Page 80 of Lucifer's Hounds

His voice is raspy, but not that sexy type of raspy. More of a ‘I smoked five packs of cigarettes last night’ kind of raspy. Hereeks of body odor and bad breath mixed with a very unpleasant chemical smell that I don’t recognize. Whatever it is, it isveryunpleasant to the senses. More unpleasant than the body odor and bad breath combined.

“What the hell do you want with me?” I ask.

“With you? Not a fucking thing, princess.” He struggles to make eye contact with me. The whole time he’s been standing here, he hasn’t been able to stand still. His hands are constantly moving, picking at a scab on his arm or his face. He can’t be still.

“Great. So let me go,” I say, matter-of-factly. If I weren’t handcuffed, I’d have crossed my arms for good measure.

“Not gonna happen.”

I huff. “Yeah, I didn’t fuckin’ figure. Why am I here if you don’t want anything with me? And why is it ‘bout fuckin time I woke up’,” I ask, mocking what he said a moment ago.

His face reddens as anger consumes him. I haven’t even said anything yet. This is going to get interesting. He rushes toward me, stopping only inches from my face. The pungent odor coming from his mouth is ten times worse now that he’s so close. I fight the urge to gag, bile rising in the back of my throat.

“You don’t get to ask questions bitch!” he screams, spit flying from his mouth and onto my face. I flinch, and I hate that I did because now this useless fucker probably thinks I’m afraid of him. I’m not. I was flinching from the repulsive odor emanating from him.

“Hey, Boulder! Bitch is awake!” he hollers. He backs away and leans against the wall. He looks down at his shoes and starts whispering something to himself.

A tall, broad-shouldered man enters the room. He looks similar to the other man in the aspect that he’s scrawny for as wide as he is and it doesn’t look good on his figure. His hair is darker, but just as disgusting, and his eyes are sunken in. They definitely don’t get much sleep around here.

“Well, well. We’ve been waiting for you to wake up. We don’t like to wait,” Boulder says, his neck twitching with every word. What is up with these guys?

“If you wouldn’t have hit me so fucking hard, I wouldn’t have had to wake up,” I snap. When my jaw moves, a sharp pain shoots through my cheek making my eyes water and my face falter. Fucking shit.

“Aww. Is the poor little bitch in pain?” Boulder asks, amused.

I ignore his question. It’s rhetorical anyway.

“Why am I here?”

“Leverage.” That statement makes him smile like he’s a child that has just found the golden egg in the yearly Easter Egg Hunt.

“Leverage forwhat?” I yell, my temper getting the best of me. I double over from the pain that scorches my face. Screaming probably wasn’t the smartest decision I could have made.

But these assholes are pissing me off. I should be scared. After all, they did kidnap me and now they’re holding me hostage as some kind of leverage, but I’m more pissed off than scared.

Boulder’s ugly laugh echoes in my ears, one of the most hostile sounds I have ever heard. When I lift my head, he’s standing there looking at me. A sinister grin on his ugly face.

“Leverage for your little lover boy.” Boulder’s eyes look like they struggle to remain focused, and he paces back and forth in front of me. His movements are erratic, quickly scratching his ear, or his face, then looking around the room as if he’s looking for something, or someone.

“I don’t have a lover boy. Try again,” I spat.

“Is that so? Because from the looks of the messages in your phone, you sure as hell do. Cass? Ring a bell?” Boulder asks facetiously, waving my phone around in front of my face.

I remain silent as his words register in my brain. Of course, I’m here because of Cass. Who the fuck else would be the causeof some shit like this. There are so many emotions coursing through my veins, but hurt and anger are the most prevalent.

When I don’t say anything after a few minutes, Boulder grins.

“Cat got your tongue, bitch?”

I don’t give him the satisfaction of a response. From the looks of it, if I don’t say anything he will keep talking. Who are these people? I’ve never seen them before, and I’ve never heard Cass mention any of their names. I still don’t know why the fuck I’m here and that’s starting to irritate me. They aren’t going to tell me, either.

Boulder flips through my phone and I instantly regret not keeping a passcode on it. I never had a reason to before now. I hadn’t exactly foreseen getting kidnapped and someone going through the damn thing.

“I can’t wait to see the look on Cass’s face when he sees that we have his little bitch,” Boulder beams at the other man who is standing in a corner twitching. I roll my eyes, an involuntary action to the two idiots in the room.

“Smile pretty, bitch,” Boulder demands, holding my phone up to take a picture. I don’t dare move or make a face. I just sit here, the way I have been the whole time. If my face looks half as bad as it feels, Cass is going to be pissed.

“Asher should be here any minute now. He’s gonna be proud,” the other guy says in between picking at his hands. I look closer, really paying attention to the guy. His arms have the same track marks that Keith’s had. They’re on fucking drugs.

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