I almost threw my phone across the room but caught myself just before I did. Even though the red sirens were going off in my head, I had to think calmly. Logically. Anything else could mean that Lex would get hurt, and I wasn’t going to let that happen.
I quickly got dressed and stuffed my wallet and my phone into my pocket. I looked at my watch. I had to get downtown and into my safe deposit box in the next hour before the bank closed. I scrolled through my contacts until I found the number of the bank. I’d make sure they were ready for me before I got there to save time. I had two hours.
Two hours to imagine every way that I was going to kill that asshole if I could just get my hands on him.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO - ALEXA
When the door opened, and the man stepped inside, I stiffened in my seat. He was wearing a ski mask, and I thought upon closer inspection that this was probably the guy who grabbed me off the street.
“You’re awake, that’s good,” the man said. He held up my phone and snapped a picture of me. I flinched. “I’ll give you a drink of water if you promise to be a good little girl, okay? No screaming. Otherwise…” He made the motion of beating something down, and I caught the drift. I felt sick, but I was parched. I nodded my agreement.
He walked across the room and without any word of warning ripped the duct tape off my mouth. I hissed in pain that added to the throbbing in my head and almost made me pass out. He moved away from me but was back moments later. I saw he had two small pills in the palm of his hand.
“You’ve probably got one hell of a headache,” he said. He didn’t sound sorry about it. In fact, I’d peg the tone of his voice as smug and rather pleased with himself.
“My head doesn’t feel great considering you cracked something against my skull,” I said, unable to keep the edge out of my voice.
“You want these or not?”
I nodded. I wanted to spit in his face, but I needed to figure out what the hell was going on, and anything to take the edge off the pain would help. Plus, it was easier to catch flies with honey than with vinegar the old saying went. He motioned for me to open my mouth, and I almost gagged when his dirty, chubby finger put the pills on my tongue. It was awkward as I tried to sip from the glass as he tipped it, and some of the water sloshed down my front. I felt the water seep into the fabric of my shirt but greedily sucked on the water until he pulled it away.
I saw that he was staring at my chest, and I shifted uncomfortably in my seat as I tried to scrunch down and make myself as small as possible. I needed to get his attention away from any of those thoughts. “I’m hungry.” It was as if my stomach was playing on my cue, because it gave a loud rumble.
“Later,” the man said dismissively.
“Why am I here?” I finally asked. The man didn’t seem to be the chatty kind.
“You’re our payday,” he replied with a chuckle. “If you play nice, we’ll play nice, and you’ll be back with your boyfriend in no time.”
Boyfriend? Oh, shit. “I don’t have a boyfriend,” I said coolly.
“That’s not the way it looked a few weeks ago. That fucker Ice Malone had goo-goo eyes for you. I was there at the fight. I saw it.”
Double shit. “I work for him. I’m not his girlfriend. It’s a professional working relationship only.”
The man rolled his eyes. He pulled out one of the chairs next to the table and sat down in it. “Sure, it is. You think I was born yesterday?”
It was on the tip of my tongue to tell the man that I had been fired not more than a few hours ago, but I realized that might make my precarious situation even worse. But realistically, could I expect that Shayne was going to pay a ransom for me?
“How much am I supposed to be worth?” I asked.
“Your boyfriend’s getting off cheap, all things considered,” the man said. “Only two-hundred grand. I even extended the deadline until noon tomorrow. Needless to say, I was feeling generous.”
My stomach dropped. I knew better than anyone that Shayne didn’t have that kind of cash laying around. He pretty much spent it as soon as he got it. Based on my last analysis, he had less than half of that on hand. He had a line of credit for another fifty grand for maintenance with the gym. Unless he asked his father for it. That would be the sensible thing to do. But all of that aside, why would he pay that kind of money for me? I didn’t mean anything to him. He had proved that to me.
I had to figure out a way out of this situation on my own. I felt my heart begin to beat wildly as the man wandered back into the kitchen and pulled open the refrigerator door. He pulled up the front of his ski mask, and he turned around to take a long drink of the beer as he turned around. He must have seen my widened eyes.
Then he blew out a long breath and shook his head. He took the mask off and threw it on the ground. “Well, shit. I wasn’t supposed to do that. Now you’ve seen my face.”