Page 73 of His White Moonlight (Dominant CEO Shifter Romance #1)

My groggy thoughts matched my unresponsive eyelids as consciousness returned by degrees.

“You’re hurting me,” a woman cried.

“Shut up and fucking take it. You owe me.”

The shuffling noises and the grunts set off warning bells in my head.

Despite the throbbing in my arm, I had to fight the urge to sink back into the void.

Whatever they’d given me was strong. The more alert I became, the more I heard and felt.

Someone was having rough sex nearby, and my hands and feet were tied.

Wherever I was, I was in trouble and needed to find a way out.

It took a few more seconds for me to open my eyes successfully. I quickly closed them after a glimpse.

I was sitting on the dirty cement floor of an abandoned building.

In the large, open space in front of me, someone had set up a makeshift table, which Lindi was currently bent over.

The metal barrels serving as table supports were scraping against the floor with the force of the man's thrusts into her. She wasn’t making the same happy noises she’d made when getting railed at school, though.

The two men standing beside me were watching them and not me, but for how long?

Someone swore. The scraping stopped.

“I don’t know why I thought rich pussy would be better than what I get now,” the man who spoke earlier said. “It’s not.”

“It should be bubble gum flavored or something,” one of the men next to me said, making the other two laugh.

What kind of idiots had Lindi found now?

I heard a soft, pained sound.

“I’m bleeding,” Lindi said.

“Yeah, well, so was I. I think you said, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll pay to get it fixed when this is done.’ Does that make it hurt less?”

“I told you she can fight and to watch out. What happened to your nose isn’t my fault; it’s hers. You should have made her bleed.”

“Not until we know whether or not she’s one of them .”

“She’s not. She’s human like us.”

“Then why was she with one of them?”

“A rich, well-connected family adopted her to make themselves look good. She likes to pretend she has connections, but she’s no one important and not one of them. If she were, do you think that shifter would have let us take her?”

I let out a laugh and opened my eyes to look at her.

“Is that how you get everyone to believe your lies? A little bit of sex to drain their brains first?” I looked at the man with the swollen nose. “Do you know her?”

“Yeah. Lindi Shane. One of the city's elite families.”

“Did she say who my family is?”

Lindi marched over and slapped me hard across the face. It stung like a bitch, but I didn’t show it as I glared up at her.

“The Wulfs, backed by the Steeles?—”

Her hand lashed out and cracked across the same cheek.

“—made her family kick her out. Look at the newsfeeds. Why would either of those families do that for someone unimportant?”

She seethed at me, hating that her pathetic attempts to shut me up hadn’t worked.

One of the two next to me pulled out his phone while the other one looked at the man with the swollen nose. He’d been the one railing Lindi. I saw a bit of blood on the zipper of his pants.

“She’s right about the Shanes disowning their daughter,” the man said after a moment.

“They were forced to post that to save their business,” Lindi said. “It doesn’t change anything. Once this bitch is dead, I’ll pay you.”

I laughed again. “With what money? I know your parents cut off funds and that you were calling people you thought were friends for a loan earlier in the week. Was someone dumb enough to lend you some?”

Lindi’s expression turned cold, and she smiled as she leaned down to softly say, “Borrowing from friends means there’s no paper trail to tie me or them to this once you’re gone, bitch.”

She straightened away from me and looked at the zipper guy.

“I sent you a picture of the money. If you need more proof, we can do a video call with the person holding it. Up to you. But before you kill her, I want all three of you to make her bleed worse than I am.”

“Wouldn’t recommend it,” I said. “Right now, the worst I’ve suffered are Lindi’s slaps.

He’ll smell that it was her, and she’ll pay for it.

If he smells that you’ve done worse to me…

” I shook my head. “Why do you think he made her parents’ business almost go under?

Didn’t she show you pictures of what she did to me last time? ”

Zipper guy was glancing between the pair of us.

“Who are you talking about? Who is he ?” he finally asked.

“Bennett Wulf.”

Lindi scoffed. “He’s only nice to her because his parents adopted her. He doesn’t like her. I heard him say she’s not his sister.”

The man watched my slow smile.

“Who is he to you?” he asked.

“The better question is, who am I to him? I’m his potential mate. He’s one of them. And I’m the orphan girl he found when I was six and he was thirteen. He’s waited twelve long years to bring me home to claim me.”

I looked at Lindi.

“When he found out I wasn’t the perfectly protected princess he thought I’d been, he didn’t get mad at me, Lindi, did he? No, he got mad at you while making me promises that you’d pay. And he did make you pay. He took everything you ever flaunted away from you.”

I focused on the lead guy again.

“What do you think will happen if he finds me raped and dead in a ditch? Because he will find me. He has the nose for it. He will hunt you down and kill all of you, but not before you regret ever listening to her. And then, he’ll go after her.

“He won’t care about human laws. He’ll use pack laws for all of you. Murdering someone’s mate means that the pack will hunt you down and tear you apart like the animals you are.

“So, save yourselves, and walk away. Let him find Lindi here.” I met her gaze.

“We both know you won’t walk away, no matter what they do.

Are you crazy enough to kill me yourself, though?

” I slowly shook my head. “No, you need them to do it for you. They’ll be the sacrifice.

That’s why it’s a cash payment. Nothing in or out of your accounts to pin the blame on you.

I bet you haven’t even been using your phone to contact them. ”

“Any recorded calls to cover your ass?” I asked the man. “Because it’s going to look like a self-defense rape case when you’re found dead if you just did a pump and dump.”

He frowned and looked at Lindi.

“Yeah, a condom would have been your friend with her,” I added.

He took out his phone and took a picture of her, but she was fast, changing her hardened expression to something soft and pitiful at the last second. I knew right when he figured out she was setting him up.

“Bitch.” He hit her hard. Not a slap like she delivered me but a solid fist to the face.

I wasn’t a good person. I didn’t feel bad for her.

“You think you can set me up?”

“No, that’s not?—”

His next swing knocked her down at my feet. He kicked her twice in the stomach. She was sobbing and curled in a ball when he spat on her and focused on me.

“I know what you’re thinking. Witnesses are bad. But in this case, I’m good.

“He’s going to smell you, no matter what you do. Gasoline and a match will only cover up the bodies, not the trail he’s been following from where you kidnapped me. Your scent is in his nose. In his memory. He’ll never stop until he has answers.

“He’ll have someone pull the surveillance from the stores in the area so he has faces to go with the scents.

If you were smart enough to mask, he has the van you used.

He’ll use all his resources to keep pulling surveillance until he has the face of whoever was driving.

Then he’ll find known associates for that person.

You’ll be on that list. He won’t discriminate.

He’ll hunt everyone down, even if it takes his whole life.

“I’m exhausted just thinking about it, but he won’t be. He’ll be fueled by his rage.

“Unless…”

“You’re as annoying as she is,” the man said.

I grinned. “Oh, I’m way more annoying, which should tell you a little bit about how obsessed my mate would have to be to still want me. And how grateful he’d be when he learns that you were tricked into kidnapping me and stopped Lindi before I was seriously hurt.”

“Don’t listen to her,” Lindi said, trying to push herself up. “She’s a liar. Everyone knows you can’t lie to a shifter. They can smell a lie. He’d know she was trying to lie for you. A million if you kill her now.”

She managed to sit up, but didn’t try to stand.

“A million? That’s it? And I wouldn’t be lying. Did you tell them who I was to the Wulfs? No. You didn’t even know who I was to them. Have they hurt me? No. You’re the one who slapped me.

“Do you have my phone?” I asked. “We can call Bennett right now and ask him.”

“No. We tossed it.”

“Okay. Not a problem. I remember his number. Call him and put him on speaker. You’ll know within thirty seconds if I’m telling the truth.”

“Don’t do it,” Lindi said. “They’ll trace your number.” She didn’t cower when the guy looked at her, but she didn’t have her usual haughtiness either.

“Do you think I don’t use a burner phone, given my line of work?”

He pulled out his phone, and I quickly rattled off Bennett’s number.

He answered on the first ring.

“Bennett, it’s me,” I said.

“Where are you? Are you safe?”

“I don’t know where I am. Lindi tricked some people into kidnapping me. He hit her pretty hard when he found out. I’m safe, though.”

“Are they listening?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“Tell me where you are and I’ll compensate you for keeping my mate safe. More if you ensure Lindi is still there when I get there. I’d prefer no police involvement.” The last bit had enough growl in it not to leave any ambiguity about how Bennett felt about Lindi.

“Done,” the man said before hanging up.

“Untie that one and use the ropes on her,” he said as he tapped his screen.

Lindi tried to stand. Zipper man kicked her down. She didn’t try to get up again as the other two untied me and tied her.