Page 139 of Love Without Control

God, those simple words touched my heart and gave me strength.

My eyes darted around the room and saw the love reflected back at me. “As you know, I was in Cancún with my friends. There was a bonfire party on the beach, and we all had a really good time. When I got to my room, I realized that I’d lost my phone at some point in the evening.” I shot a glance at my dad and decided not to bring up the fact that I’d gone back downstairs to find it so he wouldn’t be mad at me. That would only serve to make him somehow blame himself.

“I wanted to go find it, so I retraced my steps to the beach. When I got down there, it was deserted. Except for one person,” I continued, staring at the fireplace across the room because I wasn’t sure I’d get through this if I looked at anyone. ”I had danced with a guy named Felipe, and he seemed nice. When I told him I was looking for my phone, he pulled it out of his pocket.”

“Do you think he pickpocketed it?” Monty asked from my right where he was sitting on a love seat with Kassie. Auburn and Gianna were on a matching sofa to my left, and Cruz was seated in a chair across from me.

“I’m not sure. It’s possible. It was pretty dark down there. Anyway, we started walking back to the resort, and we passed a copse of palm trees.” My mind took me back to the darkness and fear of what happened next, and I felt paralyzed for a moment. Dane, always able to sense my moods, laced his fingers with mine, and I flashed him a grateful half-smile, accepting the strength he was offering.

Just say it, Evie. This is the scariest part, so get it over with.

The words spilled like a waterfall from my lips in one run on sentence. “Someone was hiding in the trees and grabbed me from behind and put a rag over my face, and I thought Felipe would help me, but he was in on it.”

I huffed out a long breath, and my shoulders sagged with the relief of finally saying it. Gianna broke up the iceberg of silence in the room with a hammer of levity.

“Well, I would like to kick Felipe in the damn nuts.” I didn’t think she was actually trying to be funny. The firm set of her lips told me that, but I laughed anyway, just a brief chuckle that soothed my nerves a little.

“I did. I kicked and scratched and punched, but there were two of them, and there was something on the rag that was making me sleepy.”

“Fuck,” I heard Monty mutter, and his wife leaned into his side as if to comfort him with her nearness.

“Yeah, I heard them say something about getting me to the boat, and then I don’t remember anything until I woke up in a warehouse. I think I was still in Mexico, but I’m not sure. There were four other girls there too, and we were told we were being sold.”

“Goddamn,” Auburn grunted, swiping a hand down his face. “You were trafficked?”

I nodded. “Yes. They transported us to a house in New Orleans where ourownerswere to pick us up.” I decided to skim over some of the details. “Then Dane showed up and rescued me and took me to a safe house. He was going to bring me home the next day.”

“Safe house?” Cruz questioned and looked at my husband. “Are you a cop?”

“No, I’m a baker,” he replied, throwing the occupants of the room into a state of confusion.

Moving on before anyone could ask anything else, I said, “He told me he was getting me away from the person who’d bought me. Luca Cappitani.”

I could tell the name resonated by the shocked gasps from everyone around me. Then Monty’s eyes met Cruz’s, and they seemed to be communicating.

“What’s that look about?” I asked, pointing a finger between the two.

Monty answered. “Cruz worked in a SWAT team capacity for a while. He was at that raid on the Cappitani estate.”

“I’m the one who killed him,” Cruz said quietly, and my brain almost fucking exploded.

Everyone except Monty seemed surprised, but none more than me. When I was finally able to find my voice, I pulled my hands away from the men holding them and pushed at the air with both palms.

“Wait, wait, wait. You’re telling me that the brother I didn’t even know I had killed the man who was going to buy me?”

“Seems so,” he replied, and I shoved off the couch and rounded the coffee table. Cruz stood as I approached and accepted my overzealous hug.

“Thank you. I wouldn’t have been able to come home if you hadn’t done that. I know you didn’t do it specifically for me, but thank you anyway.”

When I looked up at him, his cheeks were flushed pink. “I was just doing my job,” he said modestly, and I patted his face.

Returning to my seat was like wading through a swamp of disbelief. Everyone’s eyes darted between me and the brother who had made this homecoming possible.

“Well, that was unexpected,” I announced, and the tension broke as everyone chuckled. “Where the hell was I?”

“You were saying Dane rescued you from Luca,” Monty said, his eyes suspicious.

“Yes. Right. Well, he was going to bring me home on a helicopter the next day, but then he found a bomb on it.” Everyone gasped, and I shook my head. I was getting ahead of myself. “Sorry, let me go back for a second. Luca saw a press conference and recognized my picture as the person he was buying. He realized this was going to get very high profile, so he freaked out and decided to get rid of me.”

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