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My heart thundered in my chest. "How many people have you…"
"Enough," he said vaguely. "I'll spare you the specifics." He stepped over to me and slipped his arms around me. "You haven't run away yet."
I was resistant to embracing him for a few moments. "Will I end up restrained to that chair if I do?"
He looked over to it and chuckled. "Not unless you want me to. If it'll make you feel better, I'll let you restrain me."
Before I could answer or melt against him, voices and the sound of scuffling came from the top of the stairs.
"Things might just get interesting. " Ice tipped his head back and looked up to the upper level.
Mannix and Ares carried someone between them. A man, judging by the height and physique.
When they reached the bottom of the stairs, I saw the man's mouth was duct taped shut. His eyes were wide with fear and defiance.
He kicked out, but they dragged him over to the chains. All three guys attached them to him. Manacles snapped around his wrists, forcing him to hold them up over his head.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" Ice stood back and crossed his arms over his chest. He looked appraisingly at the struggling man.
"We did a bit of digging into this asshole," Mannix said. He turned to me. "You recognise him?"
I frowned. "Now you mention it, he's the father of one of my newer students. What is he doing down here?" I'd only seen him once or twice, but he gave me the creeps both times. What was his name?
Nixon.
Frank Nixon.
"The cameras caught him getting into his car the night you were followed," Ares said, his eyes firmly on Nixon. "The same kind of car that followed you."
"That doesn't necessarily mean anything," I pointed out.
Nixon nodded vigourously. He made an incoherent sound of agreement through the tape.
"It might not," Mannix agreed. "Except he works for the Bell family, as an enforcer. He and his family have only been in Dusk Bay for a couple of months. The same amount of time we've been having trouble with people like him. I want to know why he followed you. Unfortunately, Mr Nixon here hasn't been forthcoming with any information."
Ice was wearing a sleeveless T-shirt, muscular biceps on display, but he pretended to roll up his sleeves. At the same time, he smiled. The whole look was adorably sinister.
"Perfect. Anyone who comes after my Beautiful gets special treatment."
Nixon struggled harder and tried to speak. Or maybe to scream.
Mannix curled his hand into my hair. "You don't have to be here for this, Princess. One of us can take you home."
A normal person would take him up on his offer, but I realised by now that I wasn't as normal as I thought I was. If anything, I was intrigued. The man followed me. Who knows what he would have done if he caught up with me?
What had Ice said about Mannix's brother Gunnar? He beat the crap out of people to keep them in line. Would Nixon have done that to me?
"I want to stay," I said finally.
"That's our girl," Ice said approvingly. He grabbed hold of a corner of the piece of duct tape and yanked it off in one go.
I winced. That had to hurt.
Nixon groaned and swore. "You assholes have the wrong guy. I work in a bottle-shop. I've never followed anyone home in my life."
"Then why do you have regular payments from Samuel Bell in your bank account?" Mannix asked.
"I've never heard of him," Nixon said, but he was clearly rattled. He knew he was fucked.
