Chapter 27
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WHEN LUCIANA AWOKE, she was in a large storage room filled with boxes. Her body ached, and she realized that she was propped up on a metal chair in the corner, left there just like the freight being moved around.
She heard machinery in the background—trucks coming and going, and the beeping of front-loaders as men worked. There were voices, too, but they were far away. Too far to hear her or help.
As she looked around further, she saw that the door was closed.
No doubt locked. A lone lightbulb hung down from the ceiling, barely providing enough light to see the entire space.
It seemed like a storage room for a shipping depot, and she shuddered.
Was the truck she’d been standing by in her driveway somewhere here, too?
Her jaw dropped in shock as the door opened and her father appeared. “Hello Luciana.”
She shook in fright as he moved toward her.
“It was harder than I expected to find you. I considered it a happy coincidence when my associates discovered you amongst the women they’d taken.
” His eyes were hard, like dark little beads as he stared at her.
“You left our family long ago, but it seems you came in handy after all. You’re quite the little slut capturing the attention of Santiago Garcia.
He could have any woman he chooses. Imagine my surprise that he wants you. ”
“No.”
Her father chuckled. “Si. He is unhappy with some of my business practices. Although he was housing you for some time, providing you with food and shelter, he now wants you all for himself. I owe him a payment, it seems, in return for some things I did. I am happy to give him you to settle my debts.”
“No!” she said, more firmly this time.
“It is already a done deal. You will be his property now—to use and enjoy. Perhaps share with his men. Maybe he will be greedy and want you only for himself. It is no longer my concern,” he said with a dark chuckle.
“Harrison will come for me,” she told her father, eyeing him defiantly. “I’m not flying with you back to Panama.”
“Not willingly, at any rate,” he sneered.
Two men stepped out from the shadows, and she realized in shock that they were the men who’d taken her with them to the alley weeks ago. The one with the jagged scar—Pedro Gomez—leered at her.
“You will go with them,” her father said. “They will take you to Garcia and hand you over like the whore you are. I will finish things here in Hawaii. I need to take care of another little matter.”
“Harrison—”
“Quiet!” her father snapped. “He will be silenced in the sea—yet one more sailor lost to the Pacific. If others have to go with him, so be it. I will get revenge because he took what was mine. He’s caused me a lot of trouble, and for that, I will end him.”
Tears smarted her eyes. Her father was pure evil, and his ties to a notorious cartel didn’t surprise her in the least. She’d somehow found herself back in his clutches, despite her years of freedom to do as she chose, and he’d come for her after all.
Harrison deserved none of this.
She cried out as the two men rushed toward her, binding her arms behind her back and gagging her.
She whimpered and tried to fight them but was no match.
Luciana quaked in shock as they lifted her up, carrying her out of the storage room and to the delivery truck like she was no more than a sack of potatoes.
She gasped as she saw the driver in the back, bleeding and slumped over.
They’d killed him. And they’d kill her, too, if she tried to escape.
The ride in the back of the truck felt long and endless. She could only imagine they were going to a private airstrip somewhere. It’s not like they could cart her onboard a commercial airliner like this. As the truck finally rolled to a stop, she fell forward, hitting her head on the side.
One of the men chuckled, moving toward her. He lifted her up like she weighed nothing, tossing her over his shoulder and slapping her ass. The back of the truck rolled up, and the man jumped down, jostling her, before setting her on her feet against a wall.
She looked around in fright, sensing this was all wrong. This was no airport. She couldn’t talk with the gag in her mouth, and tears streamed down her face.
“Santiago Garcia thinks he’s getting you from this trade, but he’s wrong,” Pedro Gomez said.
“Your father plays dirty. We benefitted greatly from our business dealings together, withholding some of our profits from Garcia. I helped your father, and I knew he would pay me a great sum for your freedom. But how does he repay me now? He is giving you back to Garcia without paying me a damn thing!” Pedro Gomez yelled, his eyes flashing with anger.
“He thinks I will hand you over without getting anything in return? No!” he roared, moving closer.
“I will repay him now by killing his only daughter!”
Luciana gasped as Gomez rushed toward her, his hands wrapping around her neck. She choked and struggled against him, but he was too strong. Her lungs burned as she grew desperate for air, and her vision began to cloud.
He really was going to kill her—right here, with no witnesses around. He’d probably toss her body into the ocean, and Harrison would never know what happened.
She struggled, trying to gasp for one last breath, then slumped to the ground as a gunshot sounded.
***
HARRISON LET OUT A choked breath and ran to Luciana, his heart nearly pounding out of his chest. He and his team had raced to the warehouse on the outskirts of Honolulu, able to track the delivery truck after accessing their navigation system.
He wasn’t sure why it had stopped elsewhere along the way, and he didn’t give a damn.
All that mattered was getting to Luciana.
Rage had coursed through him at seeing Gomez’s hands around her neck.
The single bullet to his brain had taken him out, but now Luciana was crumpled to the ground as well.
“No, no, no,” he breathed, dropping to his knees as he cradled her to him. Blood splatter covered her, but as he scanned over her limp body, he realized it was her captor’s. She was pale and lifeless, but breathing, and a relief he’d never known before flooded through him.
She’d simply passed out.
“Luciana,” he murmured, his voice nearly hoarse. “Come back to me, baby. Come back.”
His men were working rapidly around him, dragging Gomez away and calling the police to alert them of the kidnapping and shooting.
Ryan and Aaron had doubled back to the distribution center to find Luciana’s father, having threatened the second cartel henchmen into telling them what had happened.
Harrison knew Juan Rodriguez would try to escape, and he didn’t want that man to get anywhere near Luciana ever again.
It felt like minutes passed but was probably only mere seconds. Luciana blinked and opened her eyes, and he smiled, the relief he felt instant. His chest flooded with warmth—with love for this woman. “Luciana.”
“Harrison,” she breathed. “You found me.”
“Of course I found you. I told you I always would. I thought I lost you,” he said gruffly.
“No, commander. You won’t get rid of me that easily.”
He let out a surprised laugh and looked into those deep brown eyes that shattered his soul.
“I love you, Luciana. When I realized you’d been taken and thought you were hurt or killed, I knew then exactly how much I cared.
Stay here in Hawaii with me. Marry me,” he said, tension suddenly filling him as he waited for a response.
Tears smarted her eyes, but she beamed at him. “I love you, too. It was fast, but I know in my heart that it’s real. Si, I will marry you gladly, my Harrison. I love you so much.”
He tenderly wiped her tears away and ducked for a slow kiss, not caring if his men or the entire world saw how he felt. “Not nearly as much as I love you.”