It didn’t occur to me that I had no idea what the hell I was doing. If it was good for him. I just knew I couldn’t overthink this. I had to feel, and hope I would weaken him enough his grip of the gun would slip and I could do what I came here to do.
His free hand gripped the back of my head, bringing my face closer, this time a gasp escaped me and then his tongue forced its way in my mouth. The second his tongue touched mine, a strangled sound escaped my mouth. He licked and pressed his tongue hard against mine. He swirled his tongue with mine. And then he sucked my tongue into his mouth and a feeling I’d never experienced happened just below my hips.
He took his tongue away, but his lips went nowhere. He kissed me, long and slow. His big lips overpowering my smaller ones. His tongue snuck out and licked at my bottom lip a second before his teeth bit down on it. My entire body shuddered and my hips thrust in his direction involuntarily.
In response, I got a growl and a tongue back inside my mouth. I fought his this time. This was my show. I initiated this kiss. I was going to be the one in control. My hands gripped his shirt as I kissed him with a fierceness I didn’t know I possessed. When I felt like I couldn’t breathe, I pulled back, taking his bottom lip along for the ride. My eyes popped open, his lip still captured by my teeth. His eyes were already open, staring at me with such heat, I swear that one look alone could have warmed my entire body. I pulled on his lip harder and his hand on my head trailed from my shoulders down to my back until his large palm rested right over my ass. He squeezed the cheek and an unfamiliar wet warmth gathered between my legs. I gasped, feeling that hand everywhere, letting go of his lip and watching it pop into place, now swollen and red.
I looked down between us and cursed. How did he end up with the gun? I swallowed roughly before I chanced a look back up at him. He wasn’t grinning. He wasn’t looking at me in pity or like I was cute for trying to disarm him. His eyes had a glint in them. And I wasn’t sure if it was a glint of surprise or respect. Maybe a bit of both.
“What’s your name?” he asked, his voice husky.
“What’s your name?” I whispered, not trusting my voice.
“Hector,” he answered simply.
I took a deep breath. “Annie. I’m Annie.”
He looked at me skeptically. “Are you sure your name isn’t Olive?”
I frowned. That wasn’t who I am. It was who I was going to be. As soon as I made it out of the country. “No. And how do you know about th—?”
His hand slipped from my body and held up a fake ID. My fake ID. “I’ve been doing this a long time. I know how to go undetected. You didn’t hear a thing because you were so focused on him.”
I couldn’t reply. I felt so stupid. Stupid enough that heat flooded my cheeks and I broke our intense eye contact, staring at the floor. From my peripheral, I saw my fake ID land on the couch and then I felt his fingers under my chin, forcing my gaze back to him.
“I’ll tell you what I’m going to do. I’m going to take you to my place and then I am going to come back and blow this lowlife’s head off. Sound good?”
“No, it doesn’t fucking sound good,” I hissed, my face heating for an entirely different reason. “He is mine to kill.”
He sighed, his whole chest heaving once. “Don’t be difficult, bonita. I don’t want to hurt you.”
The respect in his eyes I found minutes before vanished. Maybe he saw me as a capable girl. Maybe even a strong one. But he was the man. It was his job to kill, to protect, to get his hands dirty. I had no problem protecting myself for the past decade but I didn’t tell him that. He saw me as weak. Nothing would change his mind.
“Fine,” I relented with a whisper.
“Fine,” he repeated, his voice sounding incredulous.
I looked up at him, into his suspicious as ever eyes, and nodded. “Fine.” I turned from him, bending down to tie my shoe that didn’t need tying, fishing for my last weapon. Returning to my full height, I turned around to face him, my hand already swiping the knife in front of me. The sharp edge grazed his right eyebrow but that’s as far as I got before his fingers wrapped around my throat. “I didn’t want to hurt you, Annie. But I’m not letting you do this.”
I wanted to curse him out. In both his preferred language and mine. I wanted to scream the words but his hands were tight around my throat, my vision growing hazy as I fought for my next breath. I scratched at his hands with my nails but he just stared at me as he slowly choked me into unconsciousness.
The last thing I heard before my world went dark was a promise. “Te veo pronto, bonita.”
I’ll see you in a bit, beautiful.
* * *
I gathered her in my arms to catch her from falling the moment her body gave up its fight. For the first time since I walked in and saw this woman, her hands steadier holding the gun than my hands had ever been in the fifteen plus years I’ve wielded one, I let out a singular shaky breath.
My eyes swung from the unconscious fireball of a woman in my arms to my best friend hidden in the darkness across the room. His eyes displayed the shock I felt. Like he had no idea what the fuck just happened. Well, I didn’t either.
He stepped out, shook off the surprise of tonight’s unfolding, and met my frozen body. “Which one do you want me to take care of?”
Inadvertently, my grip on Annie tightened and I forced my hand to relax against her skin. Nolan’s eyes flicked to the movement before looking past me to the coffee table where Cameron Wade thrashed against the coffee table, the zip-ties cutting off his circulation, his usual pale skin turning a sickly purple color.
I didn’t have to guess why anyone would want him dead. He was a drunk, a sleezeball, and a nuisance to everyone he came into contact with. He was the most uninteresting human I’ve ever been in a room with. He drank, he fucked, and he made sure the whole world knew. That’s it. He didn’t have a family, a woman, or a business. His love could be found inside a glass bottle, and unbeknownst to me, it made him happy. I had no complaints against the man who, every night, spent his money racking up his tab, keeping one of my last businesses in New Hazle thriving.
I frowned as I fought the urge to look down at the woman I clutched to my chest. The woman hell-bent on killing Cameron Wade. The woman who so clearly had been wronged by this man and decided to take justice for herself. The woman who didn’t flinch when she saw my face or when I told her my name. The woman who didn’t bow down to me. The woman who made me bleed. I could feel the slice she got of my eyebrow, the gash burning from the exposure of air, the wetness slowly dribbling down the side of my face.
I bit my lip, unsure if I was making the biggest mistake of my life. “Stay with him. I’ll be back.” I tossed her body over my shoulder, easily lifting her, at most, one hundred and twenty pounds. Before I pulled open the front door, I looked over my shoulder to find Nolan sitting in the same spot Annie accompanied moments ago, his hands holding a book, his feet propped up on the coffee table, or rather digging into Cameron’s struggling body. A smirk made its way to my lips. “Gather her things, Nolan. No one needs to know she was ever here.”
For an answer, I received a short nod and a flipped page. I tucked Annie into the back seat of my car before hustling around to the driver’s side. I hopped in, turning the music off as soon as the engine clicked over. I didn’t think Annie would regain consciousness on the short drive to my house but the fearlessness I caught a glimpse of in those deep blue eyes of hers was enough warning that the moment she woke up, there would be hell to pay.
Most of my days, I spent in the city. The only two places in New Hazle that you could find me was at my house or at Hank’s. And no one knew where my house was. I could never live in the city. Too many people. Too much noise. Not for me. I loved my silence and I loved my solitude.
I shouldn’t be taking Annie back to my house. I knew I should keep her in this car until she wakes and either let her kill me or take her where she wants to go. I shouldn’t care about the look I saw pass
over her face when I placed my hands over hers on the gun like I saved and destroyed her all at once.
Stopping at a red light, I looked back at her. Her face was squished against the leather seat, her hair shielding her face from me. A deep sigh escaped me as I turned back around, following the back roads to my secluded home.
The moment I passed the gates, Samuel came to mind. I didn’t know how the fuck I was going to explain an unconscious woman half my age. Or bringing her into the house that only he and the other two men in my life knew about. He left for a summer program abroad in the afternoon tomorrow. There was a fifty-fifty chance he would spend the night at home and get some rest or spend his last night in the city, getting his chance at one last American girl. For the first time in my life, I hoped for the latter.
I pulled up, relieved to see his Camaro nowhere in sight. Throwing Annie over my shoulder once more, I carried her into the house and upstairs into my bedroom. I switched the light on, only dim enough to see our surroundings.
I let her body slip from mine as I transferred her onto the bed. I pulled back the covers, tucking her body underneath the blanket before I took a step back. I shoved my hands in my pockets as I studied her face.
She was beautiful. An oval face, a straight feminine nose, and rosy cheeks. Long wavy blonde hair. She looked like she belonged on the cover of Vogue, not unconscious on my bed. Those eyes that I found underneath that pretty face, the ones I found myself getting lost in, almost to the point where she almost did overpower the gun from me.
My eyes slid down to her lips. Pale, pink, and plump. The swollenness from our kiss long gone but I could still feel them on my skin. Remember the taste on my lips. Her fight for control. Her weakness when my tongue touched hers, the way her hands flew from the gun to grab the lapels of my jacket. She didn’t even notice. All of her focus transferred onto me, on the way I set her on fire and exposed her weakness.
I shouldn’t have kissed her back. She was closer to my son’s age than mine. She had her whole life ahead of her. Not to mention, I didn’t think the little gash through my eyebrow would be the last time she’d make me bleed.
I stepped forward, knowing I shouldn’t. I grabbed tendrils of her hair, spreading it across the pillow her head rested upon.
I couldn’t see her eyes now but I didn’t have to. As steady as her hand held the gun, as unmoving as her finger curled around the trigger, her eyes told a different story. Those pleading deep blues burned in my memory, reminding me of another set of pleading eyes.
I knew that look all too well because that was how I looked at my father the night of my eighteenth birthday when he took me out for my first kill. The week before my only worry was Samuel teething and then my father revealed to me that when I turned eighteen, I wouldn’t just become a man, I’d become the successor to the Rivera name. A name that involved money, drugs, and blood.
My eyes pleaded with him the same way Annie’s did. All I got was a rough hand around my shoulder and a demand.
You always remember your first kill. It’s the one that changes your life, the one that ruins you forever.
I hesitated. I refused. I couldn’t do it.
My father came prepared, though, already underestimating me. He had one of his men bring over a chair and a video of the man I was supposed to kill. The man in front of me with tears running down his face, promises spilling from his lips.
I looked from the man in front of me to the man on the television screen. They had the same features, but didn’t resemble the same man. The man on the screen was sadistic and cruel. Digging beer bottle after beer bottle into a woman’s skin, slurring vile, demeaning things against her tear-streaked face.
I begged my father and his men to cut the video. I screamed and growled for them to stop. But they kept playing the video. The woman’s whimpers turned into hyperventilated sobs until she couldn’t hold in her pain any longer. Her screams felt vivid like they weren’t being played from a speaker, but from right next to me. It felt as if she screamed directly in my ear, begging me to save her from this monster.
They didn’t stop the video, not when I grabbed the gun, not when I placed my finger over the trigger, not when I put a bullet in the middle of the man’s brain. They didn’t stop the video until it was over. The video that still seemed to play on a loop in my head over fifteen years later.
I blinked past the memory, refocusing on the present. On the woman whose life would’ve changed forever, if Matt hadn’t contacted me.
“¿Quién es, bonita?” I whispered, my eyes roaming every inch of her face. Translation: Who are you, beautiful?
Sighing, I snatched my hand from her hair, grabbed the remote from the nightstand and left her sleeping. I locked the doors and hopped back in my car, returning to Cameron Wade’s house.
My phone rang as I cut the engine. I answered, not knowing what the hell I was going to say to him. Matt didn’t give me a chance to speak. “Did you find her?”
I slammed the car door shut. “Yes.”
A relieved sigh escaped him like he couldn’t help it. “Bring her to my house. I owe you, Hector.”
I remained quiet as my feet led me to the almost condemned porch. There was no way I was handing her over to him. Not unless she made that choice. If he had been in her life long enough to be worried about her, there had to be a reason she kept her secret from him. “I think I’ll keep her for a bit.”
“The fuck you will,” he boomed through the speaker.
I gritted my teeth. “You told me to save her, keep her out of trouble and I have. You owe me your life now. Those were the terms, Panini. Now, I have my own terms.”
He cursed under his breath but otherwise remained silent. “You tried killing me once, Matt. I haven’t forgotten. When it comes to Annie, stay out of my way or your mama’s going to have to bury you next.”
I hung up, not waiting for his response. I shoved open the front door and saw Nolan in the same place I left him. I knew he heard my arrival but still, he finished the page he was reading before removing his feet from Cameron and closing his book.
“I scrubbed everything down so any handprints she left behind are as good as gone. Her backpack only had an extra pair of clothes and a few dollars. I gathered up her two knives and gun and put it in a plastic bag.” He paused, looking at me curiously. “I wouldn’t return those to her unless you’re sure she won’t try to kill you again.”
My lips tilted up against my will. “I’ll keep that in mind, Nolan. I’ll take it from here. You can go.”
I waited until he left before I turned my attention back to Cameron. He had stopped struggling, every piece of visible skin turning a ghastly gray color. At this point, death might have been his wish, not his fear.
I walked over and bent down to his purple wrists and loosened the tie around them. Then the same with his feet. I knew Nolan wouldn’t. Nolan, as nervous as women made him, he recognized their heart and respected their decisions. A woman didn’t tie a man up and plan to shoot him for no good reason. I hoped Cameron would make this easy on me and confess what he did to Annie.
I sat on the couch, my ass hanging off the edge as I looked at the drool and tears running together down his neck. I slapped his face and waited. No response. I sighed, sticking my hands in the couch cushions. Surely, a drunk like him had a bottle nearby. My hands closed around the glass, unmistakably a beer bottle. I pulled it out. A lite beer, piss warm, and half full. It would do. I twisted the cap off, flicked it behind me, and poured the contents over Cameron’s face.
He lurched against his restraints, gasping. “Fuck,” he groaned.
I sat back against the couch, throwing a foot over my knee. His head slid in my direction and his eyes widened. “Whatever she told you, I didn’t do it.”
“Who’s she?”
“Katya,” he whispered her name.
I frowned. What the fuck did Katya have to do with this? “I haven’t been back to the club since she kicked me out.”
In
teresting. I almost asked why she kicked him out but I didn’t care about any of that right now. The only thing that concerned me in this moment was a beautiful woman with dark blue eyes, a wicked mouth, and a mind set on murder.
“I want to know about Annie,” I said lowly, my eyes boring into his.
He flinched at the mention of her name. “I don’t know an Annie,” he whispered more to himself than me. His hands curled into fists and his eyes glazed over every inch of this room that wasn’t me. A strong reaction for someone you didn’t know.
“You’re going to die, Cameron.” I stood up, throwing Annie’s backpack over my shoulder. I leaned down and released Cameron from his restraints. Before he even thought about escaping me, I delivered an uppercut to his jaw, catching his lifeless body before it hit the ground. “But she’s right. You’re not mine to kill.”
* * *
I was in heaven. I had to be. There was no other explanation. The mattress I found myself lying on top of was something out of a daydream. A cloud of cushion underneath my body, a sheet of delicateness sliding against my cheeks. No springs from the flimsy box spring digging into my ribs. My arms and legs didn’t dangle over a familiar edge. The blanket wrapped around my every limb felt smooth against my skin rather than the scratchy surface I was used to.
I stretched my arms above my head, my body distorting into an unknown shape as I worked out all of the kinks. I opened my eyes and frowned. Where was I?
The unfamiliar room was huge. The ceiling was about ten feet from my face. I sat up, letting the gray blanket fall from my body as I studied the room. Spacious and empty. Other than the king-size bed I found myself in, there were two small tables at each head of the bed and what had to be an eighty-inch LED TV mounted to the wall adjacent from where I sat.
Hijacked Page 5
