Page 164 of Protecting Peyton

“Stand her up,” Monster ordered.

Baldy yanked me up roughly, moving behind me and holding my arms.

His grip was tight, otherwise I would have immediately attacked the man in front of me, the bi-color eyed devil.

“Who are you?”

The monster’s face contorted. “I’ll be asking the questions,” he spat. Then, like he’d flipped a switch, he relaxed. “If you give me what I want, this will all be very civilized. You may call me Lucifer.”Yes, the devil himself. It fit.

Baldy and another short dude both chuckled. The short one had a scar down his cheek.

“Why are you doing this?” I tried.Because he is a psycho asshole, of course.

Lucifer grinned. “Because we never got our dinner and you have something I want.”

A skinny dude arrived at the doorway. “I can’t find it.”

Lucifer spun and screamed. “Yuri, what did I say about interrupting me?”

Yuri was a new voice, and the count was now six minimum in the goon squad, which was going to make escape a second time close to impossible. But, I’d taken down one goon, and who said I couldn’t do it again?

“Sorry,” Yuri said. “I thought you wanted to know.”

Lucifer took in a long breath. “What I want to hear is that you found that damned purse. We need that key. Now take Marco and Oleg with you. Go over every inch of the warehouse, and don’t come back without it. Boris, you too.”

Skinny Yuri disappeared along with the short guy with the scar.

Lucifer turned back to me. “Where is the purse?”

What the hell did he want with my purse? Whatever it was, I wasn’t helping because I stopped being valuable to him when he got what he wanted. “How would I know? Baldy here took it. Ask him.”

“Not me,” Baldy complained. “It was right over there when you left.”

“We know you took it when you went through the wall,” Lucifer growled.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The slap was immediate and so hard it whipped my head to the side.

Intense pain bloomed across my face, but I refused to give him the pleasure of seeing me react. “Yeah, I remember now.”

Lucifer’s eyes widened. He really wanted my purse.

“I threw it in the fireplace out there.”

Anger wrote itself across his face. “Stop with the jokes. There’s no fucking fireplace.” He lunged forward and punched me in the stomach.

All the air whooshed out of me as I doubled over. It took me a few seconds to straighten up. When I did, I spat the blood in my mouth at him, catching his chin.

He wiped it away and laughed. “That’s the spirit I like. We are going to have such a good time, dear Leighton.”

Dear Leighton,my ass. What I needed right now was a little explosive vomit to make clear what I thought of him.

“Or…” he continued. “I could let Vlad have a go at you with his blade.”

Zane, where are you? Please hurry. This is about to turn really, really ugly.

“Let’s stop playing games,” Lucifer said as he wiped his chin again on his sleeve. “I know she gave you my watch, and it wasn’t at your apartment, so it has to be in your secret stash. I want the key and the location.”