Page 34

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SADIE

My ass hits a chair after who knows how long I’ve been trapped in the back of a vehicle. Two men who reek of cologne pace around, grunting as they stare. I try to not tremble, or cry out. They kept telling me to stay quiet and no one has to get hurt.

Greasy fingers drag down my forehead. I pull back.

Light.

Fuck!

Blinking in the blinding sun, I try to focus on the faces of my kidnappers as they remove my blindfold. Memorize every detail. They’re white, with dark brown hair. One’s got a mole…no, that was chocolate sauce on his mouth. The other’s um…white with brown hair. They have noses, kinda round but not.

Why am I so bad at this?

“Don’t move, little lady,” the one in a red tracksuit says.

The one in a green jacket snorts like he told a joke.

Red stares at him a minute, then he focuses on me. I can’t pick his face out of a crowd, but his eyes send me teetering back in the chair. I swear the irises turn red. “Hold out your hands,” he orders.

“Why?”

Knife.

Shit!

He does a quick flip to pull out an old switchblade. He’s going to put it to my cheek and threaten to cut my face off if I don’t give them what they want.

What the hell do they want?

Fingers grab my arm and pull them both forward. Red plunges the knife down, right between my duct taped wrists. “There?” he asks, swinging the knife closed. “Isn’t that better?”

Peeling the tape off, my eyes well as I rip out all the arm hair by the root. My skin radiates with a pink rash, and I start to rub them.

“Don’t you got something to say to me?” Red lunges forward. He grabs the back of my chair and shoves it until I’m balanced on only two legs. I squeal and turn my head.

A city street a hundred feet below races on without a care in the world. He’s going to kill me. He’s going to throw me off right now.

He’s…

The back of the chair hits a window with a thud.

We’re in a building. My heart pounds so hard I can feel it in my ankles. He wasn’t going to drop me. Red sneers at me and folds up his fist.

“Thank you?” I shout.

“There.” He lets go of the chair. I plummet forward and nearly fall out.

“Is it so hard to have some manners?” Red flicks out another switchblade, but this one turns into a comb.

While staring out the window above me, he styles his hair back into a pompadour.

“Conversation is a dying art. Wouldn’t you agree Miss… ?”

I swallow hard and lock my jaw.

“Cute.” He bends closer to whisper in my ear, “But we already know your name, Sadvhi Nair. And your address, and your parents’ address…”

Holy shit. I can feel his slimy threat crawling into my ear and wrapping itself around my heart. They want to hurt my parents. Why?

Why would anyone kidnap me?

“Is this about Derek?”

“Derek?” the green one asks. “Were we supposed to get a Derek?”

“Shut up,” Red snarls back at him. “No, darling. But fucking that Derek up was some good work by him .”

I can tell the him isn’t my ex, but I have no idea who he’s talking about. “I didn’t hire a…a hitman to go after Derek,” I confess.

Red looks back to Green before he swings closer to me. “You couldn’t afford him.”

Afford who? What is going on?

Shifting his legs, Red squats before me like we’re old friends.

“Here’s the thing, sweetheart, I don’t want to hurt you.

” He holds out his hand and Green throws something at him.

Red catches it and starts to peel it with his knife without taking his eyes off of me.

“Hurting women isn’t a particular pleasure of mine. ”

Oh, god.

Oh, shit.

They’re going to beat me.

They’re going to kill me!

“So all you need to do is tell me what I want to know and…” Red stabs a piece of what he cut off and takes a bite.

His eyes well up instantly and he spins back to his partner.

“This is a fucking onion!” Screaming, he hurls the vegetable at Green’s head, where it bounces off like a tennis ball hitting a wall.

“Sorry,” Green mumbles.

Red spits on the floor right by my bare feet. I jerk them to the side and flinch at the disgusting move. After wiping off his mouth, and clawing his tongue, he grabs me by the shoulder. Fingers digging into my skin, he shouts, “Where’s Talong?”

“Who?”

Oh, my god. Is this all a case of mistaken identity?

“Cute. You think you can out stupid my brother here.” He jerks a finger back to Green who gives a wave at the attention.

“I’m not playing dumb, I swear. I don’t know anyone named Tagalong.”

“Talong. He ain’t no fucking Girl Scout cookie.”

“Imagine if he were,” Green shouts with a great laugh.

“You’d have gobbled him up on the first day,” Red laughs back.

Oh, fuck. I’ve been kidnapped by insane people.

“This is all some misunderstanding,” I tell them and start to rise. “I’ve never met this Talong in my life. I’m afraid you have the wrong person.”

“Green?” Red glares at his brother. He doesn’t move from his spot in front of me, but he doesn’t shove me back to the chair either. “Did you fuck this up? Is this the chick?”

“Yeah. Least, I think so. Pretty sure. Uh…” Green holds up his thumb like he’s about to paint a picture and sizes up my face. “Now I ain’t so certain.”

“For fuck’s sake.” Red groans and clutches his head. “He’s gonna kill us for this.”

“I promise, I won’t tell a soul. No one needs to know you grabbed the wrong person. Just let me slip on past you and…”

“It’s her.”

A voice thunders through the room. Red slaps his palm to my shoulder and shoves me down so fast my knees crack. Both him and Green turn, then give a slight bow to a man walking in through the door. I catch a hint of a hallway outside before he slams the door shut.

Tomato. It’s all I can think of the rotund man in the bright red suit.

But unlike Red’s cheap track suit, this man’s look like it cost the downpayment on a house.

A good one. He tips back his hat, a gangster fedora, and eyes me down.

Sunken eyes narrow against the wide nose and thin—to the point of being invisible—lips.

I can’t tell if he’s sunburned or so pale his skin has taken on the color of his suit.

Despite carrying a cane, he puts no weight on it, and marches across the room with an air of pants-wetting fear. “Mr. Ato,” Red says as he scuttles off to the side. Then he slaps his brother in the chest.

“Boss,” Green says giving another bow.

Boss? Oh…oh shit. Does that mean…?

Is this his shift manager?

Mr. Ato swings his cane to pin it right under my chin. He stares me up and down, and I squirm. For the past ten or so hours, I’ve been stuck in the back of a van in nothing but my panties and a tank top. And he’s staring like he’s about to peel me the way Red did that onion.

“Look at her. She’s exactly his type.”

“That’s what I thought, boss.” Red starts kissing ass immediately. “Good ol’ Talong, he always liked ‘em plump and juicy.”

Their boss clicks his tongue. “Which precisely of his actions do you consider to be good?” he asks Red without taking his eyes off of me. I start to shift, wanting to cover my breasts with my hands, but that cane is an inch or two from plunging into my neck.

“Oh, no, no. It’s just a saying. I didn’t meant he’s good. Just that he’s, ya know, old. And washed up. And…”

“Talong is like a son to me,” Mr. Ato fumes.

“Right, yep. Like I said, good ol’ Talong.”

“A son who betrayed me.”

“Fuck that guy.” Red doesn’t miss a beat, unaware that he’s being plucked like a ukulele.

With a slow pan of my body, Mr. Ato gives a quick sniff. The cane drops and I take in a deep breath. “It’s her,” he says and I can hear the nails hammering into my coffin. Tipping his hat down over his bald forehead, he moves back to the door.

“What are you going to do to me?” I cry out.

Mr. Ato pauses in putting the no housekeeping hanger on the doorknob. “For now, you will sit here and wait for Talong.”

Who the hell are they talking about? I don’t know anyone named that. Or anyone in general. Was it a client? Is this a job gone completely tits up? Did I ever take pictures for a hitman?

“And if he doesn’t show?” I cry out.

Pausing in the doorframe, Mr. Ato places his cane in front of his body. Even in the shadows, his teeth glint as his invisible lips rise in a blood-curdling smile. “You’d better pray your pussy is worth the trouble, Miss Nair.”