I switched over to speakerphone as Andy and I had agreed. He was already at my side without being beckoned.
“Alec?” a tremulous voice came over the phone, stopping my heart.
“Sasha!” I shouted back. “Sweetness, are you okay?”
Fuck. Fuck! I could barely breathe.
“Alec…Alec, I love you.” Her words tore into my chest.
“Sasha, baby! Oh, God! Have they hurt you?” I’d spent hours waiting for the call, and now that I’d heard her voice, I could barely think straight. If I could have reached down the line and dragged her into my arms, I would have given my last breath to do it. “Sasha, I—!” But I was speaking to dead air.
And then another voice broke in. Smooth, oily, heavily accented. “Mr. Walker,” the man said, “you have had some good fortune.”
“What do you want?” I roared down the line. “Anything! Tell me what the fuck you want!”
Andy set his hand on my shoulder. I was shuddering with the effort of holding my shit together.
“Fifty-one,” the voice on the other end replied.
I shook my head in confusion. “Fifty-one? Million?” It was fine. I would do it. “Where? When? Name the time and place,” I demanded.
“Fifty-one percent, Mr. Walker,” the man replied. I stopped and frowned for a moment. Andy was staring down at me.
“I don’t—” I began. What the fuck was he talking about?
“Fifty-one percent of your new business venture, Mr. Walker. You will cede it to my representative, or you will never see her alive again. My attorney will be in touch.” The line went dead. I sat in silence as understanding began to sink in. They wanted a controlling share in the new company.
I looked up at Andy, whose expression had grown grim. I saw the answer in his eyes before he’d opened his mouth to speak.
“Prince,” his voice was hoarse, “I’m so sorry. We can’t—”
I was on my feet and launching myself. I hit him square in the face before he’d finished the sentence.
Don’t say it. Don’t fucking say it!
He was flat on his back beneath me, not putting up a fight as I prepared to land another blow to his jaw. He shook his head.
“My friend…they’ll never allow it,” he whispered. “I’m so sorry. It’s not up to me.”
My fist smashed into the floor beside his head, and I felt my knuckles crunch. There was no way I could meet their demands. Nothing I could do about it. And they were going to kill her.
“No!” I roared into the silence that suddenly filled the room.
Chapter 2
Sasha Ramirez
My hands were tied, and my mouth still tasted bitter from the disgusting cloth that had been stuffed into it before they’d removed it to let me speak to Prince. I’d woken several hours ago on a filthy mattress that reeked of human urine in a tiny, bare room that stank of stale cigarettes and body odor. I tried not to think of who may have been locked into this hellhole before me. The dark stains on the mattress made my mind reel in terror, too.
A cursory glance around upon regaining consciousness had shown me a cramped space with plain grimy walls and cold concrete floors housing just the bed, a chair, and a small table pushed to one side. There was a single barred window with little beyond it that I could see from where I had lain on the plain steel-framed cot – not that I could even raise my head to look out properly. I couldn’t see much more now from my new position, where I’d been bound to a wooden chair in the center of the room.
I remained silent as I kept my eyes on the man who’d ordered my abduction. His words had frozen my blood in my veins. What he was asking was not just unfair; it was impossible. I knew that without even discussing it with Prince. I’d heard enough conversations between him and Andy to know how sensitive their negotiations had been.
By the time Razortip ended his call, I had shrank as far from him as I possibly could – which wasn’t far since the wooden chair was barely a foot away from him. Close enough to smell him, almost feel his body heat. I shuddered.
“Well, that should give him something to think about,” he murmured, looking at me thoughtfully. I straightened my back and tried not to flinch as I met his dark, ugly eyes.
Manolo Gutierrez was not much to look at. Dark hair going gray, average height, unmemorable features. But he was powerfully built if you took the time to look past the thickening waist and sagging jawline. And it was the eyes that would give away his evil soul if you looked into them. Flat and dispassionate. He stared at me like someone might examine an item of furniture. I was barely human to him.
