Page 58 of Fast Justice

He put his hands into his jeans pockets, made no move to come toward her, as though he knew it made her uneasy to be close to a man, especially when they were alone. Except he couldn’t know that he was the one man she felt most at ease with. “The guys said it would be all right for me to come in, so I could talk to you.”

She tilted her head, sensing something was wrong. Of course he wouldn’t just show up to say hi. “About what?”

Those steel gray eyes never wavered from hers, and the sheer masculine authority of his presence would have been frightening if she didn’t already trust him on such a deep level. He was a tall, physically powerful man in prime condition, and he had been trained to do violent things that, after what she’d endured, should have made her afraid to be alone in the same room with him.

Yet standing here alone with him, there was no fear. In fact, if anything, being this close to him made her feel safer. She would never forget what he’d done for her that night when she’d finally escaped the hellhole Ruiz’s men had chained her up in. The way he’d wrapped her up in that blanket and carried her out of the forest. He’d sat next to her, holding her hand as the ambulance transported her to the hospital. Even there, he’d stayed at her bedside, a stranger acting as a sentinel, watching over her.

“We’re not sure how it happened yet, but Oceane and her mother were just attacked at their safehouse.”

Shock and dread coiled like a rattlesnake in the pit of her stomach. “Are they all right?” She might not like either of them, but in a way they were both victims too, caught up in the intricate web Nieto had woven for them.

“No. Anya’s dead, but Oceane’s all right. The men who attacked Anya…” He stopped, cleared his throat and broke eye contact as he debated whether or not to continue.

“They what?” Although Victoria was almost certain she knew what he had been about to say.

“The attackers sexually assaulted her.”

Her whole body tensed, an instinctive reaction as memories she wished she could bury flashed through her mind. Images of her while held captive, naked and helpless. Of the things those animals masquerading as humans had done to her. The things she’d done, been forced to do, in order to survive.

She swallowed, forced back the wave of horror and panic trying to take over. With time and therapy she was slowly learning to shut off that fight or flight response when flashbacks hit her, but it wasn’t easy and she still had a long way to go before she won that fight. But win it she would. Eventually. She had to. “And then they shot her.”

“No. They used knives. And they didn’t kill her outright.”

Revulsion swept through her as his meaning registered. They’d been playing with Anya. Enjoying her suffering. Wanting to prolong it. “Evil, filthy pigs.” She could just imagine how they’d laughed, probably gotten harder the more Anya had screamed and fought, the sight and smell of her fear, the blood, fueling their depraved lust.

Hamilton nodded, met her eyes once more. “Oceane arrived in the middle of it. Her former bodyguard was there, hiding in the house, wounded. She shot him and he died on scene.”

The news surprised her, and she paused a moment before answering. “Good for her.” Maybe she’d been too harsh in her opinion of Oceane. God knew Victoria had wanted to hate her right from the moment they met, because of who her father was and the cartel he was part of. “Who were the attackers?”

“We don’t have identities yet, but they’re connected to theVenenocartel. The FBI would like you to look at their pictures, in the hopes that you could maybe identify them.”

She nodded. “Of course.” Her captors hadn’t expected her to escape before they shipped her off to a buyer in Asia with some other captive women, therefore they hadn’t taken the precaution of blindfolding her or covering their faces during her time as a hostage.

A fatal error on their part that Victoria was doing her damndest to exploit. If she could bring even a percentage of those bastards to justice for what they’d done, it might help her sleep at night. “

“Who ordered the attack?” she asked.

“No hard evidence on that yet either. And nobody knows how they found the women.”

Victoria frowned, a tiny, cold shiver working its way up her spine. “If the bodyguard was involved, then it stands to reason that Nieto ordered it.” But it didn’t explain how he’d found the safehouse.

“They’re looking at all the possibilities.”

“Where is Oceane?” They had more in common now than Victoria would ever have guessed possible. And as much as she’d wanted to hate the girl, she couldn’t. Not after this.

“At the hospital.”

“Was she hurt?”

“Not physically.”

She sighed. “I was wrong about her.”

“What do you mean?”

“I thought she must be cut from the same cloth as her father. But it sounds like she’s as much a victim as I was.” And no one knew better than her what Oceane was going through right now, having watched her mother dying right in front of her.

“Was,” he stressed.

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