby’s eyes widened before she could stop them. With a quick blink and shake of her head, she tried to play it off, but she had a feeling the man had noticed.
Still, she did her best to recover. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Come on, Gabby,” The man used the shortened version of her name. “It’s simple. You help me, I can help you.”
“It’s a little late for the good-cop routine, don’t you think?”
The man chuckled, his broad chest shaking as his
deep voice rumbled. “Trust me, sweetheart. I’m not a cop, and I’m far from being good.”
“Given who your boss is, I believe it.” Gabby stared back at him. “Although, Hector Andino does have most of the cops around here in his pocket, so it’s hard to know who you can or cannot trust.”
His expression didn’t change, exactly, but Gabby still noticed the tiny twitch in the corner of one eye. It was almost indiscernible, probably would be to most people. Not her.
The time she’d spent on the streets growing up, Gabby had learned how to read people pretty damn well. Better than most, she could pick up on the slightest ticks and tells, and this man was definitely holding something back.
Something big.
“Grand Isle.” His dark brown eyes stared into hers. “What were you doing there?”
Gabby lifted her chin. “I told you, I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’ve never even heard of the place, let alone visited there.”
“Is that right?”
“Yep.”
She had no idea how this man knew about her trip down south, but that was her story, and she was sticking to it.
Clearly not buying into it, the big guy smiled. “See, that’s interesting because my intel says differently.”
Gabby shrugged a shoulder. “Guess your intel is wrong.”
“It happens.” The man nodded. “However, in this particular case, I’m fairly certain the information I was given is correct. My source on this one’s pretty reliable.”
She kept her blasé expression in place. “Even reliable sources can be wrong.”
“They can be,” he agreed before turning and walking toward the closed door. “I guess there’s only one way to find out.”
Now he’d lost her. “What do you mean?”
The man stopped walking and turned back around. His distinguished features somehow gave him both a kind, yet deadly appearance.
“Well, Miss Smith. I find the easiest way to get to the truth is to go straight to the source.”
Okay…
Unsure of the road she was about to go down, Gabby began grasping at straws.
“If this is about money, I can pay you,” she blurted. Liar. “It’ll take a day or so, but I can get someone from the States to wire it to you. Whatever Andino’s paying you, I’ll double it.” Big. Fat. Liar.
Sure, he’d eventually figure out she was full of shit, but hopefully this would at least buy her some time.
“Andino?” The man raised a dark brow as if he’d never heard of the prick.
Gabby rolled her eyes. “Hector Andino. That’s why I’m here, right? He ordered you to kidnap me?”
With an assessing glance, he paused before asking, “You really got that kind of money?”
“Would I have offered it, if I didn’t?”
Hell yes, I absolutely would, if it meant giving me a better chance at surviving this nightmare.
Without another word, the man left the room, shutting the door behind him. Had it worked? Did the big guy actually believe her?
Gabby blew out a breath and hung her head, praying he did. Closing her eyes, her mind worked to come up with a plausible solution to her very messed up situation.
At least she’d bought herself some time. For what, she didn’t know, yet. She also had no clue how the hell this guy knew about her trip to Grand Isle.
There was only one plausible explanation she could come up with. Her actions these past two months must’ve stirred up a hornet’s nest of trouble.
Andino had to have gotten word she was asking around about him and decided to have her followed. It was the only thing that made sense, except…
It doesn’t.
If Hector Andino knew she was looking for him—and why she was looking for him—he wouldn’t have had her followed.
He would’ve had her killed.
So why go through all of this? The drugging, the kidnapping…why go through the trouble of having his bruiser bring her here?
And that was another thing…
Yes, she was tied to the chair. Yes, her wrists were raw and even bleeding in a few places, but that had been of her own doing. Andino’s man hadn’t laid a finger on her.
Not that she was complaining.
Seriously, though. The guy had brought her water, for crying out loud. Went so far as to drink some himself to prove to her it was safe. He’d even been gentle when he’d helped her with it.
She had no doubt the man was as deadly as they came, but there was more to him than he wanted her to see. A light he was working damn hard to keep dimmed.
That and his behavior went against everything Gabby had learned about Andino’s men. Working for the leader of the most dangerous cartel in operation, those guys didn’t wait patiently for answers. They beat their captives until they got what they wanted.
The bastards sure as hell didn’t offer women water. Instead they hauled them off like cattle and sold them to monsters who did only God knows what to them after the fact.
So what the hell was going on?
The question had barely rang through her mind when the door to the room opened once more. Assuming the same man had returned, Gabby opened her mouth to ask him that very question, but her words—and the breath in her lungs—froze.
Someone different had entered the room. Someone Gabby thought she’d never see again.
“Zade?” Shock had her choking out his name. “W-what…what are you doing here?”
Well-worn jeans covered his taut thighs and rested low on his hips. A plain, black T-shirt stretched over a landscape of muscles she was intimately familiar with. God, he was even sexier than she remembered.
At the same time, he seemed almost like a stranger.
Looking more like a hardened warrior and less like the man she’d spent the most glorious weekend of her life with, Zade King shut the door and walked toward her.
“Hello, Gabriella.” He glanced down at a tablet he’d carried in with him and back to her. Lips she’d feasted on curled into a humorless smirk. “At least you were telling the truth about your first name.”
Gabby’s heart pounded fiercely against her ribs. “I can explain,” she blurted without thinking.
“Oh, you’ll explain, all right.” He came closer. “You’re going to tell me everything I want to know, and then your ass will be transported back to the States.”
“The States?” Gabby shook her head. “No. I can’t go back. Not yet. Not until I’ve—”
“Not up to you, sweetheart.”
The term of endearment sounded nothing like the loving way he’d used it in the past.
“Zade, please. Listen, I can exp—”
“Explain.” Beautiful, cold eyes met hers as he cut her off once more. “Yeah, I got that part.”
They stared at each other for several seconds. It was enough time for her mind to race past the magnificent memories she’d locked away and gather her scattered thoughts into one horrifying conclusion.
No. It can’t be true.
She couldn’t have been this wrong about him. Granted, her choice in men hadn’t always been the best, but this was different. He was different.
Yet, her current predicament said otherwise.
Gabby’s heart shattered as she glared up at him. “You sonofabitch.” She seethed. “You played me.”
Zade flinched, almost as if she’d struck him. “Excuse me?”
“Andino sent you to follow me, didn’t he? Back at Grand Isle. You…you followed me from New Orleans and then set up that whole, accidental meeting in the bar that first night. Then you used our time together to…what? Try to find out what I knew about him?”
Except he hadn’t asked her about Hector Andino or the cartel. Not once.
For a second, Zade looked as confused as she felt. Then he threw his head back and laughed.
“Nice try, Gabriella. Take the focus off of you by turning it around on me. Classic move, really. But I’ve been in this business a long damn time. Too long to fa
ll for the innocent act. Besides”—he lifted the tablet—“I’ve got the truth right here. Well, part of it, anyway.”
This business.
Oh, God. Gabby swallowed hard as she thought about what his business truly was. She felt like she was going to be sick.
Opening her mouth, she sucked in a breath and started to ask exactly what business he was in. Unfortunately, the man of her dreams was already busy reciting information from her past.
The same past she’d tried hard to escape, but never quite managed to.
“Gabriella Jaqueline Stevens. Born twenty-six years ago this past April to Kelly Stevens. No father listed on the birth certificate. You entered the foster care system at age eleven after your mom was arrested and sent to prison on her fourth drug charge. Possession with intent to sell, plus a second prostitution charge. You bounced around a few homes.” Face void of any emotion, Zade looked up from the screen. “Says here you were a runner.”
“Stop,” she whispered the order.
Glancing back down, he ignored her and continued on. “According to one set of very well-off foster parents, you falsified a report against their son…your seventeen-year-old foster brother…when you were sixteen. They claim you attacked the boy with a golf club and then ran away. When you were caught, you told the police he…”
Zade stopped himself short, his brows turning inward as if he were reading the horrors of her past for the first time.
He looked back up at her. “You told the police he raped you.”
Don’t react. It’s all in the past. “Zade, stop.”
He didn’t. Instead, he cleared his throat, the bit of emotion he’d let slip into his cold demeanor, gone.
“In their statement, the boy’s parents described you as being a liar and a trouble-maker. Said you made the claim against their son in an attempt to blackmail them for money and explain away your own violent behavior. They said their son’s injuries were all defensive wounds, and yours were…” He swallowed tightly before beginning again. “The boy’s parents stated your injuries were self-inflicted in order to mimic sexual assault.”
His eyes raised to meet hers once more. This time when he looked at her, the anger he’d shown when he first entered the room had become slightly faded.
If Gabby didn’t know any better, she’d almost think he felt badly for her.