I park the car, and we stand outside for only a moment. Only enough for me to say, “You can start at the top. I’ll start from the bottom. We used to meet at the on the top floor. You’ll most likely find her first. She’ll be more comfortable with you than me.” The lie rolls off my tongue, and when he nods his head in agreement, I smirk as I make my way to the basement whereMilo and I actually used to meet. The guy was so damn obvious. How did he live this long being this stupid? He is rich, I guess that must help a lot.
“Hello, sweetheart,” I say as I enter the basement. Layla’s eyes are wide, and the gag in her mouth is soaked in spit. Her little muscles strain against her skin. My goddess, she’s gorgeous. She’s a goddess in distress, and the only thing wrong with this picture is that I didn’t cause her distress. The terror wasn’t caused by me or in my control, and for that, Milo will have to pay. For a blood sister, he’s treated her as a scorned lover, and that fact confused me almost enough to wonder why.
Such a simple job turned into a cluster fuck, and it’s all because of one fucking girl. One girl has changed the course of my life, and not only have I rejected a 500k dollar job, but now I’m going after my employer.
Milo tested me. He played right into a game he won’t survive. I told that motherfucker to lay a hand on what’s mine. I told him to try, and he did. I could smile at the stakes of this game, and I can’t believe I got the chance to play. He better hope the Enchanted Pack gets to him before I do. There is no moral code or council that could stop the wrath from coming his way.
Layla Barrow is mine.
It’s about damn time for the world to know it.
This fool kept my girl in a damn apartment building. I could give him credit for choosing an abandoned apartment building, but in reality, it’s cheesy and way too easy to find. He literally sent me the address—did he think I wouldn’t come? Could this dumb fuck be any fucking stupider?
Layla sits gagged and tied to a wooden chair in the middle of the boiler room, surrounded by moldy boxes and random scrap metal pieces. My boots crunch on the little cement rocks that cover the concrete floor as I get closer to my cub. The silence is filled with the sound of water drips and Layla’s heavy breathing,and it’s a different level of soothing for me. Hearing her breathe may be better than music.
“What? Can’t speak, my little cub?” I ask as I shut and lock the door behind me. Her eyes go from scared to pissed, and my pants get tight. She’s lovely. She’s mine.
She growls, and her shoulders shake as the chain she’s wrapped up in gets tighter. “Don’t worry, my little cub, I got you.”
I untie her gag that’s covered in spit and deep bite marks, and in my mind, I’m debating on whether I should keep it. I bring it up to my nose and can smell her toothpaste and snot on the cloth, and, damn, my eyes light up. It’s hot and wet, and I love that combination with anything, including Layla. She glares, and I’m more excited than when I walked into the room. I’ve got the grizzly’s full attention finally.
“Aren’t you going to untie me, dimwit?” she growls. Her shiny straight hair is mused and messed up with sweat, her curls coming through by her roots.
“Not quite yet, sweetheart,” I squat in front of my little cub. “I’m not exactly the good guy.”
“I know you’re not the good guy, dipshit. You poisoned my sister-in-law. For all I know, you’re still working with Milo.” She spits at me, and I let the glop land on my pants, smiling at my cub as her lips quirk up in disgust.
“Why did he take you? He wanted you as far away as he could possibly get you. He wouldn’t even come into town because you were there,” I say, trying to figure out what motivated Milo to kidnap the sister he’s supposedly scared of.
“The fucker asked for my forgiveness,” she scoffs, more spit landing on my legs, since I’m still hunched in front of her. “He wants to put the past away, since I ‘killed everyone already, anyway.’”
“Killed who?” I ask, surprise coloring my face. I didn’t know my little cub was a killer.
“My collectors.” What? “My owners and their guards who tried to keep us in line. Then it’ll be Milo, for selling me off, and then my parents for helping him,” she says in a daze. Hopefully, a bloody, glory-filled daze. My little cub has been through more than I knew. That must've been where the fucker got the money to pay me. By selling his little sister.
“Hmm,” I say. The Black Shifter Market? He sold her to the BSM and is asking for forgiveness? “How was he able to kidnap you if he’s scared of you?”
“He’s not a killer. That’s why he hired you, and I play the long game.”
“You let him kidnap you?” I ask, a smile creeping over my face. What a little shit she is.
“He can hurt me, but he can’t kill me, not yet.”
“Curiosity killed the cat, you know?”
“Good thing I’m a bear,” she says, and I can see the peek of a smile on her lips before the silence reminds her I’m not here to save her, not completely.
“Where is Milo now?”
“We heard your car pull up, and he took off.”
“I need something,” I say, knowing she isn’t going to like my offer but has shit luck to do anything about it.
“I don’t know if you couldn’t tell from all the fucking stalking your creepy ass has been doing, but I have nothing. Not even a family who gives a flying rat’s ass that my brother sold me off to fund staging his death.”
“I want in the Enchanted Pack.” I want more. I want her, but she won’t bite that quickly. I know my little cub is going to fight me to the end on owning her, but I know, by the Moon Goddess herself, this woman is mine.
“What am I supposed to do about that, smart guy?” She says it with a shake of head and furrowed eyebrows as if she really doesn’t know.
