Dear Readers,
The Billionaire's Captive follows Elsa Perez and Javier Sandoval's story. What happens when Elsa's ruthless stepfather carelessness puts her in Javier's hands, a man more ruthless, they are books written about him? Find out in this story. You must have heard of Javier in the first book of this series: Betrothed to The Don. This book can be read as a standalone, and it is a mafia romance full-length novel. Enjoy! ♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡ “Open this damn door before I break it down!” I hear my stepfather's drunken voice yell for the second time from outside my bedroom door. “Wait till I get my hands on you, you slimy bitch!” As quietly as I can, I recover from my frozen stance and will my legs to retreat into my bathroom. Once I'm in, I use my strength to raise the creaky door, this way it doesn't make a noise as I pull it close and shut myself in. He rattles the door again and suddenly laughs like he knows he has the upper hand. “Hiding from me will do you no good. You can't stay locked up in there forever.” My heart beats so loud, I think I can even hear it through the thumping of the pulse of my neck. And I know my stepfather wasn't bluffing when he said he would break down the door. He'd done it before when I was fourteen years old and Lisa, my stepsister, had lied against me to him. He barged into this bedroom when I was having my bath and broke down the bathroom door when I refused to open it. I was young and scared. My fears only grew worse after that day. He would sneak into my room at night to touch me. He did this especially when he would get drunk. The first time it happened, I threatened to tell Mom about it. He hit me so hard that night that I had a black eye just the next morning. Before I had a chance to show it to mom, my stepfather got to her first and told her I had fallen off the bed and hit my eyes against the nightstand. You must think ‘She's your biological mum, surely she didn't buy that lie.’ Well, I'm here to tell you that she did. If she suspected that he was lying, she never showed it. Even to this day. When I'm able to breathe again without feeling choked up, I know my panic attack, which seems to have become a weekly occurrence, has subsided. I clean my eyes and take deep breaths as I get back up on my feet. I can't hear my Stepfather’s yelling anymore so I leave the bathroom as quietly as possible and walk to my bedroom door. Placing my ears against the rough surface of the hard door, I still my breath so I can concentrate on any sound outside the door. As usual, the only thing I can hear in the hallway is the heavy snore of my passed-out stepfather. My body feels normal again immediately. I don't like that he's just outside my door and can wake up at any time and continue harassing me again, but for now, I appreciate the peace. I hardly get that around here. Either Lisa or Mom would later come to take him upstairs in the middle of the night. I have just four hours to sleep until 5:30 a.m. when I'll have to wake up for the day to clean the house. Just as I'm about to doze off, my phone pings from an incoming text. Oliver: Hey, E! Mind dropping by tomorrow? Just got back from the UK. Seeing the message from my boyfriend, Oliver, instantly wipes the sleep of my eyes. Me: Hey Oliver. I've missed you so much. Sure, I'll drop by tomorrow. Does noon sound good? Oliver: 12 is too far. Come earlier. Me: You know how it is around here. 12 is the time I'll be free. When the three dots keep appearing and disappearing for a while, I put my phone down. If anyone walks in on me right now, they would think I'm crazy because of how wide the smile on my face is. That's how happy I get each time I talk with Oliver. Oliver’s my first love. He was the first and only person to show me what it meant to have someone on your side since my father's death. I love him so much that the first time he brought up eloping together on my 24th birthday, I immediately fell in love with the idea. That would be a dream; being far away from this excuse of a family I was punished with and in the presence of the one who makes me happy. Since Oliver mentioned the idea when I was just 20, that has been all I've lived and dreamed of. He said he would help me process my visa before my 24th birthday which is just next week. In six days. Of course, I've been counting. It's impossible not to. The ping of my phone disrupts my happy thoughts. Oliver: They are assholes. It's fine though. I'll surprise you tomorrow. Me: Have you been able to get the stuff done? I ask, referring to the visa because there's no way I'm going to just write ‘visa’ there. If someone sees my phone before I'm able to disappear with Oliver, our plans will be ruined. Oliver: We'll talk more about it tomorrow. Goodnight, E. Me: Okay. I love you. There's no reply after that. He's probably already dozed off. He does that a lot. I bury my phone beneath my pillow and try to fall asleep but I'm too excited. I'm extremely excited about what the future holds. I want to meet new people, work, and finally be able to go to college since no one was willing to forward my education after high school. They had no problem enrolling Lisa into one so why was mine different? And after I've graduated, Oliver and I will get married just like we've always dreamed of. I let out a dreamy sigh. Up until this week, I had never let my imagination run wild for fear of disappointment, but knowing that my freedom is just six days away has me all jittery. I finally have hope and I won't let anything get in the way of it. I'm able to fall asleep sometime in the night and only stir in my sleep hours later when I feel a breath fan across my neck. Before I can panic that my stepfather took on his words and did break down the door, Oliver’s familiar pinecone scent drifts through my nostrils, making me release a relieved breath. My stepfather always has a stale alcoholic stench to him. “Relax, It's just me.” He says a bit too loudly. “How did you get in?” I whisper, hoping he will get the cue to whisper as well because I don't want anyone to hear us. “The basement.” Is all he says as he kisses me between my chest and fondles my breast with his other hand. He flips us over almost immediately so that I'm on top of him. “C'mon, get me off. I've missed you.” He unbuckles his belt and folds his hands behind his head. I still feel sleepy but I know how much Oliver likes this so I get to work until he releases on me. Knowing that I won't be getting any sex since he's found his release already, I get up from the bed to go clean myself in the bathroom. “Oliver.” “Yes?” His voice sounds drowsy so I know sleep isn't very far away. “Are our passports ready? My birthday is just next week, remember?” “I have it all under control, E. Stop worrying.” I can hear him sigh but I'll just assume it's because he's tired. Peeking my head out of the bathroom to look at him, I can see his chest rising and falling, like he's asleep already. I release a sigh of mine. I leave a knocked-out Oliver in my room to sleep as I shut the door behind me. The only upside of having my room on the ground floor, away from the other rooms which are all upstairs is because of times like this, so Oliver can sneak out without bumping into anyone. I get on with my activities for the day which involves cleaning the ground floor, preparing breakfast and then cleaning their rooms when they're all up and having breakfast. That's my daily routine. But doing chores today feels different from the other days and I know why. I squeal internally in delight because I know that soon, my life now will be a thing of the past.I've been sitting in a corner of the gas station where the sun shone less, waiting for two hours now but Oliver still hasn't come. He said the gas station downtown was where we would meet when everyone left for the day.The plan was that he would be waiting for me here and not the other way around. I mean, he knows how much my anxiety spikes up when I'm stressed. He isn't answering my calls either. The good news is that his phone isn't switched off so maybe he's on his way and just got a bit delayed.Yes. That must be it.I have no reason not to trust him. He was even the one who came up with this idea. He wouldn't leave me behind. Absolutely not.But when another hour passes and the sun's rays begin to cast on me in my hiding corner, I'm hit with a fresh wave of disappointment. I don't believe my words of assurance anymore because they sound vague even to my ears.I have an hour left until it's 4 p.m. before my family comes back from wherever it is they usually go on Thursdays. If I
6 months later…If there's one thing I've learned over the last 18 years it took me to build my cartel, it's that liars can be spotted in so many different ways from a mile ahead. I have no idea whether it actually takes so much effort to spot a liar or maybe it just comes naturally to me. I'll go with the latter.First, they try so hard to contain their labored breaths by trying not to breathe for a few seconds. This act is to trick the heart into believing that all is well so the hard thumping reduces. While that happens, beads of sweat will begin to form in their hairline, which then slowly trickle down their temple. There's also that mild twitching and uncountable blinking of the eyes. Then there's the most obvious which is when they begin to stutter. Of course, stuttering could also indicate that the said person is nervous. But not when he's also guilty of all four acts at once.It takes a deep form of observation and focus to spot these little details. Turning to my right-hand
Over the past six months since Oliver betrayed me, I've become a shadow of my former self and that's saying a lot. Oliver hasn't called me either but I've had the time to heal past the betrayal no matter how difficult it has been. I thought things were tough for me all these years, it's nothing compared to how I've been treated these past few months.Lisa never failed to remind me of how I was fucking with her boyfriend. She called me a slut at every chance she got and often said things like “You didn't think anyone would ever love you when you look like that, did you?” Her snarky comments always hit home. I know I'm not in the category of the regular slim build most girls usually weigh. I've always been… curvier than others and I wish it wasn't so. It's hard to love my body when everyone around me reminds me of how ‘fat’ I am.That's one of the reasons I loved Oliver. I thought he saw me for…me. He never called me fat and he made me feel wanted. At least that was what I thought. I g
On the third day of my abduction, I fear that I might be losing my mind. I know I'm all about solitude and all but the quiet has become too much. If anything, it has become pure torture to me.Fear of the unknown.I don't know what to expect and the silence has been killing me. On the night of my abduction, I was tied up because I wouldn't stop struggling and then they dumped me in the back seat of an SUV as we drove off. I was seated in between two big men and the if-you-move-we'll-strangle-you look they gave me was enough to make me sit still. It didn't mean I stopped panicking though. I was a mess inside.I thought they would lock me up in an underground room, all alone during the day and then take turns abusing and raping me at night. Instead, we pulled up into the grandest mansion I have ever seen. The huge black gates opened to let the cars in on our arrival and closed behind us as soon as we had driven in.The grand mansion stood at the end of a long, winding driveway, surrou
Stepping into my home office, I breathe a sigh of relief. I don't know why I thought it was a good idea to let a male have access to the room I kept Richard's daughter in. Things would have gotten really messy if I hadn't gotten there in time. I have Nana Guadalupe to thank for that. It took her two days to give me reasons why the poor girl shouldn't be treated poorly because of her father's sins. I assured her the poor girl wasn't being treated poorly, but she wasn't having it. “It's dangerous to leave a woman out there by herself. Bring her in so she can help me around here.” She had said, and that was all it took to give in. They are very few people in my life that I usually take instructions from, Nana Guadalupe is one of them. I've known her since I was 10 years old. She was our housekeeper and mum's best friend. Even after my parents died, she stood by me. In her words, I was too young to be by myself. And ever since then, she has refused to go anywhere else even when I took
I'm awake and fully dressed for the day by 5:30 a.m on the dot. I don't know why I'm up this early, especially since Nana Guadalupe said activities usually started between seven and eight a.m. I can't tell if it's the aching of my head from yesterday's assault or the fact that this is usually the time I wake up at home. I'm guessing both.I had a good seven hours of sleep after Nana Guadalupe showed me the kitchen and the door to her room. Something tells me she would have given me something for my headache which started last night if I had told her, but I couldn't bring myself to ask. No one ever listened at home so I fear my instincts could be wrong about Nana Guadalupe. I'm not about to let this headache earn me a punishment so early so I'll rather deal with the pain silently.It's still dark outside and I can't spot any movements outside the windows. Putting my ears to the door, I don't hear any sounds in the hallway either. Am I the only one awake this early? I shouldn't be sur
Almost two weeks into being here, and I can swear that this is the most peace I've ever experienced in a very long time. All I do is to take instructions from Nana Guadalupe all day, which mostly involves cooking.It's almost usually a very small meal for us and Javier. And then, on some afternoons, we prepare meals in large quantities for Javier's associates. Nana Guadalupe is the one who serves them, though. I doubt my legs would ever successfully take me to that side of the house. Not like I've tried or anything, but they are usually so many men trooping in and out of the house, I fear running into them, so I stay as far away from them as possible.Nana Guadalupe understands this and only asks for my help in setting the table when none of the men are present yet. Other than that, I've helped her once when it was just Javier and Carlos.I haven't had any personal encounters with Javier since he saved me from being raped at the cottage and the brief almost encounter in the hallway. I
I have two laptops positioned on my desk before me. Both are powered on and are being in use. While I use one laptop to draft a coded filled email containing different routes to the team in charge of transporting my drugs, the second laptop displays the faces of two of my corporate standby team, arguing about what properties should be tagged for sale when my potential client for the day joins our zoom meeting in a few minutes.“Oh please.” Zachary's voice comes on. I'm not looking at the screen, but I can probably imagine him rolling his eyes. “Tell him, boss. The properties down south don't even sell at this time of the year.” “Zachary, I promise you that no one cares. Our client is a billionaire. If that's what he wants, then that's what he gets.” Laden says.“Why don't we just present any of the recently bought ones. We could rebuild it and sell it. I think it'll fit someone of his status.” Now it's my turn to comment. “That is entirely up to Mr Harris. If it's well within his bu