“Rome wasn’t built in a day,” I laugh at myself, opening the door to go back into the kitchen.
“Do you always talk to yourself?” I jerk, looking towards the voice. Sitting at the table is a slightly over-weight man with dull, brown hair that has gray weaved throughout. He’s sitting calmly at the table, facing the door. He’s eating out of the plate I had put down for Jacob, like he doesn’t have a care in the world.
I hold onto the door and try to still the beating of my heart. I don’t know who he is, but the mere fact that he has shown up the way he has is not a good thing. I look at him and then towards the front door, wondering if I should take off running.
“I wouldn’t try that. You can’t see it, but there’s a gun in my lap and I’ll shoot you before you make it outside and besides my man would stop you as soon as you crossed the threshold.”
I turn at his words and notice the big, ugly man staring at me, with this leering look that immediately makes my stomach revolt. I fight to keep the bile from rising. The guy comes in and locks the door behind him.
Yeah okay. Now what?
“Come on in Sugar, let’s have some of this breakfast you took the time to fix. I do love a woman who knows her way around the kitchen.”
I don’t want to, like I really don’t want to? Still, I don’t have a choice.
I swallow trying to figure out what to do here, Jacob will be back, I just have to bide my time. Plus, Bull once told me that this whole house was monitored heavily. The cavalry will come, I just need to stall. Heck fire, I have rotten luck.
I take a few steps to the kitchen, but I don’t go all the way. That’s when he holds up the gun and uses it to motion me into a seat across from him.
I sit down, by that time I have to—my legs feel like jelly.
“Bacon?” He asks, still using the gun to motion. I grab a piece, because I don’t know how he’d react if I turn him down.
He stares at me, waiting. I take a bite of the bacon. It tastes like sawdust, but that seems to make him happy, because he places the gun back on the table beside him.
“Tell me Carolina, do you know who I am?”
“No,” I have a good idea, but I don’t say it. The fact is that he uses a name that I haven’t heard since I was old enough to demand no one use it, doesn’t exactly fill me with happiness. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know this is the man who killed my parents. I know it. He knows I know, but saying no seems like the best option right now.
“Carolina, I’m so disappointed. I thought you were smarter than that,” he says calmly taking another bite of food.
“Boss, we don’t have time for this shit. You promised you’d pay me as soon as you got your hands on this bitch. We need to get out of here before those damn bikers show up. I didn’t agree to this damn shit, to get my ass killed,” the thug still standing by the door states. He looks antsy. He keeps looking out the window by the door and everything about him screams fear. While this is good, I figure it could also be bad. Having someone with a gun, who is operating on fear and adrenaline, doesn’t sound like a good thing.
“Did you make sure we won’t be disturbed?”
“I put the idiot out of commission. He never knew what hit him.”
“Excellent. “Now my dear,” he says putting his fork down. “Let’s try this again. Do you know who I am?”
“Not really, no,” I answer, worried they’ve hurt Jacob. Where is the damn cavalry? As for the asshole in front of me, up until this point he has only ever been a shadow to me. I’ve never seen a face. I’ve heard Dragon and Alexander refer to him before, but right now I must be too far into panic mode, because I can’t even remember the name.
“Boss, damn it! You know this place is under surveillance, even if Shorty did disable the actual alarms before he left. We have to get out of here.”
“In due time.”
“Due time nothing. If you want to be stupid, fine. Give me my money and you can stay here if you want. I’m not staying to be target practice for the Savage boys.”
The man at the table lets off a fake sigh, which is overly loud and heavy. He picks up the gun and aims it at me.