“Up, bitch.” Liam took the knife from my throat and pulled me into a sitting position. My breast was exposed from where he’d cut my teddy.
He palmed the mound, running his thumb over my nipple, making it hard again. I looked up into his eyes. There was no mercy there.
Jax put his knee on the bed next to me and wrenched my hands behind my back. He crushed my wrists together and then the fast ticking sound of a zip tie cut through the air, the thin strip of plastic almost cutting into my flesh. I was bound tight.
Dark fabric came down over my head, covering my body and forcing Liam to let go of my breast. I breathed out my nose hard, trying not to panic from the sudden claustrophobia. Jax drew the bag tight around me, yanked it down my legs, and then shut it closed beneath my feet.
“Have to get her out fast. No telling who’ll be waiting.” Liam’s voice. “You carry. I’ll cover. I’m the better shot.”
Jax spat on the polished wood floor. “Like fucking hell you are. But we don’t have time to argue. Let’s go.”
Rough hands pulled me from the bed. One of them threw me over his shoulder. I heard the sound of metal on metal. It could only be one thing. A gun.
“Ready?” It was Liam’s voice but farther away now.
Jax must have been carrying me. My ribs pressed into the hard muscle and bone of his shoulder before he shifted me back and rested a large palm on my ass. My head lolled down against his shoulder blade.
“Let’s go.”
They walked me through the living room. I mentally catalogued their steps. Past the expensive art and furniture, past the pictures of the Perkins family, past the high end kitchen, and past the elegant chandelier that lit the foyer. They stopped at the elevator. Jax kneaded my ass with his palm. I got up the courage to shove my knee into his chest, but a resounding slap against my ass cheek ended my protest.
“We told you not to try anything, princess.” Liam’s voice, somehow in my ear, penetrating the inky black fabric that cocooned me.
Another resounding slap had me straining against the ball gag, heat blooming along my ass and spreading up my back.
They laughed. “I’m beginning to like this job more and more,” Jax said.
“Same here, brother.”
The elevator dinged. The rest was gunfire.
Chapter Two
Liam
“Back up, back up!” I yelled.
Jax ducked to the side, the girl still slung across his shoulder. A slug pierced my vest, stunning me for only a split-second before I emptied my clip into the assassin in the elevator. He dropped to his knees. He must have been wearing body armor or he would be nothing but a blood stain on the wall.
“Wait.” He held up a gloved hand. The leather had a green dragon stitched into it, the monster’s tail curving around to the palm. I knew those gloves.
“Jae, that you?”
Jax peered around the corner, gun in hand, the barrel of his pistol ready to shoot first and ask questions later.
“Yeah, it’s me.” Jae rose and clutched at his chest before ripping the Velcro straps at his sides free. “Didn’t know you’d gotten to her first.” He shook his head, his jet black Mohawk barely swaying with the movement. He came out of the elevator, moving closer to Jax, closer to our prize.
“Good thing you’re a lousy shot,” Jax said before giving the struggling princess another sharp crack across her ass. She stopped moving against him, going lax again lest she earn another spanking.
I reloaded with a fresh clip and kept it at the ready, just in case. Hitmen had a code. First in time was first in right. But, sometimes, when shit got real and the pay was super nice, we’d been known to turn on each other.
“Fuck.” Jae holstered his weapon, wincing as he did so. “I really needed this contract. The bounty on this bitch is unreal.”
“Better luck next time, Jae,” Jax said.
Jae smiled. “She may be mine yet. I’m not the only one here.” He shrugged. “If you two get popped and pop the competition in the process, then that sweet piece of ass is mine all mine.”
I wanted to choke slam him for even thinking he could take her from me, from us. “Listen, Seoul Killer—”
“You like that? Came up with it all on my own. Strikes fear into my enemies.” Jae smiled, but his eyes were still planted on the girl. On my girl.
“We’d love to stay and chat, but we have a bounty to collect,” I said and nodded at Jax.
Jax moved into the elevator and I backed in, keeping Jae ahead of me. I hit the button for the parking deck. “Could you at least tell me how many more you saw?”