You shouldn’t trust me, asshole.
Melvin stepped outside, leaving Easton alone with the woman. He hadn’t been able to figure out who she was or why she wanted Bailee. The woman harbored some dark hatred, and he noted signs of drug withdrawal. Both were enough to make her unpredictable.
She started pacing again, mumbling to herself, but he couldn’t decipher what she said. Eventually, she stopped in front of him, close enough for him to touch her. It wouldn’t be difficult to overpower her while Melvin was outside. But his gut instinct told him to observe and learn instead of attack.
“I can see why she screwed you. You’re hot. Definitely someone I would take to bed. But her? What did you see in her?”
The woman kicked at the bottom of his foot, and he tried not to wince. But the pain won out.
She hissed. “I know you’re awake. Look at me!”
He rolled his head up and opened his eyes wider. His right eye had swollen enough that looking through it was a challenge. But he studied her. She wore the signs of a hard life. If she hadn’t laughed while Melvin tortured him, Easton might have allowed himself to feel sympathy. Instead he felt nothing but contempt for this woman bent on extracting revenge against Bailee.
“Did she tell you what she did to me?” The woman all but screeched the question.
Easton kept all emotion from his face and his tone. The more intel he could gather would only improve his position, and he knew how to keep people talking.
“You tell me.”
“She ruined my life. She killed my daughter. She stole my livelihood. She left me with nothing.”
Daughter. Shantayle. Mom. Sabra.He always had a knack for remembering details, so the names came to his mind without much effort.
“You have your partner. Melvin.”
The mention of the man’s name seemed to calm Sabra’s agitation, and Easton suspected there was something romantic about their situation that their earlier embrace didn’t allude to.
“Clive wants revenge too. He hates cops. He agrees with me that she has to pay.”
“Who is he to you?”
Sabra’s eyes narrowed, and Easton braced himself for what was coming. He sensed a change in her, but he didn’t know what that was exactly.
“He’s everything to me.”
She stepped closer to him and pointed her gun at his head. “What is she to you?”
He brought his eyes to meet hers. She was looking for leverage and was banking on his feelings for Bailee to give her that. He’d be damned if he allowed that to happen.
“She’s nothing to me.”
Rage fired in her eyes, and her smile was full of malice. “Liar.”
She drew back and slammed the butt of her gun against his temple. The blow wasn’t hard enough to knock him out, but with the injuries he already had, the hit let loose another round of pain coursing through him. He allowed his head to drop, his breath catching in his throat. Closing his eyes to the hurt, he heard Sabra step away from him.
Then he heard a noise from the front of the building. Melvin was returning. He decided to play unconscious because if the other man suspected he was alert, Melvin would start in on the torture again. Easton wasn’t sure how much more of that he could take. He needed as much recovery time between beatings as he could get for himself.
“Come in, Officer.”
Sabra’s challenge had him opening his eyes to slits again.Bailee.His heart leapt into his throat to see her on the business end of Melvin’s gun. But she found him. He had no idea how, but he guessed his brothers had something to do with it. Because if she was here, his brothers weren’t too far away. He would kick their asses later for sending her in as bait.
He listened to Bailee taunt them, and he wanted to signal her to lay off. She might have some idea of how deadly Sabra andMelvin were, but he wasn’t sure she realized just how unstable they were. He was relieved when Bailee hinted that she hadn’t come alone, but then where were his brothers? Why were they taking so long to breach?
“On your knees.”
The command didn’t signal anything good. Careful not to attract attention, the minute he saw Sabra and Melvin turn their backs to him, he moved his arms subtly. It took a couple of tries before he caught Bailee’s eye, and he could have kissed her at how well she hid her reaction. The time to make a move was now. He just hoped his brothers were close enough to provide back-up, or he and Bailee had little chance of making it out alive.
∞∞∞
