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A crackle suddenly broke through the alarm speakers that punctuated every corner of this old structure.
“I could watch you make a fool of yourself all day long,” Fariq said over the intercom.
Reid almost laughed. “You’re not watching me. You’re running for your life with a Bluetooth on your ear. And you should because I’m right behind you, asshole.”
Ducking to the floor, he shot down the hallway, hitting the shoulder of one man too slow to yank back into the safety of his doorway and killing another who jumped out a little too soon. It was a grownup soldier’s version of the arcade Whack-A-Mole game, played down the length of the hallway, with bullets instead of a hammer.
Yanking back himself, giving them a chance to waste bullets and grow cocky again, he was about to make himself comfortable when his phone rang. It was Fariq.
“You should have planned this out a bit better,” the other man said when Reid answered the phone, more out of curiosity than anything else.
“I thought it through enough to get her away from you,” he replied. “You’re never going to touch her again.”
Fariq snorted. “If you say so, but I’m willing to bet your life, I have her back in my safekeeping within the hour.”
“Safekeeping?” There was little point in baiting the man, especially with a fresh round of bullets right chipping away at the plaster and stone of the corner not three feet from his head. “Do you have any idea what your latest ‘punishment’ has done to her? You could have killed her!”
“She was promiscuous. I had plans for her. I have been cultivating certain wealthy individuals for years that they need a well-schooled, intelligent, beautiful, and pure woman to grace their beds and tend to all of their needs. The auction was to have taken place on her twenty-third birthday. She needed to be taught a lesson.”
“Promisc—” Reid caught himself, but not before his temper exploded. Holding the phone up to his mouth, he bit out, “She.Is. Your.Sister! Not some priceless work of art or the newest in rocket launchers or defense systems. Your sister!”
“She was a virginal cunt on legs,” Fariq returned. “Created by fucking, for the sole purpose of being fucked, but her maidenhead had to be intact. I had arranged for a doctor at the auction to certify her as pure, and the little whore just gave it up. She denied me what was mine to use for my advantage andenrichment,” he emphasized, the coolness of his tone giving way to the faintest hint of anger. “I have earned that right, over and over, for all twenty-two years of her life. She was three days old the first time I saved her life, did you know that?”
Anger made a man sloppy. Reid tried to breathe through his, but he was still taking an unacceptable risk when he ducked around the corner and shot four quick rounds down the hall. He hit one of the three men still alive, leaving the one he’d wounded and another to return fire while he ducked back behind the wall again.
“If you’re looking for a medal, you’ve got a wait coming,” he muttered, ejecting the now-empty clip, slapping another into the gun, and chambering the next round.
“We had different mothers.”
“So what! She’s still your half-sister. Sorry, bud. You’re still sick.”
“My mother died before I came of age, and I’ve often wondered if she shared a similar fate as two of the others. My father remarried three times, although he never did have good luck with women. One died shortly before their third anniversary. I was, I think, five by then. The other successfully divorced him, pretty much shocking everyone. I have no idea what happened to her. Then my father met Aliya’s mother and married her when she confessed her pregnancy. She probably should have confessed it wasn’t his to start with, but he found out when Aliya was born, a very healthy three weeks too early.He strangled the woman and would have done the same to Aliya, but I took the baby and crawled out onto the roof. I was ten at the time. I couldn’t have stopped him, but being seen by so many of our neighbors guaranteed my sister could not be claimed as stillborn. So… she lived. Because of me.”
“Now she lives in spite of you,” Reid shot back. “In spite of what you did to her.”
“I allowed her too much freedom… allowed her to see and learn things too quickly. That’s why she turned to you in her confusion.”
Tipping his head back against the wall, every breath tainted by the smell of freshly fired gunpowder, he lost his iron-clad grip on self-control.
“My God,” he said with an incredulous laugh. “You really are delusional, aren’t you? She didn’t turn to you because you’re an abusive, conniving, evil, controlling jackass!”
“You think so?” Fariq softly inquired.
“After this many years together, I know so.”
“She’ll have to be re-educated. There is a doctor who says he can re-virginate her, make it appear she’s still intact. Aliya can still have a life that will provide both of us with luxury. What do you think Finn will think of all this?”
A tiny spark of cold ignited in his gut, the fuse of it hissing and spitting and spreading the dread of its impending explosion all through him.
“What did you say?”
Despite the gunfire echoing through that hallway, he’d heard the other man just fine, and Fariq knew it.
“I’m not the only one with a sister to protect. You really should have planned this out a little better.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” Reid said flatly. “Lay one hand on her, and you’ll have the entire Wild Mustang team raining shit downon you every second of every day from now until you die. And that’s only if I don’t get my hands on you first.”
“My men collected your feisty sibling not twenty minutes ago. I’m a big believer that wrongs should be revenged. You turned my darling sister against me. You soiled her purity, stole her virginity. I want you to think about that,” Fariq told him. “For what few minutes you still have, I want you to think about all the ways I intend to spoil your sister in turn. I’ll take my time with her, I promise. Not only will she learn how to endure without screaming, but I’m going to teach her those lessons so often, she might just learn to prefer it that way.”
