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“She’s lying,” the man behind me says, and I turn to tell him I’m not when his hand collides with my face. I fall to the ground with a huge thump, clutching my eye as the pain starts to bloom across my skin.
“What the fuck are you doing?!” the lanky man yells at the guy who hit me. “He didn’t say anything about hurting her.”
The man who hit me starts to protest, but the other one shuts him up.
“Get in the car and bring it to the alley. Now.” His voice is chilling, and I stay perfectly still as the man grunts and then leaves, getting angry with the lock before slamming the door behind him.
I don’t know what to do, so I stay on the floor, staring at the carpet.
The guy with the gun leans down next to me. I don’t want to look him in the eyes for fear of what eye contact with that man will do to me.
“I’m afraid we have no choice, Serenity. You’re coming with us.”
And with that, he hauls me to my feet. The man against the wall pushes away from it to join his friend. I don’t even get a chance to change out of my uniform before being hauled into a black Lincoln Continental and driven off to God knows where.
I thought yesterday was a bad day, but this is much worse. It took all of 24 hours before my world came crashing down around me.
I don’t know how to get out of this, but I will. I’m determined not to end up a casualty of my father’s stupidity. I hope that whoever is on the other side of this mess can see that I’m not the one for them.
I can only hope.
Chapter 3
Dante
I’msittinginmyoffice, looking over the record of how much money Mr. Brockman owes us. He took out other markers before. Nothing over ten grand, and always paid it back. But then, a few weeks ago, everything got worse. Brockman kept raising it until it got to over 150 thousand dollars, and he never paid it back.
I take a sip of my scotch as some rustling sounds come from behind the giant double doors of my office. The doors open, and Rico pops in, and behind him, Tanner and Mateo are gripping a woman by her arms.
She thrashes from side to side in their arms as they try to get a handle on her.
I get up from my seat as the chaos continues.
“Do you have her?” I ask, not impressed by the inability of two men twice her size to get her in control.
“You know what? Just let her go.” I wave my hand to the men. They look at each other and then back to me, and it’s only when I give them the “fucking do that I say now” look do they release her.
Serenity looks around like a wild animal caught in a trap. Looking for the exit. But the only door out has four men surrounding it, and the window is 25 feet from the ground.
She’s not going anywhere.
“Serenity,” I call out, and her head snaps in my direction. Long locks of dark hair fall over her face and shoulders. She’s visibly shaken, but her eyes are furious and full of rage.
She pushes her hair out of her face, revealing that beauty I saw in the photo. I’m almost taken aback by how beautiful she is in real life. Dark eyes, full lips, and soft cheeks. And then, I notice the bruising around her left eye.
“What happened to your face?” I ask.
“Your man hit me!” She points to Tanner.
Rage stirs in me, and without thinking, I pull out my gun, aim it at the man’s knee, and shoot. The ring of the bullet leaving the gun echoes in the air. When it hits him, there’s a shout, and he collapses on the floor. Gasps come from everyone in the room. Serenity covers her mouth as she stares with wide eyes at Tanner writhing on the ground.
“Leave,” I tell my men. “All of you.”
Rico and Mateo pick up Tanner and drag him out of the room, leaving a trail of blood behind.
The door shuts, and it’s just me and Serenity in my office. Her eyes are fixated on the pool of blood left by Tanner, but my eyes are on her bruise.
My hands twitch with the need to run my knuckles across her skin to comfort her. But I keep my hands to myself. This isn’t supposed to be emotional. There are no feelings here, just a debt that needs to be paid. A transaction.
