bearings. My hands were cuffed over my head, pain radiated from my shoulder. I’d been shot. I could feel tape pulling at my skin. Someone had dressed the wound. That meant they wanted me alive. I didn’t know if that was good or bad but what I was, was grateful.
I continued to take stock of my surroundings. My ankles were bound, the room was cold but not freezing. Nothing in my mouth. The room smelled musty and old.
“You’re wasting time.”
Male. No accent. Standing close.
“The more of it you waste the more fun I’ll have with Miss London.”
My eyelids popped opened and nausea roiled. After I swallowed down the bile and the haze cleared Evette came into focus.
Tied to a chair, gagged, and bleeding. Forehead. Nose. Lip.
The motherfucker would pay for each of those.
“Mr. Harris.” The guy smiled and stepped close, off to my left. “Nice of you to join the party. As you can see we started without you. Seems my associate got your dose wrong. We’ve been waiting a long time for you to wake up.”
The associate circled Evette, then stopped behind her and lifted both his hands.
“Don’t touch her.”
The Asshole Associate dropped his hands on her shoulders and Evette’s eyes widened. Her fear so stark I decided his punishment would be losing his fingers. I was going to chop them off one by one and set the digits in front of him so he could stare at them as I sawed off the next one.
“Now that we’ve established you’re not in charge let’s talk about Delilah Watts.”
No such goddamn thing had been established but if Dickhead needed to believe that to get on with his questioning I wouldn’t quibble. The more questions Dickhead asked the more I could ascertain what he wanted.
“What about her?”
“Where is she?”
“No clue.”
Asshole Associate slid a hand into Evette’s hair and jerked her head back until she whimpered.
“Perhaps you wanna amend that?” Dickhead asked.
“I will only to add, Delilah Watts is more than likely dead in a ditch somewhere. Which is where that motherfucker’s gonna be if he hurts my woman.”
A swift punch to my kidney had me sucking in air and likely I’d be pissing blood later.
“How about you, sweetheart? Are you ready to talk yet? Where’s Delilah Watts?”
Evette shook her head the best she could considering Asshole hadn’t let go.
Her denial earned me two more punches. One landed the same as the first. The second higher up and I didn’t need to hear the rib crack to know it was. The next lungful of oxygen I inhaled burned like a sonofabitch.
“We’ll leave you two lovebirds to talk amongst yourselves. How ’bout a few minutes to come to your senses and tell me what I want. But before we leave you to it, I’ll give you my promise after you tell me where Delilah is I’ll let Miss London walk out of here. If you’re swift about it, I might feel generous and give her a ride to the nearest gas station so she can call for help. You waste my time, I’ll let her leave but she’ll be walking.”
Asshole shoved Evette’s head forward and let her go. As soon as he did her pain-filled eyes came to mine.
Fucking shit.
Dickhead started for the door but stopped at Evette’s side, yanked the bandana out of her mouth, let it fall around her neck, then tapped her temple.
“Be smart, Miss London.”
She licked her lips, kept her gaze cast down, and didn’t answer.
Once the men were out of the room and the door was shut I took a moment to cool my rioting temper. I needed Evette calm and ready for what was to come. I had to prepare her for what she was going to see.
“Evette, honey, look at me.”
She shook her head and pinched her eyes closed.
“I can’t.”
What the fuck?
My anger resurfaced, this time at myself. I’d fucked up and now she was tied to a chair and scared. I’d failed at the one thing I’d promised her. Now she wouldn’t even look at me.
“I can’t,” she repeated then stopped to clear her throat. “You’re chained up and hurt because of me. I can’t—”
“No, Evette. We’re here because I fucked up. Me. You didn’t do anything but trust me to keep you safe. I know it’s a lot to ask, but I need you to listen to me. When they come back this is gonna get ugly and when it does you need to close your eyes and stay silent.”