A frown pulled my brows together when I woke up and the space beside me was empty. Hugging the sheet to my chest, I sat up. The stillness coating the room almost eerie. My gaze flicked from one dark corner to the other, my heart’s pace picking up speed.
There was no way I was going to be able to fall asleep again. Slipping from Santiago’s impossibly comfortable bed, I snatched my clothes from the floor and quickly donned item after item.
Well, everything except my panties. I didn’t know why the heck he kept taking them and I wasn’t about to ask either. Glancing around the room one last time, I padded down the hall. Everything was dark save for one room at the very end.
I couldn’t explain why I had this sudden need to get to that light, to get away from the darkness that felt so cold… and scary. My feet moved faster and faster until I could curl my fingers around the doorframe and slip into the lit-up space.
The first thing I saw was the imposing desk, taking up almost half of the space. It was big and masculine just like the man who sat behind it every day. The man that still seemed to be missing.
Somewhere inside my jittery brain, I knew I should’ve just opened my mouth and called to him. But instead of doing that, I found myself moving toward his desk. My fingers trailed over the smooth surface as I slowly moved around it and sank into the plush leather seat.
I had visions of Santiago sitting in the exact space I was occupying, looking all serious and businesslike while I sauntered in here and seduced him. Throwing my head back, I laughed at the creature this man had turned me into.
Deciding it was probably best to go look for him, I pushed off the seat and accidentally bumped against the desk. The action had the sleeping screen flicking to life.
My stomach bottomed out; bile burning its way up my throat while my trembling hands shot to my mouth. The world around me shifted, my lungs on fire with every ragged breath I tried to pull in.
This couldn’t be happening.
“Becca… What the hell?”
I heard his voice, saw the movement in my peripheral vision but my jagged brain couldn’t piece the images together. Not when everything around me kept spinning. I kept trying to suck air into my body, to remind it we needed it to live. Nothing but fire and fear coated my insides. My hands shot out, palms smacking down on the surface of the desk as I desperately tried to steady myself.
I squeezed my eyes shut, but it was too late; hot thick tears were already sliding down my cheeks. One breath then another and another before my lids finally parted and my gaze locked on to the images on the screen once again.
My mouth opened at the same as Santiago’s hand smoothed over my back. Probably the same hand that’d brought pleasure and held my face. All the confusion and fear I’d felt mere moments ago morphed into red-hot anger.
I reared back, but Santiago was faster. His long fingers curled around my upper arm, digging into my skin to the point of pain. “It’s you!” I spat. “It wasn’t my imagination; you’ve been stalking me!” Every word fell from my lips in a broken sob, but I refused to look away from his cold dead stare.
I tried to pull my arm out of his grasp but his grip on me only tightened. “Why do you have pictures on there of me and my brother?” Even though my arm was hurting, I wouldn’t stop trying to free myself. “Why are you doing this? What do you want?”
For the first time in my life, I saw murder flash in someone’s eyes. It scared the crap out of me. Santiago bared his teeth, a look of pure malice flashing over his devastatingly handsome features.
He used my arm as a lever and harshly yanked me flush against him. I cried out in pain but quickly swallowed it when his face inched closer to mine. “What I want is for Jack Martin to suffer,” he gritted out through clenched teeth. “For him to understand what it feels like to hurt so much you want to claw your heart out of your chest just to make it stop.”
For a fraction of a second, I saw pain flash in his eyes but the unchecked anger coursing through his veins drowned it out just as fast. I forced my lips to move. Made myself ask, “Why? What did we do to you?”
He roared out in fury. The sound of it bouncing off the walls, filling my entire body with dread. Roughly he let go of my arm but before I had time to blink, he grabbed a fistful of my hair and shoved my face toward the computer screen.
Thick tears streamed down my cheeks while he maneuvered the white arrow toward a folder on his desktop. Two clicks later, horrible, horrible images filled the screen. One by one they popped up. All of the same woman.
Naked, awkwardly sprawled out on a bed with a needle sticking out of her arm. Her eyes were open, lifelessly aimed at the ceiling.
I was going to be sick. My stomach rolled, my shoulders folding forward. My body painfully convulsing with the dry heave that left it.
The fingers in my hair tightened. It felt as if every strand was being ripped from my skull. Mercilessly, Santiago shoved my face closer to the images, my nose almost touching the screen. “Her name was Isabela Morales. She was my sister, and your brother took her from me. He fed her the same shit he feeds every other woman right before he fucks them without their permission. Whatever he
