Page 189 of Syndicate of Sin Bundle

My phone buzzed. I slid into the driver’s seat of my car and answered the call.

“Laila?” I asked.

“This is Riccardo,” he said. “We have a problem.”

“What is it?” I growled. “Did you find Laila?”

“Laila is missing?” he muttered. “Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.”

My stomach twisted even more. “Tell me you’re with Sage.”

He paused for a moment. “There was an incident at the coffee shop today. I can’t find her.”

“God,” I shouted. “I’m going to fucking kill you too! Meet me at the club. Now!”

I slammed my finger down on the End Call button and sped like a maniac to the club, hoping that by the time I showed up, both my girls would be there. But when I parked my car and sprinted into my office, the girls were nowhere to be found.

They were gone.

And for all I knew, they could be dead too.

69

laila

I choked on water by the mouthful.

After they finished pouring water over the wet rag that covered my mouth, my shoulders jerked up, and I coughed until my throat burned. Tears streamed down my cheeks. My mind was heavy, broken. I wanted Constantino.

“What’d he make you do?” one of the men asked, pulling the rag off me.

“Nothing.”

“It didn’t look like nothing,” he growled, smacking me hard across the cheek. “What was it?”

“Nothing!” I screamed.

“Come on,” the other good cop cooed. “Give us something, Laila.”

“Fuck you!” I said, spitting at him.

If they thought they’d break me, they were wrong. I was already broken. I had killed my best friend. I had surrendered everything for a family. And these dickheads thought waterboarding me would force me to give up vital information that would put Constantino in prison?

Fuck that!

After seizing the rag from the bad cop, he frowned down at me. “Don’t make me do this.”

“Do it,” I growled through gritted teeth. “I have nothing to hide and nothing to say to you fuckers.”

He draped the rag back over my mouth and nose. I struggled against my restraints, my wrists nearly bleeding with how much I tugged and pulled in an attempt to break free, to escape. They had been interrogating me for … hours, days maybe.

They poured another gallon of water through the rag. Tears burned my eyes. I opened my mouth in an attempt to breathe because it felt like I was drowning. But I wasn’t going to break. I wasn’t going to break. I wasn’t going to fucking break for them.

When the water stopped, they ripped the rag off me once more. My eyes stung, and my nose burned. I coughed until I tasted blood. I wanted this torture to finally be over, but I refused to give up any information about my family that could send anyone to jail.

I wouldn’t betray them.

Someone banged on a metal door to my right. I finally opened my eyes and blinked back the tears, watching a man shove in another two sobbing women. My vision was so blurry that I couldn’t make out who was who or if I knew them.

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