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My teeth sank into the meatiness of my bottom lip while I contemplated whether I should tell him the truth.

What the hell? These might be my last minutes alive. I should go out living my truth. Because if these fuckers didn’t kill me, my uncle would. I’d seen his face at the party. He thought I was in on tonight’s events. Thought that I’d betrayed him.

I could hear him now.

“Disgraceful fucking bitch. Bastard daughter to a betrayer. I always knew you’d end up the same.”

I shook off Dominick’s calloused whispers, trying to regain focus. “Apparently, being kidnapped makes me horny because I’m imagining your tongue buried in my pussy.” I leaned as far forward as my restraints would allow. “Let me out, and let’s play, Kenji.”

His nostrils flared.

Suddenly he was standing over me, caging me in with his body and forcing me to crane my neck to look up at him. Painfully slow, he lowered his face, stopping when we were less than an inch away.

“Who did you give the folder to?”

Copper wafted in the air, and pain radiated from my lip as he bit it—hard—before smashing our mouths together. Weed and the metallic taste of blood coated my tongue as we fought for dominance. When he yanked away, his chest was heaving, and I was so turned on that I squirmed in my chair, trying to find some release. Kenji caught the movement and wrenched my thighs apart.

“Answer me, Scar.” He punctuated each word with the tightening of his grip on my thighs before running his tongue up the side of my face, demonstrating how talented he was with that particular appendage. Lust fogged my mind, and I wanted so badly to palm his growing bulge.

Focus. I needed to focus.

“I already fucking told Caleb. Dominick sent me to collect the file.” I huffed in irritation, even if it was sexual irritation.The heat that had radiated from his skin was suddenly absent, and the stagnant air grew thick with tension. His glare was chilling as he stood a few feet away, inked arms crossed over his chiseled chest.

This relationship between their two organizations was very cloak and dagger, and now I was smack dab in the middle of it.

Ironically, they thought I was a helpless maiden, not the hidden player.

He spoke again, anger oozing from his tone. “Where’s he keeping it? And has he looked at it already?”

“What’s in it for me?” I bit back, regretting my remark when his face morphed into something sinister.

“Tell me what I want to know, or I’ll send you back to your uncle.”

Fuck him.

My eyes slammed shut, as if that would block out the reality of my situation. Bodily harm I could’ve endured, but Kenji’s threat was one of the few that would get me talking. Because if Dominick got a hold of me, he wouldn’t kill me. He’d drag out my misery.

A resigned sigh escaped my lungs, but when I looked up from the patch of concrete I’d been staring down, Kenji’s face was twisted in pain, and his eyes were sealed shut.

CHAPTER 13

KENJI

TRAUMA-BONDING

The shuttered look of fear that flashed across her delicate face at the mention of sending her back to her uncle had emotions I thought I’d buried ripping through me. The dingy walls of the supply closet dropped away for a brief moment, morphing into the memory of concrete walls covered in grime. Acid stung my throat. The smell of bile was so overwhelming, it was as if I was still there.

Trapped in that warehouse surrounded by bodies. Back to the night we found where our fathers had sent Jessica. It was our fault she was dead. Panic clawed at my mind, and I fought to catch my breath and avoid being dragged under.

The irony wasn’t lost on me that I’d just threated to send another woman to her demise. Guilt churned in my gut.

My eyes popped back open, and she was intently watching me—studying me. Anyone else, I’d have said they’d missed my moment of desperation. But I had the impression that Scar rarely missed anything. The four of us had that in common.

She might have a talent for masking her emotions, but the violence stirring at her core shone through those icy blue eyes. It was the only genuine reaction she’d shown besides lust. I’d bet my left nut there hadn’t been a single moment while she’d been strapped to this chair that she was intimidated. Fuck, I doubted she’d even been nervous.

Not until I said we’d send her back to Dominick.

My skin itched at the idea of threatening to deliver her back to the Romanos.