Page 16 of Darkest Kiss

The thug crawls away from me, still choking and gasping for air. I showed up at his front door twenty minutes ago, because he anonymously tipped Ransom off that he had a scoop on where Noemi could be. When I asked him, with a noose around his neck, he stammered out the name of her bookstore.

That's the news he thought was worthy of a pile of reward money.

My phone rings. I check it, see it's Ransom, and answer while I pull the gun from my waistband and put a bullet in the thug's head. It makes a mess of blood and gray matter on the floor when it passes through his skull.

"Yeah," I say into the phone.

"Jesus, man." Ransom chuckles. "I'm guessing that's the last tip?"

"Give me a name," I growl.

"It's from Noemi's aunt. Kathleen Caruso."

I go still. "That sounds like it could be something."

"Yeah. You're not going to like it, though."

"Ransom, I swear⁠—"

"Okay! Okay. She tipped me off that the Vitellis are hosting a very special auction. What they're calling a Sleeping Beauty auction. All the girls for sale are given a shit ton of Gloss, dressed up, and put on display according to value."

"What the fuck?" Alarm floods my system.

"Virgins are the highest value. Then it's ranked by⁠—"

"I don't fucking care. When is it? Where?"

"I'm sending you the coordinates," Ransom says.

"When does it happen?" Beast is whipping up into a maelstrom, shouting vile things about me, about what men are probably doing to her as I stand here.

"Be patient, Rian. The bidding starts in an hour."

"Fuck."

"It's going to be okay. I can put your name on the list of approved guests. We can send men there to back you up, just in case."

I look at the coordinates and immediately recognize the area. Heavy industrial neighborhood in the Bronx.

"Hale. I want Hale there, in case things go sideways."

"Of course. But I'll come too. I might not be a bare-knuckle boxer, but I can hold my own."

"I can pump up your ego later. Right now, I can't let my girl be sold off."

"Your girl, huh?" Ransom says.

I hang up and look down at myself. Plain black t-shirt, black leather motorcycle jacket, black jeans. Not exactly what your usual buyer wears to these auctions, I'd bet. No time to find something nicer. Getting there will have to be enough.

* * *

In an hour, someone is going to buy the woman I've kept alive for four months. That someone is going to be me, or it's going to be a man who paid to hurt her. Those are the only two options.

Fuck, my hands are shaking. I clench my fists.

I meet Ransom and Hale a couple of blocks from the address with only a few minutes to spare. Ransom is dressed like a goddamn politician, his Brioni suit and neat Oxfords perfectly in place, his dark hair slicked back, his eyes sharp with readiness. Hale, on the other hand, is dressed like a thug. His hair has been buzzed, he wears a black hoodie and sweats, and his knuckles are still split open from a recent run-in. He lifts his chin when he sees me.

"Come on." Ransom motions to me. "There are some of our guys arriving, but they won't be here before the auction starts."