I continued battling against the restraint, blood pouring down my arm. My boss, the man I trusted completely, lifted off his heels and grabbed me by the shoulders, pinning me against the bedframe.
“Would you calm the hell down?” Emilio moved one arm and braced it horizontally against my upper chest while holding my wrist immobile with the other. “I didn’t kill anyone. And what the hell are you talking about? Who’s your brother?”
Unable to move and weakened with fading energy, my head wobbled on my shoulders as I lowered my forehead against his. “Nash Lachey, you asshole.”
His face blanched. “Your name is O’Dell.”
“You’re a shitty businessman, Emilio,” I taunted. “Do you always take everything at face value?”
The lines around his mouth deepened as his eyes narrowed inches from mine. His body leaned forward while his hold on my wrist tightened. I could see the confusion melt into irritation.
A wise woman would shut her mouth. I’d never been particularly wise.
“O’Dell was my married name. My name is Lachey. I was in the kitchen at Caliente.” A dark glaze blackened his already coal eyes. “I saw everything.”
The confession wasn’t smart by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, it gave him every reason to kill me right there. I braced for it. I expected it.
But I’d never back down from it.
Nash left this world protecting me, and I’d be damned if I’d beg his tormentor for anything.
“I could’ve left you there.”
I pulled on my bleeding arm again. “Because this is so much fucking better!”
Angered, he shook me, my head slamming against the bedrail. “You have no idea what was coming for you, do you, Eden Lachey?” He said my name with such contempt, I instinctively recoiled. “Being cuffed to a bed is a goddamn vacation compared to what waited behind me.”
Emilio’s anger overtook him. He’d all but climbed on top of me, pushing his face against mine, and barking words with disgust as sweat dripped from his chin onto my blood-caked skin. My chest heaved with terror, but only my widened eyes displayed any emotion to his aggression. His hand released my wrist and fisted the back of my hair, lifting my face. Warm breath faintly reeking of alcohol filled my nostrils.
The threat of being killed spurred venom inside of me. Fear sat back and let vengeance ride shotgun. I twisted, desperate to get away from him, but his hold tightened.
A door slammed and an angry voice shouted behind him. “What the hell is this?”
Emilio stiffened, his furious glare becoming submissive. “She was out of control.”
“Get your hands off her. Now!” the man growled.
Winking, Emilio released his hold and stood up. “Try to behave, Eden Lachey, and you might make it out of here.”
As he walked away, I released the breath I’d held and sank to the floor.
“Lachey? Your name is Lachey?”
My head snapped up. With one glance, my breathing became erratic, and my thoughts went haywire. Chocolate brown eyes flecked with gold stared back at me. Taking in my bloodied wrist, his own hands tightened into fists by his side.
“Val?” It made no sense, but the relief at seeing him outweighed my need for logic. He appeared as a contrast of darkened danger dressed in black slacks and an angelic white button-up shirt rolled up at the sleeves.
His jaw ticked as he spoke slow and deadly. “What did he do to you?”
I relived the last few moments and shook my head. “Nothing. I got angry.”
“I saw him on top of you, Cereza.” He shifted forward, and his face hardened. “If he touched you…”
“He didn’t,” I assured him.
Val glanced toward the closed door then knelt next to me, crooking a finger and running it down my cheek. Inexplicably, I leaned into his touch. In the quiet moment, I almost forgot where I was and why. Without thinking, my free hand grabbed his and held it steady against my face.
“We have to get out of here.”
“Cereza…”
“Listen to me. You don’t understand.” My voice rose, distraught at his calmness. “I was drugged and brought here against my will. Emilio, that man that was here,” I pointed toward the closed door, “he’s my boss. He helped kill my brother. I was there.” The words fell out at rapid succession, desperate for his help. “I don’t know everything, but I think I heard the name Carrera. I know they’re a drug cartel. My brother isn’t an addict, Val. They fucked up, but I think I’ve got enough to go to the police.”
“Cereza…” He lowered his head with a blank expression.
“Stop saying that and listen,” I yelled, frantic and growing hysterical. “We have to get out of here. You have to find a key. We’re not safe.”
He remained quiet, pulling his hand away, with a tormented mask painted across his face. I could see his mind working, but mine refused to piece the unconnected puzzle together. His brows furrowed, and the deep line that etched between them severed my hope.
“I don’t want to hurt you, but I can’t let you go.”
I splayed my hands against the cold metal of the bed. “Why…why can’t you? I don’t understand.” He had to be here to help me, but there was an uncertain air around him I couldn’t put my finger on.
“You’re a danger to me and to yourself.” Val rocked back on his heels, running a tanned hand across his full lips. “You have no idea what you’ve gotten into, and because of that, I can’t trust you.”
I’m a danger to him? To him?
Just as quickly as the fear had come, it exited, replaced by fury and understanding. “You can’t trust me?” I clenched my hand and pressed it against my forehead. “Who’s chained like a dog, here?”
Val’s eyes hardened, and I waited for rage to follow. Instead, his lip twitched, lifting into a one-sided smirk. “You’re bleeding pretty bad.”
“Oh? I hadn’t noticed,” I sneered, narrowing my eyes.
“That mouth, Cereza…it’s going to get you into trouble one day.” Reaching for the buttons on his shirt, he opened them one by one. My eyes watched, fascinated, as he removed the shirt, revealing smooth bronzed skin covering a hard, toned chest marked with more tattoos.
“What the hell are you doing?” I wet my dry lips, unable to look away.
He lifted a dark eyebrow. “Cleaning your arm and stopping the bleeding before infection sets in. I assume you value your limbs.”
“I highly doubt your shirt will stop gangrene.”
Trailing his hand across my bloodstained skin, he scowled. “It may scar, but it won’t be too deep.” He finished cleaning the fresh blood and wrapped the shirt around the wound, tying it off. “How do you feel?”
“How do you think? I’ve been drugged, dragged, dropped, and sliced up. I fucking hurt.”
Val ran his hand through his tousled hair, and his face turned an angry red color at my contempt. “I can’t give you anything for the pain until the drugs Emilio injected are out of your system.” He glanced at me with a glint in his eyes. “That may be a while longer.”
The world spun around as betrayal thickened the air. Stunned, I looked deep into his eyes for the first time, seeing what his handsome face and sexuality blinded from me since the beginning.