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Adele’s command—and there was no mistaking the authority in her voice, which I mentally added to the list of things we would be discussing later—was followed by a sickening crunch and her sharp, high cry of pain.
“I swear to god, Giorgio, if there is so much as a scratch on her, you will die begging her for mercy.”
“Oh, I plan to put so much more than a scratch on her. Unless you can find her in the next thirty minutes, at which point I’ll start cutting into her.”
The call ended, leaving me alone in the mocking silence of my apartment, struggling for some semblance of sanity. With trembling fingers, I hit the button to switch back to my call with Mikey.
“He has her.” My voice was rough, gravelly, with the combination of terror and rage gripping me by the throat. “He has her and he’s going to hurt her. Tell me you have the bastard, so we can end this once and for all.”
“Yeah, boss. We’ve got him.”
Adele
Pain exploded across my cheekbone as another backhanded blow cracked against my face. Struggling to draw a shaky breath, I spit out the blood pooling in my mouth before lifting my face back to stare my assailant in the eye.
Pierce, the man I had trusted to protect me all these years, his eyes now filled with bloodlust.
“Had enough, sweetheart?”
The inflection he put on the word had my stomach threatening to revolt. “How did… You bugged my apartment?”
“Of course I did. Which, let me tell you, was a fucking waste until ‘Daddy’ came along. Who knew you were such a filthy little slut?”
“Fuck you.”
Another slap and my vision went black around the edges. Fighting to stay conscious, to somehow figure a way out of this goddamned mess, I forced a laugh. “Go ahead. Hit me. God knows the only way a woman would let you touch her is if she was tied to a chair with no choice in the matter.”
“You little bitch—”
“Pierce, control yourself.” Strolling into view as if this were just another day at the office, Giorgio bared his teeth at me. In some sense of the word, I supposed it could have been called a smile, but it reminded me more of a dog signaling its intent to kill. “She’s no good to us if you kill her before Porter gets here.”
“Why not? Either way, they’re both dead.”
A scream welled in my chest, but I swallowed it back. “You’re the dead man, Pierce.”
“You think so?” Giorgio stepped forward, closing the distance between us, forcing me to strain my neck to look up at him. “You really think Cole Porter is going to save you? He couldn’t save his whore of a cousin. So, what makes you so special, Agent Dupont?”
The truth in his words seemed to echo in my very soul. Cole was only one man, and Giorgio had a small army guarding the warehouse. I’d seen them, but unfortunately not until after I’d been tied to the chair and stripped of my weapon.
Unwilling to give him the satisfaction of knowing he was likely right, I glared silently up at Giorgio. Dark, beady eyes met mine, and for the first time I really saw the emptiness in them. The humanity that gave men like Cole a moral code was nowhere to be found in this man, and I knew in that moment he would keep his promise to begin slicing me open once my time ran out.
“Foolish girl,” he muttered with another flash of his teeth. “Your knight has ten more minutes, and then the fun can begin.”
Giorgio walked away, and Pierce took his place again, standing in front of me, leering down at me. My heart, already so battered by his betrayal, threatened to shatter in my chest. “Why?” I whispered, swallowing hard against the lump in my throat. “Why did you betray me?”
“I didn’t betray you, Adele. I realized that all these years working for different agencies, getting passed over time and time again for promotions, living paycheck to paycheck just to put a shitty roof over my head, I’d been betraying myself.”
“This was all about money?” Somehow it seemed too vulgar for my mind to fully comprehend. “You climbed in bed with one of the most vicious, depraved criminals we’ve ever seen for a few extra bucks?”
“A few bucks?” Pierce’s laugh rang out, loud and cruel in the large room. “Nah, sweetheart. I have several million stashed in an off-shore bank account, just waiting for me to retire.”
“If you think you’ll live long enough to spend a dime, you’re even dumber than I realized.”
His lip curled back in a snarl, he raised his arm and I braced for another strike.
“Enough!”
Pausing mid-swing, Pierce took a step back. But my moment of reprieve was short-lived. An evil, almost gleeful glint in his eye, Giorgio approached us again, this time with a wicked-looking knife clutched in his hand.
“Time’s up, Agent Dupont.”
