In the beginning she’d been scared of him. Who wouldn’t be? She’d woken up in a house she didn’t know with a strange man. Her love for him hadn’t been instant. It had taken her time to see that he was just lonely, and broken like her.
They stepped off the elevator, and turned a corner.
Down a long corridor, she saw a door. It was made of glass. Everything seemed to be made of glass.
Chains took her hand, and she squeezed him, trying to offer him comfort.
Entering the office, she saw a man sitting behind a desk. He was staring straight ahead at them, his gaze on Chains before moving to Bain then to Diablo. Finally, his gaze was on her, and she knew without a doubt this man was Boss. The one they all feared and that was easy to see why.
There was darkness in his eyes and nothing else.
He didn’t speak. No one spoke. The air grew tense, and Boss just sat there.
There seemed to be a standoff going on, and Lori didn’t know what to do so she stood a little in front of Chains, hoping to direct the other man’s rage away from her man.
“Did you get the file?” Boss asked.
His voice was clipped, straight to the point, and demanding respect.
“Yes. El Diablo is now officially a Killer of Kings employee. Congratulations,” Chains said.
Bain stepped away, holding out the paperwork to Boss.
He didn’t take it.
Another scary looking man with a twisted lip took the file from
him, opening it up. “He did it. El Diablo now belongs to you.”
“Hold on one fucking second,” El Diablo said. “I don’t belong to anyone. Not now, not ever.”
“That’s not what was agreed. You’re still your own person, but your ass belongs to me and Killer of Kings,” Boss said. He turned to Diablo. “The information I got for you didn’t come cheap. I know you think you’re the fucking devil, and you can do what you want, but that ends. You’re not going to best me, so don’t even think of trying. Do you understand me?”
He waggled a finger in the air. “I don’t know who the fuck you—”
Before El Diablo could finish, Boss had taken a gun and shot him in the forearm he’d outstretched.
Lori gasped, holding onto Chains even harder.
“Oh fuck!” El Diablo cradled his arm, pain clear on his face. Blood dripped down to the tiles.
“Now, that hasn’t entered a major artery. Nothing’s broken. You’re good at what you do, I will grant you that, but you’re nowhere near the best. I demand the best, and that is exactly what you’ll give me, do you understand?”
She saw the inner battle in El Diablo, but the man finally nodded.
“Good, I like having you on the team.” Boss’s henchman held his hand out, and El Diablo looked more like he wanted to stab the man than take his hand. “Don’t be a fucking pussy. We’ve got plenty of nurses that will be more than happy to patch you up. If you want to use them for more, do so. I don’t care, but get the fuck out of my office right now.”
El Diablo wasn’t offered any more assistance. He left the office without a backwards glance.
“Did you think that was smart?” Bain asked. “He’s a deadly motherfucker.”
“He’s all bark and no bite. He’ll get the work done that I need.” Boss’s gaze finally turned to Chains, and then his gaze was on her. “Now, I have to deal with another problem.” The gun he held in his hand was directed at the both of them. Boss kept changing the person he pointed at. “Now what do I do with this problem right here? Because this is a problem.”
“It’s not,” Chains said.
“You kidnapped a woman off the street, took her to your basement, and now you think you’re going to live happy fucking after?”
“Yes, I did all those things.”