Page 40 of King of Temptation

“Good evening, Sergeant Quinn.”

His captive’s mouth fell open in pure shock. “You’re calling my father?”

“Marigold?” The man on the phone’s voice pitched up, fear echoing in every syllable. “Marigold, is that you? Who the hell is this? What’s going on?”

“I’m afraid your daughter has gotten herself into a bit of a… situation,” Brody explained. “Luckily for her, she caught me in a good mood. So here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to use her phone to send you her location, at which point you’ll have ten minutes to retrieve her. If you’re not here within the allotted time, well…”

He let the implication hang in the thick silence. Well, the phone was silent, anyway. His little menace was cussing up a storm, loud enough to wake the dead as she jerked at her chains, screaming for him to let her go.

After a few stunned seconds, Sergeant Quinn spoke again. “I’m on my way. If you touch a fucking hair on her head⁠—”

“I won’t, as long as you’re here on time. Clock is ticking, Sergeant.”

Ending the call, he texted Sergeant Quinn their location before he tucked the phone back into his pocket to dispose of on his way home. Goldie had stopped struggling to glare up at him, a sheen of tears over her gorgeous eyes.

“I will never forgive you for this.”

“Yeah. I figured as much.” Crouching in front of her, he gave into the need clawing at his chest and reached up to tuck a stray hair behind her ear. She flinched at his touch, and he had to swallow hard to keep himself from being sick. Her hatred, her fear were necessary to keep her safe.

Didn’t mean he had to like it.

“Your father will be here soon, and I need to not be here when he arrives. I’m sorry it had to come to this, but I’m not taking chances.” Not with you.

“Then go.” She practically spat the words at him. “Get out of here so I don’t have to look at you.”

Rising to his feet, he gave himself one last moment to look at her, to drink her in. “Bye, menace.”

And with that, he turned his back on the only woman who’d ever made him believe, for even a second, he could be more than just a monster. And left her to her fate.

Chapter 14

Goldie

That low-down, no good, underhanded bastard.

Fueled by the fury bubbling through her veins, Goldie yanked at her bonds again, letting out a frustrated scream when they didn’t budge.

How the hell had she ended up here?

Oh. Right. Because she’d trusted a fucking gangster to not be a complete jackass.

Yeah. That was definitely on her.

Groaning, she let her head fall back, closing her eyes against the waves of humiliation and misery washing over her. Dad was going to lose his fucking mind when he found her like this. Even more so when she told him why she was chained to a chair in the middle of a warehouse by the docks.

Tears burned in her eyes, but she fought them back, swallowing hard against the lump in her throat. She’d trusted Brody and not only had he dragged her off to an abandoned warehouse and tied her to a chair, he’d done it all at gunpoint. Without so much as blinking. There’d been no trace of the teasing, growly man she’d been getting to know. All she’d seen when she’d looked at him had been an icy determination that had frozen the blood in her veins.

A loud clanging noise had her jerking her head up, her gaze frantically darting around the room. For just a moment, silence surrounded her, as if the very air itself were holding its breath.

And then chaos exploded around her.

The doors burst open, loud enough to wake the dead, and she almost wasn’t fast enough to swallow her scream of pure terror before she saw who had forced their way into the warehouse. Cops, dressed in full SWAT gear, streamed into the room, sweeping their weapons side to side while calling out to whoever else might be in the building.

“It’s just me! I’m here!”

Then her father was there, striding through the chaos, his face drained of all color. Guilt twisted in her stomach as he rushed toward her, dropping to his knees in front of the chair.

“Marigold. Oh, baby. What happened? Who did this to you?”