Destroy For Her - R.B. Hilliard Page 0,1

weak. A man who got off on beating women was already weak. If the club had taught her anything, it was that.

She was almost to the door when he latched onto her hair. Pain seared across her scalp, causing her to scream. Rearing back, she elbowed him in his lower gut. Spanish curses flew from his mouth, but she was immune to his poisonous barbs. She was immune to him. He grabbed her elbow and she tried to wrench it away but he was too strong.

“Fucking puta,” he hissed while twisting his body in a way that put excruciating pressure on her wrist.

Screaming, she dropped to her knees.

God, how she hated that man! Just thinking about it made her mad enough to spit nails. There was no doubt in her mind that if Luca hadn’t interrupted when he did, she would be dead. This led to thoughts of what Carlos would do to Petal if she wasn’t around to protect her, which in turn, led back to the most important question of all: How was she going to get herself out of this mess?

Right as she was drifting on the edge of sleep, she heard footsteps outside her bedroom door. Her eyes flew open on a gasp. Carlos was back. White-hot pain flared up her arm as she rolled onto her uninjured side and quickly slid from the bed. Once she was steady on her feet, she darted across the room to where she’d hidden the shower rod. Thankfully, Carlos hadn’t spotted it. Her pulse drumming wildly in her ears, she slid behind the door, and waited.

Please, give me strength, she thought as the door swung open and light spilled across the empty bed. Lifting the rod over her head, she positioned to attack.

“She’s not in bed,” a deep voice whispered. Luca.

“What do you mean she’s not in bed?” Rosa replied.

Sage lowered the rod while slumping in relief. “I’m here,” she called out.

As Luca entered the room with Rosa on his heels, she slowly moved out from behind the door, her body protesting with each step. Luca took one look at her face and started cursing.

Sage met Rosa and Luca—along with the rest of the staff—the day she and Petal arrived in Mexico. It made sense that Rosa would befriend her as she was the house manager, but Luca was in Carlos’s inner circle. He was one of his trusted bodyguards. Luca immediately took to Petal, and somewhere along the way, he’d started looking out for the two of them.

“Quickly, grab only what you need,” he said, shoving a backpack at her.

Hope flared as she took the pack. “Why? What’s happening?”

Rosa spoke in hushed tones, “It’s time, mija. Take the backpack. Petal is waiting with Almea downstairs. We need to get you packed and out the door quickly.”

Sage frowned. “What about Carlos?”

“He left an hour ago. Juan and Sergio are with him,” Luca answered.

Juan and Sergio were Carlos’s right-hand men. Like Carlos, they were hateful and sadistic. Unlike Carlos, they didn’t hide behind a suit and pretend to be civilized. This meant that Carlos had left Luca and Andreas to watch them. Andreas was another of Carlos’s scary-as-hell guards. There was no way he would let them leave.

As if reading her mind, Luca clipped, “Andreas is in the pool house with Gabriella. I’m not sure how long she can keep him there.”

Poor Gabby. Sage knew how much she hated Andreas. The enormity of the situation hit her and she shook her head, the movement causing her to wince. They were risking too much. “He’ll kill you,” she whispered.

Rosa clicked her tongue in that motherly way that always made Sage smile. “You let us worry about Carlos. Come on now, let’s get you packed.”

Sage knew—she knew—that if she did as they asked, she would be sending them to their deaths. She knew it, and they knew it.

“Rosa—”

“Hush, mija, it’s time for you to go home.” Home. God, just the word made her want to weep.

“We’ve got this,” Luca softly added.

The knowledge that she would never be able to repay them made her heart ache. Silent tears fell as she moved to the dresser to grab the two photos that Carlos hadn’t seen: one of her with her best friend, Lucy, and the other of Petal and Gibbs; taken the week before he died.

She slid them inside the backpack before announcing, “I’m ready.”

Luca’s brow shot up. “Is that all you’re taking?”

Sage didn’t bother to respond. She wanted nothing from Carlos or this