That stops him short. He knows it's his job, and I can practically feel the rush of air escaping him in panic, slipping through the phone. “But this never happens.”
“Then what would you call this fucking situation?” I grit out, damn well knowing he’s right.
And it just so happens to be the same girl I scolded about finding herself in places she shouldn’t be while I tried to divert my attention from the swells of her breasts that almost evaporated the warning on my tongue. Her pink mouth drew my focus next, as I contemplated how much more color I could inject into her lips while they stretched to fit my cock.
Jesus Christ.
This is the exact distraction I can’t afford. Doesn’t matter if I’ve been sex deprived for years and my dick is craving something warmer than my hand.
Just like that day I saw her, suspicion blooms behind my ribs. This time, it’s piercing—a bell knocking on the inside of my skull and ringing like an alarm. It didn’t happen just once, when a shipment came in with missing contraband. Somehow, she also found herself in the walls of our empire.
Bad little rat.
“And under no circumstances,” my tone harsh with no room for argument, “does Arden hear about this.”
Brody releases a grunt of understanding. I take another turn, and he says, “She’s headed your way.” With that, the phone goes dead, and I tuck it back in my pocket.
My fingers tighten around the handle of the knife. My skin buzzes, my blood alight with fervor as I close in on Kate, as if I’m an eagle ready to snatch the scampering rodent with my talons.
The corner of this hallway, dimly lit by sconces, is just ahead. The patter of frantic footsteps swells, every sharp tap of her shoes ricocheting through the hallway and the pulse in my neck like a pinball machine.
When her small body sprints around the corner and crashes into mine, I fight the smile that wants to appear at the way my body mass knocks her backward. When she glances up at me, Kate’s eyes are blazing with fear. Looking at her now, knowing her name feels dangerous. It does something to my chest.
This is why they say not to name an animal, or you’ll get attached to it.
Can’t have that happening.
“I should’ve believed them,” she whimpers. “ I-I only have one kidney,” Kate stammers, breathlessly. She moves backward on instinct. I don’t waste any time closing the distance. “Andmy heart, it has that weird thing where it murmurs, so it's not perfect, and I’m sure you don’t want it.”
The fuck.
Tears drop from her bottom lashes onto her pigmented cheeks. While I’m trying to piece together her rambling that’s confusing the ever-loving shit out of me, she keeps talking, my attention locking on those flush, rosy lips she can’t stop licking from the nervousness that is overtaking her.
Her bottom lip quivers, and I have this odd inclination to stop it with my teeth. “I know kidneys are valuable, and you’d make more money out of someone who has all the organs you need. Please don’t take mine,” she hiccups, placing her sleeve over that distracting mouth.
What the fuck is she talking about?
She wraps her arms around her waist, as if it will give her some comfort. Unfortunately, I don’t think anything can bring her comfort for what I’m about to put her through.
My mouth parts to ease the thoughts running rampant in her head about her organs, but I think better of it. Maybe it's better if she’s petrified. I need her to talk. To find out why she was on the dock that day when the shipment arrived, and how the hell she ended up in the tunnels.
My eyes are lethal, locking onto her green ones—green like the leaves that climb the stone walls in the garden, accented by the magenta flowers my mother once loved. So many emotions flash across her face that she finally registers my state—my bloody, gruesome state. She slaps a hand over her mouth, her breath breaking into a wheeze as every drop of color drains from her skin.
“Oh my God. Whose blood is that? Who’s that man?”
I reach out and snag her forearm, her warmth seeping into my cold fingers. “For now, be happy it isn’t yours—and it won’t be if you obey me.”
She sucks in an audible breath, and my lips twitch before I bite back the sadistic grin threatening to surface.
I’m amused by the flash of terror that graces those big green eyes as she stares down at my stained hands that are on her. Touching her. The hands of an unsympathetic man, dragging her to a room where her night is about to get a whole lot worse.
NINE | KATE
I’m fully clothed, but it doesn’t help the icy metal of the chair from biting into my skin. My body is trembling profusely from the chill blanketing my body in this enclosed concrete room, tainted with the metallic stench of blood and piss threading through the particles in the air.
Bile lingers in my throat, threatening to be another bodily fluid splashed all over the floor.
I should run and sprint for the door, but my fight or flight instincts are paralyzed by the gruesome scene filling my vision. Somehow, it's just as restricting as the zip ties that secure the dead man to the chair across from me. He’s in front of a wall and a table of unknown devices, guns, knives, and other torturous things that will add fuel to the nightmares I’m already plagued with if I somehow make it out with my life.
