Page 62 of The Bait

Harry shook his head. “They know where we live. They found us once, they’ll find us again. We need to end this, and then we can live out our days in peace. Okay?”

“I’m scared,” he whispered.

“I know. Me too.”

Asher’s eyes met Harry’s. “Why does it feel like this is about me? Taking Yunho and Lucas, Daris said it was to lure me here. What if he’s right?”

Harry pulled him back in for a hug, reluctant to admit he agreed with him. Because this did feel like that. Something was off about this whole thing.

But then Asher’s phone buzzed in his pocket, the sound startling them both. He pulled it out to seeUnknownon the screen.

“No one has this number,” Asher said. “Except Yunho.”

“Answer it.”

He took the call, putting the audio on speaker, but he said nothing.

“Ah, Mr Asher Garin,” a man said.

“Who the fuck is this?” Asher breathed.

“Is that any way to speak to me, stranac?”

Stranac.

Asher paled and almost dropped the phone.

“I have a friend here who wishes to speak to you.”

The next voice they heard was familiar. And Korean. Harry couldn’t understand what he said, but he understood the shouting that cut him off, and the muted thud and Yunho’s pained groan that followed.

“Yunho,” Asher whispered.

Asshole spoke again next. “You’re very slow at this game, stranac. I expected better from you. I thought you’d have found us by now.”

Stranac, the name Asher was given at the orphanage. It meant foreigner, and until he was four or five, he’d thought that was his name.

Harry wanted to reach into the phone and pull out this asshole’s throat.

“Though I assume the little party at the ZBK compound was you. They found Rozga’s body, by the way, in the tunnel. The media found out he was tortured. It’s caused quite a stir, public panic about gangs and drugs and guns.” He sighed. “Did he spill everything when you tortured him? Hm, I can only assume your boyfriend’s with you because the torture really wasn’t your style, stranac. You’re more of a kill-from-a-distance kind of guy. Never did like getting your hands dirty.”

“What do you want?” Asher asked, his voice cold.

“Bukovac. You know where. In two hours. Don’t be late, and come alone. Or I’ll do to your precious Yunho what you did to Rozga. Tell me, which tendon did you slice first?”

The phone went dead, and when Asher looked at Harry, the fire in his eyes was back.

“Who was that?” Harry asked. “He called you stranac.”

“Alen Radovic,” Asher said.

“He was here with you? At this place?” Harry nodded to the building through the fence.

Asher nodded. “At the orphanage, then here. He was one of the older boys. He was one of them that held me down and...” He flinched. “He was sadistic.”

Harry’s temper burned inside him like a raging beast. “Then we kill him first.”

“First or last, as long as he suffers.”

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