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“Are you tryin’ to gain my trust, Eric?” She used my name to distract me back.

“Here’s the thing, Lexi. I don’t need your trust.” I played along, but the truth was her trust would make this a hell of a lot easier. “What I need is your ass back in that cage.”

“And all I need is to cut your thumb off so I can get the hell out of this place.”

“I’m not sure how to tell you this, sweetheart, but you’re outnumbered once you step outside the door.” I jumped out of the way as she took a swing at me. “One,” she jumped at me again, “two,” she went for my gut, “three,” she tried to kick my chest. I grabbed her ankle flipped her around and pinned her down on her stomach. I held her hands against the floor on either side of her head. I tried to be careful and leaned down and whispered in her ear, “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Then get the fuck off me,” she cried as she struggled.

Enough already, this is getting tiresome.

“Come on.” I kept a tight hold on her hand and tugged her up off the floor. I quickly opened the cage where Leo still lay. I couldn’t tell how badly he was hurt, but figured he’d hope for a sympathy vote. I grabbed Lexi around the waist and held her tight with one arm. I shook my head as she never let up and kicked and thrashed as I carried her inside. I yanked Leo to his feet with my free hand and tossed him outside the cage door then dropped her on the bed and backed out, quickly locking the cage behind me.

“You bitch.” Leo screamed at her as he began to stand. I pulled my gun and shot him in the head.

“Holy shit!” Lexi cried and curled into a ball on the bed.

Leo was a loose cannon, and clearly, he couldn’t be trusted. His death was justified.

“I just finished what you started.” I shrugged. “What did you think would happen?”

“I don’t know. Jesus.” She looked at Leo’s body with wide eyes but said nothing further.

I called Filippo to come down as I grabbed my shirt from the floor and slipped it on. “Now,” I pulled up a chair and sat down near the cage, “I get it, and I can appreciate what happened here.” I waved toward Leo. “I’m impressed by your will to fight for your life. I really am. But I know how Blackstone thinks. This isn’t my first time up against them, and given your fighting skills, they’ve trained you well to protect yourself. But you should know I’ll win, so don’t come at me again. That being said, everybody else here is fair game.” I smiled, amused at my comment.

“Good to know.” Her chin rose, and I was pleased to see that Leo’s death no longer affected her. She’d already moved on. Impressive.

“Boss?” Filippo came in, and Lexi quickly tugged the blanket over her bra. He then did a double take at the sight of Leo’s lifeless body on the floor.

“Clean this up,” I ordered and took the suit jacket he handed me.

I studied Lexi as Filippo cleaned the gory mess from the floor, and as she watched, I could see a tiny part of her began to struggle. Her shoulders sagged, and her hold around her knees slackened. When I saw some of the color drain from her face, I felt something tug at me briefly. Normally, I’d retreat to my office where my drink waited, but something told me to stay.

“Anything else, boss?” Filippo’s voice was strained, and his hands were sticky with blood. The smell of bleach hung thick in the air. When his gaze swung to Lexi, I clucked my tongue to pull his focus on me.

“No.” I nodded for him to leave, and he scurried away. I sat there a moment then pulled out a clean sweatshirt from the bin. The one she had on had some of Leo’s blood on it. I carefully opened the door and set it on the bed next to her. Then I quickly closed it again. I wasn’t about to chance any further action on her part.

“Do you need anything?” She shook her head, and I saw she fought to control herself as her chin quivered. I tapped my fingers on my leg and felt a bit off. I’d never given a second thought about the women we’d run through here. I just did what I had to and moved on, but this whole situation was different. I didn’t like the way I felt, but I turned and left her there without another word.

I thought Castillo was crazy to kill her once we got information from her on Blackstone, I wanted to sell her to Chili and be done with it. This whole thing bothered me. I also hadn’t felt I was completely in the loop with the girls who were being brought through my tunnel lately. Chili was my buyer, but I had control of the tunnel. Lately, I’d heard rumors that some girls had been moved through the tunnel on days I wasn’t there. If that was really true, I trusted Chili and knew it wasn’t him who bought them, so that meant someone was cutting me out of the equation. I had very little to go on and no proof of anything. I knew I needed to be in control here or shit would go sideways fast. I made a decision.

I sent a text off to Alejandro, and a moment later he brought me two glasses and a bottle of whiskey. I still needed to maintain my use of text messages so Castillo didn’t suspect I was on to him for bugging my line.

“Do I want to know?” He gave me a confused look as he handed me the bottle and glasses.

“No.” I turned and went back downstairs.

I let the door lock behind me, tapped the tile again, and she sat up quickly. I could see her eyes as they flitted around the room as if to find some new escape route. I removed my jacket and took a seat on the floor close to the bars then leaned back against the wall. I decided to skip the chair this time to bring myself down to her level. I wanted to appear less of a threat, and without my jacket, I hoped I appeared more relaxed and casual. I showed her the bottle was sealed to prove it hadn’t been tampered with it. Her eyes went to slits, but she didn’t say a word.

“I’m not even going to guess what’s going through your head right now.” I pushed a glass through the bars then the long neck of the bottle and poured her a double. Then I did the same for me. “I do know I need one of these right now.” She watched as I took a sip of the amber liquor, then she must have decided it was worth the risk because she began to move. She quickly snatched the glass and moved to the opposite side of the cage and sat on the floor against the bars.

“Here’s to a fucked up, cruel world,” I toasted her, and she shot me a glare as we both raised our glasses. She threw back the entire drink, and I smiled. I found myself impressed with her for the second time tonight. She slid forward and nudged the glass toward me, careful not to get too close. I poured her another, and this time she nursed it.

I had to admire this woman. She still managed to look good in spite of her time spent here in the cage, the time she spent hiding in the streets, and even after she’d killed a man.

“Is this where you ask me for information about Blackstone?” She tried to keep her voice strong, but her eyes gave her away.

“No,” I chuckled, “I wouldn’t believe anything you told me, anyway.”

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