Page 29 of Kidnapped By the Boss
Chapter Ten: Katya
When I entered the pharmacy at The Marketplace, I did so with much more confidence than I entered with the first time. I peered across the walls and noticed a few spots where I was pretty sure cameras were hidden. They hadn’t been there the first time, but I supposed after I came in and caused a little free trouble without getting caught until well after the fact, Antonio decided he needed to up the ante a little bit.
Not only that, but once the door to the pharmacy jingled to announce my presence, the new service person behind the counter looked up at me and immediately frowned. “You’re not welcome here. You can leave.”
So it seemed my existence had been made known to the employees here as well. “I’ll leave, but first I want you to call your boss. Tell him Katya Costello wants to speak with him.”
“You don’t have to throw your name around, here, I know exactly who you are, and you’re not getting anywhere near the King. Now, you can leave, or I can make you leave,” he threatened.
Looking up into the corner behind the counter where a camera was disguised as a display ornament, I leaned forward onto the counter and said, in my most seductive accent, “Antonio. I received your message and I’m here to reconsider your offer. If you’d like me to continue arguing with your foot soldier here, I can, or I can leave and go back to my husband. It’s up to you.”
The man behind the counter slammed his hands down on the counter. “Look. I know that you think you’re pretty hot shit, but I’ve been given strict instructionsnotto let you in andnotto—”
Suddenly, a phone rang behind the counter. A smile crossed my face and I balanced my head in my hand. “Ooh, I believe you should answer that.”
His nostrils flared at me as he realized that he’d been played, but he still picked the phone up nonetheless and set it to his head. “Yes, Boss?” He looked down at first, almost like he was too embarrassed to face me directly, but then after listening to the caller for a few minutes, his eyes dragged up to me. “Of course. I understand. I’ll send her down now. Yes, Boss. Goodbye.”
He set the phone down on the receiver and I could see himseething. Without saying anything, he turned around and flipped the switch to pop out the fake door, then motioned for me to come behind the counter and walk through. With an arrogant swish in my hips, I sauntered behind the counter, gave the new counter worker a smile and then passed through the door. Heslammedthe door behind me, but I didn’t care. I was through and that was all that mattered.
Before I got too far down the stairs, I updated my location on my phone and received a response from Vincent that they were in location and waiting for my signal to strike. Once that was taken care of, I finished descending the stairs to where the same security guard I’d seen before was standing in front of the door. I opened my mouth to speak, but he wouldn’t even look at me, and held up his hand to stop me. It was almost like he was terrified to even interact with me, as he opened the door and pushed it aside, and then stepped back so that I could enter.
“Thank you,” I told him, but again, he barely even acknowledged me.
Once I was inside the speakeasy, all of the noise inside came to a halt. The band that was playing stopped, and all of the conversations ceased as everyone looked over to watch me when I walked in. What I hadn’t realized upon my first visit to this place that I now understood, was that it wasn’t just those who were hanging around Shaina that were hoping to gain admittance into The Wreckers, it was everyone in this place. Likely Antonio had made an announcement that I’d be coming in, and much like the security guard outside, they’d probably been advised to be wary of my presence.
Which, to be fair, was in all of their best interest.
With everyone’s eyes on me, I walked further into the bar, striding right past the tables and between the two bars. Everything stayed so quiet you could hear a pin drop, until I was about halfway to the back wall and there was a loud creak as a part of the back wall pulled backwards out of the wall and slid aside. Appearing there, with a smug grin on his face, and dressed much more officially in a suit, was Antonio.
The Wreckers’ King.
“I think we should speak in private,” I called over to him.
“Of course,” he replied in his rather thick, Spanish accent. “Come. My office is back this way.”
“No,” I replied. “I think I’d like to do our business out here.”
He smirked at me, but did lift his hands and clap them a couple of times. “The bar is officially closed. If you have open tabs, consider them my gift to you and an apology for cutting you short.”
A flurry of complaints erupted from all over the bar, but no one voiced any of them louder than a murmur, and all eventually started to pick themselves up and head for the exit. Both Antonio and I stood still, kind of like we were facing off while everyone loaded out, not saying anything, not breaking eye contact—just standing there.
Once the place emptied out, the security guard that watched the outside door closed it, shutting us in, and Antonio said to me, “So, you’ve cleared out my bar for this discussion. Is there anything else you’d like? Perhaps I should do a little dance? Pat my head and rub my belly?”
I laughed at him. “No. The solitude is good for now.”
“So how did you happen to discover that this place was my hideout?” he asked. “I was very careful about not revealing that information.”
“Call it a lucky guess,” I replied. “After I received your message loud and clear, I figured that you would want to make sure I could reach you immediately. Perhaps you didn’t mention specifically that this was your hideout, but you made it very clear that this was a place you operated. I figured it was a pretty safe bet that I’d be able to find you here whenever it was that I decided to come.”
“Smart,” Antonio said. “Exactly what I’d want from my Queen.”
“I suppose I’m a little confused about that,” I told him. “It was my understanding that The Wreckers already had a Queen. I’m not one to be a backup queen.”
“Something else I’d expect of my Queen,” Antonio replied. “Currently, yes, The Wreckers’ have a queen, but I don’t settle for anything less than perfection. Once I saw you, I realized that there was something out there even better than the queen I had, and I deigned to take that woman as my queen instead. You are more beautiful, more intelligent, more spectacular than any specimen I’ve had the pleasure of interacting with, and I will only be happy with you by my side.”
“And what of your current queen?”
“I’ve already… packaged that up,” Antonio said. “She’s been made aware of the presence of her replacement, and for the greater good, she was willing to step aside.”