AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I shouldn’t have, but still…
”Your phone is a clue,” Teo said as his gaze scanned over me. ”I already have Jace looking into it. He’s exceptionally good, but this seems to have stumped him, so whoever we’re up against is also good.”
”He seems good,” I said.
”If you run out of clothes, we can come back,” he said. ”Or I can buy you new clothes, if you want.”
”You don’t have to do that.”
”Okay,” he said. ”But the option is on the table, if you want to take it.”
”I won’t.”
He winked at me. ”Alright,” he said. ”If you say so.”
I didn’t see a universe in which I would ever be okay with receiving gifts from my kidnapper. Even if they seemed like excellent ones.
***
”HQ is usually empty during the night,” Teo explained as he drove away from my apartment. ”You can essentially make it yours. We work there during the day, obviously, but only sometimes.”
”You guys don’t live there?”
”No. We use it for work,” he replied, his hand relaxed on top of the steering wheel. I noticed that he wore dark silver rings on his index and ring finger. ”Our work can be…all-consuming, so I try to make sure we keep a work-life balance.”
”From gangster shit.”
He smiled at that. ”You’re funny,” he said, then nodded. ”But yes. From gangster shit. Work is work, Sofia.”
I looked at him for a long second.
There was something about the way he said my name that sent shivers down my spine. It wasn’t like hearing it from anyone else. There was a hint of danger, a sense of possession that I didn’t quite understand.
Stockholm syndrome? How original, Sof.
I needed us to talk so I could get my mind off just how attractive he was. ”So how did you get into this?” I asked.
”Off the record?”
”Yes. For my ears only.”
He looked at me for a brief second, his dark eyes narrowing as he decided whether he was going to trust me or not. ”I don’t really know how it started,” he said. ”I think it started before I was born. My father was someone powerful in the org, back in the early eighties, and I guess I was expected to follow in his footsteps.”
”You guess?”
”I don’t know,” he said. ”I could never ask; someone murdered him when I was nine. My mom was never very involved, so I grew up on the streets, and the gang took care of me. They were the closest things I had to a family. When the system took me away from my mom, and I was bounced from foster home to foster home, there was never any stability. But the gang was always there, always looking out for me. So I guess I just fell into it.”
I supposed that was how everyone ended up in a gang, but I couldn’t exactly say that. I wondered what his appearance would be like if he wasn’t in a gang–he was gorgeous, and he clearly knew it, but he would likely not be quite as sculpted as he currently was. It was obviously in his benefit to look scary and he pulled it off well, but I could see a gentleness behind his eyes that he seemed to hide from most people.
Or maybe that was just what I was telling myself to make myself feel better about the fact that I’d been kidnapped by his gang.
He smirked at me, a lopsided smile revealing one dimple on his right cheek. ”You’re staring.”
I looked ahead at the road, blood rushing to my cheeks. ”No, I’m not,” I said, then swallowed. ”Anyway. How did you become the Blades leader?”
”Slowly,” he replied, the smile on his face tightening. ”I have a knack for logistics. Always have. I like complex problems because nothing brings me more satisfaction than solving them. There's nothing more complex than people.”
I nodded slowly, taking in his words. It was a lot to process, but I couldn't deny that I was intrigued. Teo was a complex man, with a lot of history that I wanted to uncover.
