on her neck pulled taut. She wasn’t into that. Not at all. “How would that work if you bought me? Would you rape me and her at the same time? Or would you assign us days of the week and alternate between us?”
“I would do whatever the fuck I wanted because I would own you.”
“The day you arrived, you said you would buy my freedom, and when I walked out of here, I would be free.”
“I’m revising my offer.” He cupped her throat and applied pressure. “You require a leash.”
That did it. She shoved off his lap and straightened her dress, her nostrils pulsing with indignation. She brushed a hand over the key card, checking its presence.
Standing taller, a spark of cruelty lit her gaze. “Have you heard from your bodyguard?”
Alarm spiked through him. He started to reach for his phone and changed his mind. Tomas wasn’t supposed to make contact until he put Vera on Restrepo’s plane and began his drive to Texas to deal with the email issue. That would’ve taken hours.
Except it had been hours.
He swallowed down his rising panic. “I’m not expecting a call.”
With a smirk, she curled a lock of hair around her finger and angled her face to the camera in the ceiling. “Turn his service back on.”
What the fuck? They’d cut the signal on his phone?
All the blood in his body drained to his feet. His skin prickled, and his stomach bottomed out as he removed the phone from his pocket. His hand shook as he turned it on and flipped through the screens. No missed calls. No texts. She was fucking with him.
Before he could release a relieved sigh, the phone started buzzing, blowing up with incoming texts as the service came back on line.
The first message had been sent three hours ago, and when he absorbed the words, his heart stopped.
Unknown: Your tie is crooked.
It was a code phrase, designed to convey that something had gone terribly wrong. Only Tomas knew that code.
More texts followed, timed several minutes apart.
Unknown: The escort took her.
Unknown: Kicked me out of the limo on an abandoned road and drove off with her.
Unknown: Hello?
Unknown: Answer the phone.
Unknown: I’m sorry. I couldn’t stop them. I was forced out of the limo at gunpoint.
Unknown: I don’t know where they took her.
Unknown: Are you getting this?
Unknown: Where are you?
Unknown: I’m tossing this phone. Will be in touch.
Pain detonated in his chest, lungs, and throat. The roar of his heartbeat thrashed in his head, and terror paralyzed him, making it impossible to think.
The cartel had Vera.
She wasn’t safe.
They knew. They fucking knew he’d been playing them in an effort to rescue her. They were going to hang them both from meat hooks.
Silvia watched his reaction, studying him too closely, way too hard. He kept his expression in check, and in the next breath, he flipped a switch.
The calculating side of him took control, squashing all fear, wrath, and love. He extinguished every ounce of emotion and let the coldness creep in, numbing his limbs and deadening his heart. He blinked, drew a steady breath, and focused on the facts.
If his cover was blown, they would’ve killed Tomas. And Vera, too. Unless they kept her alive to use her as a hostage to question him.
Why would they question him if they knew he was the rescuer they’d been waiting for? Why had Silvia tried to fuck him just a moment ago?
There was no way the cartel knew he was part of a vigilante group or that their lives were targeted by such a group. The brothers simply wanted to retaliate against Tula Gomez, their father’s killer, and whomever she’d sent to save her sister.
If they truly knew Luke’s identity, he would’ve already been tortured and cut into pieces.
This was another game. A test. Maybe they suspected that he’d been sent for Vera, but they weren’t convinced enough to risk his backlash if they were wrong.
From their viewpoint, holding Vera as a hostage was forgivable. She was just a whore. Killing Luke’s assistant, however, was just plain bad for business.
So they let Tomas go, effectively removing Luke’s bodyguard from the property with no way to return.
The cartel didn’t know that during the hours that Tomas had been texting Luke, he would’ve found another phone—would’ve stolen one from a random stranger if necessary—and contacted their team.
The Freedom Fighters would’ve learned at least an hour or two ago that Luke was in trouble. They just had to find him.