by Sedona Venez
“Let’s cut to the chase, shall we? I’ve known Tabitha for years… in various capacities. She knew I was in the market for another lucrative investment, and that’s why she came to me when you had financing issues.” I pulled out a cigar and a long wooden match. “I had you and your company extensively investigated and found you are very talented.” Placing the cigar between my lips, I struck the match, and then held it at the foot of the cigar. “But, obviously, you’re naive when it comes to business.” A surge of flame shot out from the head of the cigar, and a puff of smoke came from my mouth.
“So do you know where she is?” she rasped.
My lips twitched into a mockery of a smile. “Don’t know, and I don’t care. But when you find her, give her my regards.” I paused, coolly looking at her. “Sinthia, you’re tougher than I thought. I like that.” I blew a ring of smoke before placing the cigar in the ashtray. “I’ve come to a decision.”
“What decision?” she barked. “You already made a decision when you gave me two million dollars. Now, you’re making another decision?” She sneered.
So I’ve hit a nerve. Interesting. I stared, wondering how many more buttons I could push.
“I will make it really simple for you.” I crossed my arms and widened my stance. “I’ve invested two million into your business, and I intend on getting it back plus a hefty profit, so I will retain full control of your company.”
She stared at me in astonishment. “This is bullshit! This is my business,” she shouted.
“You mean it was your business, Sinthia. Now, it’s mine,” I replied. “Kevin, my accountant, will take care of all the financial matters, including providing the money to continue your line. In addition, I will make some calls to my contacts to see if we can get your retailers back on board.”
My eyes fell to her full lips as she licked them. Damn, they are absolutely sinful. My mind roamed to the vision of my manhood sinking deep into her pouty mouth. Fuck.
“And all of this is coming at what price?” Her back stiffened. “I will not use my company as a front for illegal business dealings.”
I blinked, and then my expression hardened. Is she out of her damn mind?
My eyes narrowed. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
She tightly closed her eyes as if she wanted to block the sight of me from her presence. “I’ve worked too fucking hard to have my business and name tied to anything illegal.” She opened her eyes to look at me again.
I stalked over to her, letting my gaze blatantly roam over her sensual body. “What a beautiful hypocrite. There was no thought about where the money was coming from when you took it.” I let out a snort of contempt. “Now, you’re looking at me like I’m the fucking scum of the earth.”
I silently regarded her.
“I’m just calling it like I see it, Mr. McKay. I will not use my business for shady activities.” She spit the words out.
I met her frown with a cool look. “Many years ago, I might have used you for that and more, but now, I’m a legitimate businessman.” With dark and twisted connections.
“What else do you want, McKay?” she asked before licking her bottom lip.
My eyes traveled from her face to her body and then back again. “Oh, darling, I can’t begin to tell you all the things I want from you. That would send your gorgeous ass running from this room. But the question is, what do you want, Ms. Michaels?”
“I want you to let me out of this fucking deal,” she bellowed.
I laughed coldly. “Not going to happen. Next.” I all but sneered.
“If you wanted to, you could,” she responded sullenly.
“I’m in the business of making money, not losing it. The deal remains.”
Lifting her chin, holding my stare, for several minutes she didn’t say anything as I continued to watch her.
She folded her arms across her chest. “This is fucking ridiculous,” she roared. “It might be unlawful, too.”
“Even you don’t really believe that shit,” I responded with a hard voice.
“And how long is this business arrangement going to last?”
“Until I determine the debt has been paid in full,” I bit out, letting my words sink in for a few seconds.
“Fuck you! You might own the company, but you don’t own me.” She curled her lip in scorn.
The challenge in her eyes filled me with a need I’d never even known I possessed. My hands tightened and unclenched before I caught her by the arm and pressed her against the wall. In one swift move, I pressed my lips against hers. Moving my mouth on hers, I forced her lips open and I plundered inside, one hand tightening on her waist and drawing her even closer. My tongue swept into her mouth while my other hand released her arm, reaching up to wrap itself in her hair, tilting her head back.
Her hands fisting my shirt, she leaned up into me. My mouth devoured and stroked her with a controlled sensuality that made my cock jump to life, straining against my pants to break free. I growled when her mouth widened and she pushed her tongue into my mouth. I groaned, tasting a hint of mint and coffee.
My head spun out of control as she kissed me back with unleashed anger and passion. The ache within my throbbing balls grew. I knew I wouldn’t last much longer until I needed to bury myself inside her cunt.
Sinthia’s breath caught as my hands went around her, pulling her away from the wall and flush against me. My fingers traced over her buttocks. She tried to remain motionless, her ass cheeks tensing in reaction. Blood raced to my cock, stiffening it to near pain as I imagined her voluptuous tight ass clamping down on my cock as I fucked her from behind.
Damn, I burn to have her.
Lifting my head, I abruptly broke off the kiss and stared down at her with hard eyes. “I might not own you now, but I will,” I responded with a steely voice before stepping back from her.
Sinthia lowered her head, but not before she seared me with a furious glare. A perverse need for her to acknowledge I was in control overtook me. With slow deliberation, I turned around and strode over to my wall of floor-to-ceiling windows.
“Now you may go, Ms. Michaels.” I kept my voice low and soft but left no room for doubt that I’d issued a command.
For several minutes, I waited until I heard the tap-tap of her heels and the soft click of the door closing before I relaxed.
Now that I knew what it could be like between us, one taste wasn’t enough. I had to have her. The thought of making her whimper and beg while I took her from behind aroused me more than I would have believed, filling me with the kind of anticipation I’d thought was long behind me.
I wanted her, and that put a completely new spin on everything. My cock jumped as I imagined the possibilities and the challenges of making this work. I needed to banish my ridiculous fixation on her.
Folding my arms, I mumbled aloud, “This shit is about to get really complicated.”
TWO
CORE
DAYS LATER
I pulled up in my low-slung Porsche and stepped out. “I fucking hate Newark,” I mumbled, looking around the dirty warehouse.
Ram hopped out of the passenger side, and before slamming the door, he said, “Who doesn’t?”
We both headed to the warehouse, slipping into the dark building. Our motorcycle boots sounded like trumpets as they slapped against the hard concrete floors in the cavernous, dark space.
Rats almost the size of kittens ran across the floor to hide. The air was stale and cloying. Total silence reigned as Ram and I made our way down the metal stairs and through the corridor. Tense and focused, we recognized the importance of this moment. We were one step closer to bringing Lexis, Ram’s baby sister, home.
“We’re going to find her,” I stated through gritted teeth.
“She’s been missing for almost a year,” Ram grumbled with bleak eyes.
Ram had been blaming himself for her disappearance, for not stepping in when Lexis had gushed about the perfect guy she’d met at a party nea
r campus. The guy, Jeff Barolo, had become Lexis’s boyfriend after dating her for only two weeks.
Ram had grown suspicious when Lexis refused to introduce Jeff to him, so Ram had driven to Massachusetts only to find out from her friends that Lexis had dropped out of college and run away with Jeff. After a background check, we’d found out that Jeff was some preppy wannabe pimp who had a track record for luring pretty college freshmen girls into a life of human trafficking, selling their bodies for sex. It had been hell trying to find any information on the whereabouts of Lexis, because the human trafficking world was dirty and secretive.
One tip after another had led to dead ends. Every time we’d gotten close to finding Lexis, Jeff would transport her from state to state, changing their location and leaving no trace.
The last hot lead we’d gotten was that she’d been traded between traffickers across the country. After months of attempting to infiltrate the seedy traffickers’ world, playing cat-and-mouse games while trying to find her, we’d finally gotten a solid clue from one of the girls whom Lexis had worked with that had escaped Jeff’s clutches. She had given us one name. The name, a flashback from our criminal past, was Ben Vargos.
“Where did they find him?” I snapped.
“He’s set up shop in the Bronx with some butcher shop as a front.” Ram gritted his teeth.
We stood before the door in deadly hunt mode with adrenaline coursing through our veins. This was a dangerous slippery slope for ruthless men like us. It had taken us years to leave our criminal lives behind, ones filled with the constant chaos of brutality, most of it perpetrated by us. Now, we were right back where we had started—a life of violence.
Ram grabbed the doorknob.
I clamped my hand on his shoulder. “Let me do this, Ram. You’re in a real fucked-up mood right now. You might end up killing him before we even get any information.”
His body stiffened as he turned to look at me. Our eyes locked in battle.
“Core, I can do this without fucking it up.”
“You can’t, not like this.” My eyes narrowed. “Trust me.”
Ram roughly blew out before nodding.
Grinding my teeth together, I stepped into the damp-smelling cell. My eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness as we strode in. Ram closed the door with a decisive click. I nodded curtly to Max and Rocco, my enforcers, before my eyes locked on the man in his mid-thirties who was bound to the metal chair sitting between them.
Ben Vargos was unshaven and his clothes looked slept in.
I sighed heavily. What I was about to do would drag me right back into the criminal world I’d left behind. But we had to get Lexis back, and there was nothing I wasn’t willing to do to accomplish that.
Ben’s eyes widened. “McKay?” he squawked. His eyes turned to look at Ram. “Ram?”
My nostrils flared slightly before I responded, “Hello, Ben.”
Ben glanced around in a furtive manner.
The room was silent, except for the low whir of the air-conditioner. Ram moved toward the table smack dab in the middle of the room. He snatched up a pair of black latex gloves and impatiently snapped them on.
Ben bucked against the rope binding him to the chair. “Untie me!”
Max growled, slapping Ben on the back of his head. “I will snap your damn neck. Shut the fuck up.” Max’s voice was flat.
Ben’s face contorted with pain. “Core? What the fuck is this shit about?” he squeaked while watching me move unhurriedly toward the narrow table. “I haven’t seen your ass in years, and you send your men into my business to drag me out like some punk.” He struggled uselessly against the rope.
I ignored him while taking off my leather jacket, folding it, and then laying it over the table ever so carefully. Cracking my knuckles before slipping on a pair of black latex gloves, I stared blankly at Ben.
His eyes darted toward Ram. “Ram? Come on. We go way back. Talk to Core.” Beads of sweat dripped down his forehead.
Ram sneered but remained eerily silent as he moved to sit on the edge of the table.
“Come on, man. This is totally fucked up,” Ben screamed.
I fixed him with a cold stare. “He’s not going to save your ass, Ben.”
“This is bullshit!” Ben’s panic was distinct.
I smiled coldly as I rolled up my sleeves, displaying my tattooed forearms. “This is how it’s going down. I’m going to ask you some questions, and I want straight answers.”
“Fuck you, McKay!” Ben screamed.
I nodded toward the tub of water. Rocco shoved Ben forward, ruthlessly slamming his head under the surface of the water. Ben struggled, but Rocco didn’t relent. Ben struggled more frantically until Rocco whipped his head up. Ben gasped for air.
I twirled a chair around, and I sat in front of him. “This is about unfinished business.” My eyes were cold, my voice flat. “I hear you’ve moved up in the world, Ben.” I leaned forward. “No more selling underage girls on the corner. You’ve upgraded to sex trafficking.”
Ben nervously licked his lips. “What? No.” He shook his head in denial, but the truth was written on his face. “Don’t know what you’re talking about, man.”
Ram’s body tensed. “You don’t know what he’s talking about? You piece of shit!”
He stalked toward Ben before hitting him hard across the head. I watched with disinterest.
“You pimp out underage girls, and when you’re done with them, you sell them to other traffickers,” Ram accused as he studied Ben with murderous cold eyes.
Ben grunted in pain. “Not everyone can go straight like you two.”
“I’m going to cut to the chase, Ben.” My face remained emotionless. “I know you’re part of a sex-trafficking ring that’s making a lot of money pimping out college women. I’m looking for one of your buddies, Jeff Barolo.”
Ben squirmed. “I don’t know him.”
I arched a brow. “Our informant says you do. We need to have a little talk with Barolo. And given your precarious predicament, I think you need to be quick about snitching on his whereabouts.”
Ben’s face tightened. “I’m not saying shit.”
Ram shouted, seething with anger, “Where is he?”
I had to move quickly before Ram completely lost it. I bolted to my feet, upending my chair, before shoving Ben forward, bending him over the tub of water. I was done playing around with him.
My voice dropped to a lethal low whisper. “You either give me the info I want, or I’m going to torture your ass with no mercy.”
Ben’s whole body trembled. “If I tell you, they’ll kill me.”
“And if you don’t tell me, I’ll kill you. So it sounds like you’re in a real fucked-up situation. But the difference between them and me is I’ll make sure you stay alive for five long, agonizing days until you bleed out completely.” I smiled coldly. “Your choice.”
“Fuck you, McKay,” he spit.
His bravado amused me. “No. Fuck you.”
I plunged Ben’s head back into the water. He struggled, but not as much as before. I pulled his head back out, and Ben gasped, but I gave him no time before I pushed him back under. Again and again, I forced Ben down. The water stilled. Ben was under, but he’d stopped struggling. When I pulled him out, he didn’t gasp for air. His head lolled back, and he was barely coherent. His brow was gashed and raw.
“I know your lungs are burning.” I stepped back, drying my hand on a black towel. “I can see the panic in your eyes. You want this to end, and I promise, I will end it. Just tell me what I want to know. Where’s Jeff?”
“I don’t know.” Ben coughed. “Jeff was recruiting women for me, and then I would bring them to my loaded connection to pimp them out to his rolling-in-it friends.” He shrugged. “But Jeff got smart. He cut me out of the deal and went straight to my contact, Bigsby Calhoune. He’s Bigsby’s errand boy now.”
“Holy shit,” Max mumbled.
My mouth tightened. “Bigsby Calhoune? The po
litician running for New York City mayor?”
“Yes,” Ben responded.
“Bullshit!” Ram barked.
Ben jumped apprehensively. “I’m telling you the truth.” His Adam’s apple bobbed. “Think about it. Why can’t you find Barolo?” He looked around with uneasy eyes. “He’s protected by Bigsby. There’s a huge demand from his rich friends who think nothing about paying to fuck fresh untrained women any way and anywhere they want.”
Ram snarled, “You fucking bastard.”
I grabbed Ram’s hand, stopping him from killing Ben. “Go on.”
“Jeff fucking me over like he did should have earned him a dirt nap, but I’m not about to make waves with Bigsby, since he’s helping us clean lots of dough.”
Ram’s fists tightened at his sides. “Who the hell are us?”
Ben gulped. “A bunch of us traffickers got smart. For a huge fee, Bigsby arranged to help us clean our money through his shell company called Pomtonic International. On top of that fee, we’re also pumping a hell of a lot of money into UF-Star.”
My mind spun with this new information. UF-Star was a Super PAC. The independent political action committee had been spending a ton of money to advocate Bigsby for New York City’s new mayor.
I couldn’t believe it. After all these years, fate had finally thrown me a bone. I was one step closer to bringing down the man who’d killed my mother. I’d be avenging her death and helping Ram get Lexis back in one fell swoop.
“Why the hell are you contributing to UF-Star?” I hissed.
Ben tried to bite back a response. Rocco grabbed the back of his neck and squeezed.
“Once Bigsby gets elected, he’ll turn a blind eye to all our illegal activities for a percentage of our profits. That’s all I know. I swear.” Ben’s eyes pleaded. “Look, I told you what you wanted to know. Now let me go.”
I menacingly leaned forward while pulling off my gloves before putting them into a black garbage bag. “You actually think I would let a piece of shit like you back on the street?”
Ram smiled coldly before nodding over to Rocco.
