All Souls' Night - Renee Rose Page 0,309

the busy-body patrons who glared at me before is wide-eyed and running away from the smoke billowing around the corner.

Shit. Not a smoker after all. I grab my laptop case and overnight bag, rushing to the exit like everyone else. While people scatter in all directions, I round the corner of the building toward the taxi stand. Only I don’t get farther than two steps before a hand covers my mouth and drags me and my luggage into the bushes.

Whoever my captor is breathes heavily against my ear. “If you want to see Zoe alive, you’ll come quietly with me, got it?”

I nod. Thank God she’s still alive.

“I’m gonna let you go. Scream, and I make a phone call to Phil.”

I shake my head.

As he removes his hand, I see the tattoos on his fingers. B-I-G.

Fuck. Big Tony. Phil’s muscle. And the son-of-a-bitch who knifed me in the alley.

I wince as he seizes me by the arm. He glances around and drags me along with him. I scamper to keep up with his long strides. Tony pops the trunk on his Toyota Corolla rental and tosses my luggage inside.

He drags me to the back-passenger door and shoves me into the car. The doors lock with a click of the fob he’s holding. I fumble with my phone, hands shaking so much that I can’t get it unlocked properly.

“Give me that.” Tony snatches the device from me and tosses it into the passenger seat next to him before climbing into the car.

The adrenaline rushing through my veins subsides, and the shakes take over my body. Every inch of me is trembling like it’s thirty degrees in the backseat. Hot tears race down my cheeks.

Tony starts the car and navigates toward the exit as sirens and fire trucks zoom past us. As he steers the car west toward Downtown, he’s silent, and I’m uncertain about my fate. Is he taking me to Zoe? Are they kidnapping us? Or was Tony sent to take me out? If he stays within the city, I have a fighting chance of getting away.

I close my eyes and fight the hysteria threatening to overwhelm me. I still don’t know if Zoe’s safe, or if Phil is getting rid of her while Tony takes care of me. Was Armando able to get to her? Did he save the only family I have left in this world? Or are we both finally meeting our end with this stalker?

Just when I thought things couldn’t get worse, Tony merges onto the 210 Freeway and my nerves tingle with fear. This is leading us away from Downtown, and out of the city. “Isn’t Zoe the other way?” How did I suddenly grow the balls to talk to my captor?

“Keep your fucking mouth shut, or I’ll put a bullet in the back of your brain and put you in a dumpster.”

“Yeah, ballistics would be all over that, unless you have an unregistered firearm with you.” Geez, these balls are getting bigger by the second. I guess realizing how short my life is has given me moxie I didn’t know I possessed.

Big Tony chuckles, and boy, does it sound Ming-the-Merciless evil. “You’re lucky. I left it at home. I guess my knife will have to do.”

I swallow the fresh bile rising in my throat, but those testicles I’ve adopted just keep swelling. “A bit messy, don’t you think?”

He grins at me through his rear-view mirror. “Not if it’s done right. But if you keep talking…” He reaches into his back pocket and pulls out and waves a condom. “I’ll fuck your smart little ass while I grind your face into the sand and suffocate you. No DNA, and I get my rocks off.”

Those balls shrivel and disappear, and I stop breathing.

“That’s what I thought.” He tucks away the condom and sits back for the ride.

Three minutes here at Club Toxic and I’m pacing, chewing the inside of my mouth. Slash informed us that Armando left to find Zoe based on a frantic tip they got from Karina. But Karina never said where she was, and now she isn’t answering her phone.

Theo tosses his smartphone to the desk and pounds his fist. “She’s still not answering!” He drags his hand down the hard lines of his face. “Slash, can you track her phone?”

Slash pauses, and he doesn’t look hopeful. “You can give me her number, but if she doesn’t have her GPS on, we’re shit out of luck.”

Theo rattles off her digits and Slash’s fingers