Page 88 of Emerald

“Manuel wants to see me. You don’t think?”

Nash shakes his head before his face turns to thunder. “He’s probably horny.” I screw up my face at his comment. “Sorry, I didn’t mean that.”

“Don’t apologize, you’re probably right. He said his wife was in town and that he wouldn’t be able to see me.”

“Message him.”

Carmen: I thought you couldn’t see me because of your wife.

Manuel: She’s been stressing me out. I’m very tense. A friend is hosting a party tonight. She won’t be there, she has plans. I need to see you.

“His friend is hosting a party tonight and he wants me to go,” I explain to Nash. His knuckles turn white as he grips the edge of his laptop. “What if Pearl is there, I have to go.”

“I know,” he says quietly.

I get up off my chair and walk over to where he is seated. “Nash,” I say his name. He looks up at me with those shimmering green eyes, and I melt into them as I straddle him.“You’re the only man for me,” I remind him as I stare him down. “You’re mine and I’m yours no matter what.”

“What if he hurts you?”

“I won’t let him,” I reassure him.

“You don’t have a choice. You’re playing Carmen the student from Spain, not Elena the killer,” he says through gritted teeth.

“I can be both, believe me,” I say as his hands run up and down my back. “Please, Nash. I need you to trust me. I can’t worry about you while I’m there, otherwise I’ll mess up.”

Nash grabs my face and kisses me. “Go, do what you must do. I’ll be here waiting for you with a hot bath.”

I don’t deserve this man. “Thank you,” I say, kissing him again until my phone interrupts it. I scramble off Nash’s lap and grab my phone.

Manuel: Carmen?

Carmen: What do you want me to wear?

Manuel’s bodyguardpicks me up from home. I went for a burgundy dress with a plunging neckline and a split up to my hip. Nash didn’t come out of his room, and I don’t blame him, seeing the woman you are seeing getting ready to go out with someone else to a sex party would hurt me too.

We arrive at a luxurious house on the beach. The bodyguard escorts me from the car along a long and winding path that is surrounded by palms. We eventually make it to a hidden door where he gives three knocks, the door opens, and Manuel pops out.

“Sweetheart,”he coos, stepping from the doorway and embracing me. It takes everything in my power not to revolt against his touch as Manuel nuzzles my neck. “You look spectacular.”He grins, giving me a twirl.

“I wanted to please you,”I whisper to him.

“You do, you please me so much.”He grins at me.“Come, the party has started, everyone is excited to see you.”I take his hand and follow him inside, we head down a flight of stairs to what seems like a basement. When we turn the corner, the room is filled with men playing poker, and smoking cigars sitting around chatting. There are naked women, too, walking around serving the men drinks or handing out food while they grope them. Manuel introduces me to some of his friends, and they leer and lick their lips as they look upon me, they make me sick.“There’s someone special I want you to meet,”Manuel says as he links his hand with mine and weaves me through the crowd to where there is a hidden area. Sitting in the middle is Pedro Dominguez, the plump, salt and peppered-haired cartel leader, some of his lieutenants who are around the same age as him, and then I turn and see Domingo Dominguez his son sitting opposite him, he is a more handsome version of his father, obviously getting his looks from his mother. I can feel the men’s beady eyes all over me and I squeeze Manuel’s hand.“They are friends, no need to be afraid,”he reassures me. I know this is bullshit. In that moment I realize how scary this situation is for an unprepared woman. A woman who thought she had met a wonderful man and now the rules are changing. You can feel the presence of the situation turning into something you were notprepared for. My rage bubbles to the surface as I look over these men, all have rings on their fingers except the younger men. Men that are probably old enough to be fathers and grandfathers of these women. Men who have daughters of their own and would kill if anyone did the depraved things these men do to the women they kidnap.

“Manuel, who is this exquisite creature?”Pedro asks as he looks me over, and I feel his visual touch over my skin. I try to hide the shudder.You have been around men worse than this.I commit their faces to memory so that one day I can remove them from Earth. It may not be this trip, but I will destroy them and their human trafficking enterprise.

“This is my new friend Carmen. She is out here on holiday from Spain after graduating from university,”Manuel explains.

“She must be smart. What is she doing with you?”he teases, and all his men laugh, as does Manuel. I give him a timid smile.

“I don’t know, I got lucky I guess.”Manuel turns and grins at me.

“Is this the first time she has been to one of our parties?”Pedro asks.

Manuel shakes his head.“No, she has been to one before and loved it. Didn’t you, sweetheart?”he turns and asks me.

I swallow putting on my act.“Yes, we had fun. Manuel has been introducing me to his kinks which are new to me, and we have been having fun.”

“You had fun?”Pedro asks, quirking his brow at me.

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