Page 65 of Delivered to the Devil

“Yeah, because she’s stuck here with nothing to give her hope. She knows she can’t get out and has experienced first-hand that the police aren’t gonna help her. As soon as you take her into that country, she’s gonna start remembering where she came from, their humanitarian laws, and the lack of corruption.”

“We’ll just have someone snap some new pictures of her niece to remind her of her position. Keep her locked up or something.”

Fuck,he’s really obsessed with Rebecca in a way I haven’t seen before, and my stomach churns with the realization. Because that only means one of two things. He’s gonna want to keep her for long—to himself—or he’ll break her that much more brutally.

I shove the thought out of my mind. I have to save that problem for another time. Right now, there’s a more pressing one I need to take care of. Because there’s no way in fucking hell I’m gonna let him bring her to Germany. Though I’m not sure if it’s more because I’m afraid of losing her or because I’m afraid he’ll do something stupid.

There’s that unwanted fear again, but this time, I can’t shut it down or ignore it. I’m not even sure I can keep it from clouding my mind anymore. But I still have enough sanity to realize that raging and growling like I want to will only make matters worse, so I keep my voice steady and cool.

“Those pictures are not gonna help when she’s so close to home. Desperation and hope make people do stupid shit. Just like you’re about to right now. Except you’re not desperate. You’re just thinking with the wrong head.”

“Fuck you, Janos. I’m bringing her whether you like it or not.”

I roll my eyes, knowing this is him throwing a fit. He needs to show that he has the upper hand, but in the end, he’ll listen. Once whatever obsessive urge that controls him right now wanes a bit, he’ll see that I’m right. Without a doubt. This is why he has me working with his toys in the first place. So I explain the situation to him calmly and enunciate my words clearly to make sure he understands every single fucking one of them.

“First off, if you bring Rebecca so close to her home, those pictures aren’t gonna do shit. She’ll get too desperate and focused on escaping to think straight. Second, if you fuck up, which I have a feeling you’re very close to doing with this girl, you’ll risk your whole business. You’ll have a national incident on your hands if someone finds her bleeding out in a hotel room. Or even just chained up and crying.”

Everything inside me clenches painfully at the mental image of Rebecca bleeding out in a hotel room. Or bleeding out in her bed here.

Gabor’s voice fades from my attention as the need to check that she’s okay itches in my fingers. Knowing he’s just trying to come up with solutions to something that he’s not going to do in the end, I put the phone on speaker and listen with half an ear as I tap into the video feed of the security cameras on the boat.

Hacking into the cameras on the cruise boat was as easy as stealing candy from a kid. Hating the idea of Rebecca working in such an unsafe place, I almost called her boss to have her fired on her first day. But then she appeared on the video and I saw her pretty smile unfold over her delicate features as she kept glancing out at the water. I just couldn’t take that from her. So I had someone with more hacker expertise upgrade the system and stationed a man close to the boat to keep an eye out. I have no idea who would want to harm Rebecca, but Gabor has many enemies, and I’m not about to risk anything with this girl.

It takes a moment for the video to load, and what I see on the screen as the video comes on has my blood boiling.

Right there, in the middle of the picture, sits Rebecca and her boss, holding hands.

He’s fucking holding her hands.

“I’ve got to go, problems with a shipment,” I lie, interrupting Gabor. His growl tells me he doesn’t like me cutting off ourconversation like this. But he’ll get over it. To drive my point home, I add in a firm voice, “And the girl stays in Budapest.”

With that, I hang up. If Gabor has any goddamned sense left, he’ll listen. If not… That will have to be a problem for me to deal with later. Right now, I need to deal with this fucking shit.

I hate that this is what it has come to, lying to Gabor and sneaking around. Guilt overrides the jealousy boiling in my gut for a moment as I remember how Gabor found me more than fifteen years ago. Bleeding out in the street, having stolen from him.

Instead of digging the knife even deeper and getting his revenge, he took me in. He made me into his new little project, taught me everything he knows, and basically made me a smaller—or rather bigger over the years—version of himself.

He didn’t just save my life. He made me into something—someone—who I’d never have become without him. If had somehow miraculously survived the stabbing wound in my gut without him, I would have spent the rest of my life on the dirty streets, dealing drugs and stealing from men much bigger than me until the lifestyle caught up to me and someone else shoved a knife into my gut.

Working for Gabor was much cleaner, more safe, and a hundred times more prolific. He was the son of a notorious officer who had made a fortune selling weapons when the Soviet Union collapsed. Gabor had taken over that business and was expanding into other areas while working his way up in the political system. He was quickly taking over the whole criminal underground in Budapest and becoming untouchable.

“If you ever fuck with my business again, I’ll end you.” That’s the first thing he said to me when I had recovered enough from the stabbing wound to force myself out of bed and face him standing up straight.

That promise still holds true. But Rebecca isn’t business. She’s entertainment. And as much as Gabor enjoys his toys, business always comes first. He would never jeopardize the empire he’s built because of some girl. At least, that’s how he feels at the end of the day, but when he’s in the clutches of his sadistic lust, he’s impulsive and rash—out of control. That’s why I’m here when he lets the beast loose. To make sure he doesn’t let it too much loose.

That doesn’t change the fact that I feel like shit for going against him. Because he’s not just my boss or my mentor. He’s the only person in this world I’ve ever felt connected to in any real way.

Until Rebecca.

The girl who is right now with another man. Letting him hold her fucking hands.

Everything inside me itches to run down there and snap his neck. But it wouldn’t be a smart kill with his uncle being a supreme court judge. It would be like Gabor taking Rebecca to Germany. Impulsive and stupid. And Gabor has taught me better than that.

But it just might be worth it.

I tap my fist against the table as I consider going down there. Maybe I’ll snap his neck, or maybe I’ll just haul Rebecca out of there if I can get this raging urge to kill under control before I get there. I could just have the guard, who’s still in place, do it this very moment, but the thought of any other man’s hands on her in any way has me itching to throw the table across the room.

Just as I’m about to get up, Rebecca does the same.

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