Page 90 of Fool's Gold

Through already narrowed vision, my brow bone cracked and my eye swollen, I catch a glance of Celeste. She stands off to the side with the knife lightly dangling from her loose fingertips. She watches her men work, gloating.

The men pause, and I spit out a mouthful of blood, one of my teeth already cracked. My jaw is on fire, and the rest of my body is bracing for the same amount of pain. They always start with the face, but not so bad to keep you from talking.

I’ve been in their shoes before.

I’ve been the one working my targets over and waiting for answers.

Except this time, they don’t want anything out of me except my suffering.

“You know,” I say, nearly biting off my tongue, the damn thing swollen, “if you really want to make me suffer, you’d start with my dick. It’s my best feature. A little slice off the top, peeling off the foreskin…”

Not that I want to put ideas in their heads, but the razing is enough to have one of the grunts growling and blowing his fist into my gut instead.

“Poor Marcus. You still think you’re going to be able to find an opening. Let me tell you something; I’m saving the best for last.” Celeste holds up a hand to get her men to pause. When I finally manage to pry open my eyes, she’s got a gun aimed at my chest. “Guess this is the time, then.”

“For what?”

With her other hand, she bends to pick up something on the floor. “It’s best if you go out knowing what’s really happening. Consider it a final gift to you.”

She somehow manages to flip through the stack of pages and holds out the last one to me. There at the bottom is Empire’s signature. My stomach sinks, and the rest of me solidifies to ice.

“What have you done?”

“It’s not what I’ve done. Your girlfriend signed these contracts of her own free will. I’ve signed them as well. The movie is mine. Empire is mine. She will never be able to get out, and you won’t be around to keep her safe this time.” Celeste licks her lips. “Think of the fun I’ll have, molding her into a useful asset. She is going to make me a lot of money. And she is going to make Stanic very happy when he’s plowing between her legs, shooting his seed into her sweet young pussy—”

I erupt into motion, bucking against the chair but finding no give. My head cracks against the cement.

I did nothing. I didn’t get Empire out, didn’t keep her safe. She got herself right back in.

“You goddamn bitch!” I yell. “How could you?”

“How could I?” Celeste mocks. “I did nothing. She chose her next project with only a minimal push from one of my men. There is no escape once you’re in our sights. Surely you know it better than anyone else.”

Red-hot rage blots out my vision and blankets the room in crimson. The metal bites into my wrists and slices through my skin. The pain is barely recognizable in the face of everything else. I’ve got to get free. I have to do something to get Empire out of this and destroy that contract before something happens to her.

I’d rather burn in hell for eternity than see her turned into a toy for Stanic. Whatever it takes, I’ll do it.

Celeste laughs, delighted by my struggle. “I wish I had a camera to mark this occasion. I knew you would flip out. The look on your face—”

My shock and horror reverse in an instant at the sound of splintering wood. The world goes foggy, time speeding up rather than slowing down, and in the next breath, a damn SWAT team storms the room.

The nearest man slams the butt of his gun against the side of Celeste’s head and sends her sprawling to the floor before she has a chance to flip off her safety.

Footsteps thunder inside the small space. One of the men rights me and moves to undo the manacles keeping me contained.

“It’s all right now, Mr. Ortega,” he says through his mask. “We’ve got you covered.”

Talk about a fairy-tale ending. The bad guys are arrested, and I’m freed. The contract is somewhere in the room, forgotten, forgotten as they drag me out into the cool night air and set me down on the curb.

The fight is over before it begins. My stomach sinks further as they secure the room, disarming and slapping cuffs on Celeste and her men. It’s not me they need to worry about.

Someone has to go to the premiere and get Empire out. Someone needs to help her.

I don’t recognize the building. Celeste made sure to keep me utterly in the dark during our drive here. So how in the fucking world did the SWAT team find us?

An ambulance pulls up with a screech and several EMTs rush out with their steady hands and kind eyes. Within the next five minutes, they’ve got me bandaged and disinfected and all kinds of shit. I hiss and suck in a breath as they dab antiseptic along my forehead.

“We’ll be able to treat you better at the hospital, but for now, this will stop the bleeding,” the woman says.

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