“That’ll take too long to get.” I shook my head slowly. “I want Gemma, and I want hernow.”
“Then we are at an impasse.” The djinni had the nerve to shrug his shoulders and look bored.
“I ain’t leaving here without her. Give her to me!”
Rusty orange power looped around me in thick coils, and I knew Jax thought I was about to go full tiger.
He’s not exactly wrong.
“You think I’m a fool?” Darius sneered. “She is nothere. However, I give you my word that she is safe and unharmed. So she shall remain, at least until my master discovers I hold her. That’s the deadline to meet my demand. If Hubler learns I have the miracle worker, he will command I deliver her to him, and I cannot deny him so long as he wears the ring. I suggest you hurry.”
“Listen, yousonof awhore—”
“How do we know you even have her anymore?” Hank interrupted. “For all we know, you handed her over to your master seconds after you took her.”
“This is my proof.”
The djinni took a zipper bag out of his pocket and tossed it to Hank. I suddenly smelled Gemma and growled. As Hank opened the bag, the intensity of her fragrance nearly drove me to my knees.
“Don’t touch it,” I snarled at him. “Jax, let me go.”
He did, and I swiped the bag from Hank’s hands. Overwhelmed to have my angel’s scent so fresh and close, I couldn’t immediately understand what I was looking at. When I did, rage tightened every muscle in my body.
“You cut her hair?”
“She cut it of her own accord,” Darius protested. “I told her I needed proof that she was alive. She said this would work, and I trusted her.”
“YouCUTherHAIR?!”
“It’s only a little bit,” Jax said, looking over my shoulder. “He didn’t scalp her. Calm down.”
Clutching the tiny braid in one hand, I made a move toward the djinni, and Jax’s power clamped down on me tighter than ever before.
I tried to do the breathing routine, but calm wasn’t gonna happen any time soon. The best thing I could do was come to some kind of agreement with the djinni and get outta here before I wrecked everything and everyone around me.
“All right, Darius. Here are my terms.” I met his eyes. “You take me to Hubler. I take the ring. You give me Gemma. I destroy the ring. End of contract.”
“I can only get you so close to my master. He’s already given orders to cover that eventuality. Otherwise, my terms are similar to yours: I get you in his vicinity. You take the ring. You destroy the ring. I give you Gemma. End of contract.”
“Nuh-uh.” I shook my head. “I don’t trust you to give me Gemma after I destroy the ring.”
“If you are wise, you will not antagonize me,” Darius hissed. “My terms are fair and I will honor them. I do not trust you to destroy the ring if I give you Gemma first.”
The djinni suddenly grinned, and the bottom fell out of my stomach. He held all the aces, and he knew it.
“If it helps, your lady has a plan in case our negotiation fails. She won’t tell me what it is, but I have a feeling it isn’t exactly safe.”
If I thought I was furious before, it was nothing compared to what ran through my veins now. My next words were said through clenched teeth.
“I’m warning you now, djinni. You and your brothers will becomemyslaves if she comes toanyharm while in your care. That includes you encouraging or allowing her to do something reckless or put herself in danger.”
“Do you even know your lady?” he sneered. “You thinkIcan prevent her from doing something she’s set on?”
I let out a low rumble of power as we glared at each other.
“Let’s talk for a second, Kerry,” Jax said.
After I gave him a short nod, he dragged me over to the pitcher’s mound. I didn’t take my eyes off the djinni, though.
