AS SOON AS the rusty old container comes into view, I know that’s where we’re going. Intuition, if you will. Esteban had put me in one like it once before. Hidden away in the back of the lot where nobody would hear my screams.
“No!”
He yanks on the belt, and I stumble forward. I tug at the leather but it’s so tight, I can’t even get my finger between it and my throat. I’m hissing for air when I’m dragged into the dark unit. Panic washes over me. My heart races so fast in my chest, I’m afraid I’ll black out. Memories of so many months locked away threaten to consume me. I can’t do this again.
Diego.
Diego will find you.
Breathe.
The door is left open behind us and Esteban shoves me toward the back. I fall to my knees but I take the moment to yank the belt from my throat and toss it away. The morning sunlight shines in and illuminates the space. But not for long. Never for long. Soon it will be nothing but me and the darkness. His heavy footsteps thunder behind me. He wants to corner me, and like the scared little animal I am right now, I run straight for the corner as if it will offer me an escape.
My knees land on a dilapidated mattress. It’s then when I realize he was going to put me in here whether or not I behaved. A sick game to him. Breaking me is his brand of fun. Fire blazes inside my chest, and I turn to face my attacker. When he nears, I kick him and the bottom of my heel slams onto his jaw. Pain rips up my foot, but it knocks him off his game for a second. I scramble past him, but he hooks me around my waist.
“Not so fast,” he snarls against my hair. “You need to calm the fuck down, Roja.”
He tries to pry open my mouth, and instead of fighting him, I open and then bite down hard.
“FUCKING CUNT!” he roars as he rips at my hair.
I release him and cry out. I’m tossed down onto the mattress. Before I can move, he tackles me. I squirm, but he wrangles me onto my back. He pins my body with his massive weight and binds my wrists together with one hand.
“Open,” he orders.
I shake my head.
“So help me,” he snarls, his spit showering down on me, “if you don’t open your goddamned mouth, I’ll cut your tongue out and shove it up your ass.”
A shudder ripples through me.
But I open my goddamned mouth.
He shoves a pill deep into my mouth until I’m forced to swallow it. I know what it is. Same hazy drug from last time. With the sun shining in from the doorway, it casts a shadow on his face, but illuminates him from behind.
A demon.
Esteban was sent straight from where nightmares are made to torment me in this life.
One day, I’ll send him back to hell.
He holds me in his tight grip until my eyelids grow heavy and I give in to exhaustion. Fifteen minutes pass, maybe longer, but the drug is taking effect. When he realizes I’ve relaxed, he releases my hands. They’re throbbing but a buzzing has already begun to course through me.
I hate this feeling.
“I missed you,” he tells me, his voice a low growl that echoes through every nerve ending in my body.
I shiver and squirm. My body is pulsating, especially between my legs. “Fuck you,” I murmur.
He slaps me hard across the face. The sting of it zings through my body and feels as though it ricochets off every inch of my flesh. I’m still reeling when he stands up. I hear the jangle of his belt even before I see it. With a quickness I can barely register, he binds my wrists with the leather.
The only thing he can do that he hasn’t done already is kill me.
And as psycho as Esteban is, I don’t think he has it in him. He’d much rather keep me as his toy to torment.
“Your pussy still belongs to me,” he tells me as he clutches my knees and pries them apart.
I don’t have the strength to fight against him. The more I fight, the more he hurts me. I knew this was what would happen. I ensured Diego I could handle it.
I can handle it.
But after today, I won’t have to handle it ever again.
“Did Oscar make you come?” he asks, his long finger dragging a trail from my belly button down south. He stops right before he reaches my clit. “Hmm?”
“N-No,” I rasp out. My duplicitous body shudders with need. Those fucking pills are the devil.
“Good. That kid got more pussy than anyone I know, but can you imagine how many unsatisfied girls are out there?” he questions. His finger circles my clit, and I jolt in response. “Now me…” he trails off, his dark eyes finding mine. “Every girl I touch comes without fail. Your mother came many times for me.”
He’s fucking with me.
I hope.
“I hate you,” I tell him but my hips are lifting as if they’re drawn like a magnet to him.
“Hate is just as intense as love.” He rubs my clit with his one finger. My entire body thrums with pleasure. If I could escape my body, I’d find a way to choke him with his belt. “You like this, don’t you? When I touch you this way?”
Tears roll out and I shake my head. But my quivering body says otherwise.
“Lies, Roja. Your cunt is dripping.”
My body is sore from his brutalization in the shower, but it doesn’t stop the need from coursing through me. He slides his finger down my seam and he barely pushes the tip of it inside me.
“Wet,” he tells me. “Don’t worry. You don’t have to be ashamed. What we have is beautiful.”
His finger inches in slowly, stretching my bruised flesh. I groan when he easily pushes another finger inside me.
“I’m going to make you come,” he tells me in a smug tone. “And then I’m going to wrap my cock up so you don’t give me any goddamned diseases so I can fuck that needy pussy until you scream. You want that, Roja?”
“Fuck you,” I whisper. “Oh God…”
Pleasure zings through me and I’m confused. The haze he likes to cloud me with is intense. As much as I hate him, I feel like my body needs the pleasure. I close my eyes when he starts kissing his way down my stomach.
Diego.
Lightest brown eyes I’ve ever seen.
Charming and sexy to a fault.
Mine. Mine. Mine.
Esteban’s mouth latches on to my clit and he begins sucking as he finger-fucks me slowly. I hate that he steals me away from thoughts of my husband. Every part of my body is on fire. It feels good. So wrong but good.
One day I’ll make him pay for all of this.
Even in my haze, I realize these sensations coursing through me are induced by the drugs. With Diego, they’re real. He doesn’t have to drug me to get me to come. I want every part of him.
Esteban has dedicated his life to being nothing but a low-life cheater.
He steals what he wants but doesn’t deserve a thing.
Someone screams, jerking me from my thoughts. I realize this person is me as an unwanted orgasm cuts through me. At one time, emotion had been attached to them but now it’s nothing more than physiological.
Find me, Diego.
I close my eyes when Esteban slips his fingers out of me and unzips his pants. The tear of the condom wrapper makes me shudder, but I don’t dare watch him. He spreads my knees apart so that he can worm his hulk-like body between them.
And then he’s hammering one more nail into his coffin. By taking me again, he’s sentencing himself to a painful death. This foolish man fell for the bait. I walked right into his trap so that I could annihilate him from the inside out.
“Look at me,” he hisses as he thrusts painfully into me.
I pop my eyes open, ignoring the bruises inside of me, and glare at him. “You’re going to die.”
He fucks me so hard I scream, but I stare him down with the promise of a long, torturous death glimmering in my eyes. The sick fucker must like it because he comes with a grunt.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
“What the fuck?” he snarls as he stiffens. He yanks out of me and shoves his still sheathed dick inside his pants. “What did you do?”
His accusation makes me start laughing.
“I fucked you!” I screech. My body is numb and tingling but fire blazes within me. “You’re going to die.”
He grabs my jaw and then turns my head forcefully to the right. A scream rips through me when he snatches the diamond stud out of my earlobe. “You set me up!” he roars. “You fucking set me and my brother up!”
Pain radiates from my torn ear, but I find the energy to spit in his face. “Damn right I did.”
He stands and yanks me to my feet by my hair. I’m dragged beside him toward the door when a shadow steps in front of the doorway. My heart leaps at the sight of him.
Lean and fierce.
Terrifyingly beautiful.
My partner and lover.
My husband.
“Diego,” I moan.
I can’t make out his facial features because the sun streaming in is too bright, but by the way his shoulders heave, I can tell he’s infuriated.
“Don’t move or I’ll cut her throat wide open,” Esteban threatens. A blade pokes my flesh, hard enough that he breaks the skin.
“Always such a pussy,” Diego growls. “Just like your father. Always picking on those smaller than you.”
Esteban drags the knife along my flesh, tearing the skin along the way. It isn’t deep but it hurts, even through my drugged state. “You’re going to kill me anyway, so I may as well take her with me.”
Diego remains calm and still. His blade glints in the sunlight. “She’s not yours to take. Never was. Vienna has always been mine. Since before she ever laid eyes on you. Fate, they call it. And you’re about to meet yours.”
“She belongs to me, but you tried to take that, too,” Esteban snarls. “Just like you took my father’s life.”
Diego takes a step into the container. “Let her go and fight like a fucking man. At least your father had the balls to do that much.”
Esteban growls and he hugs me possessively. The knife digs a little deeper into my flesh.
“Do you want to go to your grave like a pussy or do you want to go with some dignity?” Diego taunts.
Esteban stiffens. “I’ve killed many men. I’ll kill you too.”
Diego laughs and it warms me to my soul. “You can fucking try.”
To my surprise, Esteban shoves me to the floor. I go down hard on my knees, and the container echoes with the sound. Diego’s eyes never fall to me. His eyes are locked on his target. Esteban practically huffs like a bull trapped in a cage. Ready to charge at any second.
“Did you fuck my wife?” Diego questions as he quickly tears off his T-shirt and tosses it my way.
Esteban laughs like a madman. “I fucked her good. She’ll be feeling me inside her cunt for days.”
Diego’s frame is thinner—solid lean muscle compared to Esteban’s hulkish build. He bounces from foot to foot, like a graceful dancer, while Esteban throbs with barely contained rage. With shaking hands, I pull the shirt on over me and inhale the scent of my man.
“You won’t touch her ever again,” Diego hisses and waves his knife in front of him in a fluid motion.
Esteban hisses and jumps back. “Motherfucker!”
Blood soaks the front of his shirt, and I smile. I hope he makes him fill up this entire container with his blood.
“Pussy,” Diego hisses and bounces forward on his toes. Slash. And then he bounces back. Esteban groans but waves his knife out in front of him in defense. Diego has already moved out of reach. His eyes stay on his target but his presence is like a warm hug.
“Your family name is a disgrace,” Diego tells him.
Esteban lunges for him with his knife raised. Diego does some fancy arm movements before ducking around him. Now he stands between me and the monster. My hero.
“You run out that door and they’ll mow you down with every bullet in their arsenal,” Diego warns with a laugh.
I want to wrap my arms around my husband, but he needs to stay focused. Esteban charges again, but Diego slashes him across his face with the knife. A groan rips from Esteban and he drops to his knees. His knife clatters to the metal floor, and he clutches the wound that is gushing blood.
Diego pounces like a stealthy cat and grabs a handful of Esteban’s hair while pressing his blade to his carotid artery.
“Mi diablita,” he hisses my way. “What do you want me to do? I can end this now…”
I stand on shaky legs and wobble toward them. “Or I can.”
His beautiful eyes meet mine, and I almost collapse under the weight of the love shining in them. I bend over and retrieve Esteban’s abandoned knife. His enraged glare meets mine from his kneeling position.
“Just kill me,” he snarls. “Fucking kill me, Roja.”
Diego rips harder at his hair. “Don’t talk to your queen like that, motherfucker.”
I narrow my eyes at Esteban but speak to my husband. “Are his wounds lethal?”
“All superficial at this point,” he growls.
I smile. “Good.”
Esteban’s evil face scrunches into one of confusion. “You’re going to let me live?”
I bend over and glower at him. “I’m going to break you.”
“What the fuck, Vee?” Esteban demands. For the first time in my entire life, I see fear in the monster’s eyes. Fear of me.
“What do you think, baby?” I ask Diego. “Four months? Is that long enough?”
“FUCKING KILL ME NOW!” Esteban screams. “NOW!”
I kick him hard in the balls, and with the drugs still buzzing in my body, I nearly come from the way he screeches in pain. The sound of his pain is beautiful. Four months isn’t nearly long enough.
“I want to keep him right here. I want him to relive every single second of what I went through. Put his piece of shit brother in here after you make sure he’s dead so he can be forced to live with that rotting scent every hour of every day.” My eyes dart to Diego’s. “I want him to pay. Dying is too easy.”
Diego slashes his knife along the back of Esteban’s calves through his slacks. Esteban’s screams are otherworldly. When Diego releases him, Esteban falls to his side as he clutches his calves.
“He’s not leaving this container on his two feet,” Diego assures me with a wicked gleam in his eyes. “I’ll station a trusted man at the door. Whatever you want, mi diablita, we’ll make it happen.”
While Esteban writhes in pain, I wobble over to Diego. He’s shaking, and I wonder if it’s from anger or from the wound that’s seeping blood on his chest. I wince upon realizing he’s torn some stitches.
“A hero would carry his queen right out of here,” he says with a grunt, his fingers brushing through my tangled hair.
I grip his hand with mine and tug him toward the door. “Good thing we’re villains because we’re going to walk out of here together. Equals. King and queen. Heroes are for fairytales.” I rest my head on his shoulder. “Our story is one from the horror section.”
He kisses the top of my head. “With a little erotica thrown in?”
I laugh as we slowly make our way into the bright sunlight. “With a lot of erotica thrown in.”
His palm finds my face and he kisses me hard. “I love you.”
“I love you more.”