“Do I need to call your father to inform him that his son denied my request? It’s no trouble.”
Jaw flexing, Luis flicks his eyes to me. “Very well. We have a room available. Diego, move Asset 768!”
Leaving the other sleazebags lingering, Diego hops up onto the platform while pulling my handcuff keys from his pocket. I grit my teeth in a tight clench when he approaches.
“Apologies for the state of this one.” He chuckles. “She’s caused us some trouble.”
Mr Gael musters a thin smile. “You could’ve avoided her face. But I do not mind a bit of spirit.”
“She has plenty of that.”
“Good.”
Diego stops behind me to unlatch my cuffs. Once unlocked, he leans in to whisper into my ear.
“Fuck around with this guy, and he’ll have a pistol rammed inside your tight snatch before I can find something else to break. Behave.”
As soon as my sore wrists are released, I slump forwards. All of my focus is on the sharks now circling Gracie with lascivious hunger behind their grins. I’ve got to do something.Anything.
Before Diego can re-fasten my cuffs to escort me to the room, I burst into action. No matter how suicidally reckless it may be. He howls when I snap a fist backwards to hit him in the face. The idiot must’ve thought he’d scared me into submission.
Without hesitating, I spin around to slam my fist into his temple, offering me a few precious seconds. I’ve snatched the gun from his holster in the time it takes him to refocus, quickly leaping several paces away.
“I’ll pass,” I snark back.
“Fuckingputa!”
“You should’ve left me down there.”
“I’m going to ki?—”
Finger trembling on the trigger, I don’t think before squeezing as hard as I can. I don’t know shit about aiming, but the shot fires off in his direction. Those split seconds feel infinite.
“Argh!”
Diego slams a hand down on his left thigh where the bullet vanishes inside him, creating a bloody eruption. He crumples in half, howling through gaping lips.
I’ve barely swung the weapon around to aim it at Luis’s stunned expression when I feel movement, the displaced air warning me that someone has snuck up on me.
Pain flares behind my right knee from a brutal kick, causing my legs to buckle. Clattering to the floor, the gun slips from my hand, landing a small distance away.
I throw myself forward to recapture it, frantically scrabbling. My fingers brush the metal right before they’re crunched beneath a shoe sole, making a scream erupt from my mouth.
Wrinkled hands snatch the gun up, taking it out of reach. The foot squashing my hand twists, causing my bones to grind together. I cry out when it lifts, leaving my index finger bent at a crooked angle.
“You’re fast,señorita. Untrained, but fast.”
Hands seize my hips then roughly flip me over. My back smacks into the floor before a heavy weight straddles my waist. Hands move to trap my arms above my head.
I’m made to stare up at the embodiment of evil peering down at me with raised eyebrows. Intrigue has propagated into a look of fascination. And that’s far, far more petrifying.
“So much fire,” Mr Gael mutters, still looking over me. “What will we do with all that?”
“Get the fuck off me!” I screech maniacally.
“Hush. I’m thinking.”
“No! Gracie! I’m here!”
