Unshackle (Deliver 7)

“No hay problema.” The man glared daggers. “But I find it odd this…she…” His English broke up as he searched for the right words.

“She watches you.” Marco strolled forward with a hand in his pocket and an arm around a scowling Vera. “Why is this?” He nodded at Gina. “This man-hater stares at you with venom, sure. But something else lurks between her eyes and yours. I want to know what it is.”

Marco wasn’t an idiot. None of them were. They didn’t run the largest, meanest, most dangerous cartel in Mexico on luck. They knew what they were doing, and the biggest part of that was understanding their enemies.

“I give her things.” Luke tightened his grip on Gina’s arm as she angrily tried to jerk away.

“Things?” Marco rubbed his jaw. “What things?”

He met Vera’s eyes and shaped the word like a kiss. “Orgasms.”

Her gaze dipped to his mouth, darkening with hunger.

Marco threw his head back and laughed. “This, I don’t believe. The whore is incapable of pleasure.”

“Perhaps you’re incapable of giving it.”

It was the wrong thing to say.

Sudden, heavy silence clotted the room, the atmosphere too strained to breathe.

Well, fuck. He’d just thrown down the gauntlet, challenging the cartel in their own house.CHAPTER 16“Prove it.” Marco’s command fell like thunder through the room. “Show me this power you claim to have over women.”

Burn in hell.

Luke had a mind to tell the motherfucker how he felt about being ordered around. But doing so would end with his body rotting in whatever hole the cartel deemed deep enough.

Carefully, he released Gina’s arm, and carefully, he clasped his hands behind him. “What did you have in mind?”

“This isn’t necessary.” Vera tensed.

“Yes, it is.” Marco paced beside her. “You watched the monitors this morning. The whore fought him, rather pathetically. She did not come.”

“Since you were spying on me,” Luke said, “you know she tried to sneak out before Alejandro came by. You also know that I brought her to the point of begging and denied her release. It’s called punishment.”

Marco and Vera shared a look. Yeah, they’d seen the whole damn show. He’d counted on it.

“You seem to know your way around a woman’s body, Mr. Smith.” Vera touched her throat, toying with a wisp of hair. “But how many of your untamed whores reciprocate?” She flicked a hand at Gina and laughed mockingly. “This one would never put her mouth on you. Not without biting off your dick.”

“Exactamente.” Marco studied him with a pensive mien.

“You’re wrong.” Luke knew how to control the human jaw and feed in his cock without so much as a scratch.

Alejandro gulped back a swig of tequila and lowered into a nearby chair. He was the brother to keep an eye on. The quiet ones were usually shifty and underhanded, the ones who stabbed their victims during consoling hugs and hid the bodies under their beds.

“I’m curious.” Marco paused behind Vera and slid his hands around her waist. “If given the choice, whose face would you fuck? My beautiful sister’s?” He reached up and caressed Vera’s cleavage, prompting her lashes to lower submissively. “Or the bruised face of a whore?”

His gorgeous fighter. Hands down. No question.

But this wasn’t about his personal preference. The cartel loved their games. Every play had a price, and the wrong move would be costly.

What did Marco want out of this? To see if Luke was too cowardly to tempt Gina’s teeth? Or if he was stupid enough to take the risk? Maybe this had nothing to do with him? Could it be a test of Vera’s loyalty? Or Gina’s?

The biggest mindfuck of all was the way Marco continued to fondle Vera’s tits after referring to her as his sister.

Luke shuddered. “How are you related? Same mother? Father?”

Neither option made sense. Tula Gomez shared a father with Marco and a mother with Vera. Vera’s father was unknown.

“It’s not important.” Marco punctuated the point by palming one of her heavy breasts and kissing her neck. “You have a great mouth, don’t you, mi reina?” His eyes lifted to Luke while he nibbled. “Hot, wet suction. No one gives head like my sister.”

Alejandro watched from the chair, his heated expression vacillating somewhere between disgust and lust.

Incest aside, Luke wanted to leave the lovebirds to it and haul Gina out of there. The fastest way out was the path of least resistance, and Marco wanted a show.

Vera would offer no resistance. Luke only needed to snap his fingers, and she would be on his cock like a fly on honey.

He sensed her staring and reluctantly met her eyes. What he saw there was blatant desire, but beneath the thirst lay a shining gleam of vulnerability.

What were her stakes in this? Yesterday, she wanted nothing to do with him. Now, seeing him with Gina, she was playing right into his plan. But what if her role here wasn’t so black and white? Everyone was playing a game. For some, it was a game of survival.