“Well, we’ve all suffered,” I say. “Our colleagues died, remember? I had to step over their bodies when I was rescued.”
“Rescued,” he scoffs. “The MC are always poking their nose in.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“When I was offered the deal, it was too good to refuse. I didn’t want to do it, but having to sit through another one of fucking Jeremy’s speeches on the company’s core values made me want to gag.”
“What the hell are you talking about? I get it, you were being bribed?—”
“Not that.” His eyes sparkle wildly as I wrap my hand around my glass and take another sip. “You see, when I knew you werestill alive, it changed the game. I could still get everything I wanted. The bargaining chip was easy; all I had to do was get you here, and they’d do the rest.”
“They?” I stammer. I place a hand over my heart. “Who the hell is they?” I shake my head in disbelief, trying to get a grasp on what he’s saying. Has he gone completely crazy?
He leans in, a smirk on his lips that I don’t like. “Trust me, the Mancinis just wanted you dead, and you were, so it suited my agenda. Then Donnie and his crew were arrested and now you’re here, back from the dead—lucky me.”
“I didn’t tell you because I couldn’t. I was running for my life, remember?”
The energy around us shifts, and he sits back in his seat. “Poor, trusting, dependable Payden Benedict. How does it feel to be behind the eight ball, yet again?”
“Cut to the crap,” I say. “What do you mean, ‘you got me here and they’d do the rest?’ You’re starting to scare me.”
“Scare you? I don’t think so. Nothing scares you, does it, beautiful?”
I put my glass on the table but I’m unsteady. “Did you… did you lace my drink?”
He grins. “I needed that bonus, Payden, and now I’m going to get it, after I have my way with you that is. Don’t worry, you won’t feel a thing, then this will all be over.”
My eyes widen. “You bastard!”
I attempt to throw my drink in his face but it crashes back down to the table.
“All you had to do was stay dead, but you couldn’t do that, could you?”
“W-why?” I stammer. “Why are you d-doing this?”
“Because we all look the other way from time to time, even do-gooders like you. Don’t tell me you haven’t.”
“You’re sick and twisted. Just because I rejected you?”
“Jeremy was going to make you partner—I couldn’t let that happen. And in a few seconds you’ll be out cold and then none of it will matter anyway. I’ll get what I’ve always wanted, plus a nice pay dirt at the end.”
“To who?”
He leans forward. “You didn’t even see it coming, did you? The idiot that put the tracker in your purse and in your clothes? I paid him to do that, to follow your every move. It wasn’t the Mancinis.”
“That guy is dead,” I stammer. “The MC took care of it.”
“He has friends. Friends that will pay because they’re sick and twisted, as you say. And they feel a little annoyed that he disappeared last week, last seen being questioned by the NOLA Rebels.”
“Fuck you.”
“Oh, no, sweetheart, it’ll be me fucking you.”
My eyes begin to close and I slump forward. “D-don’t do this…”
“See you on the other side, beautiful.” His tone is dripping with enjoyment. It makes me sick.
I hear him shift off his seat, then feel an arm wrapping around me as my head hits the table.
