Jamie

 

They threw both me and Kato in the back of the car, which looked a hell of a lot like the one that ran me off the road, but maybe I was just in shock and putting things together because surely there couldn’t be multiple assholes out there out to get me.

 

Next to me, Kato was just barely conscious. His breathing was shallow, and there were beads of sweat dotting his brow. He looked on the verge of passing out, which freaked me out more than I’d like to admit. In all honesty, he being conscious was about the only thing keeping me from losing my shit.

 

I didn’t want to be alone with these men.

 

Two sat in the front of the car, but one had muscled his way into the backseat with me and Kato, which meant it was really cramped with a man on each side and me trying to angle away from them both. Which was impossible. There wasn’t enough room. So I caved and ended up leaning farther into Kato because I would not touch this other man, especially since he had a damn gun.

 

He was the one who had dragged me to my feet and away from Alex.

 

Poor Alex, I thought, my heart clenching in remorse. I didn’t have to be a nurse to know that he was either already dead or well on his way to it. Even if he’d been rushed to the ER right away, there was no guarantee that he would have made it. But he would have had a chance. They could give him plasma, take out the bullet, and maybe fix the internal damage he’d suffered. And at the very least, they could have given him pain medicine. He wouldn’t have to sit there on the kitchen floor, slumped over and clutching his stomach, as pain ripped through him.

 

It just wasn’t right.

 

“You’re cute,” commented the man with the gun, and suddenly, I felt like vomiting.

 

Revulsion rolled through me, hot and slimy. I tried to angle further away from him but Kato was all but unconscious now and as a big man, he took up a lot of the seat. I felt panic flare as I silently wished for Kato to stay with me. Impossible, I know, but I was desperate.

 

“You’re awful,” I managed to get out, my voice a croaking noise that was unfamiliar to my own ears. That was probably the terror shining through because there was definitely no denying that I was utterly terrified.

 

His mouth tugged down into a frown. I saw the hand on the gun tighten around the grip. It was sitting in his lap now, but earlier, he’d had it pressed against my head.

 

“You say that now,” he said in a nasty little voice. “But I think maybe later you’ll be singing a different tune.” He even waggled his eyebrows, like that was supposed to be sexy. Or intimidating. Either way, I was further disgusted, and the shiver that ran down my spine was most definitely not one of desire.

 

Not that this idiot could tell the difference.

 

His eyes dropped down my body, making a leisurely trail back up. Then he winked at me. “That’s it, baby. I can tell your body already wants it.”

 

Horror rolled through me. I hoped that he wouldn’t actually do what he was alluding to, but after all these guys had done—another wash of regret filled me as I thought of Alex in the kitchen—what would stop them?

 

“Stop fucking with the girl,” came a voice from up front. He was the guy in the passenger seat, and he swiveled around to face me. He had a squished sort of face, squarish with mangy hair half-filled in along his jaw and atop his head. Even his teeth were stained yellow, making him look so much like the kind of bad guy you expected from the movies that I almost laughed, except that his eyes were sharp, almost pretty, and they were cold as ice.

 

The man beside me snorted. He looked almost sniveling in comparison to the one in the passenger seat, but I reminded myself that he had a gun in his lap and all the power. “I’ll do whatever I want. Huxton said he wanted her alive. Wasn’t specific beyond that.”

 

My spine straightened, and I inched further from the man sitting next to me. Unfortunately, Kato’s body prevented me from gaining any actual distance, but it didn’t stop me from trying.

 

The front passenger glanced in my direction, frowning a little. Hope flared inside me. Maybe he had some sort of moral compass? Clearly not enough of one to be worried about things like kidnapping and killing someone who was just barely grown enough to be considered a man. But maybe he at least didn’t agree with…with…

 

I couldn’t even let myself think it. I just hoped that this man would stop anything worse from happening.

 

Then my hopes proceeded to be dashed.

 

“You want to fuck with her? Whatever. But we wait until we get her to HQ. I’m not getting my ass chewed because you’re a horny bastard.” He grunted, then added, “And I don’t want to see that shit.”

 

He turned around then as my heart dropped into my stomach. This was not good. I trembled with fear, though I clenched my hands into tight fists in an effort to conceal it. I didn’t want these assholes to know how scared I was, how terrified I was that this monster was going to…to touch me.

 

The only one I wanted touching me was Pax.

 

He’ll come save us, I told myself firmly because otherwise, I was sure I was absolutely positively going to panic. He’ll come for us because Kato’s one of his men. And he cares about me. I know he does.

 

It almost sounded like a delusion that I was trying to convince myself of, but despite the strange way it had come about, I honestly believed that Pax cared for me. I wasn’t naïve enough to think it was love or anything as ridiculous as that, but I thought it was at least affection. Maybe even more than that.

 

“Hear that honey?” the man beside me asked, leaning forward as I leaned back until there was nowhere left to go. I was practically in Kato’s lap at this point. “All I got to do is wait a little bit. Then your sweet, sweet ass is mine. And I’m going to enjoy taking it for a test drive.”

 

I shuddered with disgust, bile rising in my throat. I had half a mind to just puke on him, but my fear kept that plan at bay. There was no telling what he might do. Pull the gun on me? Kill me? Probably not, since it seemed like they wanted me alive, but I couldn’t be sure.

 

I was sure of nothing right now.

 

I just hoped and prayed that Pax found us before Kato’s wounds proved to be too much and this monster decided it was time to have his way with me.

 

# # #

 

We drove through downtown before taking one of the backroads—it might have just been an alley, actually, since it was barely big enough for the one car and we came out on the other side between two buildings. We ended up on another street that looked to be a deserted, seedy part of town.

 

Charming wasn’t exactly a word I’d use to describe it.

 

More like dilapidated. Run down. Condemned. I thought that people probably still lived here, though I would hazard a guess that a lot of them were squatters or just passing through. Either way, there was little doubt in my mind that the kind of people who lived here weren’t going to think twice about the car as it drove through the neighborhood with two unwilling passengers, one unconscious, in the backseat. We probably didn’t register as a blip on their radar.

 

We took a couple more turns before finally reaching the end of the street. It just ended, as opposed to making a clean turn or evolving into a cul-du-sac or whatever. Instead, it was like whoever was building the road just ran out of money and shrugged their shoulders, dropping everything and leaving right then. It was an odd sense and made everything around it feel just as incomplete.

 

When the car came to a stop at the abrupt ending of the road, I was surprised. “Where are we?” I muttered.

 

The guys in the front got out, ignoring my question, and it was the man with the gun beside me who bothered to answer. “Home sweet home, honey. Don’t tell me you don’t like it?” When I scowled at him, he let out a snide chuckle. Then he grabbed me harshly by the upper arm and jerked me across the seat. My body struggled of its own accord for just a second, before he shoved the gun in my face again.

 

“Bitch, don’t make me shoot your stupid ass. Boss won’t like it.”

 

Won’t like it. But that suggested that, despite not liking it, he wouldn’t really be upset by it. Not a comforting vote in my favor. I gave one nod, then let him jerk my arm so harshly that it was almost pulled out of socket.

 

He yanked me out of the cab, and I stumbled, almost face-planting. If he hadn’t been gripping my arm, I probably would have, though I’d have taken the face-plant to him touching me any day of the damn week.

 

“Let’s go,” he ordered me, half throwing me forward so that he could train the gun on me from behind.

 

I risked a glance back to see that Kato was still slumped in the car. “What about him?” I asked nervously. Surely they weren’t going to…to kill him, right? They wanted both of us alive, I thought. Otherwise, why not just leave him in the house…with Alex?

 

“Don’t worry your pretty little head over ol’ boy in there. The boys will take care of him.”

 

Just as he finished speaking, the two men from the front came around with a third guy. They were muttering to each other, but they were quiet, and I’d stepped far enough away at this point that I couldn’t hear them. They opened the door to the car and Kato slumped out. The man with the gun behind me shoved at me to get me to move faster, so I didn’t see more than that. But I hoped it meant that Kato was at least alive.

 

Alive. Just stay alive long enough for Pax to save us, I thought.

 

The man behind me kept prodding me and shoving me towards a house that came into view. It looked like a bit of a fixer upper from the outside, but even so, it looked better than the rest of the poor neighborhood.

 

“What do you guys want?” I finally managed to ask, my voice shaky. I stumbled up the porch steps as I was unceremoniously herded to the front door. We paused there so that the man behind me could reach over my shoulder and slam his fist against the hard wooden door.

 

“Open the fucking door!” he called through it impatiently.

 

We waited for a minute or so, then the door swung open. On the other side of it was a man with close-cropped hair. He looked like a marine or something, which was not wholly encouraging. He was big, bulky, and had a scary enough expression that I felt the urge to shrink away from him. The only reason I didn’t was that the asshole with the gun was still standing behind me, and the last thing I wanted to do was inadvertently touch him.

 

“Bout damn time,” muttered the guy behind me.

 

The marine eyed me, then moved his gaze to my captor. “Where’s the other one, Leo?”

 

So, the asshole’s name is Leo.

 

Leo, who would still forever be known as “the asshole” in my head, shrugged his shoulders and made a face. “How the fuck should I know? He’s halfway to fucking dead anyway. Probably they’re going to dump his body in the river.” He smiled a little like he enjoyed the thought.

 

I, however, felt my heart thump in panic. Was he being serious? No, he couldn’t be. Kato was alive when I was dragged here. It was a mixture of my nursing nature and my need for stability to have someone on my side, that made me so desperate to believe that Kato was alright.

 

But I admitted that it was getting difficult.

 

He was in bad shape, and they didn’t seem all that interested in doing anything to help him get better…

 

The other man cursed. “Fuck, Leo! Huxton wants both of them, remember?”

 

“Cool it, Rio.” Leo waved his gun around loosely, like he wasn’t concerned with who he might accidentally shoot. The other guy—Rio—didn’t seem to appreciate it, though. He narrowed his eyes at Leo and looked about ready to punch him out.

 

Maybe that wouldn’t get me out of here but it might make me feel a little better.

 

“You can’t do anything right, can you?” Rio sneered, his thin upper lip curling back in disgust.

 

I couldn’t see Leo’s expression thanks to the way he was standing half behind me, but I could hear the petulance in his tone. “Fuck you, man. I did my job. The girl’s here.”

 

Rio’s cold eyes glossed over me. “Whatever. Boss wants ‘em both.”

 

“Not my problem.” Grabbing my upper arm again, Leo stepped forward and dragged me with him. I stumbled a little again. My skin crawled from his touch, and I realized, with dread that felt like a stone in my stomach, that we were here now. Which meant he could—

 

Rio put a large, beefy hand against Leo’s chest. “Hold up. The girl’s my responsibility now.”

 

“Fuck no,” Leo spat, grabbing the other guy’s wrist and jerking it away from him. “I went and picked her up, that means I get what’s coming to me.” His eyes slid over to me briefly, and I shuddered. I didn’t know what sort of agreement these guys had, but I found myself seriously hoping that this jackass with the buzz cut was the one who was going to win. Better than the alternative.

 

Rio rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, whatever. If the boss gives the okay, you can have her. She ain’t my type.” He looked at me pointedly, then grinned. “I like ‘em smaller.”

 

For once, I was seriously grateful for my height. I didn’t tower over these guys by any means, but I was tall enough that the marine didn’t find me attractive, and that was pretty okay in my book. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to dissuade Leo, and that sucked. One out of two at least, I thought grimly. It brought me little to no comfort.

 

“I was promised—” Leo began, but Rio quickly interrupted him.

 

“You weren’t promised nothing.” Rio snorted, an ugly sound, then curled back his lip. “Nothing the rest of us weren’t. Once the boss is done with her, he’ll probably let you have her, but until then, she’s my responsibility, not yours.”

 

Leo looked like he wanted to argue further, but I was grateful when he finally just snapped his mouth shut. He gritted his teeth but released me just the same. Well, kind of half threw me into the other guy and let go at the end of his throw, but I was grateful enough not to care, even though I didn’t like slamming against the ogre standing in front of him.

 

What the hell had he been eating? Growth hormones? Probably.

 

“Looks like you’re with me, sweetcakes,” Rio said with a smile that showed those gross teeth. His hand replaced Leo’s, and he swung me around so that I was fully inside the house, then started angling me towards the stairs, which I presumed led to the basement or maybe a wine cellar.

 

I got a brief chance to look around the inside of the house and found that it looked a heck of a lot better than the outside. Still old and sort of dirty in that “it doesn’t matter how many times I bleach this, that spot doesn’t go away” kind of way. But it looked like they had at least used bleach sometime this decade, and otherwise, the place was in pretty good shape.

 

The walls were coated in a faded wallpaper that looked like it belonged in a storybook granny’s house. There were those little repeating flowers, pink with green, swirling stems, and a darker golden border that was half faded and discolored to brown.

 

The furniture looked old, too. Like antiques or something. They also had flowery patterns and even dollies on the side tables and beneath lamps that continued to floral façade. It was…out of place, to say the least.

 

The throw rug really tied the place together, woven with golds, pinks, and even some greens. Honest to God, I couldn’t believe that a bunch of crazy bikers lived here.

 

Then it occurred to me. Oh, God, what if some little old lady lived here and they killed her to take her house?

 

I wanted to shake the thought away, but it was pretty easy to think of all kinds of awful things about these guys. Really, they’d killed Alex, roughed up Kato, and run me off the road, not to mention the kidnapping and that asshole Leo outside who seemed to believe that he could have his way with me, no consequences. So, yeah, pretty easy to see them murdering some poor old lady and holing up in her house.

 

Jesus. How the hell am I going to get out of here? Is their boss the worst of them all?

 

I barely got a glimpse of a kitchen—and was appalled to see still more flowering themes and what looked suspiciously like a teapot—before Mr. Big and Buzz Cut dragged me past the doorway which led to the stairs. He shoved me down them hard enough that I tripped. I would have fallen down the rest of the way, except that he still had hold of my arm. So instead, I slid down, caught myself awkwardly on my knees, and felt my arm jerk up above me uncomfortably.

 

“Shit!” I cursed as Rio jerked me back to my feet unsteadily.

 

“Watch your step,” he told me with a grin that said he wasn’t too upset about my little tumble.

 

Asshole, I thought but held my tongue. Then, considering where I was and how little this guy thought of Leo doing unspeakable things to me, I reconsidered. “Asshole,” I told him defiantly, lifting my chin a little.

 

His eyes narrowed at me, losing that pretty quality they’d held earlier. “Bitch,” he said. I saw him cock his free arm back and braced myself for the blow, clenching my eyes closed as I readied myself for impact.

 

But it never came. Instead, a voice came up from the bottom of the stairs. “Such language. What are we teaching our kids these days?”

 

Surprised, I opened my eyes. I saw Rio staring at me still, murderous daggers shooting towards me harmlessly. It seemed he couldn’t do anything to me because that voice below had made him tense and forced his hand to lower, it seemed. “She’s got a foul mouth, sir,” he told the voice below.

 

“I noticed she’s not the only one,” came the voice again, and this time, I turned awkwardly to look over my shoulder towards it.

 

At the bottom of the stairs, I spotted him. He was a fairly tall man, muscular as apparently they all were, with dark hair that was cropped close to his head. But it wasn’t that buzz cut, white-walled bullshit that Rio had. Instead, it just looked neat and well-maintained. Though the man clearly worked out, he didn’t look grotesque as some of them did. He just looked…proportionate. In fact, he looked sort of attractive…

 

Okay, really attractive. If the situation had been different—and I hadn’t just found myself tangled up in the arms of Pax—I might have considered him a possibility for dating.

 

Which, I really hadn’t been doing so I wouldn’t have given him much thought, but he was difficult not to notice.

 

His beauty gave me one moment of ignorant, fleeting hope that maybe he wasn’t like the rest of them. Call it superficial, but sometimes, you really could judge a book by its cover. Unfortunately, that was a little harder to gauge in real life, especially when it came to people. My heart dropped quickly when he spoke again.

 

“I expect you to be a hard ass, Rio, but not obscene.” He let his liquid gaze smooth to me. It was full of what I might normally call happiness, except that something about him was just a little bit off. “After all, we may be about to torture her, but we don’t need to be rude.”

 

Panic swept through me faster and fiercer than any emotion I’d ever experienced in my life. Torture? No, definitely no. This can’t be happening.

 

I didn’t even realize that I was jerking and twisting and clawing my way towards the door, catching my nails against Rio’s thick arms in an attempt to get away. I might have drawn blood, but Rio barely even grunted. I thought he cursed under his breath, but he kept the tone low enough that it wouldn’t carry down the stairs.

 

Down to the man that was going to torture me.

 

Gotta get away, gotta get away! My mind was feeding me that line over and over again, desperately. The need to get free was overwhelming, and my body reacted to that need before my conscious mind had even registered it. Like a scared animal tucked into a corner, I was wild and nearly rabid, but I was no match for Rio. Not even close.

 

He released me for half a second, which I used to try and get around him. But then his arm came back to me, catching me heavily across the waist. The air rushed out of me so fast that I felt breathless and a little lightheaded.

 

The large man threw me over his shoulder and started making his way down the stairs, oblivious to my flailing and kicking limbs. I might as well have been a scarecrow for all the inconvenience I seemed to be.

 

“That’s it,” muttered the man downstairs. “We’d better get started. After all, we’re already behind schedule.”

 

Rio carried me all the way down the stairs. My nose was overwhelmed with the scent of earth and must, typical underground stuff, though I knew we couldn’t be that deep. The stairs just weren’t that numerous. I was still struggling, trying to get free, so I barely registered the surroundings. All I really noticed was that it was dimmer down here and there was a chair and a table—a long table with a light hanging over it, the only light in the place, a light that was causing the shiny, metal objects on the table to glint.

 

Oh God. He has things to torture me with. This is not happening!

 

The urge to vomit was strong, and I nearly did so right down Mr. Buzz Cut’s back. But we’d reached the chair, and then he was putting me down. Well, half throwing me down so that I hit the hard-backed chair hard enough that my ass was going to be sore. I let out a cry mixed with a high pitched squeal—very attractive, not that I cared in that moment.

 

To my credit, though, the second my ass hit that chair, I tried to jump back out of it. Unfortunately, Rio hadn’t moved. He stood in front of my like a short, wide wall and as hard as one. I slammed into him, and he easily shoved me back.

 

I hit the chair a second time, then a new pair of hands landed on my shoulders. I tried to wiggle loose to make another break for it, but the hands were surprisingly strong. They dug into my shoulders, grip deathlike, and held me in place. Rio went over to the table—I nearly lost it again right there when I thought of the glinting things there—grabbed something, then came back.

 

It turned out that what he’d grabbed was several somethings. Namely, handcuffs. Three pairs of them.

 

“What are you—?” I began dumbly, but the man holding me from behind leaned forward. I felt his breath against my ear, causing an unpleasant shudder to run through me.

 

“Don’t struggle. It won’t help you now.” It was the man from the bottom of the stairs, meaning it was probably just him, me, and Rio down here. I wasn’t sure if that comforted me or not.

 

Rio used the handcuffs to restrain both of my legs to both of the chair’s front legs. It didn’t give me a lot of wiggle room, but there was a gap between my legs and the chair legs. Maybe if he does the hands the same way, there’ll be a chance for me to wiggle free… Then he yanked my arms harshly behind me so that my wrists were pressed together. He cuffed them like that, taking away what little room the cuffs had given my legs.

 

I didn’t have time to feel too deflated because I heard something. A sound came through the wall closest to me on my left. It was a deep, groaning sound followed by a loud thud. Another groaning. Then muffled voices that I couldn’t quite make out…

 

“What is that?” I asked in a quiet voice. There was something inside me that said I didn’t want to know. I didn’t… I didn’t want to know. But I had to ask.

 

Now that I was fully secured to the chair, the man standing behind me released my shoulders. I heard his footsteps echoing off the hard concrete floor as he came to stand in front of me. Leaning down so that we were eye level, I once again noticed how attractive he was—and how sick that was making me given the situation.

 

“That?” he asked, sounding almost…amused. “You haven’t put it together yet?”

 

I hesitated, then shook my head.

 

He smiled at me in what would probably be considered a pleasant way, if he hadn’t just said he was going to torture me. “Why, it’s your friend.”

 

My friend?

 

My stomach dropped as I heard another thud followed by a groan. “Kato?” I asked in a low whisper.

 

The man nodded. “That’s right. I wanted to make sure you two were…close.” His smile widened. “That way you can hear each other scream.”

 

That rolling sickness swept me again. Scream? Oh, God, what were they doing to Kato? I didn’t have the guts—or the stomach—to ask, so I remained silent. This didn’t seem to bother my captor at this junction. He just seemed like he wanted me to know, that was all.

 

We listened to the thuds and the groaning for several lingering moments, each sound seeming to echo loudly in my ears. Then the man returned his attention to me. “Do you know who I am?”

 

I hesitated. I had a guess. Based on who Pax said ran me off the road several nights ago and the fact that they took both me and Kato, I was willing to hazard a guess that these guys were the Chaos Disciples Pax had mentioned. And Rio had called this man boss, hadn’t he? So this was likely Diego Huxton.

 

But I didn’t say any of that. Instead, I tentatively shook my head. There was a moment of silence next door, then a scream came muffled through the walls. I winced.

 

The man seemed unconcerned with the sounds coming from the other side of that wall. “I see. Well, let me explain some things to you then. My name is Diego Huxton, and I run the Chaos Disciples motorcycle club. Do you know what that means?”

 

When I shook my head again, he smiled.

 

“It means that you’re in enemy territory and that unless you tell me what I want, I’m going to give you to my men as the spoils of war.”

 

Spoils of war.

 

I didn’t have to be a genius to figure out what that meant. It meant that Leo would have me. Or maybe one of the others. Hell, maybe all of the others. I shuddered as I thought of the terrible things they might do to me. And all of this after torture?

 

There was no chance that I’d survive.

 

“Are you worried about that?” Diego asked me kindly, as though he weren’t just threatening to pass me around like a whore to his men.

 

I didn’t nod. In fact, I did my absolute best to fix my expression into one of cool indifference. I couldn’t say how close I was to the mark. If anything, I felt like a trembling ball of anxious fear, but if I could hide as much of that as possible, I would. Maybe it wouldn’t help in the long run, but it would make me feel a little better.

 

“You should be,” he told me when I didn’t answer. After a moment, he straightened up. “But not yet. First, I have some questions for you. And I think you’ll answer then.”

 

Questions? I wondered. What could he possibly want to know from me?

 

I wracked my brain in search of information that I might have that he’d want to know. The only thing I could really come up with was what happened to Kato—which he already knew, so why would he ask me?—and the location of Pax’s house. But again, he knew that, too, didn’t he? Or at least he knew the general area since he sent his goons to find me and run me off the road.

 

So what I could I know? What could there possibly be that he would want to uncover from me?

 

Although I’d been determined to keep my mouth shut just a moment ago, to sit there in silent indifference, I now couldn’t help myself from asking, “What questions? What could I possibly know?”

 

Diego’s mouth tugged down into a frown. “You’re close with Pax, aren’t you?”

 

I hesitated. For two reasons, really. The first was I didn’t want to inadvertently give him anything that might be useful. The second was…well, I really wasn’t sure if we would be considered close. Yes, we’d had amazing sex together—which I hoped to repeat—and he’d promised to come back for me, but was that enough to constitute close?

 

My last serious relationship was supposed to be “close,” but it had ended in disaster. It had ended with an engagement ring thrown at his head and fake tits for his new girlfriend. The one he’d been sleeping around with the entire time he’d been dating me.

 

So maybe I just had no freaking idea what close was anymore.

 

Not that this guy is asking about all of that, I reminded myself, focusing once more on the here and now. Even if I didn’t really want to.

 

I took too long to answer because Diego narrowed his eyes at me. For a second, he looked angry enough to hit me—or do worse—but the next, his heavy brow lifted, his features smoothed out, and he smiled.

 

“Don’t feel like answering?” he asked. Again, his tone was kind. “That’s alright. I understand. It’s important to learn how this works anyway?”

 

How this works?

 

A second later, I figured out what he meant. Diego dug into his pocket and pulled out a cell phone. He pressed a couple of buttons, then smiled at me serenely. A second later, there was a scream coming through the wall.

 

“Stop it!” I heard myself saying, my voice choked with emotion as I realized what was going on.

 

The scream stopped a second later. Diego replaced his phone in his pocket, then stepped closer to me again. “Ah, I see you’ve caught on. I ask you a question, you don’t answer it, Kato pays the price. Understand?”

 

I gritted my teeth to keep from yelling, screaming, or crying. But that also kept me from answering, and apparently, that counted as a serious question. He pulled the phone out again, pressed a couple of buttons. Then there was another scream.

 

“Yes! Yes, I understand!” I yelled hurriedly, trying to mitigate the hurt Kato had to be feeling just on the other side of that wall. Oh, God, because of me he was being tortured.

 

The screaming stopped. Diego smiled. “Good. Now, let’s try this again.” I winced. “Are you close with Pax?” He held out his phone this time, waving it at me as though to emphasize the power he held in his hands.

 

I swallowed heavily. “I…” How did I answer that? “Um, yeah. Sort of. I mean, not really, but…but kind of. Recently.” I sounded like an idiot, but I had to tell him something and I didn’t know what that something should be. It was complicated and more to the point, which was the answer that wouldn’t make things worse for both Kato and Pax?

 

Diego considered my answer, then shrugged. “You’ve been living with him.”

 

So they definitely knew where the house was, I thought. Then I shuddered. And they’ve been watching it.

 

“I was there to take care of Kato,” I answered honestly.

 

He cocked his head to the side, almost like a cute little puppy, one that was about to turn rabid and eat my face off. Cute thought. “So you’re close with Kato.”

 

I shook my head. “No. I found him. On the side of the road, injured. I’m…I’m a nurse.” I didn’t like that I was giving him personal details, but I did it anyway. Anything to keep him from pressing more damn buttons on his phone.

 

Bastard.

 

“I see.” He paused for a long moment, mulling things over. Then he asked, “Have you slept with either of them?”

 

My mouth actually dropped open in surprise. Did he really just ask that? What the hell kinds of questions were these anyway? “What does that have to do—?”

 

He held up a hand to stop me. “Ah. I’m the one asking the questions, you’re answering. Do I need to remind you of how this works?” He waved the phone at me again.

 

I quickly answered. “No! No, I remember. Um, I… No. No, I didn’t sleep with…them. Either one. Neither of them. I didn’t.” I winced. All of this was coming out wrong. And I was lying, but I didn’t think it was any of his business. Plus, I had the sinking suspicion that answering yes wasn’t a good idea right now. Besides, he only said I had to answer his questions, not that I had to be honest.

 

He paused for a moment, putting his pointer finger to his chin, pretending to think it over in an exaggerated fashion. Then he dropped his hand and fixed me with a cold, hard stare. “I don’t believe you.”

 

I opened my mouth to tell him that I didn’t give a damn what he believed when he lifted his phone again. He pressed those buttons. Kato screamed.

 

“No! Damnit, stop!” I half yelled, half sobbed at him. “Please, leave him alone! I answered your question!”

 

The screaming died down, but Diego looked livid. He took one more step then bent at the middle so that his face was up close and personal with mine. His free hand gripped me by the back of the neck and jerked me forward. “Honesty! Answer with some fucking honesty!” I could smell tobacco on his breath and see the flecks of green in his eyes.

 

He was too close.

 

Then he jerked back and looked away. He smoothed his hand through his close cropped hair, then turned back to look at me. He smiled, looking composed and like he hadn’t just lost his shit two seconds ago.

 

Jesus.

 

“When I ask a question, I expect complete and total honesty,” he explained almost patiently, like he was talking to a damn child. His condescension was so thick I nearly choked on it. “Now. I’m going to ask you one more time—with these men?”

 

The urge to lie was still strong, but it wasn’t worth it, not when he had the power to torture Kato with only the push of a couple of buttons. Swallowing down my personal anger over being asked about my sex life by a psycho, I lifted my chin and said, “Yes. I am sleeping with Pax.” Okay, more like we slept together and I’m hoping, despite my better judgement, that we’ll continue to sleep together, but he doesn’t need to know all of that.

 

Satisfied with my answer, Diego nodded. “Which suggests you’re close, right?” He raised his eyebrows, emphasizing that this was indeed a question.

 

“Yes,” I responded evenly, though I wasn’t entirely sure. I felt close to him, I just couldn’t tell if it was reciprocated.

 

“Which means he tells you things, right?”

 

I blinked at him. “What?”

 

He pressed the buttons again and once again, Kato screamed, though he threw in curses and swears whenever he managed to catch a breath. I didn’t know if that was supposed to make me feel better or not. Mostly, I just felt like crying.

 

“Please,” I begged him. “Please, stop hurting him!”

 

The screaming stopped, and I wondered if it was just from exhaustion. God, what were they doing to him back there?

 

“I’ll ask you again, does he tell you things?”

 

I began to shake my head, knowing already how badly this was going to go. Diego wasn’t going to believe me, but Pax didn’t tell me things and if I said yes, it would be just as bad because Diego would expect information. He’d expect me to know things that I didn’t. “No,” I whispered, clenching my eyes shut as I knew what was coming next.

 

I didn’t see him press the buttons, but I heard Kato scream. A sob slipped between my lips, my throat closing up until I felt like choking. “Please!” I said again, but I didn’t even know if he could hear me, my voice was so watery.

 

“What did he tell you?!”

 

Diego had to half scream himself to be heard over the noise coming in through the wall. I sobbed again, shaking my head. “Nothing! He doesn’t tell me anything! I don’t know anything!”

 

“I don’t fucking believe you!”

 

More screaming and then…silence. Oh God, was he dead? Did they finally just kill him? And then the most selfish thought I’d had yet slipped through my brain—did that mean they’d start on me?

 

I clenched my eyes closed as tightly as I could, feeling terrible that I was dreading Kato being dead mostly for my own personal comfort and safety. That made me a horrible person, and I tried to remind myself that I also cared about Kato’s wellbeing.

 

Large hands clamped down hard on my jaw, causing my eyes to snap open. Diego had come to stand right in front of me again, and he jerked me forward by my chin, causing my neck to strain uncomfortably as the handcuffs on my wrist bit painfully into my skin.

 

“He’s still alive, but for how much longer?” he murmured in my face through barred teeth, almost like he could read my thoughts. “Are you going to keep lying to me? Eventually, it’ll be too much for your friend in there. Are you going to be the reason he dies?”

 

A small sob escaped my lips, though I tried to contain it.

 

“What do you want to know?” I managed to get out, my words garbled thanks to the lump in my throat and the way Diego was still gripping my jaw.

 

Smiling in a way that was more like a grimace, he patted my cheek lightly and said, “Good girl. Now, tell me what he’s planning.”

 

I felt like crying all over again. “What who’s planning?” I asked, playing stupid to try and buy myself some time because I didn’t have any answers to his question.

 

Diego slapped me across the face quickly and harshly with the back of his hand. “Don’t play dumb with me, little girl! Tell me what Pax’s planning or I’ll teach your friend in there some lessons he never wanted to know about electricity and water!”

 

Oh God. Electricity and water?

 

I’d seen enough of those spy movies to know what that meant. An image solidified in my mind of Kato tied up to a chair much like myself but his feet in a bucket of water. My mind conjured up the way the wires would look, how they’d be attached and, the kinds of burns they’d leave behind. It didn’t matter that I didn’t want to see these things, they came anyway, flooding my brain with the worst kinds of thoughts.

 

“Please, I don’t know anything!”

 

He slapped me again, shouting, “Bitch! You will tell me!”

 

Then Kato was screaming all over again, and I was crying. Diego was yelling at me over and over again to tell him what he wanted to know, to tell him what Pax was planning, but I honestly didn’t know. If I did, I would have told him right then and there just to save Kato’s life. To save him from that terrible pain in the room next door…

 

But I didn’t have any information to give. All I could do was sob and hope that somehow Pax was going to get here in time to save us both.