Mr. Trace’s breath tickled his ear. “Are you sure you don’t like me? That pulse of yours is fluttering like a butterfly caught in a trap. Perhaps you like me more than you care to admit?”
“Perhaps you’re correct…I’d love you…gone. You have a gun to my head; how do you expect me to act?”
“Brave,” the man answered quickly. “Brave, like you behaved moments ago.” The gun traced Indi’s jawline. “Brave like your…service dog.” He laughed softly. “What’s her name? A German Shepherd is an unusual breed for a seeing-eye dog, isn’t it?”
“Her name is none of your goddamn business,” Indi growled.
“I bet she has a kill command, too, doesn’t she?” He questioned. “Was she your dog in the service, Judas? That’s your name, isn’t it? Judas Iscariot? At least that’s what is on the property title.” He laughed softly. “Tell me, love, did you betray someone, or did they betray you?”
Both, his mind screamed. Instead, he answered, “My parents were Bible-thumpers. What can I say? I got stuck with a shitty name and they weren’t able to pray the blind away. Sucky childhood, I guess. Now, can we move on? Either shoot me or shut the fuck up. I’m tired of your bullshit.” Indi never really expected to have to defend the fake name he’d chosen when he’d ghosted every single person in his life. Leave it to this asshole to bring it up.
“You’re gutsy. And pretty. I think I might like you, Judas…under different circumstances, of course.”
“Of course,” Indi agreed sarcastically.
He kept the gun to Indi’s head and a hand around his throat but addressed Leonard. “Tell me what happened, Leonard. Quickly. I’ve already wasted enough time playing with my new pretty.”
“This queen right here lied and said I’d visited his whore house. The boys and I were going to rough him up a bit, make sure he learned not to make shit up about people, when blind guy stepped in and interrupted.”
“So, what you’re telling me is that a blind man took out three of your men and was about to add you to his list of ass-kickings for the day?”
Indi hated the dick for keeping him at heel but couldn’t help but smile at his rather blunt description of what had just happened. He didn’t have a clue what Leonard looked like, but he could easily imagine the unhappy and embarrassed expression on the asshole’s face at the moment.
“Uh…no, Sir,” Leonard stuttered. “The asshole used his dog against us. You’re right about that beast, boss. It’s been trained to kill, there’s no doubt about it.”
Sky had been trained to kill but she had absolutely nothing to do with what had happened and the bastard damn well knew it. Of course, Indi kept his mouth shut. The title boss meant the man holding him around the throat was nothing more than a sleezy, lying drug-dealer so trying to defend himself would be a waste of time, patience, and energy…and Indi was short on all three.
There was a pause and then the man answered, “Strange. I don’t see any teeth marks on your crew, Leonard. And let’s just be honest with each other…I know you visit Hollister from time to time. What disappoints me most about that is that you would lie about it and not pay for his services. We have a nice arrangement with Holly and his friends. I’m very disappointed you would risk our agreement because you’re too cowardly to admit you prefer sticking your cock in a man’s ass instead of a woman’s pussy. The Doctor wouldn’t approve of such…dishonesty and disloyalty. Gather your men and meet me at the house. We have much to discuss.”
“You would believe this fag over me? One of your soldiers?” Leonard barked in what was obvious disbelief and shock.
The grip around Indi’s throat tightened slightly. “No, I believe what I see with my own eyes, Leonard. Do you honestly think I trust what you tell me without having eyes on your behavior from time to time? I know what you do, when you do it, and whom you do it with. It was never a problem until you lied about it. Don’t anger me further—gather your men and disappear. I’ll deal with you shortly.”
Indi was shocked that the drug dude seemed to be tipping toward the side of honesty but didn’t feel one bit safer when his hand was still wrapped around his throat and a gun against his temple. If the Trace guy intended to kill him, he couldn’t help but wish he’d hurry the hell up.
After a few minutes filled with muttering, grunts, and growls of disapproval, the area around Indi grew silent. There wasn’t enough movement for him to tell who all remained, but he suspected it was only him, Hollister, and drug dude. Cozy.
“I apologize for the misunderstanding, Hollister. I’ll see to it that it doesn’t happen again. I assume our business deal is still in place?” His voice was clipped, angry sounding.