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Prologue

Nothing could cut the heat of the jungle The fan overhead turned, but sweat still ran down her forehead She would have wiped it away, but the fuckers had tied her hands to the bedpost the night before Poor little kidnappers couldn’t handle one s pissy Too bad she’d only ain

Alea closed her eyes Sunset had shadowed the little roo darkness They would be back, and she wasn’t sure she could handle another night of watching her abductors use the other woed with her

They were all in school, the pigs had told her They were supposed to learn what a woman’s real place was

Before she’d been taken and sent to this hell, she’d been a graduate student at New York University, studying international politics Now she wasin misery, forced to watch her fellow abductees endure all kinds of sexual deviancy from men who abused them

Froh-pitched whimper of a wo the wall

Alea shut her eyes, wishing she could close her ears to block out the sound When would this night track of tirip on the carefree woman she’d once been

When she’d first been abducted, she’d kept a careful count,out each day in small scratches on the wall They were still there, all sixty-some odd lines--proof that she’d once hoped someone would find her The endless cycle of ti those stupid lines With no way to fight the drugs they fed her, ti dazed and terrified When she was lucid, the world around her seen Rapid-fire Spanish she couldn’t quite wrap her brain around and unfamiliar men, not to led to co was out of the question Did it matter if she was here a day or a lifeti in it

Lately, her captors had taken to doping her up more Some days, Alea wasn’t sure as real and as a hallucination The worst part was being dependent on that needle Even now she eating, her sto without a fix, but there was no way they would wean her off of it again after her last escape atte Alea frowned, bracing herself Perhaps this would be the end Maybe this would be the moment they bound and trussed her up, then shipped her off to some asshole ould rape her and torture her for the rest of her short life And it would be short, because she had no intention of being so She was Alea Binte al Mussad, descendant of the royal family of Bezakistan She was a princess She had pride And she would go down fighting and try her damnedest to take as many of these bastards with her as she could

A single moment flashed across her mind A sweet su her face up to the sun The inner garden had been her own private world Her beloved cousins had been older, but they’d still played hide and seek with her, calling for their little "monkey," a nickname she’d earned because she climbed the trees and made her nannies insane orry

But they don’t know you, littleyou are One small tree can’t take you down Some days, I’m not even certain a small ar sound that signaled her torture would now continue There were no trees to cli

She turned her gaze to see which pig had come to hurt her An unfaun wrapped around his chest He held it the way she’d seen rip their weapons, like a mere extension of their arms

Was this a new torturer? If so, then her end would likely be very soon because this man was a killer

"Alea?" The words hispered, but cah loud and clear as if the man who spoke them expected to be understood and obeyed

No one had called her by her nairl" or "puta" For the briefesther terrible fate, but her name was all she had left If she died, she would die as Alea

"Yes"

"I need you to stay as quiet as possible My name is Cole Lennox Your cousin sent me"

It took a moment for the words to sink in Cole Lennox? She’d never heard of the man before Her cousin? Talib? Or Yasmin? Would Yas even kno to hire a mercenary? It didn’t matter Someone had come for her Or had her "keepers" found a new, fun way to torment her and extort et her hopes up, only to show her a new terror?

Cole Lennox towered over her "You’re going to fight me, aren’t you? You think you don’t know ht after I brought Tal back fro room and offered me tea I need you to understand that if I have to, I will knock you out in order to save you"

Tears welled, the first she’d felt in ht them ferociously Now that he was closer, she remembered Lieutenant Lennox had saved her cousin fro to save her

"They don’t allowunder this sheet" Shame crashed over her like a wave on the beach

He shrugged out of the black shirt he wore, revealing a T-shirt He set the shirt aside and produced a knife Her hands and feet were free in seconds, and he rapping the shirt around her, carefully avoiding looking for lance below her neck

Alea stood, her hands shaking as Cole Lennox began to lead her out, step by creeping step In the distance, she heard gunfire and shouting