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Drawing in a deep breath, I turn my gaze back to him. He’s watching me, expectantly, waiting for the next lie to tumble from my bruised and bloodied lips. It doesn’t come.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t get you your diamond, Lucky. But I’m tired and as you can probably see, in a lot of fucking pain. I know you’ll make me pay my debt in another way—but let’s discuss it another day, huh? A day in the hopefully near future when I’m not staring at you through two black eyes.”
His hard gaze drags over each of my injuries, then a malicious smile splits his face. He rises to his feet and says, “There won’t be much to discuss. You’ll have to go back and get the diamond. I’ll be in touch with intel on its whereabouts—”
“The Van der Boors are dead! Gone! The red diamond—if it even fucking existed—could be anywhere, so good luck finding it.”
Two strides across my tatty carpet and he’s in my face, slamming me against the door frame. It hurts my ribs when I gasp and hurts my shoulder even more when he wraps his vice-like grip around it.
“Dead?” he growls, millimeters from my ear. “What do you mean the Van der Boors are dead?”
My words get stuck in my throat, but he gives me a good shake and they come tumbling out. “Somebody killed them while I was there. A man—I didn’t see who—he shot them dead and that’s how I escaped.”
I couldn’t look Lucky in the eyes even if I wanted to. It’s so tempting to bite his heavy hand on my shoulder or kick him in the nuts and run, but instead, I squeeze my eyes shut and brace my tired body. He knows too much about me. Holds my darkest secret. He gave me this new life and he has the power to take it away just as quickly.
“A man shot the Van der Boors?” he grunts.
“That’s what I said.”
He pauses. “And you don’t know who?”
My mind drifts back to the dark, handsome man with the gunmetal gray eyes and the hard face. “No.”
A scream rips from my throat as he grabs a fistful of my hair and slams my head back into the doorframe. “I won’t ask you again,Dahlia Rose.”
Through gritted teeth, I say, “I don’t know who he was, I swear. I was in a different room, and he came and went within minutes.”
Several heavy seconds pass. Then he slowly unwinds his hand from my hair and stoops so his nose is touching mine. I meet his hard, green glare. “Are you telling me you won’t be able to get me the diamond?”
I shake my head.
His breath smells like cigars and death. “That’s a shame,Dahlia.Because I already had a client lined up for that diamond. Want to know what it’s worth?”
I cringe and wait.
“Eight million dollars. You know what I’m going to say next, right?”
I do but I shake my head anyway.
“I’m going to need that money somehow. And if it’s not coming from my client, it’s going to come from you.”
I explode. “Where do you think I’m going to get eight million dollars from?! Look around you, Lucky, I can barely make rent in this shithole. And even if I hadn’t quit my diner job, there’s no way I’d make enough tips in ten years serving fries and hot dogs.”
When he widens the gap between us again, I can almost breathe. Until he lets out a dirty, raspy chuckle.
“Ten years? You don’t have the luxury of ten years. One week.”
My blood runs cold. “You want me to come up witheight million dollars in one week?”
He pins me with a cold stare, letting the awful rock music dance between us for a few seconds. Then he says, “I’ve been good to you. Very, very good to you. In fact, some might say I even saved your life.” He paces the carpet, eyes never leaving me. “I asked you for one small favor, and you couldn’t even deliver that. Your secret is getting heavy, Dahlia. Maybe soon, it’ll become too heavy to keep any longer.” His eyes sparkle with malice, knowing that his words are like a knife through my chest. We both know what he’s implying.
“I’ll get the money,” I say breathlessly, “I just need more time.”
“How long?”
I squeeze my eyes shut. I won’t be able to come up with eight million dollars in an entire lifetime. But I just need to get him out of my apartment to give me time to think.
“Six months.”
