Page 99 of Fury

My pulse jammed in my veins, jamming my ability to breathe, speak, move.

“Serena Barnstone, gone missing at the age of seventeen. A high school teacher reports her disappearance, but Serena’s mother chalks it up to her rebellious teen daughter running away. The girl re-surfaces a year later as Rena, old lady to one Medicine Man McGuire, President of the Smoking Guns of northern, Kansas. Within four years she falls out of favor and becomes nothing better than a slave to him and his club.”

“Not anymore.”

“No, not anymore.” His eyes roved over me. “How did you manage to get out? You were bored one rainy day and shot those two by yourself and skipped out of their compound?”

“It was sunny that day. Very sunny.”

An eyebrow lifted. “Ah, protecting someone. Someone special to you. Who could that be?”

“Is there more? Are you going to blackmail me now? Threaten me with your little piece of juicy information that will get me imprisoned, tortured, and killed? You want an in with the Smoking Guns, is that it?”

“No, no, no. I don’t want an ‘in’ with those fuckers.” He enunciated the word as if it were sour on his tongue. He picked up one of my sketches and studied it, placing it carefully back on the table, smoothing down the edge of the paper. “I’m not here to send you back to them or blow the whistle on you.”

I was still, revealing nothing.

“You don’t believe me? Why, angel?” he asked.

“Because I know that the Smoking Guns are very friendly with plenty of organized crime families.”

“Yes, they are. Not with mine, though. And I wouldn’t call it friendly. I’d call it something else.”

“What do you want from me, Turo?”

“Cooperation. I want information. Anything you can give me on your ex-old man and your colorful past.”

He stared at me, studying my responses, taking in my levels of fear, anxiety. The silence stretched between us, and I waited for it to twang like a guitar string in a hushed concert arena.

“Information about Med?” I finally asked.

“Yes.”

“Why would you need information from me? I was just one of the many girls he kept.”

“No, you weren’t. Not just some girl.” He tipped his chin, licking his bottom lip. “What is it? Do you feel loyalty or duty toward the man who kidnapped you, raped you, and kept you for years? I will tell you this. Medicine Man and his glorious club crossed the line one too many times with the organization I work for. And that’s something you do not do without pissing off very powerful and very intolerant people.”

“That’s one of his favorite hobbies, though.”

A smile broke over his face. “That’s no way to conduct business.”

“You think he cares about business ethics?”

Turo took one, two, three steps toward me and stopped. “I want your help to make his life miserable and cut down our competition in the process. Win for me. Plus, I figured you might enjoy the opportunity I’m offering to make him suffer. Win for you.”

I didn’t answer.

He whispered roughly, “Don’t forget, gorgeous, you owe me.”

“I’ll never forget. I know I do.”

“Good. I realize I’m asking you to rat, something that’s not done.”

“Same applies in your world, doesn’t it?”

“Hmm.” A grin broke over his carved lips.

“So you understand the position you’re putting me in.”

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