Page 76 of Captivated By Him

They left me with my clothes on, but took my shoes? Maybe they think barefoot women can’t run? Idiots.

“I’m so tired,” Joseph says and his head rolls to the side, his eyes close again.

“No, stay awake.” I hurry back over to him and crouch down. I need him.

“He’s gonna be asleep for a while.” Henry’s voice wafts through the air from the door.

I spin up to my feet, nearly tripping myself in the process to find Henry standing in the doorway, a gun in his right hand and a cigarette burning in his left.

“Henry.” I have never felt so nauseated by the sight of anyone in my life. “What the hell is going on?”

He lifts a shoulder. “Well. I think you can see pretty plainly what’s happening.”

I look down at Joseph, then back to Henry. “Why… why would you do this?”

He shrugs. “You chose their family. So… yeah.”

He’s drunk. I can smell the booze on him. His blink is slow, and he inhales a long breath through his nose.

“Joseph needed to learn a lesson. So did you. So, I’m killing two birds with one stone.” He brings his cigarette up to his lips and takes a long hit. The lit end glows bright orange.

There’s enough light behind Henry I can tell we’re in a warehouse or storage building of some sort. It’s not large, I can make out the main door not too far off behind him. Maybe if I run full charge at him, I can knock him down and get out.

But I’d have to leave Joseph behind, and that’s not an option.

“Henry, is this because I left New York? You know I had nothing to do with the cops pinching you.”

“Oh, yeah, I know,” he says, taking another drag of his smoke.

I blink a few times. “Then why all of this?”

“You should be mine. It’s not right—you picking one of them over me. It’s not right.” He taps the end of his cigarette, letting the extra ash fall to the ground.

There’s gasoline in the room, all around us I think from the strong scent. If he drops that cigarette, the entire place could go up in flames.

“Henry.” I step closer to him. “Why don’t you let him go and you and I can talk about all of this. Hurting him will only cause trouble between everyone.”

Henry looks over to Joseph who drifts in and out of sleep. “He’s already hurt.”

“Yeah, but if you can get him out of here, send him home, then it won’t be so much trouble, right?” It’s all a flat-out lie. Henry signed his death warrant the second he touched Joseph. But in his inebriated state, I might get him to believe me.

Henry takes another pull of his cigarette. “I can’t. Piotr said to keep him. He wants a meeting.”

“A meeting? Piotr wanted you to kidnap him for a meeting?”

“No,” Henry whines. “He just wanted a meeting with him. But the old fucker wouldn’t have come willingly. I had to do it.”

“And me?” Talking about Joseph is sending him into a spiral, so I need to pull him into a different direction.

“You never should have been with that prick. I hear you were fucking him before you moved to New York. Is that right? You were fucking that asshole?”

He sets angry eyes on me.

“Henry.” I take a breath; even a small one hurts like hell. “Look. Whatever is going on here, we have to stop it, right? We have to call Jakub or Dominik so they can get Joseph. Then maybe you and I can go, we can leave. You know I was leaving, right?”

He looks at me with narrowed eyes. “We intercepted your app; that was smart, right?”

We aren’t getting anywhere.

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