“You walked into Austin Marchant’s office thirteen years ago and walked out with a plan to sell the women he delivered to you.” The memory was so real, I pictured it vividly. I was certain that was the starting point. It all made sense. Austin and Primrose’s business booming, their taking in me, the relatives coming calling and his money needs going up to beyond his means. Plus, why would they meet a second time? No, I was right. “Did he contact you or was it the other way around?”
“I… I don’t.” He stopped and gulped. “A third party suggested it. How do you know about that meeting? That’s impossible.”
“Who was the third party?” I hadn’t seen anyone else.
Mila gasped quietly behind me. I turned. “I think I know,” she whispered. Then she mouthed a name.Salter.
Convict pushed off the wall where he’d been watching. “That fucker. Should we fetch him? I’d like to have a word.”
Tyler lifted his chin then gazed at me as if asking permission to act. I didn’t know how I’d taken over the show but nodded. Tyler murmured to Damien, and the guard left the room.
I came back to Jacobs. The auctioneer with half a word scrawled on him in red.
His gaze darted between us, settling on me. “Who are you bringing in?”
“Is the name ‘Salter’ familiar?”
Jacobs’ mouth opened, his jaw wobbling. “Jan Salter? You don’t want to mess with him. He’s evil.”
Cassie snorted. “So are ye, sunshine. Me, too, for that matter. We’re going to have a lot of fun together.”
A thud came from the hall, followed by swearing.
“A little help?” Damien grumbled.
Heretic left his post where he’d been lurking in the shadows, then the two returned, hauling in another prisoner, silver rings clustered on string around his neck, his fingers mangled and appearing broken. Salter was wiry but apparently strong, as it took both men to force him down next to Jacobs then fasten his chain to another link embedded in the concrete floor.
Cassie snagged the cloth covering his eyes, and Salter lifted a face mottled with dark bruises. He scanned us then Jacobs, lingering on the letters cut into him.
Jacobs sucked in a breath. “This is where you were. How long have you been down here?”
Salter’s lip curled into a sneer. “Thought you dead. So, you did a runner. Fucking coward.”
Jacobs flinched. “I should never have come back.”
“Why the fuck did you? Never had any sense,” Salter mocked.
“It was my empire. I shouldn’t have to give it up,” Jacobs snapped.
Salter raised a blood-encrusted brow. “Your empire? Spare me the middle man with a God complex.” He hacked a cold laugh. “Don’t confuse how special you were.”
Jacobs went to speak again but quietened at Salter’s glare.
Tyler interrupted their love-in. “Jan Salter. You’ve repeatedly refused to talk.”
Salter came back to us, smiled, and spat at my feet. “So you brought in pussy to persuade me.”
I instinctively inched back, trying to recover the bravery that got me down the steps in the first place. As of tomorrow, I was a dead woman. Or undead, if I brought Darcy back to life. I needed answers. “Jacobs said a third party arranged a meeting with Austin Marchant that started this whole empire you’re fighting over.” I tilted my head at Salter. “That was you.”
He smiled. Not pleasantly. “No idea what you’re talking about. If you’re here to persuade me to talk, I have suggestions. It’s been a long time with no cunt available.”
Boy, what? If he thought he could intimidate me that way, he was nutso. “You needed something, he had it. What was it?”
Salter said nothing.
Jacobs shifted beside him. “You’re wasting your time. He won’t give you anything real. He thinks he’s?—”
“Mouth closed,” Salter said.
