Running my finger along the edge of my phone, I remembered the way Alexei had taken it from me and entered his phone number in my contacts. The way he had shoved off that door frame and rushed toward me had filled my stomach with a swarm of butterflies. Even now, I experienced a fresh flutter in my lower belly.
That protective streak of his did crazy things to my heart. It made me want something I had never dared to chase. It gave me a glimpse of what it would be like to belong to someone who wanted to take care of me.
Call him. He’ll come for you.
I turned the phone over and ran my finger over the screen. If I called Alexei right now, he would insist that I come back to the dealership or he would want Juan to drive me somewhere other than the Arena. If I didn’t go find Shannon right now, she could get hurt. Those men might ambush her and Ruben after the concert. I needed to get to her quickly.
And then I would call Alexei. This was one time I wasn’t going to let my pride get in the way of my safety. He had offered his help, and I was going to grab hold with both hands and hang on tight while he dragged me out of this mess. He knew this world better than me, and I trusted him to get me out of this alive and whole.
Before I was ready, we neared the Arena. Juan turned down Bellaire and looped around the freeway. He glanced at me as we sat in traffic. “Do you want me to take you up to the parking garage? There’s that covered walkway between the garage and the entrance. It’ll be warmer.”
“I’ve got my jacket. Just let me out here,” I decided, already shrugging into it.
“Be careful, Shay.” Concern filled his voice. “Just find your sister and then lay low. If you need help getting out of town, call me. My brother drives out to San Antonio to see his kids on the weekend. He could take you with him in the morning. You could hide out in a hotel there.”
“I’ll think about it.” Dread swirled in my stomach as I slid out of the truck and scurried along the sidewalk toward the Arena. I fell into a crowd that included concert latecomers and couples leaving early. There was a heavy police presence outside that made me feel marginally better about my decision.
I squeezed between two small groups and entered the lobby. I drew some strange looks in my work clothes and jacket. Oh well. I wasn’t here to find a date or have a good time. I was here to find my sister. That’s it.
As I glanced down to type in a quick text to Shannon to ask her to come meet me, I heard my name being called by a male voice I really, really didn’t want to hear. Shit.
“Shay! Baby! You made it!” Lalo Contreras called out to me, and I tried not to flinch. The last thing I wanted to do was make him mad. From the stories I had heard straight from Shannon’s mouth, I knew he had a mean streak in him.
Schooling my features, I tightly gripped my phone and turned to find Lalo walking toward me. Flanked by his inner circle of enforcers, Lalo commanded the attention of every person standing in the lobby. With that snow white blazer layered over a black shirt, he looked slick and like a flush entrepreneur out for a night on the town. Over the summer, he had toned down his usual jewelry choices to diamond studs, an outrageously expensive watch and a single gold chain with a simple crucifix. He could almost pass for an upstanding citizen. Almost.
Lalo swooped in and curved his arm around my shoulder. I had to muscle down the urge to shrug him off. His cologne was too heavy, and I couldn’t stand the scent of it. He dipped down until his mouth was close to my ear. I shivered but he misread it as encouragement. “Come with me, mami. Your sister sent me to get you. We’re in the back.”
The arm curved around my shoulders tightened and pressed me forward. Every instinct in my body screamed to push him away and run out the main entrance and back into the cold, dark night, but I had to find Shannon. She would believe anything Ruben told her, but I prayed she would listen to me and maybe even agree to come with me.
Lalo dropped his arm from my shoulders, grasped my hand and dragged me along behind him. Immediately, I compared his possessive grip to the way Alexei had held my hand in his office. His fingers had been strong and warm, his grip firm but gentle and reassuring. I still couldn’t believe I had been so bold and traced that black rectangle tattoo on his skin. I might have imagined it, but I could have sworn his breath hitched in his throat when I touched him.
But my breath wasn’t hitching in my throat as Lalo led me through the thick crowd. The blaring live music momentarily disoriented me. A driving beat of brassy bass and drums pushed a lively accordion tune as a pair of singers wailed lyrics that had the entire arena up on their feet. The band on stage was somewhat infamous for their narcocorridos so I wasn’t surprised by the violent imagery on the posters lining the walls or on the merchandise displayed at the first table we passed.
As the singer crooned, he caught my attention with one of his lyrics about a Russian. I looked toward the stage and listened more intently as he sang about an ice cold Russian king who had had his heart melted by the blue-eyed machete princess. He sang of the way the Russian was made immortal and untouchable because of the love of his wife and of a night when new blood washed away the old and new kings were crowned by the Russian.
I wasn’t the only one listening to the music now. Lalo had stopped and glared at the stage, the darkness inside the building hiding eyes that I was sure were shining with fury. I didn’t know everything that had happened over the summer and early fall, but between Shannon and the news reports, I had been able to piece together the power shift in the cartel and in Houston’s underworld. The fact that the band had the balls to stand up there and sing about the bloody coup Lalo had perpetrated both impressed and horrified me.
Lalo said something to one of his enforcers before jerking on my hand and dragging me along more forcefully. That band was probably going to have a rough end to their night as the enforcer left the group with a couple of other men.
That’s not my problem. Worry about yourself. Find Shannon and get her out of here.
I tried to keep my head down and my eyes averted as I reluctantly followed Lalo around the outer rim of the seating area. Even so, I didn’t miss the way people deferred to him or the way his enforcers cut a wide swath through the crowd. Seeing the street respect he had earned helped me understand why Shannon had gotten swept up in Ruben’s lifestyle. To be treated like someone important? She must have found it utterly addicting.
As we neared the backstage entrance, I quickly glanced around to get my bearings. Back behind me, there was an emergency exit near the bar. Up ahead, I could see a flash of light as a pair of doors opened to the loading dock. If I needed to get out of here quickly, I had two good options.
Clutching my phone in my hand and hiking my purse strap higher on my shoulder, I let Lalo lead me into the backstage area and down a dimly lit hall. His enforcers peeled away in groups of two until we were alone outside a closed door. Instantly, my heart leapt into my throat. This wasn’t right. This wasn’t right at all.
Pulling back on his hand, I managed to free myself from his grasp. “Where is Shannon?”
He opened the door without looking at me. “She’s gone.”
“Gone?”
If Shannon was gone, why was he taking me into this room? Into a room that was at the very end of a long, dark hallway and guarded by his enforcers. A room so isolated that no one would be able to hear me scream over the loud music from the onstage band.
Before I could fully process the sudden danger I was in, Lalo grabbed the back of my neck and shoved me into the room. I stumbled forward and right into a desk. My phone and purse skidded across the surface and onto the floor. I had barely regained my balance when Lalo fisted the collar of my jacket and spun my around until my back slammed into the now closed and locked door. My teeth rattled as my head whacked into the metal slab behind me.
In the next instant, Lalo’s mean face was right up in mine. The scent of peppermint and his cologne overwhelmed me. I put both hands on his chest and tried to push him off of me, but he used his hip t
o pin me in place before grabbing my ponytail and yanking my head back. I cried out in pain and shock but he didn’t loosen his grip. “Stop!”
“Stop?” He laughed and used his other hand to grab my throat. His fingers bit into my skin, marking me and threatening to choke the air right out of my lungs. “No, Shay. We are so far beyond that now.”
He released my hair but kept that cruel hand of his on my throat, all but immobilizing me. Tears sprang to my eyes when he unzipped my jacket and shoved it off my shoulders. He grabbed a handful of the pink fabric of my work uniform and sneered. “You need my help, and this is the way you present yourself to me?” He clicked his tongue against his teeth. “You’re going to have to learn quick how my girl is supposed to look.”
“Your girl?” I sputtered in gasping breaths.
He nodded slowly. “Your sister and Ruben fucked off and left a huge pile of shit right on my doorstep. I’m going to clean up their mess but your little ass is going to be my payment.”
Horrified by the quid pro quo he was describing, I scratched at his hands and tried to force them away from my throat. “No! No!”
He winced as I clawed at his skin and drew blood. With a slap to my face, he knocked the fight right out of me. His hand tightened around my throat as he surveyed the damage I had inflicted. “Ay, mami. You are really going to have to work for it now.”
“Please.” I coughed out the word. “Please, Lalo. Don’t.”
“I don’t want to hurt you.” The fingers around my throat eased some but he roughly hissed, “You played your little game with me too long. I can’t let your family get away with this disrespect.”
“Please, Lalo,” I begged futilely. “I don’t know what Shannon or Ruben did. This isn’t my fault.”
He dragged his fingers along the hot strip of skin he had just slapped. “It doesn’t matter. People will talk. They have to know I’m in control. Do you understand what that means?”
Oh, God. I did. I did understand—and it terrified me.
I bit back a sob and tried to keep my eyes lowered demurely. Those old painful lessons from a childhood of being knocked around by my mother and the angry men she brought home told me the only way I was getting out of this without major damage was to show him that he was in charge and that I would do whatever he wanted.
Lalo started dragging my work smock and undershirt up my torso and over my head. I wanted to fight him. I wanted to kick and scream and punch but I remained motionless like a doll, letting him undress and fondle me. My face still burned from the smack he had given me. Bile rose in my throat. The fingers on my neck were a constant reminder that with one good squeeze he could put me down for the count.
“I know you’re a good girl, Shay.” He ran his fingertips along my exposed flesh. “So I’m going to go easy on you tonight. I’m going to let you earn my protection and show me your loyalty.”
When his hand drifted from my throat, I stifled a cry of panic. Of all the ways I had imagined my first sexual experience, this wasn’t it. I didn’t want this. I didn’t want him touching me. I sure as hell didn’t want to put my mouth or hands anywhere on his body either.
But I didn’t want to die and I didn’t want to get beaten bloody for something I hadn’t done.
His hand moved back to my throat, and he pushed me back against the door. His hard gaze turned my insides cold. “I want you to remember why I’m doing this, Shay. This is to teach that puta sister of yours what happens to the people we love when we do stupid, stupid things.”
Looking into his sadistic and dark eyes, I lost all hope. I didn’t want to die. I didn’t want to get beaten bloody. I didn’t want to be sexually assaulted. But what I wanted no longer mattered.
He was going to hurt me here in this office, in a building where we were surrounded by thousands of people, to prove a point to everyone on the street that he wasn’t a man to be fucked with and that no one could touch him. He was going to show the underworld that he could commit a heinous crime right under the nose of HPD and nothing would happen to him. By tomorrow night, everyone in town would be talking about what happened to me. I was going to be the cautionary tale they used to keep their street crews in line.
“Tell me you’re sorry, Shay.”
I swallowed anxiously and found the courage to stare into his eyes. “I’m sorry.”
He tilted his head to the side as if to study me. “You aren’t sorry. Not yet,” he added quietly. “But you will be.”
His promise of pain and humiliation sent a cold spear into my heart. He pushed down the cup of my bra and bared my breast. He cruelly pinched my nipple and drew a pained cry from my throat. “Shh,” he murmured. “It will be easier if you relax.”
He gripped my face in his hand, pinching my chin and cheek between his thumb and fingers, and forced a kiss on me. I sobbed pitifully and tried to push him away but he stabbed his tongue into my mouth uninvited. I recoiled with disgust but he wouldn’t stop. His hard erection jabbed against my stomach. He was getting excited over the power struggle.
Proving my suspicion, he laughed acidly. “You can fight all you like, Shay. You aren’t getting out of here until I say you can. Tonight I’m getting my first payment on the big fucking bill your sister just rang up.”
Desperate now, I cried, “I have money. I can pay you.”
“I don’t want your money.” He used his thumb to trace my mouth. “I want the one thing no other man in Houston has ever gotten to touch.” His hand slid down my stomach and between my thighs. “This.” His hand moved from between my legs back up to my mouth. He jammed two fingers between my lips, and I gagged at the intrusion. “And this.”
Drawing back his hand, he retreated a few steps and started to loosen his tie. “We’ll see how fucking uppity you are once you’re on your knees with your lips wrapped around my cock.” He pointed at my bra and then my pants. “Take off your clothes.”
I shuddered inside at the horror of what awaited me. In the throes of panic unlike any I had ever know, I made a decision. I had to get out of here. I had to get out of here now.
My panicked gaze jumped to the small window behind the desk. There was a short bookcase and filing cabinet underneath it. I scanned the room for anything I could use as a weapon. A heavy crystal paperweight shaped like a teardrop caught my eye. Did I have the courage or the strength to use it?
Lalo made the biggest mistake of his night by turning his back on me while shrugging out of his blazer. I didn’t hesitate. With two quick steps, I reached the desk and swiped the paperweight. I had to use both hands to lift it high overhead. I thanked my lucky stars that Lalo wasn’t much taller than me.
I embraced that primitive survival instinct to do whatever was necessary to get out of here. Inhaling a sharp breath, I slammed the paperweight onto the back of Lalo’s shaved head. He grunted and stumbled forward but didn’t fall. Panicked that he might spin around and hit me, I struck him again.
This time, he dropped like a sack of rocks. Shocked by what I had done, I dropped the paperweight and stumbled away from the sight of the cartel’s top man bleeding and knocked out on the dirty cement floor. Had I killed him? No, no. He was breathing. But there was so much blood...
You have to get out of here. Run. Now.
I snatched up my jacket, my purse and my phone and jumped up onto the filing cabinet. I didn’t even bother trying to put on my shirt or work smock. I wasn’t sure how long Lalo’s enforcers would leave us alone in here or how long he would be unconscious. I needed to disappear. Fast.
The window opened but it wasn’t a very big space. I stuffed my phone into my purse and wrapped them both up in my jacket before shoving them out of the window. I slipped one leg through and then managed to shimmy the rest of my body out of the small slot.
Out in the shockingly cold night, I hurriedly jammed my bare arms through my jacket sleeves and tried to figure out where the hell I was. I could see the loading dock to the right and decided to run toward the left instead. Regretti
ng every decision I had made since finding my vandalized car, I retrieved my phone from my purse, unlocked the screen with trembling fingers and found the newest contact that had been programmed into my phone.
While I prayed Alexei would answer, I clutched my handbag to my chest and ran. I didn’t know where I was going, but I just kept moving away from the Arena. I had to find a place to hide.
“Hello?” Alexei’s confident, strong voice glided across the airwaves.
“Alexei!” His name burst from my lips in a sob of relief.
“Shay?”
“Oh my god! Alexei! I need your help.” I began to weep uncontrollably. “They trashed my car and then Lalo tried to—” I couldn’t bring myself to say the word rape. “And I hit him and he’s bleeding everywhere. God, I’m so scared.”
“Shay! Calm down.” He spoke firmly. His stern, commanding voice calmed my rapid heartbeat. “Where are you?”
“I’m behind the Arena? I think?” I glanced left and right and then straight ahead. In my panicked sprint, I had somehow run around the edge of the parking garage. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Can you get to one of the restaurants on Fondren? There’s a couple of fast food joints there.”
“I don’t know.” Could I make it? I had to try.
“I’ll stay on the phone with you. I’m only a few minutes away on Hillcroft. I’ve been looking for you.”
Find me, I pleaded silently. Please find me.
Holding tight to my phone, I hurried across a short piece of paved road where a couple of buses were parked and squeezed between them. They were wrapped in band and sponsor logos so I tried to be as quiet and inconspicuous as possible. I could hear raucous male voices and got nervous. The band’s road crew was probably tucked away in Lalo’s pocket. I could just imagine the price on my head now.
As I made it through that obstacle, I noticed how strangely quiet my surroundings were. Where were the police? Where was security?
You can’t trust them. You can’t trust anyone except Alexei. Lalo can buy and bribe anyone he wants.