The door creaked open, and Mateo spun, every muscle going rigid. The homes held no locks or keys, which meant it was easy to escape if they were ambushed. Men patrolling in shifts also helped, but it didn’t mean Mateo wasn’t still on edge all the time. If anything, being the leader of the group meant he was always being challenged.
Sally stepped inside, closing the door softly behind her as if she was afraid to wake a child despite the singing, drunken men nearby. His hand flexed at his side as he realized she was alone.
“Where is Gabriella?” he demanded.
Sally blinked, clearly unprepared for the sharpness in his tone. “She’s in the hot springs. She’s fine.” A pause, then quieter, wounded. “Is that really all you want to say to me?”
Can I trust myself to leave her alone? Hardly.He was already moving, crossing the room in two long strides, reaching for the door. “I need to check on her.”
Images flashed through his mind—Gabriella wandering too far, slipping into the trees, unaware of what hunted there. Jaguars. Snakes. Bugs that would make her scream. Worse thanboth: men who felt they didn’t need permission and would never think to ask.
Sally grabbed his arm. “Mateo, please.”
Her fingers slid upward, familiar in their approach for all the years they had spent with each other. He knew her body, had learned it for the sake of this assignment to ensure she would whisper what he needed into her father’s ear. But right now, he wanted nothing more than to burn the very flesh she had tainted with her touch. He didn’t look at her.
“Things are tense,” she said quickly. “With the men. With my father. They think thatgringahas bewitched you.”
The irony of those words did not slip past him and nearly set him off. He definitely felt bewitched by Gabriella but her comment set fear into his heart.
Apparently, I haven’t been hiding my obsession nearly as well as I thought I had.He turned to look at Sally. Her dark eyes glistened, lashes heavy with unshed tears. She knew exactly what she was doing, using her body to get what she wanted. If he’d been anyone else—if he hadn’t learned how her tears were often just another weapon—he might have softened.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” she whispered. “For so long.” She moved his hand to cradle her face. “Why won’t you touch me?”
She drew him closer, rising onto her toes, trying to close the height difference between them. Her mouth met his, warm and inviting, and his body recoiled.
There was no spark, no heat or desire. Only irritation and something close to disgust as he tried not to push her off of him. Deep down, he knew this wasn’t the mouth he wanted. This wasn’t the woman who had undone him earlier without even trying.
He pulled back, but Sally followed, her grip tightening, her tongue brushing insistently against his lips.
“I need you,” she said as he pulled away.
And I need Gabriella.
Mateo caught Sally’s wrists and stilled her, his expression going dangerously flat.
“This isn’t about need,” he said. “And this is not happening tonight.”
Her face hardened, hurt twisting into a sharpness as suspicion slitted her eyes “She’s changing you,” Sally said. “That woman has been nothing but a prancing whor?—”
It took every ounce of strength not to snap her wrist.How dare she talk of Gabriella like that? She’s the one here, begging to bounce on my cock like I’m a stud horse.His gaze snapped to hers, brimming with darkness that threatened to swallow her. “Enough.”
It was as if she refused to hear him, her tirade against Gabriella continuing. Sally hissed, “She won’t even look at you. But I see you. The real you. We need each other to escape this hellhole.”
That was the thing with Sally. She was only a tool for her father, and like him, was trapped by circumstance. She assumed his were the same reasons as hers.
I’m afraid she’s intent on dying tonight at this rate.Sally was another pawn being used between him and her father. She desperately wanted her own place. He knew this but it was no longer about the two of them. Mateo had Gabriella to think about.
“Sally, I told you that was enough. If you can’t respect my authority, then get out of my sight.”
“Stop ignoring me,” she screamed. “I’m right here, right now, just for you while she’s off in the springs with the men—” she cut herself off, fear coloring her face.
Oh, fuck.
Everything slowed around Mateo. His heart thundered in his temple. “What did you say?”
She didn’t respond, and he knew then that Gabriella was in danger. He released Sally and pushed past her towards the door, every instinct screaming now. Pain, desire, longing—all of it shoved aside by the cold certainty that she might be dead or worse …
If she was gone, then screw this assignment. He’d go down with her … along with as many of these bastards as he could drag with him.