Page 7 of The Devils' Darling

“Fuck,” he groans. “You have amazing tits.”

“Suck my nipples,” I tell him. “Use your teeth. I like it rough.”

He ducks his head, his hot, wet mouth finding my nipple. I hide my revulsion, my stomach balking, and I place my hands on both of his meaty shoulders and slam my knee up as hard as I can between his thighs. From his reaction, I know I’ve hit the bullseye. He sucks in a wheezy gasp of pain and folds in half.

I don’t hesitate.

Yanking my top back into place, I dart past him, focused only on the open door. He reaches out to try to grab me as I pass, but his grip is weak, and I shake him off easily. Then I’m out of the cage and running to the stairs. I can hardly believe this has worked, but I’m not free yet.

My legs feel like they’re made of lead, and I can’t move fast enough. I hear him cursing behind me, but I think he’s still inside the cage. I wish I’d been able to lock him in there—give him a taste of his own medicine—but I couldn’t risk trying to find the key.

I scramble up the stairs, focusing only on the light at the top. I’m anticipating it slamming shut the moment I reach it, but it doesn’t. I burst through the door and out into a hallway with wooden paneling. I look left and right, trying to work out which way to go, but there’s no obvious way out. I pick left and run. At the end of the hallway, to the right, is a door. There’s daylight on the other side. I crash into it, and yank at the handle.

My heart sinks. Fuck. It’s locked.

A male voice comes from behind me. “Where do you think you’re going?”

It’s not the man from the cage, but I do know that voice.

I spin to face my captor.

“You,” I gasp.

Chapter 4

Tino

After we took the phone to Dom’s father, we’d had little choice but to call it a night.

I hadn’t wanted to retreat to my room, feeling it was like giving up, but what else could I do? It wasn’t as though I’d have been any help, just driving aimlessly around the Adirondacks, shouting out Mackenzie’s name.

There was one thing I had been able to do.

Before I attempted to sleep, I’d called my father. He hadn’t picked up.

Instead, my sister had answered and told me that Papi was in a cartel meeting, and he would be back late. I messaged my father instead and begged for his help. I told him I had met a girl, and I wanted her to one day be my wife, and she’d been taken. I didn’t tell him I shared her. He’d have sent his men here to kill me, not to help Kenzie.

With that done, I’d finally been able to sleep, though it hadn’t been restful.

Now I’ve woken, groggy and heavy-headed.

My first thought is Mackenzie.

Immediately, I check my phone.

To my relief, during the night, my father has replied, stating he has sent us eight men in a private jet to help us track down Mackenzie and deal with whoever has taken her. They’ll be landing at a local private airport within the next couple of hours. It would have taken them possibly twenty-four hours or longer to get here using scheduled flights, but this way, with the use of the jet, they will be here much sooner.

My father always has an army of around fifty on the compound, so the percentage he’s sent me is quite considerable. I had expected he might send me two or three men, but this is more than I had hoped for.

I type back a simple reply.

He can be a hard ass, and at times I’ve disliked Papi intensely. However, he has always come through for me when I really needed it. His hardness wasn't because he didn't love me, or at least that's the way I view it, but because he wanted me to grow to be tough and strong. He might be misguided, and somewhat old fashioned, but, in his own way, he loves me. The fact that he's readily sent me these men, and for a woman he's never met, reinforces my belief that deep down he does care.

I sit and run my fingers through my hair, wincing as the strands rub over my busted knuckles. Picking a fight with the drywall wasn't my most intelligent moment, but I completely lost it. A small part of me that I don't like to examine too closely blames Dom for some of this. Kirill and I were much faster on board with trying to make Mackenzie ours. Dom still held on to that hard, dark lump of hatred in his heart for her mother, and it swayed his actions toward Kenzie.

Climbing out of bed, I wince. It's not only the pain in my hands, but the pain I feel elsewhere in my body, which seems to have surged back with a viciousness that takes my breath away. Perhaps it's because I'm stressed, or perhaps it's because I slept for shit and was tense all night, but either way, my body throbs with pain.

---