Page 40 of Stains of Desire

"It wasn't enough," I say on a sob, and fresh tears fall.

He pulls me into him again. "Tell me what happened."

I choke out my story about how Santiago kidnapped me and when they took Millie, along with all the threats about playing my role if I wanted her to stay alive.

"Do you know where they took her?"

"No. But I dream of her. She's always in snow and crying for me."

He stays silent, stroking my hair.

I explain how Zoe had to sing naked on stage night after night, never getting to rest her voice. I tell him how Julieta was in the pit when Zoe and I got there and how Vanessa suddenly arrived, then within a week Naomi and Emilia.

Axel listens to everything, rarely talking, except to ask questions.

I pull back. "You understand why I need to know where Interpol wants to take me? I can't go just anywhere."

"Where is it safe to take you?"

"I...oh God, I don't know. They're everywhere."

"They can't be everywhere. We'll figure out where I can take you that is safe."

I rise. "I need to find my daughter. I don't even know how to figure it out. I... I should go back. They might kill her just because I'm no longer there."

He jumps up. "You aren't going back to Santiago. I will deliver you somewhere safe and find your daughter."

"How?"

"This is what I do."

"But..."

He puts his finger over my lips. "I promise you, I will find her. And I will kill every man who ever touched you or her. I need you to trust me and in my promise."

"You don't understand," I cry out.

"What don't I understand?"

"How powerful they are. You can't trust anyone. The people you should be able to trust, you can't."

He steps closer and slides his hands through my hair then tilts my head up. He comes inches from my face. "I am not one of those men. Tell me you trust me."

I close my eyes. Battling with my demons. I trusted William and shouldn't have.

He isn't William.

I open my eyes, and it rolls out of my mouth in a whisper. "I trust you." I don't know how I can after everything I've been through, but I do. Maybe it's just that I want to. I hope it isn't and my judgment isn't off again, but everything in me screams he's not a global leader but a man who's true to his word.

As his eyes scan my face, he nods. "Good. Now tell me who you are referring to when you say 'they'."

My gut flips faster.

"Penelope, I need to know who they are."

"The Global Leaders. It's an enormous, secret movement around the world. It's the new communist movement, but there is nothing with true communist principles about it. Prominent people, politicians, and the drug cartels are involved. The guerrillas in Guatemala are involved, mostly helping Santiago gain more power over Jonas Torres and Jorge Cano's cartels. Even the media and airlines are controlled by them. It's how Zoe and Julieta are involved in this. And their plan is in motion. Every freedom we have will be gone, everywhere. What they are planning, it's not stoppable. It's only a matter of time until it comes to fruition, and time is almost up. The wheels are turning, and there is nothing anyone can do to slow it down."

A deep crease forms between his eyebrows. "What—"