by Melissa Jane
“Finish your meal,” he instructed, his teeth pulling a chunk of steak off his fork.
Swallowing the hard lump in my throat, I looked down at the remainder of my food. My appetite had long abandoned me. All I wanted was alcohol. Taking three large gulps, I let the dry wine burn my throat on the way down. I could feel his stare but chose not to meet it.
“We should settle the score.”
“What?” I asked, genuinely perplexed.
“We should cross the border and take them out ourselves.”
I started shaking my head. “Are you insane? We can’t do that! I’ve never even shot someone before. And besides, Evan was clear that I head to LA to the next safe house.”
“Have you heard from him?”
“No, not since yesterday. Have you?”
He shook his head. “They won’t stop tracking, Nina. You have a choice and one that can’t be made lightly. We either attack them first knowing that they won’t be expecting it or I keep following your ass, watching over our shoulders and settling scores in convenience stores.”
“I wouldn’t even know how to track them.”
“I can get some men to look into it.”
“Jair, I-I don’t have the skill to take this cartel head on. You might, but even then we are severely outnumbered.”
A smile played on his lips like he knew something I didn’t. “You can’t stop what you can’t see.”
***
We finished our dinner over another bottle of wine and then ceased all talk of cartels and heading across the border. Instead, we spoke about places around the world we would visit given the chance and our similar loves for wine and food.
Any apprehension from earlier was lost and we fell into an easy rhythm.
As we were leaving the restaurant, Jair’s cell buzzed in his jacket pocket. Retrieving it, he looked at the screen and excused himself.
“Cariña, I have to take this and you look exhausted. Please, go upstairs and relax.”
Feeling my tired eyes begging for sleep, I left him in the foyer to answer the call, grateful to be making my way back to the room. Stripping off my clothes, I jumped into the shower and let the delicious warmth run over most of my body while keeping my arm dry.
After toweling myself as best I could, I threw on an oversized shirt and crawled into bed.
My last thoughts were of Jair Ruiz before sleep claimed me. The way he looked at me, the way he made me feel like I was the only woman in the room, the way he had made me feel a new kind of normal.
It was all him.
***
I was trapped. The chill traveling up my spine was telling me that with every step I ran, eyes were following me everywhere. They knew where I was. They were hunting me. Toying with me. Laughing as they sensed my fear. I was crying. Frustrated of being trapped. I needed to escape this brick maze, yet I couldn’t find an out. The walls… they changed causing me to lose my way, my hunters closing in on me.
I ran down an unfamiliar passage that had deep scarring marring the crumbling brick walls. I could feel the cool breeze biting at my sodden cheeks. Picking up speed I made it to the end with the only option of turning right.
“Cariña,” he called, his voice taunting as the name he once affectionately called me echoed down the passage. Now it seemed like the call of death breathing down my neck. There was a tightness in my throat, one that was choking me with emotion. Taking a sharp right, I came sliding to a halt, a brick wall now blocking my path to freedom.
There was a sense of foreboding. One I couldn’t shake. I had no choice but to run back the way I came.
“Cariña,” he called again. Facing the direction I had run from I knew he was close. I could feel him. I would never have made it. With a pounding chest, my breath formed clouds of ice fog, the temperature around me instantly dropping. I saw the tip of his snake skin shoes first, then the piercing glare of his victorious eyes as he rounded the corner. He had found me. I was his prize. He had won, I had lost. My heart crumbled. I had always been his vulnerable lamb whether I wanted to be or not. And now as he slowly stalked toward me I felt that familiar pull. That attraction to his dark sinister side that had always held me captive even though my head would scream at me to run.
“Why are you running from me, cariña?” His lips held back a wicked grin.
“Why are you chasing me?”
“When a lamb runs, the fox chases.”
“I haven’t done anything. You… you were supposed to protect me.” He stood close, finger under my chin tilting my face. I was a pool of nerves, the way he always made me. “You were supposed to be the good guy.”
He narrowed his gaze and I was caught in his trance, his gravelly voice drawing a familiar pang between my legs.
“Cariña, I’m not entirely good. I’m not entirely bad. But I’m enough of a little of each to ruin you.”
Becoming putty in his hands, I let him pull me close. I blinked preparing for his lips on mine but then, in a single terrifying instant, Jair Ruiz disappeared. In his place was a snarling face I never wanted to see again. I screamed taking a hasty step back but collided with the newly formed wall. The Hispanic man from the convenience store advanced forward ready to claim his prize.
“Jair!” I screamed for the man who had betrayed me. Covering my face, I cowered down, warm tears stinging my cheeks. My aggressor’s body becoming a haze like I was drunk. His eyes taunted, his smile a sneer.
I couldn’t take it. Squeezing my eyes closed I begged and pleaded for Jair over and over until I felt a firm grip wrap around my arms shaking me violently.
“Nina!” the voice demanded. “Cariña, wake up.”
With a sudden jolt, my eyes opened to see Jair straddling me, his worried face close to mine. I couldn’t stop the panic, the nightmarish fears plaguing me into my reality. I pushed hard against Jair’s chest in an effort to move him. It was ineffective but he could sense my urgency and moved toward the end of the bed. Scrambling to the top, I hugged my knees while trying to pace my breathing. Why were these feelings not going away? It was a dream. It wasn’t real. Yet, I couldn’t shake the doubt and fear I now held against this man.
“Cariña, what happened?” he asked slow and cautious.
“You… you were chasing me through a brick maze. There was something different about you.” I only became aware of the tears falling down my cheeks when Jair moved forward ready to wipe them away.
“Don’t!” Holding up my hand, he got the hint and backed away.
“It was just a dream, cariña. It wasn’t real.”
“Then why does it feel so real?”
“You’ve been through a lot the last few days, I’m not surprised.”
“But, it wasn’t just you.”
‘What do you mean?”
“You were the one chasing and taunting me, but when you leaned in to kiss me you became him.”
“Him?”
“The man from the convenience store. He was laughing and had me trapped.”
Jair stilled, eyes unblinking, focused on me but lost in thought.
I waited, trying to decipher his sudden change in his mood. Was he offended by what I’d just said?
“Cariña, it was just a dream,” he soothed, crawling up the bed toward me. This time, I didn’t shy away. I let him come close. I let him cup my sodden cheeks. I let his lips kiss mine, his tongue dancing the way I loved. I caved. The way I always do with him.
Groaning gently against his mouth, he hooked an arm around my waist and pulled me underneath him, a wetness between my legs all for the man who looked at me with such hungry eyes. Lowering himself, I wrapped my legs around his waist, feeling his hard cock restrained in his underwear. I desperately wanted to free his length and have him inside me once more. Although he always left me sated and sore in all the right places, I still craved him. The fear and doubt I experienced only minutes ago from my very real nightmare had since vanished. His touch squashing any last lingering fears or doubts.
Impatient and desperate to have him inside me, I attack his clothes, unbuttoning his shirt and unzipping his pants to free his impressive length. Leaning back on his knees, he shrugs the shirt over his shoulders, tossing it on the floor. With his hands on my knees, they slide down pushing my bent legs further apart. He wears that look I love. The look that reveals everything he has planned for me. The look I see before he devours my body whole.
He wasted no more time, dropping forward he plunges his cock deep inside me. Gripping his hair, I cried out in both ecstasy and agony as he filled me completely, his teasing thrusts leaving me short of breath and begging. Begging for it to never stop. He senses my urgency, bringing my leg over his arm, and forcing himself deeper inside.
It hurt but I loved every bit.
I wanted him to take me hard, deep, fast, and teasingly slow.
I welcomed the cry that escaped my lips as he took me.
I relished in feeling my orgasm explode around him and then seconds later feeling him release inside of me.
Kissing me tenderly, I craved more, needing him.
Whatever spell Jair Ruiz had over me, I never wanted it broken.
Chapter 12
“That’s your answer to everything, is it?” My voice was laced with a tiredness I’d never felt before.
“It can solve a lot of problems.”
Problems or not, Jair Ruiz was well versed in sexual play.
“You’re very expressive.”
This surprised me. “How so?”
His finger trailed a line from my neck, between my breasts and down to my navel. “Your body, it responds to every touch, even if it’s just a whisper. It blushes, shudders, silently screams for more.” Turning, he clasps my chin and pulls me to my knees. Lowering his lips to mine, he grazes them. “And nothing gets me off more than controlling your body like that.”
“You do seem that way inclined,” I teased, breathy.
“I possess ultimate control in everything I do.” Jair sat back, zipping his pants. “Let’s go to Mexico and finish this.” His voice was stern, suddenly all business again.
“Jair, I don’t even know who the enemy is you expect me to fight.”
“But they know us. Now’s our time to turn the tables.”
I sucked in my bottom lip and bit hard. It terrified me crossing the border chasing down an enemy that had me as its target. I wasn’t exactly trained for this. I knew how to fight. Despite having never been the position to shoot at another human, I was a good shot. But so was Garcia. He was better than me. In every way. And now he’s dead. That was a tremendous confidence shake.
“I cross the border, I lose all help from the US.”
“You have me.”
We locked eyes as I let those three words sink in.
Did I have him?
Did he really have my back?
“Besides, despite you having jurisdiction over the fence, it seems your agency has cut you from the family.”
“I can’t.”
His jaw twitched and I knew it wasn’t the answer he needed. Instead of trying to convince me, he walked away. Thankful the scrutiny had ended, I pulled my nightshirt over my head before leaning against the headrest. I watched as Jair lifted the champagne from the ice bucket and wiped the condensation. Pouring two glasses, he walked back to bed and handed me one.
“Salud,” was all he said, holding my gaze.
After a physically exhausting night I was tired but mostly thirsty. Taking four eager gulps, I let the bubbles tingle down my throat while I considered the man before me. He hadn’t broken his hold, watching my every movement.
“You’re an enigma.”
A small smile twitched his lips. “Oh?”
“I haven’t even come close to figuring you out,” I said, shaking my head slightly to knock the sudden heaviness clouding my brain. “I can’t decide if I should fear or trust you.”
He remained silent contemplating my words, his pinkie finger tapping a beat on his champagne glass.
“Cariña, maybe you’re right,” he began. “You see, I’m not entirely good. I’m not entirely bad. But I’m enough of a little of each to ruin you.”
“What did you just say?”
I swallowed hard, the spinning room picking up a nauseating pace as those exact ambiguously threatening words from my nightmare came flooding back.
Again he considered me curiously. Maybe he could see my pounding heart in my chest. When he turned his back to me I saw for the first time, his back covered in tattoos. But only one stood out.
It was identical to one the man in the convenience store had.
The Virgin Mary.
A saint.
Los Santos.
He was one of them.
Maybe he could smell my fear. Maybe he could sense my panic. Jair turned, eyes now completely void of emotion, looking at me as if I were a stranger. I made to move, needing to get away, the champagne glass slipping from my hold and spilling on the floor. He stood tall over the top of me as all muscle strength I once possessed vanished. I fell, my head landing on the pillow as Jair’s face became a blur.
“What’s happening?” I asked although I didn’t hear the words. I also didn’t hear the door open but I saw them enter. They filtered in one by one, four faces watching me, unconcerned with my vulnerable state. Jair didn’t turn to greet the men dressed all in black despite their guns pointed straight at me. He didn’t stop them either. His eyes remained locked to mine, jaw twitching with a raw intensity.
The intruders stood around the bed also watching while I barely had the strength to blink and all I wanted to do was run.
I’d been drugged.
I’d been lied to by the one person I had to trust.
I had become that vulnerable lamb, he my predator.
My dream—it had been a warning. One I chose to ignore simply because of his controlling charm.
He was right. I was weak. And now here I was.
He wore their mark. He was one of them. A devil in disguise.
Now, as I lay close to darkness, I realized, I could never trust a saint.
Chapter 13
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
They were evenly timed, falling at a pace that was pulling me from the darkness.
There was an ache.
An ache assaulting my upper body.
And then came the stench.
A foul smell in the air bringing me that last step back into reality.
Now with eyes wide open, a blackened room greeted me. My arms were raised high above my head, wrists bound by something suspending me from the roof. My legs were folded beneath me, my ass hovering a hand length off my heels.
Adjusting to the semi-darkness, I met a face staring back at me. Staggering away from him as far as I could, I only made the pain worse.
The whites of his eyes glimmered in the small amount of light filtering through the slender window positioned almost at the roof line. He watched me struggle, his wicked smile revealing his white teeth.
“Where’s Ruiz?” My words were cracked, voice husky.
The smile faded slightly, not losing its spite.
“Where’s Jair Ruiz?” I repeated when he didn’t answer.
A few beats passed before he moved. Emerging from the shadows, I saw he was almost the twin of the man who attacked me in the convenience store. Skinny, bald, with tattoos covering a mass of skin. Without saying a word, he walked, shoulders hunched, stopping just shy of my knees. I expected him to hit me. I expected him to discipline me in some way. His fingers nervously touched my face, the way a small child would a porcelain doll. I flinched at the contact and turned away. He wasn’t perturbed. He trailed a path down my neck and over my breasts. Thankfully I still wore my oversized shirt. But it wasn’t enough. Still not conten
t he moved lower toward the hemline snaking his hand underneath.
“Don’t fucking touch me,” I seethed, wriggling to avoid his touch. He ignored my demand and slowly worked his way between my legs, his face now in front of mine. Like a vice, I squeezed my thighs together denying him access. His eyes were laughing at me. Mocking my struggles as I fought his advances.
Then, suddenly, like a switch being flicked, his eyes lost all emotion, almost like he was caught in a trance. “You killed my brother.”
Fuck.
“No. I didn’t. I swear.” I wasn’t lying. It wasn’t me who attacked him in the convenience store. It wasn’t me who blew his throat off.
All he did was give a slight nod to say he knew otherwise.
I swallowed hard not knowing what was going to become of me. Not knowing if he was going to seek retribution. Instead to my surprise, he pulled his hand out from between my thighs and untied the restraints around my wrists. My arms fell like a heavy dead weight to my thighs, an agonized groan breaking the silence. My shoulders were screaming at me and the extent of the pain had me wondering how long I had been tied up. My relief was short-lived. Pulling my hands behind my back, he bound my wrists together again.
“Vamos,” he instructed.
I didn’t move.
Not knowing what was on the side of the door, had me paralyzed.
Having nothing of it, he hooked a hand under my arm and lifted me awkwardly to my feet. My knee joints seized from being folded for so long and I fell to the dirty floor. The man cursed in Spanish, his frustration evident when he attempted for a second time.
I let him lead me out of the damp room and up a flight of stairs. In contrast to the squalor I’d just been in, I now found myself walking through a large spacious house with traditional Mexican décor.
I was in Mexico.
I’d fucking ended up in Mexico.
Where was Jair?
We walked outside, the sunlight burning my corneas. Squinting through the pain, I felt the dry grass crunching under my bare feet. Coming to a sudden stop a short distance away from the house, I was pushed onto my knees. My heart was pounding hard in my chest, fear of having reached the end road now plaguing my thoughts.
