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“You know, Cassidy,” he said softly, “when I first saw you, you were nothing more than feisty bitch that needed to be put down. And what a fucking chore that turned out to be, eh? Shit, the sheer manpower Moretti threw at you, trying to end your miserable life--you would have made it so goddamn easy for us if it weren't for your brother and besotted fool of a husband trying to keep you alive. I just couldn't understand what all the fuss was about."
He leaned closer, the chair creaking ominously. “I’ll admit, I got a bit obsessed. I followed you. Watched you. I saw how the great Connor McTiernan fawned all over you. A hard bastard with ice in his veins, reduced to a simpering love-struck fool all over a pair of tits with a savior complex. A cold-hearted cunt who normally wouldn’t give the likes of him the time of day.” He cocked his head. “Now that I have you though, I get it.”
My heart was hammering, my body thrumming with each panicked beat as he got up and sat on the edge of the bed. He could see me trembling, eyes blown in fear, but I wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction of a verbal response. Teagan leaned over, laughing cruelly when I recoiled from his touch.
Yet the cuffs held me fast, and I shuddered as his finger lightly brushed my jaw. Softly, almost tenderly, making my skin crawl. I jerked my head away from him.
Suddenly, Teagan grabbed my jaw and squeezed. Hard. Turning my head, and forcing me to look at him.
“Yes, you’re a pretty little thing, aren’t you?” Unbidden, tears rose in my eyes as the pain in my jaw increased. “Feisty. Innocent. Sweet. Heart of pure fucking gold, but you've got claws. Is that what turns Sullivan on? Is it the way you fight back, or is it your innocence? Well, you ain’t gonna be so innocent when I get through—”
I jerked my knee up and hit the bastard in the balls with all the strength I had.
Immediately, the pressure in my jaw eased, and I gasped in relief as Teagan went sprawling on the floor, gasping and retching. He was sucking wind, struggling up to his knees with a hand on his junk and murder in his eyes.
“Fucking bitch!”
He backhanded me, and my head snapped to the side. I tasted blood and the room dimmed, the ringing in my ears temporarily drowning out the rest of his cursing. He viciously kicked the chair into the wall, and I heard it shatter.
Then he threw his head back and laughed. The sound was utterly insane, and terror bled through my every vein, rising up and choking me as I watched him slowly turn.
“Good! I like it when they fight back.”
A penknife materialized in his hand. I kicked at him, but he simply hit me again, the force of the blow momentarily turning my limbs to jelly as he climbed on the bed, straddling my hips and pinning me down. The knife flicked up under my chin, and I immediately stopped struggling as a thin trickle of blood ran down my throat.
“Wise move, sweetheart. Don’t want to slip and end things too quickly.”
I trembled, dizzy with pain. The blade sunk a little bit deeper in warning, and Teagan started to unbutton my blouse, watching me the entire time. Eyes dark like the predator he was.
There was blood in the water now, and he was hungry.
27
Connor
“Wefoundthecar.It was dumped in an empty lot off of Dartmouth just outside of Back Bay. No sign of Jack.”
I looked up as Tommy approached, pausing the security footage of the alley outside the hospital. If I was glad of the news he had I didn't show it, my mouth set in a grim line as I raised my head.
“Fucker better be dead in a ditch somewhere,” Alfie muttered. Jack had been his hire, and he took the betrayal personally.
"Who's unaccounted for?"
"Cappie and Riggs, Grady's out tracking them down." A vein throbbed in Tommy's temple. "Teagan fucking Kelly is also missing."
My heart thumped hard, and Alfie caught my eye. He'd paled several shades. "Teagan smoked hand-rolled. Unfiltered," I said.
"Finn got a phone call pulling him off Johnny's guard detail," Tommy said. "He was killed in that warehouse raid before we could ask him who."
Alfie looked like he was going to be sick. "Something went down every time I was away with Emilia. You all thought I was the turncoat, but Teag was on his own, every time. Everyone who could speak different is dead."
Cold-rolled betrayal churned in my guts, stoking the rage that was already smoldering.
Teagan Kelley was working for Moretti.
"Fuck!" Tommy kicked the side of the desk hard enough to send the computer sliding. Alfie deftly caught it as Tommy descended into a testosterone-fueled rage, taking his anger out on my office equipment. I didn't blame him for losing his cool. We had all put our trust in Teagan, and he had betrayed us. I felt like a fool for wasting so much time blaming my by best friend, when all along it had been Teagan.
I didn't have time to contemplate that grievous error, however. My only priority was getting Cassidy back.
