I was ready to scream.

After two hours swatting at bugs in the humid jungle, climbing hillsides that left me covered in dirt, and sweating profusely in the sweltering heat, I was no closer to freedom than I’d been before.

The highest peak on the island had given me a three-hundred-sixty-degree view of my surroundings that had left me more exasperated than before. Water, everywhere. So much water I couldn’t see any other islands anywhere close. I wasn’t swimming to freedom even if I could swim, and because this island was devoid of any other houses or structures or signs of life that I could see, there was no going for help.

Help also wasn’t coming by plane. The terrain was hilly and covered in thick vines and dense trees. I hadn’t spotted anywhere long or flat enough for a landing strip, which meant the only way I was getting out of here was by helicopter or boat. But just my luck, there wasn’t even a boat anchored at the dock near Luc’s stupid villa or in the adjacent U-shaped bay.

I blew the hair out of my eyes and edged closer to the cliff that dropped straight down to ginormous waves crashing against jagged rocks. I had no doubt Luc had brought me here on purpose. He knew I didn’t like water. He knew I couldn’t swim. Any hope I’d had of escaping had been ripped from my grasp the moment he’d brought me here, just as my choices had been wrenched from my hold the moment Luc had come after me.

Images of that night in Idaho flashed in front of my eyes, making my heart beat faster. The burly bald man who’d attacked me in my bedroom. The way I’d broken free of his hold and run, only to be slammed into my kitchen cupboards from behind. The pain spiraling through my head and back and entire body as I hit the ground. The sounds of glass shattering. And Luc appearing in my line of sight when I’d struggled to look up from the tile floor to see what was happening around me.

He saved your life, a tiny voice whispered in the back of my mind.

My skin heated as I stared down at the frothy surf pounding those rocks into sand. That was true. He had saved me. If he hadn’t shown up, that man would most likely have killed me. But as quickly as the thought hit, another replaced it. One that spurred my temper and made me whip away from the view of the pristine turquoise water.

If it weren’t for Luc and his lies, I wouldn’t have needed saving. No matter what nice thing I thought he’d done, I could never forget the fact that after he’d saved me, he’d drugged me, kidnapped me, and forced me into a marriage I’d never wanted.

The urge to claw that vile word off my finger overwhelmed me as I made my way back down the hillside and into the heat of the jungle, but I resisted only because I didn’t want a giant scar in its place. As soon as I was off this island, though, I was having it removed. Finger tattoos faded quickly, didn’t they? I was sure I’d heard that from a college friend.

I pushed aside the thick vines and picked my way carefully down the hillside. My muscles ached from exertion. My feet hurt from rocks and tree roots stabbing into the flesh of my soles. I swiped at my forehead with the back of my arm again, grazing the scab above my eyebrow I’d gotten from the fight that night in my kitchen, hating how badly I was sweating, hating how tired I was, hating everything about this miserable situation.

The exhaustion finally got to me, and I found a spot near the base of a palm tree to rest. Birds cawed above, and the wind whistled through the leaves as I lowered myself to the ground, leaned back against the trunk, closed my eyes, and just focused on breathing.

I had Luc to thank for how crappy I felt too. Whatever drugs he’d given me—and he must have given me quite a few to keep me groggy and out of it these last few days—were still in my system, making me light-headed, weak, and hotter than hell.

I tugged at my sticky tank, pulling it away from my chest. Something in my left arm pinched with the movement, and I opened my eyes and looked down. Alarm bells rang in my head when I noticed the bandage across my left inner biceps and the purple bruising fanning out beneath.

Sitting forward, I reached for the edge of the bandage and tugged it off. Underneath, I found a small red mark, like an injection site. My chest tightened as I pressed the fingers of my right hand against the spot. Pain radiated outward, making me wince, but I didn’t stop. I felt all around the bruised area only to discover there was some kind of object beneath my skin. A thin tube, roughly an inch and a half long, right below the surface.

My fuzzy mind spun as I stared down at my arm. And when the truth registered, my mouth fell open as if I’d just been slapped in the face.

One of the girls who’d worked for me at the boutique in Boise had gotten something similar placed in her arm a few months ago. When I’d asked her about it, she’d told me it was a birth control implant.

Shock morphed to absolute disbelief. Kidnapping me, drugging me, and forcing me into an unwanted marriage hadn’t been enough for Luciano Salvatici? He’d implanted a foreign object in my body? A birth control device, as if I’d ever want to have sex with him again?

The fury finally got to me, and I let loose a scream I couldn’t hold back. I wanted to strangle him. I wanted to hurt him in a way he’d never recover from. As my vocal cords gave out and the scream died in my throat, I dropped my hands to the dirt at my sides, realizing neither would happen anytime soon. I didn’t have the strength to haul my ass off the ground right now. And I had him to thank for that as well.

Breathing deeply, I tried to keep the sickness from surging up my throat, but nothing worked. All I felt was a rolling nausea and a weighty fatigue I couldn’t shake. All I knew was that I wasn’t going back to his stupid house. I wasn’t going back to him ever. And there was no way in hell I’d ever let him keep me locked up like a prisoner.

My mind spun back to the tattoo on that girl who’d been in my room when I’d awoken. In Italy, after I’d frantically researched the Salvatici House, looking for any indication what Luc had told me was true, I’d learned that all beta kittens—the women the men in the Salvatici House used for their deviant pleasures—were marked with leopard-print tattoos.

Reality hit me like a two-by-four to the forehead. The girl I’d awoken to find in my room was a kitten. She was Luc’s kitten.

My stomach cramped, and I wrapped my arms around my middle and leaned forward, afraid I was going to vomit. None of this was real. I rocked forward and back, trying to convince myself this couldn’t be my life, that I wasn’t really stuck on an island with a man I now hated more than I’d ever stupidly loved him. At some point I had to wake up from this nightmare, didn’t I?

But as the sickness eased and darkness circled around me, I already knew the answer.

This was real. It was my reality, and regardless of what Luc had done to me, at the end of the day I had no one to blame for my predicament but myself.

I was the one who’d gone to New York to find answers about my friend Elena’s death. I was the one who’d been convinced her death wasn’t accidental and that someone had killed her. I’d thought Luc held the key to those answers. Even though I’d told myself to be careful around him, even though I’d known virtually nothing about the man and what he was capable of, I’d fallen for him. And that falling hadn’t just distracted me from my goal, it had derailed my entire life until it was the reason I was now sitting in the middle of a deserted jungle, trying not to go insane.

I breathed deep and squeezed my eyes tight, but neither kept the tears from leaking past my lashes. I couldn’t stay here. I wouldn’t. There was no way I could leave my future in the hands of a man who’d clearly never loved me. I had to find a way out. I had to get off this island and away from Luciano Salvatici once and for all.

Because I was afraid if I didn’t, the desperation would send me searching for another way to be free of him. And I was terrified of where that might take me. And what it could possibly force me to do.

“Natalie!”

The distant sound of my name pulled my eyes open. I blinked several times, trying to make sense of my surroundings. I saw dirt. I saw leaves skittering over the ground. I saw dark, curly hair whipping across my face, blocking my view.

Groggy, I tried to push myself up off the damp earth, but my arms were heavy, and my head felt light. My vision came and went. Giving up trying to see, I rolled to my back. The sky above was dark, but, squinting, I could tell the canopy above me whipped back and forth from the force of a wind I hadn’t noticed before.

“Natalie!”

Again, the muffled sound of my name met my ears, drifting on the wind like a song. I turned my head to try to see where it was coming from but couldn’t make out anything more than fuzzy shapes in the darkness.

I was floating in a dream. Glancing over the jungle as if from a place from outside my body. Nothing felt real. Not the ground beneath me. Not the sky above. Not even my own skin.

“Natalie? Dio dannato. You need to get up. There’s a storm moving in.”

Footsteps pounded close. I was still having trouble seeing, but I recognized that voice. I recognized Luc’s voice. I just didn’t know what Luc was doing in my dream. Or better yet, what I was doing in this dream.

“Come on,” he said. “We have to go.”

Go. Yeah, that sounded like a good idea, only I couldn’t make my muscles work. And something in the back of my head told me his orders were the very last I should follow.

Curls whipped in front of my eyes, messing with my vision. Luc’s fuzzy shape grew closer. I recognized disdain in his stormy eyes. I tried to shift back, away from him, but the only thing my body wanted to do was groan.

Groan. Now that was a funny word. An even funnier sound.

“Merda.” Something cool wrapped around my wrist. “I said come on. We don’t have a lot of time.”

Pressure tightened around my wrist, pulling my torso off the ground. My head grew light, my vision fuzzy. Groaning again, I relaxed and flopped back down on the dirt.

“Natalie?”

Pressure landed against my forehead. A cool pressure that felt so good, I closed my eyes and tried to turn toward it.

“Dio mio. You’re burning up.”

The cool weight against my forehead lifted, and something solid gripped my shoulders on both sides. My body shook.

“Angioletto, open your eyes and look at me.”

I didn’t want to open my eyes. I just wanted to sleep. I angled my head to the side, searching for that cool pressure again.

The grip at my shoulders released, and then something cold pressed against my body in different spots, moving quickly over my skin. Too quickly to cool me down. Dammit, why was it moving so fast?

“Figlio di Puttana.” The pressure came to a stop against my calf. “When did you cut your leg?”

Cut my leg? My brain was clearly short-circuiting. I hadn’t cut my leg.

A crack sounded loudly above me. Luc swore again. Something wet splashed against my skin, making my body jerk in surprise.

Water. My lips curled when I realized it was fat droplets of rain falling on my overheated skin.

“Hold on, angioletto. I’ll take care of you.” Luc’s voice was close, but I couldn’t make out how close. Nor did I care. Because I was drifting again. My body rocking. My arms and legs floating as if free on the waves.

I’ll take care of you…

The words echoed in my head, mixing with the lash of wind and rain and the thump-thump-thump of something close to my ear.

I’ll take care of you.

My heart told me to trust the words, but my fuzzy head fought them. Somehow I knew they were a lie. Just as I knew Luciano Salvatici was the last person I could ever count on.

But as darkness circled in and my head grew even lighter, even that thought slipped from my grasp until there was nothing but silence.

Silence and a sinking feeling I would never be free again.