Page 140 of Hard Bargain

Then the rest hit.

Pain flared deep in his side when he tried to take a full breath, forcing a strained exhale out of him. His head felt thick and sluggish, each heartbeat driving a dull throb behind his eyes.

He stilled and listened. It was quiet: no voices, no traffic, no distant hum of the city, just a constant drip somewhere in the distance.

He forced his eyes open. Darkness greeted him first, broken only by a weak overhead light that cast the room in a sickly glow. He was surrounded by concrete walls, bare and cold, stained in places he didn’t look at too long.

His breath hitched as awareness returned fully. He wasn’t anywhere he recognized. Thick restraints cut into his wrists, secured behind the back of the chair. He tried to move his legs next—same result. His ankles were locked in place, the chair itself unmoving beneath him, bolted down. His chest rose faster as he looked down. He’d been stripped to his underwear, skin exposed to the cold air, every bruise visible and aching.

He forced himself to stay still, to breathe through it even as adrenaline began creeping under his skin. A cold awareness settled over him; that crash hadn’t been an accident.

Mercer.

It clicked into place too cleanly to be anything else.

His gaze moved across the room, taking in everything he could: corners, shadows, a table against the far wall, a single metal door. No windows. No easy way out.

Footsteps echoed somewhere beyond the door, slow and approaching. Knox’s muscles tensed against the restraints, a useless reaction but impossible to stop. The handle turned and Knox forced himself to focus, to be ready, because whoever walked through that door wasn’t here to help him.

Mercer stepped inside without pausing or looking around. He went straight to the table like Knox wasn’t worth acknowledging. Knox recognized him instantly; he’d seen his photo enough times in Dominic’s files to know that face anywhere. The first thing Knox noticed was that he wasn’t put together—not in the way men like Dominic were. His jacket hung wrong, his shirt wrinkled, and his hands weren’t steady when he set something down.

“Awake already,” he said, almost to himself.

Knox stayed silent. Just continued to watch him.

Mercer exhaled loudly through his nose, then stepped closer, stopping just out of reach. Up close, Knox could see every detail. He might’ve been handsome once, but that was no longer the case. His hair was a mess, eyes sunken, skin stretched too tight over sharp angles. His hands kept moving, restless, never still long enough to settle. He looked like a man who’d been unraveling for weeks and hadn’t slept through any of them.

“Yeah,” he muttered, eyes dragging over Knox’s face. “You don’t look like much.”

“Mercer,” Knox said.

He tilted his head. “Guess I don’t need to introduce myself.”

“Why’d you take me?”

Mercer didn’t answer right away. He walked past Knox and dragged his hand across the back of the chair. “Because I couldn’t get the other one.”

Knox frowned, irritation cutting through the pain. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“I’ve been watching,” Mercer said, dragging a hand over his face like explaining this was beneath him. “Or at least… my people have been. Tracking Dominic. Finding out who he moves with. There’s always someone. Usually two options.” His gaze locked back on Knox. “You. Or the other one. The one who actually looks like he knows what he’s doing.”

“Cassian,” Knox whispered.

“Yeah. Cassian.” He rolled his jaw, irritation bleeding back in. “That one would’ve been a nightmare.”

Knox shifted against the restraint, pain pulling through his ribs at the movement. “So you picked the easier target?”

Mercer’s gaze snapped to him. “Something like that. I’ve had people watching Dominic for months, trying to find something I could use. You kept showing up.”

Mercer stepped closer, almost crowding him. “Do you know what he does to a person?”

Knox didn’t answer.

Mercer leaned in. “He leaves you with nothing. He didn’t just take territory. He dismantled everything. Routes, contacts, money. Gone. People I’ve worked with for years didn’t even hesitate. Just switched. Like I never mattered in the first place.”

His fingers twitched at his sides. “So you grab something. Anything. You find a piece he cares about—and you squeeze.”

Knox’s jaw clenched. “You’re just guessing.”