She was shaking so badly now that she had to clutch her arms close to her sides to keep from dropping the gun.

“Yes, damn it.” Alfonzo was shouting in the other room. “You’ll have her back.” He kicked a chair in the kitchen, and it went flying into the fridge.

“Where’s Georgie, Raven?”

Raven stared at me as if I hadn’t spoken.

Alfonzo came striding from the kitchen, and Raven flinched so hard she dropped the gun.

“Useless slut.” Alfonzo picked up the weapon, then grabbed her around the neck, hauling her against him. “Aren’t you?”

“Y-yes, Master,” Raven replied in a quivering whispered voice.

“Kai says to behave yourself, Raven. Keep doing exactly as I say, and he’ll still buy you.” He lowered his mouth and kissed her cruelly. “You’ve been good. Very good at getting the information for me.”

She nodded. “Yes, Master.”

Shit. That’s why Raven came and talked to me at the bar. I thought it had been strange she’d taken initiative like that, but she has been feeding Alfonzo information. Had he put her on auction, set it up so Deck would get her out? Had Raven refused to go home because she knew she had to get information for Alfonzo as to where I was?

“You keep doing as I tell you, and I will sell you to him. You want to go to Kai? Or stay with me?”

Oh God, the thought of Raven under Alfonzo’s hand for the last two years made me sick to my stomach. I really had no idea if Kai was any better, but I understood why Raven would do anything to get away from Alfonzo.

Raven didn’t answer, and he raised his hand and slapped her across the face. She didn’t even whimper, but she lowered her eyes from Alfonzo and said, “To him, Master.”

I saw Raven’s eyes close in defeat; Alfonzo would punish her for that, for answering a question he forced on her. A slave admitting she wanted someone other than her Master is against the rules.

I heard a sound above me—attic. Georgie? If she was hiding, there was the chance she had called Deck. God, please, let her have told someone where we are.

“Now, Emily.”

I jerked at the sound of Georgie’s muffled voice above me, but didn’t hesitate as I pushed to my feet and ran bent over at Alfonzo, head-butting him in the back of the legs.

He went buckling forward, into the porch door, and the gun went flying. “Bitch!” he yelled. “I’m going to fucking torture you until—” Georgie landed on top of him as she came out of the scuttle hole in the ceiling.

They rolled out the screen door and down the steps of the porch. I could hear Alfonzo shouting as I used the wall to gain my feet again. I was about to follow when I saw Raven with the gun pointing at me.

“Raven. No. Put it down. I’ll help you. You don’t have to go to Kai.”

She shook her head, tears streaming down her face.

Raven cocked the hammer and pointed the gun at my leg.

“Raven. No. You don’t want to do this.”

“I ... I ... have to.” Her voice was a whisper of a shiver, and I could tell that she didn’t want to do it, but she thought she had no choice—that whatever was driving her made her do this.

“He doesn’t want you to hurt me, Raven. You have to protect me.”

She was shaking so badly I thought she’d pass out, her face pale and her eyes wild as she kept flinching from the noises made by Georgie and Alfonzo fighting outside.

Then suddenly silence.

Raven’s eyes darted to the screen door, and I leapt.

I tackled her, the gun sliding away across the orange carpet, and my body landing right on top of her. I almost wanted to say I was sorry, because it felt like her frail bones cracked under my weight and she didn’t even struggle.

Suddenly I was dragged off her by the leg and picked up with a hand latched around my upper arm. I started struggling until I heard the voice. “Stop.”

I did. I was shocked to see him. And terrified because this wasn’t Alfonzo—instead a man who was more than likely deadlier.

Kai exuded power, even more, I expected, than Raul, and that made him extremely dangerous. “Raven,” Kai said. Raven was on her feet and at his side. He didn’t even look at her. “Where is the transporter?”

Alfonzo had brought Georgie back inside. He kicked her in the back of the legs, and she winced as she fell to her knees. He had ropes on her wrists behind her back. All I could think of was Deck and how he was going to have a fit if he saw Georgie like that.

Alfonzo picked up his gun. “I promised you Raven. You have her. That’s our deal.”

Kai’s hand tightened on my neck. “Our deal has changed. What are you doing with that one?” Kai nodded to Georgie.

“She’s coming with us. And that bitch” he nodded toward me, “escaped Raul. No one escapes Raul.”

“Raul’s dead.”

Alfonzo kicked Georgie in the back, and she grunted and fell forward. “Once I’m done with their training, they’ll go on auction and never been found again. That’s if they live through it.”

I knew Georgie couldn’t keep her mouth shut no matter how much pain she was in. Her lips were pursed together and her brows were drawn down over her eyes. Suddenly, she slammed her head backward into Alfonzo’s knee.

I heard the sound of her skull hitting his knee cap; then Alfonzo was yelling.

“No!” I shouted as Alfonzo raised his gun to Georgie.

“Killing her is a waste,” Kai stated, his voice steady and cool. “Take me to the transporter. I need to see him.”

Alfonzo had his gun to Georgie’s head, his fingers weaved into her hair. “I can’t do that. That wasn’t the deal. Raven and the money. That’s it.”

“It’s the deal now.” Kai remained unflinching.

Alfonzo’s face turned beet read. “I’m selling you the girl for half her price.”

“I could have easily found Raven myself. I found you, didn’t I? What I want is the transporter.”

“No one gets to meet him. He doesn’t meet with anyone. Ever.”

Kai shrugged. “He will me. Call him.”

Alfonzo blanched. “You just don’t call him. It’s been set up already—”

“Raul is dead. That means you and your transporter no longer have a main source. Call him. Now. Or I kill you and take all three girls myself.”

“Fuck.” Alfonzo was fumbling and upset. His fingers were jerking on the gun, and it was obvious he was scared of Kai and what he’d do if he didn’t call this transporter guy. Alfonzo raised gun and hit Georgie on the head.

“Georgie.” I tried to pull away from Kai, but his grip was unrelenting. “Please don’t hurt her.”

Kai’s voice was low and almost inaudible as he said, “It’s better this way.”

Alfonzo tied a strip of cloth around Georgie’s arm and I saw the syringe. I didn’t know if it was street drugs or something else, but anything put into her system was not good. I struggled to get to her, my legs kicking out at Kai. “Please, don’t. Georgie.”

“Stop.” Kai yanked on my arm to the side and I cried out in agony.

Georgie didn’t move, but I could see her eyes flickering, looking dazed from the blow. Alfonzo slid the needle into her vein, and within seconds her body relaxed and her eyes closed.

I started crying, and my legs gave out, but I didn’t fall. Kai held me against him, his arm now locked around my chest. Whether it was to keep me upright or to stop me from running to Georgie, I didn’t know.

Alfonzo was on the phone mumbling something about Kai and a meeting. Then he hung up and nodded to Kai.

“Let’s go,” Kai ordered.

Alfonzo slung Georgie over his shoulder, and we walked out the back door.

Chapter 31

I lay on the cement floor beside Georgie. We were in some kind of warehouse that looked like it had once been a factory. I could smell the distinct odor of the Don River which was the acrid scent of garbage. I guessed since we hadn’t driven very far that we were still downtown. Alfonzo had blindfolded me and tied my wrists together before he shoved me in the trunk, but I’d managed to slip off the blindfold about an hour ago.

Kai was standing with his arms crossed, leaning against a large piece of machinery looking completely relaxed. Raven knelt beside him, her hands in her lap and her head bowed.

Georgie was still drugged, and her eyes were glassed over and she was not responding to her name. Her breathing was slow, but steady, and I suspected whatever they’d given her wasn’t harmful enough to kill her.

Alfonzo paced back and forth constantly looking to the door then his phone.

Finally the metal door slid on its tracks and opened.

It was dark, and I couldn’t see the large shadow that came toward us until the moonlight hit him just as he stopped in front of Kai.

Fear and recognition slammed into me.

Jacob.

He had waterboarded me again and again without mercy when I was held captive. He tortured me without pity, and he looked stone cold now.

“I don’t like changing plans,” Jacob said to Alfonzo. “It causes mistakes.”

Kai kept his eyes on Jacob. “Raul’s right hand man. I thought you were dead.”

“So does everyone.” Jacob nodded to Raven. “You’ve travelled a great distance for one girl, she doesn’t look worth it.”

“Where are the other girls?”

“Here. Awaiting shipment.”

I was about ten feet away, and I noticed the tension in Kai go from zero to a hundred within seconds. Something wasn’t right. “Georgie,” I whispered. “Georgie.” I nudged her with my shoulder, and she moaned. Kai, Jacob, and Alfonzo’s attention were on one another. “Georgie.”

It happened so fast, Jacob pulled a gun, turned, and shot Alfonzo in the head.

Alfonzo dropped to the ground.

Kai never moved a muscle, instead he looked even more casual as his hand went to Raven’s head, and he stroked her hair as if to soothe her.

“I told him, I don’t meet clients. He didn’t listen.”

“So that would make me a liability.” Kai sounded as if he didn’t care that Jacob had just killed Alfonzo and that he might be next.

I was holding my breath, waiting for the loud bang that would kill Kai. It didn’t matter to me if he died; Jacob was just as dangerous as any of them, but every dead man is one less to defend again.

“Your offer piqued my interest.” He thought about it for a second. “I require a base to bring the girls before auction. You can provide me with that.”

Kai’s hand stopped stroking Raven’s hair. “Who has been providing since Raul’s death?”

Jacob slipped his gun back into his belt. “No one. This is our first shipment in over a year. That guy Deck and his men have been all over us, and now, Alfonzo screwed up taking that one.” He nodded to Georgie. “I don’t make mistakes, Kai. I’m careful. Alfonzo wasn’t.”

“Oh, but you made a mistake, Jacob.”

I could only see a side profile of Jacob, but his face suddenly flashed with a moment of surprise, and then he dove and rolled just as Kai threw a knife narrowly missing Jacob’s throat.