“Yes. It will be,” the man agreed. “Because I’m giving you one more chance to make me a shitload of money, O’Brien. You fuck up again and not only will I kill you, but I’ll be forced to use your girlfriend to settle the debt for both of you.”
Aiden watched Kat pale even as she squared her shoulders and faced the demon threatening to send her into her worst nightmares. “Then why wait when you can skip all that and go for the sure bet? Take me and end this fucking thing already.”
“Kat! Shut the hell up!”
She swung her gaze to him, her blue eyes swimming in the tears he knew she prayed wouldn’t fall. He hated yelling at her, but if Sicoli took her up on her offer, she’d be lost forever. He’d have no way of finding her. No way of saving her.
“This was never your fight,” she said to him. “I can’t let you risk your life for me anymore. I love you too much.”
Behind her, Sicoli got to his feet and crossed to the foot of the bed. “This is touching and all, but you’re both forgetting that I’m the one making the rules here. So this is how it’s going to work.”
Sicoli gave a signal with his hand. Sully drew near with a roll of duct tape while Vinnie grabbed Kat by the arms and hauled her away from the bed. Shit was about to get real and he had no idea how to stop it.
“You’re going to fight the championship fight in the Four by Four on Saturday. This time you will go down in the third round. And to make sure you do, I’ll be holding on to the girl until it’s over.”
“Don’t worry, Irish,” Vinnie sneered as he dragged a meaty paw down Kat’s neck to her breast and gave it a hard squeeze. “I’ll take good care of her for you.”
Kat elbowed Vinnie in the solar plexus then back-fisted his face when he instinctively hunched forward, just like Aiden had taught her in the barn that day. Before Vinnie knew what hit him, he’d had the breath knocked out of him and a swollen lip. Unfortunately the hit hadn’t been hard enough to incapacitate him. He recovered from the shock quickly and backhanded her across the face, knocking her to the floor.
Aiden saw red and struggled against his restraints as he roared with an all-consuming rage. “You motherfucker, I’m gonna—”
Before he could describe his plans to choke Vinnie with his own intestines, Sully landed a cross-punch that damn near snapped Aiden’s head off. He heard Kat scream his name and beg them not to hurt him anymore as the pain lanced through his skull and the coppery tang of blood flooded his mouth. He’d just barely spit it out when Sully slapped a length of tape across his lips.
Aiden felt like a pressure cooker about to explode. The beast inside him raged. His nostrils flared and his chest heaved with rapid breathing. If it wasn’t for the metal cuffs restraining him, he’d have torn each of them limb from limb for making Kat cry, much less trying to take her away.
As Vinnie yanked her back to her feet, Sicoli adjusted his shirt cuffs under his suit and doled out parting instructions. “If I were you, O’Brien, I’d focus on what you need to do this weekend in the fight. You do that, and all this will be over. I’ll take my money and my associates and neither of you will ever have to see me again.”
Placing his fists on the mattress, Sicoli leaned in, staying just far enough away that Aiden couldn’t head-butt him into next week. Cold gray eyes revealed the black soul of a man who viewed others as pawns he could use and manipulate to his advantage.
“You even think of double-crossing me and I’ll toss that bitch to the wolves until there’s nothing left of her. Understood?” Aiden gave the barest hint of a nod. “Good,” he said with a couple of pats on Aiden’s cheek. “Then I’ll see you Saturday. The key to the cuffs is on the desk. Housekeeping will make their rounds in a couple of hours.”
Sicoli turned and signaled to the other men. As they prepared to leave the room, Kat tried desperately to keep eye contact with him. She apologized to him over and over as she cried. He cursed the tape over his mouth that prevented him from telling her it was going to be okay. That he would save her. But all he could do was watch as they took her away from him.
It took three hours before a woman from housekeeping entered the room. Thankfully she didn’t scare easily. Instead of running screaming from the room as he’d expected, she muttered a few choice words in another language and rushed to help him.
Once he was free, he hurriedly dressed—which wasn’t easy, since his arms were numb—and grabbed his wallet and keys from the room safe. He took out two hundred dollars and gave it to the maid for her help and her discretion, then gathered the rest of their things and prepared to hightail it out of there. But before he could start the drive back to Alabaster, there was one thing he had to do.
Picking up the phone, he dialed a number and held his breath while it rang. After four rings, he was about to give up when a voice as familiar as his own came over the line.
“Patterson.” Aiden’s throat constricted, making it hard to answer. “Hello? Anyone there?”
He cleared his throat. “Yeah. Hey, Joey. It’s uh—”