Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 80139 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 401(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80139 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 401(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Adriana’s office is elegant of course. She gestures for me to sit. I take the chair across from her desk.
She doesn’t sit right away. Instead, she moves behind the desk, resting her hands against the edge. “So what do you think of our guest?”
Robin.
An image flashes in my mind. Robin on the floor, Zabala looming over her…
I push it down.
“She’s strong,” I say. “Defiant. But not reckless.”
Adriana tilts her head. “Go on.”
“She understands risk,” I continue. “She pushes, but she’s calculating. She knows when to stop.”
“And?”
“She wants to go home,” I say. “She’ll cooperate if she believes it gets her there.”
Adriana’s lips curve. “Cooperation isn’t enough.”
I hold her gaze. “What are you looking for?”
“We need more than her compliance,” she says. “We need the Bellamy family’s cooperation.”
I lean back slightly. “You think they won’t cooperate?”
“I think they will,” she says. “But not to the extent we require. Not without encouragement.”
I swallow another lump in my throat.
“Señor Vega is attempting to navigate a very delicate situation,” she continues. “He has certain information about Austin Bellamy.”
I nod. I know that part.
“Unfortunately,” she adds, “Mr. Bellamy is currently unavailable.”
“Right. He’s in the hospital.”
“Correct. And he’s incapacitated, which complicates negotiations.”
“So you want leverage,” I say.
“Yes.”
I already know where this is going. I just don’t want to hear her say it.
“The most effective way,” she continues, “to ensure compliance from her brothers is to make the consequences…visible.”
I don’t speak.
“Pain,” Adriana says softly, “is a very persuasive language.”
I sit still. “There are other ways.”
“Are there?” she asks.
“Yes,” I say. “We can control communication. Isolate. Create pressure without physical damage. Make them think she’s worse off than she is—”
“No.”
The word punches me in the gut.
“They need to see it,” Adriana says. “Fear is most effective when it is undeniable.”
My stomach churns. “You’re talking about beating her.”
“I am,” she replies.
“Badly.”
“Yes.”
I exhale slowly, trying to keep calm. “They’ll react either way. You don’t need to cross that line.”
She stares into my eyes for a moment. “Your concern is interesting.”
“It’s practical,” I say. “Damage like that can complicate things.”
“Or accelerate results.”
I try one more time. “Why this? Why now? Vega doesn’t need ransom money.”
Adriana smiles. “This isn’t about money.”
“Then what is it about?”
“Something far more important.”
“And what’s that?”
No response. Not that I expected one. I’m pretty much kept on a need-to-know basis.
“There has to be another way,” I say again.
“No. She must be broken. Visibly.”
I clamp my hands around the arms of my chair.
“And her brothers,” she continues, “will do exactly what we want them to do.”
I don’t move.
I don’t speak.
I just sit there, feeling heat building inside me.
Adriana straightens. “And you,” she says, “will be the one to do it.”
What? Did I mishear her? I don’t hit women. I vowed never to do that when I saw a john beat my mother when I was a kid and I was too small to stop it.
“I’m sorry?” I say.
“You heard me.”
I stare at her.
“This requires precision,” she says. “Control. Not enthusiasm.”
Not Zabala, is what she’s really saying. He’d be too excited. He’d go too far.
“You are best suited for this,” she continues. “You understand limits. You know how to inflict damage without compromising the asset.”
The asset? She’s a person. A living, breathing human being.
But of course Adriana doesn’t think of her this way. Neither does Vega.
My pulse is pounding. “You seriously want me to beat her.”
“Yes.”
My mind flashes—
Robin’s eyes.
Beautiful. Sharp. Alive.
Something twists hard in my chest.
“There are other men—”
“No.”
“I don’t think I’m—”
“This comes directly from Señor Vega. He trusts you.”
I almost laugh.
Trust?
Vega doesn’t trust anyone.
“Is there a problem, Señor Moreno?”
Yes.
A massive one.
“No,” I say, making sure the word sounds nonchalant.
Adriana nods. “Good. You’ll begin this afternoon.”
11
ROBIN
My throat burns.
That’s the first thing I’m aware of when I open my eyes again. If I even slept. It doesn’t feel like sleep.
Cold floor. Metal bars. No sense of time.
I haven’t cried in a while. Not because I don’t want to. Because I can’t. My body doesn’t have anything left to give.
Good.
I don’t want to cry anymore.
Tears are weak. Wasteful. I won’t give them any more of me.
Instead I feel rage. It sits low in my stomach, coiled tight, and it gets stronger every time I think about that asshole Zabala.
The way he looked at me. The way he laughed. The way he—
I squeeze my eyes shut.
No.
I’m not giving that moment any more space in my head. I can’t afford to.
I curl my fingers into fists.
Why?
Sure, I was snooping around that woman’s house. I shouldn’t have been there. I shouldn’t have been digging into things that clearly didn’t want to be found.
But I wasn’t doing it for me.
I was doing it for Hawk.
For Daniela.
For us.
Something is wrong. I know it is. I felt it before all of this happened. Something needed to be done before more terrible things befell us.
But I was sloppy. I shot from the hip without thinking.