“Why? Because your fucking boyfriend ruined my empire. I told Adrian to put this brother in charge.” He points at Derek. “I can control this brother. But no. He chose Shane and this ridiculous idea of going legitimate with my drug. Sub-Zero was my creation. Mine. Not his to sell in a pill bottle.” He grinds his teeth and growls low before abruptly shouting, “Mine! It was mine.” He kneels by Derek. “You will replace Shane again when he’s dead. You will do as I say and I will pay you well.”
“Adrian will kill you for this,” Derek says.
“He has a Sunday fuck date. He doesn’t come here on Sundays. He will never know what happened if you don’t tell him, and you won’t. Because you like power and money and I will give them to you.”
“I’ll tell Adrian,” Derek promises, spitting in Ramon’s face. “I will not work for you.”
Ramon curses and stands up, kicking Derek in the face so hard, he tumbles over.
I cover my mouth, fighting a scream I somehow know will infuriate Ramon, and then suddenly Ramon is kneeling in front of me, cupping my face, his breath thick with onion. “Shane will watch you die before he dies. He will watch me fuck you many times. You are too delicious to not fuck.” He licks my face, and my stomach rolls all over again, but somehow I remain calm. I don’t cry or scream. I just try to think of how to free myself and Derek.
Ramon stands up and shouts, “Pedro!” A burly older man, his nose flat, his eyes hard, enters the room, and Ramon commands him, “Call Shane Brandon and get him here now.”
SHANE
I have just finished crunching the numbers that I promised Adrian by morning when my phone rings where it sits on the island next to me. I frown when the caller ID says it’s Adrian’s restaurant, finding it odd that he would call from it, not his private line.
“Adrian,” I say, answering.
“This is Pedro from the coffee shop meeting with Adrian.”
Unease rolls through me. “Right, Pedro. What’s up?”
“Adrian is managing a problem with an investor. He wants you to meet him here at the restaurant as soon as possible and explain the details to him in person.”
“Which investor?”
“I don’t know. He didn’t say, and I don’t deal in such things.”
“All right then. I’ll be there soon.” I end the call and something just feels off to me. I dial Adrian, and like the three times before this tonight, I get his voice mail. That doesn’t feel right either. I dial Seth and explain the situation.
“I don’t like it,” he says.
“I have to go to this meeting. I need to make sure this deal happens.”
“I know,” he says. “I’ll meet you in the parking garage.”
I hurry upstairs and change into jeans and a thin black leather jacket that allow me to pack not one, but two guns. I’m in the garage in ten minutes, inside my Bentley, Seth riding shotgun. “What is your gut telling you about this?” I ask him, pulling us onto the highway.
“That this is trouble. A deal gone bad.” He pulls his phone out. “I’m going to tell Cody to get Emily home safe.”
“Yes. Do it. That’s a good idea.”
I turn left onto a new street, placing us only a few blocks from Martina’s restaurant when Seth ends the call and announces. “Cody’s not answering.”
“Why the hell wouldn’t he answer?” I demand, a bad feeling clawing at me, my hand on my phone. I punch in Emily’s number and it goes to voice mail. “She’s not answering either.”
“It could be the building they’re in,” Seth says, dialing his phone again, “but I’m having Nick go check on them.”
“Jessica was with her.” I halt us at a light and dial her number.
“Shane,” she says, panting, her breathing so raspy that my heart skips a beat. “Where’s Emily?” she asks. “Cody and I are sick … oh … God … so severe … food poisoning. And we can’t find her. Or I can’t. Cody’s on a stretcher.”
“I’ll send someone to the hospital to help you,” I say, ending the call and glancing at Seth. “Emily’s missing. Cody and Jessica were poisoned. Cody’s condition doesn’t sound good.”
“Fuck,” Seth says. “I’m calling for help.”
He punches in a number and I dial Adrian. He doesn’t answer. I curse and start to call him again when my phone rings with his number. “What the fuck are you doing to Emily?” I demand, answering the call. “I will kill you if you hurt her.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You called me to the restaurant. She’s gone. I’m not stupid.”
“Shane,” he says, “I did not call you to the restaurant. Fuck. Ramon is back in town. Not by my choice. I’ll meet you there.” He ends the call and I pound the steering wheel.
“Damn it, Seth. Ramon has her. Why the fuck is he still alive?”
“You know why. You know he couldn’t die when he could be connected to us.”
“Well, he’s connected now. And he will end this night with a bullet in his head.” I turn a corner and pull to the curb in front of Adrian’s restaurant, barely killing the engine before I reach for my door.
Seth grabs my arm. “You need to wait on backup.”
“Not a chance in hell.” I exit the car and stalk toward the restaurant entrance, and Seth is by my side in an instant.
“You are never rash,” he says. “Don’t start now.”
The restaurant door opens, and Pedro greets me, eyeing Seth. “Just you,” Pedro says to me.
“To fuck with that,” Seth says, to which Pedro replies by pulling a gun on him.
“To fuck with you,” Pedro says, motioning me forward.
I don’t hesitate. I hurry into the restaurant, and suddenly Emily is screaming. “No! No! Get back! No!”
And then another voice, a familiar male voice. “Stop it! Let her go!”
Derek.
My heart lurches at the sound of my brother’s voice, and I start running toward his and Emily’s voices, cutting around a bar to a hallway.
“No!” Emily screams. “No!”
I run toward the doorway I now know leads me to her and Derek, and when I enter the room, Emily is in the center of the office, fighting one of the four men in the room, who rips her shirt open. Two others are beating Derek to a pulp while Ramon stands in front of it all, smiling. I pull my gun. “Stop. Stop!”
Ramon gives a deep laugh. “We aren’t going to stop,” he says. “Not until she’s fucked upside and down while you watch.”
Suddenly, Adrian’s voice bellows out in Spanish. Angry. Forceful. Everyone goes still. The men beating Derek release him, and Emily is flung to the ground, her eyes meeting mine, fear I never wanted her to feel burning in her eyes. Ramon looks at me. “She will die for your sins and then you will die.”
Everything seems to go into slow motion then. He points the gun at Emily, and I know he is really going to shoot her. “No!” I shout, firing my weapon at him, but in that blink of time, Derek has thrown himself in between Emily and Ramon. Ramon falls to the ground, but so do Derek and Emily, Derek on top of her. I rush for them and go to my knees. And there is blood. So much blood. Derek. Emily. Derek. Emily. I don’t know who is bleeding. I don’t know who is alive. I grab Derek, and I move him but he is limp. I roll him over, and there is Emily. Her eyes shut. Blood all over her. I maneuver in between them, blood all over me now that I will never wash away, and I lift my face to the ceiling, a scream ripping from the very depths of my soul, pain I can barely endure gutting me. And when Adrian Martina steps in front of me, I look up at him and I make a promise. “I will live to hurt you. I will live to torture you. You will die a slow, painful death for this.”