Page 37 of Deadly Oath

“It was just a little recon, that’s all!” he cries out. “Just to find out that she was definitely living there. Keeping an eye on what she’s doing. Just?—”

“And why do you need to know that?” I hover the taser near the inner side of his thigh. “She’s just a new arrival to our little town, that’s all. Who needs to know something about her?”

“I can’t?—”

The crackling is louder this time, as I turn the taser up to a highersetting. I jam it into his inner thigh, and his screams echo around the empty station.

“I need something here,” I tell him firmly, when he’s stopped thrashing. “A name of who you work for. Some information about what they want. Why you’re stalking Sabrina.”

“If I say anything?—”

My patience has worn far past thin. I tase him again, this time on the inside of his other thigh, and tears start to stream down the man’s cheeks, his body twitching and muscles cramping from the repeated voltage. “Next one is your dick,” I warn him. “So start fucking singing.”

I level the taser at his groin, and the man’s tear-filled eyes go wide with fear. “I—I was told to get information about her, that’s all! What she’s doing, who she sees, when that FBI agent comes around.”

“And why is that?”

“My boss—he found out some stuff about who she is. He runs drugs, all through Tennessee and the Carolinas. But we’ve fallen on some hard times. You don’t know who she is, man.” He shakes his head rapidly, his voice almost begging now as the words spill out. “If we ransom her, she’s worth a lot of money. No one wants to hurt her. Just get her daddy to pay us to get her back. That’s all. I bet he’d like to know where she went, too. C’mon man, don’t do that again,” he pleads, as I start to stand, the taser still extended towards him. “I’m just a grunt. That’s all I know. We’re not gonna hurt her?—”

I nod. “Well, you’re going to spend some time here, cooling off while you think about what you’ve done. And then I’m going to send you back to your boss, and you can tell him that he needs to forget about Sabrina Miller.”

“She’s not SabrinaMiller,” the man insists. “You don’t know who she really is?—”

“I do,” I assure him, a slow smile curving my lips. “And I have my own plans for her. Plans you and your backwoods, drug-running boss, aren’t going to get in the way of. And while you’re thinking that over, I’m going to give you one more thing to consider.”

The man looks up at me fearfully, and I feel a thrill of powerprickle over every inch of my skin as I lean forward, jamming the taser directly against his dick. The electricity leaps out of it, and the man screams bloody murder, shrieking like I’m frying his fucking balls off. Which, actually, I might be very close to doing.

I yank the taser away, my jaw set as I stare down at him. He’s curved in on himself, sobbing, and I grab a fistful of his hair, yanking his head back so that he’s forced to look up at me.

“Sabrina is mine,” I growl, my face an inch from his. “I’ll kill any other man who touches her.Mine, do you understand?”

The man nods, still sobbing, and I jerk my hand away, looking down at the mess that he’s made of himself.

And then I stalk out of the cell, leaving him there in his own tears and filth.

15

SABRINA

When I wake up, Kian isn’t here.

I know I shouldn’t have expected him to be, but my heart drops all the same, disappointment filling me. I sit up, scrubbing my hands over my face, and I look at the smooth space on the bed where he was last night before I passed out.

He must have done what he said he was going to do—gone outside to scout around—and not come back after. I try to think past my disappointment that he didn’t spend the night, and think more clearly about what that might mean. When I do, a spike of fear jabs in my gut.

I reach for my phone, and quickly type out a text.

Sabrina:I get why you didn’t stay. But can you at least let me know you’re safe???

A few minutes pass,as I sit there staring down at my phone, mentally cataloging all the ways I’m sore this morning. I can feel a softly bruised sensation between my thighs, and it oddly turnsme on. It’s a reminder of how viciously passionate Kian was with me last night, how badly he wanted me. How alive andrealthat made me feel.

Kian:Good morning to you, too, princess. I’m fine.

Sabrina:Did you find anyone? Anything?

Kian:There’s nothing for you to worry about. It’s fine. I’ve got it under control.

Sabrina:So there wasn’t anyone there?

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