Page 8 of Becoming His Pet

“I said if you kicked me again, I would—” He shook his head. They didn’t have time for this argument. “Are you going to come with me or am I dragging you?”

Her body sagged in his grip, but he didn’t release her.

“I don’t like either of those options,” she said, looking away from him. He wanted to smile over her sour tone. At least she could be honest. It was a start.

“Well, those are the only two you have.”

She blew out a hard breath. “Fine. I’ll go with you.” She tried to pull back, but he wasn’t an idiot.

He slid his right hand down her arm and linked their hands together; dropping her other arm, he started walking back down the alley.

He’d managed to subdue Moe and Curly in the back of the flower shop, but if they ran into them on the street it might not go as well. Lucky for them, the bus had just let off a group of people and Greg was able to get them through the crowd and to his car without any incident.

“I live north of here, you’ll need to turn at the next street. It’s all one-ways around here,” Nora directed him as soon as he turned the ignition on.

“I’m not taking you home.” He shook his head and pulled into traffic. He’d have to finish Blake’s honey-do list later.

“The hell you aren’t.” She reached for the door, but he grabbed her arm again.

“The car is moving, you can’t be so stupid as to jump from a moving car.”

“No.” She pulled free of his light grip and folded her arms over her chest. “Where are you taking me if not home?”

“We’ll go back to my apartment and once I’ve heard everything we’ll reassess what to do.” He spoke calmly, not wanting to freak her out again.

“Won’t your girlfriend be upset?” she asked, fanning herself with her hand.

Greg reached over to the AC and cranked it up.

“No girlfriend.” He flipped the turn signal and merged to the right. Blake would be able to help; he had solid contacts with the CPD. At least he hoped Blake still did.

She gave him a side glance and leaned her head against the window.

“You don’t have to take me back to your apartment. You don’t need to be involved in this at all. Just drop me here and I’ll Uber home. It’s fine. The brothers won’t bother me.” She sounded softer, like the stress of the events had finally hit her and she was too tired to deal with it.

“You need to make a statement with the police. My brother’s an ex-cop, he can help—”

She turned on him with fire in her expression.

“No! No cops! Are you crazy?” She laced her fingers into her hair. “You’re an idiot. You can’t call the cops on Anthony and Teo Santinelli.”

Greg gripped the steering wheel harder. He knew that name. Santinelli.

Greg kept his voice even. “The ones I saw in the paper this morning?” He couldn’t recall all of the details, something about extortion or money laundering.

“Yeah.” She threw herself back in her seat. “So just let me go home.”

“The brothers. You called them the brothers. Why?” He had a damn good idea, he’d read the articles. He didn’t know much, but enough to know any involvement with that family was a bad idea.

“I’m not telling you anything. Just let me go.”

He didn’t answer. They were a block away from The Bar, and it was early enough that only a few people might be milling around. He could slip in the back and get her upstairs without a scene. Unless she created one.

When he pulled his car into the small lot behind the building, he grabbed hold of her hand. “Listen to me very carefully, Nora. My apartment is upstairs, there’s a set of stairs right when we get through the back door here. Be a good girl for me and go straight up there without a sound.”

Her eyes narrowed again, but she couldn’t hide her pupils dilating.

“And if I decide to go straight into the bar and announce you’ve kidnapped me?” she pushed.

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