Sweet Captivity

“You don’t. My face…” He trailed off with a shudder and cut his eyes away.

I touched his scar, applying enough pressure to guide his face back to mine. “Tell me what he did to you.” It was a steady command. Andrés needed to purge this from his soul. It was the only way he’d be able to free himself from the power his brother held over him.

“It was three years ago,” he began, the words bleeding out of him. “Cristian made a deal with some Russians. He started dealing in Bliss. I’d never dared to challenge him, but I hated it. It was too far, too much. He was selling women, just like he sold my sister. So I decided to stage a coup and take over the organization myself. I’d alwa

ys been the one to keep the business running. I could do it without him. My life would be better without him.”

He paused, his eyes sliding out of focus as he fell into memory.

“He found out,” I surmised, quietly urging him to continue.

His jaw tightened beneath my hands. “One of my men betrayed me. Cristian came for me before I made a move against him. He strung me up in front of all of our people—the ones he hadn’t killed for following me. He cut me. He made me scream. He humiliated me. Then he stitched me up himself to make sure the marks lasted.”

My stomach churned, nausea rising in my throat. “Andrés…” I said his name shakily, struggling to get my tears under control. I wanted to weep for him, but that wasn’t what he needed from me. He needed me to be strong. He needed me to show him that his scars only made him more beautiful in my eyes. They were marks of his defiance, of his goodness. He bore them because he’d tried to put a stop to his brother’s evil.

I leaned in and brushed my lips across the deep furrow in his cheek. “I love you,” I said with the weight of an oath. “We’re going to get away from your brother. Together.”

His brows drew together, his face twisting in lines of anguish. “I have something for you,” he said instead of responding to my fervent declaration. I didn’t like that he was avoiding what I’d said, but he pulled me into his lap, cuddling me close.

I sighed and pressed my cheek into the crook of his neck, relief washing through me at the feel of his strong arms around me.

He shifted slightly, reaching for something on the cart beside the bed. Confusion threaded through me as he uncapped the syringe.

“Lauren already gave me the birth control shot,” I told him.

One corded arm wrapped around me, pinning me against his hard body as he carefully slid the needle into my upper arm.

“It’s not birth control. I should have sent you away hours ago, but I had to see your lovely eyes one last time.”

“What are you…?” My tongue grew heavy in my mouth, and lethargy rolled over me as my eyes drooped closed.

“I can’t protect you,” he said, pressing a kiss against my motionless lips. “Goodbye, sirenita. Te amo.”

I knew what it meant. I love you.

Chapter 24

I awoke to the sound of someone’s fist pounding on wood. Forcing open my sandpaper eyelids, I struggled to assess my surroundings. In my gut, I knew something was wrong. The bed beneath me, the too-rough sheets that covered me, the slacks I wore.

Wrong.

I could still smell Andrés’ unique, masculine scent. But that was because I was covered by one of his huge shirts.

The pounding increased in volume, escalating to banging. The sound reverberated in my skull, and I winced, my aching brain working overtime to process everything.

“Sam!” A familiar voice bellowed. I glanced toward the locked hotel room door that separated me from my friend.

“Dex?” I rasped, my throat too dry.

Wood splintered, and the door burst open. My best friend rushed toward me.

“No,” I breathed.

Dex couldn’t be here. That meant…

“No!” Anguish wrapped around my heart.

Andrés had sent me back to my friends, back to safety. And he’d left himself at his brother’s mercy. Cristian would punish him for letting me go.