“Oh, Jesus.” She sent up a prayer of thanks that her grabby captor had been too busy manhandling her into the room to hear the soft murmur that had barged out of her mouth. It was a small miracle that Vince had fallen on his side, his face mostly obscured from her line of sight. Of course, there were parts of him on the floor that she could see, parts never meant for the light of day, and she wrenched her gaze away in a last-ditch effort not to throw up at the sight of the gray matter on the floor.
“Stand right here and keep your eyes on the wall.”
The man jerked her to a stop a few feet past the door, mercifully turning her away from Vince’s body altogether. He released his death grip on her hair, giving Kylie the momentary rush of relief she needed to focus. She metered her breathing as best she could, searching for her older, former Army Ranger brother Kellan’s voice in her head.
The first thing you need to do when you get jammed up is get calm and calculate. Manage your adrenaline before it manages you.
Kylie scraped for another inhale. The guy—who she still hadn’t gotten a good look at even though she was certain she recognized his voice—paced behind her, remaining silent. Although she’d only been in the office once before, she knew the only way out was the way they’d come in. Her eyes searched the smoke-stained, dinged-up wall in front of her, mentally counting off how many steps it would take to make a break for it. But even on the snowball’s chance that she’d get lucky enough to try, she couldn’t outrun a bullet, and her captor had proven his trigger-happy tendencies once already tonight.
He’d shoot her to shut her up. She couldn’t risk it.
If she wanted to get out of this alive, she was going to have to disable the man first. Tall freaking order, since not only did he, hello, have a gun pointed at her vital bits, but she couldn’t even see him to figure out his weak spots.
Not that he seemed to have any.
Growing frantic, Kylie forced herself to keep looking for something, God, anything that would give her an advantage, and her gaze landed on a small mirror propped up against a stack of ledgers on the filing cabinet. Vince’s coke habit might not have done him any favors when he’d been alive, but his penchant for blow—or more specifically, a smooth, flat surface off of which to snort it—might just have saved Kylie’s ass in the here and now.
She squinted, taking in every detail she could as the man moved into her line of sight in the glass. Recognition slammed into her as she took in the brick-end chin, the barely-there neck, the body like a World War II tank and the flat, lifeless stare that had always reminded her of a shark, poised to go in for the kill.
Xavier Fagan. Sweet baby Jesus, the X Man was notorious for being as dirty as he was slick, getting away with every drug-related crime under the sun.
Including murder, apparently.
The jagged scar that slashed half the distance between Xavier’s left temple and his stubble-covered cheek twitched as his lips bent in a sneer, and Kylie realized a beat too late that those dead, menacing eyes were locked on hers in the mirror.
“Just what the fuck do you think you’re looking at?”
She clutched. There was no way she could pop off with the “nothing” on her tongue and get away with it as the truth, but emphasizing the fact that she’d been doing the polar opposite of what he’d told her to seemed like an epically stupid plan.
The second thing you need to do when shit goes sideways is find an exit strategy, came Kellan’s voice in her head, and Kylie spoke without hesitation.
“I really meant what I said,” she told Xavier, lasering her stare back to the wall in front of her. “All I do is tend bar. If you’re here for what’s in the register, go ahead and take it.”
“The register.” Xavier sneered as if she’d been joking, but she pressed, desperate.
“You can have all the money, the liquor, whatever you want. I don’t want any trouble.”
“Yeah, you look like a regular Girl Scout.” The heavy soles of Xavier’s boots echoed as he eliminated the space between them, the stench of sweat and something else she didn’t want to contemplate pushing all the way to Kylie’s lungs. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught his slow, slimy gaze as he took in her skintight jeans and the ridiculously low-cut, midriff-baring T-shirt Vince had insisted would double her tips.
Xavier reached out, the heavily inked tattoos covering his arm from shirtsleeve to wrist rippling with the flex of his muscles. Two meaty fingers hooked around the bright magenta streak in her otherwise black ponytail for another merciless yank. “So, what if I take the money and run? You gonna call the cops as soon as I hit the door, Pinky?”
“N-no,” she stuttered, although it was a lie. There was a huge difference between turning a blind eye to your boss’s drug habit and not blowing the whistle when some thug turned the guy’s brain into finger paint.
Unfortunately, Xavier saw right through her indiscretion. “Nice try, but it wouldn’t matter if you did. I’ve got half the force in my back pocket anyway. Local, state. Fuck, I buy Feds like Christmas presents. Still…I don’t leave loose ends dangling in the breeze.” He stepped in toward her until the cement wall of his chest brushed her shoulder blades, his breath coming faster against the back of Kylie’s neck. “But before I tie them up, maybe I’ll tie you up.”
Innuendo dripped from his words, turning her palms cold and slick, and no, no, no. This couldn’t go south. She was tough. She just needed a way out, like Kellan always said.
“I won’t tell anyone you were here,” Kylie whispered, hating the thread of terror wobbling through the words. “I promise. I swear.”
Xavier pressed his mouth against her ear, letting her feel his evil smile on her skin. “Believe me, honey. I know you won’t. When I’m done with you, you won’t be able to say a thing.”
He ran the edge of the gun over her neck, skimming the cool steel against the spot where her shoulder met her throat before replacing it with the clammy press of his tongue. Something loosened, ugly and forceful, in Kylie’s belly, and she gripped her hands into fists at her sides.
If all else fails, find the most vulnerable spot and come out swinging.
Time slowed like a rubber band stretching out before her. Pure instinct had Kylie gathering all her strength in the very center of her chest, letting it collect and build and burn. With a definitive snap, her will burst upward…
And she slammed her head into Xavier’s nose with all her might.
