I refused to allow this man to scare me. It was the only thing I could focus on through the haze of pain that threatened to take me under again.
My captor laughed his hyena laugh. “Look at her, boys, look how she talks back!” Suddenly, his laughter died and he lunged towards me with bared teeth. “You’re nailed to a chair, puta, not a throne. Be grateful I’ve kept you fucking breathing.”
“Fuck you,” I said with cold calm.
Inside, my body fired like an overheating furnace, sheer terror building the flames too high. I was in overdrive, desperate to flee but literally stuck to the chair. My hands kept trying to jerk away from the pain but it only ripped them open wider.
“Fuck me?” His laugh was like tearing sheet metal. “Fuck me? You are the one tied to a chair. One of my men already tried to have a go at your sweet white pussy. You want me to let him back in?”
I glared at him. I knew who he was, Luis Elizondo, the President of the Nightstalkers MC, and I knew what he wanted, information about The Fallen. This knowledge comforted me because it gave me an edge. He didn’t expect me to know him just as he wouldn’t expect me to stand up to him. He wanted my submission, but I’d become the kind of woman who only gave that gift to one man. If Luis wanted King, wanted the men of The Fallen MC, he’d have to go through me to get to them.
My bravado faltered when Luis lost his patience with me and snarled, an inhumane sound that echoed through the mostly empty warehouse. “Shut the fuck up. Sander, muzzle the bitch.”
The fire inside me roared, then died altogether. Ice water flooded my veins as a new kind of terror descended on me.
The body waiting patiently behind my chair stepped closer.
Ice crawled quickly over my skin, inside my ears, nose and gaping mouth to invade my brain, to stop the thoughts that led to only one conclusion.
Huge familiar hands gently appeared at the edges of my vision, a thick length of rope stretched between them. Before I could close my mouth, they jerked the rope into my mouth, pressed it tightly to the corners of my mouth so I was semi-swallowing the thick fibers. I gagged at the stress it put on my tongue. The rope was knotted behind my head and the person stepped back.
“Why don’t you come show this bitch your face?” the horrible man in front of me ordered.
No.
No, no, no.
As long as I didn’t see him, I could stay frozen and numb to the truth.
I squeezed my eyes shut as the heavy thud of booted feet rounded my chair and made their way to the man who spoke.
“Open your eyes, puta.”
No, no, no.
“Victor,” he barked at someone off to the left.
Someone moved out of the shadows. I whimpered when cruel hands gripped my hair and wrenched my head back. The cold, sharp edge of a knife pressed into my throat.
“Open. Your. Eyes.” Victor hissed in my ear.
His mordant breath activated my gag reflex. As I shuttled forward with the force of my dry heaves, the knife bit into my neck and a thin trail of blood slipped down to pool wetly in my right collarbone.
“Open your eyes,” he ordered again, wiggling the blade against the scratch until it opened wider, spilled more blood down my front.
I opened my eyes.
Even though I’d known who would stand before me, I nearly threw up at the sight of Lysander. He stood beside Luis with his hands behind his back, his posture straight and sure like a soldier before his commander.
“You recognize your brother, of course,” Luis began conversationally as he patted Lysander on the back. “He’s been a good little informant for me the past few weeks.”
I closed my eyes again on a sob but the man holding my hair gave me a little shake, so I peeled them open again.
Lysander stared at me vacantly.
I wanted to scream at him, tear out his hair and slam his head repeatedly against the concrete floor until it busted open and spilled all his secrets across the ground for me to shift through.
My hands tried to fist with rage but pain had me rocking back in the chair.
Fuck, I’d never felt so helpless in my life.
I wished fervently that King and the boys were looking for me. There was no doubt in my mind that if I didn’t give Luis what he wanted, he’d kill me. Seeing as I didn’t know anything about The Fallen’s criminal side, I had nothing to give him. Therefore, I’d be dead sooner rather than later. I just had to give King time to find me.
“Now, maybe, you understand just how serious I am about taking over The Fallen’s distribution network. I’m going to get Victor to take that rope out of your mouth and you’re going to tell me all about Zeus’ operation, aren’t you?”