by Renee Strong
“‘Although’ what?” Mike yelled. His voice was thin and panicky, close to tears. “‘Although’ fucking what?”
I brought my focus back to Mike and gave him a dead-eyed stare.
“Although…” I continued, “if you actually don’t know where Lexi is, there’s not really any reason to keep you alive, is there?”
Mike became frantic, bouncing the chair forward toward me. Whatever he was trying to achieve, I didn’t think it was going to work out for him the way he was expecting. All those jittery moves were liable to get him a bullet in the head. I stepped in front of Vince so that, if he got the uncontrollable urge to shoot Mike, I was blocking his aim.
“You can’t just shoot a man in cold blood!” Mike cried.
“Can’t he?” I said, crossing my arms. “I have to say, I’ve taken your suggestion on board but I don’t think I’m going to use it. What benefit is it to me to keep you alive? What’s one more dead asshole in a city like this? Not even headline worthy.”
Mike’s bottom lip started to tremble, his eyes saucer wide. This guy was definitely not too swift, thinking he could mess with two armed and pissed off members of the family. His arrogance was starting to get on my nerves. I almost wished I could give Vince the go ahead to whack him.
I checked my watch.
“Time’s ticking away, Michael,” I said. “You see, my boy, Vince here, doesn’t have a lot of patience. So, what I’m going to do is I’m going to count down from five. If I don’t get the answer I need, Vinnie’s going to start blasting.
“Five.”
Mike’s eyes started welling up and Vince started bouncing from foot to foot behind me.
“Four.”
An image of Lexi popped into my head, an image of her hurt and scared—or worse. I clenched my jaw.
“Three,” I said through gritted teeth. I could feel the vein in my forehead that always pulsated when I got really angry start to throb.
“Two.” This fool was actually going to let himself get shot. I knew he knew something. You get a nose for it after doing what I did for so long. You could smell a lie or bullshit on someone like cheap, dollar store cologne.
“One.” I took a deep breath and started to step aside out of Vince’s line of fire. This was it. He was actually going to take a bullet to the brain and I still had no clue about what had happened to Lexi.
Vince steadied his hands and stared down the barrel of the gun to line up the shot.
“You brought this on yourself, man,” he said with one eye squinted close to ensure accuracy.
“WAIT!” Tears started rolling from Mike’s eyes and his shoulders slumped. “Wait, wait. I’ll tell you what I know.”
I allowed myself an internal sigh of relief. This was currently the only plan I had. If Mike hadn’t talked, I had been right out of plans for what to do next. Thank God his better sense won out. Eventually.
“I’m listening.”
Mike started to bawl now, tears rushing down his face, big, heaving sobs racking his body.
“These two guys came in here,” he said through the tears. “Started asking about Lexi and the new guy she was seeing. Said that they had some business with the two of you.”
“Uh-uh.” I tongued my back right molar while I weighed up what he’d just said. “And you just told them exactly where to find her?”
“No,” he said in a nasal whine. “I didn’t…”
He trailed off as I gave him a hard stare.
“Mike, this whole thing goes easier when you don’t lie to me. If you’d just been honest from the start, you wouldn’t have snot running down your face and a gun still pointed at your head. “I tutted. “Seems like your own worst enemy, man.”
A sob caught in his throat so that he let out this weird mewling sound like a strangled cat. The guy was seriously an embarrassment to himself.
“So what actually happened?”
He jutted out his bottom lip defiantly. “So, at first I wasn’t going to tell them anything but then they offered me five grand. And you know, Lexi had been such a bitch to me.”
The words were out of his mouth before he seemed to realize what he had just said. When he saw the fury in my face, it seemed to dawn on him how badly he’d just fucked up.
“What did you call her?” I said, my voice at whisper volume.
He shook his head and I advanced toward him.
“I said, ‘what did you just call her?’”
He shook his head more furiously now, screwing his eyes shut. I hauled back and punched him in his nose again.
“Mikey, Mikey, Mikey,” I said as he howled. “It almost feels like you want me to hit you. What did I say about treating Lexi like she was a queen? And then you just go and call her a bitch.” My voice was getting louder now, tipping between dripping sarcasm and rage with each syllable. “That’s not bad enough, but you sold her out for five grand?”
He whimpered now, not even daring to look me in the eye.
“What kind of man are you?” I demanded. Vince clicked his tongue and shook his head in disgust.
“I’m sorry,” Mike said quietly. “I didn’t know what they were going to do.”
Vince scoffed. “You didn’t know what they would do once you had given them Lexi’s home address? Even I don’t believe you’re that goddamn stupid. And my buddy here will tell you, I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer.”
I made a mental note that I needed to thank Vince later—and maybe tell the guys to lay off him about his smarts. Seemed to me, now that the situation had calmed down some, that Vince had known exactly how to play this. It was beginning to dawn on me that the whole “shaky hand” thing had been an act; that he hadn’t been close to shooting Mike at all.
The conspiratorial smile he sent my way at that second confirmed the suspicion. Damn. He’d played this whole thing like a pro. People were constantly underestimating Vince. He had depths that the rest of the world didn’t see. I had long known they were there but I hadn’t realized just how quick he was in a time-sensitive situation like this.
I inched my head at him in a quiet acknowledgment of what he’d done and turned my attention back to Mike.
“Mike, I’m going to be real kind and let you get the fuck out of my town.” Mike let out a shuddering relieved breath. “But first you’ve got to do a couple of things for me. Starting with what you told the two guys who came here earlier.”
Jules was busily pacing the floor still. Or, at least, doing an approximation of pacing. He was walking with a bit of a limp since I’d buried my heel in his leg.
Good, I thought. He’d messed up my damn dress. There was no way I could even return it in this state. There were drops of my blood staining the polka dots; the bottom of the skirt was filthy from sitting on this grubby warehouse floor.
I was happy for him to keep pacing. The more distracted he was, the less chance he might catch me trying to work my way free of the thin rope tied around my wrists and ankles. I could tell by looking at the knots that Jules—or whoever had tied them—had not made it far in the Boy Scouts. The knots were sloppy and juvenile, the work of someone who hadn’t tied many before.
There was a bit more give on the ones at my ankles. The roughness of the rope was irritating as I wriggled my ankles whenever I was sure Jules wasn’t watching, but the burns it would inevitably leave were a small price for freeing myself.
I had hoped for a little while that Dominic might come and rescue me and while I still prayed that he would, I wasn’t going to wait to find out. I needed to get myself out of this mess and away safely.
The rope at my ankles was almost free now but I had to stop for a second as Jules started to pace back in my direction.
I cleared my throat.
“My mouth is a little dry, Jules. Is there any water around here?”
He started a little, seemingly surprised that I was still in the same spot he’d left me. I gave him a reassuring smile, putting my best effort into it so that the smile met my
eyes. I could thank Tyra Banks for that; who would have thought all those episodes of America’s Next Top Model and the lessons on smizing would be paying off now?
“I don’t know. I’ll have to go look.” He hesitated. I knew he was asking himself whether it was a good idea to leave me alone. I intercepted the thought.
“Don’t worry.” I held up my tied wrists at him. “It’s not like I’m going anywhere in a hurry.” I forced a little, charming laugh. “I’ll be here when you get back.”
He rocked forward on one foot, took a step forward, and then stopped. After a second of thinking about it, he nodded. “Okay. I’ll be right back. Stay here.”
I kept that sweet smile on my face until he turned away and then watched as he meandered about the wide open space, peering through glass-fronted doors. Finally, he stepped into one that looked like it had what he was searching for.
The warehouse we were in was massive. The ground floor, where my ass was being held captive, was maybe 5,000 square feet or more, with a second floor you could reach by metal stairs.
It looked like the warehouse had been used for a production line at some stage. There were four large metal vats against a back wall that seemed to feed into a series of assembly lines. My guess was something to do with food production?
If that was right, I was likely on one of the west quays of the city. Years ago, it had been a busy hub of industry but these days, it was all but abandoned. That would explain how they could cart an unconscious, hefty woman out of a car trunk and no one would notice. It being dusk when they struck probably helped even more.
I did some mental calculations. That meant I was about a thirty-minute drive from home. I took a note to get a CAT scan when this wall over—being unconscious that whole time could not be good for me.
I looked around for the exits. There was an emergency exit close to the vats on one end of the floor. To the other end was the door we must have come in—it was heavy and metal and I couldn’t likely unlock it quickly enough for Jules not to hear and catch me.
I gave my ankles a couple more wriggles, the rope hurting my skin more with each movement, and then my pain was rewarded. The knot loosened and the rope fell free to the floor.
Now, I could run. But where to?
Upstairs was the quickest option. Over to the emergency exit by the vats was the next most sensible. I ruled option two out almost as quickly as I thought of it. To do that, I’d have to run right past the glass-fronted office Jules had just stepped into.
That was too risky. It had to be upstairs. What I would do when I got there, I had no idea but anything was better than just sitting here waiting to be rescued. Dominic might have rescued me from Mike—and boy, did that get me hotter than I’ve ever gotten in my life—but the damsel in distress gig wasn’t really my forte. I could approximate it for a little while, like when I needed to sweet talk my way out of something, but it got old fast.
I sat for a second, listening closely for Jules. I caught the sound of a cupboard door being opened, then another, as he searched for a mug or a glass or something.
It was as distracted as he was going to get. I seized the moment. Kicking off my other red heel—damn, I’d looked so pretty before this evening had turned un-fun and fast—I shuffled to my feet and moved as quickly toward the closest metal stairs.
My footsteps were light as I moved on the stairs now I had no shoes on but with each shudder of the metal or soft tap of my foot on the next step, I was sure that Jules would hear it. I moved as carefully as I could. With my hands still bound, one slip or fall could end me and I was not going out like that, scruffy and skirt over my head as I bled to death on a warehouse floor.
I reached the top of the stairs with a sense of jubilance that quickly wore out. Now what? Behind me, I heard a shout and a mug drop to the floor. I glanced back and saw Jules start to pick up speed to catch up with me, wincing each time he landed on his injured leg.
“You fucking bitch! You told me you weren’t going to move.”
The mouth on this kid. Five minutes earlier, he sounded like a choir boy but now that a woman had dared to defy him, he had a mouth on him that I’m sure his momma wouldn’t tolerate.
I scanned the ground around me. There was unlidded boxes full of documents piled high, maybe ready for the shredder but uncollected—not much else.
And then, I saw the glint of something that had rolled behind the boxes—a copper pipe that must have been stripped from the walls for money when this place went belly up. That’s how people rolled in Angel City; once they knew they were being screwed, they turned around and screwed you right back. God bless this city of petty assholes, I thought to myself as I bent down to grab the pipe.
It was hard to get a good grip on it at first, restricted as my hands were, but I managed to finally get a hold on it without dropping it. I clutched it to me like a neighborhood kid done good would clutch a law degree to her chest—tightly, desperately, greedily.
Jules’s steps were gaining on me loudly and just when he had reached my back, I turned around and cracked him over the head as hard as I could.
He went down faster than I expected, sending a box of papers flying under him as he fell, the sheets splaying beneath him. A second later, they were soaking red from the deep cut on his forehead.
Fuck, I thought. Have I killed him?
I stood over him a moment just watching the papers darken with his blood. Then, I saw that his chest was moving up and down steadily. He groaned and opened his eyes a crack.
Nope, just stunned him.
“I advise you to stay down, motherfucker,” I said, brandishing the length of pipe.
He blinked, groggily, and then seemed to come to his senses. He made to say something but I cut him off by banging the pipe against the metal railing.
“The next blow kills you. Don’t try me, dickhead.”
His mouth was twisted in impudent rage. If he managed to get up, he would be seriously pissed and dangerous.
“Keys,” I said and he looked at me dumbly. “Give me your car keys. Take them out of your pocket and slide them to your right.”
He flung them as instructed, too hard, and they clattered against a wall.
“What car?” I said. He blinked at me. “What car is yours?” I bellowed, raising the pipe above my head.
“I don’t have a car. It’s the Vespa outside.”
That stopped my righteous anger in my tracks. He had to be kidding me. Right? A fucking Vespa?
“Don’t lie to me!”
“I’m fucking not,” he said. “It’s the baby blue one outside.”
I closed my eyes a second—not long enough for him to get the jump on me, just long enough to control my exasperation—and huffed out a breath.
“What sort of shit gangster are you?”
The indignity of it: bloodied and bruised, I was going to have to make my escape in evening wear on a goddamn Vespa.
And I still had my hands bound. I took a gamble and planted my foot on his chest.
“Don’t even think of looking up my skirt,” I said to him and he looked away guiltily. The little perv had been planning on doing just that.
“Untie these knots,” I said to him. “One wrong move and I will bring this pipe down across your head. Trust, I will rip your balls off with my teeth if you try to overpower me.”
“Fuck you,” he said. My temper flared and I kicked a pile of boxes over. They landed heavily on him, and I could hear them knock the wind from him. Forget this clown. I’d pick the knot open with my teeth on the way out the door.
“I’ll get you, you fucking bitch.”
“Wrong answer, chief,” I hissed at him. I lifted the pipe up and hit him hard over the head.
“What do we know now, Vince?” I said as we climbed into my Merc outside. I sank back into the leather seats and rubbed my temples. “Two guys—one pretty young, one about our age.” I sighed. “That’s not much to go on.”
Vince drew the number “two”
on the condensation of the passenger side window. Underneath, he wrote “accent” and “American.” He stared at it a few moments before agitatedly rubbing the whole thing off with his elbow.
“That could be anyone.”
He turned to me.
“You think he was holding anything back? Anything that might have helped us?”
I shook my head.
“Nope. That guy would have told us his deepest darkest secrets when we were done. He told us everything he knew.”
The realization that I was no closer to finding out what had happened to Lexi hit me in a wave. She could be hurt...or worse.
I balled my hands in tight, white fists and pounded the steering wheel a couple of times. Vince didn’t say anything.
“The fuck was I thinking?” I said out loud. “Thinking that everything would be fine and dandy? We never bring in people from the outside. They don’t know what they’re getting themselves in for. I never should have given Lexi a second glance.”
Vince stayed silent still, though he dug into his pocket and pulled out a pack of smokes. He offered one to me and I took it. I’d quit a few years back but the first drag was like velvet going in, my nerves calming a little. I exhaled a plume of grey smoke.
“If I wasn’t such a selfish asshole, she’d be okay. You know?”
I looked over to Vince and he looked uncertain about whether to agree with me or not. To do so would be to acknowledge I was a selfish asshole. I wouldn’t have gotten angry if he’d agreed.
“You can say what you want, Vince. I’m not gonna get mad at you.”
Vince tilted his head to one side for a second and then gave me a sidelong look.
“It wasn’t like you could have known.”
I spit a bit of errant tobacco that had gotten stuck to my upper lip.
“That’s the thing, Vince. I could have known that it wasn’t going to be all sunshine and fucking rainbows, right? Let’s face it. We’re scumbags.” Vince winced. “We’re a family of scumbags but we’re scumbags. Shit follows us because we bring it on ourselves.”
