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“You don’t think I can handle it?”
“I know what happened to you. A few years ago, when you got between the brothers backthen.What’d you think will go on this time?”
“Yeah? Then you saw how I was. Naive, lost, grieving. Drawn to a world where sinners were favored over saints. I didn’t consider myself a saint then, and I don’t today, but I can assure you, my demons are smarter now.” My voice broke. “Thinking of Theo with Trace, knowing he’s only there because Trace used me as bait—again—I can’t just leave it at that. I need to get him out of there.”
Bo made a gargling sound in the back of his throat sounding suspiciously like scorn. “With what army?”
Oh, if only you knew.“The Saxons appreciate subtlety. So I’m doing this the best I can before involving anyone else.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“You don’t have to. Where are they, Bo?”
He shook his head, his eyes taking on a careful gleam. “You’re too late, anyway.”
“Too late for what?”
“They’re long gone, honey. Probably in the air by now, flying back to New York City.”
I lifted my chin and said quietly. “So you’re on Trace’s payroll, too.”
“For a gifted poker player, you sure took a lot of events these past few days at face value.”
Because you were distracted, Letty. Your feelings for Theo overrode anything else. Even your own safety.
“You know, everyone fears Trace the most,” I said. “He’s so overtly vicious, very direct with his threats. And usually comes through on any intended mutilation.” I lifted my shoulders and spread my arms in awhat can ya do?action. My heartbeat played on my eardrums like a one-man rock show. “But in focusing on Trace, you miss the quiet deception of Sax. He’s as brutal, if not more, because he treats his intended victims with slow-acting revenge. They suffer for a long time. Remain alive with torture. These brothers, they’re from the same family stock.” I cocked my head. “What makes you think Sax would kill you any less brutally than Trace?”
At last, a flicker of uncertainty crossed Bo’s face. “I’m not afraid of you, little girl.”
“You don’t have to be.”
Then came a sneer. “You’re so fucking rude. I despise cocky chicks. Especially when they know shit-all, like you right now. You can’t evenbeginto understand Gordo Saxon’s intentions when asking Sax to track down Trace. Nor can you figure out why Sax approached you in the first place. Sure, you’re a good player, but did hereallyneed you to find his brother, who, as you said, likes to leave bloody footprints all over the place? Practically put a beacon on himself on where he was? Think about it, little girl, why are you here, all on your lonesome, with your lover boy once again sacrificing himself for you?”
My heels hit the floor as I backed up, his words like a scattering of glass shards raining down on my head.
“That’s right,Scarlet.You’re basically like that book—a big, fat red letter that Sax was better off avoiding.”
“Wow, look at you, you can read.”
His upper lip curled, strings of saliva spreading than detaching as he bubbled with rage. “Their father put a fuckinghiton you, you dumb bitch. That’s why Sax had to find you,that’swhy he kept you close, andthat’sfucking why he followed Trace like a rescue pup when Trace said he had you.”
My lungs shifted, like my ribcage had become too tight and they were expanding for air. I parted my lips to saywhat? but my brain was working to fast, sifting too quickly, that my question was already made irrelevant.
Theo approached me on the yacht of an arm’s dealer, waiting in a quiet room for my arrival. I never thought too hard on his explanation as to why he came out of hiding and found me again. The idea that he wanted to contain his brother was enough of an excuse. Given Theo’s history with Trace, it was entirely viable that Theo would do anything to find Trace and prevent him from hurting anyone else. Look how he was with Drea, so tender and concerned. His roughened exterior immediately calming to a terrified girl who’d experienced the fists of his brother.
And that was where I’d failed. I’d forgotten to rememberwhyTheo approached wounded females with such guided gentleness. How could I be so stupid? Theo’s history was laid out for me years ago, in glaring detail, yet it never occurred to me when he was kneeling in front of Drea that he remembered his high school girlfriend. That every time a woman was hurt at his family’s hands, he thought of her, and her continued torture.
Theo’s determination to protect was a well-known weakness exploited by his family, until he stopped loving. When he realized he couldn’t have anything of his own and made it so he never would again. Then, their manipulation stopped.
Until me.
Two years ago, I’d walked into his poker room, and he’d looked upon me with such instilled pain that I’d caught my breath just noticing it. We couldn’t have stopped our love if we’d tried. Not even a bullet could change it.
Fast-forward to the game with Neri and…
Neri showed deep interest in me during each hand, not to mention, Neri’s careful handling of getting me alone in the middle of an ocean. In my mind’s eye, I saw his neutral expression in a whole new light, especially when he said I wasn’t to be auctioned, nor was he going to use the one night he won for his own pleasure.
I was there to be killed.
