Goodyear’s guard grunted, his head snapping back, and the chair he was tied to rocking. He spat a wad of blood on the floor of the holding cell.
“No one knows where you are.” I flexed my hand. My knuckles were torn and bloody. We’d been at this a while. “No one is coming for you. You think Goodyear is loyal? He’ll replace you with another thug in a suit and won’t give you a second thought. You made the wrong choice working for him.”
“Fuck you.” His dark eyes glittered.
“Where is he keeping the women he kidnapped?”
The guard glared. “What do you care? They’re all whores. They love spreading their legs. No one misses them.”
I leaned closer, towering over him. “They’re human fucking beings. They aren’t playthings for Chadwick Goodyear.” I punched him again, and again.
“Okay, Cole, enough.” Bastian’s cool voice.
I stepped back, heaving in air. The guy hadn’t given us a single decent scrap of information.
One of his eyes was swollen, his lips were split, blood smeared on his teeth. Blood had dripped down his white shirt.
“We’ll keep at him,” Bastian murmured. “You go and get some sleep. Check on Lili.”
I sucked in another breath, trying to find some calm.
“Go.”
Suddenly, wet laughter filled the bare room. I looked back at the guard.
“You’ll never find them. Goodyear is good at breaking any fucking rule he wants and never getting caught. He has so many powerful people in his back pockets. Lawyers, judges, politicians, billionaires. You’ll never find those women, and you’ll never touch him.”
A muscle ticked in my jaw. “Watch me.”
Another laugh. “If you want the women, you’d better hurry. He knows they’re becoming a liability. He’s good at snipping off loose ends.”
My chest locked and I looked at Bastian. My friend’s mouth flattened into a hard line. “Go.”
With a jerk of my chin, I walked out. Landon was waiting, holding a hand towel. He held it out and I took it, wiping the worst of the blood off.
“Get back to Lili.”
I jerked my chin up. “See you tomorrow.”
But as I walked back to my villa, my hands throbbing, I realized I was coming back to her with hands covered in blood and my knuckles swollen and torn.
Fuck, I couldn’t touch her with these hands. I’d just spent hours beating a man for information.
I stomped into my villa and didn’t turn on any lights. I went straight to my bottle of whiskey, found a glass, and poured.
Tonight was just another reminder of why I needed to stay the hell away from Lili Armstrong. Her father was right, all I’d do was stain her with my muck. I tossed back the whiskey. Time to keep my dirty hands to myself.
CHAPTER 19
LILI
Blinking awake, I stared up at the ceiling.
It was still dark, the city lights winking through the curtains. The bed beside me was empty. I glanced at the clock on the bedside table and sighed. Surely Cole couldn’t still be questioning Goodyear’s guard.
Then I heard a sound in the living area. I sat up, pushing my hair back. It sounded like ice tinkling in a glass.
I slipped out of the bed. I’d showered when I’d gotten in and was wearing a nightgown. I didn’t really own anything sexy, but this was made of purple satin and was short. I liked to think it was sexy-ish.
