Los Lobos is not a nice gang to be mixed up with. They earn their livelihood off the pain and suffering of others. They’re the worst kind of criminals. And the fact I was dating their leader was no one’s fault but my own. It was my own deeds, my own mistakes, that got me into that place. And it would be my own decisions that would get me out. That’s why I decided to do anything that needed to be done to escape. Anything.
Slipping into the clutches of Los Lobos had been so simple. And once I was in, there was no way back out. I’d seen the warning signs. I’d realized my mistake long before. Wolf cheated on me, he beat me, he routinely degraded and humiliated me in front of his gang members. He robbed me of all power, silenced my voice, and when he found out I wanted to leave, he built a concrete compound to keep me prisoner.
Until that night. The night I broke free. I couldn’t change the past, but I could change the future.
Within hours of making my decision, I was outside the motel. I didn’t have a penny to my name, no clothes, no belongings, no plan. It was only a matter of time before Wolf’s henchmen found me and brought me back to the hell of their world. I knew that. I could feel my chance at freedom slipping away with every second that passed.
In desperation, I decided to do the only thing I could do. I threw myself at the mercy of fate. I opened myself up to it, made myself vulnerable, and let God decide the outcome.
I asked for the help of a stranger.
All I needed was one good man. One man who was willing to stand up for me. He didn’t have to fight Wolf. He just had to help me escape, give me a ride to the city, or better yet, the border. I’d give him everything he asked in return. There had to be a man willing to do that. And if there wasn’t, so be it. Let me die. At least I’d die fighting.
In the hour I stood beneath that sequoia, a number of men walked in and out of the bar. Some were truckers, pulling in from the highway after a long haul. Some were workers, looking for a beer after a long shift. Others looked like drifters, gamblers, criminals, or nothing at all.
They were all men, and I didn’t know what to make of them. Which of them would help me? How would I choose?
I thought I’d know him when I saw him, but I was beginning to have doubts. What if there was no one?
I had only one thing to offer. There’s only one thing men want from a woman in my position. But what if they didn’t want it from me? What if they rejected me?
Maybe that would be for the best. Giving up my body went against everything I believed, everything I held sacred. The only thing that made me even consider it, was the thought of a life of slavery at the hands of Wolf Staten. If the price of freedom was my body, I would pay.
And then he arrived. He rolled into the lot on a motorcycle as if chased by the devil himself. I only got a brief glimpse, but I saw enough to know he was the man I was looking for. Muscular build, tattoos on his arms and chest, a shadow of stubble. He was fiercely handsome, but that wasn’t even one of my criteria. I couldn’t afford to be picky. That was a luxury I didn’t have. What I was looking for was a real man. A man who would do what needed to be done, whatever that was.
The way this guy walked, the confidence in his stride, the determination on his face, told me I’d found my man.
And there was something else. I’d seen him before. I remembered it the moment I saw him. He’d taunted me, he’d challenged me, and he’d told me he didn’t give a shit about Wolf Staten.
Now, all I had to do was go through with it.
I had to ruin myself, offer up my body, throw away my beliefs, risk my life.
No problem, right?
Chapter 5
Jackson
WHAT CHANCE DID I HAVE?
My cock raged for her pussy. She was like an image from my own secret fantasies. I wanted to pinch myself just to check I wasn’t dreaming. I couldn’t have designed a better creature for my seduction. She was everything I wanted, just the way I wanted it. Her blue eyes seemed to drink me in. I ached for her. This beautiful, delicate creature was going to be mine. She was straight up offering herself.
A gift.
I was going to possess her, body and soul, and fill the emptiness of my life with something beautiful—something terrible, and tragic, and heavenly.
She needed help—real help. The kind of help that could get a man killed. She needed me.
But there was something else.
I needed her too. I needed her like my life depended on it.
Little did she know it, but I was going to take more from her than she ever dreamed. She said she’d give me everything. If only she knew what I had in mind. Whatever price she thought she was paying, she was wrong. She wouldn’t just be mine for the night, she would be mine forever, in ways she couldn’t imagine.