7. Vaughn
7
VAUGHN
T he next day, we touched down on the small dirt airstrip thirty miles out of Playa de la Palmera. After parking the King Air and paying an attendant to make sure no one touched her, we started the drive home.
With the windows down, a warm breeze blew strands of hair across Hope’s face. Her uptilted lips made me wonder if she was revisiting last night and this morning in her mind.
To say she’d helped me achieve a breakthrough would be an understatement. Having Hope’s hands roam my bare skin without triggering a panic attack or a violent outburst was close to a goddamn miracle.
Did our success have anything to do with being balls-deep inside her tight, wet pussy while she touched me?
Abso-fucking-lutely.
When we’d awoken this morning, I’d wanted to test the theory again, so I had Hope zip-tie me to the headboard once more, then told her to use me however she pleased. I gave her complete control and was but a spectator in the most erotic experience of my goddamn life.
There’d been no overwhelming anxiety. No desperation to escape. Only ecstasy unlike anything I’d experienced before as Hope’s hands and mouth had explored my body.
When I was with her, thoughts of my torture were so far from my mind they didn’t stand a chance of stealing airtime.
Hope was much more than a distraction. As corny as it sounded, she was a bright guiding star amid the darkness I’d been drowning in. She was a balm to my ravaged soul. The salvation I’d long ago given up on finding.
And I must be losing my ever-loving mind, because I couldn’t have a single thought without her in it. Was she comfortable, safe, happy? Those questions had become an obsession. I had to know Hope was taken care of before seeing to my own needs.
Holy shit. I was turning into every one of my Zulu brothers who’d paired up with a hot piece of ass in the last couple of years. I’d laughed and called them all pussy whipped. Now, the idea of joining their club sounded mighty appealing. Sign me the fuck up.
The guys were going to give me hell for this, and I honestly didn’t mind.
“Why are you smiling?” Hope asked.
“Am I?” I glanced her way before returning my eyes to the road. She was so beautiful it made my breath catch in my throat.
“Yeah, you are.” She angled herself to face me. “Care to let me in on the joke?”
“There’s no joke, Gatita.” I reached across and interlocked my fingers with hers. “I’m happy.”
She looked at me with mock confusion. “Do you have any contacts in hell? Someone should check if things have turned icy down there.”
“Make fun of me all you want, but this goofy-ass look on my mug is all because of you.”
“Guess I can’t call you Grim anymore. ”
“Guess not.” I tugged her toward me. “Scooch over. You’re too far away.”
Hope unlatched her seat belt and shuffled to the middle before buckling the lap belt. I flung my arm around her shoulder, bringing her closer.
She rested her palm on my thigh and squeezed. “Is this okay?”
“Yeah.” I kissed the top of her head. “You don’t even need to ask.”
We drove in silence. No sounds but the song on the crackly radio and the wind buffeting the cabin. My chest tightened. For most guys, riding in a car with their girl beside them probably seemed mundane, but for me, this moment of normalcy was a gift.
“What are you going to tell Daphne?”
The doc had texted Hope this morning asking where we were, because she’d arrived back at the house early. We’d hoped to beat her home from her weeklong humanitarian road trip to remote villages.
Hope shrugged. “The truth. She’s too shrewd not to sniff out a lie.”
Her phone rang, so she dug it out of her purse and checked the screen. “It’s Mari. She’d better not be calling in sick so she can spend the day with some new guy.” She answered on speaker. “?Bueno?”
“Tu amiga está muerta.” Your friend is dead.
The man’s emotionless voice made my grip tighten on the steering wheel.
Beside me, Hope froze, staring into the phone.
I snatched it from her hands. “Who the fuck is this?”
There was a beat of silence. “Are you the asshole who stabbed my son?”
Fuck. I guessed those cartel fools had gone home and blabbed about their beatdown after all, and now Papa Bear was pissed.
I sneered. “You’re going to have to be specific. I’ve stabbed a lot of people’s sons.”
“You and the girl had better be at Javi’s restaurant in ten minutes, or I’ll begin executing every last motherfucker in this village, starting with the hostages here.” He hung up.
Slowly, Hope’s unblinking eyes came to mine. Her chest rose and fell with each rapid breath she took.
I stomped on the gas. We were fifteen minutes from town if we stuck to the speed limit. We’d have to do a hell of a lot better than that.
“Do you think Mari’s really dead?” Hope asked.
“I don’t know. Could be a bluff.”
Unlikely. There’d been no bravado in the mystery caller’s words. Only an unflustered statement of facts, which made me believe we were dealing with a stone-cold killer.
“It’s over,” Hope said, dragging her hands through her hair.
I didn’t like the finality in her tone. “Like hell it is.”
Her face whipped to mine. “The cartel hunts in packs, Vaughn. What are you going to do? Kill them all?”
“That’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
Which presented a huge problem, because taking out the PCC’s men would set events in motion that were impossible to contain. But what other option did I have? The guy on the other end of that call wasn’t bringing us in for a friendly chat. And now that the eyes of the cartel were firmly upon Playa de la Palmera, we’d have little choice but to defend ourselves and the people in this community.
“It doesn’t matter if we win this fight. They’ll send more men. They won’t stop coming until they’ve gotten what they want. How many innocent people will be slaughtered in the process?” Hope’s hands balled into fists in her lap. “I can fix this. I can make this all disappear. ”
I frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m going to do what I should’ve done years ago. When we get to Javi’s, I’ll tell them who my father is. I’ll tell them everything that happened to me and demand they leave you and this community alone. I won’t let anyone else die because of me.”
“No fucking way,” I growled.
She’d martyr herself to save the hostages? As soon as Hope revealed her identity, it’d be game over. They’d take her to her father, and I might never get her back.
No. I didn’t accept that outcome. Not in a million fucking years.
“Vaughn, please. You have to?—”
“I won’t hand you over to the enemy!”
Left stunned by my outburst, Hope remained silent beside me.
“I won’t do it. You hear me? They’ll have to pry you from my cold, dead hands before I’ll give you up.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.” Her voice trembled along with her lower lip. “I can’t lose you, too.”
Within Hope’s terrified stare lay the ghost of every tragic death she blamed herself for. And if anything happened to me, guilt would only weigh her down further. Whatever happened today, it would never be her fault, but no amount of arguing would make her see otherwise.
“Don’t ask me to do this. I only just found you.” I took hold of her hand again and squeezed. “Give me a chance to fight for you, Hope. Give me a chance to fight for us .”
She pinched her lids shut, and a fat tear rolled down her cheek. When her amber gaze returned to mine, it was filled with fear. “What if it all goes wrong?”
“It won’t.” I gave her a meaningful look. “We do this my way, okay?” And by my way, I meant stealthy, swift delivery of death. These sons of bitches had no idea who they’d messed with. “ I’ve got this, Gatita. I’ve trained with my team for years for situations just like this. I need you to trust me.”
Granted, I’d always had the backup of my brothers, so this wouldn’t be a cakewalk, but I wasn’t about to mention that and put doubt into Hope’s mind. With my girl’s life at stake, I’d never been more motivated to eliminate an enemy.
“I do trust you.” She sniffed and rubbed her nose. “Okay. We do it your way. We fight.”
“That’s my girl.” I smacked a kiss on the back of her hand. “We don’t have much time to prepare. I need you to get the pistols from the bag.”
She did as I asked, checking over my Glocks to make sure they were loaded. “You know they won’t let us keep these.”
“Correct. And when they take them from me, they’ll think they’re safe.” I ground my molars together. “They won’t be.”
She passed me the two pistols. I would give Hope the spare one in the glove compartment, but there was nowhere to hide it under the red sundress she wore.
Hope made a hurried call to Javier, who was at home following the birth of his first child two days ago. She alerted him to the hostage situation and what the caller had said about Mari. There’d barely been time to explain why the cartel had demanded our presence. Javi was furious Hope hadn’t told him about the trouble at the restaurant that had caused all of this, but he quickly recovered his composure and promised to assemble a few capable locals and meet us in town.