I remove the black canvas cloth covering the man’s head. He moans weakly, just waking up from getting drugged. He’s been in and out of consciousness for three days now.

It’s time for us to meet again.

The man winces, blinks rapidly, his eyes trying to focus.

When he finally recognizes me and Callum, I give him a sinister smile. “Hello, Sullivan.”

Theo Sullivan aka Michael Smith jerks against the rope binding his hands, tying him to a metal beam above.

He struggles for a few seconds, snarling, his voice echoing around the cavernous warehouse, to no avail. “You can’t do this, you fuck! Let me go!”

I remain cool despite the urge in every fiber of my being to end this motherfucker’s life right now. He’s been a thorn on my side and I hate the specter of him hovering around me and Anya, threatening our safety. But I have to get something from him first.

“Why would I do that? Give me one good reason why I should still keep you alive.”

Theo grins, evil in his eyes. “Because if you kill me, you will die, too.”

I obey my visceral instinct. My fist connects with his face. I feel extreme satisfaction when I hear the sickening impact of my fury on his face. Blood spurts out of his nose as he staggers back on his feet. A bolt of pain exploded in my hand, but I relish looking at him all bloody as fuck. I want to watch him bleed to fucking death.

“Fffuck! You broke my nose!” he whines like a child.

I grab his hair and jerk his head backward. “I told you not to come near my territory again, remember?“

“Listen to me, you fuck! You let me go now or you’ll regret it! I’ve got connections now. If they find out what you did to me, they’ll wipe your entire family out, you stupid fuck!”

I punch him in the stomach. He bends over, coughing hard. His knees give way and he sways like a rag doll in the air, his tied hands keeping him from collapsing on the floor.

“You know what sets me off the most, Theo? Threatening my family.” I flex my fingers.

“I’m not…threatening you!” he heaves. “They will come after you!”

“Why did you release the photos?”

“I should kill you for molesting my daughter!”

I inwardly flinch. If only he really means it as a father who truly cares. But I know he doesn’t. Never did. Theo Sullivan is a greedy, lying, thieving scum who’d sacrifice his own family to get what he wants.

“You think you can just kill me and suffer no consequences? I’m a valuable member of a huge organization now. I’m telling you, Knight. They will come after you.”

“Who?”

“The people I work for.”

“Yeah? Who are they?”

He laughs in my face. “People more powerful than you. Man, you have no fucking idea.”

“How can they come after me? They don’t know who took you. I can just drop you in the fucking ocean and no one would know except the sharks who’d feast on your bloody corpse.”

That got to his thick skull, the sick fuck. He thinks he has a chance of surviving this? Not this time around. But I’d like him to think he can still walk away scot-free.

Theo purses his lips, blinking fast, his Adam’s apple bobbing, thinking of a way out.

I slowly walk around him. “Speaking of power…Power is subjective, you know? I have many friends in very high, very powerful places, too. But right now, I don’t need any of them to end your worthless life, Theo. You see, here and now, I have all the power over you. I decide if you live or die. Nobody knows where you are. No friend of yours will come to rescue you. Come to think of it, society will be better off without you. I can make you disappear without a trace. Do you want me to name a few ways to make bodies disappear without a trace? I can be very creative, you know…like…you see that machine over there?” I point to a huge contraption nearby.

“That’s a stone grinder. I can feed your ass into that and it will grind you into pulp while you’re still alive. That would be fun to watch. Then we’ll feed your remains to the fishes. Would you like that, Theo?”

“What do you want from me?!” he shrieks like a scared bitch. “I’ve kept my end of the bargain! I never set foot in L.A. since we last saw each other, I swear! I stayed in Frisco all this time!”

I stop in front of him again. I stare him down, watching him shit in his pants. “You expect me to believe that? Try again.”

“Look, Knight… we can talk about this, come on.”

The fucker breaks so easily. I thought he took an oath of Omertà or something. But then again, I knew from the start he was a fucking coward who liked to victimize women. Nothing has changed.

“That’s what we’re doing, right? Talking. Then let’s talk some more, Theo.”

“Will you promise to release me afterward?”

I let a few beats pass before answering. “Depends…if I like what you have to say.”

The scumbag wastes no time blabbering his shit out.

“I was minding my own fucking business, Knight. I was trying to be inconspicuous all these years. I was avoiding you. I don’t even know how you found out about me. I had a good cover and was staying way under the radar. But had I known what Marion and Damien were planning, I would have stopped them, I swear! I did want you out of the deal with Eli but not that way. I didn’t want to hurt my daughter.”

I give him a right swing to his face.

“Arrrgh! Fuck you, Knight!”

“You were saying?”

“All right, you fuck! I knew what Damien and Marion were planning and I didn’t stop them. It was in my interest not to stop them. But they didn’t intend to down your stocks. They just wanted Eli to back out of the deal. It wasn’t my fault your stocks fell. I mean, who would have thought? It’s not my fault that I know how this shit works, too, and certainly not my fault I made a quick buck from the crash. It was all a domino effect. But they don’t know about our connection. I swear on that, Knight! I talked to no one about Caro and Anya! I kept my end of the bargain!”

“The Templetons, tell me about them,” I remark casually.

“Yeah. Damien, Marion and Katerina are in this together. They want the flagship hospital to remain within their control. They hate Eli for wanting to sell it.”

“If Eli wants to sell it, they can’t do anything about it.”

“Precisely. That’s why Marion had to do something to discourage Eli from selling it to you. Marion was spying on you. It was her who took and released the photos. She’s Damien’s bitch. Her mother, too.

“But I’m offering Eli a very good price. Surely, it will make the family happy.”

“You don’t know Eli Templeton, at all. He’s a cheapskate and they know they won’t benefit from the sale unless the old fart dies, and that’s unlikely to happen soon as the old man’s on stem cell treatments he’d probably live to a hundred sharp as a whip. They want the hospital because they’re making a lot of money under the old man’s nose and he has no clue.”

“How?”

Theo grins, looking proud. “Because of me. We have a business arrangement. Huge business. And we need the hospital for it.”

I nod. “I see. So, it’s true. You’ve been dishwashing for the fucking cartel all these years. Quite an improvement from your old racket back in the day.”

“You know?”

“I know what you’ve been up to the past years, Theo. I have enough evidence to put you away for life.”

He shakes his head. “I’d advice you not to do that. They will come after you, Knight. Think about Anya.”

“Leave her out of this, you fuck!” I snarl.

“Believe it or not, I care about my daughter, too! I don’t want you getting your ass into the Templeton Group because their entire business is contaminated with dirty money!”

“How exactly do they make money with you?”

“Damien, Katerina and Marion all work for Templeton Group, and for two years now, they’ve been moving funds craftily from the company’s treasury, but nobody’s noticing. I’ll tell you why. They take the money, I replenish it tenfold with cartel money. We invest their cash somewhere legit, like the forex or any fast-moving commodity. They get a percentage from the profits. Meanwhile, Eli thinks his companies, especially his hospital is doing so good with all this cash coming in, but the cartel actually already owns thirty percent of the Templeton Group.”

This is way bigger than I first thought. Shit.

“But you were getting in the way of our business, Knight. You were unwittingly dismantling our operation. You had to be stopped.”

“So you harmed Anya.” I don’t need to tell him how many millions I lost because of the scandal. He won’t live long enough to find out.

“Come on, you were boning her anyway, right? That kiss sure didn’t look like the first time you did it to her. Proof? You married her. So, chill. I won’t step into your territory if you don’t step into mine. Deal? I’m even willing to forget this ever happened for Anya’s sake. You both can live a long happy life together with my grandkids.”

This evil man mentioning my future children chills me to the bone.

“Look, I didn’t approve of what Marion did, but it served its purpose nonetheless. But I promise you, from now on, so long as you stay away from my business, I’ll stay away from yours.”

“How did you meet the Templetons?”

“I met Damien in Vegas two years ago. He had a gambling problem. Loose-tongued bastard. Told me all about his family and how his father was a selfish bastard who didn’t give him enough privileges despite slaving in his father’s company for almost two decades. He was an easy prey. Told him what I did one night after he lost big time at a casino. I didn’t have to do anything much. It was him who proposed the business to me. The fucker would put my swindling abilities to shame.”

“What about JD?”

“The kid is a spoiled-rotten airhead. He knows nothing.”

I keep quiet for a full minute.

“Are we done?” Theo asks.

“Yes.”

“Will you let me go now?”

“Yes.”

Theo looks surprised. “Okay…Just like that?”

“I’m a man of my word.”

He straightens to his full height. “Let me go then.”

“Give me thirty minutes.”

I walk away with Callum. We enter a small room. He gets down to work on his laptop. I wait in silence.

After almost an hour, we return to Theo.

Callum cuts the rope tying the fucker to the beam, but does not free his hands. He puts the black canvas over the fucker’s head again, blocking his vision.

“Hey, come on!” Theo protests.

“Don’t worry, we’ll return you in your territory in one piece,” I assure him.

Callum drags him out of the warehouse.

We load him into a black, heavily tinted SUV.

A NYA

“Y ou can’t go on like this, Anya. Talk to me.”

I sigh deeply. Nan comes into my studio, carrying a tray of food, shaking her head.

For the past days, I got myself busy with my designs, trying to ignore the emptiness inside me.

“You missed lunch again.” She puts the tray at the center table. “Eat, my love.”

“I’m not hungry, Nan.”

She glares at me. “You’ve lost weight.”

“Good. I could use a few pounds less.”

She walks around my table and pulls me out of my chair.

“Nan, I’m working,” I protest.

She makes me sit on the sofa with her. She takes my hands in her lap and looks into my eyes seriously. “Talk to me.”

I tear up. I’ve been bottling it all inside, trying to be strong, but the heaviness in my chest adds up every day it’s hard to breathe anymore. There were moments when I was drawing and my tears were dropping on to my sketch pad. I don’t want to feel miserable, but I just can’t take being in this house anymore feeling helpless and unsure what to do next.

“Nan…”

“I haven’t asked questions. So, okay, you got married. I figured you were old enough. I know Dave loves you. You love him. I knew that for sometime now. But you both arrived from New York looking like the end of the world is near. What happened in New York?”

I just couldn’t contain my emotions anymore. I burst into sobs.

Nan hugs me, just like she used to do when I was little. Caroline was never there to give me comfort when I was sad and hurting. It was always Nan, and then there was Dave. He’s always been there for me, my rock and pillar of strength. But now he’s almost gone. The chasm between us gets bigger and bigger every day. And I feel so helpless.

I only mean to tell Nan what happened in New York, but I end up telling her everything.

She wipes my tears when I’m done.

“Is that really what you want? Divorce him?”

I shake my head. “I don’t know anymore…I’m so confused, Nan.”

“Let me give you a scenario. Consider what you’re feeling now. On the one side, you have your own place, you have me, you have your career, but no Dave. On the other side, you have me, you have Dave and you have this problem. Where would you rather be now?”

My lips wobble. “But he hurt me, Nan. He disrespected me. He stifles me freedom. He takes away all my choices. I thought I could handle him. I don’t think I can.”

“Then stand up to him if you must. Assert yourself. Be the woman who can put him in his place. If anything, you’re the only person who can actually do that and succeed. I’ve seen it happen many times.”

“You’re kidding. He’s so tyrannical. You know that.”

“Overprotective.”

I snort. “You’re in his corner.”

She wipes my tears. “You see, my darling, loving yourself is not about expecting your loved one to measure up to your ideals. It is crushing all your ideals to love unconditionally in order to bring out the ideals of your loved one. Dave is not perfect. God knows he has his flaws, but one thing I’m sure of, he loves you very much. I’m pretty sure he’s suffering like you do.”

“How do you know?”

“He hasn’t been eating much, too. You two quit the drama already, okay? My kitchen misses you both.”

“So, am I supposed to be the one to grovel?” I grimace at the idea.

“Hell, no. He must do the groveling for what he did.”

“Then…?”

“Go out. Have fun with your friends. He will come running.”

“Seriously? He will freak out big time.”

“All the better.”