Total pages in book: 206
Estimated words: 192184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 961(@200wpm)___ 769(@250wpm)___ 641(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 192184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 961(@200wpm)___ 769(@250wpm)___ 641(@300wpm)
Why did he rescue me? Why didn’t he just leave me here? And why was the fact that he’d kissed me so touching to me?
Anger didn’t begin to describe what was inside me pacing and biding time until I could unleash it.
Wrath, rage, fury? They might come close if they were each multiplied a hundred thousand times.
Things were in motion that would bring the Castillo cartel to their knees. Juan Carlos Castillo would be torn limb from limb, and I would personally piss on the bones of Earl Johnson. My heart felt coal black right now and if it hadn’t been for the fact that she needed me more last night, I’d have already gone off to take care of it.
Listening to her in that bathroom throwing up, brushing her teeth, throwing up again, sobbing, it went on for so long and listening to her fall apart like that, it broke me like I couldn’t ever remember being broken before. I felt so fucking helpless then. I never wanted to feel that way again. Ever.
Now I needed to get her home and I needed to get this done so that I could get the rage out of my head. That rage had never felt so strong in my life, and I hoped I could channel it into ridding this earth of the scum that were responsible for taking her from me and for putting her through that. And then I could go home and start my life with her and take advantage of the clean slate it felt like she was giving me.
What had happened to her here had upgraded me from villain to hero in her eyes and when I got home, I was making her my wife and taking this opportunity, fucked up as it was, to build a real relationship with her.
That t-shirt smelled like her. I’d given it to her last night and then worn it deliberately today. It was comforting to me to have her scent on my body, knowing what I was going to do next.
I was having Dare bring her home because I needed her the fuck out of Mexico and right now, he was the only one I trusted to keep her safe. He and I had shared a few glances that told me he now knew how important protecting her was to me. When I got home, I’d re-vet employees to determine who would be in the inner circle for keeping her safe. I’d also find out the truth about why Pop had given her to me and I’d make that lowlife father of hers pay whatever penance I deemed necessary.
Yeah, I knew it was fucked up that I’d punish him for the very reason I was lucky enough to own her but that’s just how I felt about it.
I wasn’t kidding myself, thinking that the darkness inside of me that wanted her submission, her fear, was gone. But right now, I had a different place to channel that need, that hunger. I’d figure the rest out later.
I ate a surprisingly decent amount of food and then I waited for him to come back. I fell asleep and a while later woke up to his lips on my forehead. My hands came up and rested on his chest.
“Hi,” I said.
His eyes crinkled and he smiled a little.
“Time to go,” he said and then kissed me on the mouth quickly and began digging through the suitcase. He looked angry and stressed. I felt the desire to do something about it, so I could see warmth in his eyes again. I just didn’t know what to do to bring it back.
I got up off the bed, grabbed my toiletries from the bathroom and put them in the suitcase, and then proceed to get into my sneakers. He was doing something on his phone one-handed while pulling some of his things out of the suitcase and into a big barrel rucksack, then he tied it up.
I gave him a sad look.
“Just one more day, then I’ll be home,” he muttered.
I picked up his silver cross necklace, which was lying beside the vase on the dresser, “Do you want me to fasten this?”
He winced at it. “No, take that home.”
I put it in my toiletries bag, then I tied my hair up in the elastic that was on my wrist, thankful that there was one in my things that had been packed for me, probably by Sarah Martinez.
He put his hands on my shoulders and his touch almost brought me to tears again. I didn’t know why. I held the tears back.
“My brother is taking you home,” he said, “I trust him 100% to keep you safe. You need to let him protect you.”
The intense way he looked at me was his way of asking me not to try to run again. I nodded, eyes on his.