AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Holding my gaze, Carlos stands over me, his presence menacing. He wants me sweating. He wants me shaking.
I can’t help it. I’m doing both, and I hate myself for it.
“Hola,little sister,” he says, his voice cold and calculating. He leans down and brushes his thumb across the bruise on my cheek. I stifle a wince, but he notices. “Who did this to you?”
I jerk my chin at the hefty man sitting next to me.
“Such sloppy work,” Carlos says. “This is the best you could do? You took a traitor here for questioning, and this is the best you could do? She isn’t even bleeding.” Shaking his head, he casually pulls a handgun from a holster at his side.
“Please, sir! I’ll do better!” The man’s eyes are wide, his hands spread, pleading. “Give me another?—”
Boom.
I scream when the bullet lands right between the man’s eyes. Blood pours from the wound as his heavy body falls to the ground, lifeless. I bite my lip until I taste metal on my tongue to stop myself from screaming, but my scream ends in a whimper.
“She’s a traitor,” Carlos says, reaching for me. I flinch, but I can’t get away from him. Even if I wasn’t tied to this chair, he’s bigger and stronger than I am. I know that from personal experience.
He fists my hair and yanks my head back.
“If I send you to bring back a traitor, man or woman, and I tell you to punish them, I mean you fucking punish them,” Carlossnarls. In one swift motion, he draws his hand back and slaps me, hard, across the face. Tears spring to my eyes, and my head jerks to the side. He slaps the other cheek. I cry out in pain. My jaw vibrates from the impact, my skin on fire.
He reaches for my chin and grabs it, appraising his work. “There. That’s a bit better,” he snarls, showcasing yellowed teeth.
My best friend Isabella always hated Carlos, and for good reason. She called him “homely and ugly,” and she was right. “Too bad you got all the beauty genes,” she said once. “Maybe that’s why he’s so grumpy all the time. It must hurt walking around looking like that.”
But I know better. Carlos looks like evil incarnate because he is. The ugliness in his face is only a reflection of his heart.
“I’ll take it easy on you this time, little sister, because I need you. And when I send you back to lover boy, things might get complicated if you have any broken bones.”
Oh no. Oh God.
Lover boy?My heart beats so fast I’m sick to my stomach.
Now I know why it was so easy for Isabella to kill her brother, Javier. If I had a weapon and half a second, I’d pull the trigger so damn fast. Ihatethis man in front of me. The boy I grew up with, my brother, who was my confidant and partner in crime, is gone. I barely recognize this monster.
“Don’t even think about lying to me, Renata. I know. I had eyes on you every minute you spent in New York. It’s why I knew you were a traitor. I didn’t miss the way you look at him. I saw the way you fell for him. I know.”
God, how does he know? And how will I ever escape from this?
“So I’m going to make a deal with you.” He sits in the chair and leans forward, his arms resting on his knees, his soulless eyes boring into mine.
He won’t defeat you.
He won’t.
I have to stay strong. I have to keep my head on straight. So what if he knows I fell for Ollie Romanov? So what if that’s why he took me back here?
Still… what does he hope to gain from having me here?
He hasn’t killed me because he needs something.
What?
Carlos presses his thumb to my throbbing cheek. My pulse threatens to choke me, but I don’t move. He leans closer, his voice cold and cruel. “This is what you’ll do. You’re going back to your precious Romanovs in The Cove. They’ll likely brutally punish you themselves, thinking you betrayed them, but the poor fools won’t even know the half of it.” He shakes his head. “You’ll pretend I don’t exist. You’ll pretend you wanted to confirm my death here in Columbia, and you did.”
My pulse is racing so quickly that I can hardly hear from the pounding in my ears.
I glare at Carlos, my cheek throbbing and my eyes watery. But my voice is steady and filled with resolve. “You underestimate me, Carlos. I won’t let you use me like this.”
