Page 128 of Last Chance
“Don’t damage her too much,” Matias warned. “He won’t be pleased if you do.”
“You worry too much, cousin.”
“And you should have a care for your life.” Matias started the engine and drove away from Natural Bliss. “Keep her under control. I don’t want her attacking me while I drive.”
Lorenzo chuckled. “Don’t worry. We’ll get to know each other until we arrive at our destination. She’ll be too busy to cause you trouble.”
“For pity’s sake,” Maria hissed. “At least wait until he gives you permission to do what you want with her. I’d rather not lose you because of that tramp.”
Tramp? Maria had a lot of nerve calling Janie a tramp after what she’d done to David.
“Are you going to fight me?” Lorenzo whispered. “I love it when my women fight.”
“I’m not your woman,” she said, voice cold.
He smiled. The sight chilled Janie to the bone. “You will be soon. If you’re holding onto hope that your man will find you, don’t waste your time. The world is an enormous place. It’s easy for one woman to disappear. No one will find you until it’s too late.”
She refused to answer him. What was the point? Lorenzo, Matias, and Maria didn’t know the Fortress operatives, especially Sawyer, like she did. They would never give up. Sawyer would tear the world apart to find her. She knew that like she knew the sun would rise tomorrow morning. Whether she would be alive to see the new day dawn was anyone’s guess.
Lorenzo laughed. “Oh, this will be fun. You’re a stubborn one.”
He had no idea.
Throughout the drive, the man held her pinned to his side and continually trailed his fingers through Janie’s hair and along her neck, circling the bite mark he must have made. Although she showed no outward sign of the revulsion she felt, Janie’s skin crawled everywhere he touched her. An intimidation tactic, one designed to make her feel helpless and hopeless. She refused to give him the satisfaction of knowing he scared her. More than once on the drive, Lorenzo bit her neck in the same place and whispered in her ear how she tasted like his favorite candy.
Ninety interminable minutes later, Matias turned off onto a side road and followed a winding gravel and dirt path deep into the countryside.
Despite Janie’s attention to her surroundings, she wouldn’t be able to find her way out of this area without help. Hopefully, Maria and her brother and cousin wouldn’t check her for weapons. If they did, she’d lose every advantage she had to protect herself until the Texas Team found her.
Another thirty minutes passed before Matias exited a forest to stop at the gates of a large compound.
Janie stared at the dense bars of the front gate and the thick concrete walls surrounding the complex of buildings. Even if she escaped her captors, she had nowhere to go unless she found an unguarded exit.
Her resolve hardened. She wasn’t giving up, no matter how bleak the circumstances seemed. Holding on was the only option. She wanted a future with Sawyer Chapman. He’d promised, and she was collecting on it.
Two guards at the gate peered into the vehicle. Satisfied, they opened the gate and allowed the vehicle to pass into the compound. Matias drove to a large building in the center of the compound and parked. He and Maria climbed out. She hurried into the building, leaving Janie on her own with the two goons.
Matias opened the back door, reached inside and hauled Janie out. Lorenzo joined his cousin. Each of the men grasped one of her arms and marched her toward the building.
Inside, they headed down a long hallway and stopped outside a closed door. From inside, Maria’s laughter sounded muffled.
Lorenzo knocked on the door and turned the knob when told to enter, and pushed the door open.
Inside the room, Maria’s arms were twined around a man’s neck. She sneered when she saw Janie. “Look, sweetheart. Your guest has arrived.” She lowered her arms.
The man turned to stare at Janie.
Her blood ran cold at the sight of Diego Hernandez.
CHAPTER 30
SAWYER GROANED AND batted at the hard hand shaking him. His head felt as though it weighed two tons. And the headache? Unspeakable pain that made him want to puke.
“You with me?” Jesse asked.
“Head hurts,” he muttered.
“Yep. Me, too.”