Her body was slack against me. Soft, and relaxed in sleep. And while my body felt sated—she’d been fucking incredible—I couldn’t relax. I couldn’t sleep. I had five days. Five days to make sure Scar would be OK.

I intended to be the one to walk away from Mateo’s ‘meeting’ on Friday, but the road to hell was paved with good intentions. And there was a decent chance I’d be on my way there soon.

I wanted to scream at that fucker fate, who was probably sitting up in the sky laughing at me, but I deserved this. As long as Scar was safe, that was all that really mattered.

Unfortunately, if I was being honest with myself, even that was going to be a long shot. I couldn’t be meeting with Mateo and putting Scar on a plane at the same time. And the sooner I put her on the plane, the more time Mateo had to figure out I’d gotten her the hell out of here. Her best chance at escaping was to be boarding the plane at the exact time Mateo was busy with me—obviously not something I’d be able to accomplish on my own. Who the fuck was I supposed to trust with Scar’s life?

No one—that’s who. But I didn’t have much of a choice. Not one of Marcos’ goons, obviously. Vicente Fuentes, maybe. Assuming he was trustworthy—which was not definite. If I handed her over into his care though, I had no doubt he’d do his damnedest to make sure I never laid eyes on her again if I happened to survive this. I’d do it if I had to, but it would be a last resort—not that there were many other options to consider.

Fuck! I knew what to do…except the guy was probably already dead. Still, I slipped out of the bed as quietly as I could and grabbed the cell phone out of the back pocket of my pants. He couldn’t be dead. He couldn’t be. God damn it, I needed him to be alive. There was someone I could trust to help make sure Scar escaped safely. I could trust him because I already had. Without him, I might never have found Scar in that fucking basement.

Michael.

If he was still alive, I’d gladly hand over everything I owned. Of course I would, because none of it—not the house, the cars, or the seven-digit figures in my bank accounts—was worth anything in comparison to her.

It only took me a minute to find the text conversation I was looking for. And believe it or not, I actually had to steady my hand before I could send the text that might very well safe her life.

“Alive?” I wrote simply.

I was tempted to pray to whatever deity might be out there, but I thought better of it. If there was a god out there, he’d never done me any favors. After what I’d become, I didn’t think he was likely to start now. It was probably better to just stay under the radar.

I stood there clutching the phone like a lifeline, waiting for it to vibrate and save her life. Waiting.

A minute passed, and then another. Still waiting. My eyes were fixed on the screen, and I willed a god damned response to appear.

Nothing. Fuck.

I wanted to keep standing here, waiting, but I didn’t. I slipped the phone into the pocket and slid on my pants. I didn’t have time to waste waiting for a reply that wasn’t going to come. A glance at Scar to confirm she was still fast asleep, and I ducked into the closet and opened the laptop on the table there. Needing to acquaint myself with the place where Mateo wanted me, I pulled up maps of the area.

Really though, I was just stalling. I needed to get in touch with Vicente, even if I wasn’t certain he was trustworthy. He was my only option, so I needed to make the arrangements that would guarantee I’d never see Scar again. And if I was going to do that, what difference did it make if I died? It meant one less monster in the world, and if I happened to take a few of them with me, all the better.

My thigh vibrated and I yanked out the phone.

“Yeah,” it said.

Four letters. I’d never imagined the power of four, simple letters. Relief flooded my veins, but I pushed it back. It was too soon. Michael was alive, but that didn’t mean he would help me again. I would be forever in his debt for the last time. What I was about to ask him, I had no business asking, but how could I not?

“Up for more trouble with the same product? A transport issue. Substantial compensation for a successful delivery.” There. Yeah, I felt like shit for calling Scar a product, but the coding was necessary.

And now, what more could I say? My whole world depended on a few text messages on a phone with a man I didn’t know. If I thought begging would make him any more likely to help, I’d do it. Yes, me—Derek Vaughan—would beg and plead if it would make a difference, but it wouldn’t.

“Why not,” he wrote, and I was automatically suspicious.

That was too easy. Far too easy. Why would he agree with nothing more than my world he’d be compensated? It was precisely the response I’d been hoping for, but nothing came that easy. Not for me. But what the fuck was I supposed to do?—turn down his help, after I’d just finished asking for it?

The only other option was Vicente, and there was no guarantee he was any more trustworthy than Michael. At least I knew why Michael had helped Scar. I knew nothing of Vicente’s motivations. All I knew for certain was I would never see her again if I handed her over to Vicente, but that also meant I’d never know for sure that he got her away safely.

All right, so I would proceed with caution with Michael.

“Meet?” I texted. If I was going to do this, I wanted to meet with him first, alone.

“When? Where?”

I typed the GPS coordinates of a nearby location, along with 9 am and tomorrow’s date.

“I’ll be there.”

It just felt too easy. I had to ask. “Catch?”

“No money. I want your contacts. Every. Single. One.”

Hmm. That might explain it. And knowing what the man had to gain put me more at ease. Perhaps this was why Michael had not perished in the fire that had burned down Filipe Ruiz’s estate. He wasn’t satisfied taking out a handful of guards and nobodys. He wanted to kill them all.

He’d never succeed—for every monster who died, two would rise up to take his place—but I couldn’t help but commend the effort. Too bad the new vigilante wouldn’t make it anywhere close to the top before he was taken out.

I would get there though. I was going to stand face-to-face with Mateo Lopez, and then I was going to blow his brains out. Maybe I’d give Mateo Michael’s regards.

“Deal.”

That was it. In exchange for betraying everything I’d known for the past ten years, Scar would be safe. It was an easy trade. Maybe too easy. I should have felt some remorse for offering up the lives of men I’d known for a long time, but I didn’t. They deserved to die just as much as I did.

Now all I had to do was make Scar understand this was the only way. I felt like shit for lying to her, making her think I was confident I’d be joining her when it was over, but it wasn’t a complete lie, I reasoned. It was entirely possible I’d survive this. It just couldn’t be a priority.

There was no chance she’d be able to follow me tomorrow without a car of her own, but I wouldn’t put it past her to try. I’d have to make sure she was restrained before I left the house—not an entirely unpleasant prospect. OK…not an unpleasant prospect at all. And after how well her most recent session in restraints had gone, I knew exactly what I was going to do. I smiled evilly. At least this part was going to be fun. Well, it was going to be exquisite torture for her. But fun for me.

* * *

The rest of the day passed too quickly. As much as I was anxious to meet with Michael, and looking forward to what I had in mind for Scar, I was still painfully cognizant of how little time we had left. I’d tried to savor every second, waking her from her nap with my lips on her thighs. I breathed in her scent, and when her eyes were wide open, I delved in and committed the intoxicating taste of her to memory. In my head, I recorded the sight of her writhing beneath me and the sounds she made as my tongue drove her higher. And I decided that the last memory I would play before I died would be of her coming for me—her slim hands in my hair, her cries filling the air and her eyes alight with fire and love.

Over and over again, we brought each other to climax, giving and taking as if we both knew these were the last memories we would ever get to make. When morning came and I awoke to her lips sliding over my cock, I was anxious and hesitant at the same time—not about the blow job. That, I was fine with. And I was immensely looking forward to what I would do to her in a few short hours. But after that…

I refused to think about it. Not yet. Instead, I focused on Scar’s talented, little tongue as it circled the sensitive ridge of my cock. My hips jerked, and it was all I could do to resist the urge to force her mouth down lower. Then again, why the fuck was I resisting?

I wrapped my hand in her hair and pushed her down slowly. Her lips opened wide and I could feel her tongue continuing to move against me as I lowered her further. Inch after inch until I felt her throat constrict around the tip. Fuck, her mouth felt good.

On the second plunge, she wrapped her hand around the base as much as she could and pumped it in rhythm with her mouth. So good.

I watched her work my cock to the back of her throat over and over again. I couldn’t think of a hotter sight to start the day. But as tempting as it was to let her continue and watch her throat work as she swallowed every drop I gave her, I wanted to fuck her even more. Instead of pulling her up on top of me though, I wanted to see her cross the distance.

“Come here, Pet.”

She released my cock reluctantly and crawled up my body, her hips swaying and her nipples grazing across my flesh as she kept her body low. It seemed my temptress had learned a lot. But she didn’t get the chance to keep up her teasing because the second she’d crawled far enough, I grabbed hold of her hips and thrust up into her tight, wet heat. So fucking good.

She seemed a little pale, but when one of her hands splayed across my chest and the other moved to her clit, I chalked it up to the lighting and focused my attention on her wicked fingers, moving in provocative circles over her clit.

“Give me your breasts,” I demanded after a moment.

Between the two of us, we had her pussy covered. Her nipples though, looked like they were in need of attention. When she arched her chest forward, I suckled one into my mouth, sucking hard and then grazing the taut peak with my teeth. She cried out and I could feel her finger moving faster on her clit. I switched to her other nipple and her cries grew louder.

“Yes, Master. God yes, please harder.”

I was happy to oblige, ramming in deep while I sank my teeth into her flesh, not enough to draw blood, but enough that her body jerked and a long, low moan escaped her lips. Fuck, she was incredible.

She sat down hard as she threw her head back and screamed. Her pussy spasmed around me but I held on just long enough to watch the intense waves of her orgasm rock her body.

“Fuck, I’m going to come.” My balls drew up tight with one last thrust, and white-hot pleasure jolted through every part of me.

She collapsed against my chest and I wrapped my arms around her, thinking this was how I wanted to wake up every morning for the rest of my life…all four days of it.

I was just about to roll her beside me when she darted right off the bed and made a mad dash for the bathroom. Apparently, it would be a good idea to let her pee before morning sex from now on.

I stood, intending to get dressed and see to breakfast when the sounds coming from the bathroom had me darting in after her.

What I saw made me freeze on the spot.