“Boss told us we can’t touch you yet, sweetheart.” He took another predatory step toward me. “But you should know I am not very good at following rules.”
Ice went through my veins at his words and the clear excitement he emanated. I would not be helpless again while some pig decided to have his way with me. I’d rather die.
“Who do you work for?” I demanded, my voice strong with conviction.
I wouldn’t let him know I was rattled. It had been years since someone had gotten the upper hand on me, and I couldn’t believe the situation I had found myself in. Especially tonight of all nights. I wasn’t sure what time it was, but I knew in my gut that I had missed the mission to save my sister. I just prayed my team was successful. I couldn’t let myself go down the rabbit hole of negative thoughts that threatened the edges of my mind.
The man took a step under the light, and I barely suppressed a gasp. I knew this man. Tan skin, dark eyes, with a dark, thick beard. Juan Rosario, a regular member of my defense classes at Dominos, stood before me with a smug smirk on his face.
“I see that introductions are not needed,” he murmured.
“Juan, what is this? Why am I here?” I demanded once more.
He chuckled. “You think I’m going to answer you,Badger?”
I squirmed in my ties and tried to free myself.
“Don’t bother. The more you fight it, the more the knot will tighten,” he said with a smirk.
I winced as the rope cut deeper into my wrists. He placed the barrel of the gun at my chin.
“Now, are you going to be a good slut and do what I say?”
“Go fuck yourself,” I spat, venom in every word.
Juan dug the barrel deeper into my chin. “Don’t fuck with me, Badger. I’m the one in control here.”
“No, you aren’t,” a booming voice said.
Juan jolted up and placed his gun back in its holster. A tall man in a fitted black suit came into view, his face covered in shadows.
“Boss, I… I was just getting her warmed up for you,” Juan stammered.
The new man took his gun out and shot Juan between the eyes. I screamed, not expecting to watch someone be killed right in front of me.
“Sorry about that, Badger.”
I still couldn’t see the man’s face, putting me more on edge.
“Who are you? What do you want with me?” I asked, my voice shaking.
The man moved under the light so I could see his face. He had a black mustache and medium-length salt-and-pepper hair. His dark-brown eyes resembled dark pools of murky water. .
“Oh, how rude of me.” He smirked. “Please, allow me to introduce myself.” His voice carried an air of aloofness and superiority, making it clear that his polite tone was intended to be anything but. “My name is Miguel Stefanos.”
FORTY-SIX
MACHINE
As Zombie did a workup of Lily in the back of my Durango, I tried to call Badger for the tenth time. Straight to voicemail again. Kade came running to me with murder in his eyes.
“Badger has been taken,” Kade said.
Even though we’d suspected, rage seeped into my bones at the confirmation, a fury unlike anything I’d ever known consuming me.
“Who?!” I bellowed.
Kade clenched his jaw. “Stefanos.”
