Chapter 14

Terms of Surrender

POV: Karol Kensington

"Hold on!" Mateo yelled from the front seat.

The heavy SUV jerked violently to the left. Tires screamed against the road.

Before I could take a breath, Ciro grabbed my waist. He pulled me back against the leather backseat. His massive, warm body covered mine completely to protect me. He shielded my head with his hands.

Bam!

Something huge slammed on the back bumper of our car. The sound of crunching metal echoed in the dark cabin. I screamed into Ciro’s chest.

"They are trying to spin us off the road," Mateo said. His voice was totally cold and calm, like he was just reporting the weather.

"Lose them, Mateo," Ciro growled. He held me tighter against him. I could hear his heart beating, fast and strong, right against my ear. "Do whatever it takes."

Mateo slammed his foot on the gas. The powerful engine roared like an angry beast. We sped up, weaving wildly through the rainy streets of Medellín. I squeezed my eyes shut. Every time the car took a sharp turn, my body pressed harder against Ciro’s.

Even in the middle of a deadly car chase, all I could feel and think about was him.

The woodsy scent of his cologne filled my nose. The heat of his skin warmed my freezing, wet clothes. His strong arms wrapped around me like a steel cage. It was terrifying, but it also made me feel something I had never felt before. I felt totally safe.

"Going dark," Mateo warned.

The car plunged into a steep, underground tunnel. Mateo suddenly turned off all our headlights. We were driving in pitch black. He hit the brakes, spinning the heavy car into a hidden side alley, and killed the engine.

We sat in complete silence in the dark.

For a long minute, nobody moved. I held my breath. Outside, I heard the loud roar of two heavy trucks speeding past our hiding spot. They kept driving down the main road, totally missing us.

"They are gone," Mateo finally said.

I let out a shaky breath. Slowly, Ciro lifted his weight off me. But he did not move away. He stayed leaning over me in the dark car.

My heart was pounding, and it had nothing to do with the car chase anymore. I could feel the wild, dangerous heat pulling us together.

"Are you hurt, princess?" Ciro whispered. His thumb gently brushed a wet strand of hair away from my face.

"I am fine," I breathed, my voice shaking just a little.

He stared at me for a second longer, his eyes dark with a hunger that made my stomach flip. Then, he finally pulled away and sat back in his seat. The cold air rushed in between us, and I instantly missed his body heat.

"Good driving, Mateo," Ciro said, fixing his suit jacket. "Take us to the private airstrip. It is time to leave the mainland."

"Yes, sir," Mateo said. The engine purred back to life.

Mateo reached into the center console of the front seat. He pulled out a thick, black leather folder and handed it over his shoulder to the back. Ciro took it and dropped it right onto my lap.

"What is this?" I asked, looking down at the heavy folder.

"Your new life," Ciro said flatly. The soft, protective man from a minute ago was gone. The cold, arrogant billionaire was back. "Read it."

I opened the folder. Inside was a thick stack of papers. The title on the first page read: Terms of Surrender & Private Care Rules.

I turned on the small reading light above my head. As I read the words, my heart sank.

"It takes six months to one year for a torn knee to heal completely," Ciro replied, stretching his bad leg out. "You are my doctor. Where I stay, you stay."

"Total isolation? No phone calls to the mainland? No visitors? Ciro, this is a prison sentence. You are cutting me off from the rest of the world."

"I am cutting you off from the people who just tried to kill us," Ciro corrected me. His voice was sharp. "Your sister set you up. Your mother sold you for money. And someone just paid two trucks full of armed men to chase us. You have no friends in Medellín anymore, Karol. The island is a fortress. It is the only place you are safe."

"I don't need you to lock me in a tower to keep me safe!" I argued, my anger bubbling up.

"You signed the contract." Ciro leaned closer, his eyes flashing with dominance. "You belong to me now. You will live by my rules. You will sleep in my house. You will eat my food. You will heal my leg. And you will not speak to a single soul outside of my island. Do you understand?"

I glared at him. I hated how much power he had over me. But I also knew he was right. My family had thrown me to the wolves. Ciro was the only wall between me and a very ugly death.

"Fine," "I will play by your rules."

I flipped to the last page of the folder to read the final rules. It was the technology clause. I already knew he was taking my personal cell phone. But as I read the last sentence on the page, my blood ran totally cold.

Rule 14: The doctor is strictly prohibited from bringing any personal, encrypted medical tablets onto the island.

I stopped breathing. I stared at the black words over and over again.

"No," I whispered, I looked at Ciro. " My encrypted medical tablet. You can't ban it. It has all my custom therapy plans. It has my patient notes. It is how I do my job!"

"I have the best medical computers in the world at my house," Ciro said calmly. "You will use my technology."

"But my tablet has my personal passwords!" I cried, gripping the paper.

He didn't care about my therapy plans. My encrypted tablet was the only way I could secretly log into the Kensington clinic's cloud server. It was the only tool I had left to find the hidden proof of Valeria’s crimes. Without my tablet, I was completely blind. I could never prove my sister put the acid in his brace. I could never clear my name.

I was going to be locked on a remote island, totally cut off from the truth.

"The rule is final, Karol," Ciro said.

I stared at him

He wasn't just taking my tablet to keep me away from my family. He was taking it because he didn't want me searching for outside information.

What dark secret was Ciro Restrepo hiding on that island? And what was going to happen to me when I finally finished it?