1
Mercy
As unpleasant rides went,being tied up and tossed into the back of a van by masked gangsters wasn’t the worst I’d ever experienced, but it definitely made my top five. And it was rising in the ranks with every passing second.
Colt leaned forward on the bench that lined one side of the van’s cargo compartment and pressed his gun into the soft spot under my chin. The cold metal bit into my throat, prodding harder with the sway of the roaring vehicle. The bandana tied across my mouth left the taste of stale sweat on my tongue. Ugh. I swallowed thickly, not daring to move.
My ex-fiancé cocked the gun and waited for my reaction. When I remained motionless, a sick smile stretched across the face I’d once thought of as handsome.
“That’s a good girl,” he said, leaning back in his seat. The gun stayed trained on me. “Any sudden movements, and I’ll blow your brains right across the back of my van. We don’t want things to get too messy now, do we?”
I searched for his weak spots. The best I could imagine was startling him enough that I could get the gun, which wasn’t likely to happen with the rope lashed around my wrists behind my back. Also the three Steel Knights who sat next to him posed a slight problem.
I did take some satisfaction from watching the man whose nose I’d broken dab his balled mask against the blood streaking from his nostrils. His face was already swelling and purpling. Served him right.
It appeared that Colt didn’t plan to kill me, at least not right away. A tiny bit of the tension coiled inside me faded. As surreptitiously as I could, I pulled against my restraints and found that they offered a little give. Good. I might be able to work with that.
As if reading my mind, Colt gestured to his men. “Check the ropes—and her pockets. I don’t want any surprises.”
One of the guys, a beefy-looking menace, dropped to my side. Before I could react, he yanked my hands farther behind me, making me wince. The man bared his teeth gleefully at my evident discomfort. Taking a second thick nylon rope, he double wrapped it around my wrists, tying it as tightly as he could.
When he was done, I could barely move my hands. He added another rope around my ankles for good measure.
The guy moved on to patting me down. His hands lingered on my chest, and he looked up and grinned at me. His eyes dared me to get his slimy fingers off me, knowing I couldn’t do anything to stop him.
If Colt noticed, apparently he no longer cared how his men touched me. Disgust soured my mouth. In my head, I was already making up ways I would kill this douchebag slowly and torturously.
To my relief, he didn’t reach right inside my pockets. I didn’t want to know what he’d have done with my childhood bracelet if he’d noticed it. But the chain was too delicate to be noticeable through the fabric of my sweats, and he wasn’t looking for something delicate anyway.
“No phone, no weapons,” he reported to Colt. My fingers curled behind me, remembering my phone slipping from my grasp as I’d tried to fight off these pricks. No chance of tech wizard Gideon using that to track my location.
I was on my own here. If they would even have tried to come after me. Colt had suggested the Nobles had wanted me grabbed.
“Traveling light, are you?” Colt chuckled and wagged the gun at me. “How the mighty have fallen. I finally have you weak and pliant, ready to be crushed like the pest you are. But first there are some things I need to know, both for myself and my benefactors.”
He’d claimed that the Nobles had made a deal with him. I found that hard to believe. Even the most powerful gang in Paradise Bend wasn’t above backstabbing, but Wylder Noble had seemed totally genuine when he’d welcomed me into their ranks, and as heir apparent, his word was gold when it came to his men. Colt was just screwing with me, trying to shake me up so I’d spill something.
“Let’s start with this,” Colt said. “The Nobles and I are very interested in hearing everything you can tell me about your father’s plans for the Bend and any other gangs he might have been associating with.”
Was he still hung up on this idea that my father had betrayed him? I’d already told him he was delusional. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Those delusions had gotten everyone in my family and the upper levels of the Claws murdered at this man’s orders.
Colt took the bandana out of my mouth so that I could reply. I glowered at him, unable to hold my tongue completely. “I must be pretty formidable for you to show up personally and get your hands dirty. Couldn’t trust your men to catch me on their own?”
Colt slapped me hard across the cheek with his gun. Pain radiated through my cheekbone. I was going to have a hell of a bruise there, and blood was trickling through my mouth where I’d bitten my tongue.
“I’m not playing games,” Colt said darkly. “This will be over a lot faster and less painfully if you cough up what you know now.”
I grimaced at him. I’d allowed him to corner me again, but I wouldn’t let him break me. The memory of Grandma bleeding out on the restaurant floor, of her last gurgling breaths, swam up through my mind, and my stomach lurched. No, I wasn’t giving this asshole anything.
“In your dreams,” I spat at him. “If you’re going to kill me, just go ahead and get it over with, because I’m not telling you anything.”
Colt glared back at me. “That’s not how this is going to work. Make no mistake, I will not go easy on you.”
“Just a week ago, you were offering me your hand. You wanted me on your side,” I reminded him.
Colt’s jaw ticked. “And you shot me down. It was the biggest mistake of your life.”
“No, the biggest mistake was ever considering tying my life to yours.”