Page 28 of Fighting for Lucy

Nothing should be able to top that ordeal.

Yet watching Lucy, still in her tattered clothes from the crash, dirt streaking her face, her blonde locks a matted tangle around her head, with her arms tied behind her back and her cheeks flushed with arousal somehow managed to be worse.

Maybe it was because he knew she hadn't signed up for this and had no idea what she was getting herself into.

The way her hips rocked subconsciously, seeking friction that would bring her release, friction that wasn’t there and wouldn’t be there until she coughed up the intel Raul wanted, was pure torture.

His fault.

He’d gotten her into this.

And he had to figure out a way to get her out.

Because he knew why it was that this was worse than being taken captive with his team and watching their executions. They hadn't hated him. They’d offered him forgiveness, accepted their fates, and understood his decisions.

Lucy did not.

She had no idea what was going on, and mingled with the blood-searing lust in her gaze in the dining room at breakfast was pure, unadulterated hatred.

Aimed directly at him.

And it had met its mark. Spearing like an arrow straight through his heart.

“Let me take a shot at her,” he said as he strolled into Raul’s personal office.

Although the other man’s eyes narrowed in disapproval, there wasn’t a lot he could do about it. Zander wasn’t one of his men and couldn’t be ordered around. As far as Raul was aware—as far as anyone outside a select few who knew the truth were aware—he was a former Delta Force operator who had been warped by war and turned. Blamed his country for the death of his team and wanted revenge on the men who had killed them.

Partially true.

He did want revenge.

Lived for it.

Or at least he had until Lucy came along.

“Why do you think she’ll give it up for you when she has yet to beg for pleasure from anyone else?” Raul asked. Despite his annoyance at not being able to be completely in control of Zander, he recognized that they could be mutually beneficial to one another. He got Zander access to the terrorist group responsible for his teammates’ deaths so he could destroy them, and Zander would give him the benefit of the connections he had made in his years in Delta.

Win-win.

Only Zander had plans the man knew nothing about.

Plans he had no intention of sharing.

“Because we built a … how shall we say … rapport … while we were in the jungle,” he answered vaguely.

“Do you mean there was sexual chemistry between you two?” Raul asked.

“You want the details?” he snapped. It was always a fine line he was balancing. Push Raul too hard, and the man would react in anger, he liked to be in control, and he liked to have his way. But if he didn't push hard enough, then no way would the weapons dealer believe he was warped enough from his ordeal to turn on his country.

The man actually considered his answer and Zander feared that if Raul said he did want details of sex between him and Lucy—even if those details would be fictitious—he would have no choice but to beat the man to a pulp for invading Lucy’s privacy like that.

“No, not particularly. But have at it. She’s in the third room to the right on the second floor. Remind her that she’s dueanother dose in less than an hour, and my men are chomping at the bit to have a touch of her.”

Reining in his anger was not an easy thing to do, but somehow Zander managed it. “I’ll get her to talk.”

“Promise her a quick death if she tells you. She doesn’t have to know that I've already promised her to my men when I have what I need from her,” Raul said before dismissing him by returning his attention to his laptop.

Zander was seething and terrified as he headed out of the office. Being raped to death was a horrific way to die. While he’d never witnessed it—he wasn’t sure he’d be able to stand by and let it happen no matter the consequences of whatever mission he was on—he and his team had arrived too late to save three young girls from their fate on the final mission they’d performed before being captured.

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