Black Hearts (Sins Duet #1)

I quickly place my hand over it, muffling a yelp back into her mouth while I press her into the wall. The gun wants to jab into her side, maybe below her chin. It wants to do its thing. It takes everything in me to fight it and leave it at my side.

“Violet,” I whisper to her, my lips at her ear. I can practically hear the blood pounding in her skull. “Don’t scream. Don’t do anything you’ll regret. Just listen to me.” I pull back a few inches, staring into her eyes, counting the flecks of gold and grey in the teak. “I have guns for protection, si? They aren’t to be used against you. They’re to protect you.”

She doesn’t believe me. Her nostrils flare above my hand as she struggles to catch her breath.

“Do you want to see? Do you want to know the truth?”

She nods once, hardly blinking, not daring to take her eyes off mine.

“I’m going to take my hand away. Can you promise not to scream?”

She shakes her head.

For fuck’s sake.

I sigh. “Screaming won’t help you, I hope you know that. Not because I’ll do anything to stop you. I won’t. I’ll let you leave if you want. But if you scream, people will come for me. And that’s very, very bad news indeed. If they come for me, I won’t be able to protect you.” I lean in closer, my forehead pressing against hers. “Do you understand, mirlo?”

She grunts something that sounds like a yes.

I step back and carefully remove my palm from her mouth.

She immediately gulps for air.

“Remember when I said I wasn’t a nice guy?” I say. I grab her hand and lead her over to the bedroom, opening the door.

We step inside and she gasps at the sight of the two guns on the bed.

“I have more at home, this is just a little travel kit,” I tell her, raising the one in my hand in front of her face, making sure she can see me eject the clip, which rattles across the floor. I toss it on the bed and then raise both my hands. “I’m not going to hurt you and you’re not going to hurt me. Deal?”

She walks to the bed, her fingers tracing over the parts I haven’t put back together. “Who are you, Vicente?” she whispers, more to the guns than to me.

“You want the truth? Even if the truth will scare you? Even if the truth will make you think differently of me?”

“Yes,” she says but she’s bracing herself.

“Fine.”

I walk over to her and sit on the bed and finish putting my guns back together, as if she hadn’t interrupted me at all. “As I am sure you have figured out, my father has nothing to do with avocados. He’s the leader of a drug cartel.”

I glance up at her. To her credit she doesn’t seem all that shocked.

“Oh.”

“And I’m the second in command.”

She licks her lips. “I see.”

“Do you now?”

She shakes her head. “Why didn’t you just tell me that?”

I let out a dry laugh. “Are you serious? Tell me you wouldn’t have run away or called the police.”

She shrugs and sits down next to me, picking up a bullet and examining it. “I don’t know what I would have done.” I have to admit, it’s kind of impressive how she’s taking it all in stride. I don’t know if it’s because of her bloodline, that she’s so accepting of my way of life. Or if what’s been happening over the last few weeks has been opening her eyes to a new side of things, but whatever it is I’m grateful for it.

“Well I can tell you that it’s the kind of thing we keep under wraps. I would be a wanted man if people knew who I was. I hate to sound cocky, but I’m very valuable.”

She offers me a faint smile. “You love to sound cocky.”

“True. There are a lot of people who want me dead or want me as a bargaining chip.”

“People like the ones who have been following me?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. But you can see why I need to protect myself.”

She glances over her shoulder at the wardrobe. “Those ropes weren’t really for sex, were they?”

“Not always, no.”

“And let me guess, you really do have duct tape.”

“In my toiletry bag.”

“And even though you use a tie on me, I assume you have an actual blindfold somewhere.”

I shake my head. “No. But back home, we would use a black bag, like a potato sack.”

She shakes a bit at that, as if it’s all just starting to sink in. “Were you sent here to kidnap me?” the words sound so soft coming out her mouth, I nearly crumble.

“No, Violet. No one sent me here. To do anything. I came here because I wanted to, I needed to…” I’m not even sure if I’m lying anymore. “I wanted to escape, to be a better man. And then I met you…and I realized I could be.”

“Am I supposed to believe you?”

“Yes,” I say thickly. “You’re supposed to believe me.”

She exhales and leans back until she’s lying on the bed beside the guns. “I don’t know what to believe anymore.” Her head rolls to the side and she stares at me for a few beats. “I want you to teach me how to shoot a gun. I want you to give me one of them.”

My heart swells, fast and warm in my chest. My beautiful blackbird, coming into her own. “That can be arranged.”

“I want you to make me stronger.”

“I won’t have to do much work,” I tell her, pushing the guns aside and crawling over to her.

“I want to be able to protect myself,” she says.

I climb on top of her, grinning as I run my fingers over her lips. “You’ll more than protect yourself. You’ll find the guy who did this to you and you’ll blow his brains out yourself.”

She blinks hard at that, struck by the fear. Maybe the fear of how easily she can imagine it.

I bury my mouth below her ear, licking, sucking, tasting her adrenaline.

“I want us to go far away from here,” she murmurs.

“I’ll take you wherever you want to go.”

“Vegas might be fun.”

I laugh as my hands slide up under her shirt, exposing her bra. “Vegas would be fun. I’ve never been.” I pull down the cup and slowly suck her nipple into my mouth in one long draw. She squirms beneath me, her hands running through my hair and tugging.