Page 53 of Forbidden Boss
Iwake to concrete, cold air, and a plastic bite digging into my wrists. It takes a second for the shapes to click into place. I’m upright. My arms are wrenched behind the back of the chair. The chair’s edges cut into my forearms. It feels too hard to be rope. Zip ties, maybe?
The room looks like a forgotten basement under a warehouse. Dirty cinder block walls. A single strip light that hums and flickers. There’s almost nothing here except for two pillars, one metal door, and what looks like an elevator. I wonder if it works.
There’s a folding table, a laptop, and a stack of files I recognize from Levcon’s archives. I force my heartbeat into a steady rhythm and try to breathe.
Marcus is perched on a crate pulled up to the table, not looking at me yet. His jacket’s off, his sleeves rolled. His tie hangs off the table while he stares hard at the screen in front of him. He doesn’t look friendly now. He looks cold and calculating, and it terrifies me.
“Morning, sunshine.” He smirks, a cruel glint in his eyes. “I didn’t mean to hit you that hard, but it’s for the best. It made getting you down here a whole lot easier.”
I swallow. My head throbs, the pain radiating from a single spot. I wonder if there will be a bump. I desperately want to touch it, to inspect it, but I can’t move my hands.
“Where are we?” I ask, my throat hoarse and my voice much drier than I expected.
“A place I pay cash for,” he answers coldly, effectively telling me that Lev won’t find us here. “But it’s just temporary. We’re not staying long.”
I look at the laptop on the folding table. It isn’t mine. There’s no Levcon asset label. It’s old and bulky, a junker if I ever saw one. He follows my gaze.
“You’re going to log in to my accounts,” he says. “And help me get my money.”
“The money you stole,” I spit back, venom sharp on my tongue. “Lev trusted you! How could you do this to him?”
He gives me a cold, dead smile. “I knew you were smart. That’s why I told Lev to hire you. But I didn’t think you’d be such a bleeding heart. I definitely didn’t expect Lev to start fucking you all over the city.”
My stomach turns. It’s not morning sickness though, it’s disgust.
“You vouched for me?” I can’t help asking, grasping at anything to buy time.
“It made sense,” he says. “You were green and naïve. You were hungry for work, but you were also good. I figured you’d do yourjob and find the discrepancies, then I could use a buddy of mine to scare you off. I thought Lev would be so freaked out about the Feds sniffing around, he’d put the embezzlement to rest.”
“Yousent the fake fed?” I say, catching up with his words. “You wanted me to quit.”
“I did,” he answers. “I didn’t count on you confronting Lev and telling him off. That’s when I knew I’d hired the wrong person.”
“So you threatened me,” I whisper. “You sent that picture to Lev. What did you think would happen?”
“I thought he’d be chasing his tail long enough for me to get away with the money. But you just wouldn’t stop digging. I knew I had to get rid of you, too, but he’s had you locked down for weeks.”
“You’re going to kill me?” I ask.
“Probably.” He shrugs as casually as if I’d asked him the time. “But not yet. I still need you.”
“Need me for what?” I ask, my stomach turning with fear.
“It seems our little disappearing act raised some red flags,” he says, and he gestures at the laptop. “The accounts are locked. Lev must have panicked and froze the system. He thinks he’s clever. He blocked my tokens and my backup device. But he didn’t freeze your account.”
My wrists twitch against the plastic as I test the give. It bites deeper. I stop before I rub my skin raw.
“I’m not helping you,” I tell him through clenched teeth. “You’re going to kill me anyway. What incentive do I have?”
“I am going to kill you.” He smiles, eyes gone cruel. “But I thought maybe I’d let you live long enough to pop out that little bastard. It’s the most leverage I have against Lev. You’re inconsequential to him, really. He’ll get over you. But as long as I have a bargaining chip, I can negotiate my freedom.”
My fingertips go numb. I keep my face still. It costs me not to flinch. He laughs softly.
“You’re good in a crisis,” he says. “You’ve got a lot more spunk than I expected. But ask yourself, Mari. Are you really willing to let your baby die with you?”
“I don’t know how to get into the accounts,” I lie. “All my passwords were saved on my computer. The one you threw away when you forced me into your car.”
“Quit stalling, Mari,” he growls. “You can’t buy any more time. I’ve seen how that mind works. You know how to get in. Do it, or I’ll kill the baby first.”