PortiaI study him. He's got a cut high on his cheek but it's nothing compared to his chest and back. He looks like he rolled around in shards of broken glass.I remember my panic when he'd passed out after the doctor reset his shoulder. I remember exactly how it felt like my heart stopped for a moment. I try to tell myself it's just because if he died, it'd be worse for Nathan and me. But I know that's not the whole truth."Portia?"He gestures to the ring. It's beautiful, a Princess cut diamond set amidst jagged blue stones."Sapphires?" I ask.He nods.I study the jewels. Remember how my brothers had plans to deal in diamonds too. Nothing was off the table for them.I know I don't really have a choice in the matter here. He is right. This is a better option than Fernando fucking Mancini would offer me. But if I have any room to negotiate, I'm taking it."I want Nathan upstairs tonight. No, now.""Tomorrow. After you've said I do.""Tomorrow? This is happening tomorrow?""We'll surp
PortiaHe left me to eat alone after that strange proposal — can you call that a proposal? It surprised me and although Lenore took a tray into his study, I saw her return with it untouched before I went upstairs.I look at my ring now as I sit on the little Princess bed. It's pretty, the edges of the sapphires jagged and sharp like shards of glass. I like it. It fits. But the thought of marrying him makes my belly go funny. And it's not exactly a queasy feeling.Getting up, I pace the room for the hundredth time. I won't be getting any sleep tonight, although it's well past two in the morning. He hasn't come up either but for all I know he's not even on the island anymore. I heard a boat go out a few hours ago. Maybe he went back to the mainland.I open my door quietly. Still no guard outside. There's a lock on the outside but he hasn't used it. Yet. I'm wearing a pair of sweats and an oversized hoodie, along with a pair of ballerina slippers. I added these and a few others like it
Portia"Do you ever just shut up?" he growls the question into my mouth before he kisses me so hard, all I can do is suck in his whiskey breath and feel his soft lips. “You shouldn't have come down here," he says, kissing me harder, pushing my pants down just far enough that they slip off my hips and pool around my ankles. “You're going to make me do things you don't want me to do."My eyelids fly open to find his eyes on me as he slips his hand between my legs and cups the crotch of my panties.I gasp.We stand there like that for a long minute just staring at each other. My hands rest on his chest but don't push him away. He's about an inch from my face, barely, and he looks fucked up. Not angry.Something else. Just messed up.“You shouldn't have come down here," he growls again."Let me go and I'll go away."“Too late for that," he pauses, his fingers moving a little. I haven't had a woman in ten years."I swallow and push against him, knowing I won't be able to budge him, still n
CallahanShe's right about the whiskey. I've had enough.But I walk into my bedroom, slam the door shut and pick up the bottle there to drink some more.Because tonight, I need it.I place my gun on the nightstand and bring my fingers to my nose to smell her on them. The taste of her mixed with the taste of the whiskey makes me heady.My dick is still hard. I need to fuck. Maybe I should have fucked those women my uncle supplied all this time. I couldn't touch them though. Turned my stomach to think of it.Her though? Fucking Portia Esmeralda with that big mouth she doesn't know when to shut. Her whiskey eyes and tiny tits. Her pussy smelling like perfume and tasting like the sweetest thing I've ever tasted?Yeah. I could fuck her.I could fuck her for days.I shove my jeans and briefs off and switch on the shower because if I don't do this now, right fucking now and right fucking here, I'm going to go back into that room and fuck her so hard I'l rip her in two.I meant what I said. I
CallahanMy head throbs in the too-bright sun as I stand on the beach drinking coffee while Cerberus plays in the waves. I need to make some calls today.Organize our impromptu wedding.Cerberus runs back to me wind whips my face. It's a brisk morning. He drops the ball I've been tossing for him at my feet and lays down, ready for more. “You're quite the guard dog, you know," I tell him, picking up the ball and throwing it into the waves.He charges after it and I watch. I love that dog. I love his innocence. The honesty of his existence.My arm aches. It's the same one the doctor reset yesterday. I peel back my shirt to glance at the tattoo.Why I thought I could write a name in script no less at that angle while drunk is honestly beyond me. I shake my head at myself and finish my coffee, unable to resist looking up at her window again.It's been empty every time, but she's there now, her face turned up to the sun. She has her eyes closed as I watch her.That tattoo wasn't the only
Callahan"Why? Why are you being nice?""I'm a nice guy." I give her a smile that's more a baring of teeth than anything else."Or is it that you fucked your whore last night like you wanted, and you feel guilty?""What?"That stops me."I heard the chopper go out. After you dragged me upstairs, I mean.""And you think I went off the island to find a whore to fuck?" Is she fucking serious?"Did you?""Would you care if I did?""I don't want any diseases."I snort, put my mug down and go to her. "I didn't fuck any whore. I didn't even leave the island. That was two of my men who went to the mainland."She looks at me, studies my eyes. Maybe she's trying to gauge if I'm telling the truth. Then she shrugs a shoulder like she could care less but I know better."I used my hand."It takes her a moment to catch on and her mouth falls open when she does.I grin. "I used my hand to jerk myself off. Is that what you wanted to know?""More than I needed to know, actually. Spare me the details."
PortiaFuck you for doing this to me.Right.Because I made him threaten to break my cousin's neck. I made him into this crazy man who has a personality disorder.Who's scary as fuck.I suck in a shaky breath. He wants me to look pretty tonight? That's not happening. My eyes are puffy and red, skin blotchy from crying all day long and over what?Him? God. Something is seriously wrong with me. Maybe it's me with the mental disorder.“I need a friend, Portia. Just one friend."I pick at my cuticle and try to forget how he looked when he said that. How he sounded.How much more screwed up can things get?Someone knocks on the door and I expect Lenore with another tray of food. She's tried twice now but it's not that I don't want to eat. It's that I can't.It's close to five so I guess it's a soldier making sure I'm getting ready. I'll be ready. I won't look pretty but I'll put on a dress and show up and say those two words.Period."Come in."But when the door opens, Nathan's standing th
CallahanI consult my watch, adjust my cuff link.She has four minutes.It's cooler today than it's been, a storm slowly rolling in. I watch the clouds as I think about the afternoon. My uncle is pissed I wouldn't tell him where the wedding would take place.I don't want him there for a stupid reason. I don't want him to see my mother's ring on Portia's finger.Lenore must have mentioned that Father Michael would be performing the ceremony. He thought that was dramatic and unnecessary.I told him I needed it to be done right. In a church with a priest. No city hall. I told him I didn't want the cartel thinking it's not a real marriage. Not that I really think they would. We'd be legally married in a ceremony at civil hall too.The men have secured the chapel, sir," Dante says to me.I nod and the roof door opens. "Still not sure why a justice of the peace wouldn't have done it," Antonio notes.I don't comment. He doesn't like Portia simply because she is an Esmeralda. I understand.N
PortiaWe're lying in bed, Callahan's big arms around me. I'm curled into him, our heads resting on the same pillow.He's playing with a strand of my hair. I touch his unshaved face, liking the stubble."I would be dead if it wasn't for you," he says.I study him, thinking about what I need to tell him.“I didn't want to live afterward. I wanted to die. Even though I knew it would kill Antonio, I just couldn't. But then there you were, and you made me remember things. Made me feel things. Made me care again. Maybe you make me less selfish, Portia."“You've never been selfish, Callahan.”He shrugs a shoulder."I need to tell you something," I start. I take a breath in and lay on my back to stare up at the ceiling. He puts a hand on my belly. Slides it up to cup a breast.“I like this," he says. “I like a little more meat on you.""Well, I'm glad you think so." I sit up, put my pillow on my lap."What is it?" he asks, all serious when he sees my expression. He sits up too and takes the
PortiaHe also told me about Antonio, about him possibly being a product of rape. He's already sent DNA to a lab for a paternity test. We're waiting on the results."Petrov has disappeared. Diamente thinks he'd arranged the explosives to detonate after he left." I'd assumed the explosions were from Callahan's men, a distraction, but this makes much more sense."Why would he have done that?"Callahan shrugs a shoulder."Maybe he knew Felix and his fondness for cameras? Maybe he just hated the assholes present? Who knows? Who cares?""Who is he?""Russian businessman. That's all I've been able to get so far. But I'll find him.""We will find him," says a low, raspy voice from the bed.I gasp, turn my head. Callahan is beside the bed in an instant."Brother!"A doctor and two nurses rush in. They must have been alerted by the machines to Antonio's waking."Well, it's good to see you're awake, Mr. Scarfoni," the doctor says, smiling."I'd have opened my eyes earlier but these two were dec
PortiaI carry two cups of coffee into Antonio's room. Callahan is sitting across from his bed watching him. Maybe willing him to open his eyes. To wake up.Callahan is alive. Battered and bruised, his hearing comes and goes but he's alive. The blast had knocked him out. For a minute, I thought he was gone, really gone this time, but he's back.He looks over at me, stands. I take in the bandages I can see on his arms, his neck, the side of his head and I'm sure he does the same with mine.But it could be worse.I glance at Antonio.“You need to let the doctor look at you again,” I tell him."After." Smears of blood and dirt still stain his clothes and skin. I know most of it isn't his at least.He takes one of the cups of coffee and leads me to a chair. He sits down beside me, and we watch Antonio together.It's been twenty-seven hours since the house blew up.Twenty hours since Antonio came out of surgery.I don't know how many hours or days since David kidnapped me.I look at Callah
PortiaCallahan stands and helps me up."Don't look at him. He doesn't deserve your gaze."Antonio reads something on his phone, and I see the Glock he's holding at his side."Our men are on the grounds, not in the house yet though."I hear gunfire outside the house then, and a moment later, a small explosion.Callahan goes to the window, one arm wrapped around me, as he looks out over the front yard. I see the men out there, the gunfight. I notice the fire at the far end of the house.“We need to move," he tells Antonio, then turns his attention to me. "Is Felix on site?"“I don't know," I say.He nods. "If he is, I'll find him. But I need to get you out first." He holds my hand, and we walk around the bed to where the dead man is lying face down in his own blood. He bends to tug his knife out of the man's side.I notice the new injury on his side then. The bandage over the new set of stitches long gone. I touch it tentatively.“You're hurt."He takes my wrist, shifting his grip to m
PortiaThe chains that bind my wrists to my ankles are removed and my arms are stretched overhead, bound to a metal rung on the headboard. I'm flipped onto my stomach, the cuffs clanging as I'm tugged downward. The link that hobbled me is also removed. My legs are pulled apart, stretched to either corner of the bed and linked to the rungs there.The two men responsible for preparing me, stand back and look down at me. One tugs the pillow out from under my head and shoves it beneath my belly. He nods, meets my eyes and cups his erection."I'll take your ass when it's my turn," he says in Spanish. "Save me a piece."I spit at him.He slaps my ass."Hey," the other soldier interrupts and points to the corner where I see one of those flashing red lights again. The camera is hidden but the soldiers know about it. They must be Felix's men."After."The man glances at the blinking light, nods then returns his attention to me. "If there's anything left."They walk out but don't close the door
Portia"You won't be walking out of here tonight."Did she mean that literally?Because if this is Felix's plan for me, then I'll be fucked by every man out there in turn.I hear the woot of the onlookers once the curtain is fully raised. I can't see much of them and I think that's on purpose. The spotlight follows me even when I turn my head.A man calls out a ridiculous number and makes a lewd comment. Several laugh out loud as the auctioneer chuckles into his microphone, tapping his gavel twice to get everyone's attention.“You haven't even seen it all yet,” he notes in a sing-song voice.Two sets of hands take hold of my arms and force me to turn.When they do, I catch a glimpse of the blinking red light coming from the top corner of the room.Felix is recording this. Is it for me? Well, I should say is it for him?To show those who won't pledge loyalty to him what happens if you are his enemy? Or is it to hold onto after these men leave. Material to blackmail them when it suits h
Callahan"I don't think..." the man starts then stops. "Shit!"I follow his gaze to where another vehicle drives erratically toward us from inside the gates. It's a large SUV and I can only make out the shadows of the two in the front seat. The driver honks his horn angrily."Petrov," the one with the clipboard says."Mother fucker," the other one curses.The driver lays on his horn opening his window and flipping us or the guards or the whole lot of us off as he barrels toward us and even over the music, I can hear him laughing."Fucking asshole," clipboard guy says as he jumps backward.I hit the gas and pull through the gates, only managing to miss the SUV by a hair. In the rearview mirror I see it swerve as if to run over the soldiers."Who the fuck is fucking Petrov?" Antonio asks."He's the asshole that got us in," I say once we're far enough away from the gates that I can't see the soldiers stationed there anymore."Two guards at the front door," Antonio says.I park the car wh
Callahan"Any chance we can get eyes on the estate? Gauge what we're walking into," I ask Diamente as we drive toward the location in Eindhoven. I watch the dark sky, the raindrops only a nuisance on the windshield now. Clouds are rolling angrily in the distance, illuminated by still-silent flashes of light.Dante is coordinating more manpower and Antonio is sitting beside me staring out the window, hands fisted."We can't get closer than the public road leading up to the house. They've got their own drones," Diamente says."Of course, they do."I have him on speaker phone but I'm not sure Antonio's listening."From what I've learned about past auctions, they issue, at most, two dozen invitations. In most cases, the buyer himself doesn't attend. They send someone in their place. None of these men want to be in the same room together if they can help it. None of them want to be seen.""Makes sense. How do they know what they're bidding on?""A brochure would have circulated prior to th
Portia“Which one started the crying fest here?" she asks, eyes on the girls.The guard who is responsible for the guilty one, pushes his charge forward.The woman steps toward her, cocks her head to look at her then touches her face, wiping away a tear. "Look what you've done to your face. Your makeup will have to be fixed, The others too."The girl swallows standing suddenly, very straight. I realize why when I see how the woman with the clipboard is holding her chin, nails digging into skin."But there's always one example to be made," the woman says and gestures to the other woman to step forward. “I'm going to give you a choice. Each of you sobbing will have the same choice to make if you're still crying like babies when I'm finished with this one."The one from the kitchen steps forward and raises her hand to show what she's holding. It's a large wooden paddle that I imagine can do real damage.“We'll need to make sure our customers understand there's a reason you're crying. Six