Rats looked at him. “But I’m in Fort Knots, Mick.”
“And?”
“What do you meanand? And I’m protected!”
“And I’m the motherfucker that owns Fort Knots. Your ass not protected from me!”
The color began draining from Rats huge face. He realized, in that moment, that he had attempted to take out members of Mick’s own family. Members of his protector’s family!
He looked into Mick’s menacing hard, green eyes. “You can’t keep me here forever,” he said.
Mick stared at him. “Wanna bet?” he said as he pulled out his weapon.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
The terrace door opened and Malcolm Zock stepped outside with a sense of urgency on his face. “Ladies, there’s a threat. Please come inside,” he said as Trina, Gemma, and Ashley hurried into the penthouse parlor.
“What happened?” Trina was asking as Malcolm hurried over to the parlor’s safe room and began pressing in the security code. “What’s wrong, Mal?”
“There’s a threat,” he said as he opened the door and ordered Gemma and Ashley to get inside. Since he was Reno’s security chief, they did as they were told.
But Trina was questioning it. “But what’s the threat?” she said. “Where’s Reno? Did something happen in the Bowels?”
That was when Malcolm slammed the safe room door shut, and locked Gemma and Ashley inside. Even though they were undoubtedly banging on the door and screaming for help, the safe room was soundproof, and technology-adverse too. Their phones wouldn’t work in there. Not a sound could be heard from inside out either.
Trina’s heart dropped when Malcolm slammed that door shut and locked it. And when she saw his face, and that look of hatred in his eyes, she knew there was a threat alright. And he was the threat!
She began backing up. “What are you doing, Mal?” she asked him.
“What do you think? I’ve watched your husband live the highlife while I was just his flunky. That changes today! You’recoming with me, and I won’t release you until he pays me my due.”
“What due? He doesn’t owe you anything!”
“All those hours he made me work. All that shit I have to put up with! And you don’t think he owes me?”
“He pays you well, Malcolm!”
“Fuck a paycheck! I want the highlife too.” Then he grabbed Trina by the hair, causing her to scream out, but he placed tape over her mouth that she didn’t know he had, and tried to throw her to the floor.
But Trina grabbed a vase from the side table and slammed it across his head. He staggered, but he didn’t fall.
She ran to another vase, and threw it at him. Then she began throwing everything she could get her hands on at him, including her own shoes. She wasn’t going down without a fight. And she was fighting for her life.
But Malcolm was too big for her. He grabbed her and slung her to the ground. He pulled out rope to tie her up, but she was fighting him tooth and nail. She was kicking and wiggling and doing all she could to avoid his restraints.
She even got away from him and stood up on her feet again. She tried to run out on the terrace, hoping that those sharpshooters on the rooftop would see her, but he grabbed her and flung her back down. The pain was excruciating for Trina, but she wasn’t about to give up.
She continued to kick and wiggle and at one point she was able to take her shoe and kick Malcolm in the face so hard that it knocked him backwards.
But now he was angry. Holding her down with one hand, he took his other hand and pulled out his gun with the silencer on. He was going to shoot her in the leg or arm to incapacitate her, but not to kill her.
But she kicked his gun away. Then he knew he had to tie her up. There was no two ways about it. And he finally managed to flip her onto her stomach. And then he began tying her up.
All of the commotion in that room wasn’t heard in the family room in the back of the house where Carmine and Sophia were. Nor could it be heard in the dining room where Dom and Jimmy were still playing cards. Malcolm had left to use the restroom, but they hadn’t missed him yet. Until Dom’s phone rang.
He grabbed it from the table and looked at the Caller ID. “It’s Pop,” he said and quickly answered, putting it on Speaker. “What’s up?”
“Mom’s in danger!” Reno screamed in the phone. They could tell he was running. “Malcolm wants to kill her. Neutralize him and get Trina off of that terrace!”
