Nikki Love
“Sophie?” I choke out, not believing my eyes. “Sophe? Oh, God! Are you okay?” I squeeze my baby sister so hard she gives a tiny squeak, which turns into a strangled laugh. I pull back to run my eyes over her. The dim interior of the vehicle makes it difficult to get a clear view, but she seems unharmed. I won’t believe it until I’ve checked every inch of her, though.
During the tearful reunion in the back of his SUV, Mateo has silently moved to the driver’s seat and started the car. I’m barely aware that the doors have slammed shut and that we’re moving.
“Oh, my Lord, Sophie,” I sob, pressing kisses to her face. “Did they hurt you? God…I thought they’d taken you. I thought I was going to die! I was so afraid.”
She’s crying as openly as I am, not resisting as I pull her close again.
“I’m okay,” she finally manages to say. “A bit bashed about, but nothing serious.”
“Those fuckers!” My voice is hoarse. I’m remembering that moment of regret after I’d killed my attacker last night…regret that’s evaporating like mist. That animal deserved everything he got and more. The only regret I have left is that I couldn’t make it hurt more. Maybe a little bit of Dario has rubbed off on me after all.
Is that such a bad thing?
The thought makes my heart ache a little. Did he really get away? If he did, am I still in danger? My heart refuses to believe it. If he was the monster I’ve been trying to imagine, why would Mateo have let him go? The man might be as hard as granite, but I sense a strong moral compass lurking beneath the surface. It suddenly makes perfect sense that he’s law enforcement. Something about him had always struck me as rigidly upstanding.
He stays silent as the pair of us tearfully explain what has happened during the past few hours. The more Sophie tells me, the angrier I become. Yesterday evening, my father had sent Sophie a message, telling her to expect a parcel. When she got to the door, she’d been confronted by two armed men. Too shocked to do anything, she’d quickly been overpowered and dragged into a waiting vehicle. With most of the dorm occupants studying for exams, nobody had been around to see what had happened.
“I just don’t understand it, Niks,” she says huskily. “Why would they do that? What did I do wrong?”
“Nothing, Sophe,” I murmur, pulling her against my chest yet again. “It’s that pig… FuckingDad!The man who dares to call himself our father.” Just thinking about him makes the rage surge again. I’ll kill him with my own bare hands if I ever see his face again. “He did it to me too.”
“What? No!” Sophie’s young features are contorted with pain and confusion.
“I’m so sorry, Sophie,” I whisper, brushing tears from her cheeks with the pads of my thumbs. “He’ll never do that again! Do you hear me? Not as long as I’m alive!”
I don’t get a chance to go on, because I feel the vehicle slowing and realize we’ve pulled up outside the ornate gates of Andy’s father’s mansion. I bite down a wave of nausea as I remember what happened here just hours ago. But before I can dwell on it, Mateo brings the car to a halt at the front entrance. Andy flies down the stairs as if she’s been waiting there for us to arrive.
“Nikki!” she blurts as she reaches the door. Mateo’s already out, swinging it open, but she elbows him aside as if he’s not 6’3” of brooding menace and muscle. Although, for some reason, tonight the menace is gone. Andy has my hand in hers, easing me from the vehicle and then wrapping me in a bearhug.
“Oh, God, Nikki…they locked me in! I couldn’t get to you…I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry!” She’s running her eyes over me in much the same way as I examined my little sister just a short while earlier. And then she spots Sophie in the back seat and reaches for her hand. “Sophie! Thank God you’re safe!” she blurts. “You must be shattered!” She spins accusing eyes to Mateo, who hasn’t said a word since we arrived. “You just left them like this? No blankets? Nothing to drink?” Mateo gives a rueful shrug.
“I said I’d get them straight here. You wanted me to stop for takeout or something?”
Andy rolls her eyes at him, bustling about us and urging my sister and I up the stairs. Mateo follows a few steps behind. My friend shoves the front door open and soon has us settled in the living room. She’s brought blankets in from a linen closet and has us warmly bundled. I hadn’t realized I was cold before, but as the soft downy weight falls around my shoulders, my teeth begin to chatter.
“Shock,” Andy says, throwing another angry look at Mateo, who remains steadfastly unapologetic.
“I had to get them out of there,” he responds. “The brass was descending and if I’d waited another minute, Sophie would have been stuck in with the others. Going through process, dealing with the system. Only a matter of time before someone got wind of where Nikki was.”
Andy sets her jaw and glares at him, arms folded across her chest. I stare from one to the other, noticing how Andy’s cheeks have a touch of pink to them. Anger, perhaps. Though, somehow, I sense more.
But my teeth are still chattering, and now my body is shuddering too. As I look at my sister, I see that she’s not faring much better. I can only imagine what she must have endured these past hours. The words I’d heard Raoul say when he’d told Raoul of Eduardo’s instructions.Gangbang.I narrow my eyes on her. She seems shaken, but otherwise unharmed. Though who can tell with these things.
“Sophe,” I say softly. She slants a look at me. “You’re sure they never…never touched you?”
She shakes her head, reaching for my hand. “I’m okay, I swear it, Niks. They were…” I see her swallow. “They were waiting for you.”
“Motherfuckers! Every one of them…I wish I could rip off their balls and burn them while they screamed and bled to death,” Andy snarls. Mateo snaps a look at her. “Don’t try to act like you don’t know what these animals are capable of! And your good buddy was probably as bad as the rest. Fucking Dario Caraldi!”
“No!” I blurt immediately. “No, Andy…it was…it was never like that with Dario.”
Her eyes are still narrowed. “You sure about that? I remember seeing you crying like a baby on more than one occasion.” She aims another dark glare at Mateo. “You don’t know what your sister went through to save you, Sophie,” she says. Her words get my blood boiling. I won’t have her convincing my sister she had anything to do with my plight.
“Andy!” I snap. “You have no right to say that. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I know you handed yourself over to a crime lord as a sex slave to pay your father’s debt,” she growls. “And I know you did it because that cunt would have sold your sister if you hadn’t stepped up. Pure evil. I hope he rots!”
