Page 20 of Darkness

I can’t pull away, even if I want to. I’m trapped here with Nycto, my only comfort.

His thumb darts out to brush along my bottom lip. The move is so tender I pant, and my body shudders. His hand slides from my cheek down my neck, tightening to grip around my throat. My pulse races. He’s not cutting off my air, not even impeding it, but it would be too easy for him to do so—his problem gone.

His hand meets the apex of my neck and collarbone, his firm grip sliding out as he presses his palm flat over my heart. My heartbeat races furiously as I sit, barely breathing, watching him.

“The reason I chose you is because of the way you are reacting to me right now. It’s the same response I had when I first saw you. Rapid, relentless… excruciating.”

“This is crazy, Nycto. You don’t know me.”

His hand slides back up to the side of my face. My fingers automatically reach up, taking his wrist and holding it to keep him in place. I bite down on my bottom lip as his nostrils flare.

“I don’t understand it either, Eva. I don’t do this. It’s not who I am. I don’t put the club at risk unnecessarily. I don’t feel anything for women other than the need to fuck them. Don’t get me wrong, I want to fuck you, but that’s not why I’m doing this.”

My eyes flood with tears. “I need to find my sister. I can’t have any peace knowing she’s out there living in a hell I can’t protect her from.”

Nycto’s eyes glass over. His hand drops from my face, and he lets out a huff. “You haven’t heard a word I’ve been saying, have you? If I let you go anywhere, Andrés’s men will see you, and my club will suffer. You will be taken to be sold, and I won’t be able to protect you.”

“My sister is suffering. I have to try.”

He stands abruptly, and a low growl erupts from his chest as his fingers run through his hair. “Stubborn woman. You can’t try, and you won’t. You will stay in here for as long as it takes for you to get it through your head. I won’t have you putting my club in any more danger than it is already in.”

My face heats, and I stand, throwing my hands in the air. “Your club is all you care about. What about me and the other innocent women who were taken from our lives? Kidnapped at gunpoint, sold? I see how it really is.”

He stifles a laugh. “Chiquita, you test my patience. You have no idea what I’m doing for your safety.”

“Then tell me,” I yell in frustration.

He turns to storm back toward me, standing so close I’m enveloped in the scent of his sandalwood aftershave. It’s intoxicating. “You really want to know?” His lip turns up in a cruel smirk. “I had to ride out to a brother chapter today to borrow money from them so I could pay the man who bought you. He wants his money back because he didn’t receive his package, and that payment is to stop the buyer from coming after my club and possibly finding you in the process. I had no choice… now I’m down two hundred and fifty grand. I have to pay what I borrowed back to my brother chapter with interest. So, you think I’m not doing anything for your safety? I just paid a hefty price for it, sweetheart.”

My stomach rolls, and heat flushes all over my body. I think I’m going to be sick. I stumble on the spot, but he reaches out, grabbing me before I fall.

“I’ve got you,” he affirms in a much softer tone. He leads me to the bed, and we sit as I try to take all this information in.

Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars? Why on earth would anyone want that much for me? Or is that the going rate to transport and buy an unwilling human these days?

His hand rests on my thigh, giving it a gentle squeeze as I stare into space. “You with me, Eva?” he asks quietly.

My eyes glisten as I turn to him. “I-I heard what you said… that I had been sold, but I guess it didn’t really sink in until I heard the dollar amount. What would that man do to me that he’d be willing to pay two hundred and fifty thousand dollars?”

Nycto freezes for a moment, then wraps his arm around my shoulders, pulling me to him as my tears fall. I sniffle, the emotion of this hitting me all at once.

My sister is gone. Taken by the very men who tried to steal me.

She’s going through hell, and I feel guilty because I’m here with a man who aggravates me but seems to have saved me from the same fate.

I’m mortified because I’m here with Nycto, and a part of me, even if it’s the tiniest part of me, is glad this happened.

Because if it didn’t, I wouldn’t be here with him.

I’d be somewhere much worse.

I burst into a river of tears, hating myself for feeling this way. My hand comes up, pulling Nycto close, needing him. He’s tense in my grip but holds me while I fall apart.

I let him.

And that scares the absolute hell out of me.

Chapter Nine

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