Ozan waited for me by the warehouse. He was my grandfather’s right hand man. He was in charge of the financialaffairs and the one who found out that Alan had been stealing from us.
“What did you find?” I asked him.
“We haven’t gone in yet.” He responded, shortly.
He was a man of few words, but deep down he was as brutal as they come. I’d seen him rip men’s throats out and feed them to their wives. Beside him stood Ahmat. The weasel who had initially called me. I walked to the heavy steel door. My boots echoing off the concrete as I crossed the yard, every step getting me closer to the end of this bullshit deal. I gripped the handle, yanked the door open, and was met with a gaping void.
Nothing. No crates. No containers. No evidence of the millions in product that were supposed to be here. Just dust, oil stains, and the distant scurry of a rat.
My fists clenched. My blood went hot. "You told me she led you here."
"She did, this is the place. I watched her enter and stay for over twenty minutes. Then I followed her out."
I turned slowly, letting them see every ounce of fury behind my eyes. "Did you bother to check if the product was here?"
Silence.
Rage surged through me and pulling my gun out of my waistband, I aimed and fired one shot into Ahmat’s head. I then grabbed the nearest man by his collar, slammed him against the steel wall so hard the building shook. "Do I look like a man you want to disappoint twice?"
He stammered. "W-We thought…"
"You don’t get paid to think. You get paid to deliver."
“I don’t think killing your grandfather’s most trusted men is the answer.” Ozark’s voice cut through my rage.
I slightly turned my head, not fully looking at him. “Did I ask you?”
I let the man drop and stepped back, breath hissing through clenched teeth. I stared out across the warehouse, my vision tunneling. She moved it. Somehow, somewhere. She outplayed me.
Duchess.
The name tasted like blood and lust in my mouth.
“What will you do with her?” Ozark asked, prepared to give my grandfather my response.
I had to be careful here. I didn’t want her dead, not yet. I wanted to torture her. Toy with her before I stabbed her heart, like she was currently stabbing mine.
I turned to the rest of the men. "Bring her to me. I don’t care how. I don’t care who sees. You drag her out of that club in front of God and every devil. But you bring her to me, tonight. And I want her alive."
They all nodded, scattering like cockroaches.
“I hope you are prepared to kill her,” Ozark stated as I walked past him. “She is a traitor.”
I ignored him. He thought he could manipulate and control me, but he had no idea who he was talking to. Nobody told Caleb Killic what the fuck to do, especially not some henchman.
And she… She thought she could disappear. Thought she could pull one over on me.
But I had her scent now. And once I started to hunt her, I was never going to stop until I put her on her knees and made her beg me to stop.
I pulledup a chair in the middle of the abandoned warehouse and I waited until her eyes fluttered open. “Wake up, Sleeping Beauty.”
She closed and opened her eyes slowly, and I could see her pupils constricting as they adjusted to the light that swung from above us and cast shadows on her features. A flicker of recognition moved past them, and then I saw a glimpse of fear which gave me such satisfaction.
“What? What is this?” She struggled against the chains on her wrists.
“Hush, now, Princess. I don’t want you to get hurt. Not yet, anyway.”
"What am I doing here, Caleb?" As she went to stand, the restraints on her wrists and ankles held her back down.
