Page 9 of Jacqueline's Quest

She nodded.

"Well?" As much as he shouldn't be impatient with her, he found his patience was running low. Yes, his questions were invasive. If they couldn't be honest with each other from the get-go, how could they ever form a trusting foundation to build off of?

Jaq muttered something in Spanish under her breath. “My last sexual experience was three years ago.” Murray had to school his features to not show his shock at what she revealed. “Like you, I get yearly physicals, which include blood work. I’m clean.”

“Good. Anything else, I should know?”

She narrowed her eyes. Jaqueline jerked her arm, and he let her go. There was no point in pissing her off more than she already was at him. She took a step back, and Murray missed the warmth of her body pressed against him. If the conversation wasn’t so serious, he’d have smiled at the cute stubborn expression on her face.

“I’ve never had sex without a condom,” she admitted.

Murray wanted to roar his pleasure of being the first male to cum inside of her, marking her as his and only his. “Well then, we’re both on common ground.” If he hadn’t been watching her so intently, he’d have missed the flash of pleasure ghosting across her face.

“When do we start?”

“Now,” he said. “The sooner we start to live it, experience it, the better we’ll be. From this moment until we find your brother and my sister, I answer to you.”

A smirk tugged at her lips. “Today it is then.”

The dominant beast within Murray stood then as he crowded her space once more. “Rest assured though, when this mission is complete,it will be me, dominating you.” He ran his thumb across her bottom lip. “And, I can’t wait to hear you scream my name.”

Santiago stood at the door of Hannah's room. It'd been a month since he'd taken over her training—a fluke for sure since Raul kept the girl under guard and key. However, she'd been a gift to him and damn if he didn't count himself lucky. She'd been his target after all. Hannah Jacob, despite being disabled, was immersed within the Nieto Cartel and had been privy to everything Raul did within the Emporio de Monstruo. If the FBI wanted to take down Raul, they’d need Hannah, especially if the rumor about Raul having a daughter didn’t pan out.

When he started doing undercover work, Santiago had been green, so fucking green. He knew the ins and outs of the gang world, of course, because he came from it. As a member of the La Rasa Gang, he rose through the ranks rather quickly, making a name for himself. He ran most of La Rasa’s negotiation for drugs and weapons, plus he had no compunction when it came to ordering hits or doing the job himself.

However, it came with a cost.

On the night he was arrested, he’d been sent to kill the leader of a rival gang. The bastard poached on La Rasa territory, and they—he—wouldn’t stand for it. Unfortunately, the whole thing was a ruse. He should’ve been spending the rest of his life in jail. Instead, an FBI agent saw some type of raw potential in Santiago and wanted to exploit it. Twist everything Santiago knew and destroy La Rasa from the inside out.

At the time, Santiago’s self-preservation kicked in and he took the agent up on his offer. But, taking it came with risks, and he realized, playing this dangerous game would put a target on his back. Because, when shit went down, La Rasa would know it was him, and he’d have the bullseye on his back.

The simple fact of the matter was, La Rasa had been his life since he'd turned fourteen. However, he hoped, the FBI was his future. His tasks started small. He trained certain agents to know what different tattoos meant within a gang. He also explained the hierarchy of the gangs. He went from field office to field office leading seminars, fuck, it seemed, for the first few years, he'd been more of a teacher than anything. Nevertheless, the more he proved to be an asset for them, the deeper entrenched he became in the agency. Then about three years ago, he started being included in fieldwork. This assignment had been his second real 'mission.' It came with inherent risks, of course, all of them did. If anything happened to him while he was in the field, i.e. death, the FBI would take the plausible deniability approach to the situation.

For all intents and purposes, he was and would always be a gangbanger to everyone who mattered. In the beginning, it pissed him off. Putting his life on the line to take out some of the worst criminals, without credit didn't sit right. Now, he understood it. He was doing the dirty work. The jobs none of them could do without getting some blood on their hands. He didn't have that switch in his brain. The one that told him killing was wrong. FBI agents or any kind of LEO for that matter did it to protect themselves or others.

Santiago knocked on Hannah’s door and waited. For this mission, he was Oscar Gonzales. Before he left the Los Angeles field office, they changed his name on all of his files including his record, because everyone knew Raul would dig deep when it came to Santiago’s work product. The only thing Santiago kept the same was his gang name, Snap, on account of his quick temper.

When she didn’t answer him, Santiago turned the knob on her door and entered the space. He’d steadily made his case for the FBI, learning the ins and outs of the Nieto Cartel, so they could dismantle Raul Iniguez’s businesses one at a time. Then, about three weeks ago, Tex made contact. That crazy fucker hacked Santiago’s laptop and posted the new mission parameters along with a “what’s up, homie,” message. He could laugh about it now, but at the time, the fucker almost got him caught. It appeared, unbeknownst to Santiago, Hannah was the sister of a black ops member and the crazy bastard was coming for her.Over my dead body. She’s mine.Santiago didn’t know when he fell for her. He knew he was no good for someone so innocent as her, but he had to have her. He wanted to sully her. Turn her into one of the baddest bitches around.

She sucked in a breath and Santiago’s gaze snapped to her.What the fuck?Hannah was standing at the window overlooking Juarez. In the year he’d been with Raul, he’d never seen her stand. From what all of Raul’s doctors said, she’d never stand let alone walk, yet there she was. “Oscar? What are you doing here?” Fear tinged her voice and he hated it.

He closed the door behind him and locked it, so no one would interrupt them. “You’re standing.” He tried to keep his voice low, so no one would hear them.

“I’ve been doing it off and on for about a month now.” She trembled as she sat back down in her chair. “Are you going to tell on me?”

Again, the fear in her voice ripped at him. “No, butterfly. I won’t tell anyone. You surprised me is all.”

She rolled toward him. “Surprised me, too. Woke up with a pins and needles sensation in my feet one morning and now...” She shrugged. “Been standing every day for at least five or ten minutes at a time.”

Santiago kneeled in front of her. “Can you walk?”

She shook her head. “I need help.”

He scrubbed his chin. “Well, I got a place.”

“I can’t leave here. Raul won’t allow it.” Her bottom lip trembled. “He only allows me time outside when he’s with me. He still thinks I’ll run away.”

Santiago knew she would. If any of the people held in Raul’s fucking house of horrors got outside, they’d all run, and he’d help them. “I know you would, too.”

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