12
Isa
Iwoke up the next morning, the early sunshine streaming through the floor to ceiling windows making my eyes peel open. In the suite, Rafael had rarely slept later than me. He'd often been awake and working in the living room by the time I stumbled out of bed to eat a quick breakfast before he shared his plans for the day.
I'd naively thought he was some kind of sales manager, and I still didn't understand if that lie related to how he was a murderer or if it had been a complete fabrication. I got out of bed and moved to the windows, staring at the private little dip pool on the private terrace with a roll of my eyes. Given the extravagance of the main pool, having a separate one was just wasteful. It disappeared over the side of the cliff this side of the house rested against, the water of the pool blending in with the water of the Mediterranean. I touched the button on the side of the glass, jolting in surprise when the window whirred to life with a quiet murmur and retracted into the ceiling.
I glanced over my shoulder at Rafael, amazed that he would have slept through the noise. He always woke up so easily that I fully expected him to spring from the bed before I could step outside. I wrapped my arms around myself, eyeing the tall partition walls that kept the private terrace free from wandering eyes as people moved around the house.
I hadn't seen too many of them the day before, not with how quickly Regina had led me outside and I'd seen the brothers, but as I stepped outside I heard the soft murmur of voices on the other side.
There were none that I recognized, but the unmistakable sound of men and women conversing couldn't be denied. I imagined if the entire island was loyal to whateverEl Diablodid, they were probably a fairly regular part of his life. Stepping onto the deck, I stared at the sun as it rose over the water. My body protested every movement I made after sitting for so long the day before, drawing a groan from me as I inhaled the fresh air.
I knew the moment Rafael woke up behind me, the sudden commotion of his body as he sprang into action when he found me missing from his bed. The movement stopped when he spotted me, and then the faint sound of footsteps came as he slowly made his way across the bedroom. His nude form pressed into the back of mine and the nightgown I'd thrown on before coming to bed the night before. Sweeping the hair off my shoulder, he touched a light kiss to the skin there.
My flesh raised in response even though I wanted nothing more than to hate the way his lips felt on my flesh. I'd seen him with blood on his hands. I knew one of the people he'd murdered. His crimes weren't innocent, and his sins were unforgivable. He’d forced me to grieve the loss of a friendship that had never really been mine to begin with.
"I thought you'd run," he murmured.
"Where would I go?" I asked flatly, wincing when his arms squeezed me tighter. He'd made certain I knew that there was no escaping him. That he would cross over oceans and all boundaries in his pursuit of this twisted obsession he had with me. He didn't respond, because there was no answer to that question. There was nowhere I could run. "Why do they call youEl Diablo?"I asked. He nuzzled his face further into my neck, breathing in deeply as if he could draw me into his lungs.
"More questions? Ismi reinaready for the answers?" The sound of his voice rumbled against my skin, the vibrations pulsing through my body. I knew what it was to have all that power between my thighs, to have his mouth worship my flesh as if it was his favorite meal, and I could never seem to separate myself from the physical response he elicited in me. Was that how it was for everyone when they lost their virginity? Was it something that was unique to us or was I just too naïve to know the difference?
"I don't see how it matters if I'm ready for the answers at this point. You took that choice away from me when you brought me here," I murmured, stepping out of his grip to turn to face him. His multicolored gaze fell on mine, searching my face for something I didn't know that he'd find.
I felt like a stranger, like the cold had crawled out of the depths to embrace me in a shroud of emptiness and only my moments of rage could bring me back to life. Nothing about my life back home felt safe. He'd tainted that with his stain before I'd ever known he existed.
He could and would have my body, but I had to find a way to shield my heart from the pain he caused. Rafael was a raging inferno, consuming everything in his path without regret.
He turned my mind into chaos, threatening to make me need him in a way that I never should have. I needed answers to the burning questions circulating in my head if I was ever going to shove him out of my soul. If I'd ever find a way to cleanse myself of his darkness.
"El Diablomeans the devil," he said.
"I knew that much, thanks," I said sarcastically. "That doesn't tell me why they call you it. What do you do, go around the world murdering innocent people for fun?"
"I do a great many things,mi reina," he said, grasping my chin in his grip so that he could hold my eyes with his. "I own legitimate businesses likeLotusandMoonin Ibiza, but I also own the underbelly of the island and some of the territory on the mainland."
"The underbelly?" I asked, squinting my eyes as I tried to understand what he was saying. I'd lived a sheltered life, so caught up in the safety of my routine that I couldn't help but feel like I was outside my realm of comprehension.
"The criminal side of the city. The term you would probably be most familiar with is the mafia, but my ranks are not limited by the same kind of familial bonds as those are. My men work their way up the ranks by proving themselves loyal, not by being born to my father's men."
"The mafia? Don't they sell drugs and weapons? Don't they sellpeople?" I asked, flinching back from him. Those fingers held my chin steadily, refusing to release me as I struggled against his touch. Wayne had been an asshole, and I could almost convince myself that he deserved what he got. But there were some lines I couldn't tolerate, and selling people was so far beyond that limit I didn't know what to do with myself. "No wonder you thought it was perfectly acceptable to abduct me off the streets!"
"I assure you,mi reina, you are the first person that I have ever kidnapped in this way. Human trafficking isn't something I tolerate, especially after seeing you standing on the side of the road. Completely unaware that a war raged around you in Chicago when one side of the war fought for the right to sell young girls just like you into sexual slavery. My alliance with the Bellandis is what brought me to your city when I saw you, and my desire to stop trafficking only grew when I thought of what might have happened to you had I not offered you my protection." His words felt like they unlocked a piece of my heart, with the worst of the crimes he could have committed off the table.
"But drugs?"
He nodded. "I am not a good man,Princesa. My men sell drugs. I negotiate arms deals with governments all over the world, and I care little for anything beyond how much they will pay me. Women work for mewillinglyin the sex trade. My crimes are extensive, but I do what I can to mitigate the fall out on innocent people."
I shook my head as angry tears threatened my eyes. "Except for me," I whispered.
"Except for you," he confirmed, leaning forward to tease my lips with his.
The kiss was gentle as he willed me to feel something he couldn't say. I didn't know what there could be to say beyond the fact that he was a murderer. That he was a criminal beyond redemption.
It went without saying that he'd never let me go.
I just didn't know why.