“Please don’t.I’ll do anything.I’ll work for you forever.I—”
“Do you know what this is, Katya?”Dante asked, waving the object in front of the screen.
She nodded.
“What is it?”
“A quill,” she whispered.
“A porcupine quill.My quill.Why do you think they call me Dante Porcupine?”He grinned like a madman, his face stretching into a grotesque mask of pure hatred.“These babies are lethal,” he explained.“They’re barbed, you see, so once they penetrate the flesh, removing them is difficult because they just make their way deeper inside.Not to mention they can hurt your organs pretty badly.”
“Please,” she whimpered and fell to her knees.“Kill me instead.”
Dante chuckled.“What would be the point of that?”he asked.“No, first you have to learn a lesson, girl, and then I’ll decide what to do with you.”
“I beg you.”
“Katya?”The panic in her sister’s voice tore at her heartstrings.“No.”
“I’ll do anything.”
“Anything?”Dante’s mouth pursed as if he were thinking hard about an alternative, but she could tell he had already schemed what he wanted or needed from her.
“Very well,” he said.“Will you kill the cop?”
Her mind blanked and her stomach twisted so badly she thought she would vomit.Her chest ached as if someone were pushing a knife into it.
“Kill the cop?”she repeated.
“Yes, the one that’s after us.The one that you led to our trail by leaving your purse at his place.That one.You know him.Adam, I believe is his name.”
“I—”
Mate.The tiger whined from its recess meekly.
Her mate or her sister.How could they make her choose?Hot tears streamed silently down her cheeks.She couldn’t choose, but she had to.And there was only one logical choice.
“I’ll do it,” she said at last.
Dante chuckled with glee.He handed his porcupine quill to one of the guards.
“That’s a good girl.We’ll set it up, you stay put.”He laughed hysterically.“As if you had a choice.”
“My sister...”
“Don’t worry.She’s in good hands.”
The call died.The phone shut down.Horror snaked its way around her neck until she could not breathe.Katya crawled until her back hit the wall and curled into a ball.She had to keep her sister alive.She was family.Her only family.She had been doing all this, all these years, for her.She couldn’t lose Irina for a man she’d met not even a week ago.He was a stranger.
Mate.
A stranger, nonetheless.
She wiped her eyes, aiming to control the sobs shaking her body.Her tiger mewled sadly.
Mate.
