“I’m about to call your daddies, so be on your best behavior and keep those mouths shut until I say so.” Ray’s upper lip peels back in disgust, clearly unable to let go of my special relationship with Austin, still calling him my daddy.
Rolling my eyes, I can’t help but give him shit. “You’re just salty because you never made me come the way he could. You were a fraud from the start. Not an alpha at all, but some sick and twisted psycho with multiple personality disorder.”
“Anaya!” Pen whisper-hisses, but I don’t care. It’s clear this asshole wants to kill me. Might as well make it worth it on my end.
Ray stalks over to me, rearing his hand and slapping me across the face so hard my head bounces off the hotel wall. The sting should hurt, but instead it just reminds me I’m still alive. That the pain and soreness from being shoved into a trunk for hours-on-end isn’t some messed up nightmare, but real life.
“If you can’t be quiet on your own, then I’ll make you.” Ray’s hand goes to my jaw while the other pulls a piece of fabric from his pocket. With a jostling of my head, he quickly gags me before shoving me back down onto the dirty hotel room floor. “Now do as you’re told, or I’ll cut your tongue out.”
My eyes narrow into tiny slits. Who is this monster? He’s unrecognizable. Far from the man I originally fell for. But I suppose that man was only what the creature who lurked beneath wanted me to see.
Before I can get too lost in my head, Ray takes out a satellite looking phone and presses buttons, all while a bound Pen scotches closer to me, dragging herself inch by inch, ass to feet.
“Are you okay?” She whispers, earning a raised brow from Ray.
I nod, not wanting Pen to get in trouble with this monster. It’s bad enough I dragged her into this with me. I don’t need Ray offing her prematurely because of me, too.
A line clicking through has us both looking toward Ray, his hand positioning the sat phone in front of him and showing off the sick grin he’s donning. “Cárdenas. Good to see you, old man.”
A deep voice booms from the phone. “Cut the bullshit, Raul. We know you took the girls.”
I snort, unable to help it. Of course his real name is Raul. There isn’t an original bone in this crazy man’s body. Raul shoots me a raised brow in warning and I nod and roll my eyes, unwilling to let him see me cower. I’ve already given him so much of myself, he can’t have this too.
“Fine. I’ll get down to business. You have something I want and I have something you want. I say a trade is in order.” Ray’s tone is indifferent, as if he were talking about a bunch of sweaters instead of two human beings.
“We need to see the girls first. Make sure they’re okay.” Cárdenas, I presume, speaks into the line and you can hear that the words are forced. “Only then will I even entertain the idea of freeing your brother.”
I suck in air, well, as much as the gag allows. All this for his brother? Nausea consumes me at the realization that we’ve been played.
I willingly offered myself and Pen on a platter, all to save Austin and Jack. But knowing Raul’s brother was being held captive puts a whole new perspective on our situation. There’s no way he would’ve blown up the building if his brother was in it, would he?
Penelope’s body trembles next to me, and I wish I could hug her to me in comfort. I have a plan; we just need to wait until we’re alone in the room with Raul’s laptop bag. When he’d found my ring, he shoved it in there along with any other jewelry I had on me.
I’m not sure if he knows what it is or if he’s planning to remove all identifying articles before he kills us, but if I can get a hold of it, then we might stand a chance at surviving this.
Ray’s words interrupt my thoughts of escape. “You only get one proof of life, but I want the same.”
There’s shuffling and a long silence before Ray nods, liking what he sees on the screen. Without another word, he’s flipping the phone so that the receiver is facing us, a salt and pepper man staring back at us with nothing but furious rage blazing in his eyes.
“Papa,” Penelope gasps. So this must be her biological father then, the infamous cartel leader she’d told me about.
When our kidnapping was first underway, she was sure her dad would find us, but her hope dwindled with each passing hour. Maybe she was right to put her faith in him because if looks could kill, Ray would be long dead.
That type of determination moves mountains, and lord knows I killed any hope of Austin coming after me when I fed my mom that bullshit line about wanting to go back with my husband. I guess it’s good that she’s here with me. Pen is definitely worth saving, and if I’m lucky, maybe that means I’ll get saved too.
“Hang tight, princess. You’ll be home soon.” The man on the phone speaks, his tone stern but comforting.
Despite his assurance, the look in Ray’s eyes speaks of horrors to come. “I’ll message you the drop-off point. No one other than yourself and my brother must show up, or both girls get it. If you’re risking him, then you’re risking them too.”
“I gave you my word, pendejo. Don’t try me.” Cárdenas seems at wit’s end with our captor, and I suppose I would be too if I were in his shoes. From what I’ve been told, this isn’t their first run in, but I sure hope to hell that it’s the last.
But Raul doesn’t respond to the Don’s jab, he simply goes on with his demands. “One hour. Be there or they’re dead.”
Cutting the line before Pen’s dad can answer, the psycho whirls on us, his hand reaching for the top of my head and pulling me to standing with one hard tug that threatens to rip the hair from my skull. “Finally. I can be rid of you.”
My eyes are staring into his soulless ones when Pen sputters below us. “But-but, you said you were going to trade us?”
Raul flicks his gaze below. “I did. But I never said you’d be alive when it happened.”
All color drains from my face. Not out of fear for my life, but for Pen’s and her unborn baby. I did this. I put her in this position, and I deserve to go. Not her.
I jerk my head, still in my husband’s hold. “Ray. Raul. Please. Let her live. Do whatever you want with me, but let her live. She has nothing to do with this. She isn’t even a part of your world.”
Raul’s fingers dig deeper into my scalp, tightening their hold and making me wince. “Stupid girl. Just as that child in her womb is already destined to play a part in this darkness, so was she the day she was born.” With his free hand, he pulls his gun from its holster and taps it on my cheek. “She’s the daughter of my enemy, and for that, she will pay.”
Not if I have anything to say about it. With one swift move, I knee Raul in the balls, making him hunch over and the firearm in his hand go off.
My heart pounds in my ears, waiting for the darkness to drag me under, sure that I’ve been shot. But it never comes. Instead, a loud thud sounds off behind me before a string of rapid-fire words and footsteps invades the room.
It all happens so fast. More gunfire and more cursing. The room blurs as Ray drops me, my shoulder the first to make impact with the floor. Oof. Sharp pain blooms from my arm and through to my soul. I’m lost in the crushing sensation when a pair of muscular arms wrap around me, lifting me off the ground.
“Fuck. Baby girl.” Austin’s voice cuts through the haze and I’m sure I must be dreaming. “Talk to me, Anaya. Your words, baby. I need them.”
Blinking, I try to assess if this is all real. Sure enough, the scent that is uniquely his envelops me as the throbbing pain in my shoulder reminds me I’m still here. Alive. Alive and in the arms of the man I love.
“Austin,” I gasp, my one word causing this beast of a man to smile.
“There she is.” He brings me closer to his chest until his lips are pressing a kiss to the top of my head. “Let’s get you home.”
Yes, please. Nothing ever sounded better.
As his feet carry us out of the room and I let myself sink into his warmth, I can see that Jack is holding a crying Penelope in his arms. Thank God. I don’t think I could’ve forgiven myself if anything ever happened to her or her baby. I just pray that everything we’ve been through hasn’t harmed the little peanut growing inside her.
Right then, I vow to make it up to her any way I can. She’s been nothing but good to me and here I come, dragging her into an evil man’s grasp.
“Shh. Baby. I can practically see those wheels churning. Everything’s going to be okay.” He nuzzles into my hair before pressing another kiss to my head. “Daddy’s got you.”
And with those three little words, I melt. Fucking melt. Letting the stress of the past twenty-four hours wash away, finally letting sleep reach me and take me under.
