Sixty-Four

One of the armed men swung his AR-15 to his back and came forward, barking at her in Spanish. Sabrina lifted her arms, holding them out while he ran his hands over her body so he could check her for weapons. He reached her breasts, his hands molding along her curves as he squeezed before running them down the length of her torso and between her legs, a leering grin on his face as he ran rough fingers along the center seam of her jeans.

“You can’t save Leo if you’re shot dead before you get there,” Courtney said into her ear, reading her perfectly. The roar of the rotor blade ensured that what she said was kept between them.

Sabrina looked past the man in front of her to his partner, who was standing next to the still-grinning Alberto Reyes, his AR-15 aimed directly at her face.

“If we come for you, it’ll be at night. Give it twenty-four hours. If we don’t show, you’ll have to get the Maddox boy out alone.”

Sabrina didn’t acknowledge what Courtney said, just brought her hands together and held them out to the guard, who slipped zip-cuffs onto her wrists and pulled them so tight they cut into her skin. He grabbed her by the arm and hauled her toward the waiting helo. She waited for Reyes and the remaining guard to board before allowing herself to be shoved through the open door.

As soon as the door slid closed, the helicopter lifted off, and she looked down. Courtney stood at the edge of the pad, looking up at her. She looked worried, like she wasn’t sure she was up to saving Leo Maddox on her own.

That made two of them.

“I hope you’ll forgive the precautions, Sabrina. I’ve heard many wonderfully dangerous things about you.”

Sabrina turned away from the window and looked at the man sitting across from her. He’d removed his sunglasses to reveal eyes that were just as she imagined: small and cruel, the intensity behind them almost crippling. She’d seen that look before; Wade and David both had it—right before she killed them.

She looked down at the thick plastic cuffs that bound her wrists before lifting her gaze to the two armed men who sat on either side of her. “I’m flattered.”

Reyes chuckled. “Yes, yes. This is what I’ve looked forward to the most. Your biting wit.” He leaned across the small space between them. “Tell me, what did she say to you? The woman who brought you, she was whispering in your ear.”

“She was warning me not to break your man’s neck for putting his dirty hands on me,” she said evenly.

Reyes’s chuckle deepened into a full-fledged laugh. “We are going to have great fun, you and I,” he said, giving her a friendly smile that was an absolute lie. “I hope Cartero takes his time in coming for you.”

She looked away from him. “Michael won’t come.”

“You’re right—Michael will not come for you,” Reyes said the intensity in his eyes sharpening into something close to fanaticism. “What will come for you is a completely different animal, one I’m quite certain you’ve never met. But he will come for you, and when he does, the fun truly begins.”

She didn’t answer, thinking of where she’d been just a few hours ago—pinned naked against her bedroom wall, Michael’s hands, suddenly rough and careless, his knee shoved into the juncture of her thighs as he worked the fly of his pants open between them.

You wanted Cartero, Sabrina—well, now you’ve got him.

She shrugged, aiming her gaze out the window. Below them, green and brown had given way to glittering blue. “You. Shaw. You both sorely overestimate my worth to him. He doesn’t care what you do to me.”

“We will see just how much you are worth, won’t we?” he said to her, his easy words smoothed over a solicitous tone. “We go to my private island, Cofre del Tesoro. Do you know what that means, Sabrina?”

“Treasure chest.” She spoke to the window. In the rapidly approaching distance she saw a dot of green, fat and wide, surrounded by blue.

“You speak Spanish?” he said as if the thought delighted him.

“A little. Not much,” she said with a shrug.

“This is where I keep my most prized possessions.” He gave her a smug look. “The things I treasure above all others.”

“Is this where you kept Lydia?” she said.

It took him a moment to answer her. “Cartero told you of my Lydia? This surprises me.”

She flicked him a dismissive look and lied: “He told me every-
thing.”

“Everything? This I doubt.” That smug look gave way to something that resembled a snarl. “Did he tell you that while he was supposed to be watching over my daughter, he was also fucking my wife?”

The helicopter touched down gently, jostling her in her seat. “He told me she was a child when you bought her from her family and that you killed her because you’re a raging dickbag.”

Reyes’s right hand shot out, his palm connecting with her face, so fast and hard that her head rocked back on her neck. Blood, warm and salty, burst in her mouth and Sabrina had to grind her boot heels into the floor beneath her to keep from launching herself at him. Courtney’s words echoed in her ears: You can’t save Leo if you’re shot dead before you get there.

“I killed her because she defied me.” He jerked his chin at the door, and the guard closest to it nearly fell over himself to open it onto a manicured lawn and garden.

Reyes exited the helo, and Sabrina was yanked out next. He stood staring at her for a moment before reaching into his pocket to pull out a large folding knife. He flicked it open and she tensed, thoughts and memories flooding her system.

“Yes, this is where I kept Lydia; this is also where I keep Leo Maddox. But I think you already know that.” He slipped the knife between her wrists and the plastic cuff, giving it an upward twist. The blade slid through the sturdy plastic like it was slicing nothing but air. “If I hear even a whisper of trouble from you, the very first thing I will do is kill him, and believe me when I tell you that he will suffer for your insolence while I make you watch. After that, I will give you to my guards.” He smiled at her while he refolded the knife and dropped it into his pocket. “You’ll surely manage to kill more than a few, but not all of them. They’ll eventually subdue you, and then they will rape you to death. I’ll videotape it of course, so that Cartero will see how much you suffered before you died. That isn’t the end I have planned for you, but it will work just as well. Hopefully you understand how much is depending on your choice to behave.”

“I understand,” she said, nearly choking on the words. The humiliation of submission tingled along her jawline, mingling with the sting of the slap.

“Very good. Take her to her room,” he said to the guard next to him. “And make sure no one touches her … for now.”