Page 58 of Iron

“Wanna fill me in a little on what’s going on?” I asked Midori.

I felt the cold steel of something long and hard just as I heard footsteps outside the door.

I quickly wrapped my fingers around it and slid it from the band of Petra’s stocking and out from under her dress.

I barely had enough time to tuck it under my leg before the man stepped back into the room.

He eyed me for a good long minute but I gave nothing away.

After noticing the closeness of Petra and me, he strode over and yanked her back a few good feet.

“Fuckin’ hands off of her,” I growled but somehow managed to keep my body calm.

He didn’t say anything, but he didn’t make a move to leave either.

“Why don’t you tell us what we’re doing here,” I said to him. I figured if I got him talking at least I’d be able to keep eyes on him. And if he was yappin’ away, like these guys like to do, then he wouldn’t be hurting Petra or Midori.

“Emily is my sister and I came to take her back home.” His eyes shifted to look at her. “Where she belongs.”

“I don’t have any sisters, but if I did, I can tell you that I wouldn’t ever go cuffing them to a pipe in an abandoned building. Seems like she might not want to go back with you.” I coolly gave a little shrug.

“It doesn’t matter what she wants. It’s where she belongs,” he said with venom in his voice.

I’d dealt with my fair share of narrow-minded, backwoods, woman-hating fuckers before. This guy was no different. All of them thinking that women had their place and they better do as their told.

Fuckin’ hated that shit.

Most of those men were one step away from being a rapist because they didn’t give a shit what a woman thought. Hell, most of them probably were.

“And why’s that?” I asked. Not that I gave a shit for his reasons.

“Because,” he gritted out, “she has a role to fulfill and people counting on her to do it.”

“I’m not going back,” Midori said in a soft tone.

“Yes, you are. Buck will be back shortly and then we are taking you with us.”

Midori let out a soft cry.

“Don’t worry,” I told her keeping my eyes on the guy in front of me. “You won’t be going anywhere you don’t want to.”

“Shut the fuck up!” he roared.

His anger was spinning out of control and I thought I might be able to use that to my advantage as long as I kept it directed at me.

He took a step closer to me, gun gripped firmly in his hand as if daring me to say another word.

“She’s not getting away. Not ever again.” His head turned in Midori’s direction. “We found you. Did you really think you could run forever?”

“How did you find her?” I asked and just like I’d hoped, he looked back at me. I needed to keep his focus on me without pissing him off too much. It was a fine line to ride, but I knew all I had to do was keep calm.

“She was stupid enough to get a cell phone with her real name and new address.” He sounded way too damn smug about her little slip-up.

“I’m sorry,” Midori whimpered and I knew she was apologizing to Petra.

It was a stupid mistake. One that clearly had big consequences. But I couldn’t really blame the girl. Some people didn’t think about that type of stuff. And even if they were in hiding, sometimes there was false security after they hadn’t been found for a while. That was when people usually dropped their guard and started to slip back into their normal ways of living. They didn’t realize that for the right price, any sort of information could be found or monitored.

“You should have just come home when we called you. I told you I knew where you were and that I was going to come get you myself if you didn’t listen.” His focus was back on her again.