Page 113 of Queen Of Dark Money

Therewas no way either of them had plans to leave me alive.

“Comeon, then, if you’re gonna kill me, just get it over with!”Irattled my chains above my head, pissed off and very much ready to die and get it over with.Ihoped someone would take pity on my mother and help her pay for her procedure so at least one of us could get through this alive. “Nouse dragging things out, right,DaddyDearest?”

Sinclairshook his head and turned to the camera, a grin on his lips thatIdidn’t like the looks of. “Yousee, boys?She’sreadyto die.Yourlittle slut is giving up.Andwhen you get here, you’ll be too late to save her.”Heturned the camera, pointing it atTheo, who leered at the red dot and laughed. “Theohere is ready to carve her up.Idon’t know what she did to him in her past life, but he’s one very pissed-off man, andIdaresay he’ll make it hurt.”

Isnarled, fighting the restraints even thoughIknew it was futile. “You’rea sick fuck,Sinclair, you and your lap dog,Theo, too.Ihope you rot in hell.”

Hislaughter would stick with me for as long asImanaged to survive, and then it would no doubt follow me into the pits of hell.Thesound was like something had died and was mimicking a human but failing miserably.Youknow those videos where people insist the human-shaped thing acting strangely is a skin-walker?

Likethat.

Exactlylike that.

Butin his case,EddySinclairwas just a vile human being without a soul.

Don’tyou get it,Kerenza?You’redone for.Youfucked with a fish that was bigger than you, and now you’re paying up for your screw-up.”Hekicked my shin, andIscreamed, feeling the tendon and muscle give way in a direction it wasn’t meant to bend, sending a shooting pain through my whole over-taxed body. “Youshould never bring a knife to a gun fight, daughter.Butmore than that, you should have just letTheoput that first bullet in your head, and then we’d have avoided all this shit.Butyou had to be difficult, like a cockroach,” he snarled as he kicked my leg again, renewing the pain twofold. “Likethat bitch of a mother of yours.”Hespat on the floor in front of me, turning away as he dusted his hands on his pants. “Dogsdon’t know how to lie down and die, so sometimes, you have to show them.”

Theostepped forward as the light steadily flashed red in the background, andIspotted the silver flash of a blade in his hands as he approached me, his laughter turning my stomach. “Well, well, looks like it’s just you and me now, sugar.Timeto take out my pound of flesh from your skanky ass.”Hisblade rose to my wrists, and for a split second,Ibreathed a sigh of relief.Hewas going to kill me, and soon, it’d be all over.

Butas the blade simply nicked my skin, and a fresh drop of blood dripped into my eyes,Irealized he planned to bleed me slowly untilIwas drained of everything in my body, hanging like a slab of beef in an empty warehouse, a limp shell of my former self.

Iprayed for release from this hell, unconsciousness, death,Iwasn’t picky.Iwould take whatever the universe deemed to offer me.Butas the second and third cuts dripped into my eyes,Irealized there was no escape from this torment.Iwas going to feel every inch of this torture, andTheowould capture it all on camera for the boys to agonize over asIslowly slipped further and further away.

Deathcouldn’t come soon enough.

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

DOM

Lettingher go had been the biggest mistakeI’dever made, second only to marrying that bitch who’d pushed out my spawn and left me the second it became clearIwouldn’t change whoIwas as a person for her.Isat in my home for two days after the breach, hunting down who’d caused the fucking blackout and the security leak, all to no avail.Whoeverit was had intricate, inside knowledge of how my systems operated, and that list was so short thatIalmost hesitated to suspect anyone.Maybeit had just been a complete fluke.Butthat didn’t make sense–especially when the building was the only thing on the block that had lost power.Imean, there were coincidences, and then there were circumstances too convenient to be unplanned.

Nothingabout this was happenstance.

I’dbroken my phone against a wall after she walked out, soImissed the call when these fuckers flipped her car and chased her down to kill her.Imissed the call for help when the club went up in smoke and she was carted off to the hospital withStone.Andnow thatIhad a replacement,Iwanted nothing more than to lose it again.Riverjust called to tell me that these fucking imbeciles managed to lose heragain.

Becauseof course they did.

Icouldn’t trust a single one of them.Nobodycould keep her safe likeIcould.

AndIsent her away.

Itwas all my fault.

Ihad no one to blame but myself for her disappearance.Maybeshe’d finally up and left us all for greener pastures.Iwouldn’t blame her.Thiscity chewed you up and spit you out, and if you survived, you became a twisted, tainted version of your former self.Therewas no surviving this place unscathed, not for a single soul that inhabited her crime-laden streets.Ifyou laid down with dogs, you were bound to get up with fleas.Andthis city was filled to the brim with the pests.

Iwasn’t always a cynical asshole.Onceupon a time,Iwas a decent fellow with hopes, dreams, aspirations, and goals.Andnow, allIwas, was a piece of shit who couldn’t admit to himself that love wasn’t a weakness.Thatit was okay to fall for someone younger than you.Thatthe heart was never a governable thing and had ideas and plans of its own that we didn't stand a chance of understanding or anticipating.Andyet, hereIwas, flagellating myself becauseIcouldn’t be arsed to change myself and my way of thinking.BecauseIwas afraid of being vulnerable.

Ihad guysIhadn’t contacted in years searching every street for footage of her abduction, escape, or flight, whatever it was that took her from us.Apart of me wanted to make sure she was okay, that she’d gotten away safely, and drag her back to punish that brat for ever thinking she could walk away from us.Theother part of me feared the worst–that someone had taken her against her will, and now it would be a race against time to find her and save her.

Isincerely hoped it was the former.

Myphone vibrated across my desk, the annoying, shrill ringtone starting to give me a headache asIpicked it up and answered the call. “What’sthe news?”

Iexpected it to be my head of security.Instead,Igot an earful from a very irateRafe, who was beside himself with anxiety if his tone was anything to go off of.Ina matter of seconds, my worst fears were confirmed, andIfelt the bottom drop out of my stomach asIfought off the urge to retch.

“She’sgone,Dom.Theyhave her, and it’s not good.”

Wepatched inRiver, who was withStoneat the hospital, his voice sounding very much like it had been shoved through a cheese grater and glued back into his voice box.He’dinhaled so much smoke they wanted to admit him, but he’d refused, and was now planning to slip out the back and go on the hunt for our girl.

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