Page 64 of His Captive Pet

He walked across the kitchen to a drawer and pulled out her phone. “We get crappy reception down in the cabin, and I wanted to be sure you didn’t try getting a hold of anyone.”

She wanted to laugh over the absurdity. He had all but kidnapped her, defiled her, humiliated her, and she stared at him, wanting him to hug her and hold her until her frayed nerves settled. Because he’d done all of those things out of love.

She could feel it. The little bud growing between them. Once all the mess of the Pecadores was settled, they could get back to where they’d started in Chicago. Though the starting line had moved a few thousand paces now.

The phone powered up and the notification alarms went off. It had been several days; she probably had at least a dozen messages from work.

She scrolled through the texts and found one from Luis.

Blake stood beside her as she opened the message. A video popped up and started playing.

Luis faced the screen, his left eye bruised and swollen shut, his lips puffy and split open. Aubree’s heart sped up as he started talking.

“He knows. He knows, and if you don’t come back, he’s going to kill me. He blames me. I should have known you were a rat.” He coughed, blood-filled saliva slipped from his mouth. “Come back or he’ll kill me, Doc. I have a little girl at home. Please.”

The video ended and Blake snagged the phone from her.

“That came in last night.”

“Blake.”

“No, Aubree.” He shook his head. “Don’t even think it. I’ll send this to John and talk with him.”

“Luis has been nothing but good to me, Blake. He brought me in to help those dogs; he’s not evil like Jorge. Well, not as evil.”

“When you get back we’ll talk. Right now, just go and try to relax.”

“How the hell can I relax when he’s going to get killed because of me?” Aubree reached for the phone but he kept it out of reach. “It’s my fault. If I had gone back, if I’d called.”

“It would have resulted in nothing but you being right where Luis is. Or worse. And Luis would still have to answer to his cousin for letting you near the fights to begin with.”

She reached for the phone again and he shoved it in his back pocket, settling a dark glare on her. “You can use the girls’ phone if you need to get a hold of me. I need to show this to Devin, see what he thinks.”

With his hand to the small of her back, he led her from the kitchen. The conversation for the time being was over. He wouldn’t talk anymore now, she knew that. Even if he did, he’d just shoot her down.

She’d go to town, she’d try to come up with a solid plan, and when she got back, they’d talk. She’d make him see reason, and let her go back with him.

“Samuel’s coming with me. He’ll like the drive.”

“Fine,” Blake agreed when they got back to the living room.

“Ready?” Kara asked.

“Yeah.” Aubree started walking to the door.

“Aubree.” Addison gently tapped her shoulder. “Uh.” She tapped her neck. “The collar.”

“It stays.” Blake’s hard voice came from the living room.

“Blake, I’m going out in public—”

“It stays.”

Stubborn oaf.

Addison shrugged a shoulder and gestured for Kara to open the door. The carefree afternoon of shopping waited.

Except while she went off shopping, Luis suffered back home trying to survive.

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