Marie, Laura - Miss: Senorita and the Soldado [The Miss Series 2] (BookStrand Publishing Romance) Read Free

the urge to fight him with strength. She would only lose and suffer the consequences.
    She thought about the way he destroyed her life, her family. He killed her brother Mathew, took her hostage as payback to her father for crossing him in some international smuggling deal gone bad. At least that’s what Armando told her.
    Her father was a detective working undercover along with the Drug Enforcement Agency.
    Armando said her father was on the take. He had accepted bribes and was working hand and hand with some local dealers in the States.
    She hated him for it. She lost all respect for her father and couldn’t help but wonder if her brothers were involved. Her assumptions about their involvement with drug trafficking and accepting bribes were all she had to think about over the months that passed.
    Maybe that was why Mathew was shot and killed?
    “You’re not smiling my dear. Smile for me,” he ordered, out of breath, and she stared at him, her facial expression blank.
    Armando grabbed a fistful of her hair and used it to drag her across the bedroom. She held on to his wrists to try and stay a foot away and ease the tension, but she couldn’t. This was bad. She had made him angry, and now he would be rough.
    She contemplated giving in. Just one more time and then he would never touch her so intimately again.
    No. She couldn’t take this anymore. She couldn’t let this man have her again. She did not want to smell his cologne, the way the smell of his saliva lingered in the air and against her flesh. No!
    She scanned the table by the bed. A solid brass ashtray sat there. It was heavy, and if used properly, it would make the perfect weapon. Armando loved his expensive cigars. He especially enjoyed them in the evening after they made love.
    Armando grabbed Elloisa’s face.
    “What is it with you tonight? You know the rules, Elloisa, or do you need to be reminded of them?”
    She tried to turn away. “No, Armando, I don’t…I…”
    The slap came out of nowhere, and she fell to the floor, holding her cheek, crying in pain.
    Armando ripped off his shirt, undid the buckle on his designer dress pants.
    He pulled Elloisa up in one swift motion then onto the bed. Her body bounced and she nearly went over the other side, but Armando grabbed her by the ankles and pulled her legs towards him.
    She screamed for him to stop.
    Elloisa cried, “No….No, Armando, please.” But he was determined to put her in her place, show her what defying him would get her.
    He had trouble lowering the zipper to his pants.
    There is a God .
    She made the move. It was now or never. She had to escape or he would eventually kill her.
    Elloisa grabbed for the ashtray just as Armando got the zipper down.
    She slammed the shiny object as hard as she could against the back of his head.
    Armando froze but he was awake, conscious.
    She hit him again. Her arms were shaking. Her whole body was as she cried and panted, waiting for him to stop.
    He was still conscious. Was the man truly invincible? She shook with fear and her courage began to waver, but she couldn’t turn back now. Elloisa had to finish him. She struck him again, feeling the slight hesitation right before the brass hit his skull. Finally, he dropped to the floor and appeared unconscious.
    Elloisa jumped up from the bed and ran to the closet. She retrieved the hidden bag then tossed on some jeans, a T-shirt, and boots. She had a desert to cross if she made it over the wall.
    Her plan was in motion three hours earlier than arranged. She would have to hide out and pray no one followed her.
    Armando lay on the bedroom floor, moaning in pain.
    That was nothing compared to the pain he had caused her here at the mansion, never mind the pain he had caused her family.
    She looked around the room, grabbed what she needed, then headed slowly out the door. Luckily, she peeked down the hall first. Ramos, Armando’s bodyguard, was heading down the hallway. “Shit!” she said softly then closed the