Six Months Earlier
I looked down at my phone as it vibrated and read the text that came through. My informant, Gigi Devin, sent the information with her usual hearts and kisses emoji attached. A young prostitute, she had more flare than probably anyone I’d ever met. Who else would text a detective they were sneaking information to with fucking emoji?
I read the text again and looked up at the massive building that loomed in front of me. I was parked across the street in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart that had seen better days. Everything in the neighborhood had seen better days.
The man I was looking for, Antonio Carver, was in the building, according to Gigi. She’d been servicing one of his men for months and had finally decided to roll on him. I couldn’t be happier about her lack of loyalty. I’d been working on Carver’s case in my free time for months.
Cash Crimson, a distant friend, had come to me and asked for help finding his ex-wife. I wouldn’t have been as motivated if Clara hadn’t been a friend from childhood. She’d disappeared from my life around the same time she and Cash divorced and she’d crossed my mind from time to time. When Cash asked for help, I was instantly willing to do whatever he needed.
That included bribing Gigi with a couple of tickets to a concert she wanted to see. Close-up tickets. My detective salary had suffered greatly from those tickets.
I dialed Cash and waited for an answer. It rang and rang, upping my impatience. I didn’t want to miss a chance at Carver because Cash couldn’t get to his phone. When I didn’t get an answer or a voicemail service, I hung up and checked my ankle for my second piece. With one strapped to my side, hidden under a blazer, I was as ready as I was ever going to be.
I turned off the car and stepped out into the hot Dallas heat. Born and raised in Texas, I was as used to the summer heat as a person could get, but having to wear extra layers to hide my gun wasn’t the most pleasant thing. I pushed up my sleeves and pulled my hair into a ponytail at the base of my neck.
Looking as casual as possible, I crossed the street and moved in the shadows of abandoned vehicles and a few demo dumpsters that’d been sitting there, untouched, for weeks. I knew because I’d been there, right along with them, bored out of my mind for weeks, waiting to catch a glimpse of Carver.
There’d been rumors that he liked to visit the abandoned building to take care of messier business problems. I’d walked through the building at night more than a few times, trying to find evidence of his presence. Until Gigi, I’d known someone was using the building, but I didn’t know who, for sure.
I didn’t know what kind of trouble Clara had gotten herself into, but if it involved Carver, it was serious. Cash had been pretty tight-lipped about the whole thing, giving me the barest of information when asking for help. He’d been working his normal cases at Crimson Security the whole time I’d been helping and it seemed as if he was stretched thin.
I was damn good at what I did and I had nothing else that was keeping me from working the case on top of my normal balance of cases at the station. I hadn’t informed Captain Mallard yet, but he’d be fine. He trusted me. As he should. I’d worked my ass off to get to where I was. At twenty-nine, I’d been a detective for four years. I knew what I was doing.
Which was why, when I slipped into the broken window at the back of the building that dropped into the basement, I did it silently. Years of training my body left me a ghost while working my way through the large building.
Knowing Carver was inside the building with a few of his goons had me slipping my gun from my side. I kept the safety on, but my finger found the trigger as I cleared the basement floor. Gigi said they were on the top floor of the place, but I couldn’t be too careful.
Working through the next floor faster, I didn’t hesitate in going higher. I trusted myself. I trusted my abilities. Cash wouldn’t have asked for my help if he didn’t trust me, too. While it wasn’t protocol, by any means, for me to go in after Carver by myself, I had to take the chance.
The man was a spook. He somehow vanished without a trace easier than anyone I’d ever heard of. It wouldn’t have surprised me to get to the top floor and find it empty. Carver was a magician at clearing out. It was why I couldn’t wait. I couldn’t chance him getting away if he could lead to us finding Clara. Cash would’ve done the same, himself.
The first floor was clear, so I edged up the stairs to the second. Keeping my back to the wall, I looked up, making sure no one was going to surprise me. There were no sounds coming from above, or anywhere else, for that matter. A dark feeling filled my stomach and I had to push it down. No matter what was waiting for me, I could handle it.
I cleared the second floor in record speed and started on the third when I heard something moving from the floor above me, the top floor. I glanced at the third floor that I hadn’t finished clearing and made the decision to move up to the top floor anyway. I felt Carver slipping away and needed to get to him.
Edging back to the stairwell, I silently moved up it, looking between the steps and the doorway that would open up to the floor where Carver hopefully was. When I got to the doorway, I leaned in to see if there was anyone near. I silently turned off the safety on my gun and raised it as I moved into the large open space that would’ve held cubicles at some point in time. With nothing there but wide open space and sunlight streaming in through the windows, I could see clear to the other side.
There was no one there. Offices lined the sides of the room, but with glass fronts, I could see that they were empty. I moved towards them anyway, knowing that I’d heard sound coming from where I was. I didn’t believe in ghosts, so it had to be someone. There had to be someone there.
I crept from office to office, moving towards the back wall, checking out every square inch of space on the top floor. No matter where I looked, though, the place was empty.
With a frustrated sigh, I clipped my safety back on and holstered my gun. Either Gigi was fucking with me or Carver had proven his ghost status was better than mine. That wasn’t anything I liked to think about. I moved back to the stairwell and heard the sound again.
Spinning to face whatever the sound was, I jerked my face up and saw that it was a sheet of plastic hanging from a tall window. No boogeymen there. Giving a bitter laugh, I turned back around to go back down to the third floor, just to make sure I hadn’t missed anything. I didn’t expect the face of a man to be directly in front of me.
Before I could reach for my gun, he reached out and squeezed a pressure point on my neck that sent lightning rods of pain shooting down my body seconds before my vision went black.
*
“It’s about time you decided to rejoin us, Detective Willows.” A smooth voice spoke from next to my head.
I jerked away from it, coming to in an instant of panic. My training kicked in and I ran down my body, taking stock of all of my limbs. I was sitting in a chair, my legs and arms tied to it securely. Nothing hurt, so I knew he’d only hurt me the once to knock me out.
I forced my eyes open and my heart sped up when I saw that we were on the third floor of the building I’d been going through, but we were in a part that I hadn’t checked.
A small table sat in an office with a few chairs in it. I was in one of the chairs and there was a man watching me from across the room in another. I didn’t sense anyone else in the room besides the man at my side.
The place was much darker, and I wondered how long I’d been out.
“Carver didn’t like having his meeting place bothered by a little pig, but he had to run. He left you all to me. You took forever to wake up, though. I’ve been bored.”
I swallowed down the fear that I knew wouldn’t do me any good. I was trained. I could get out of my restraints without a problem. I just had to worry about being shot on the spot when I did get loose. I could tell by the lightness at my side that they’d taken my gun. The same went for my ankle holster.
Defenseless, but never down, I lifted my head and met the eyes of the man who’d knocked me out. “Sorry to inconvenience you.”
Tall and handsome, he smiled at me like I’d just said something cute. His dark eyes moved down my body and something dangerous flashed across his face. “I never said that. So, Detective Willows. What should I do with you? It’s not every day that an upstanding detective is dropped at my feet.”
“You should let me go and I won’t kill you.” I said the words with an ease that I didn’t feel. While confident that I could escape the two of them, I was still wary of them blowing my head off. I couldn’t see the talker’s hands. He could have a gun aimed at me, for all I knew.
He laughed and stroked his hand over my hair, releasing it from the ponytail and running the strands through his fingers. “Such a pretty thing to sound so tough. I prefer my women a little softer.”
I hissed. “I’m not offering, asshole.”
He caught my face in his hand and roughly pulled my face around to his. My neck ached and I felt the strain straight down to my tailbone, but I kept quiet.
“You assume I care if you offer.”
I bit out words, through the pain. “Tell me who you are so I know who I need to put at the top of my shit list.”
He smiled again. “Your confidence is astonishing. Just so you know, though, it’ll be the reason you die. It’s the reason you’re in this little situation that you’re in now. Not that I’d call this little, by any means. I can see that you’re thinking it is. Your eyes are telling me that you’re humoring me. Biding your time until you can escape and get out of here. I’ve seen bigger men than you fall because of their ego. It’ll be sweet to watch you lose it, though. The hard ones are always the most fun to break. Isn’t that right, Deniro?”
I was at my limit for listening to the scumbag talk about raping me. I pushed up with my legs and slammed myself to the floor. The chair broke under my weight crashing into it and I caught the arm of the chair as the talker was leaning down. Cracking it across his jaw, I rolled to my feet and pushed my body towards the door to the office. Not taking the time to push it open with both men on their feet and after me, I threw myself through the glass and stumbled before straightening and taking off towards the stairwell.
I knew I couldn’t outrun them. I could already hear them getting closer to me. There was going to be an altercation and I made myself go loose so when they hit me, it wouldn’t hurt as much.
Only, instead of the body that I expected to crash into me, something sharp stabbed into my side, once, then twice. A scream ripped from my throat as the talker’s smooth laughter filled the entire floor.
As I went down, I couldn’t help but think that someone was going to come. There was too much noise, that laughter, for no one to come looking. Realizing I was hoping to be saved, my heart sped up until I started to panic. I rolled to my side and grabbed my side, feeling warmth oozing from my body. Blood coated my hands and seeped out from around my fingers.
The talker climbed on top of me and pushed up his sleeves while smiling. “You hit me. You’ll learn soon enough that when someone hits me, I hit back. Harder. Only, I’ve never liked to hit a woman. Seems weird, doesn’t it?”
I jerked, trying to force him off of me, but with a nod to his silent friend, my legs were held down with the full, bruising, weight of the other guy’s hands.
“I don’t mind anything else. I can do anything to a woman that I can do to a man, but hit her with my fists. So, how do I repay you for your sorry attempt at rearranging my jaw?”
I watched as he raised the same shard of glass that had been stabbed into my side and freaked out. Letting go of my side, I lifted my hands to fight him. Feeling weak, though, he easily overpowered me and shifted so his knees pinned my arms to the concrete floor.
“Hold her tight, Deniro. This is going to get bumpy.”
I screamed as the glass in his hand cut into the side of my face, trailing down from my ear to my jaw. Pain ripped through my body and I blinked as blood pooled into my eye.
He dug the glass into my neck and waited until my screaming died down. “See how easily I broke you, Detective Willows?”
I clamped my teeth down on my lip in an effort to stop the whimpers from coming. My face was on fire and I could still feel my blood pouring from my side. It felt like he’d hit something important. My vision blurred and I shivered.
“No, no, sweetheart. You’re not done. I’ve decided to keep you. Carver won’t mind. Maybe he’ll even visit us on the ranch. It isn’t like him to pass up on the chance to make a pig squeal.” He threw the glass away from us and ripped off a piece of his shirt.
I groaned as I neared unconsciousness. Pain throbbed through my body and I felt myself dying. A million things flooded my brain. I should’ve called for backup. I should’ve waited for Cash to answer his phone. I should’ve checked the third floor and been more careful.
“Stay with me, little piggy. Don’t think you’re going to get it so easily that you’d die here and now and miss all the fun things I’m going to plan for you. Deniro, wrap her side.”
I felt my body being moved around and I lashed out at the hands touching me.
More laughter. “Ah, there’s that attitude. Keep it. I want to watch the fire die in your eyes.”
“Fuck…you.” I muttered the words around chattering teeth.
“I can’t remember the last time someone has spoken to me like this. I won’t lie and say it isn’t doing something for me. We’ve got to get you well soon, Detective Willows. I can’t wait to play with you.”
I screamed as the other man tightened something around my ribs, putting agonizing pressure on the wounds to my side. Blood leaked into my mouth from the new angle I was in and I couldn’t fight anymore. Knowing that I was already dead, I closed my eyes and let the darkness close over me.
Comforting, like an old friend, it soothed me as the voices around me faded.