“Hey!” she screamed, trying to wiggle free. The heels on her boots gave her a disadvantage, not to mention this guy was a giant. She teetered on her feet, desperate to get some kind of leverage against him.
“Got her!” the man yelled up the stairs.
“Let me go.” Abby pushed off his chest, but it was like a wall of granite. “Get your hand off me.”
“Not going to happen,” he seethed. “You’re coming with me. I have orders to deliver you.”
“Deliver me where?” She knew what kind of men Cal gambled with. The men who invested in his shady business ventures. No
thing good could come from this.
Cal ran down the stairs. “Come on, Abby. You were hiding? You were never good at the game when we were kids.”
She glared at him. “I heard what you were talking about. I’m not going with him.” She looked at her captor. “You have no right, Cal. You are way overstepping your authority.”
He looked past her at the man who held her. “She’s yours now. You’ll deliver her today?”
He nodded. “I’ll take her immediately.”
“Good.” Her cousin looked satisfied. “I want my debt paid. I don’t need him breathing down my neck.”
“I’m standing right here, Cal. Don’t talk like I’m not in the room. You can’t do this.” She continued to struggle, no matter how useless it was to fight the man responsible for finding her. “I’m not your property. Or his.”
Cal walked to the door that led to the basement. “You can take her out back. Less eyes on you. Especially if she keeps that up,” he explained.
“Good,” he grunted. Abby doubted he had much of a vocabulary.
“There is no way I’m going anywhere with this asshole.” Abby dug her heels against the hardwoods, but it only made it easier for the man to slide her toward the door.
“Come on, the bosses are waiting.” In a single lunge, the man swung her on to his shoulder and dangled her as if she weighed the same as a bag of sugar.
She kicked harder, her feet ramming into his chest. She beat her fists into his back. Nothing fazed him.
“Cal! Don’t do this!” She jerked her head forward to grab his attention. “Cal! Don’t let this happen.”
The last thing she saw as she descended into the Mantelli family basement was the smirk on her cousin’s face.
2
Cole
“Deacon, this is even shitty for you.” Cole glared at his business partner.
“Why? Did you have a better idea?” Deacon poured a glass of bourbon and dropped two ice cubes in the middle.
Cole exhaled. “Not really.”
“Then stop second-guessing me. We have the launch in Vegas in two weeks. The timing couldn’t have been better.”
“Cal Mantelli is a dick. The fact that you got into business with him in the first place makes me wonder what in the hell you’re doing these days.”
Deacon waved him off. “It wasn’t business. It was a bet. He’s the one who lost. Not me.” He threw back his drink.
“Give me one of those.” Cole walked toward the bar, waiting for a stiff drink. “I need a double after this fuckup of yours.”
Deacon laughed. “Cal texted. The payment is on the way.”
Cole shook his head. “Payment? That’s what you’re calling it?”