As soon as we turn down the corridor toward the office, two men outside the door stand tall anticipating our approach. Erin’s fingers tighten around mine and I squeeze them back. I am not about to let anyone hurt her more than they already have.
One of the men opens the door and we step inside the room.
It’s starker than I’d expected. Gray, dull, barely furnished. Largely unused. It reminds me of the ward where I beat people up only to fix them afterward.
A large thug of a man is standing at the far end, watching us. When we both settle our gazes on him, he steps to one side.
Now, sitting in front of us, tied to a wooden chair with dirty ropes, an obscene amount of duct tape across her mouth, is a young blond-haired woman who looks suspiciously like…
“Paige—” Erin chokes.
Her body lunges forward on instinct, but I hold her back. She’s being used as bait. Keeping distance between Erin and her daughter will make it harder for these cretins to overcome them both.
Erin wriggles against me, her instincts taking over, but I don’t relent. This must be Gerard’s way of getting something out of Erin, but what? What else could she possibly give him? He’s taken all the money and now he thinks he’s taken Paige. What more does the motherfucker need?
I was toying with the idea of killing him before this, but now I’m absolutely positive I’m ending that man’s life. How could anyone put these two beautiful, innocent women through this hell?
“I’m here, baby,” she sobs, even though Paige can’t answer. “I’m right here.”
A door behind Paige opens softly and a man I don’t recognize steps through. I can tell by the way Erin stiffens, this is Gerard.
A man who has abducted his own daughter, tied rotting ropes to her bare ankles and plastered tape across her face. If there weren’t women present I’d be waterboarding him, pulling out every single fucking toenail, slowly, and driving a set of brass knuckles into his face.
One nod from Gerard and the burly man leaves the room. I rake my gaze over the cretin, looking for anything that might give me an advantage.
He’s well dressed in that faintly familiar regimented European way. There’s a Germanic air to him. And an expression I know well. It’s devoid of empathy and filled with conviction.
I’m looking at a cold-hearted killer, and I’m acutely aware that Erin has no idea.
He smiles at her, mildly, then turns to me. His lips are thin, his brow worn down by years of treachery. Gerard Applebaum is not a good man and he’s hidden it from Erin for two decades. That takes a certain kind of personality type. Of the psychopath variety.
I grind my heels into the ground to stop myself from running at him. “What do you want?” I demand.
“Straight to the point, Augusto. I like that. Cuts out all the unnecessary small talk bullshit. Fancy seeing you here… Isn’t it glorious weather we’ve been having? Nope. Augusto Zanotti wants answers.” He saunters toward me. “And you’ll get them. But first…”
He reaches into his pocket and the pistol inside my waistband burns into my back. He comes to a stop right in front of me, extracts a phone and holds it out.
“I want you to call off your fucking dogs.”
My eyes flicker with uncertainty.
“They are causing too much interference.”
“Interference?”
“The Italians,” Gerard says smoothly. “They’re blocking my ports, delaying consignments. It’s causing me a great deal of inconvenience.”
I glance at the phone and recognize the number when I take it from him. Then he walks assuredly back to his daughter, resting a hand on her shoulder. Both Paige and her mother flinch and my vision borders with red rage.
“If you don’t make that call,” he says, “your influence will cost yourloverher daughter.”
The room goes very still.
Erin turns to me. “He can’t mean?—”
“He means it,” I confirm quietly.
He’s already abducted his fourteen-year-old daughter and tied her up. He sees her as bait—not as someone he’s responsible for.
