Page 76 of Arranged Addiction

“I’m almost there.”

“Seriously? Already?”

“I left the second you called. Send more people. Send everyone you can.”

“Declan, this is probably nothing.”

“I don’t care. Get me backup right fucking now. I think her guards are already dead.”

I slam the phone down on the passenger seat and nearly rear-end a Honda Civic. My brakes scream as I turn the wheel and fly around it, slamming on my horn like the bewildered other driver is somehow at fault.

The diner’s up ahead. I approach it at full speed and come to a tearing halt right in the middle of the street. I leap out, heart racing?—

But there’s nothing.

No Casey. No Senesi. Not even a hint of the Whelan men. If they’re still alive, I’m going to personally end them all night and slow for abandoning my wife.

I look in the diner. The place is crowded, but I don’t see anyone I recognize. I’m on edge as I come back out, ready to get back in my car?—

When a woman’s scream slams adrenaline right into my veins.

That was Casey.

All thought leaves me. I run headlong toward where the scream came from. It must’ve been half a block away, down a narrow alley between a dry cleaner and an Indian restaurant.

I’m out of control as I go careening around the corner. I have to slam my shoulder into the far wall, my gun already coming out of its holster at my hip.

Casey’s standing with her face crushed against a dumpster twenty feet away. Behind her, an older, boring-looking man’s got her arm wrenched up behind her back and a knife pressed between her shoulder blades. The man’s grinning like a psychopath, his face twisted into a demonic snarl as he turns to stare at me.

There’s no surprise in his eyes. There’s no emotion at all. Only a cold, dark emptiness.

Senesi.

No doubt in my mind.

I’ve seen men like him before. Killers and monsters. My brother Cormac was like that a while back before he found his family and saved himself.

But this creature is something new.

Senesi looks like any other nondescript old person wandering the streets. Except the manic glint in his eye hints at the demon lurking under the surface.

I raise my gun?—

But Senesi twists, putting Casey between me and him.

She screams in pain, and my finger stops inches from pulling the trigger.

My heart’s racing. Senesi peers at me over Casey’s shoulder. Her face is drawn in agony, and her eyes are pleading with me.

Please help.

I have to steady myself. I can’t let how much I care about her fuck up this situation.

“Let me guess. The guards gave me away.” Senesi’s grin gets bigger. “I guessed I had at least another ten more minutes before you showed up.”

“I drove fast. Let her go.”

He tuts, shaking his head. “Can’t do that. She’s mine now, Whelan. I don’t have any problems with you in particular, but I will if you insist on getting in my way.”