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“Shit! You thinkso?”
“I wouldn’t have said so if I didn’t think it was important. Christ, Diver. Get your head out of your ass and get me thataddress!”
Diver blew out a frustrated breath and Grant bit back another curse. All he wanted was that damn address. “I just sent the digits to the cellular number you gave me. It’s an apartment building on the lower eastside.” Grant opened the message and entered the location into the mapping app already loaded on Hinjal’s phone. “If we can’t get a bird in the air, I’ve tapped what few traffic cams are posted nearby. I’ll let you know if anything moves in or out. Give me some time and I’ll see if I can get a visualinside.”
Thank fuck!That was the best piece of news Grant had heard in weeks. “If the team pulls a dry run in Navi, get them to Mumbai. I’m on my way therenow.”
Not one to break a promise, even to himself, he turned to the pile of human trash lying on the floor, blood and urine staining his once pristine white sarong. Unmoved by the pleading look on the coward’s face, he crouched down next to his lower legs and admired his work, the gun he’d found in the desk leveled steadily at Hinjal’sforehead.
“I don’t have much time.” He glanced at the clock on the wall then back to the dead man breathing. “Seconds, actually. Unfortunately for me I’m going to have to make this quick.” He reached out with his gloved hand and grabbed a handful of the shattered bone protruding from Hinjal’s knee, shoving his thumb beneath what was left of his kneecap. His grip tightening as the man squealed and flailed on the floor like the trapped pig he was, he glanced back at the clock. The seconds tick by as Hinjal’s screams filled the room, Grant’s patience running thin as he watched Thalia’s time tick away. Without one second of remorse, his finger tightened on the trigger, his deadly gaze conveying his message loud and clear.Die screaming, motherfucker.
* * *
She’d suspectedGrant’s motives were less than noble when she first learned he’d taken the thumb drive and abandoned her, but Thalia’s heart wouldn’t allow her to fully accept the traitorous thoughts. Deep down she still believed he wouldn’t betray her. She’d been sowrong.
After she was stripped of her clothes, was led into another room, stumbling repeatedly with her injured ankle and her hands bound tightly in front of her. Once the blindfold was removed she got her first look at her worst nightmare. Hamisi’s evil chuckle sent a chill down her spine as he brutally yanked her arms above her head and hooked them to one of the many chains dangling ominously from the low ceiling above.Ohshit.
As she thought he was about to rearrange her face the same way she had his, a sharp order was barked from the opposite side of the room. Hamisi growled in frustration, but turned away immediately as an imposing figure stepped confidently from theshadows.
“Jauhar,” he spat through his teeth, giving him a curt nod ofrespect.
Jauhar.Hatred boiled in Thalia’s veins, her body lunging toward him despite her restraints. Her shoulders alighted with fire when the chain was pulled tighter above her head to halt her advance.One step closer, you murdering bastard.He didn’t seem affected by her savage response to his presence. If anything, he appeared amused. His tall, thick frame relaxed as he approached, his hands lazily resting inside the pockets of his crisp dress slacks. His beige shirt looked almost white against his dark skin as he passed beneath the overhead spotlights, his dark eyes dancing with laughter as she hung there seething with desperation andrage.
“Some things never change I see.” His lips curled into a grin and Thalia wanted nothing more than to blow his damn head off. “Your Issa was a fool to spoil you as his own.” She bit back a curse, watching his every move as he stalked a wide circle around her naked body, stopping short of kicking distance. “We will address his error later, my pet. Right now I have a few questions about your friend.” Holding out his hand, he took the stack of papers Hamisi handed him, his cold, calculating eyes never leaving hers. “I believe the ankle cuffs are in order, Ham. I would not want her to cause herself any more trouble than she alreadyhas.”
Despite her suspicion of betrayal, she covered for Grant as long as she could. When Hamisi and Jauhar demanded she hand over the thumb drive she denied having it, telling them nothing of him. She refused to acknowledge his involvement, even when they showed her a few dark and grainy pictures of him carrying her limp, feverish body from his boat. Another of him leaning in to kiss her forehead after he tucked her into the passenger seat of the vehicle he’d stolen. She remembered nothing of that moment. Her heart ached at how far he’d gone in his ruse, even when he didn’t need to act the part.Why would he kiss me if he didn’t haveto?
A loud crack of a whip snapped her attention from the confusing thought. “I don’t know who he is. I woke up in a clinic and ran whenHam’smen blew itup.”
Hamisi lunged toward her, Jauhar stopping him with a single, clipped rebuke. Jauhar’s previously forgiving expression hardened to one of impatience as he stepped closer to her, so close she could nearly taste his breath when he spoke. “You and I have quite a few things to settle, pet.” His warm finger trailed delicately along her hairline, his touch sending bile rushing to the back of her throat. She swallowed it back as he continued his sick game, caressing her cheek before curling his finger under her chin, forcing her to look him in the eyes. “But you must first understand you have choices to make.” She strained to meet his gaze. He stood there silent as he studied her for a moment longer, his expression shifting once more. A deep crease appeared between his eyes, his hand tightening on her lower jaw until she’d had no choice but to open her mouth. A bitter taste coated her tongue before he released her jaw. Whatever it was had dissolved before she could spit it out. “Until the day you choose not to lie to me, pet, we will have to use a bit of persuasion to get to thetruth.”
They had given her some sort of drug. When Jauhar and Hamisi returned ten minutes later, she felt a little funny, but nowhere near inebriated enough to tell them anything. That was until Jauhar had asked her once more about Grant. She spilled everything. Every moment they had spent together, every word of every conversation, every kiss and touch. She knew she was doing it, but she couldn’t stop herself. It was like having an out of body experience. As if she was looking down on herself, dangling naked and afraid from a chain as she shared the most intimate details about the man she loved. The one man she hated most in the world was soaking in every syllable. She tried to stop herself, an inner voice screaming over the words she spoke aloud, but nothing she tried kept the words from spilling from her lips. What the hell had they givenher?
She didn’t know how long she’d blabbered on, but sometime later a man she hadn’t seen before entered the room and handed Jauhar a wireless tablet. Even as she was trying to bite her tongue off to keep the words from leaving her head, she told Jauhar he looked like an angel against the glow cast off from the tablet’s light.Shut. The. Hell.Up!
His head whipped up, a sultry grin pulling at his lips as he closed the distance between them, the feel of his clothes against her bare skin sending an unwanted chill racing down her spine. Jauhar felt her shiver, his regretful expression telling her he knew it was not one of pleasure. “Soon my pet, you will shiver with anticipation forme.”
“Never.” Her head shook frantically.Yes! Finally!It was about damn time she got to tell him off. “You’re a murdering pig! I will never want you the way I wantGrant.”
“Ahh.” Jauhar grinned, his lips grazing her ear, his hot breath flowing down her neck. “But you have already confessed to loving a murderous pig, my pet. You see?” He held up the tablet for her to see. She didn’t feel dizzy, but everything was out of focus. She had trouble seeing the image on the screen. She shook her head, trying desperately to dislodge the cotton in her brain. When it did finally come into focus, her heart shuddered inside her chest, burning tears welling in her eyes to blur the imageagain.
“No! It’s not possible!”No! No! No! “That’s not him. He didn’t even know me when Issa was murdered.” She shook her head, refusing to play into Jauhar’s evil hand. “You killed Issa. You killed him in cold blood and I swear I will kill you forit!”
She turned her head away, determined not to believe what she’d seen. Jauhar gripped her chin and forced her to look at him again. His head tilted to the side, his eyes searching hers with focused intent. “You truly do not remember me, doyou?”
Remember him? Why the hell would she remember him? She’d never met him until he’d walked into the room shortly after Hamisi’s men had stripped her. A second later Jauhar released his grip on her chin and took a step back, amusement dancing in his eyes as his gaze raked over her outstretched body. “I think I am going to like getting reacquainting with you, my pet. But first you must pay the price for that lie you told me when we first began our little chat. And my friend here would like a little word with you regarding a spat you two had a few weeks ago. Oh, do not fret,” he chuckled when her eyes widened in panic. “I will not always be so lenient, but today no permanent harm will be a part of yourpunishment.”
He turned away and marched toward the door, tossing the tablet to Hamisi on his way out. “No penetration and no permanent scars.” His head turned, tossing a wicked grin in her direction as a mixture of panic and adrenaline burned away any lingering effects of the drug he’d given her. The bastard winked at her before turning back to Hamisi with a nod. “She is yours untilmidnight.”
She’d long ago lost track of the time she’d spent inside the small, dark box Hamisi’s men had stuffed her into. Another bone jarring chill wracked Thalia’s naked frame, her muscles seizing until she thought her spine would snap in two. It could have been hours, or days, for all she knew. Her only connection to the world outside the box was the sound of Hamisi’s bellowing laughter bleeding through the thick walls each time shescreamed.
The more she struggled the hotter the inside the box became, the small amount of oxygen inside turning stifling and heavy, disappearing rapidly with each struggling movement until she could feel the fine edge of unconsciousness begin to take its hold. When she thought she would take her last breath, a powerful blast of ice-cold air would explode over her sweaty skin, shocking her back to awareness. It was like being thrown into a frozen pond after soaking in a hot bath, her lungs seizing inside her chest from the sharp sting of the cold air. She was unable to process the fresh wave of oxygen that came with the beginning of each new cycle oftorment.
More hours had passed. Lying on her side, the sharp plastic band binding her wrists behind her back sliced deep into her skin, making it feel as if her hands were being severed from her body each time she tried to pull them free. Her throat was raw from screaming, her skin now coated in a dirty sheen of sweat, her hair matted and sticking to the side of her face. She didn’t think she would ever know the day when she would beg for Jauhar’s mercy, but she was approaching her breaking point with Hamisi’s depravedtorture.
Eventually she gave up and stopped struggling altogether, unable to do anything but shiver or sweat. She was uncertain if the numbness in her hands and feet was caused from lack of circulation or the extreme cold from the last blast of frigid air, but an entirely different type of pain had spread like fire over a fuel-slicked lake through her entire body, surprisingly more excruciating than the agonizing sting of pins and needles she’d felt before. She was going to die. Surely her body couldn’t take much more ofthis.
Her physical pain was paired with a destructive tide of humiliation and sense of betrayal that suffocated her basic will to survive. Her humiliation wasn’t caused by her nakedness. Nor was it caused by being strung up like a fish and hung on naked display in front of the man she’d spent the last year and a half hell-bent on destroying. The last year and a half…it had been a complete lie. She’d been so wrong; abouteverything.
