“No matter.I can adapt.I can always adapt.”Diego blew out a long, ragged breath and rubbed his hands down his pants, but his eyes ping-ponged in the sockets as though the last thread of his sanity had nearly snapped.“Everything will be fine once we’re in Africa.You’ll see.Before long, you’ll forget all about your life here.”
Lourdes licked her parched lips.As much as she’d love to vacation in Kenya or somewhere else on the African continent, she didn’t want to live there.Especially not as Diego’s sex slave.“You have children.Are you really heartless enough to abandon them?”Though losing a monster like him as a father would probably be the best thing for the kids.
“Again, your fault.I had plans for my sons.My daughters.Once things cool down, I’ll grab them from their moms.Besides, you’ll give me more.”
Thoroughly disgusted, she had to make him see reason.“Marrying me wouldn’t have gotten you the Villegas throne.That would’ve gone to our son.”
“Eventually,” he hedged.“Your father wouldn’t have lasted the year.”
She gaped at him.The pieces fell into place.“You were going to kill Papá and usurp the throne.His men wouldn’t have allowed it.”
“I guess we will never know, but I’ll still be king.My contacts in Morocco are going to welcome me with open arms.Do you even know what today is?”
She frowned and shook her head.
“Our wedding day, dear Lourdes.We should’ve been married a few hours ago in your family church.”
Swallowing hard, she curled her fingers so tight into her palms that her nails bit into her skin.One minute, he was calling her a bitch.The next, dear.The idiot needed to make up his damn mind.Thank God Enrique had rescued her when he did.And itwasa rescue.Now, with Diego, this was a true kidnapping.
The hair on the back of Lourdes’s neck prickled.With Diego’s thugs listening in on their conversation, the disgraced capo had to keep up the pretense of power, though he had faltered a few times.She needed to break him, humiliate him, make him lose face.Aligning herself with Enrique had been her only means of self-preservation.She’d never intended to hurt Diego, but Mother Mary preserve her, she was going to now.
She leveled her glare at the smug man.“I will not make things easy.Whatever it takes, I will destroy you.”She crossed herself the best she could with her bound hands.
Diego chuckled.“We could’ve had a respectable marriage, Lourdes.Now, you’ll be my whore.The children, bastards.Unless you sweet talk me into marrying you.Of course, we’ll have different names by then.No one will ever know you’re already married.”
“I willnevermarry you.”
“Your choice.”The cell in his pants pocket beeped, so he pulled it out and tapped the screen.“Ah, good.The coyote’s got our crossing into the States ready.We’ll hide out there for a while, then cross into Canada and make our way to Europe.Maybe Spain for a time before Morocco.You see, Lourdes, I always have a contingency plan.Never forget that.”
Madre de Dios.She had to escape.No way would she survive long with Diego giving her to his men.Not even Jacobo had threatened that.
Where are you, Enrique?
She stared out the window as the evening sunlight spilled over the dry, dusty terrain and sharpened the shadows that stretched out from the trees, cacti, and houses in the distance.The drive-by shooting had left Rascón in dire straits and so many others in the street, gunned down.
Enrique was coming for her.He had to be.
But would he find a tiger, or a bird with a broken wing?
****
Enrique strangled thesteering wheel.Every sharp beep of the tracker on his phone ground against the back of his skull.Three vehicles separated him from the black minivan that matched Marisol’s description.Thank God she’d answered Rascón’s phone.
His heart squeezed as the van flickered in and out of view from the surrounding vehicles.Trees, shrubs, and patches of high grass lined the shoulder and spanned across low-lying hills and dried riverbeds for as far as he could see.
He breathed through his clenched teeth.Lourdes was trapped.Waiting for him.Needing him.So close he could almost feel her.His tiger.She had to hold out a while longer.
Cars zipped past, bearing Sonora and Arizona state license plates.Too many witnesses.Too many innocents crowding his battlefield.An international incident waiting to happen.
Enrique shifted gears and pumped the brakes as the van bypassed an exit.The tracker signal slowed even as his blood thundered.Barely leashed rage boiled in his chest.Frustration gnawed at his core.Tempted to chase the van off the road, he wouldn’t risk Lourdes’s life.Yet her life was already in jeopardy.Every second Zayas had her in that van, she was one step closer to being beaten and raped, if she wasn’t already.She could be killed.No, not killed.Zayas had gone through too much trouble to kidnap her just to kill her right away.
She would suffer first.
Stomach twisting, Enrique accelerated until he tailgated a beat-up sedan, then backed off again.He had to stay calm.Cold.Think logically.He couldn’t afford rage.Not now.Rage clouded judgment.Got people killed.Though he would die for his wife in a heartbeat, he needed to live for her.For the future they could have together.He shouldn’t ram the van, force it off the road, and face Zayas and his thugs alone—as much as he wanted to.That was surely a death sentence.
A suddenwhoop whooppierced his eardrums.
He checked out the windshield.The sinking sun cast fiery streaks of orange, purple, and blue across the cloudless sky.Each passing minute deepened the world into dusk.Night.His domain.Where his enemies faced the swift slice of justice.He gripped the cold, smooth hilt of his holstered knife.The time would come soon enough.For now, patience.
