Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 96206 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96206 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
“That’s it?” he thundered. “That’s your bargaining chip? I already know he has her. That’s not useful.”
Laila blinked. She hadn’t considered the possibility that he knew of Kimber’s abduction. But it made sense. If he had a spy on the inside, it was possible he’d already been tipped off. Carajo! She had to think fast. The tactic that always worked best was to stroke Victor’s ego.
“Of course you are aware of the captive. I merely suggest you use her as leverage, so she goes from being a bargaining chip Montilla would use to force EM Security to give up my sister’s location to a liability that could weaken them, perhaps even prove their downfall—all orchestrated by you. If you succeed, there are few who would challenge your right to run the cartel.”
Victor stared at her as if he could see through her. Abruptly, he snaked one hand around her nape. The other clamped down on her jaw. He jerked her closer, against his body, until his angry face hovered a mere inch above hers. His threat was clear, but still he spoke it aloud. “If you’re full of shit, if you’re playing me… I will kill you, Laila. And I won’t give you a polite double-tap to the head. I’ll rape you. I’ll starve you. I’ll torture you. I will make you beg for the end, and I will not give it to you. I will let you wonder how long I intend to keep you alive to use for my perverse amusement. The answer will be until I get bored with your suffering. And that may be never.”
She didn’t want to be afraid of Victor, but he never made idle threats. Once her plan backfired and he realized she’d been using him for her own ends with every intention of feeding him to Montilla, he would do exactly what he warned.
Suddenly, Trees emerged from between the two houses, gun drawn, barreling toward them with ground-eating strides. “Get your fucking hands off her. Now!”
Trees watched Laila and Victor Ramos exchange words. He couldn’t hear what they said, but it sure seemed like a fight. And he didn’t like how the angry son of a bitch was looking at her.
But when he tried to jump out from between the two houses and intervene, Matt jerked him back, one hand wrapped around his arm, the other fisted in the back of his shirt. He was breathing hard. “Don’t do it.”
“Let me the fuck go,” Trees growled.
“So you can commit suicide? No. I’m supposed to make sure you get back in one piece.”
He tugged against Matt’s hold again. “We’re supposed to bring Laila back, too.”
“You heard her. She doesn’t want to come back with you. Let her go.”
“She’s lying. She’s trying to protect her family.” Then he realized Laila had thrown herself into Victor’s path moments ago, and that had nothing to do with saving Valeria. “And me. She means to shield me. She’s got some scheme…”
“Fucking listen to yourself, man,” Matt growled in his ear. “I know you want to believe she’s good and noble, but it’s possible that after years with a cartel, she’s warped, she’s getting what she wants, and she played you.”
The words went in Trees’s ears…and right back out. “You don’t know her.”
“Maybe it’s time to consider that you don’t really, either. You spent a few days with her. And you…what? Spent a few nights with her, too, I guess. None of that makes you an expert.”
“You trying to figure out this situation on the fly doesn’t make you an expert, either. Why don’t you do us both a favor? Shut the fuck up and let me handle this.”
“No. You’re in too deep. You’re not thinking straight.”
“You don’t know me.”
“I know what being compromised looks like. I’m staring at it.”
Suddenly, Victor grabbed her neck in one hand, her jaw with the other and yanked her against him, looking furious as hell. Then he snarled something in her face that made her tremble.
Trees was done. Matt and his caution could go fuck themselves.
He elbowed the other operator, then twisted from his grip and shoved him back. “You don’t make my decisions. If you’re afraid, stay the fuck out of this.”
Then he emerged onto the street, gun drawn. “Get your fucking hands off her. Now!”
Victor sent him a nasty smile, like he had something horrible planned he would thoroughly enjoy. Suddenly, he whirled Laila around, flattening her back against his chest to use her as a human shield. Then he raised his gun to her temple. “Or what, Scott? Whatever you’re planning, I’ll shoot her, and her death will be on your hands.”
Trees risked a glance at her. Her body went tense. For a moment, she looked terrified. Then she breathed, and the expression disappeared.
Like she wasn’t afraid of him anymore? Or as if she enjoyed the way the danger made her heart race? Did Laila actually get some sexual thrill from the adrenaline rush?