thecutedara

Kidnapped, Taken to a private island. I never thought this could happen to me. I never imagined one chance meeting on the eve of my eighteenth birthday could change my life so completely.

Now I belong to him. To Julian. To a man who is as ruthless as he is beautiful - a man whose touch makes me burn. A man whose tenderness I find more devastating than his cruelty.

My captor is an enigma. I don't know who he is or why he took me. There is a darkness inside him - a darkness that scares me even as it draws me in.

My name is Nora Leston, and this is my story.

Two Heart

"They would've found me anyway. It was just a matter of time." I'm convinced of that. "Do you know who they are or what they want from us?"


"I'm not sure, but I can guess," she says, her hands clenching tightly in her lap. "I think they're part of the Jihadist terrorist group that Julian told me about a couple of months ago. Apparently, they're upset that he wouldn't sell them some weapon that his company recently developed."


"Why not?" I ask curiously. "Why wouldn't he sell it to them?"


She shrugs. "I don't know. Julian is very selective when it comes to his business partners, and it could be that he just didn't trust them enough."


"Yes, I think so," she says softly. "At least, that's what you're here for. Someone at the clinic must've been in their employ because they knew who you were and what you meant to Julian. I was sleeping in one of the rooms downstairs when they found me, and they immediately went up to the second floor, to the room where you were staying. I think they intend to use you to force Julian's hand when it comes to giving them this weapon."


I draw in a shaky breath. "I see." I can only imagine how men psychotic enough to kill innocent civilians would 'force Julian's hand.' Gruesome images of severed body parts dance through my mind, and I push them away with effort, not wanting to give in to the panic that threatens to swallow me whole.


"It's lucky that Julian wasn't at the clinic when they came," Beth says, interrupting my dark thoughts. "They killed everyone, all sixteen of Julian's men who were stationed there guarding us."


Beth nods. "They had insane firepower, and they came with a good thirty or forty men of their own. You didn't see the worst of it, because they entered from the back. There were bodies piled six feet high in the other staircase, with many of the casualties coming from their side."


I stare at her, trying to control my breathing. Shit. Shit, shit, shit. For them to sacrifice so many of their comrades, whatever they want from Julian must be a hell of a weapon. Would he give it to them to save us? Does he care for me and Beth enough? I know he wants me—and is concerned about my well-being on some level—but I have no idea if he would put me ahead of his business interests.


Chapter 55