Page 2 of Fast Vengeance

“Vic, no,” her brother warned.

I have to.

Twisting away from his restraining grip, she ignored the frightened cries behind her and forced her feet to carry her toward the man. Her belly was clamped tight, nausea churning in waves, each step a small eternity. Some of her siblings or their significant others would have their phones in their pockets. One of them would have dialed 911 already. Maybe the dispatcher would figure out something was wrong and send the cops.

They won’t get here in time.

When she came within reach, the leader snaked out a hand and grabbed her by the hair. She stifled a cry and stiffened as he hauled her up against him, grabbing his wrist to try and pull free. It was no use. He was too strong. She shuddered at the unforgiving outline of his rifle digging into her right hip.

With a jerk on her hair he wrenched her around to face her family, all huddled around the children against the far wall behind the table, some of them crying, others staring at her with stricken expressions. Victoria stared back at them and met her mother’s eyes, panic flooding her system.

The leader spoke to the one holding her father. “Let him go.”

Her father immediately rushed over to gather Victoria’s mother into his arms and stood with the others, trying to shield his wife. His parents cowered behind him, clinging to one another, their lined faces wet with tears.

Victoria swallowed hard and stood rooted to the spot, her hand wrapped around the powerful wrist holding her hair, not daring to move. Then the man who had been holding her father crossed over to grab her wrists, wrench them behind her and bound them with something tight and hard that bit into her skin. Zip tie.

“Don’t hurt them,” she blurted, her voice husky as she fought not to cry and beg. She’d spent more than three years tracking the rise of the Veneno cartel, and the past nine months using all her contacts to research Carlos Ruiz. She knew what he did to his enemies. And she also knew all the horrific things he did to his female captives.

“We’ve got to go now,” the man said, his mouth right beside her ear, making her cringe. “Say goodbye, Victoria.”

Mind working frantically, she swept her gaze over her beloved family. The sight of those frightened faces staring back at her broke her heart. There was nothing she could do to escape. This was the last time she would see them. Ruiz’s men would take her to a hideout somewhere off the grid, torture her for days or maybe even weeks before killing her or selling her off, like they had with the other female captives.

Tears flooded her eyes. She couldn’t control it. Couldn’t stop it. “I love you all,” she said hoarsely. “Goodbye.”

“No. Victoria, no!” her mother cried, her face twisting with grief as she tried to push away from her husband.

Victoria expected the men to haul her away. Instead, the hand in her hair tightened, arching her neck back at a painful angle. Holding her there in front of her family. “Do it,” he commanded.

The other two men stepped in front of him, raised their weapons, and opened fire.

“No! Oh my God, no!” Victoria’s screams of horror were drowned out beneath the thunder of automatic gunfire as it ripped through the room. Her family fell like a field of hay to the sweep of a scythe.

She shut her eyes and tried to twist away but it didn’t block out the screams and cries of agony above the noise, the thud of the bullets hitting home.

She kept screaming and fought her captor, trying to wrench free, to stop this somehow. She screamed until her throat was raw, was still screaming after the gunfire had stopped.

The silence finally registered over the roar of blood in her ears. And when she opened her eyes to face the carnage at last, her entire family lay dead or dying on the dining room floor. They lay on top of one another like cordwood stacked at the far end of the room, parents collapsed on top of their children, having desperately tried to shield them with their own bodies.

A high-pitched sound of grief tore from her. From beneath her brother’s body protruded her nephew’s little leg. It twitched in the rapidly spreading pool of blood staining the tile floor.

He was still alive, but not for long.

Soul-shattering grief slammed into her. She was shaking all over. The pain was unbearable. Searing her lungs, ripping her heart apart. She couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t bear the agony.

A hood plunged roughly over her head, hurtling her into darkness as the man holding her dragged her from the house. But even in the blackness, all she could see was that horrific tableau of her dead family burned into the backs of her eyelids.

It’s my fault. They had been murdered because of her. For however long she had left on this earth, she would have to live with that.

Her captor shoved her onto a seat as an engine roared to life. Doors slammed shut and the tires squealed as the vehicle raced off.

And through the crushing pain of guilt and loss, she was well aware that her suffering had only begun.

Chapter One

An arm wrapped around her throat from behind.

Victoria automatically stepped to the side and turned, throwing her left arm straight out and wrapping it around her attacker’s arms, then threw a punch with her right. The moment she was free, she whirled and rammed a knee into her attacker’s belly.

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