Manipulate (Deliver 6)

They wanted to help her shorten her sentence, but they couldn’t do that if they were locked up. Nor could they risk getting stuck in Jaulaso for life. She only had three years left. It wasn’t forever.

Maybe they would still want her when she was released. Perhaps they would be waiting for her at the gate the day she gained her freedom.

She fantasized about that moment, about starting a life with them outside of prison.

Her debt to Hector, however, was a lifetime sentence. Didn’t matter that they shared DNA. He’d told her on several occasions she would be expected to work for the cartel after her release.

Given Martin and Ricky’s resources and connections, perhaps they could help her escape Hector’s organization. If they let her, she would join their vigilante group and work with them to take down La Rocha Cartel.

Her loyalty to Hector had taken a hard hit. He’d sent Garra to rape her, kept his parentage from her for two years, and looked her right in the eyes and lied to her about his involvement in human trafficking. What else had he been dishonest about?

She didn’t trust him, but she still cared about him. Not just because he was her father, but because he’d always been kind to her, always protected her. She found herself clinging to the idea that he’d been dishonest with her because he wanted to protect her from the terrible things he did.

She talked through all of this with Martin and Ricky over the past couple of days. Together, they speculated and plotted, smiled and cried, argued this and agreed on that.

But at the end of the day, she was left with a crushing inevitability.

They were leaving.

“We can still focus on your mission,” she murmured into the silence.

“No,” they said in unison, firm and unbending.

“He’s kidnapping women and children.”

Children who would go through the same abuses Martin had suffered. Her stomach turned inside out every time she imagined it.

“We should’ve never involved you.” Ricky ran his nose through her hair. “Thinking about you in his room and rummaging through his belongings when he walked in… It makes me want to bend you over my knee and beat your fucking ass. But it’s our fault. We pushed you to investigate him and put our damn mission over your safety.”

“You didn’t know me when you arrived here. You couldn’t have predicted what would happen between us.”

“What’s happening between us?” He coasted a finger along her collarbone, teasing the neckline of her shirt.

“Sex. Really good sex.”

“It’s more than that, Tula. I need to hear you say it.”

Love was a landslide of sorrow and dread, swallowing her chest in the ruin of its unavoidable end. “It hurts. My heart knows you’re leaving, and it’s trying to protect itself. Please don’t make me say it.”

“Okay.” He pulled her close and rested his forehead against hers. “Fuck, I hate this. It’s fucking killing me.”

She couldn’t bear the pain in his voice. So she steered the conversation back on topic. “I was your best option to get those locations from Hector. It was a brilliant plan, really. Seduce the woman he’s closest to and win her over with the best orgasms of her life.”

“The best in her life?”

“Don’t get cocky.” She cupped the side of his face, holding his gaze. “I could talk to Garra—”

“No.”

“We haven’t tried that angle. I wouldn’t be obvious about it.”

“I said no.”

“I could eavesdrop on his conversations with Simone. If they know the details of the operation—”

“Fuck no.” Ricky gripped her chin, forcing her to meet his glare. “The mission is forfeit. We’re going to lay low, keep our asses in this cell, and let our time go by. Just like this. Together. Then, after Martin and I are released, we’re going to get you out of here.”

Hector ruled over the city and the prison. If he couldn’t get himself released, Martin and Ricky wouldn’t be able to do shit for her. But she didn’t refute him.

It was the best plan they had.

She wanted every second she had left with them to be in this bed. She wanted their kisses, their hungry breaths, their bodies moving inside her and each other, shaking and groaning in pleasure.

Amid the revelations of the past two days, there had been no sex and no discussions about the sex between Martin and Ricky.

They needed to talk about it. Or better yet, they just needed to do it.

As often as possible.

Because in forty-three days, they wouldn’t just be taking her broken heart with them. They would be taking away the only pleasure she’d ever had inside these walls.

Her attention drifted to the silent man sitting on the other bed. With his back to her and his feet on the floor, he braced an elbow on his knee and held his face with a hand. He cried that way sometimes.