I stood then turned to face Atkins. I wanted his attention on me, not Jack. Atkins took a couple of steps back, but kept his gun trained on me. A quick scan of the room told me we were the only ones here. Where everyone else had gone was a good question, one I didn't have time to answer.
"I've said it before, and I'll say it as many times as I need to until you get the picture. I do not know where Danny is, and even if I did, I would never tell you. Danny is my friend, something you wouldn't know anything about."
Yeah, it probably wasn't a good idea to antagonize the guy with the gun, but I refused to let Atkins see how scared I felt. I was staring down the barrel of a gun I knew Atkins had no problem using. Jack was on the floor, and I wasn't sure if he was hurt or dying or what.
I just didn't care. I was done.
I took a step closer to Atkins. "Danny does not belong to you. You need to get that through your thick fucking head. Just because you have money does not mean you have the right to own someone."
Atkins chuckled as if what he found what I said amusing. "I can do anything I like, and there is nothing you or your friends can do to stop me."
"Wanna bet?"
I was so close to shifting and scratching this guy's eyes out.
"We will find a way to stop you."
"You can't stop me," Atkins said. "You don't have that kind of power, but I do. If I want something done, it gets done. If I want someone to disappear, they disappear. And if I want to keep your little friend as a pet, there is nothing you can do to stop it."
"Danny is not a pet!"
Atkins snorted. "You don't know much about your friend, do you?"
I blinked at the man, confused. "What?"
"He's a shifter."
I fucking knew that, but I wasn't about to acknowledge that I knew. "He's a what?"
"He's a shifter," Atkins insisted. "He can shift into a cat. I don't know exactly what sort of cat he is, but I think it's an exotic one. He's quite beautiful."
And Atkins was quite insane.
"People can't shift into cats in real life, Atkins. That's the stuff of Hollywood movies and romance novels."
"I'm not crazy," Atkins insisted. "I've seen it with my own eyes."
I snickered at the man. "You are crazy. Don't let anyone tell you differently."
"Don't fuck with me, Kaito." Atkins' eyes narrowed before he snapped his fingers. "I could have you killed just like that."
"Murder, kidnapping, stolen goods, selling people on the black market. Is there any law you won't break?"
Atkins' eyes grew a little fanatical, which totally creeped me out. "Haven't you heard? The laws don't apply if you're rich enough to buy your way out, and I am."
"You've been doing that for a long time, haven't you? Buying your way out of things. Is that how you went from being Robert Atkins to Carl Atkins?"
"Heard about that, did you?" Atkins chuckled. "I thought it was rather inventive to leave my entire estate to myself."
"What happened to the real Robert Atkins?" I already knew he was dead from the information Danny had dug up. "Did you have him killed?"
"I told you, I can have anyone killed."
"Is that what you're going to do to me if I don't tell you where Danny is? Or are you going to sell me to one of your little Middle Eastern friends as a slave, as you've done to so many other people?"
"Danny is mine."
"No." I grinned, which seemed to confuse Atkins. I pointed behind him. "Danny is his."
