Chapter 20

CHAPTER TWENTY

February 3 rd

3:03 P.M.

Turned out there was something as terrifying as being trapped inside your own body.

Waiting.

Specifically waiting in a small, windowless room, with a single globe lighting the space. Lying on a gurney that wasn't really all that comfortable. Wrists and ankles cuffed with metal handcuffs to the sides of said gurney.

No way to escape.

Nothing to do.

The only thing to fill your mind was the horrible imaginings of what was coming next.

Nothing good.

That she knew for sure.

Cassie had talked through with both Scarlett and Lucy about what had happened to them when they'd been abducted. They'd shared the horrors they'd endured, horrors they had survived, horrors that were now waiting in the wings ready to come and claim her.

Would she be lucky enough to survive as well?

The only thing keeping her sane was holding onto the fact that Luis knew she was in trouble and would be looking for her.

Well, marginally sane.

Because she kept alternating between sobbing hysterically, and then bursting into peels of hysterical laughter even though there was absolutely nothing amusing about her current predicament.

It wasn't even the idea of being physically hurt that was freaking her out at the moment, although she had no desire to be beaten, whipped, or anything else like that.

But knowing what else had happened to her friends, knowing it could—okay more than likely would —happen to her, too, that was what was freaking her out the most.

A drug that Raul Castillo had somehow gotten his hands on. An arousal drug. Apparently, once administered, it caused an unparalleled need to course through the victim's body. Both Scarlett and Lucy had described it as feeling like there was a physical being inside them clawing at their bodies, desperate for relief any way they could get it.

That was truly terrifying.

Especially for someone like her who had had a grand total of one partner, and one night of sex in her entire life.

Did that part of her come alive only for Luis?

If she was given the drug, would it even work on her?

Maybe it was na?ve of her, but she was hoping against hope that the part of her that felt desire and attraction was indeed faulty and could only work with the one man who had captured her heart.

"You should know I don't usually spend this much time and energy on obtaining one particular item," Raul Castillo grumbled as the door to her little room was opened and he came strolling in. Dressed as she'd expected him to be in an expensive pair of black suit pants, leather shoes, and a crips white shirt rolled up to the elbows, he looked more like a businessman than a weapons dealer.

If he didn't want to spend so much time and effort on getting her drug, then why was he?

It wasn't even a weapon.

It was intended for good, to save lives. Sure, she could get why Raul had decided to take the opportunity to buy it from the mole at Prey because she was sure he could get a ton of money selling it even if it wasn't what he usually dabbled in, but why was he so obsessed?

Was it really just his ego?

That he couldn't stand losing?

Losing to girls at that?

While there was no evidence to suggest that the man was involved in human trafficking, she'd heard rumors of how he liked his women. Completely submissive. Trained to be the perfect human toys. Women who would do whatever was asked of them, who would prioritize his pleasure over everything else, including themselves.

Was it because he hated women?

Saw them as mere toys to be used and abused and tossed aside when he was done?

Despite all her doubts about her ability to withstand his torturous games, Cassie made herself meet his gaze squarely and attempted to inject as much confidence into her tone as she could muster. "You have to know I won't give it to you either."

That was true. She would do her absolute best to keep her mouth shut. Remembering what Scarlett and Lucy had admitted, how they had contemplated taking themselves out of the equation so they couldn't talk, Cassie wondered if she was strong enough to do that if an opportunity presented itself.

"And you have to know that I'm at the end of my patience and am willing to do whatever it takes to get what I want." Strolling right up beside the bed, he trailed his fingertips down her cheek, over her chin, and caressed her neck for a moment before wrapping his hand around it and squeezing. "I don't lose. Ever. I always get what I want, and I want this drug. I've paid for it already, although that stupid woman has done nothing much of value to earn it. She can play stupid games with bombs and threaten to kill innocent people, if that adds a little extra motivation to get you to talk, then I won't argue, but I have a different game to play."

The fingers around her neck squeezed tighter, cutting off almost all of her air supply, and although she tried to stay calm, panic edged in, replacing the oxygen her body craved. Her body began to thrash, fighting against the cold metal cuffs binding her to the gurney, keeping her powerless to dislodge the hand around her throat.

Men approached the table. The sound of snipping scissors told her what was happening even before she could see them cutting away her clothing.

Less than a minute later, her jeans and sweater lay in a pile of tattered material on the floor beneath the gurney, leaving her lying there in only her lacy bra and panties.

Both were a pretty shade of pale pink, and when she'd put them on this morning, she'd imagined Luis pulling them off her tonight before making love to her.

Now they were on display for an obsessive weapons dealer and a bunch of men looking at her with hungry eyes like they were just waiting for the okay to devour her.

The thought of any one of them touching her made her sick.

"Pretty," Raul drawled as he released her neck and moved to grab one of her breasts. He squeezed it much too tight, and then took her nipple between his thumb and forefinger and twisted hard enough to make her cry out in pain despite her promises to herself that she wouldn't give him the satisfaction of her screams.

Holding out a hand, one of his men passed him the scissors, and he snipped the bit of material joining the two bra cups together, and it immediately fell away, leaving her even more exposed.

When he placed the scissors so the nipple he'd just tweaked into a peak was pressed between the cool blades of the sharp scissors, Cassie couldn't stop a flood of tears from cascading down her cheeks.

"I think this little bud will be the first one to go," Raul said with a wicked smile. "Then the other one. And then this pretty little one between your legs." Trailing the tips of the scissors along her bare skin, leaving a bright red line in their wake, he stopped when he reached the matching panties.

One snip was all it took for them to fall away, and when the scissors moved to cup her bundle of nerves, any pretense of bravery flew out the window.

"Please don't, don't hurt me," she begged, hating herself for it but unable to stop. She wasn't strong, brave, or tough, she was weak, and she was going to give in sooner or later.

Raul just chuckled, keeping the scissors right where they were as he nodded at one of his men.

Another prick on her arm, another drug administered.

Just like the last one, this one started working almost immediately. For the first couple of seconds, it wasn't so bad. Cassie recognized the growing feelings of arousal and need from last night in Luis' bedroom.

Only unlike last night, it became too much way too quickly.

There were no nimble fingers slipping inside her, no mouth to close over her bud and offer release, no huge length to fill her so completely it was like finding a missing piece of your soul and being reunited with it.

This time there was only clawing need and emptiness.

A horrible, raging emptiness that nothing could fill.

"There's one thing about me, Ms. Caddel, and that is I always learn from my mistakes," Raul told her.

She had no idea what he meant, but then she heard a familiar buzzing. It sounded just like the vibrator Luis had used on her last night only when she turned her head, she saw a much bigger one being held by one of the men.

"I thought leaving your friends hopped up on the arousal drug would get them talking but I was wrong. I wonder if giving you orgasm after orgasm until you can't breathe will have the result I desire. Enjoy your pleasure, Ms. Caddel, I'm told the drug takes hours to get out of your system. Maybe when I return, you'll have something you're willing to tell me."

With that, the vibrating toy was shoved inside her already soaked center, and she was left alone to scream out the intense orgasms that were slowly destroying her soul one rush of "pleasure" at a time.

February 4 th

12:24 A.M.

It looked so insignificant.

A small boat in the middle of a vast ocean.

Although it had at one time been a cruise ship, mostly taking smaller groups of people up and down rivers, there was no evidence that the boat that had collected Cassie at the marina and disappeared with her was in any way an active cruise ship.

Still, Luis had to admit that it was a great ruse. No one would ever think twice about seeing it moored at any marina anywhere in the world. It also offered the flexibility of being written off as a houseboat that someone was traveling the world in or as a cruise boat, depending on what the need was at the time.

No one had queried the story of Cassie supposedly being a dying child whose wish was to travel the ocean in a boat, spending her remaining time left with the wild ocean surrounding her. It wasn't until Prey had used CCTV cameras to track the missing ambulance and followed it to the marina and started asking questions that people had told what they'd heard. Everyone had just accepted it, and because of that, he'd come dangerously close to losing his girl.

Close, but he hadn't lost her yet.

Wasn't going to lose her.

She was on that boat, he was sure of it.

They'd spent hours tracking the boat, finding out where it had headed, and as soon as they'd pinpointed a location, Prey had jumped into action.

While he would have been here for this regardless, the fact that the boat was out in international waters meant that, as a SEAL, he could participate in the rescue mission. Not that anything would have stopped him from being there but at least he hadn't had to waste time arguing about it when time was the one thing Cassie didn't have.

There was no use pretending to himself that she might have been spared any sort of torture. More than twelve hours had passed since she'd been abducted, there was no way that Raul Castillo hadn't done something to her already.

Something that would leave scars on his sweet, kind, selfless woman.

Scars he wouldn't be able to erase no matter how badly he wanted to.

As much as he ached to hold Cassie in his arms again—he was there to rescue her not to get revenge—he also hoped that Raul was on the boat. It was time for the man to finally pay for all the pain he'd inflicted on Cassie and her friends. So long as he was out there, none of them would ever be free and he didn't want his girl walking around with a target painted on her back.

She deserved to finally be free.

He and Rocco's SEAL team had approached on a zodiac, but they'd ditched it a short way back because they wanted to keep their impending breach of the vessel quiet until it was too late for the men on the boat to do anything about it. The noisy zodiac wouldn't allow them to do that, so Bubba, who was the least best swimmer—although his skills would rival a normal person's—was waiting on it. As soon as they had all threats eliminated then he'd drive the zodiac out to meet them.

If Cassie didn't have any life-threatening injuries, he would take her back to shore on the zodiac, wanting to get her as far away from this boat as quickly as he could. If her injuries were more severe then they'd have to call in a helo.

For now, though, he couldn't let himself worry about that because they'd reached the boat, and like a well-choreographed dance, they boarded in unison.

On the drive to the boat, they'd already devised their plan. They had a vague idea of how many people would be on board and of the firepower they expected Raul's men to have.

Due to the late hour, most of the men were sleeping, and it didn't take long for him and Rocco's team to start eliminating them one by one. They fell like dominos, one after the other until the only ones left standing were the good guys.

Because his need to find Cassie was becoming all-consuming, Luis left the others to clear every inch of the boat and make sure there was no one else hiding somewhere, ready to take them down once they thought they were in the clear. He was on the first of two floors of what had once been guest cabins when he heard it.

Sobbing.

Only the tears being shed weren't like anything he'd ever heard before. There was a hopelessness to them, a deep pain, they were the tears of someone who was dangerously close to the end of their rope.

And he knew with absolute certainty that they belonged to his girl.

"Luis?" Phantom asked, coming up behind him.

"She's here."

Before he reached the door where the weeping was coming from, Rex and Gumby had also joined them.

They had no idea what was going on behind that door.

While they'd managed to kill more than three-quarters of the men on board silently, there had been a small gunfight when they took over the engine room. There was every chance there was someone in there right now with Cassie. Maybe even Raul Castillo himself.

If he thought he was using her as a human shield to get himself out of the mess he had created, he was sorely mistaken.

Luis would love an opportunity to take the weapons trafficker down in the most painful way possible.

With the three guys at his back, Luis reached out and grabbed the doorknob. It turned with ease, and as soon as he pushed it open, Cassie's voice cried out.

"Make it stop, please," she sobbed. "I can't take any more. Make it stop. Make it stop!"

Taking in the scene before him, he felt the bottom drop out of his world. His beautiful, sweet, shy, almost still a virgin girl was cuffed to a gurney, probably the same one she'd been abducted on. Cassie was naked, her clothes lying in tatters on the floor around the gurney, and a vibrator between her legs.

"Stay out," he growled at the others, shoving through the door and slamming it behind him.

Cassie did not need anyone else to see her like this.

Moving slowly toward the bed even though he wanted nothing more than to free her and yank her into his arms, he knew that Cassie wasn't aware yet that it was him in there and not one of her tormentors. So, he kept his pace steady, measured, his hands up, where she could see them.

"Shh, princess, you're okay now, it's going to be okay," he crooned, hoping she could hear him above her sobbing and gasped breaths.

He knew when another orgasm hit her because her body went taut and then her hips began to buck violently, her sobbing increasing.

"Princess, I'm here," he soothed, brushing his knuckles across her forehead.

"Luis?" Her eyes snapped open, and she looked up at him. Her entire body was quaking and there was a sheen of sweat over every inch of her exposed skin. No wonder, if she'd been left like this for hours. Orgasm after orgasm, possibly for hours on end with no break wasn't in any way, shape, or form pleasure.

It was torture.

"Right here, princess."

"Make it stop, please," she whimpered.

"That's exactly what I'm going to do, sweetheart," he promised. Keeping one hand on her cheek, cradling it in his palm, his fingers caressing her skin, he reached down with his other hand and pulled out the vibrator. After shutting it off he tossed it aside and returned his full attention to his girl. She was breathing heavily, her skin flushed and glistening, and tears continued to roll down her cheeks, but it was the shame in her eyes that sent an arrow of pain through his heart.

Quickly, he unlocked the cuffs binding her to the bed, grabbed the tattered remains of her sweater, and wrapped them as best he could around Cassie. The sheets on the gurney were soaked, and he was wearing his dive suit, so he had nothing else to cover her with.

"I d-didn't t-tell him a-anything," Cassie told him, her wide eyes shimmering with tears as she looked up at him. Shock must be settling in because her teeth began to chatter and her shaking increased.

"Oh, princess, I knew you wouldn't. Cassie, can I hold you?" The last thing he wanted to do was take away her power over her own body when she'd already had so much stripped away. If she wasn't comfortable with him touching her, he'd just stand beside her, watch over her until someone she trusted could come.

The second she nodded her head she was in his arms, crushed against his chest. He hadn't even had time to process the scratches on her skin and the bruises on her neck in the shape of a hand. Right now, the only thing he could allow himself to focus on was the fact that Cassie was alive and in his arms.

Alive.

In his arms.

He hadn't lost her.

She was there and he was going to give her whatever she needed to heal. He'd wipe away the shame in her eyes, soothe her suffering any way he could because although he'd spent most of his life pushing people away, Cassie was the one person he wanted to seep under his skin, become part of him, and never let her go.

His girl might have a long road ahead of her, but she wouldn't be walking it alone.

Never alone.

Luis would burn the world to the ground if that was what it took to eliminate the threat surrounding what was his so his sweet, smart, beautiful Cassie could heal.