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I shove a steel beam into my spine and hold my head high. It will serve them right to have my haunting face stuck in their memories as I bleed out because theirs will be in mine for damn sure.
“Where are you running to, Bailey?”
I take in my surroundings with a quick glance. Two bodies in front of me, the club at my back. They are to my left and the opposite end of the alleyway is to my right. But again. My shoes would be the death of me.
I lock my feet in place and ball my fists. On the outside they look like animals bred for using their teeth. But so was I. She’s just buried under a mountain of self doubt. Society 69 didn’t break me, but they came close. The fighter I used to be is inside me. I just need to kick her awake.
Until she comes to, I fake it.
I lift a shoulder with a faux show of indifference. “Nowhere now. I have a better question. Who sent you? Mount? Are you three working for him now? Did he stomp your kingdom into the dirt and make you three his bitches?” I raise my chin and lock my eyes on theirs. I see no reason to dance around the obvious. I mean, I can run. But with my luck I will kill myself on a patch of ice and I’m not about to do their dirty work for them.
Their dark chuckles send chills up the length of my spine.
Expensive suits cling to broad shoulders, thick but well trimmed waists and impressive thighs. None of them skip leg day at the gym. All that fine material does a magnificent job in highlighting the contours of defined muscle as they prowl across the dirty alleyway like beasts. Everything else about them isn’t as polished. Wind-tousled hair, scruffy jawlines and wildness in their eyes tells me everything I need to know about them in one glance—they were bred to kill.
The second my eyes connect with each of theirs I find the truth staring back at me. Death has a grip on their tainted souls. Proof shimmers in their dark auras and that icy touch is ready to reach out and take me.
Not today Satan.
“Look at you playing at being so brave. It’s going to be fun breaking you.”
“You’re too late. The best of the best have already tried, and they lost.” My smile is murderous.
“That so?” drawls Darius in an unhurried retort that has his forehead scrunching and thick black brows pulling together. “Who would that be?” His tone morphs from curious to deathly cold. Like he will kill the man I name.
I don’t answer. I don’t owe anyone an explanation of what I’ve been through and I don’t for a second believe this man means to protect my honor.
“I can scream and beg for you to just let me leave here and pretend you never saw me, but that isn’t happening, is it?”
Their long strides place them within arm’s reach. Darius glances at his two friends standing on either side of him. “I think you know the answer to that.”
He is the leader of the pack of charming beasts. He smiles at me and wow. It’s not fair how handsome he is or that the men at his sides permeate this unmistakable aura of sensuality and danger in equal amounts. It’s a heady concoction that warps my better judgment. And it’s not the first time I’ve experienced their allure albeit from afar.
“Yeah, I didn’t think so. I guess you have to do as you’re ordered, right?” I quip not feeling the least bit humorous. “Are you after the ten million? Gotta be. That hard up for cash, huh?” I nail Darius with a hard, narrow-eyed look cold enough to cut diamonds.
Darius puts his handsome face in front of mine and when he exhales through his nostrils, I actually swallow down the lump of fear clogging my throat.
“I never thought you three would roll over for Mount senior.”
My mouth keeps running with insult after insult when my brain is telling it to shut the fuck up already. A sense of danger lingers on the fringes of my consciousness. Goosebumps flush across my skin. The hairs on the back of my neck stand—all signs a predator is nearby.
“Nothing to say?” Fear and spunk work in tandem against me. I never was good at being placed with my back against a wall. Literally and figuratively. The closer they get the fewer my options are for running.
“You have a smart mouth for a woman who is in a dangerous position.”
Augustine stands to the left of Darius. I swear they look conjoined. You never find one without the other. I know because I remember every damn thing I see and hear.
I raise my gaze to meet the eyes of a known assassin. “He finally speaks.”
When I thought I would take over for my father, I learned everything I had to about the people who would one day want me dead. It didn’t take long. The list is made up of two families—the Mounts and Denattis.
Augustine’s reputation for having a one hundred percent kill rate for the Denatti family put him at the top of my watch list.
“Augustine is more of a doer than a talker.”
I turn to look at the one on my right who wears a smirk like it’s a weapon of choice. His name is Victor. Vi for short. He’s second only to Augustine and is glued to Darius’ other shoulder.
“You’ll learn that and a lot more before the night is up, sweetheart.” Victor strokes the back of his fingers across my cheek. “But you’re not scared are you, little one?”
