Page 1 of Defy

One

IT’S BEEN EIGHTEEN YEARS since I murdered my sister.

In those years I had settled into a new life and tried to become a better man despite my past weighing me down like a cinderblock. Most days, I was able to get by. Once I’d given up the notion that happiness was in my cards, it was easier to have no expectations and try to live life making up for the heinous crime I’d committed.

I was surviving. Barely, but I was doing it.

Untilsheblew into my life like a hurricane and upended everything I’d worked for on that tiny island.

“Christ.Thisis your childhood home?” Libby’s voice breaks me out of my reverie and pulls me back to the present. She looks so small in the speedboat but she’s proven she can handle a lot more than I’ve given her credit for and at this moment, she looks unafraid.

Only proving she doesn’t understand how bad this situation truly is.

After a series of events that ended with the death of her fiancé, Willem – at my hands – and a call to my estranged brother, I’m now returning to Venezuela as a captive along with Elizabeth “Libby” Baker. The woman who’s stolen my sanity and who is dangerously close to stealing my heart.

Never expecting to return home, I’m completely unprepared for the wave of emotions assaulting my senses as I look up from the boat to the monstrosity before me. The place I grew up can only be described as a fortress, the wordhousenot being strong enough to convey the size of the structure in front of me.

“Yeah, this is it.” I answer Libby as quietly as I can while the wind whips around us. She hears the tone of my voice and finally gives me a worried glance. It’s unbelievable how much she knows me already. Not trivial things like my favorite meal or favorite color – of which I have neither - but actuallyknowsme. Knows when I’m pissed, when I’m nervous, when she can push back and when she needs to let me take the reins. The last few weeks with her have felt like years instead of a random collection of single days strung together out of desperation. I hadn’t realized just how lonely I’d been without her.

Pulling up to the dock, I feel the rage and fire for revenge creeping back into my veins, like awelcome homefrom my dead sibling, heating my skin from the inside out. It’s so powerful I have to suppress a cough as it forces the air from my lungs.

My brother, Luis, is preparing the ropes to dock the boat which means we only have a few minutes before he will undoubtedly separate Libby and I. Lowering my voice further, I try to warn her as best I can.

“Lib, I don’t know how this is going to go. For now, it’s best not to fight them. Be a warrior by feigning submission. Do everything they tell you. I’ll try to get us out of here as soon as I can, but this isn’t going to be a happy reunion.”

She’s nodding her head urgently, loose strands of her hair swirling around her face, darker than midnight. Her shirt is stained and ripped at the bottom, revealing the side of her flat stomach while the rest of the shirt clings to her under her tactical vest. The urge to touch her is unbearably powerful and I have to look away. She’s been testing the limits of my self-control since the day we met.

“Under no circumstances do you let on that we have feelings for each other outside of gratitude for protection from Willem, do you understand?” I whisper into her ear, keeping my eyes on the other passengers of this boat. I’m not sure if I’m saying this more for her benefit or my own.

She gives me a small, teasing smile with her full lips and arches her brow. “Dowe have feelings for each other?” she asks in a low, seductive voice.

I wish I could return her lighthearted banter but I know whatever’s waiting for us is too sinister for such a comment. Instead, I nod my head and confirm, “Hell yes, we do.” I haven’t had enough time to sort through exactly what those feelings are but just the fact that they’re present is a big fucking deal.

As a last warning, I drill it into her that this place is hell on earth.

“If we want to get out of here alive, I’ll need to re-establish my place in their hierarchy and if I want to do that, I’ll have to become the man I was before I left.”

Libby cocks her head to the side and her eyes narrow, telling me she isn’t following along.

“I wasn’t a good man, Libby.”That’s an understatement.“I was an assassin who reveled in the power and perks of this family. If word gets out that I’m back, there will be hell to pay and my parents will expect me to pay it. I’m going to have to do things you won’t like. Hell, I’ll have to do things even I won’t like, but it’s our best chance.”

She discreetly places her right hand in my left one and squeezes offering comfort. Those crystal eyes telling me everything I need to know before her mouth confirms it.

“I trust you.”

Fuck. Just rip my heart out now because that would be a lot easier than what we’re about to endure.

As those last words leave her mouth, the boats pull up to the private marina, stealing Libby’s attention as she turns to take in her surroundings.

While she surveys the dock, the other boats, and the guardhouse, I survey her. She’s done her best to control her emotions but fear and fatigue are finally poking through her tough exterior. Her shoulders are rounded and her eyelids are heavy. She’s rubbing the base of her throat like I’ve seen her do a few times before. I’m afraid this stay may cause her to rub a hole right through her skin. The worry fanning out over her cerulean eyes has me in knots. I wish I could offer comfort, but there is no comfort to be had in this place.

My throbbing arm is grating on my nerves and a sharp pain pierces my fresh wound as the boat gently runs into the bumpers along the dock. I still can’t believe that Dutch motherfucker got a shot to connect.

Luis’ men hop out to secure the ties and I try to focus on the pain and not on the fact that I’m about to be face to face with my parents again. I feel an impenetrable wall coming down over me like battle armor.

From this view, it seems things haven’t changed much in my absence which means the courtyard is just on the other side of the literal wall facing me. I can’t stop the images flashing in my mind’s eye of the lives I’ve taken there. Suddenly, I wonder if Libby will even want me when this is all over.

The thought makes me sick as I switch to a flash back of her first couple of lessons at the kite school before our worlds came crashing down. I wouldn’t exactly say she had been carefree, but in those moments, she seemed more at ease than I’ve ever seen her.

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