Total pages in book: 26
Estimated words: 24912 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 125(@200wpm)___ 100(@250wpm)___ 83(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 24912 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 125(@200wpm)___ 100(@250wpm)___ 83(@300wpm)
Christ, she deserves so much better than this.
I lean down as if to kiss her neck, but stop just before my lips touch her skin.
What am I doing here? I’ve just shattered this poor girl’s entire world, and now I’m trying to get physical with her? This is the power she holds over me. The lust she ignites within me whenever we’re close.
I can’t leave her. I can’t.
But I must complete my mission. I’ve come too far to back out now.
“I can’t live without you, Layla,” I say softly, pressing my body against hers the way I would when we were in bed together and had just finished making love. “But I also can’t abandon my mission. Your uncle is a tyrant. He has to go.”
I feel like I’m about to have a heart attack. I was not prepared for this conversation. Not now.
Her eyes are unreadable. Is it fear? Hatred? More betrayal?
I can’t tell, and it’s tearing me apart.
“If I complete my objective, Layla, I could leave the agency. I could be a normal man and be in a normal relationship with you. I know I hurt you, and I’m so sorry. But I love you more than anything. You must know that.”
Her response is muffled by her gag. I release her wrists, and she remains still.
“I’m going to remove your gag now, okay? All I ask is that you don’t scream. Because if you do, and my cover is blown, I’ll have only one choice…” I can feel nothing but agony now. Pain. Disgust at myself and what I’ve put her through. “I’ll have to kill you.”
EPILOGUE
LAYLA
Three days later…
All I see is black.
The room stinks like wet and mold.
My heart is pounding like a drum in my ears. I can feel my pulse in my fingers.
My breath is hot and staggered beneath the hood covering my head. I can’t say how long it’s been since I’ve been here…I can’t even say where here is. I only know it’s not my uncle’s, and it’s not my apartment.
I do know that it’s been several days, and I haven’t seen Taylor–or I guess I should say Ryder–since what happened back in Mexico.
I keep waking up expecting to be back in bed beside him, or to feel his touch on my shoulder, or to smell his comforting scent as he wraps me in his arms. Instead, I’ve felt other men’s hands on my wrists, leading me from this room to the bathroom, and then back to this chair to be tied up again like some kind of criminal.
Did Taylor’s mission fail?
Have I been captured by a competing cartel?
When he removed the gag from my mouth, I didn’t scream. I was terrified, and although he’d admitted to lying to me, I wanted to believe him. I wanted it so badly. The ache in my heart was unbearable, and I was desperately clinging to any hope that he might still actually be the man I fell in love with.
As terrified as I was, and as betrayed as I felt, my love for him overpowered everything, and I told him I forgave him. I told him I would never speak of what happened, what he was about to do, and that as long as we were together, I would be happy.
He smiled. I cried. We kissed. We made love. And then he took his gun and went downstairs.
And that was the last I saw of him.
Less than an hour later, a group of men burst in, threw this bag over my face, and carried me to a car, and I was driven away.
“Will someone tell me what’s going on!?” I howl, the force of my scream burning my throat and lungs. “Where the hell am I!?”
I realize now that I made the wrong decision.
I never should have kept my mouth shut.
I know nothing of the spy world, but I’m starting to realize I’ve been played. I’m just a single cog in the larger machine of his plan, and he never meant anything he said to me. He never loved me. He simply used me for sex and to get to my uncle. And that’s it.
He’s not coming back to save me.
I’m on my own now.
And as tears begin to spill from my eyes and wet the cloth draped over my face, I feel my heart begin to break.
“Ryder…” I weep.
I shouldn’t cry. I shouldn’t be sad about him not being here to save me, to protect me like he said was his mission in life. But I am.
I’m lower than I’ve ever been in my life.
Being cheated on is nothing compared to this brutal, icy betrayal.
I let myself believe he was for real. I let myself love him without constraint, and truly believed he loved me back. Every time I looked at him, I felt serene, tranquil, cherished. I was in love with his every touch, the way his words felt when he spoke to me and how he held me like I was the most important thing in his life. And the way he gazed into my eyes with such intensity made my heart feel full and alive.