Not that Niko had entered into this mission with the intent of making friends. Still, after four years in Alvarez’s organization, the loneliness was beginning to get to him.
Despite being alone in the room, Niko didn’t let down his guard. He knew Alvarez kept most of the fortress monitored, and the last thing he wanted was to let the bastard see how close to the edge Niko was.
I don’t know how much longer I can take this without breaking.
As usual, immediately on the heels of that thought came the counter response.
I can endure whatever is necessary in order to get Aunt Madalena out of this place. I might feel as if each day I’m losing a piece of my soul, but at least I don’t literally have to share Alvarez’s bed.
Niko’s fingers curled into fists. His aunt’s strength amazed him. She’d survived a year as unwilling mistress to Alvarez, when other women lasted mere weeks.
His sex slave was more like it.
The familiar burn of anger twisted through Niko.
On top of that, his aunt had endured watching her husband die. A week after Aunt Madalena’s capture, both Niko and his aunt had been forced to watch Alvarez torture Uncle Tasi to death. Uncle Tasi had died with hatred in his eyes, never realizing how badly Niko wanted to help him. Not understanding that Niko blamed himself for not finding a way to free his uncle.
The guilt would stay with him forever.
Poor Aunt Madalena had grown increasingly hysterical as the abuse of her husband intensified. She’d fought and screamed, doing everything in her power to get Alvarez or his guards to kill her, too. But as Alvarez’s mistress, no one else was allowed to touch her.
Mistress, and victim for Alvarez’s vicious temper.
But tonight,
Dios
willing, Niko would finally get his aunt out of here. He’d carefully arranged the schedules of the guards to put on duty those who were most sympathetic to Madalena’s plight. And he’d found a member of the staff who agreed to smuggle Madalena off the property. Niko’s DEA contact had arranged for a local cop he trusted to pick up Madalena at a safe distance from the fortress.
Once she was free, Niko wouldn’t have to be so careful around Alvarez, always worrying that the slightest lack of respect on his part would end up with Alvarez taking his anger out on his aunt. Making Niko watch.
Niko closed his eyes and slammed shut the door to the memories that wanted out. His aunt had endure the rapes and beatings with a stoic calm that humbled him. He had to keep his shit together, or he’d screw up the rescue.
He didn’t know how he’d live with himself if he failed his aunt again.
Chapter Two
“N
o! Leave him alone. It was my fault. Entirely my fault. He knew nothing.” Madalena Andros knew she should never have agreed to the escape plan, no matter how persuasive Niko had been. Alvarez had always warned that he’d never let her go. And indeed, guards had converged on her and Niko just as they’d been ready to slip out of the compound.
Now she pulled against the chains holding her to the wall in the dungeon in Alvarez’s Mexican fortress. In the center of the room, Niko was chained between two posts. He was naked. Blood from his shredded back dripped onto the floor and slid down the shiny drain. A bitter laugh slipped past her lips. Lord forbid even the smallest detail in his fortress fail to meet Alvarez’s exacting standards of cleanliness. Even in the dungeon.
“Please. Let him go.” After so much screaming, Madalena’s voice was little more than a harsh whisper.
Niko raised his head slightly. Even though sweat and blood ran into his eyes, he still met her gaze. Underneath the pain she recognized the steely determination that was a core characteristic of the Andros men. Sometimes Niko reminded her so much of her beloved Tasi that her heart threatened to shatter.
Niko shook his head slightly, silently begging her not to draw attention to herself by protesting his punishment. But Madalena would rather be the one to suffer under Alvarez’s lash than see her nephew’s skin split open under the whip.
Alvarez shot Madalena a coldly amused glance. “It is touching the way you lie for your nephew, but I know the truth. The guard who agreed to help you escape had a sudden attack of conscience. He knew I would reward him greatly for warning me of your attempt to flee.”
He raised the whip and brought it down onto an already bloody section of Niko’s back.
Niko flinched and grunted, but Madalena was impressed by his refusal to scream.
“He was very clear that Niko made all the arrangements,” Alvarez continued, giving Niko several more lashes. “In fact, I would have expected nothing less. I have been waiting for Niko to attempt such a thing. His honor would demand he take you away from me. Despite all the training I’ve given him, I’m perfectly aware that he still clings to his beliefs in right and wrong. It’s what makes him such a delightful challenge to work with.”
“Then stop hurting him!” Niko’s body sagged between the chains. His eyes fluttered closed. She didn’t think he’d last much longer. “You’re killing him.”
Alvarez paused and contemplated Niko’s bloody back. “Perhaps you’re right. I do not wish to kill him, just to make an example of him. And to prove to him once and for always that no matter what plans he might have for the future, I am in control of his life.”
Madalena sobbed in relief as Alvarez lowered the whip. But his next words chilled her. “Victorio, the iron please.”
She turned her head. There, in the far corner of the room she’d paid no attention to, sat a small brazier upon a stone pedestal. Sticking out of the hot coals was a long piece of metal.
No. Oh, no. She’d heard rumors that Alvarez sometimes branded disobedient employees, but she’d thought that even he wouldn’t so demean a human being.
She should have known that the monster had no limits when it came to pain or humiliation.
With a thick welder’s glove protecting his hand, Victorio carried the iron over to Alvarez. Another man, whose name Madalena didn’t remember, brought out a bowl filled with water and proceeded to clean the blood off of Niko’s right biceps.
Madalena held her breath as Niko slowly straightened, knowing how painful every breath had to be for her nephew. Her heart swelled with pride at his strength, yet it also wept knowing his punishment was her fault.
“Brand me instead,” she cried out.
Alvarez turned his head and tsked. “I would not think of marring such beautiful skin, my love. No, it is Niko who must wear the sign of his master for all the world to see.”
Body trembling, Madalena bit her lip and stood silent as Alvarez put on a welder’s glove then took the hot iron from Victorio. “Who do you belong to, Niko Andros?”
“No… One… You bastard.”
Oh, careful, Niko. If you push Alvarez too far he will kill you.
Madalena knew that fear for her safety held Niko back. Once again she cursed her foolish younger self for believing the sweet lies Alvarez had told her. She didn’t fully understand Niko’s plans, but she knew for certain his hatred for Alvarez continued to burn deep.
Alvarez took great pride in pushing Niko to the boundaries of his honor and threatening Madalena in order to force her nephew’s obedience. It was all part of his twisted plan for punishing Niko’s parents. What worse insult to an honorable, law abiding family than to have their oldest son be the right hand man of Mexico’s most feared crime lord?
Alvarez enjoyed the adrenaline rush of fighting for Niko’s loyalty. She could attest from personal experience that every time Alvarez won a victory in his mind games with Niko, his sexual appetite grew. Yet she didn’t think he was quite sane. Otherwise, he’d never give Niko such power over his empire. The man’s desperate need for a son blinded him to the fact that her nephew would never completely submit.
As she watched Alvarez bring the brand to Niko’s skin, she vowed she’d find a way to knock some sense into her nephew. He had to take Alvarez down soon, before the crime lord stole any more of Niko’s soul. Which meant she had to convince her stubborn, honorable nephew to leave her behind.
Bile rose into the back of her throat as the smell of burning flesh reached her nostrils. Niko’s lips thinned with pain, but he remained silent as always. From the smile on Alvarez’s face, he appreciated her nephew’s strength. Odd, because Alvarez loved it when Madalena screamed. In fact, the more she screamed, the easier he went on her. Yet Alvarez, in his twisted way, considered Niko the son he’d never had and took pride in Niko’s strength and defiance.
The tension grew until Madalena thought she might start screaming on Niko’s behalf. Then Alvarez finally lifted the brand. She couldn’t tell from this distance what the design was, only that it was an angry red square taking up much of the width of Niko’s powerful biceps.
Niko had kept his head high during the entire ordeal, but after a long, defiant glare at Alvarez, his sheer force of will and adrenaline deserted him. Niko’s head dropped and his body slumped unconscious.
Alvarez made a tsk of disapproval, then nodded for the watching guards to take Niko away. Madalena sagged in relief, until Alvarez turned to her.
“Just because I know Niko was the mastermind of tonight’s plot, my love, does not mean that I am not angry at you. You have greatly wounded my heart. You, too, must be punished.”
Madalena pulled her shoulders back and raised her chin. Whatever Alvarez did to her, she would endure. Her own innocence had ended when Alvarez made her his mistress. The day she was forced to watch Alvarez kill her beloved Tasi, she’d vowed that she would never break, no matter what happened.
So as Alvarez stepped toward her, the familiar glint of violent lust in his eyes, she stuffed all of her emotions deep inside and prepared to weather the storm.
Three Months Later
S
ick to his soul, Niko fell exhausted into bed. A raid he’d ordered against a rival organization had gone bad and Alvarez’s men had turned their weapons on a crowd of innocents, killing a child.
Hours later, he twisted in the sheets as memory returned to him in a dream.
Fourteen-year-old Niko fidgeted as Pop opened the Father’s Day gift he’d painstakingly wrapped. He couldn’t wait for the look of joy on Pop’s face when he saw what was inside.
The last of the brightly colored wrapping paper fell away, exposing the clear, shrink-wrapped plastic casing underneath.
His father turned the portable CD player over. It wasn’t one of the cheap models sold at the local five and dime. Nothing but the top of the line was good enough for his father. But instead of the joy Niko’d expected, Pop’s face was thunderous as he drilled Niko with his eyes. “Nikolos Ezequiel Andros, where did you get this?”
Niko squirmed under his father’s glare, shame and the bitterness of failure snaking through him. “Don’t you like it? I thought, since sometimes you still hurt, if you had music you could play whenever you want, you wouldn’t notice the pain so much.”
His father’s expression softened for a moment. “Thank you for your concern, my son. But I am well aware that you do not have enough money to pay for such an item. So I repeat. Where did you get this?”
Out of the corner of his eye, Niko saw his younger brother, Rafe, and his sister Maria, the middle child, staring at him in shock. He didn’t have to look to know that his
mamá’s
expression would be just as angry as his father’s.
“It’s not fair!” The words that he’d been holding back for the last year burst out of Niko’s mouth. “Alvarez ordered the shooting that put you in that wheelchair. We don’t have hardly any money while Alvarez sits in his fancy houses in Mexico. I just wanted you to have something nice, something new for a change!”
His father shook his head. “Galena, take the children out to the backyard. I need to have a private discussion with Nikolos.”
Niko winced at the disappointment in his father’s voice.
Rafe gave Niko a look that mirrored their father’s as he followed their mother into the backyard, but Maria refused to look at Niko at all. That hurt almost as much as Pop’s censure.
When the door closed behind Maria, Pop set the CD player on the table and rolled his wheelchair until he sat next to Niko. “Nikolos, I am only going to ask you this one more time. Where did you get this music player? Did one of the members from Alvarez’s gang give it to you?”
“What? No. Of course not! I don’t have nothing to do with those boys.” His cheeks heated. How could Pop think that Niko would give the gang members the time of day after their senior leaders had shot him?
Sure, Niko had been in a lot of trouble at school because of fighting, but the other kids kept making fun of the fact that Pop was paralyzed, calling him crippled and no longer a real man. A few of the kids had even found out that his mother was a cousin of Alvarez’s many times removed, so they teased him about having bad family blood.
“Then explain to me how you were able to buy such an expensive gift.”
Niko stared at his shoes.
“Nikolos, an honorable man holds his head high and is not afraid to take responsibility for his actions. Look me in the eye as you answer me, son.”
Niko took a deep breath, raised his head, squared his shoulders, and finally dared to look into his father’s steady brown eyes. “I stole it,” he admitted in a rush.
Disappointment filled Pop’s eyes. “Ah. I see. Was this your idea?”
Niko shrugged. He didn’t want to get his friends in trouble, but he knew better than to lie. “Some of the other boys at school do it all the time. They said it was easy and that the shopkeepers have insurance so it’s no big deal.”
“Nikolos, taking something that you have not earned and have not paid for is always wrong. Did you think that maybe the shop’s owner would blame the salesclerk for the missing item at the end of the day? That maybe the clerk would get fired and not be able to feed his or her family?”
Niko shook his head, ashamed at his selfishness. “But it’s not fair!”
His father nodded. “Yes. I understand that you’re angry about what happened to me. This is life, Nikolos. Being an honorable man means you deal with the hand fate has dealt you and make the best of it. The DEA has given me another job—”