Page 51 of Possessive

"I never met her either," he insisted. "She was some chick I met online. For all I know, she doesn't even exist. I needed the money, that's all I fucking know. I'll swear on anything you want. My phone is over there, on the table. You can see all the conversations I had with her." He jerked his head to the side.

"Pick it up," I said. If this was some kind of trap, the phone could be hiding a bomb or who knows what else.

He inched over, scooped up the phone and offered it to me.

"Open it," I said.

He hesitated.

Gianni scooped up the man's gun from the table and aimed it at his temple. "You heard the woman."

The man swallowed, but tapped on the screen to open the phone and enter the message app. He offered it to me, but Gianni took it first.

"Let's see what this motherfucker has to say for himself."

"Are you having fun without us?" Hunter stepped inside the house, Parker behind him.

"It looks like it," Parker said. "I like a woman who knows how to handle a knife."

"Don't even think about it or you won't be able to handle anything ever again," Gianni said pleasantly. "You'll find life more difficult without hands."

Parker chuckled. "Chill out, I was just making an observation."

Gianni grunted and returned his attention to the phone. "Dick pics? Really? You're old enough to know better."

"I thought she was legit," the man whined.

"Well, StudMuffin69, I think you've been had," Gianni said. "Or should I say, Frank."

"Stud muffin?" Hunter cracked up laughing. "He wishes."

I ignored him. "Is there any indication of where Kurt is right now? Some reason why he set this up?"

"My guess is he hired Frank here as a distraction." Gianni tossed the phone back on the table. "I don't think he knows Jack shit."

"I really don't," Frank said frantically. "All I know is what you saw there. I was told to take that flight to Sydney, make sure those two noticed me and come here." He tilted his head towards the twins, the movement subtle and nervous.

"Was he supposed to contact you with more instructions?" I directed the question at Frank and Gianni.

"If there's anything else, he deleted it," Gianni said. "Or Kurt hasn't contacted him again yet."

"Parker and I will report to Reuben," Hunter said. "He'll want to know if this has something to do with us and not Mina."

I watched Frank's eyes for any reaction to Hunter saying my name, but discerned nothing. If this was anything to do with me, he didn't know about it.

"Now, what do we do with Frank here?" Gianni asked. He picked the phone back up and tucked it into his pocket. "If Kurt tries to contact him, he can go through me. But it seems to me that if Frank doesn't know anything, he's no use to us."

"Please," Frank groaned. He swallowed hard. "I don't know anything, I swear. You have my phone, I can't contact him again. I don't know where he is. Fuck, I don't even know who he is. He might not be real either."

I wished he wasn't, but he was, and the reality was that he'd want to speak to Frank about this whole incident. After Kurt ran, he might have assumed I died in that cage. Frank seeing me would be proof that didn't happen.

But only if I left him alive.

I pressed the blade more firmly against his throat.

"Daddy?" A small voice came from the back of the room.

I looked away from Frank, to see a girl of five or six years old, standing in what looked like a bedroom doorway. She wore pyjamas that covered her feet, so she was head to toe in pink and purple unicorns. Her dark hair was messy, her eyes looked heavy with sleep. We must have woken her up.

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