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“Where is she?” I demanded as soon as he answered. My voice was barely human.
“Evelyn? I dropped her off safely and then returned to the club to help you and Adrián. But you’d already finished with your fun by the time I got there. She should be at the mansion.”
I stared at the fallen diamonds. They winked up at me, mocking me.
My chest hollowed out. Evelyn had run away from me. I’d left her alone, and at the first opportunity, she fled.
She’d said she wanted to return to America, but I never would’ve believed she’d try to escape from me as though I was her cruel captor. She’d pledged herself to me. She’d offered her body to me, and she’d promised that she was mine.
“She’s gone.” I choked on the words. “Fuck!”
I barely stopped myself from smashing the phone against the wall. I needed to stay calm so that I could find her.
And punish her for thinking she could leave me.
If she wanted me to be her captor, I could be that villain. She’d looked at me like I was her savior, like I was a good man. And I’d become addicted to it.
But the truth was that I was camorrista. I was a ruthless criminal, just like Stefano and Adrián. She feared them, but she’d never feared me.
At least, I thought she hadn’t.
I gnashed my teeth like a cornered animal. Whether she feared me or not, Evelyn was mine. She wouldn’t escape me so easily.
“I’ll call Adrián,” Stefano said, calm and lethal. “We’ll find her. She can’t get very far.”
I grunted my thanks and ended the call. Pain knifed through my chest with every thundering heartbeat. I breathed through the agony of losing her. One way or another, I would get her back.
And she would learn never to run from me ever again.
I raced out into the street, hunting my prey. Stefano was right: she couldn’t have gotten far. The town was small, and surely, she was too smart to venture into the jungle at night. Evelyn might be headstrong, but she wasn’t stupid.
I took a few seconds to decide on my next course of action. I could pursue her on foot. That would be slow, but I could check my surroundings more thoroughly than if I was in a vehicle. I trusted that Stefano would follow through with his promise and call for Adrián’s help. They would be out looking for her too, so being thorough was more important than covering lots of ground quickly.
I took off at a run, making my way past the boundary of the wealthy neighborhood and into the impoverished area of town. I remembered we’d passed a military outpost during the drive to the mansion. The officials would be on Adrián’s payroll. If I asked for their assistance, they would help me scour the streets for Evelyn.
The concrete block building was just visible at the end of the street, which was illuminated by a single light outside. Otherwise, moonlight guided my path, throwing the hardpacked earth road into sharp relief with the pale pastel buildings on either side.
A gunshot rang out from the building, accompanied by a distant scream. My heart stopped, but I managed to keep my feet from faltering at the punch of terror. Years of fighting for my life sent adrenaline pumping through my body, granting me lethal focus rather than debilitating me with fear for her.
Maybe it wasn’t her. Maybe…
My name rang out through the quiet night. The sound of her scream was mostly contained inside the concrete building, but I was close enough now to recognize the cadence of her voice crying out for me.
I tore down the street in a burst of nearly inhuman speed. The world fell away around me, my full focus centering on her. She was seconds away from me. But if someone fired that gun again, I might lose her forever before I could get to her.
I burst into the building, revealing a nightmare. My brain took in the horrific scene without my body slowing.
Evelyn thrashed on the floor, a man holding her down. He was laughing as though he was having the time of his fucking life. An older man loomed over her, fisting his flaccid cock, preparing to violate her. There was a gun on the desk behind him, and the other had an automatic rifle tossed carelessly beside him, both of them too distracted by hurting her to think about their weapons.
The knife Adrián had gifted to me was in my hand.
I went for the one who had her pinned. He was too close to her, and once I attacked, he might grab her and use her as a shield.
He would die first.
I barreled into him with my full weight, shoving him off her. His shocked shout lasted only an instant before morphing into an agonized scream. My blade slashed his face, ruining the lips that had leered at her. I caught a flash of teeth and bone before the blood poured from his ruined mouth. His flailing hands scrambled for his rifle, but another harsh slash of my knife nearly severed his wrist. His scream of abject horror ended when I grabbed his body and lifted it in front of my own.
Just as I’d anticipated, bullets ripped into his chest. I launched myself at the older man, who’d managed to grab his gun from the desk behind him. I kept the body between us. At this close range, my meat shield wouldn’t hold out long before the bullets tore through and hit my own chest.
