Ruthless Savior: A Captive Series Standalone Read online

  Ruthless Savior

  Julia Sykes

  Copyright © 2020 by Julia Sykes

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Contents

  1. Marisol

  2. Raúl

  3. Marisol

  4. Marisol

  5. Raúl

  6. Marisol

  7. Marisol

  8. Raúl

  9. Marisol

  10. Marisol

  11. Marisol

  12. Raúl

  13. Raúl

  14. Marisol

  15. Marisol

  16. Raúl

  17. Marisol

  18. Raúl

  19. Marisol

  20. Raúl

  21. Marisol

  22. Marisol

  23. Raúl

  24. Raúl

  25. Marisol

  26. Marisol

  Epilogue

  Sweet Captivity Excerpt

  Also by Julia Sykes

  Connect with Julia!

  Chapter 1

  Marisol

  In my next breath, I would either start a war between the two most powerful cartels in Mexico, or I would resign myself to a hellish existence as a cruel man’s captive. My freedom was within my grasp. All I had to do was agree to help with one small, essential task. Then, the bloodshed would begin.

  The words clogged in my throat, every fiber of my being resisting the responsibility for so much death. My life wasn’t supposed to be like this. I wasn’t supposed to be here, trapped in a world of vicious drug lords and their brutal power plays.

  And what would my fierce captor do to me if he discovered my betrayal before I could run away to safety? Raúl’s hard, jade green eyes flashed through my thoughts, sending a shiver down my spine. Just the memory of his forbidding scowl was intimidating enough to make my knees weak.

  “If you’re afraid of Raúl Guerrero, don’t be,” my would-be accomplice, Daniel Vera, said with a dismissive shrug. Daniel might be one of the most influential men in the cartel, but he was young and arrogant to the point of stupidity. Anyone with half a brain would fear Raúl.

  “Guerrero will probably be dead by sunset,” Daniel reassured me, his cocky smirk emphasizing the sparseness of the beard he’d attempted to grow. “Even if he manages to survive the night, he won’t last long. He won’t be able to come after you.”

  The thought of my captor dead because of my actions—his dark eyes flat and his stony features slack—made my stomach turn.

  I swallowed down my nausea. Raúl was a criminal, and I’d seen him do monstrous things. I shouldn’t feel sick over the prospect of his death. The world would be a safer place without him in it.

  Raúl can take care of himself, I reasoned. I wouldn’t be responsible for his demise. He’ll survive.

  I just had to be far, far away from him by morning. As long as I was out of his reach, he’d be too busy with his criminal power struggle to waste time coming after me. Especially if I was no longer a significant hostage.

  Because I wasn’t betraying Raúl solely to secure my own freedom; Carmen Ronaldo was in a far more dire situation than me, locked in the penthouse ten floors above. For weeks, the captive cartel princess had been subjected to an insane drug lord’s possessive lust. I couldn’t leave her trapped in that hell, not when I knew the agony she suffered at Stefano Duarte’s hands every day.

  “You can stay with me,” Daniel offered, his oily grin belying the reassurance in his tone. “I know you want to escape from Guerrero, but you don’t have to risk going on the run by yourself. It’s dangerous for a pretty woman like you to be out there all alone.” He stepped toward me, ignoring my attempt to shrink away. He advanced until my back hit the wall. “Come home with me. I’ll protect you.”

  His hands bracketed my hips, trapping me. My chest tightened, and my fists clenched at my sides. I took a quick breath and forced them to unfurl, offering no resistance. Whatever happened next, I could endure it. All that mattered was getting Carmen to safety and securing my own freedom. I wouldn’t risk that by lashing out at Daniel, even though his unwelcome touch stirred old nightmares.

  “I’ll help you access Duarte’s penthouse and free Carmen, so you can take her to her allies,” I promised on a whisper. Declaring my betrayal aloud put me in far more danger than what I might face in the world outside this drug lord’s fortress, but it was Daniel’s suffocating nearness that robbed the forcefulness from my words. His heavy cologne smothered my senses, the sickly amber scent thickening the air to molasses.

  “And after that?” he prompted, one hand skimming up my side to paw at my chest. “Will you come home with me? Guerrero’s been guarding you like a rabid dog, but he can’t keep you from me now. Once he’s dead, I’ll give you a safe place to stay. You won’t be forced to work as Carmen’s maid anymore. You’re too pretty to be wasted scrubbing floors.”

  I closed my eyes and sucked in a lungful of sticky-sweet oxygen. The heat of his groping hands seared my flesh, layering over the toxic taint that other men had branded into me. I hadn’t felt a monster’s violating touch in the weeks since Raúl had taken me as his hostage. My captor was beastly, but in a perverse way, his fierce captivity had started to feel like protection. No one had dared to come near me while Raúl was my jailor, and beyond all reason, he’d never forced himself on me.

  No matter how often his granite jaw sharpened with unmistakable hunger, no matter how many times his massive body flexed with the impulse to claim me, he’d always restrained himself. He honored the promise he’d made to his boss on the night I’d been taken: No one touches her. I’ll see to it myself.

  Carmen had surrendered herself to her enemies in exchange for Duarte’s word that I wouldn’t be harmed. She’d saved my life on the chaotic, violent night when Duarte’s cartel had assaulted hers, but she’d condemned me to being held as a hostage. Trapped in a world of criminals. Vulnerable to callous, greedy men like Daniel.

  Before I could force down another cloying breath, my memory of Raúl’s vicious snarl became real. I cringed, pressing my back tightly to the wall, as though I could sink into it and hide from his wrath. I’d heard him make this feral sound once before, on my first day in captivity. He’d killed a man with his bare hands as punishment for daring to touch me.

  Daniel’s groping hands left me abruptly. His sharp shout boomed through the cramped corridor, then cut off with a sickening crack.

  My eyes flew open, and my lungs froze. Raúl was terrifying to behold, the beastly nature that he barely managed to contain overtaking him completely. One of his massive hands encircled Daniel’s throat, pinning him against the wall. Daniel’s designer shoes dangled a few inches above the crimson carpet, his much smaller body lifted in Raúl’s meaty fist as easily as a ragdoll.

  Raúl bared his teeth on a rumbling snarl, his heavy brows lowering to cast forbidding, skull-like shadows over his eyes.

  “No one touches her.” His ragged words held a fevered edge, as though the promise he’d made his boss on the night of my abduction had become an obsessive litany.

  Daniel’s heels drummed against the wall, leaving dark scuff marks on the ivory paint. His cheeks had darkened to an alarming shade of purple, and his mouth gaped in a desperate attempt to draw breath that Raúl denied him.

  My captor’s massive frame swelled, his muscles tensing.

  “No!” I gasped, a heartbeat before he could crush Daniel’s throat. If Ra�
�l killed Daniel, my dream for freedom would die along with him.

  Raúl’s body jerked, and he let out a low grunt, as though I’d thrown my full weight at him to stop his violent act.

  Hard, deep green eyes turned on me, and a small squeak slipped up my throat; a mouse confronted by a hungry lion. His hand remained locked around my accomplice’s neck, but Daniel was still alive, even if his eyes were rolling with terror.

  “He touched you,” Raúl grated out, his lips peeled back from his flashing white teeth. The small scar on his upper lip puckered, the indelible mark of his brutal nature enhancing the danger that pulsed from him with each of his heaving breaths. I knew he was strong enough that holding Daniel wasn’t causing this exertion, but restraining himself from finishing the kill seemed to be costing him more energy than running five miles.

  Something shifted inside me, and the fear that had frozen my blood in my veins melted. Fixed in his intense stare, I realized with absolute certainty that Raúl wouldn’t hurt me. He didn’t suspect my plot against him. He wanted to murder Daniel because he’d dared to put his hands on me, not because he’d heard us conspiring to overthrow his boss’ regime.

  “I’m okay,” I promised on a whisper.

  The breathless quality to my voice wasn’t entirely a result of my burst of terror at being discovered with Daniel. Warmth bloomed in my chest, pumping throughout my body in a strange surge of strength. I should’ve been cowering and begging for my life, but the intensity of Raúl’s stare made me feel bizarrely powerful. My single, panicked no had restrained him from killing his quarry more effectively than if I’d bound him in rope.

  “Please, let him go.” My plea softened his fierce expression, and his beastly snarl melted away.

  As the tension around his mouth eased, the scar on his lip suddenly emphasized how impossibly lush they were. Those lips were such an incongruously sensual feature on his granite face. I’d noticed the contradiction dozens of times during my weeks of captivity, but the sudden shift from lethal animal to imposing man was so jarring that it momentarily knocked the air from my chest.

  His eyes gleamed like polished jade as they roved over my body, lingering on my curves. “He didn’t hurt you?” He rasped the question, even though his thorough inspection gave him the answer.

  I shook my head, but he wasn’t focusing on my face. His nostrils flared when his gaze fixed on my chest. I’d caught him looking at my body before, but he’d always jerked his attention away quickly. Now, he appeared transfixed, his full attention bearing down on me. I felt pinned in place, despite the fact that his younger, weaker associate was the one trapped under his restrictive hand.

  My eyes flicked to Daniel’s ruddy face. In a few more seconds, he’d pass out from oxygen deprivation. Even if Raúl didn’t crush his throat, he wouldn’t survive much longer.

  The phantom, toxic heat of Daniel’s grasping hands singed my hips and breasts. A surge of revulsion made my flesh crawl, and the faces of other cruel men who’d used me flashed over his purple features. For a moment, I wished Raúl would kill him. I wished the ferocious beast would destroy every sadistic man who’d ever hurt me and make sure no one would ever violate me like that again.

  Daniel’s lids began to droop over his bloodshot eyes, and the staccato beat of his heels against the wall slowed.

  I snapped out of my moment of vindictive madness. Raúl was my jailor, and I had to get free.

  I needed Daniel alive for that.

  My fingers trembled slightly, but I reached out to touch Raúl’s corded arm. Despite his iron strength, a shudder rippled through his massive frame at the light contact.

  “Please don’t kill him.” The strange, shocking tingle in my fingertips robbed my breath, and the words left me on a husky whisper. “I’m okay.”

  Suddenly, his hand released Daniel’s neck, and the younger man dropped to the floor with a heavy thud. He gasped for air, his body writhing as the burn of essential oxygen seared his deprived lungs.

  Raúl angled his huge body in front of mine, shielding me from the debilitated man as though he might still be a threat.

  “Get out of my sight,” he barked. Now that I was no longer touching his arm, the animal inside him struggled back to the surface.

  But Daniel wasn’t capable of moving anywhere on his own. He shook uncontrollably, and tears streamed down his red cheeks.

  Raúl’s tenuous patience snapped. Before I could beg for Daniel’s life again, my captor grabbed his arm and dragged him down the hall.

  Daniel managed a rough shout between his gasps for air, but he didn’t have the strength to struggle. Raúl hauled him several yards away from me, until he reached the elevator at the end of the hall. As soon as the silver doors opened, he threw Daniel inside. He slammed his hand against the interior panel, illuminating half the buttons. The elevator would take its time stopping on multiple floors. Daniel would be imprisoned far away from me while he recovered from nearly being choked to death.

  Raúl stepped back into the hallway, and the doors closed behind him. Relief should’ve flooded my system when my accomplice was safely separated from my lethal captor, but it wasn’t relief that made my knees weak. Raúl’s jade eyes glinted, fixed on my face. His jaw turned to granite, taking on the hard, hungry set I’d glimpsed so many times during my captivity.

  But this time, he didn’t cut his gaze to the floor and stalk away from me. His massive body seemed to swell to impossibly huge proportions, his bulky frame taking up all the space in the cramped hall. His chest expanded on a deep inhale, his nostrils flaring like a predator becoming mesmerized by the scent of his prey.

  And like the most foolish prey, I froze rather than fleeing. The thrill of primal danger tingled down my spine, little warning sparks pinging through my veins. A shiver raced over my flesh; the air was suddenly, shockingly cool in contrast to the heat simmering just beneath my skin.

  He prowled toward me, but I remained rooted in place. Although I’d seen this monster commit horrific acts of violence, my new knowledge of the strange power I held over him burned away the terror I should’ve felt at his predatory advance.

  Flashes of small, intimate moments we’d shared flickered across my mind: on the day he’d noticed an ironing burn on my finger, he’d tended the tiny wound himself; when he’d caught me coveting an elaborate chocolate fountain at one of his boss’s fancy parties, he’d made sure to slip me a large box of chocolate covered marshmallows the following morning.

  All along, I’d brushed off the evidence Raúl’s attentive nature. I’d pretended that I hadn’t noticed his savage, masculine appeal.

  I’d drowned myself in fear and hatred, so I didn’t have to acknowledge my traitorous thoughts about my cruel captor.

  But he’d never been cruel to me. Communicating mostly in clipped commands and unintelligible grunts, he hadn’t exactly been warm. He’d been careful with me, treating me like something fragile to be jealously guarded. During my time in his protective custody, his animal magnetism seemed to have slipped through my defenses, settling into the deepest, most instinctive part of my brain.

  Because no matter how many times I told myself Raúl was my enemy, I’d just been faced with proof of the truth I’d known in my heart but willfully ignored: he wouldn’t hurt me, and he would destroy any man who tried to violate me.

  The stalking beast closed the distance between us. Although I felt small and vulnerable in his enormous, encroaching shadow, my body was once again flooded with the sense of power that’d overtaken me when he’d stilled his attack on Daniel. The lightest brush of my frail fingertips had stopped his brutal impulses, harnessing his unfathomable strength.

  Ever since he’d claimed me as his hostage, he’d prowled around the edges of my personal space, as though separated from me by invisible iron bars. Now, he came straight for me without hesitation; a ravenous animal that’d slipped from his cage.

  His body heat sizzled against my skin, and I stepped away with a gasp. My back hit th
e wall, but he didn’t allow me a reprieve. He loomed over me, so close that my breasts would graze his chest if I dared to arch toward him. My lips parted on shallow, panting breaths. A rich, deep scent infused the air around me; as calming as basking on the cool earth beneath a warm sun.

  His jade eyes weren’t hard and dark like I’d always thought. With his chiseled face so close and his intense gaze fixed unflinchingly on mine, his eyes seemed to capture and contain light. It filtered out in rich shades of verdant green, like sunlight playing through a thick canopy of leaves.

  He moved slowly as he lifted his hand to my face, as though I might shatter if he wasn’t careful with his immense strength. The strange mixture of vulnerability and power swirled through my system, intoxicating me. This soft, feminine aspect of my sensuality had been battered by heartless men, and I’d buried that part of myself long ago. Indulging in a man’s strength only led to pain.

  But Raúl wasn’t hurting me. He was handling me as though I was delicate and precious.

  The massive hand that’d been brutalizing Daniel only minutes ago now hovered a hairsbreadth over my cheek, but I didn’t flinch. I stared up into his forest green eyes, all thoughts melted away by his warmth. The fearful tension I’d been carrying in my muscles for longer than I could remember eased, soothed by his calming scent and the heady sensation of my power over this fiercely strong man.

  His fingertips grazed the line of my jaw, rough callouses tracing a line of tingling sparks along my sensitized skin. Two fingers curled beneath my chin, lifting my face. Light danced in the mesmerizing depths of his eyes as they roved over each of my features, studying me with rapt attention.