Page 83 of Savage Heart

Stop worrying about ass prints on your desk, and worry about getting out of here alive!

Readjusting his expensive suit coat, Liz could see a gun strapped to his side, and fear like no other tunneled into her guts. He could shoot her, and she’d never see Erika again, she’d never see Trouble again.

Focus, stop panicking! Think!

Swallowing her terror, she dragged in a breath, then put some strength into her voice.

“Danil Oblek…what is it you want to talk about? I don’t have time for chit chat in my own office, people are expecting me,” she lied, hoping he didn’t hear the crack in her voice. No one wasexpecting her, and like a fucking idiot, she’d left her club escort behind. Wait! “Where’s Lyle? What about the money he—”

Danil Oblek chuckled, the sound like if evil had a sound. “You really are gullible, aren’t you,moya yad…my poison?” At her furrowed brow, he smirked, the darkness of his brown eyes growing black. “It wasn’t Dr. Lyle Pace on the phone with you,moya yad. Matter of fact, Dr. Lyle Pace is scattered, in pieces, over the Mojave. He’d come crawling out of his hole a few weeks ago, having lost all my money, and he didn’t last long under my blade.”

Oh, shit. Oh Lyle.He’d been an asshole boyfriend and a shitty business partner, but he’d been a great doctor. He didn’t deserve to go out like that.

Sucking in a breath to combat the rising nausea, she asked, “So how did he call me?”

“You see, there’s this wonderful AI technology that allows you to sample someone’s voice…like, say, from their voicemail recording, and use it to trick anyone into believing they’re talking to that person on the phone.”

She gasped, her eyes wide. Fuck, she’d fallen for a phone call from goddamn Skynet! She’d wondered why Lyle’s voice sounded so…flat. It was because it wasn’t Lyle at all!

Oblek was too close, his body giving off heat, his scent heavy and acrid, like the world’s cheapest vodka. Before she could move away, putting space between them, Oblek reached out, gripping her chin in his hand. She tired jerking from his hold, but he tightened his grip hard enough to leave bruises in her skin.

She growled, and he chuckled again, like he was humoring a toddler, the asshole!

“I knew that the only one who could pull you from your biker protection was the asshole who’d brought you into my web in the first place. And the promise of having a way to get rid of the scaryRussians….” Shaking his head and clicking his tongue, Oblek smiled crookedly, the humor missing from his eyes. “I knew I’d have you, I just needed to lure you in. And here you are,moya yad. Alone. And there’s nothing your bastard biker dog and his filthy friends can do about it.”

Her nails curling into the arms of her chair, she pushed down the desire to panic, the desperation. She refused to become like Lyle, she refused to leave Erika motherless…she refused to break Trouble’s heart, not after they’d finally reconnected—and, goddammit, she loved him, she didn’t want to lose the chance to tell him that, to create a future, a family with him. She had to keep Danil talking; the longer he talked, the greater the chance of rescue.

But who was going to rescue her? No one knew where she was; she hadn’t told anyone where she was going.

That doesn’t mean help isn’t on the way….

Meeting Oblek’s dark yet brilliant eyes, Liz inquired, “What are you planning to do with me?” Perhaps she could negotiate something, though what she could offer him that he’d take in place of five million dollars, she had no idea.

Danil’s eyes grew heavy, his eyes burning with something Liz knew to the depths of her soul was far more deadly than she’d ever imagined. Lust. Desire. Desperation.

Oh, God. She needed to get out of there!

He must have seen the panic in her eyes, because he jerked her chin toward him, forcing her gaze to his. “Don’t even think about trying to get out of here; I have men at every door, and they’ve been ordered to grab you, restrain you, then bring you right back to me. And I wouldn’t just put you back in your desk chair, I’d force you to live through acts so painful and traumatizing, you’d scream for death before I was done.”

She shuddered, her body trembling at the demon she swore she saw in his eyes.

The man was pure evil. And she’d walked right into his trap.

“Now,” he purred, dropping his hand from her aching chin to wrap it around her neck, “here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to call your baby daddy, and you’re going to tell him to meet you at The Den at 6PM. Tell him to bring his president along, but no one else. If my men see more than two bikes, you get two to the head, and that daughter of yours will get the royal treatment—I’ll make her my princess, and I’ll just love—”

“No!” she screamed, trying to shoot to her feet, but Danil’s hand around her throat held her captive in her seat. She croaked, “Please, don’t hurt her; she’s just a little girl.”

His thin lips and slimy expression made her stomach twist in fear and disgust.

“She won’t be a little girl forever,moya yad. I’ll take good care of her, until she’s old enough….”

Tears fell freely from her eyes; she knew what he was insinuating; he was going to sell Erika, her precious daughter.

Erik won’t let that happen. He’ll protect her.She had to believe that.

“But you don’t have to worry about that,Liz, not if you make the phone call.” Grabbing his cell from his pocket, Danil held it out to her. “Now, dial.”

Just as the last of their war party roared into the parking garage two blocks from Liz’s clinic, Fang’s cell rang.

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