by Brook Wilder
Why oh why had he gotten involved with the cartel? At first life had been good, moving money whenever they asked to offshore accounts. He wasn’t really doing anything illegal and used the money towards paying down Sab’s college tuition bit by bit, and making a nice nest egg for when she had graduated from high school. He had hidden it from his wife, explaining it away as small bonuses from the bank, and since he was putting it aside for Sabs, she hadn’t questioned the sudden change in their accounts. For a while, everything had been good and without incident.
But then he had been asked to move more and more, and after some investigation, he’d realized that he was helping the nameless accounts to fund the cartel’s activities on this side of the border, and not just in Mexico. In a gutsy move, Joaquin had copied the account numbers and saved them for leverage, accounts that Sabs now had in her possession.
Which was why he was being tortured like this. El Templario wanted that SIM card and Joaquin refused to give him any indication of where it might be.
The door opened and Joaquin clenched his hands together to keep them from shaking, another side effect of the caffeine that El Templario was pumping into him.
“My friend,” El Templario announced as he shut the door behind him. “Any change of heart?”
Joaquin stared at him, the pull of exhaustion on his body unlike anything he had ever felt before. After three days of sitting in this windowless room, feeling the caffeine course through his body, he wanted sleep. This was unlike any torture he had heard of, and if he’d had his choices, he would rather his fingernails be pulled off or his hair torn from his head than to go through this again.
Over and over, El Templario had tortured him, forced him to remain awake in this room.
He needed sleep. “Please.”
El Templario laughed. “Please? Please? Please give me that SIM card and I will let you sleep.”
Joaquin swallowed, his throat dry and scratchy. He had never been this tired before in his life and knew he wouldn’t last much longer.
El Templario grabbed his hair and pulled it tight, causing Joaquin to wince against the pain. “I will ask you one last time. What was on that SIM card?”
“M-money accounts,” Joaquin forced out, the buzzing in his head getting louder. He hated that sound, like bees boring holes into his brain and taking residence there. “Encrypted on the blockchain. The total value is somewhere around two hundred and eighty million dollars.”
“Good man,” El Templario said, patting his head lightly, the pressure easing for the moment. “Now tell me what you did with it and we will be done here.”
He couldn’t. He couldn’t tell him and save his daughter at the same time. Sabs would be in danger if he told the truth, but if he lied, he would be a dead man. “I-I can’t.”
El Templario swore under his breath and Joaquin felt the cold muzzle of a gun at his temple, causing him to whimper. He couldn’t die tonight. His wife, his daughter needed him, and if he died in this windowless room, no one would ever find him.
They would suffer. “Please.”
El Templario pressed the gun against his temple tightly. “Tell me what I want to know, Joaquin.”
“My family,” he gasped. “Please tell me my family is safe.”
“I haven’t touched a hair on your family’s heads,” El Templario replied evenly. “And I will not do so as long as you cooperate with me.”
The buzzing grew louder and Joaquin knew he was going to pass out from lack of sleep if he didn’t do something.
He was a dead man either way. “My daughter,” he finally said, a tear rolling down his cheek. “My daughter has the card. Please tell me you will not harm her.”
El Templario didn’t remove the gun and he closed his eyes, waiting for the moment he would hear the bullet crush into his brain. Silently he said goodbye to his loving wife, asking for her forgiveness for what he had done to them by becoming greedy.
And his precious Sabs. She would go on to finish her degree and he would not be there to watch her walk across the stage or give her away on her wedding day.
There would be so many life experiences he would miss.
“No,” El Templario said after a moment, removing the gun from his temple. “I think I will keep you alive a little longer. You have just made this very interesting.”
Joaquin slumped in the chair, numb to the caffeine now. He had done something far worse than even creating that SIM card. “You promised you wouldn’t hurt her.”
El Templario grinned as he walked to the door. “Oh, I won’t, but I can’t guarantee the same for the others. Thank you, Mr. Cortez. You have been of the upmost help this afternoon. I shall let you sleep.”
The door shut and Joaquin slid from the chair onto the hard floor, curling up in a ball as tears ran down his face. He didn’t believe El Templario for one minute. He had just put his own daughter in severe danger.
“Oh, Sabs,” he cried as he shook back and forth. “Forgive me for what I’ve done.”
Chapter 12
Harrison
I hated being hurt.
It wasn’t so much the physical pain of the injury that bothered me. It was that everyone looked at me like I might break at any moment.
Like I wasn’t strong enough to handle a knife wound to the chest. Didn’t they know this was nothing compared to what I had dealt with in the past?
Well, no, they didn’t. I’d never divulged my background and none of them, not one, knew how I had grown up or what I’d been in life before becoming an enforcer.
Not one.
Wincing, I lowered my arm, feeling the pull of the wound on my chest. It had been five days since the ambush, five days since I had apparently been on death’s door. I’d indulged all their begging, staying in bed even though it was driving me fucking crazy, but I couldn’t do it anymore.
It was well after midnight and I slipped out of my bed, ensuring Sabrina was still in hers, just to get some fresh air for a few minutes. The club was suspiciously quiet, with most of the bikes missing from out front and I swore under my breath. They were out hunting for retribution for the fallen Jesters.
I should’ve been out there with them, yet I was stuck at the club, like some sickly kid.
I hated it.
Leaning against the rough façade of the clubhouse, looked up at the moon full and high in the night sky. A thousand stars scattered across the inky blackness and I drank it in, wondering when the last time I had just stared up at the sky was.
Or thought about a woman the way I was thinking about Sabrina. I had let her down, not finding her father for her, but she hadn’t left my side during these last five days and I didn’t know what to think about it.
Or what to do about it.
The right answer was for me to keep my hands the hell off her, to keep on pretending she didn’t affect me in any way.
We hadn’t talked much over the last two days, not about our picnic, the kiss, or that she had slept against me the day I woke up. I had lay there, hearing her breathe and stroking her hair, wondering what the hell I was doing with a girl like her.
I didn’t deserve a girl like her. I was too rough around the edges, too far gone to find some goodness inside this gruff exterior.
But hell, I wanted her to like me. How long had it been since someone liked me? Yeah, the club put up with me, and I felt like Chains at least tolerated me, but like me?
I wasn’t the type to make friends.
Ever since that damn picnic, I found myself wanting to be the guy Sabrina thought I was. She had opened a floodgate I’d kept shut for years and I didn’t want to close it back up just yet. It was a scary place for me to think that I was opening myself up to another woman and the feelings that went with that, the feelings I had for Val. Val had more roughness to her than Sabrina did, though.
Sabrina, she was an innocent in every sense of the word. I doubted she knew much outside of her perfect life with her perfect parents, or that she made me rock hard every ti
me she glanced in my direction. And it wasn’t because she was giving me a come-hither look or showing off her assets.
It was the openness of her gaze, the way she made me feel, like I was damn important to her. With Val, I had wanted to impress her, show her I was tough enough to handle both her and whatever came my way.
With Sabrina, I wanted to hang up my guns because her interest in me had nothing to do with them. And we hadn’t even gone past first base yet.
Shit.
“Hey. What are you doing out here by yourself?”
I turned at the sound of Sabrina’s voice. She stood a few feet away, barefoot.
“Would you believe I’m looking for aliens?”
She shook her head, a hint of a smile playing on her lips. “You don’t look like the type of person who would care about aliens.”
“True,” I said slowly, shoving my hands into my pockets. “But I’m wanting a little target practice.”
She rubbed her hands against her upper arms. “You’re missing the action.”
It wasn’t a question. “Yeah, I am.”
Sabrina took a few steps closer to me, her eyes on the sky. “Why do you love it so much? I mean… the killing?”
Her words made me uncomfortable. “I don’t know. I guess the thought of taking an asshole out of the world one at a time feels like I am doing something good. I know I’m not, but it still feels that way.” I wasn’t much good at anything else, really. Killing made me feel useful.
“I don’t think you are a bad person,” she said softly, her eyes on me now. “We all have our dark spots in our lives. It doesn’t make you a bad person.”
I bet she couldn’t find one bad thing about herself. Nothing like the stains I had on my soul. “Why do you care?” I blurted out. “Why did you ask me that?”
Sabrina drew in a sharp breath her expression changed. “I don’t know, Harrison. I guess I like you.”
“You shouldn’t,” I forced out. “You shouldn’t like me. I’m an asshole, a killer.”
“Stop it,” she interrupted, holding up her hand. “Why do you always put yourself in that dark corner? Like… you’re a different kind of person, somehow less than me?”
Her words cut me deep. And I damn well liked her and it scared the shit out of me. “You shouldn’t,” I repeated as she stepped even closer. “You should turn and run the other way, Sabrina.”
When her hand touched my cheek, I shivered.
“I don’t want to,” she said.
She was going to fucking kill me. I pulled her close and my mouth crashed down on hers, tasting her lips with softness in my kiss. I wanted her to feel the pent-up sexual energy she had caused.
I also wanted to make sure I could keep myself in check—that I could walk away from her when it was over with.
Sabrina made a sound, but I ignored it, sweeping my tongue into her mouth and groaning. Damn, she tasted good. I wanted to kiss her forever.
She broke off the kiss and took a few steps back, her lips red and swollen in the moonlight. “Why did you do that?”
“What? Kiss you? Because I wanted to.”
She eyed me and I fought the urge to shift my feet under her intense gaze. “No, why did you kiss me like that?”
I chuckled, crossing my arms over my chest. “Because that’s the way I fucking kiss. I’m sorry if it isn’t up to your standard, princess.”
Instead of lashing out, she just stared at me, her eyes full of emotion I didn’t want to decipher. “What?” I growled, pissed off she was confronting me like this.
I should have never kissed her.
“I want you,” she said pointedly, a blush blooming on her cheeks.
My cock jumped at attention and I clenched my jaw.
“But I want Harrison, not Crankshaft. I want the guy who joked with me as he sat on the floor. I want the guy who woke me up because I asked him to.” She jutted out her chin. “I want him.”
I didn’t know what to say. She was making demands of me I didn’t want to give her, yet my chest fucking ached at the thought of her seeing me as something other than the Jester’s enforcer.
She was asking a hell of a lot.
“I’ll be in the bedroom,” Sabrina finally said, turning away. “If you so choose to show up, Harrison.”
I watched her go, my jaw clenched so tightly my head hurt. I couldn’t give her Harrison.
If I did, I would have to let the walls down around my very soul.
“Shit,” I muttered, running a hand through my hair. The longing inside me was far more than I had expected and just the thought of her waiting for me to come to her was enough to drive me fucking insane.
God, I needed her.
My feet were already striding to the door before my mind had made itself up, walking through the main room and down to the end of the hall where my quarters were. By the time I opened the door and stepped through, my heart was nearly beating out of my chest.
But it was all worth it to see the hopeful look in her eyes.
“You came,” she said breathlessly.
I shut and locked the door behind me before pushing away. “I did.”
“I’m glad.”
I was, too. I crossed the room and took a seat next to her on the bed. “I’m Harrison Parker.”
She smiled and it was glorious. “Sabrina Cortez.”
“I want you, too, Sabrina Cortez.”
Sabrina flushed and a realization hit me. “You’ve never done this before have you?”
She shook her head. “Is it that obvious?”
Shit. I was dealing with a virgin. I couldn’t remember the last time I had fucked a virgin.
If ever. My chest swelled and I stood, looking down at her. I should walk away. I should tell her no. The last person who should be putting their hands on her was me.
But I couldn’t. Ah hell, I was in some deep shit. With a grunt, I kicked off my boots and pulled my shirt over my head.
“What are you doing?” she asked softly as I tossed the shirt onto the floor.
I really didn’t know. Knowing she was a virgin changed everything. Reaching for the button on my jeans, I shucked them too, watching her eyes go wide as my cock sprang out at full attention.
“This is your night,” I answered as I lay down on the other bed, my hands behind my head so she wouldn’t see how badly they were shaking. “Do whatever makes you feel comfortable.”
The other mattress springs squeaked as she climbed off the other bed, and then she was suddenly standing over me, biting her lower lip. “I don’t know what to do,” she confessed.
I gave her a grimace more than a smile, her words nearly making me lose it right then and there. “Touch me, Sabrina.”
She carefully lowered herself onto the bed, still fully clothed, her fingertips brushing my shoulders. She traced my tattoo, along my rib cage and down to my hip, her light touch tickling me.
When her fingers dipped lower onto my abdomen, I sucked in a breath. My nerves were shredded, but I needed for her to feel comfortable with me before I did the same to her.
Her eyes met mine and I gave her a nod. “Go ahead. I won’t bite.”
Without breaking contact, her hand brushed over my cock, the lightest of touches causing me to growl deep in my throat. I would wager my bike she had never touched one before and knowing I was her first, hell, it was an honor really.
Sabrina grew bold then, grasping me and tracing over the bulging head in such a way that I thought I would never made it through. I gave her a few minutes, enjoying her touch before I stilled her hand.
“You are going to make me embarrass myself tonight if you keep on doing that.”
“I didn’t know,” she whispered as I pushed to a sitting position, reaching for the hem of her tank top.
She drew in a breath and I stopped, looking deep into her eyes. “Can I touch you now?”
“Yes.”
Thank God. I pulled the tank top over her head and threw it on the floor, feasting on her
lace covered breasts for the first time. “You’re gorgeous,” I whispered as I ran a hand down her arm, from her shoulder to her hand. She shivered and I grinned, pressing a kiss to her collarbone. “If there is anything you don’t like, just tell me, alright?”
“Alright.”
Reaching behind her, I undid her bra, sliding it over her arms and throwing it on the floor before covering her breasts with my hands. She made a sound and I lowered my head, capturing her lips with mine in a gentle kiss. Sabrina leaned into my touch and opened up under my lips, urging me to deepen the kiss.
