A Captive Situation (Kings of New York)

I shuddered.

So many emotions and thoughts were spinning inside of me, but I had to know about the girl because that might be his choice. It wasn’t mine. I had some responsibility for that girl and she was not going to be harmed because of us. She was innocent. I wasn’t. If it came down to a question of keeping her safe or me, my choice would be her.

“What are you planning to do with her?”

Some of the harshness from him faded. He drew in a sharp breath before answering, cupping the back of my head, his fingers threading through my hair. “When I’m ready, I’ll reach out to Lane.”

I tipped my chin up.

He touched underneath it, running a thumb over the corner of my mouth, lingering over my cheek, cupping the side of my face in his palm. His eyes held mine.

“She needs to be kept safe.”

He was reading something in my eyes I didn’t want him to know, something I didn’t want anyone to know, but whatever he saw, he didn’t comment on it. He only nodded before stepping away, his arms falling to his sides. “She’ll be kept safe.”

Good. Relief filled my chest. Good.

I glanced at the door behind him. “I should check on her.”

He caught my arm, stopping me. “This is the only way for us to get to him.”

I frowned, pulling away from him, and moved to the door.

Right as I touched the doorknob, his words stopped me again. “Sawyer.”

I looked over my shoulder.

His gaze was soft, but there was a lethal promise lurking in them just under the surface. The memories of how easily and quickly he’d killed five men flashed in my mind. How easy it had been for him to kidnap her, how smooth the operation was handled. How he’d threatened that drunk guy who grabbed me. How he held a gun as if it were the most natural thing in the world to him.

What happened to him in his childhood?

I needed to acknowledge another truth about Jake to myself, one I couldn’t forget. Jake Worthing might not be a Mafia head boss and he might not want to be a Mafia head boss, but he was every bit as dangerous as they were.

He might be worse.

He added, “You or her, it’s you. You or me, it’s you. You or your aunts, it’s you. Your cousin or you, it’s you. Anyone or you, it’s you. I don’t care who the other choice is. It’s always going to be you.”

Why did those words feel like a looming warning?

And why did that make me feel things that I never thought I’d feel in my life?

I was falling in love with him. I just didn’t know what to do with that now.

I turned the doorknob, took a step inside, and it took a beat before I cleared my mind of my muddled thoughts and registered the empty bed that I was seeing.

I gasped. “She’s gone!”

Jake tore into the room but stopped as soon as he saw the window open. He looked down, cursed, and sprinted out the door. His gun was out and in his hand. He held it pointing down at his side, but it molded to him like another appendage. It was a part of him.

It was his skin.

He yelled over his shoulder, “Stay here. Lock the door.”

“Where are you going?” My heart was in my throat.

“Lock the door, Sawyer,” he commanded again.

The door shut and I flicked the lock, but he wasn’t gone long. Ten minutes later, I jumped as someone pounded on the door.

“It’s me.”

Jake.

“That was fast.” I fumbled for the lock, throwing open the door.

He came in, carrying the girl. She was struggling, her feet kicking in the air, and he grunted as he shifted his weight so she was higher in the air.

“Let me go!” she screamed.

“Lock the door,” he said, gruffly, as he dumped her on the couch.

“You assfuck pubic hair on a grandpa’s balls.” She tried crawling away, but Jake pinned her down.

She screamed again, twisting around, and she went to scratch his face.

He hissed, jerking his head out of the way, and grabbed her wrist. “Stop it,” he growled. She tried with the other and he caught that one too. As he yanked both arms back, her scream went up a whole octave and I gritted my teeth, my eardrums bleeding. He let go of her arms enough that he could grab them from a different angle.

“Sawyer, my cuffs.”

“Huh?”

She was still bucking, and he grunted, keeping her in place. He indicated his wallet. “On the table, over there. There’s a pair in a drawer.”

Cuffs? At his girlfriend’s house? I sneered, forgetting what was happening in front of me for a whole thirty seconds because I was forgetting his ex was also a cop. My mind went to a dirtier reason those cuffs were here.

Now I was nauseous and rageful.

“Fuck you both,” the girl spat out. “You are so fucked. You really messed up. You have no clue—”

That brought me back to the present. I grimaced as I picked up the handcuffs using only my pinkie and walked them over.

Jake took them, an exasperated expression on his face. “Are you kidding me?”

The girl was still yelling threats, but I tuned her out. “I don’t know where those have been.”

“I put them there last night. Jesus Christ.” He snapped them in place on her wrists. She stopped bucking and began muttering variations of the same threat over and over under her breath, her face pressed into the couch cushions.

We were going to die.

My spine was going to be yanked out through the skin.

My eyeballs would be fed to Jake and his dick would be cut off and forced down my throat. After the pubic hair comment, these were less colorful, but once the cuffs were in place, she stopped physically fighting.

Jake stood up and hauled her up. Her face had lines from the cushions and some of her hair fell over her eyes, but she blew out an angry puff of air. If looks could kill, we’d be in hell by now. “You guys have no clue—”

“Actually, we do.” Jake waited until she was steady on her feet. Once she was, he marched her back into the bedroom, letting her sit on the edge of the bed as he went back to checking the room once more. Déjà vu. The window was relocked, and the rest of the room passed his search. Joining me at the door, he leaned against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest.

She continued to scowl as she moved around to face us. “What do you want?”

I searched her, but there was no fear. There should’ve been fear. “You’re not scared of him.”

Her eyes flickered. “What?”

“I thought—”

Jake moved, his arm grazed against mine.

I shut up and moved back. “Never mind.”

Her eyebrows drew together. “You both will be killed for taking me. Whenever you’re done with whatever freaky shit you’re into, no matter what you do to me, he will kill you.”

I glanced Jake’s way. His eyes were intent on her.

“He will hunt you down like you’re prey, and he will relish it. After that, he’ll torture you for weeks. Months, maybe.” She met Jake’s gaze and motioned to me with her chin. The ends of her mouth curved down. “He’ll let his men rape her in front of you. When she’s begging to be put out of her misery, you don’t want to know how he’ll prolong her torture. You, he’ll remove every piece of your body one by one. He’ll take your organs out while you’re breathing and he’ll keep you alive until the very last one. He’ll dig your heart out with a toothpick, and he’ll do it fucking humming to some sick song that’s only in his head.” She slumped down on the bed. “You dug your graves by doing this.”

Jake didn’t blink. “You done?”

Her eyebrows pinched together. “I’m not lying. You don’t even know who I’m talking—”

“Creighton Lane.”

His words stopped her and her head lifted again. “You know about him?”

“Yeah,” Jake taunted, softly. “He’s the reason we took you.”

A shadow crossed over her face for a second. “What’s wrong with you people? I’m telling you what’s going to happen. Your best shot, if you want to make it out of this alive, is to let me go. I’ll give you the time it takes me to get to my apartment before I call him. You’ll have that time for a head start out of here.”

A cruel smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Thank you.”

I frowned.

So did she. “Huh?”noveldrama

Jake stalked toward her. “You just told me how to contact him.”

She shrank down an inch, her frown deepening. “He has men on me all the time. There’s no getting away from him.”

“He has men on you usually. Tonight he didn’t.”

She flinched.

Jake added, “And he didn’t because he doesn’t know you’re here. You’re hiding from him.”

She shut down, a wall coming down over her.

Jake sighed. “Well, if you’re done talking, I’m off to grab your second phone.”

Her eyes shot to his again.

His smirk returned. Ruthless. “You fucked up. The phone he tracks, the phone you use to contact him, is at your place. You just told me.” His head cocked to the side. “Don’t worry. I’ll make sure to erase any tracking apps he has on it before using it. Now scoot back so I can put the handcuffs around the bedpost.”

He leaned behind her, but she sprang. A feral edge on her face. The handcuffs dropped to the bed as she was suddenly free of them. She’d been using the time while they were talking to get herself out of them. She swiped Jake’s gun all at the same time. A millisecond later, she threw herself backward and rolled to her feet, all in one smooth motion. The gun was trained on Jake.

My heart slowed.

No.

I wouldn’t let this happen.

Her eyes turned off. A coldness seeped over her.

There’d be no threats. I knew it in my gut. This girl was going to kill him. She aimed for his chest, but her eyes flickered. Just once before they hardened.

She raised her hands.

The gun barrel was a few feet from his head. She took the safety off right before she said, “Sorr—”

No! I lunged for her.

“Sawyer, no—” Jake shouted.

Too late.

I tackled her from the side.

The gun went off.