Mercedes shifted in her seat, pushing back into the leather. He had found her out. All these years of hiding, being in control, and just as she was about to take him down, he had found her out.
But... but...FuckingAdam Vandemilio. Those were the words he’d used. He knew she was sleeping with Adam. He found outoneof her secrets. But had he discovered her biggest one?
Mercedes smiled. “So, you know.”
“Shut up,” T.B. warned her. If she didn’t know better, she might have thought he was trying to help her by compelling her to stop.
“Buthow muchdo you know?” Mercedes laughed.
Dorian’s face was rancid with aggression as he slowly turned to face her. Spit licked at his teeth like a rabid animal. He looked at her like he didn’t recognize her, shock practically pouring out of his gaping mouth.
“Clearly not much–”
“Shut your fucking mouth!” Dorian said. “You stupid bitch.”
She laughed even harder.
T.B. started chewing on his lip like he was actually afraid. His eyes bore into her. If there was a question in them, it seemed like it would be him wondering why she thought she had the upper hand.
She licked her lips, looking down from T.B.’s eyes to his neck. She leaned in close to whisper sweetly. “I wonder if your throat would slit as easily as Antonio’s did. Nice and fine like butter.” Then she gave him a vicious, feline-like grin.
“What the fuck?” Dorian said, a new kind of fear revealing itself in his eyes.
“You... you.” T.B. looked like he was about to vomit in his hands. “You killed Antonio.”
Mercedes ran her tongue over her front teeth, looking back and forth between the two of them. Dorian refused her gaze, but T.B. had gone pale as he stared right at her.
She looked out the window to see they were headed to the outskirts of town along the industrial district. He was taking her to one of his factories. Which meant she didn’t have very long to live. Whichalsomeant she didn’t have very much to lose.
There was one card she could play to regain the upper hand. And it was for a moment like this that they had kept that card so close to their chests for all these years.
“Five guys,” she said. She felt the electricity drain from the air, replaced by a silence so quiet it felt like world had pressed the mute button.
Turning to Dorian, she gave him a look that could turn enemies to stone. A look that was truly evil. She didn’t break his gaze as she said again. “There wasalwaysfive guys.”
From the look on his face, she’d hit where she wanted.
“You?” Dorian’s voice was low, like he was whispering words that shouldn’t be spoken.
Mercedes smiled and laughed again.
“It wasyou. This whole fucking time?!”
T.B. shook his head furiously, presumably fighting back the urge to regurgitate his breakfast.
Mercedes laughed once more, like it was truly amusing, before bowing her head and turning to look at Dorian through lowered brows. She felt psychopathic, and hoped she looked it, too. “T.B. is a good driver. He’s real fast. But, well...” She gritted her teeth as she went wide-eyed and growled inches from Dorian’s face. “He can’t drive half as well as I can,honey.”
25
UNDERRATED
JUNE 1991
She couldn’t see it, but she could feel it as Dorian cuffed her to a pipe. With her face covered in cloth, she could only use her other senses to recognize that it was his delicate, callous-free hands that pushed her in place. She sat down on her heels as her outstretched arms hugged the metal shaft of the pipe.
When the cloth was ripped off and the brightness glittered in, she took in her surroundings. The room was cold, freezing even, with concrete floors and walls lit by hanging fluorescent lights. Possibly a cold storage facility. There was only one exit, a metal latch-locked door with a small square window. T.B. was right in front of her, snarling while Dorian leaned against the door with a guard at his side.
T.B. tightened the cuffs until they dug into her skin. She fought back her wince at the pain and blew the hair from her eyes to face them down.
