Page 100 of The Butterfly Killer

Vince snarled, shoving Brightman’s arms off him. But he had no choice. He was all in.

Brightman whooped.

Vince ignored him as he tossed his cards into the middle. The dealer was already drawing the next cards.

Burns didn’t hold back his smile. He giggled as he let Vince flip his cards over.

“Bastard,” Vince hissed under his breath.

The table groaned in unison.

“You surprise me,” Cortez said.

The table went silent as Cortez pushed away from the table and stood. “A pretty house husband who is more than a piece of ass.”

Burns didn’t let the back-handed compliment ruffle his feathers. He didn’t look up from the table, instead, picking at invisible lint on the sleeve of his shirt.

He heard the click of the gun and then the press of the barrel against his temple.

“OliverRhysBurns. FBI agent.”

The men around the table gaped in shock. Then their expressions turned to anger.

Burns felt Mercer begin to move.

“Hold it, Agent Mercer.”

Cortez’s bodyguard came out from the shadows and held a gun pointed at Mercer’s head.

“Did you not think I know everything about a city council member’s family? I knew who you were and what game you were playing the second you walked into my house.”

Burns still didn’t look up. He waited.

“Stand up. Both of you. Hands up.”

Burns followed the order. Mercer did too though he moved more slowly. Burns didn’t know if there was a plan forming in Mercer’s head, but he hoped it wasn’t something that would get them killed. Burns tried to trust Mercer’s judgment most of the time, but he didn’t trust Mercer to have Burns’s safety at the forefront of his mind when it stood in the way of Mercer getting what he wanted.

More of Cortez’s men appeared. They took Burns and Mercer by the arms. They had heavy duty handcuffs. They were around Burns’ wrists before he could even think about struggling.

Cortez turned to face the other men sitting at the table in shock. “My apologies, gentlemen. I have some important business to attend to.”

Burns knew as he gave one final glance over the men sitting at the table without any intention of helping them. Cortez wasn’t going to let him or Mercer out alive. What they saw today, their testimony, might not be enough to put him away for all his crimes, but kidnapping two FBI agents would be enough to put him away for a couple years until they had the evidence.

The man holding Burns’s arm shoved him toward the door when he didn’t move fast enough. Burns wrenched his arm away in attempt to have some kind of authority. That earned him a slap to the back of the head that made him stumble and dizzy afterwards.

He shook his head with a snarl, glaring at the smirking man. Burns dropped the character he’d been playing for the entire night. He didn’t act out again, knowing it would make no difference. He had to wait for the right moment. They still didn’tknow how Cortez was connected to the Butterfly Killer. They might not even know each other though that seemed unlikely.

Outside, there was a black SUV waiting for them. They were shoved into the back seat, pushed to the middle and then a man on either side sat beside them.

Burns flushed as he was pressed close to Mercer’s side. It wasn’t the time to be embarrassed over something innocent, but his body seemed to forget they weren’t undercover anymore. He resisted the urge to wiggle in the seat. Having one of Cortez’s men on his left, caging him in, didn’t make things any better. There was no room left to breathe and he was forced to think about Mercer’s body heat, the way his thigh pressed against his.

Thankfully, the adrenaline of being kidnapped wasn’t making him hard like he’d heard some guys say. However, to his horror, his dick did twitch when Mercer turned his head and whispered in his ear.

“The guy next to you has been eyeing you since we got here,” he said, low enough no one else could hear. But the man on Mercer’s side noticed him talking.

He smacked Mercer’s head. “No talking!”

Mercer didn’t once look away from Burns. A spark of anger lit behind his eyes. It terrified Burns and he was glad the look wasn’t meant for him.

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