by Christa Wick
Undercover DEA agent Dean Ramirez already has one dead body on his conscience when plus-size beauty Garnet Williams accidentally walks in on a drug deal gone bad. With the two members of the Mexican cartel in the room more than ready to slit the woman’s throat, he has to think fast to save her without blowing his investigation.
Gazing on the woman’s pale, flawless skin, quivering mouth and oh-so-lush curves, inspiration strikes. Until he can spirit her away to witness protection, Ramirez has no choice but to claim her as his personal sex slave.
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CAPTIVE CURVES
Sometimes going the extra mile to help a friend or stranger can bring the reward of a lifetime. Other times, it can get a girl killed. Visiting the rundown west Phoenix apartment building of a sick student to deliver his homework for the week, I wasn’t expecting any better, or worse, than a simple thank you.
Thank you in the form of an enthusiastic hug from eleven-year-old Jaime Gutierrez was exactly what I got -- until I took a wrong turn through an unmarked door on my way out of his building. I thought I was stepping into the stairwell. The dead body sprawled on the peeling linoleum floor in front of me suggested otherwise.
A single bulb hanging at the end of a frayed cord cast its feeble light over the body. Blood black as ink where the shadows touched it pooled along the right side of the chest. At the end of the corpse’s out flung arm, a young Latino carefully brushed lumpy brown powder spilling from a busted plastic bag onto a piece of newspaper.
Realizing my wrong turn had landed me in the middle of a drug deal gone bad, I sucked in a lungful of air.
“¡Coño!”
The door I’d just walked through slammed shut behind me. The man kneeling by the body started to rise. His hand went to his side. I heard the snick of a blade and then his hand reappeared. Gore glistened darkly over the surface of the knife he brandished at me.
I took a step back only to feel fingers knotting in my hair, an unseen hand capturing and immobilizing my head.
Scream, you idiot, scream, scream, scream…
My lips moved wordlessly, ineffectual as my throat muscles convulsed in fear. Fingers suddenly numb, I dropped my book bag. It landed at the feet of the dead body. Only my legs seemed capable of still functioning and I tried again to take a step back. The hand in my hair twisted, forcing me up onto my toes.
“Quiet, chica, and I promise to kill you quickly.” The man rolled the handle of the knife between his fingers as his chocolate brown gaze darted between the overly generous curve of my stomach and the exposed skin of my throat. Giving one last dismissive look at my soft belly wrapped in a thick rain coat, he made his decision and nodded at the person behind me. “Hold her head back.”
“Don’t touch her.”
A man stepped into the light. Like my soon-to-be assassin, he was Latino. Only, where the man with the knife was wiry and a few inches shorter than me, the second man was a mountain of granite.
“Fuck that, cabron! She’s seen my face -- and yours. Are you fucking estupido?”
Hearing a murmur of agreement behind me, my hope of getting out alive evaporated. Only the stranger standing in front of me seemed inclined to let me live. Staring into his cold green eyes, I wasn’t sure why -- or if I’d be better off dead.
I blinked. What kind of nonsense was that? Of course I wanted to live!
“Please,” I whispered. On the verge of crying, my vision blurred. The quiver vibrating along my lips distorted the words as I begged for my life. “Please, I don’t want to die.”
“You won’t -- not today.” My savior stepped around the dead body, his hand closing on the wrist of the man holding the knife. “I’m going to teach you pendejos how to train your bitches to do anything you want.”
Moving his hand up to the other man’s chest, he pushed him away from me. A smile just as cold as his gaze spread across my rescuer’s face. “Hello, little dove. I’m Dino.”
“If this bitch screams--”
Dino shook his head, immediately silencing the man standing behind me. “She can hardly breathe right now, let alone scream. Isn’t that right, blanca?”
I nodded. I was scared shitless. More importantly, I knew my throat would be slit the second I opened my mouth. When I did scream, I wanted to make sure there was someone other than these thugs to hear me.
“Right now, she’d run straight to the cops if we let her go.” Pulling the red sash from my raincoat, Dino grabbed my wrists and quickly bound them together. “A week from now, she’ll do anything I ask her. If I need a mule or money laundered, blanca will do it for me.”
The man with the knife wasn’t ready to back down. He elbowed Dino, trying to push the bigger man aside. “She’s seen my face, you fucking idiot!”
Dino’s green eyes slid left, the reflection of the room’s single light giving them a murderous glint. His voice dropped dangerously low as he fisted a handful of the smaller man’s shirt. A moment’s combat ensued, their movements too fast and the room too dark for me to discern who did what. When it was over, Dino had possession of the knife, its blade pressed lightly against the other man’s cheek.
“How about I give you a new face, Feo?”
A shiver rolled through me. Everything about Dino looked deadly. Tall, with a muscular body, he oozed menace and ultimate control. His face had a masculine, chiseled beauty softened only a fraction by the long dark hair that fell in waves to his shoulders.
Any softening of his features was immediately obliterated by one look into his soulless eyes.
Glancing my way, he caught me staring at him. His smile froze the blood in my veins. “Like what you see, blanca?”
All I saw was a stone cold killer who seemed to think he could make me a slave and bend me to his will. Gaze narrowing, his cheek twitched and I was sure he had read my mind.
“Go get the van.” Dino nodded at the man behind me before his attention refocused on my would-be killer. “You wait in the hall.”
“Pinche chingaso--”
A warning growl shut Feo up fast. Bending down, he put the plastic bag on top of the newspaper and loose powder, and then he folded the paper over it. Leaving, he slammed the door behind him.
Still holding the knife, Dino scooped up my book bag and shouldered it before looking at me. “Face the door, little dove.”
I obeyed him as my brain tried desperately to form a plan. In a few seconds I would be back out in the fourth-floor hall of the apartment building. To my left would be the building’s single elevator, out of service. Somewhere to my right would be the door to the stairwell, the one I’d thought I was opening instead of the door into hell I’d stepped through five minutes ago. Feo would undoubtedly be covering the stairwell door.
I didn’t know if there was another stairwell at the opposite end of the hall. Even if there was, it might not let out onto the street. It could empty into a basement, for all I knew.
If I waited until I was out in the hall to sc
ream, maybe someone would call the police. Or they might open their door to see what was going on. My chest tightened at the prospect. The only other person I was sure was in the building right then was a defenseless eleven-year-old boy. If I screamed and Jaime opened his apartment door, we’d both be dead.
Pressing his chest against my back, Dino snaked his hand around front. With the blade of the knife, he pushed a lock of hair away from my ear and whispered a warning. “I know you’re thinking about running, little dove.”
I shook my head. I had been thinking about running, but I wasn’t going to have a dead child on my conscience. I’d die first. Correction -- I’d be tortured first, probably gang raped, and only then would I be allowed to die. But if that’s what it took to save Jaime, so be it.
“Don’t lie, blanca.” Dino’s lips brushed my ear and another shiver rolled through me. As cold as his eyes had been, his body was an inferno. I could feel his heat sinking into my bones, sapping more of my will to scream or flee away.
“You need to understand something. If you run, I can’t stop them from chasing you. Like the fucking dogs they are, it’s in their blood.” The tip of the knife trailed lightly down my throat to stop at the collar of my blouse. “And what they catch, they rip and they tear until nothing’s left. Obey me and I’ll get you out alive and back to your cozy white girl suburb.”
Dino’s hips shifted and I felt what could only be the hard bulge of an erection against my bottom. Clearly, I was in the hands of a sadist who thought he could brainwash me into doing his bidding.
All I had to do to survive was convince him he had.
*****
I spent the next hour in the back of a van, my hands still bound at the wrist. Curtains blocked the front seat, but I could tell we were going in circles -- or at least a series of right turns zeroing back in on a final destination. With no seats in the back, I sat on the floor, Dino cushioning me from the metal wall as he sorted through my bag. Removing my ID and bank cards, he shoved them in his jeans’ pocket.
I offered a sneer he couldn’t see. He was going to be sorely disappointed if he tried to use any of my plastic. A first-year teacher in the Isaac school district, I had just enough cash on the bank card to buy gas until payday. One pizza away from being maxed out, the credit card was just as useless.
Sitting against the opposite side of the van, Feo eyeballed my necklace. Given to me by my grandmother on her deathbed, it was an antique silver setting with an aquamarine. My grandfather had given it to her on their first wedding anniversary. The blue of the stone matched her eyes -- matched mine, too.
Dino looped a finger under the chain. He flipped the pendant over, studied its silver back for a second and then unclasped the chain. Holding the necklace up with one hand, he forced me to turn my head until he could see my face. His gaze moved from the stone to my irises and back again.
A flick of Dino’s wrist and the necklace landed in Feo’s lap.
My body already vibrating with tension, I coiled tighter at the loss.
Dino let go of my face and draped one thick arm across my chest. Cupping my breast, he started to tease the nipple with his thumb. I squirmed, but I had no where to move. My back was against his hard chest and his free arm blocked me from moving left. Slowly, he continued to brush his thumb against the hardening tip. His index finger joined in to lightly pinch and tug until the small bud was fully erect beneath my bra.
“Better than a slit throat, little dove.”
I wasn’t sure he was talking about the necklace or his touch. Either way, he was right. Closing my eyes, I forced myself to relax against him.
“Much better,” he whispered in my ear. Releasing my nipple, he gave my breast a gentle squeeze and then ran his hand over my stomach. “It’s been a long time since I had someone so soft and sexy in my arms.”
All the forced ease fled my body. Arrogant enough to tell them in front of me that he was going to train me as his bitch, I shouldn’t have been surprised he planned to do it with lies.
He ran his fingers along my cheek. “You don’t believe I find you sexy?”
Refusing to answer, I kept my eyes closed and my body shut down to his light caress.
Nosing the hair along my ear, Dino responded with a low chuckle. “Baby, it’s going to be my pleasure convincing you otherwise.”
His hand dipped under my blouse, traveled up my skin to the bottom edge of my bra. “I bet it’s black, little dove. With matching panties, si?”
My spine stiffened and he laughed.
His hand traveled a little higher, his fingers brushing against the center of the front panel. A little groan and he was cupping my breast again, his lips hot against my throat. “Front clasp, naughty blanca.”
Across from us, Feo watched with a smirk. “Fuck, ese, I think she likes it.”
“No.” Dino tucked my hair over one shoulder, giving him better access to my neck. He kissed me slowly, a fresh tremor running through me at the contact. “She hates it. Hates me. Isn’t that true, little dove.”
“Yes,” I spat out.
Another goddamn chuckle and then he unhooked the bra.
“Please…” I closed my eyes, more horrified by the fact that Feo was watching than by the sensation of Dino’s hands on me.
Feo descended into laughter, mockingly calling out por favor, por favor!
Dino palmed my breast. His lips and tongue searing my flesh, he moved from my ear to the starting curve of my shoulder as his hand squeezed then massaged then pinched, his rhythm matching his breathing. “How can I train you if I can’t touch you, baby?”
“I don’t want trained,” I whispered. I was shaking, unsure how much of my reaction was revulsion and how much arousal. His breathing, the strokes, the little bit of pain followed by the soothing brush of his fingers -- all of it combined to make me wet.
“You do if you want to live, blanca.”
His matter-of-fact tone triggered a momentary breaking. I started to cry, little hiccoughs punctuating my tears. Releasing my breast, Dino turned me until I was cradled in his arms and looking up at him. For the briefest of seconds, I saw something other than a cold blooded killer in his gaze.
He blinked and it was gone, but the effect lingered in my mind. When he bent his head to kiss me, I didn’t turn away. My lips parted, my breasts rose to meet his hand as he slipped it back under my blouse.
When his fingers found the nipple once more and rolled it, I moaned.
The van slowed to a stop, the driver immediately shutting the engine down. Hearing the metal screech of a garage door shutting, reality closed back in and tightened around my throat like an iron fist. I was isolated, in a private residence where I would be shuttled from the garage to the interior without a chance of being seen or knowing where I was. I tried to scramble away, my bound wrists stealing any leverage and making me clumsy.
Dino wound his fingers through my hair. Holding my head still, he gazed into my eyes. Again, I saw that nameless something -- neither light, nor shadow. “You remember what I said about running?”
I nodded. Not the least bit threatening, his voice sounded fiercely protective. A wave of calm washed over me, but I knew its undertow was deadly.
Stupid, stupid cow -- he’s got you already!
*****
Before I was pulled from the van, a black hood was thrown over my head. With Dino standing behind me, his large hands lightly gripping my plump biceps, I was led from the garage into a cool interior. A door opened and the cold air from a swamp cooler filtered through the hood.
I could hear Feo in front of me, sounding a few feet away but facing me. “Here little piggy. Little --”
“One step up, blanca.” His hands still gently guiding me, Dino’s voice sounded like salt on an open wound. Feo must have decided the tone was meant for him because his taunting ended abruptly.
Tentatively, I lifted my foot, the toe of my shoe searching for where the elevation ended. I took a step forward and then a second. The hard p
lastic soles of my shoes clicked dully along the floor for a few feet before their sound was muffled by carpet. Steered right, I could tell we were moving down a hallway as walls brushed against both sides of me.
Voices, all masculine, drifted from the doors we passed. Catcalls surrounded me but they quickly died out at the soft growl of the man guiding me until all I could hear was the mix of rap and salsa from the different radios playing. At the end of the hall, Dino reached around me and opened a door. Stepping through it, the music faded.
Dino shut the door before he removed my hood to reveal a small bedroom. A twin bed took up half the space. Blackout curtains covered the single window, the room lit by only a small bedside lamp. The door had two deadbolts on it, each one sounding as final as the grave as he gave a twist and locked them.
I stood between him and the bed. He started moving toward me with a cat’s prowling grace. Shaking my head, I moved to my left, away from the bed and toward the window. Dino intercepted me, maneuvering me until my back was against the wall.
Untying my hands, he leaned close and whispered in my ear. “The sooner they believe you’re trained, the sooner I can get you out of here.”
Shadows bruised his face. I couldn’t read his eyes or his expression in the low light.
“What are you saying?” My near hysterical pitch reached above a whisper.
Gaze narrowing, Dino placed a finger against my lips. When he answered, his words were loud enough to carry beyond the door. “I’m saying you’re my bitch and it’s time to train you.”
He stripped my raincoat and blouse away, my struggles useless against his strength. My black bra was still undone and I tried to cover my breasts with my freed hands.
“No!” His tone sharp, he grabbed my wrists and forced my hands down to my sides. Biting his bottom lip, he stared at my exposed flesh.
“Fuck, I want you completely naked.” Pressing his chest against mine, Dino pinned me to the wall. He kissed me, his tongue curling up under my top lip to suck it into his mouth. Capturing my hands again, he re-tied the sash around my wrists.
Christ, he was strong, lifting me like I was some runway model instead of a woman careening towards a BMI of thirty. The only way I could fight muscles like that was by remaining calm and using my brain.
