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Chapter Eight
Josephine
Sated, I lie with my head on Maceo’s expansive chest and lean over to kiss the spot where his heart is located. He hums when my lips make contact with his skin, and I smile. My body curls around his warm muscular form, and he traces small circles along my spine.
I in turn run my fingers over his tattoos. He has several—the Navy SEAL insignia is across his right pectoral, a conspiracy of ravens floats down his entire right arm to the cuff of his wrist, the Greek Titan Atlas holding the world on his shoulders dominates the left bicep, and several of Poseidon’s tridents run up and down around his left forearm like a Greek band. I look up into his handsome face and it’s like looking at a real-life demigod, a son of the sea.
My eyes return to his tattoos and my hand comes to the side of his torso where I see a long list of names in small script. I run a finger down the list and count sixteen names in all.
“They’re the names of people I’ve served with who died in the line of duty,” he answers my unasked question.
“There are a lot,” I whisper, afraid this may be a very sensitive subject for him.
He squeezes my side gently. “That’s how it is as a SEAL, and as a hired gun. You go in prepared, but sometimes fate has other ideas. This is how I grieve for them. Tattooing their names into my skin means I’ll always have a piece of them that’ll live on.”
His words haunt me, and I stiffen. My mind races back to the horrors of his work.
Sensing my uneasiness, he rubs my back. “It’s okay, baby.”
My head is swimming with questions, but I decide to ask the one bothering me the most. “Did you get the men who took the little girl and her nanny?”
Maceo sighs heavily. I lift my head to gauge his reaction. Maceo looks like he’s warring with himself. His dark eyes look down at me as if he’s decided. “Yeah. We got themall, except the mastermind. But he will be dealt with.”
It’s not what I meant, and he knows it. “Did you kill them?”
Maceo’s eyes flicker but never leave mine. “Yes.”
I press for more. “Did you personally do it?”
Maceo’s jaw ticks for a moment. “I was point. We went into the rat-infested house where the child was being held. I,myself,took out half a dozen assailants who got in our way before we were able to grab the little girl.”
He pauses, as if debating how much to say. “When we rounded up the remainder who weren’t killed, I went through and pulled aside the ones I could identify from the video—the ones who raped the nanny. Three out of the five were unlucky enough to have survived the siege. I fired a round into each of their dicks, giving them pain in the weapon they choose to hurt that poor woman. I finished them off with a bullet to the back of their skulls—the same way they did to the security team at the governor’s mansion. A message needed to be sent. There were no survivors.”
I’m paralyzed by his confession. Truly, I should be horrified with what he did to those men, but they got off easy. Maceo could have been more brutal with them and I’d still justify his actions.
I press my body into him. “Good.” I’m glad they’re dead and unable to hurt someone else. And I’m glad the man I’m clinging to is the man who sent them all to hell.
Maceo lets out a breath of relief, reassured I won’t freak out over this knowledge.
“I know you said you brought the little girl home, butisshe okay?” I ask in a fearful whisper.
“She’s a strong child. Physically she’s fine, not a scratch on her, but emotionally—with what she witnessed—it will take time. Hope the governor gets her a good counselor to give her a fighting chance as an adult,” he confides.
“Thank God she’s okay, and thank God you were the one sent to save her,” I say genuinely, as I snuggle more into his side.
Maceo’s eyes grow darker, more menacing, as he looks at nothing in particular. “The threat is still out there. Esteban Moreno will make another move—anything to smuggle his drugs into this country and fill his pockets. It’s only a matter of when. The fucker keeps coming back.”
Worry grips me. “Who is Esteban Moreno?”
Maceo’s arms constrict around me almost agonizingly. “Esteban Moreno is a kingpin of a Colombian drug cartel, and the most powerful drug trafficker in the world. He’s a villain in his own country—kidnapping, raping, and murdering to control the Colombian people. The fucker has been a thorn in my side my entire life. And I will be the one to end him,” he growls.
Jesus!Now I’m actually terrified. “Maceo?”
His dark eyes focus back on me and soften with worry. “Am I scaring you,mi amor?”
“Yes,” I answer without hesitation.
Maceo rolls us till he’s hovering over me, his eyes never breaking contact. “Don’t be frightened, Pixie. I protect what I hold most dear and fight for what I love. You never have to fear me.”
