Page 13 of Pound

“Mom already said no to the pig, Crissy.” Thank God James came to his rescue. It was the first thing she’d ever asked him for, and he didn’t want to say no, but a pig?

“Hey, sweet girl, maybe you could ask Uncle Pound for a chicken. Cocks rock,” Taps said as he handed her one of his goddamned rubber chicken things. At the same time, Granite popped him in the back of the head.

The ringing of the landline echoed through the sound system set under the eaves. Trixie bolted back inside and retrieved the cordless. They all wore a look of concern. That phone never rang unless it was a wrong number or some shit no one wanted to deal with. They’d gotten it installed while Granite was inside and just never disconnected it.

He answered it on speaker as soon as Trixie disappeared back into the clubhouse with the kids.

“Speak,” Granite growled toward the handset.

4

MERI

Leone genuinely looked disappointed each and every time his flirtations and seductions didn’t work. Like he honestly thought she’d forget that she’d woken up his captive at his place, not by her own choices.

She found herself sitting next to him at breakfast in a completely normal-looking dining room. “Coffee, sweet Meri?”

“Yes, please.” Captive or not, she wasn’t turning down a caffeine fix.

“Ah, dear sister, so good of you to join us. Meri could use the companionship while I conduct business today.”

Meri had met Anna briefly when she’d first arrived. The woman had a haunted look about her. Of course, it wasn’t hard to figure out why after hearing Leone talk about her and what she’d been through. Even so, she believed Leone played a major part in her emptiness, but Meri couldn’t think on that too long. It would make her sympathize with her captors. And Anna was a part of her current situation.

Anna wheeled herself to the open side of the table on the other side of Leone and began her meal in silence. Not a sympathetic smile to the woman her brother kidnapped. At least she didn’t look at her with malice, so that was a plus. Leone did enough of that when she spurned his advances.

“Chin up, dear sister, sweet Meri can never fully replace you.”

Meri choked on her lightly buttered toast. It wasn’t that he hadn’t alluded to their relationship many times already. It was like he was putting them in competition for his affections when clearly neither wanted them. The look on Anna’s face broke her heart, but the woman made no response to her brother.

Could Anna be her ally? It was clear she wasn’t thrilled to be there. When they’d first met, Meri thought she was here willingly, but it was becoming painfully obvious that wasn’t the case. Anna had just learned survival. Could she escape Leone, and could she do it with a woman in a wheelchair?

It wouldn’t be easy, but if Anna was willing, she’d give it the old college try.

“Are you enjoying breakfast, Anna? Pancakes are my favorite.” It was lame as fuck, but what else did she have to talk about with her kidnapper’s sister? Oh, I hear your ex abused you, and from the looks of things, so does your brother. So sorry. That was probably not the breakfast conversation to have.

There really wasn’t a safe topic. Not one she wanted brought up anyway. Normally she’d talk about her kids or Trip or her work, but all those would do would be to serve Leone more power. Knowledge is power and all that.

Leone chuckled and looked at Anna with affection. But this time it appeared brotherly. “Anna loves pancakes. I remember once when we were young, Anna had broken the wheel off my favorite truck. Do you remember this story, Anna?”

Anna smiled sadly and nodded.

“As payback, I took every pancake on the tray and piled it onto my plate so all that was left was crumbs. When Anna huffed in the way she always did, I sat there and ate pancakes and ate pancakes.” He paused to chuckle. “Just kept shoveling them in, she tried to snatch one off my plate, but she was unsuccessful. I ate until I got sick. Just so she couldn’t have any. Mother was livid.”

Leone laughed like it was the best memory he had.

Anna mumbled something under her breath, and the laughter died.

“What was that?” he asked in a sickly sweet tone.

Anna placed her fork on the table and wiped her mouth. “I said Mother was livid, and when she left to get the mop to make you clean up your own vomit instead of ordering the staff to do it, you broke my wrist for my unsuccessful attempts.”

Meri swallowed the lump in her throat.

“Ah, yes, that’s right. You had to learn your lesson.”

What.

The.

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