He’d taken an awful risk, living without the security his money could have bought them. And if he’d used it, maybe I would never have been able to get my hands on Scar in the first place, and she wouldn’t be unconscious in the back of some sick fuck’s car.
A flash of sleek, black car up ahead caught my attention, drawing it away from useless conjectures. It was a luxury vehicle and pulling off onto the exit ramp. I veered into traffic without looking and followed. It was her. It had to be her.
I followed at a safe distance for a mile after the exit. It was so damn tempting just to run him off the road, but I needed him in a less conspicuous location. And it looked like I was about to get my opportunity. The car swung hung a left and then turned onto the residential street on the right. It wasn’t the middle of nowhere, but it was close enough. The houses were spaced far apart. I hit the gas, got ahead of him ten seconds later and swerved into him to stop him.
Before he could back up, I was out of the car and outside his door. I yanked it open and hauled him out before he could gather up Scar to use as a hostage. The fucker was armed, but I kicked the gun out of his hand before he’d even raised it.
I yanked hard on his arm and twisted it back at the same time, forcing him to his knees while he hollered in pain. I dropped my gun out of reach and grabbed the knife to drive into him and feel the blood draining from his worthless body. Bloodlust. Pure and potent.
I raised my arm, my muscles taut, ready, but the glint of the sun off the rear passenger window caught my eye. It was empty. The rear seats were empty. Scarlett wasn’t there.
“Where. Is. She?” I ground out slow and careful because I wasn’t going to ask twice.
“She’s gone,” he replied with absolutely no inflection in his voice. “You’ll never find her.”
His eyes were lifeless. He’d put up a minimal fight. Why? He had to know I was going to kill him, yet he seemed resigned. “What’s going on?”
The guy shrugged. “I take the girl, you kill me, my family’s safe.”
“Safe from whom?”
“I handed the girl over ten miles back. That’s all the information I can give you.”
He lunged up all of a sudden and I drove the knife between his ribs. He gurgled as his body went slack seconds later. Fuck, what had I just done? I withdrew the knife, and he coughed, spraying blood all over my pants from his mouth and his chest. I dropped him to the ground.
He’d done it on purpose. Fuck. He’d deliberately come at me so I would have no choice but to put him down.
“Where? Where is she?” I demanded, dropping down beside him. The blood loss was substantial. I didn’t aim to wound. I aimed to kill. It’s what I knew, what Marcos had taught me. So, in just a few seconds, my only link to Scar would be dead.
He opened and closed his lips, trying to make sounds past the blood filling his mouth. I leaned closer. His mouth opened and closed again, soundless. Once more, and I heard him this time, just a second before he choked on his final breath.
One word. One word and the vice that had been squeezing my heart gripped tighter, threatening to stop it altogether.
Hell.
He’d said she was in hell.
4
Derek
I left the body lying next to the car where Scar had been just moments before I’d caught up with him. But I hadn’t caught up with him, had I? He’d passed me deliberately, orchestrating the distraction that would put me even further from her. It was smart. Premeditated. I didn’t credit any of Marcos’ goons with that much intelligence. So, who?
The buyer? Would the man have gone to all this trouble for a slave he hadn’t even seen in person? An image of her flashed through my mind, on her knees, seeing her like the buyer would have seen her. Yes, a buyer might be compelled to go to an awful lot of trouble to get her back, especially if he’d already come to think of her as his. But she didn’t belong to him, damn it. She belonged to no one.
I nearly lost it again, thinking about the buyer putting his hands on her, hurting her. I’d never been more tempted to swallow a bullet. I deserved to die for my mountain of sins, didn’t I? I held no illusions about that. The world would have been better off without me. Scarlett would have been better off without me. She’d be safe now, and completely innocent of the corrupt world that had been my home for too many years. But I couldn’t do it. No yet.