Before I sat in the chair off to her left.
“Look at it this way,” I said as I picked up a piece of Hawaiian bread, “free vacation. Am I right?”
I held it up to her lips, but she simply scoffed. “Yeah, sure. If you call captivity a walk in the park.”
I shrugged. “Hey, you’re the one that did this to yourself.”
That’s when she whipped her glittering gaze toward me, staring me down with a glare that could have killed me, given the chance. “No, you’re the one that did this tous. So, are you going to tell me what the hell my father did that was so bad? Or, are you going to keep acting like--.”
I shoved the bread into her open mouth. “He interrupted a very important transaction with a client.”
She bit down into the bread and chewed. And chewed. And chewed some more before she took the rest of the bread from my hand and picked at it with her fingers. Plopping small bites between her lips like some dainty little thing.
She was far from dainty, though.
I couldn’t wait to throw her around that basement a bit.
“You know, selling drugs is pretty stereotypical,” she said as she kept picking at her bread. “I figured you guys would’ve at least been involved in something with a bit more… oomph to it.”
I flashed her my best smile. “Do my teeth look rotted out to you? Because if they do, I’ll have to contact my dentist. He’s got some explaining to do.”
She snickered as she shook her head, and I saw the shadow of a smile attempting to streak across her face. She did a good job with keeping it at bay, though.
Maybe too good of a job.
“Really, though,” I said as I pushed the cup of soup toward her, “you need to eat. Range won’t be happy that you haven’t eaten yet.”
She shrugged. “Tough shit. For all I know, that soup is poisoned.”
I picked up her spoon, dipped it into the tomato soup, and took a sip of it. I placed it down and watched her while she watched me, her gaze searching for any sign of demise. I leaned back. I crossed my ankle over my knee. I relished her dutiful gaze, and I sure as hell clocked the way her eyes lingered upon the bulge beneath my jeans.
I tugged at it with my hand, and she quickly looked away, causing my grin to grow.
“So?” I asked as my head tilted off to the side. “You gonna eat? Or do I need to get the big guy again?”
She rolled her eyes before dipping the bread into the soup and tearing a hunk of it off with her teeth.
“You know, I like a more traditional girl myself,” I said as I stood, “but Ranger would love how you just dug right in there with your hands.”
She slowly looked up at me, her stare blank and vacant. “I don’t give a shit what any of you think.”
She held my gaze as she dipped the rest of the slab of bread into the tomato soup, damn near soaking it to the brim. Her narrowed stare held me captive as she unhinged her jaw like a fucking serpent and stuffed the entire thing into her cheeks. She looked like a god damn hamster, with her cheeks jutting out the way they did. And every time she chewed, her mouth opened just a tad.
Right up Ranger’s alley.
“You know,” I said as I bent down into her face, “you should be careful showing us that pretty little mouth of yours. Never know what you might find stuffed in it.”
She stopped chewing and her face paled. Good. She needed to be afraid. She had no fucking clue who she was messing with, and if she wasn’t careful her blood would spill into the ocean along with her father’s.
“Good girl,” I said as I tapped her cheek.
She jerked away and damn near choked on her food in the process.
“Try not to kill yourself on the food while I’m gone,” I said as I backtracked out of the closet. “I still have plans for you.”
Hearing her speed up that chewing of hers made me damn near cackle. I knew she had something she wanted to say. A quip that so desperately wanted to fall from those plump lips of hers. But, as I turned around, I found her still chewing on the fucking loaf of bread she damn near choked herself with.
“Oh, and one more thing,” I said as I grabbed the closet door, “Ranger wanted me to let you know that you can walk around this place as you please.”
