Page 15 of Love Without Control

I was fully aware that this man was likely the one who hadpurchasedme—and how messed up is that?—but I wasn’t afraid of him. That was likely stupid on my part because he looked dangerous.

Dark hair swept back from his forehead to reveal brown eyes and high cheekbones. He was model pretty with a perfectly proportioned face—other than his nose, which was slightly crooked from being broken. Tattoos peeked out from beneath the white cuffs of his shirtsleeves.

Everything about him screamed danger, including the…oh shit.

The man pulled a black gun with a long tube on the barrel from behind him, and I knew from all the action movies I’d watched with Monty that the tube thing was a silencer. I took a step back, unsure of where the hell I thought I was going to run, but he gave me a sharp shake of his head.

“I’m going to get you out of here and back to your family.”

When he whispered those words, realization sunk in, and my knees almost buckled in relief. This guy didn’t buy me; he was here to rescue me! He was probably an undercover agent with the FBI. Or was it the CIA? Whoever the hell it was that handled international incidents.

Holding my hand with his free one, he nodded toward my shoes in a silent reminder. I slipped them off, making me have to crane my neck to look up at him. This guy was super tall, and I knew the gray pinstriped suit he wore must be custom made. I’d grown up in the fashion industry, after all, and I knew suits.

“What do I call you?” I asked in a quiet voice.

After a brief hesitation, he said, “Damiano.”

“Okay, Agent Damiano. What’s the plan?”

His chin jerked back, and a slight smile curled his lips upward, revealing a flash of white teeth. “Just stay behind me and run when I tell you to.”

“And then what?”

“Fuck if I know,” he muttered, moving to stand between me and the door as he called, “We’re done in here.” His right hand, the one holding the gun, was hidden behind his thigh.

Prick one and prick two reentered the room, and Ethan rubbed his hands together like a greedy pig. “I’m assuming everything is satisfactory? Ready to make the transaction?”

“Actually, no. My property has been damaged, and I want a discount.”

Property? Ah, hell naw!I was about to lift my leg to knee him in the ass when his left hand reached back and found mine, giving it a gentle squeeze of warning. So I kept my mouth shut and my knee down. For now.

“There are no fucking discounts,” Felipe snapped. “You agreed to seven million, and you’re not leaving here with the girl unless you pay every penny.”

Seven million?As indollars?The implications of why someone would pay that kind of money was daunting. And scary as hell.

Agent Damiano let out a low chuckle. “I wasn’t thinking of monetary compensation. I had… something else in mind.”

“Yeah, what’s that?” Ethan sneered. God, I hated the sound of his whiny voice.

The agent tilted his dark head a bit to the right. “Your lives aren’t worth much to me, but I guess they’ll have to do.” I was aware of his right arm swinging up and then a muffledpew pewsound, followed by two thunks.

What the actual hell? Did he just…

Peering around him, I saw that my suspicion was confirmed. He’d shot Felipe and Ethan. Like,shot them! Dead!

“Y-you… they’re…” I stammered. I wasn’t sad that they were dead. They were both horrible people who had been nothing but cruel to me, but I was shocked to my core.

“Dead, yeah,” he grunted, pulling me across the room by my hand. It only took a couple strides because the space was minuscule. Damiano paused and looked down at my bare feet only inches from the blood that was pooling and spreading from the bodies. “Don’t look at them. Just close your eyes.”

I did and then almost screamed when my feet left the floor, but I managed to clamp my lips together to contain it. The man had just casually tossed me over his shoulder and was carrying me. My body bumped against his as he moved swiftly, and a few seconds later, I was back on my feet in the threadbare living room I’d passed through hours earlier.

“Stay behind me,” Agent Damiano ordered, and I gladly complied. After all, he was a trained professional. I had to jog to keep up with his long strides as we passed through the other hallway, and then we stepped through an open door. The room was set up like the one I’d been kept in, with only a mattress on the floor and a nightstand, and I wondered if one of the other women had been kept here.

“What are we doing?” I hissed quietly.

Damiano leaned forward, his lips to my ear. “Stay in here while I take care of the guard.”

I was pretty sure I knew what he meant bytake care of the guard, but I didn’t want to think too much about that. Freedom was within my grasp, close enough I could smell it. Or maybe that was my body odor since they hadn’t allowed me to shower since I’d been taken. Was that yesterday? The day before? The timeline was fuzzy in my head.

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