Page 18 of Tempted By Poison
He almost got to me, though. My finger lies on the trigger. One flick and his brains would have spilled out. Mentioning the grotesque way he murdered Carter, and the scars he inflicted on me—he won’t be the one to tell her anything before I get the chance to. However, I am going to torture him like he did me. Only worse. The one mistake he made was keeping me alive.
“Your brother,” he says, half thrilled and shocked as cups his mouth with wide eyes. He’s tall, lean, and looks like a burglar who took off his mask and still has the black rings around his eye sockets. Not as deep black, but it’s still disturbing.
“You’re his little sister?” His smile is deep. “I didn’t know he had a sister. Well, I didn’t know shit about him.” He chuckles to himself as his arm goes back down to his side, and I catch the metal glint of the pendant on his collar.
The pendant.
My jaw tightens, my teeth grinding against one another as I look back at the ugly design of a centipede and back at him.
“You know, besides being my first kidnapping, he was also my first kill. My first taste of blood. To feel the flesh gliding through a knife.” He sucks in air through his teeth, glorifying in his own memory, as if he's eating his favorite meal. He’s fucking taunting us for a reason. Victor wants us to do something. That's why we won’t.
“To see the life dim straight from his eyes like a dying bulb.” He shakes his shoulders. “It was magnificent.” He’s trying to get a rise from her. And it’s working.
I shift on my feet as fury shakes all the nerves in my body. Victor strolls to the front of the desk with the drink in his hand and sits back on the edge casually. I inch closer to Anita, my gun still extended on him. I need to get close before she launches at him at any moment.
To my surprise, she didn’t do anything. She only points her quivering hand at him with her dagger. “You’ll pay for all that you’ve done,” she hisses. The threat is ominous—significant. It’s a promise, not a warning. She raises her chin. “You’ll die tonight. Slow and torturous, and you’ll beg us to put an end to the madness and the pain. Instead, I’ll shoot you in the face, not to kill you. But for you to watch as I stab you over and over again. And then chop you up, limb from limb.” Each word rings out leisurely. “I’m only telling you this to prepare you for what’s to come.”
Her words slap a jolt into my spine. Hearing her wishes only amps me up to fulfill her promise and serve him on a platter. Just for her.
He stares at her blankly, but I notice the gulp in his throat. He loosens his tie. The slightest bit of nervousness he’s shown since we barged into his room. “Damn, sweetheart. I thought I was sick.” He lets out a huffing laugh.
I’m filled with even more rage at his audacity. No one calls her a pet name. Except me. “Call her sweetheart again, and I’ll lodge this gun down your throat.” I flicked my gaze at the gun, then back at him. “It’ll be ironic. The gun from your men will be deep throating your esophagus.”
He puts his hands up in surrender, the sides of his mouth tipping down into a frown.
The door bursts open. “Hey, boss. These two were downstairs causing quite a ruckus,” a man with an English accent growls out.
Fuck.My heart lodges in my throat, thumping hard into the muscles. My worst nightmare in full display.
The man tosses Mal to the floor, her body kneeling over with nylon tight around her wrist. She’s smaller, so one push and she’s tumbling. Another man shoves Boone in with a gun to the back of his head. He won’t be kneeling for no one. For one, he’s too fucking big, and two, he’ll rather take the gun and shoot himself in the head before bowing to anyone.
Victor makes a giddy sound, clasping his hands to his mouth. “Good work you two. Are we sure that’s all of them?”
I look over at the man standing over Mal, he’s tall, wide with dark brown skin and deep green eyes. I look at Mal and Boone as I figure out a way to get us out of this shit. The man's height and weight isn’t too much for me; he’s someone I’m happy to fight. A challenge. But what about the other guy? I glance at Anita, who’s looking at them with worry.
I slowly glare at Victor with methodical eyes. “What the fuck are you up to?”
“I’m happy you asked.” He reaches into his pocket. My stomach rolls, hoping he doesn’t grab the tiny GPS device Boone placed in a while ago. But he grabs a device, no bigger than his hand. “See, no one is dying tonight. Well, at least I’m not. You four will. Not slow and steady, but quick enough to where you won’t be able to give your last prayers to the devil himself.” He gives a snide grin. “This, my friend, is leverage.”
I stare at the foreign metal in his palm. What the fuck is that? He reaches for the remote behind him and aims it at the large TV mounted on the wall. He presses a button, turning it on. We all divert our attention to the TV, the view revealing the scene downstairs. Guests are dancing and chatting away, not even aware of the catastrophe that’s happening at the moment.
“Clueless people. So eager to be a part of the next big thing. The best grand party. Wherever money floats, they scatter to it like working bees,” Victors says cheerfully. “This will give them some sense.” He clicks the button on the device.
I shift my eyes at him and the screen. My arm aches from pointed the gun at him for so long, but I don’t relent.
Until cell phones ring on the screen, alerting the guests and drawing their attention. I narrow in, my heart rate picking up to an unnatural beat.
What. The. Hell.
