Her heart tried to warm, but her mind was rife with cynical thoughts, thoughts that blackened it once more. Refusing to be taken captive, once again, by his warm green eyes. “Well… well… you have to give me up to get Emma back. If you had a different plan you sure as hell didn’t you say anything to me about it.”
“I shouldn’t have to, Mia. It should be obvious.”
“Well it isn’t.” Her blackened heart exploded, drowning her organs in ebony ink that nearly stopped it in mid-beat. “So make it obvious, Linc. Knock me over the head. Shine a spotlight in my eye. Make it crystal friggin’ clear because that’s what I need right now.”
“How is it possible that you can’t see—that you don’t know… how much I…”
She nearly screamed when he stopped himself. “What?” She pressed. Just say it. Just tell me. Tell me you care about me. When he didn’t speak, she broke, her voice rising so high it nearly cracked the windows. “You kidnapped me. You dragged me into this mess that I didn’t ask to be in. You made love to me knowing… Knowing that I… That you… The least you could do is…” She couldn’t finish, clapping a hand over her mouth, taking a moment to collect herself before she dropped her hand and continued. “Just don’t lie to me, Linc. Okay? Don’t tell me you’re not giving me up when you’ve already set the date for the trade. Don’t tell me you’re not handing me over when that’s exactly what you intend to do. Tell me the truth. Tell me you’re never coming back for me once you have Emma.”
“I won’t tell you that because it isn’t true.”
She craned her arms out of his grasp and turned, moving away until there were several feet of space between them before she spun on her heels again.
This time, Linc hadn’t followed, remaining on the other end of the room.
“My parents never came looking for me after I went missing.” She took a deep breath. “If they didn’t come for me… why the hell would you?”
He appeared on the verge of explosion. “Goddamn it, Mia. Because I care about you, that’s why.”
“They said they cared too.”
A long silence fell where he simply watched her in disbelief. Like he was looking upon a newly discovered eighth wonder of the world. Like Bigfoot had just casually strolled into the apartment, plopped down on the living room couch, and put his hairy feet up on the coffee table.
“They said they cared about me. Hell, they said they loved me.” She shrugged. “Never came.”
“God, Mia, you’ve gotta get these poisonous voices out of your head. These, these, these…” He sputtered, making claws at his skull. “These fucking lies that monster has been hammering into you since you were thirteen years old. They’re not true. If you had a family that loved you before you were taken, you have a family that loves you still. You have a family that loves you right now and have never stopped looking for you.”
“No. You, Linc.” She pointed at him, her voice suddenly calm. Too calm. Like a woman who had finally accepted her inevitable fate. “You are the embodiment of a man who loves his daughter enough to do whatever it takes. To find her by any means necessary. And you haven’t even laid eyes on her. You haven’t even met her… and you still loved her too much to sit idly by when you knew she was in danger. You found her in less than a year. I’ve been gone for fifteen years—and nothing. Why? Because they don’t give a damn.”
He licked his lips. The heat in his eyes said he had more fight. The tongue that stayed locked between his lips long after he’d licked them hinted that a flurry of irate words was surely lingering on the tip, hungry to get out.
Instead of spitting fire, however, his voice calmed as well, as if he too had just found acceptance. “Mia…” He spoke succinctly, patiently. Like a self-help guru speaking to someone who, Just. Didn’t. Get it. “I have to make the trade.”
Fresh tears filled her eyes, but she pressed her lips together to temper the pain that curled up under her skin.
He went on. “But I’m gonna come back for you.”
She shook her head rapidly. “Please don’t say that.”
Cursing under his breath, he closed the space between them again.
She repeated herself when he took her arms in another crushing hold, still shaking her head. “Please don’t say that if you don’t mean it. Don’t say it to make me feel better because it’ll only feel a million times worse when you don’t follow through.”
“Mia? Look at me—look at me.” He shook her arms and waited for her eyes to meet his, his green orbs so wide they seemed moments from rolling out of his skull. “On my late wife’s grave, as God is my witness, baby, I’ll come back for you. And, you have my word! I won’t leave until I’ve made you a widow. Until I’ve watched him breathe his last miserable breath with my own two eyes.”
It was foolish to believe him, but still, she found the tears in her eyes drying with every word he said, searching his green orbs as if they could somehow confirm his promise at their deepest depths.
He licked his lips. “And, I promise that, once we get away—you, me, and Emma? Once we’re really free? You won’t be a widow for long.”
One of his hands left her arm and came under her chin. He jutted the underside with his knuckles, lifting it in the air, and then he took her wobbling lips in a kiss—a kiss that promised so many things. Things that terrified, eased, and silenced her all at once. Mia didn’t even realize that she’d accepted his promise—which she believed it to the very depths of her bones—until she spread her lips and deepened the kiss, taking his surprised moan into her mouth and letting it sweep all over her body, defusing the fire within.
——
Linc could still remember the night she’d looked him in the eye and begged him to kill her. Begged for death. For release. Release from the world around her. Or perhaps from the world within her. He could still remember the desperation that had stained her eyes. Singed her voice. He could still remember the night Mia Ali hadn’t feared her own last breath.
And he knew he would always remember this night too. The night when he’d looked her in the eyes and seen it for the first time. Fear. Fear of leaving this world too soon. Of losing the privilege of living and breathing each moment. Of kissing and loving and fucking and fighting. She wanted it all. The good and the bad.
She wanted to live.
The realization tugged at his heart so severely he found it hard to complete a deep breath as he held up a white square chip, small enough to pinch between his thumb and forefinger. His other hand rested firmly on Mia’s knee, which he gripped from where he was leaning down in front of her, cuddled between her splayed legs from where she sat on the edge of the couch. Her lips were still plump and heavily kissed from the lovemaking they’d had after their big fight, her eyes heavy and sleepy in the way only a woman who’d just had several orgasms could understand.
“You ready?” he asked.
Mia studied the chip, and then nodded, taking it from his hand.
“Think you can get it in?”
She smirked. “If I can get you in…”
A bashful smile lit up his face, followed by a deep chuckle as his eyes fell, squeezing her knee tighter.
“Believe me…” She continued, her voice lit up by her smile. “I can get this in. Just give me a minute.”
They shared another soft kiss before she stood. Linc stayed kneeling, watching her cross the room and step inside the only bathroom in the small apartment. She hadn’t been kidding. Less than thirty seconds later, she emerged from the bathroom. It sometimes took him twice as long just to get his hardness fully submerged in the vice of her tight, glorious pussy.
“See?” She stopped in the middle of the room and did a little spin as if she’d really accomplished something. “All gone.”
He clasped his hands together, his eyes shining up at her. “Comfortable?”
“Can’t even feel it.”
He gave a sharp nod and then pulled his cell phone from his pocket, tapping away at the screen for a few s
ilent moments before standing and crossing the room to her. He showed her the screen where he’d pulled up a map of Paris with a bright red circle pulsing in the middle. A circle that signified Mia, and the white chip she’d just implanted.
“See that?” he asked, waiting for her to nod in his peripheral. “World’s smallest GPS but also the most powerful. Highly sensitive and laser focused with a range that spans thousands of miles. Wherever he takes you, I’ll see it. I’ll see you. I’ll find you.”
She faced him and searched his eyes.
He wanted to promise her for the million time that he wasn’t letting her go. He wanted to whisper the same reassuring words he’d whispered to her when he’d sank inside her in the bed upstairs, minutes earlier. The same words he’d warmed her ear with as the moans and whimpers that accompanied her orgasm had warmed his too. The same words that had laced his own ecstasy-ridden voice when his peak had rocketed through him, driving him to slam his naked hips into hers.
But it seemed no words would ever be enough for Mia. He’d have to prove it with action. And he had every intention to.
When she finally spoke, however, eyes full of apprehension, she surprised him by showing that she was no longer just worried about herself.
“It won’t be an exchange,” she said, the GPS app still blinking her location on his phone. “It’ll be an ambush. They’ll tell you they’re coming alone—and it’ll look that way too. But there’ll be a mom pushing a stroller without a baby. A teenager bopping to headphones that are actually earwigs. They’ll be everywhere, but invisible. Scattering in like roaches until you’re completely surrounded. Ready to shoot you on sight.”
Linc let the words sink in.
Silence reigned.
And then, he spoke, not a single new wobble present in his voice. Not a single hint of apprehension.
“What did I say before, huh?” He stroked her worried face with his knuckles. “If he wants a war…” His fingers paused as he raised his eyebrows high. “He’ll get one.”
32
He’d promised to come back for her once he had Emma. That promise had stayed on a loop in Mia’s mind since the moment it had left his lips. She still found herself trembling from where she lay on her stomach on the bed, staring blankly ahead. The sunlight rising above the Paris skyline and sending shards of light petering into the apartment did nothing to drown out the shadows looming beneath her skin.
It was the morning of the trade. The white bedding she was curled under was no match for the chills racing through her body. Her racing heart felt seconds from blasting out of her chest. Its violent pace only increasing when the bed tilted.
Linc drew in a deep breath beside her as if the reality of the situation had just hit him as well. Seconds after waking from a deep sleep.
At least one of them had been able to sleep.
Her eyes closed and nostrils flared as the bed continued shifting beside her. Sinking deeper every second. Making it clear he was inching closer, the way he always did in the mornings. She tightened her closed eyes, pretending to enjoy the good night’s rest that had never come.
She couldn’t look at him.
It wasn’t fair.
It wasn’t fair to be afraid when Emma was afraid too. It wasn’t fair to yearn for his love when it meant risking his daughter. It wasn’t fair to expect him to come back for her when it could mean losing his life—and Emma losing the father she’d never known. What kind of terrible person would ever ask that of him?
The sheets lifted away from her body before she could consider the terrifying answer, giving him room to slide in next to her. Her body responded when his long, strong limbs brushed against hers under the sheets. When she didn’t open her eyes, he swept his nose against hers from where she still lay on her back. The warmth of his breath on her lips. Her center ached for every inch of him.
She knew it would never be enough. No matter how many times they made love in a day. She’d always want more. He took her shoulder and turned her onto her stomach, proving that the feeling was mutual as he curled in behind her, pressing his hardness against the folds of her ass. The warmth of his breath hit her ear, followed by a sharp gasp as he yanked her panties down over her backside, just enough to free her glistening mound.
Dropping the act, she craned her body to look over her shoulder at him from where she still lay on her stomach. His face was still lined with a sleepy scowl. Still lingering in that place between slumber and wakefulness. He was always rougher in the mornings. Like a beast operating on his most basic instinct. Moving on orders only from his aching dick. Sometimes hurting her with his blind need. It was the best kind of pain she could imagine.
His eyes were still hooded, in a place far away, as he pressed his lips into her shoulder, reached between their bodies, and freed himself from his boxers as well, giving his dick a few slow strokes before priming the tip at her soaking entry.
Mia reached up behind her and stroked his tightened jaw, chest heaving in anticipation of him filling her. “One last time?”
A gasp parted his lips as the tip of his cock slid inside her, and he braced his fisted hands on either side of her body, lips brushing hers as he whispered back. “Not the last.”
“You promise?” she begged as he sank in, deeper every second.
“I promise.” His lips spread wider as he filled her to the hilt, a frown line drawing itself between his brows. His hips flexed, pulling out just an inch before he propelled deep.
He nuzzled her head just as a flash of pain lit her up. As if he could feel the blaze he’d caused as her body worked to adjust to his size. Knowing he was hurting her didn’t slow his pounds, but only drove him deeper, harder, drowning out the sting with the prickles of pleasure that soon accompanied every thrust. And she was his. A slave to the dark desire in his eyes, searching hers with each hit. To the ecstasy tightening her bones and surely his as well, each strike pushing him deeper into madness until every inch of his body was on top of hers, fucking her in blunt, powerful strokes. Mia took a handful of the sheets below her into a fist, gasping as they cooled her heated cheek. Her gasps moved to whimpers when his fingers came between her legs and circled her throbbing clit. The calluses on the tips providing even more friction and stealing the breath from her lungs.
She closed her eyes and took every hit, letting his clean scent enter her throbbing body and carry her to a higher realm of pleasure—just knowing it was him.
Linc.
Linc’s weight pushing her deeper into the bed. Linc’s dick making her wetter by the moment. Linc’s trembling fingers at her clit, her breasts, her nipples, slapping her ass, biting her neck and fisting her hair as he drove in and out.
His searing touch found her clit once more, and her stomach tightened, warning of her first orgasm. She bit his forearm. It muffled her cries as she came, her heart slamming against her ribcage, her channel tightening around his dick, making it slippery with her peak, aiding in his strokes until he was moaning his completion into the skin of her neck, as well.
Only after the last tremor had worked its way out of her body did he remove his fingers from the aching bud between her legs, gleaming with proof of her climax, and take a handful of her hair in a fist. He pulled her hair taut as his moans moved to grunts, nearly bending her neck in half, but Mia reveled in it, knowing he only got so rough when his own peak was on the horizon.
She didn’t mind hurting.
As long it meant he was healing.
——
“You good?” Linc asked, later that morning, reaching across the car’s console to cup Mia’s cheek. The bed of his thumb brushed her bottom lip, making it curl down, revealing the glistening pink underside, before popping back up. They both smiled as it did. “Got a little outta pocket this morning.”
Her face lit up as she gave a small smile. Enough to transform her whole face. He thought of what he would do if he ever lost the privilege of being on the receiving end of that smile. Of being granted unfiltered acces
s to that beautiful body of hers, the way he had that morning—unfiltered access to her even more beautiful heart, which he’d felt while pounding on her back that morning when he’d emptied himself inside her.
“I liked it,” she whispered, kissing the tip of his thumb.
“Did I hurt you?”
She kissed it again before shaking her head.
He knew she was lying to him. That she’d probably never tell him that sometimes he really did get a little out of control. That sometimes her body needed a little more time to ready itself for his dick before he sent it blazing inside of her and nearly ripped her in half.
Her smile weakened and then fell. Eyes losing every inch of the gleam that had resided there mere seconds before.
He could almost read her mind, and his nostrils flared as he broke his eyes away from her, still stroking her cheek, and looked out of the front windshield. It had been a three-hour drive from Paris to Le Tréport. A small industrial fishing port in Northeastern France. The isolated beach on the outskirts of the quiet town was the perfect place to make a trade. With high, jagged cliffs that reminded him of the haunting moors in his home in California and a gray, gloomy sky that promised rain, there would be no witnesses on the beach that morning.
Not that there ever would be. The rolling waves of the beach appeared dirty. As if the water was saturated with mud, giving it a brownish hue. Instead of sand on the beach, there were millions of prickly rocks—sharp pebbles that were painful to walk on. Not exactly a prime vacation spot for visitors of France or even for residents of the small town.
No one would be there but the people who had agreed to be there for the sake of the trade.
Emma for Mia.
His stomach rolled.
He didn’t know what had inspired Malik’s sudden change of heart when he’d finally agreed to the trade without sending his goons in to prove him a liar. Perhaps he had a political event coming up where Mia’s attendance was vital. Or perhaps he was no longer willing to risk Linc following up on his promise to disfigure her beautiful face. A face that would look terrible all battered and bloody on the campaign trail. Regardless, even though Malik had agreed to the trade, Linc knew he still had an army of men—hundreds more men—so he found himself on edge, even then.
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