“Josie!”
I put my gun away and move to stand in front of his body. “This isn’t what it looks like. I take a step toward her and she screams, darting around the corner. Fuck! There can’t be any witnesses. That is the only rule. I sprint after her. I can’t kill her. I may be desensitized to killing most people, but I can’t kill people I love.Especiallyher. My legs are longer than hers and I catch up with her as she’s fumbling to put her keys in her scooter’s ignition. What was she doing here in the first place? She wasn’t supposed to be here for hours. I made sure she left before and went home so this wouldn’t happen. She’s never been one to bake in the middle of the night.
She drops her keys. “Shit!”
I catch up to her and grab her arm, stopping her from picking them up. “Josie, stop, you can’t go anywhere. I can’t let you.”
She looks up at me with wide eyes and tries to pull her arm from my grasp. “Let go of me! I don’t even know you! The Cason I know would never do something like that!”
My heart breaks at the look in her eye. I’ve never wanted her to look at me with fear. My grip loosens slightly from my shock and she takes the opportunity to wrench her arm away and pick up the keys.
I can’t let her get away, but I can’t kill her either. I need to take her somewhere. I need to know that she’s not going to go straight to the police. I wrap my arm around her waist and haul her off the scooter. She screams and thrashes in my arms like a feral cat. Her legs kick over her scooter making it crash to the asphalt.
“Help! Someone help me!”
She shouldn’t be calling that with me around. This isn’t how any of this was supposed to go. I bring her back flush with my chest and bring my other hand up to cover her mouth muffling her screams and praying that no one hears her or comes running. I lean down so my head is next to her ear. “Joie, please, it’s still me. I’m still the guy who played tea party with you and colored unicorn pictures at your kitchen table. It’s Cason. I’m not going to hurt you. Please, we need to talk about what you saw.”
She stills instantly at the use of her old nickname.
I lower her feet to the ground. “Are you going to be calm?”
She nods and I take my hand from her mouth, but don’t let her go.
In an instant, she bends her body and brings her mouth down to bite into my arm.
Shocked by the fact she would bite me my hold lessens and she twists in my hold and punches me in the nose. Fire erupts through my face as the crunch of cartilage reverbs in my head. My eyes squeeze shut of their own accord and the velocity and surprise of it makes me stumble back.
Josie sprints down the street from the bakery. “Help!”
Fuck she punches hard. It’s good to know she’ll stop at nothing to defend herself. I just wish it wasn’t against me. I sprint after her again as blood drips from my nose and into my mouth.
“Somebody help! He’s going to kill me!”
Clearly, she didn’t believe me when I told her I wouldn’t attack her. I catch up again with her. I’m not going to be able to talk any sense into her. I’m not going to kill her, but I do need to make sure that she will remain silent. I reach into my pocket for the syringe I keep on hand. If I can’t subdue the mark for whatever reason, I use it as a backup. It’ll knock her out in five seconds. Normally I would then kill the person. I sometimes use it if the mark is a woman. We used to have a rule no women no kids, but now it depends on the woman. Kids are still off-limits. I wouldn’t even if the payment was over a billion dollars. I don’t think my father would be alright with us taking any contracts like that.
I catch up with her and grab her by the back of her shirt. She stumbles and I use my other arm to steady her. “I’m sorry, Joie, this is the only thing I have left. I’m not going to kill you, but I can’t let you go. You would be killed by one of my brothers for being a witness and I can’t let that happen.”
I take the cap off the needle. She sees it from the corner of her eye and her flight response kicks into overdrive. She fights me harder, but this time I’m not going to go easy on her. “I promise, you’ll be okay.”
I plunge the needle through her sweats and into the muscle of her thigh before pushing the tranquilizer into her.
She whimpers in my hold. “Cason.” Her eyes roll and her head falls back against my chest as her body goes limp. Putting the cap back on, I shove it into my pocket before moving to lift her and cradle her in my arms.
I stare down at her beautiful face. “I’m so sorry, Josie. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Why did you show up?”
I carry her back to my Ford Bronco and put her in the back. She’ll be out for the next twelve hours. I need to clean up Sacha and move her scooter so people don’t know she was here.
I sigh as I lean against my car and wipe the blood away from my face. My nose is so busted. I had no idea she had that kind of fight in her. It’s good to know, even if it sucks for me because she’s now terrified of me. What a fucking night. I’m going to need to tell my brothers and father what happened. I’m not looking forward to that. What I said to her isn’t a lie, but I’m hoping they’ll see reason. She’s the daughter of Michail Kotov. They have to know we can’t kill her. I’ll just tell them I need time to bring her over to our side. Even if that means telling her the truth about everything. If she won’t come over to our side then I’ll have to take care of her, but I want it to be me, so she doesn’t feel any pain from it.
Chapter Six
Josie
My head throbs.What the hell happened? I don’t remember drinking last night with Ensley, and dark rum is the only thing that can make me feel this awful. My mouth tastes like shit, too. I try to move my arms to rub at my face, only to feel a bind around my wrist that’s keeping them at my sides. My eyes open in a split second and a popcorn ceiling meets my gaze. That’s not my ceiling. The one in my apartment is smooth and has recessed lights.
I can’t move my arms or my legs, I’m tied to a bed. I lift my head. The room is sparsely decorated, and I don’t recognize it at all. Something covers my mouth, I can’t move my lips.
Tugging on the binds does nothing but make them tighter. I shut my eyes, trying to recall the last thing I remember. I was watching TV with Ensley, that’s it, that’s all I remember. She couldn’t have done this to me. There’s no way.
