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A meaty hand lashed out at my face, and pain exploded through my skull. The world flickered, and my knees cracked against the broken pavement. The rough asphalt scraped my skin as he dragged me inexorably toward the waiting vehicle. The dark interior loomed before me like a shadowed cage.
I couldn’t let him put me in there. I couldn’t let them take Valentina.
My friend writhed in her assailant’s cruel grip, his thick arm a restraining band around her middle as he hauled her away, his other hand still clamped over her mouth. Her eyes were wide with panic, terror twisting her beautiful features.
My heart clenched to the point of pain. I knew my friend had suffered in the past at the hands of cruel men. The fear in her fevered, desperate gaze made my stomach lurch. She knew what would happen to us if they got us in that SUV and drove us away from our men. There was nothing to stop them from abusing her to send a message to Adrián, even if they were keeping her as a hostage. And as for me…
My captor’s groping hands on my breasts as he hauled me away told me what he intended to do to me. Toxic panic pulsed through my veins, pulsing through my body like fiery poison beneath the surface of my chilled skin.
Despite my dizziness from the vicious blow to my face, a raw scream tore from my chest, burning my throat.
Stinging pain seared my cheek when the man slapped me to the ground again, the world reeling around me.
A feral roar resounded through the cramped alley, and my captor’s hand fell away from my hair so that he could reach for the rifle at his shoulder.
He never had a chance to get off a shot.
Through my watery vision, I could make out Mateo’s massive form barreling into the man who’d hurt me. His scream wasn’t loud enough to fully drown out the sharp crack of his arm breaking. The guttural cry ended on a sickening crunch when my rescuer’s heavy fist pulverized his nose.
I was dimly aware of Adrián’s animal snarl and a spray of dark blood as he went to work with his wickedly sharp knife, slicing up the man who’d dared to touch his Valentina.
My assailant wheezed and spluttered for breath through bloody lips, his eyes wild with the knowledge of his impending demise. Mateo’s massive hands clamped around his throat, hauling him up into the air. The man’s feet drummed against the side of the SUV, fruitlessly flailing as though he could run from death.
Mateo growled in his purple face, a brutal beast with his enemy’s blood splattered on his cheek.
My tormentor went limp, and his lifeless body dropped to the ground like discarded trash. Mateo’s dark eyes were wild with bloodlust as he spun around, searching for more enemies to destroy.
“Wait,” Stefano barked. The calculating drug lord held a gun to the third attacker’s head, and the man held his hands up in surrender. “This one is mine. I’m going to cut some answers out of him before I give him to you and Adrián.”
Mateo couldn’t seem to manage more than a grunt of agreement before he was on his knees beside me, his full attention fixed on me now that the threat was eliminated.
“I’m okay,” I promised on a ragged whisper, my throat sore from screaming. “I’m okay, Mateo.” Despite my babbled attempts to reassure both of us, his name left my lips on a whimper, and my eyes burned with tears as residual terror rushed through my body.
His rugged face was a mask of pure rage, but his hands were achingly gentle on my stinging cheeks. He growled at the red flush where my attacker had hit me, seemingly enraged past the point of speech. Raw, feral energy had taken hold of the man I loved, anger that edged toward madness.
I lifted a shaking hand to the tight slash of his lips, trying to ease the tension there. My trembling fingers against his skin caused his eyes to darken further, driving him deeper into the most savage aspects of his nature.
Despite the way his massive muscles rippled with the need to tear through more of his enemies, his arms cradled me with care as he lifted me to his corded chest. He petted my tangled, broken curls before burying his face in my hair, breathing in my scent to reassure himself that I was safe and whole.
I tore my eyes from his granite face to search for Valentina, finding her safely caged in Adrián’s possessive arms.
“I’m okay,” I whispered again, voice hitching on a soft sob of visceral relief.
His low snarl rumbled over my skin, warming some of the chill from my skin as icy terror ebbed away. I tucked my stinging cheek against his neck and curled my fingers into his shirt, clinging on tight as tears began to stream down my face.
My fierce protector had saved me once again. Nothing bad could touch me now. I belonged to Mateo, and he would end anyone who tried to take me from him. The dead man behind us was bloody proof of that.
I closed my eyes and leaned into his broad chest, trusting the man I loved to carry me away from the violence and take my pain away.
Chapter 3
Mateo
I wasn’t sure how long I held Sofia before the red haze that fogged my mind fully cleared. I petted and caressed every inch of her, only soothed when her sobs finally quieted and her chilled skin flushed with its usual soft warmth.
The unnatural flush that darkened her cheeks kept my teeth on edge, despite my ebbing rage. I was no longer consumed by the need to storm into the basement and tear apart the single surviving attacker, but the desire to punish him still clawed at the back of my mind like a ravenous, vengeful monster.
I mastered my base urges for her. Sofia needed me to hold her more than she needed me to avenge her. There would be time for the man’s screams later, once Stefano was done questioning him. Then, Adrián would give me a turn before taking long hours to finish the bastard. He wouldn’t even be capable of begging for death by the time we finally let him die.
