And now, I’m about to become his next victim.
The passenger door is yanked open and hands reach inside, dragging me out by my arm and hair. I fall onto the hard ground, crying out when my hand scrapes a rock but then I am dragged to my feet and forced to walk toward the parked car, then shoved to the ground in front of the grinning man.
“I told you we’d meet again, Elizabeth Grundy,” the man chuckles, pushing away from the hood and approaching me. Iwhimper, backing away from him as he approaches me and I can read the hate in his eyes. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.
Ghost and the Sinners are no saints. I’ve seen darkness in the eyes of the man I slept next to for a week. I saw violence in his gaze when he saw other men flirt with me, but he was never this venomous. It’s like looking into the eyes of a demon, one without any shred of humanity left in him.
“Oh, how I would love to have my fun with you,” he chuckles when I back away from him again. “But there is someone who wants to see you first.”
The sound of a car door opening pulls my attention from this demon and to the ghost of my past. I watch the shadow of the man I helped put away in prison climb out of the car, a slightly pudgy version of him. He’s bald and with eyes just as empty as this man.
“Did you miss me?” he asks, approaching me. I scoot back, my heart racing as I try to get away from him but I bump into someone. Looking up, I realize that I am surrounded by men with nowhere to go. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost. Oh, don’t worry. I’m not him.”
“W-what?” I whimper.
“The man you put in prison. That was my stupid twin brother, Julio. Careless son of a bitch got himself arrested and put away by a sexy little thing like you…” those eyes rake over my body in a way that sends terror settling in my gut. “I’m not stupid like my brother. I guess I’ll have to clean up his mess like I always have!”
Víboras Gemelas.
Spanish for twin vipers. I didn’t think the name meant anything but I see now how wrong I was. Christ, there are two of them!
“I brought her to you, Marco. Can I have my money now?” Henry’s voice breaks into the tense air and I see annoyance cross the monster’s face before he turns to look at my agent.
“Sure, one million dollars, was it?”
“Yes. In crypto. Can’t trust the banks these days.”
“Of course, the government is full of corrupt individuals,” Marco says with some humor. I watch him reach into his jacket and when I turn to look at Henry with heartbreak and betrayal on my face, I am surprised to see not a shred of guilt. He looks eagerly at the man, waiting, practically licking at his lips for the large payout he’s about to get for selling me out.
Henry doesn’t see it, but I do—the bright silver glint of a gun—that Marco pulls out of his jacket. Maybe if he did, then he would run away or try to fight but he doesn’t, not until it’s too late. The gun barely makes a sound as Marco shoots Henry twice in the chest. And like his evil twin, his hand barely jerks. His eyes don’t flinch. There is nothing human about him, so I look away. I close my eyes, flinching when something—someone—hits the ground.
I don’t have to look to know that Henry is dead, and despite our last moments together, my heart aches for the man who was clearly as deceived as I was.
“Hey, don’t cry for him,” Marco says, walking forward and crouching in front of me. He grabs my chin and forces my eyes to meet his. “You can tell him how sorry you feel when you meet the annoying son of a bitch in the afterlife.”
He taps the gun against my cheek so I close my eyes, waiting for it to end. Maybe this is where I was destined to die. In a desert, surrounded by demons disguised as men. This is my fate. Maybe I won’t see Henry in the afterlife but I can hope to see my parents. They are the only other people who ever wanted me anyway.
And Ghost.
I let the tears fall, brace for the pain that is to come and when I’m certain it’s all over, someone screams.
A shot rings out in the air, another pained scream tears through the air and the hand on my jaw is gone. I open my eyes to find the area flooded with light coming from all directions and shouts for everyone to drop their weapons and get down.
Police? FBI? That’s the first thought in my head as I look around us and at the men closing in from all sides. All the weapons are pointing at the circle. And then into the dark eyes of the man I fell in love with the moment I saw him.
It’s the Sinners!
Chapter Eight
Ghost
We don’t take our motorcycles. Can’t risk the noise when we’re heading toward uncharted territory and the sound would no doubt ruin the element of surprise. And we need to ambush the bastards and get them all. Besides, if the fuckers hurt one strand of hair on Iris’s head, I’ll need a body to take my frustration out on!
It became clear to us earlier that the US Marshall wasn’t taking Iris to witness protection when he started driving away from the city. There is nothing in the desert but open fields for potential ambush, which could only mean that he was in on it too.
The fucker is dead if the fucking cartel doesn’t kill him first. Anyone who trusts a group like that has to be a fucking idiot.
“We’ll have to walk from here,” Pope says when the car stops. We all climb out and one of the men hands us each night vision goggles and handheld flood lights that Priest brought along with him, in case we need to light up the area. Integrated in our group are people with military backgrounds and otherslike me who left the mafia for whatever reason. And now the Víboras Gemelas just had to drag us back into the darkness.
