AllFreeNovel
Share Us
They’re safer this way.
But I love them both already, want them both with every fiber of my being.
My choices prevent me from getting what I want, though.
It just isn’t in the cards for me.
Never has been, never will be.
As the minutes tick down, I scurry around my room to collect my shit. I hope Riot is dressed appropriately for our visit to the auctions, but he isn’t answering my text messages, so I have no idea what he’s wearing.
He’s mad.
I get it.
Skin trades are nothing to joke about, but I can’t stop them by myself. The only thing I can do is keep fucking up the buildings they hold them in until I take off the head of the man in charge.
And I’ve finally gotten word of the newest location.
I won’t be wasting the opportunity to put this… What’s the word I’m looking for? Atrocity doesn’t feel as strong as I’d like it to.
It’s disgusting. Beyond depraved. There’s no question about it.
I slaughter people for the cartel, and this is the thing that makes me feel genuinely queasy. No. That’s still the wrong word. Nauseated doesn’t quite cover it, either.
It is sickening, though.
These people—I can’t even say men, because it’s not just men—bid for unwilling flesh.
Not like that one girl who auctioned off her virginity online and made a million dollars.
These assholes bid on men and women—teens and children—who have been abducted, drugged, raped. I can’t fully wrap my mind around it, but I can get them out tonight. I can blow that fucking warehouse to pieces. Give them somewhere safe to hide while they seek their families.
The Maldonados have some moral codes.
The Estradas have none.
As I step into my heels, I check the full-length mirror in my bedroom. The straps of my thigh sheath show through the high slit on the left side of my black gown. The soft leather strips appear to be a part of the design, as long as they don’t see the glinting blades between my legs.
I amble through my apartment to the dining table where I set out my weapons for tonight. The quiet click of the deadbolt unlocking on my front door has me scowling without looking up.
I pick up the closest knife, hurling it into the door frame with a flick of my wrist. It embeds itself eye-level to my grinning date.
“You’re late,” I announce, but say nothing else.
Riot smooths a stray lock of his hair back and plucks my knife out of the wooden trim.
“It’s a little early for foreplay, Gem. We won’t get anywhere if you start this now.”
“You’re late.”
“Three minutes. I arranged a car to drive us in and stashed a bike in case we needed a quick getaway.”
He flips the knife, blade over hilt, as his eyes heat my skin. I love the way he looks at me, the hunger in his gaze that of a starving man ready to devour his first proper meal in weeks.
With slow strides, he eats up the distance between us. After all the time we’ve spent together, he still makes my knees weak and my mouth water. Butterflies erupt in my stomach as my chest clenches painfully.
“Are you going to eye-fuck me or kiss me, Gem?” Riot challenges, low and seductive.
