Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 96167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
Nico exited the sedan and stopped by her door, his whisper muffled by the mask. “Keep quiet.”
With the 9mm in hand, she climbed out into the balmy night air. She didn’t hear people nearby or vehicles in the distance, much less see any signs of civilization other than the house. But she felt something, a prickly unrest crawling through the black landscape.
Was someone out there? Watching them? Maybe it was the skeletal shapes of the surrounding trees or the fact that she couldn’t see Matias, didn’t like her hearing hindered by the mask, and didn’t want to be alone with Nico. Whatever it was, this remote place gave her the fucking creeps.
She leaned toward Nico, closer than she was comfortable, to speak low at his ear. “Why isn’t Matias wearing a mask?”
“Someone has to show their face at the door,” he whispered, eyes darting to the house and back to her. “I’m too recognizable.” He removed a huge handgun from his waistband and flicked off the safety. “This is how we always do it. He’ll be fine.”
Always do it. She searched the eye opening of his mask and found his gaze more alive than ever and tinged with deep emotion. Whatever was about to happen, he seemed uncharacteristically affected by it. That only made her stomach cramp harder.
With a crook of his finger, he beckoned her to follow him up the driveway.
She switched off the safety on the 9mm and gripped it with both hands. Her finger trembled beside the trigger guard, and her breath huffed heat against the mask, wetting the material. Stepping softly through the grass to match Nico’s steps, she trailed behind him toward the house.
The only assumption she had to go on was they were breaking up a slave ring. If that was the case, wouldn’t they want to make sure she didn’t accidentally shoot an innocent? Maybe there weren’t any slaves in that house.
Rather than leading her to the porch, he ushered her along the side of it. As Matias climbed the short flight of steps to the front door, Nico kept her in the concealment of the shadows ten feet away. She ducked behind an overgrown bush beside the railing just as Matias knocked.
A mewling noise sounded from the darkness on the far side of the porch. Then it mewed again in a harrowing appeal for mercy—the weak cries of a dying animal.
Her breath came in gasps, and the hair on her nape rose. Nico gripped the juncture of her neck and shoulder with warning pressure.
Matias turned toward the cries, and the muscles across his back visibly stiffened. What did he see? A cat? Dog? She tried to block the mewling out of her head by focusing on Nico’s grip.
Matias shifted back to the door as it opened. Nico dropped his hand.
She angled her neck, peering through the branches to see whoever stood just inside the house, but Matias’ broad shoulders obstructed her view.
A handgun was tucked in the back of his jeans. Another one sat in a noticeable shoulder holster. His hard-packed body flexed beneath his t-shirt, but in the next heartbeat, his entire demeanor changed.
His hips loosened and his stance relaxed in a picture of suave arrogance. He crossed a foot over the other and propped it on the toe of the boot. With a forearm braced on the door frame, he lifted the other to slide his thumb over his bottom lip.
Wearing a sexy as fuck smile, he rumbled the Colombian greeting. “Qué más pues, señorita?”
“My, my, aren’t you a handsome one?” a woman purred in Spanish.
Tension shot through Camila’s shoulders and neck. Was he here for this woman? To capture her? Seduce her? Maybe this was a brothel of slaves.
Trust his reasons and keep him alive.
“I have an appointment.” He continued in the native language.
“I might be more your flavor, no? Spend some time with me and find out, viga.”
Her Spanish was so thick Camila struggled to translate it. Viga? She thought it meant superior muscles.
“I have particular tastes, yeah?” Matias moved his hand toward the vicinity of the woman’s chest as his eyes swept past her.
Scoping the place?
His fingers stroked something on the woman, something Camila couldn’t see but had no fucking trouble imagining. She felt her damn eye twitching and couldn’t stop it.
Nico gripped her wrist. Without looking at him, she nodded and forced herself to relax. Matias had said he needed to get through the door. Evidently, that required fondling another woman’s tits.
He continued the flirtatious conversation in Spanish, telling her how sexy she was, how bacano her tits felt, and that her lips were more deadly than his .40 cal. He wooed and winked and charmed the panties right off her skank ass. Hopefully, not literally. Camila still couldn’t see her beyond the door.
Camila kept her finger off the trigger and her breaths steady, but Nico didn’t let go of her arm.