Page 21 of Fighting for Lucy

No.

That memory had to be shoved away.

If he allowed himself to think of Lucy, scared and hurting, the magic was gone. He had to picture her as she should be, all serious logic and practicality. All that wildness she kept bottled up inside allowed her to run free only when she had designated time to let her hair down.

Zander wanted to make her let her hair down and see her all wild and free, head thrown back, laughter tumbling from her lips, and her eyes shining with the freedom of not having to carry around the pressure of always proving you were capable.

He wanted the real Lucy, the one who didn't worry about how others saw her.

Wanted her free.

Completely and utterly free.

And his.

Because no matter how many times he reminded himself that he couldn’t date his twin sister’s friend he still wanted her. Still craved her with an intensity that was only growing. The last few days together had only made it worse. She was so strong and stood up for herself no matter how scared she was. She was tough and so beautiful, and brave enough to do whatever it took to protect herself.

And she was out there all alone.

Captured.

He’d seen the evidence of the men catching her, dragging her away with them, and was using it to feed his fury.

But it was also feeding his fear.

Just because Lucy could never really be his, he wasn’t worthy of a woman like her, his soul was too black, too dirty, it didn't mean that he wouldn’t do whatever it took to save her.

Anything.

He had to.

This was his fault, and he wouldn’t allow another person to be hurt because of him.

Die because of him.

On and on he walked, his focus narrowed down to only following the trail, there was no energy left in his body to worry about anything else like the predators lurking in the jungle.

Zander walked until he couldn’t anymore.

Until his body fell and he was unable to push back up to his feet.

Until the black spots grew until they consumed his vision.

Until unconsciousness stole him away, and his last thought was that, once again, an innocent person was going to pay for his mistakes.

CHAPTER SIX

January 23rd

10:47 A.M.

You can do this.

You will not back down.

Lucy kept repeating that to herself as she was marched out of the bedroom she’d been stashed in when she was first brought to the house.

Someone had cleaned up her wounds properly, and she’d been given water to drink but nothing to eat and no clean clothes to wear. It wasn’t the being dirty in and of itself that bothered her—although she’d love to be clean, she’d gone camping plenty of times and been longer without a shower—it was that it was another way for Raul Castillo to try to exert dominance over her. He thought if he kept her dirty and hungry, it gave him an edge.

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