My gut twisted at the thought of Ghost trying to hurt her. Why? And what if this Jake guy had something to do with it? I fucking had no clue.
Ringing from my phone pulled me out of my thoughts. Without looking at the screen, I answered, “What?”
“Now, now, big brother.”
Blood seeped out of my body, replaced with ice cold menace. There went another puzzle piece put into place. They were working together.
“Figured I would let you suffer for a while, and then I’d give you a call. You wouldn’t want anything else to happen to your woman, would you?”
Fear and anger spiked within me like a dagger to my heart.
“Where is she? What did you and Ghost do to her?” I snapped, unable to rein in my emotions.
“She’s fine. Great little toy you have here. Tastes mighty fine, I have to say.” He slurped his lips, and the plastic on my phone started to crack from the pressure it was under.
“Keep your fucking hands off her!” I roared, walking over to the wall and punching it.
I could feel Techie watching my every move, and I was hoping he was recording and tracing this shit.
“You’ve had her; I just wanted a taste.”
“I want to fucking talk to her. Now,” I demanded.
He scoffed. “Her mouth is a little occupied right now. See, Steve—or as you know him, Ghost—wanted his turn, so being the nice guy I am…”
As he let the words hang in the air, murderous rage consumed every cell in my body. I would fucking gut this motherfucker, peel his fucking skin from his bones while he was alive, and dig out every fucking organ he had.
“You son of a bitch! I will tear you limb from limb. What the fuck do you want?” I barked as my body vibrated with rage.
“Money. The silly thing about this world is it all revolves around money.”
“Fine. How much and when?” Money I couldn’t care less about; getting back my woman and hunting this bastard down was my goal.
“So eager. I’m not so sure I want to give up my play toy just yet. You know her pussy tastes as sweet as honey. I could eat it for days, and when she comes, fuck me, it’s the best thing on earth.”
“Motherfucker, you are dead. Do you hear me? Fucking dead!” I exploded, picking up a nearby chair and throwing it into the wall, not bothering to watch as it knocked down a shelf.
“Tsk. Tsk. Such bad temper. You’d think our father would have taught you better manners.” His voice was too fucking calm, only angering me more.
“You are not my brother! Tell me how much and when!”
“Our father was a little careless with one of the housekeepers he had. You should look up Lucia Ramirez. And, no, I don’t have your last name now, but I always knew who my father was. Fucker paid my mother off for me to disappear.” More pieces were starting to fall in place.
“Answer my question.” I really wasn’t in the mood for his history lesson, but the longer I kept him on the phone, the better lead Techie would get.
“Seven million. Wired to this account—got a paper?” I grabbed a sheet off the shelf. “512849554846251HGHUH” I handed it to Techie, nodding. “It’s offshore, so don’t bother tracing it. Also, upon the deposit, it will disperse to several different accounts, so there will be no way of finding it.”
“When?”
“Now seems good. You have five hours, or I fuck her, again, then kill her. I know you wouldn’t want your precious woman to die, now would you?” The phone clicked dead.
I stared at Techie and he smiled. “What!”
“I’ve got it. Seven Twenty-Nine Beachwild Drive. Condo eight. It’s his exact location.”
“Fucking shit! Call everyone. I’m grabbing Dan, Brett, and Rex. We are leaving now. I’ll call Sal. You get me everything you can on that property and send it to me!”
“On it.” He started typing on his computer as I left to find my woman.
Chapter 20
MY HEAD WAS fucking groggy, but I could hear that ass-hat talking shit to Jag on the phone. He hadn’t even attempted to fuck me, and that fucker Ghost had disappeared once I had gotten there. Wherever the hell there was. He had threatened to fuck me several times, but he had never followed through, and I hoped it stayed that way.
The room I was in was definitely a guest bedroom, though one for “kinksters” as the bed had damn shackles that my arms and legs were attached to. The windows and curtains were shut, but there were faint outlines of homes coming through with the daylight.
I had tried to come up with some scenario to get myself free. I just didn’t have the energy to fight. The asshole kept coming in and sticking me with a needle, pushing liquid into my veins. Every time he did, my eyes wanted to close and stay that way. It had been like that for days, but I had no idea how many to be exact.
The injections he was giving me didn’t get me high; it was more like a sedative to keep me from yelling. Just moving my body took strenuous work.
The asshole had fed me, but each time I saw the food he had I was terrified it was laced with more drugs, so I only ate enough to stay alive.
Once a day, he placed an IV in my vein, saying it was to keep me hydrated. By the fact that I had pissed my pants several times, and it smelled ungodly in here, I believed him.
I was scared as shit about him putting needles in me, but when I asked him if he knew what he was doing, he merely scoffed at me and said nothing more. There wasn’t anything I could really do about it.
Something loud crashed in the room next to me. Inside, I jumped. Outside, I was worthless. Then the door creaked open, and I cringed. I didn’t want any more of that shit he was putting into me.
“Well, sweetheart”—my stomach roiled at the term—“in just a few hours, this will all be over. I’m going to pack my shit and leave you be.” He moved to the bed and sat down, almost touching my body.
This guy, Jake, had very short brown hair and dark brown eyes. He wore khaki dress pants and a button down shirt. He looked more like a man who played golf and had brunch than a man who would tie a woman up for days.
“While I’d love to play around with you, lucky for you, I’m not into women.” Relief on that comment was there, but I needed to get out and that was my focus.
My words came out groggy, and the bite that I wanted wasn’t there, but I wasn’t going down without a fight. “Jag and my father are going to fucking kill you. You’re a pathetic piece of shit.”
“Now, is that any way to talk to someone who gave you food and took care of you all this time?” He tsk-tsked like a school teacher, infuriating me more.
“You know I’m right. Why the fuck would you come after me?” I tried to yell the last words, but they came out more as a slur.
He reached over to the table, pulling out a needle.
I pulled on the restraints with the small bit of strength I could muster, but nothing happened. I closed my eyes, wanting to be anywhere other than where I was.
He placed the needle in my arm, injecting the fluid into my body, and my head instantly began swimming.
“See, I’ll give you much more before I leave. I’ll even be nice and give you enough that when the place goes boom”—his voice had risen with the word, scaring the shit out of me—“you won’t feel a thing. See, I can’t let you live. I think Jag needs to suffer since he knew our father. As far as you, your father killed mine, so an eye for an eye.”
My eyes widened as much as one can when drugged.
“Yeah, my brother. He won’t have much to live for after this, and I’m hoping I time it just right that he’ll be here when the blast happens, but that part isn’t one hundred percent quite yet. I’m working that out. I wanted your father here, but knew he’d be harder to get. You’re the substitute.”