“It’s complicated,” I tried to explain. “You’re dealing with the Swiss government. They need to dot every ‘I’ and cross every ‘T’,” I told him. It was bullshit. We hadn’t submitted documents to anyone. Horst hadn’t even taken our proposal beyond the meeting level, and we knew that pressing the issue would be a fuck-up.
“Ah…but what you don’t want to cross is me, my friend,” Razortip said coldly. The man was no idiot. He was suspicious.
“There’s nothing I can do about it,” I said firmly, praying it would stick. “You’ll have to be patient. It’ll be worth the wait, I assure you.” Controlling interests in a multi-billion dollar business should be incentive enough to keep the man waiting a couple of days. It killed me, though. Knowing they were days that Sasha might be stuck with that bunch of psychopaths. My only consolation was that I knew we’d be going in much sooner than that.
“Your little dove has something she wants to say to you about patience, Mr. Walker,” Razortip said, and my gut clenched.
“Leave her—!” I began, but his voice was replaced by another.
“Alec!” It was Sasha. “Alec, I love you!” Her voice was strangled, as if fighting back tears.
“Sasha!” I practically shouted down the line. The men around me remained impassive. “Sweetness, don’t—” My words were cut off by Razortip’s accented voice.
“As you can tell, she is in good health,” he said, though it didn’t comfort me at all. There was no indication of her state of health at all, aside from the fact that we knew she was alive.
“If you fucking hurt her—!” I yelled. Decker held up a hand that I knew was telling me to tone it down. It was impossible. If I could have closed my hands around the fucker’s throat, I would have crushed the life out of him. I was on my feet now, hovering as I tried to control my emotions.
“Ah, but I would never allow any harm to befall her, Mr. Walker,” he went on. “She is valuable to me.”
I swallowed hard, barely holding it together. Losing my shit now wouldn’t do any good. I had to keep control.
“A woman of her beauty will fetch a high price from the right buyer,” he said. I felt the air seize in my lungs. “Of course, who knows what will come of her baby. There are men who appreciate such things.”
The room swirled around me in a spinning vortex that seemed to suck me into it. I put one hand on the surface of the table, struggling to keep my knees from sagging as the enormity of what he was saying sank in.
“She’s…?” I couldn’t say more.
“Pregnant, yes. It is a surprise to you, I am sure,” Razortip said darkly. “She was unaware of it herself.” He laughed. “I would congratulate you, but I think we shall delay that sentiment for the moment I get word on the successful conclusion or our business. I will contact you in the morning, Mr. Walker,” the man said. The line went dead.
I couldn’t breathe.
Couldn’t fucking get air into my seizing lungs.
“Prince…” Andy’s voice broke into my racing thoughts. I felt his hand on my shoulder but couldn’t bring myself to respond. I shrugged him away abruptly, and he didn’t try again. Silence hung over the table for several seconds while I tried to collect my wits.
And then I exploded. Andy jumped back as I reached for the edge of the table and flipped it onto its side. There was a thundering crash as it hit the floor, shattering coffee cups and sending everything on its surface flying.
I threw back my head and let out a roar that mingled equal parts of fury and pain. The men around the table remained silent in the face of my madness. It was better that way. If anyone had stepped in to try to calm me, I would have killed him. There was no calming me now. No words that could tame the animal that was taking hold in my chest.
Another roar emerged as I reached for the chair beside me and flung it across the room. It flew several feet, hitting the glass coffee table in the living area and sending out a shower of glass shards. It wasn’t enough. Nothing would be enough until my hands were bathed in Gutierrez’s blood. I was going to rip his heart out.
As I fought to suck in air, to clear the red rage from my vision, I knew what I had to do. Knew it as instinctively as I knew I had to draw breath.
I had to save Sasha…and our child.
I had to do it now.
And I will destroy Razortip myself.
Chapter 8
Sasha Ramirez
The room had been silent for some time when the door opened again. Night had fallen outside, and with it, the air had grown cold. I burrowed into the thin mattress on the narrow cot that was my bed and pulled the blanket closer around myself.
My heart was tearing in two.
The sound of Alec’s voice had brought every emotion into sharp relief. Love, joy…agony. I wanted to feel his strong arms around me. Wanted to be safe with him again. And it killed me to know how Razortip was using me to manipulate him. He’d told him about the baby. I’d heard that much before I’d been dragged out of the room. Raoul and Gloria had laughed cruelly as I’d sobbed between them. Hard hands on my arms had pulled me without care. Why should I expect mercy from them anyhow? I was barely human to these people. A means to an end. A pawn. My baby meant even less.
