Page 57 of Forbidden Cravings

My mind raced through all the possibilities, none of which were good. I hadn’t felt this out of control, this terrified since the situation with Riley.

“Pull yourself together,” Tyson said, and I flicked my sight to him. He hadn’t turned around to address me, which told me this was a temporary truce. “You’re no good when you’re not controlled.”

He was right. Control was what I did, and I did it well. Rolling the sleeves to my button-down up, I flexed my hands, clearing the worry from my mind and thinking of only one thing: bringing my wrath down on the Bad Omen.

Tyson didn’t say another word to me, but what he’d said had been enough. No one hurt the members of my family. And no one touched my girl.

Chapter Eighteen

CASEY

There was an aggressive throbbing in my head as I blinked my eyes open, squinting them until my vision cleared.

“I told you; we keep her here until we lure Brinks,” a man’s voice said.

I tried moving in order to see him, but my hands were bound, my mouth gagged. I glanced down to see thick rope surrounding my ankles.

“What about that brat?” he motioned behind me, and I strained my neck to see Angie glaring at him. Her words came out muffled as she mouthed off to him, her gag ensuring he didn’t understand what she said. They had tied us both up, two metal poles keeping us in place, our hands tied behind them. I scanned the room we were in, noting the signs that told me we were in a building that was still under construction. The lighting was dim, and I thought we might have been in the basement. Cement blocks lined the far wall, plastic sheets hung behind them. A wheelbarrow with bags of cement sat next to them, and I swallowed down my fear that it was there to hide our bodies once they killed us. Even after all the time I’d lived in this world and known what could happen to Tyson or me, the threat had never seemed so real.

“We keep her. Donelli’s boy will come to find her, and we’ll take him out. The old man is no threat. It’s only his connection to Mason Brinks that keeps him safe and once we kill Brinks, the old man will fall to the nearest family.”

“Is that what the boss wants?” asked the guy who had been behind the counter at the coffee shop.

I could see more of the skull in his tattoo now that he was closer, and it matched the tattoo on the bicep of the guy he was talking to. This new man’s tattoo was of a classic car with flames down the side, but hidden within the wheel was the skull and dagger. The second guy was massive. He reminded me of Runt and the thought saddened me. The image of his dead eyes staring blankly ahead was something I would never erase from my mind. I didn’t know what had happened to my other guard, Billy, but seeing that Angie and I were here, that left little hope that he was still alive. I stifled the wave of sadness that climbed within me, knowing the situation was too dangerous for tears.

Closing my eyes quickly so they wouldn’t know I’d woken, I listened to the two as they talked. It seemed strange that they would talk openly in front of us, but maybe they assumed we’d both be dead before Tony or my brother and Mason found us.

“Yeah, we take Brinks down, but only enough to immobilize him. The boss wants to torture him some before we off him. These two come with us.” That blew my theory of burying us in cement. It should have left me relieved, but instead it filled me with dread. If they were keeping us alive, they had plans for us I didn’t want to imagine.

Their lack of secrecy puzzled me, especially since they weren’t planning to kill us. Even if they thought I was still unconscious, Angie was hearing it all. Angie wasn’t a threat. She didn’t care about her father’s business, and they most likely assumed she had no idea what they were talking about. But even then, talking plans in front of prisoners was foolish andassumptive, and Tyson had taught me that both things could be your death.

Footsteps fell before a blunt kick to my hip forced me to open my eyes. That was going to leave an ugly bruise, and a few muffled expletives came from me. The bigger guy kneeled in front of me, his beady eyes hooded, and yanked my gag down. “Think you’re smart, pretending to be unconscious, bitch?”

I spit at him and he hit my face so hard it left my ears buzzing. “You wait until my brother finds you. You’re gonna regret ever laying a hand on me.”

A laugh that scraped its way down my spine came from him. “I’m going to fuck your brother up so bad, you won’t recognize him. But he’ll get a fast death compared to Brinks. Brinks is the one you’re going to torture.”

“Me?” I stared at him, watching as my spit continued to slowly drip down his face.

“You, honey. Since Brinks was kind enough to show us just how important you are to him, he gets to watch as we sell you to the highest bidder.”

“Damn, that’s gonna be fun to watch,” the ass behind him said.

I was trying to keep my expression hard, but that was difficult with the way my stomach had curdled at the thought.

“Not as fun as the way he’ll die.” He lifted his finger and wiped the line of spit, bringing it to his mouth and sucking it from his finger. The contents of my stomach threatened to spill. “The Boss wants your buyer to break you in while Brinks watches and then he’ll kill him. What do you think that will do to him before the boss kills him?” He put the muzzle of his gun in my cleavage and pulled my shirt down further. “Pretty little thing like you would be fun to ruin.”

A gut-wrenching wail clawed at me for release, but I refused to show him my fear. His eyes glimmered with excitement, anasty smile spreading on his face as the other man laughed. The thought of another man touching me, of them forcing Mason to watch, was sickening, and I swallowed back the bile and the wail. I wouldn’t let these men know they had any effect on me. That’s what they wanted. To break me down.

I knew this business was dangerous, that every day Tyson’s life was at risk but I never questioned my safety, no matter how many men guarded me, no matter that men with guns were everywhere I turned, no matter that the man I loved was one of the most feared killers of all the territories along with my brother. I’d never been worried. Tyson always kept me protected.

He jerked my gag back in place as I glared at him.

The guy from the coffee shop didn’t know when to shut his mouth and asked, “What about the other one?” He nodded toward Angie, who had gone quiet.

The spit eater rose, his eyes slow to leave my cleavage before he walked over to Angie, taking her face roughly in his hand as she violently screamed at him through her gag. “This one gets sold to the second highest bidder.”

Coffee shop guy let out a booming laugh. “He doesn’t fuck around, does he?”

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