Spiders in the Grove (In the Company of Killers #7)(31)

“I’m sure she does it all the time,” I come back. “This is just sex. With Cesara, it’s much more than that. And she knows it. Go ahead and tell her, but it’ll only make you look like a jealous, weak, piece of shit.”

His mouth twitches on one side, indicating his annoyance with having to agree with me.

Joaquin’s gaze veers behind me at Sabine.

“You know what,” he says, changing his demeanor, “I don’t believe you.”

Shit.

“You don’t believe what, exactly?”

Shit. Shit. Shit!

He takes another step forward, and so do I, to keep him from getting any closer to Sabine, but he grabs my shoulder, stopping me. He glares into my face, daring me now, to threaten him. “Remember your place, Lydia,” he says coldly. “You’re only alive as long as I allow it; you only deny me for as long as I let you”—he leans in toward my ear—"I’m playing your game because I like it; so don’t mistake my reluctance for weakness. Now. Step. Aside.”

Baring my teeth at him, I do as he says.

He takes Sabine by the arm, never taking his eyes from mine. He lifts her dress, exposing her naked body underneath from the waist down. I know she wants to look at me, hoping I’ll stop him somehow, but she doesn’t because she can’t, and I don’t because I can’t, either.

Joaquin slides his hand between her legs “She’s not wet,” he says, and then crouches in front of her, gazing up at me. “Why isn’t she wet?”

I snarl at him. “Because I heard you coming down the hall, and took that as a sign to stop.”

His hand moving, Sabine’s eyes go from suppressed fear to the onset of pleasure, but she keeps a straight, unemotional face.

He stands, drops her dress back down.

“Remember, Lydia,” he whispers near my ear, placing his wet fingers to my lips. “I’m the one in control here; not you, not Cesara—me.”

Actually, Joaquin, that’s not true, and you know it.

“I will have you—willingly—before this week is over,” he goes on, so sure of himself it makes me laugh inside. “And when I’m done with you, you won’t want anything to do with Cesara, or this dark-haired beauty who’s so easily stimulated.” He puts his fingers in my mouth so I can taste his victory.

“Don’t be late this evening,” he tells me, adjusts the lapel of his suit, “on this night of all nights.” A mysterious grin sneaks up on his face; he turns and walks down the length of the hallway, disappearing around the corner.

On this night of all nights? Could he be more cryptic? Well, whatever he meant by that, it seems to have done its job in tripling my nervous levels.

Searching the walls and ceilings more closely this time, I look for the hidden camera that exposed me, but never find it. I put on my slave-master shoes again, grab Sabine by the back of her neck and shove her forward. “Move,” I order, and Sabine does what I say without falter.





Nora


“You’re kidding, right?” I say into the sweaty cell phone pressed to my ear. “We’re knee-deep in shit over here; we leave now, we’re going to lose Artemis’ trail. Are you sure you want to take that risk?”

“Those are my orders,” Victor says on the other end. “Drop what you are doing, catch the first flight to Mexico, and meet my contact at the address I gave you.”

“She’ll never forgive you for this,” I say, and shake my head at Osiris and his bitch of a sister, Hestia, waiting for the news; but they already have an idea what the call is about.

“You’re not going to interfere,” he tells me. “I only want you there in case something goes down.”

“If something goes down, then you expect me to help her, and that’s interfering. Besides, I doubt even on the first flight out we’ll make it there before that auction ends.”

“You are closer than I am,” Victor says.

“I’m not going to fucking Mexico,” Osiris puts in. “I don’t give two fucks about that girl—we’re working with you to find our brother and sister, and that’s it.”

“We didn’t sign up for this,” Hestia adds.

“Tell them I did not expect them go with you, nor do I want them to,” Victor says, able to hear their voices beside me. “First flight,” he re-caps. “All of your identification, and your invitation, will be with my contact. Dress appropriately; you will be posing as a buyer.”

“She’s going to see me, Victor—she warned you about interfering, and you know as well I do that it also meant going in there like this. Actually, this way is worse—she’ll think we’re babysitting her; that would be enough to piss me off, that’s for sure. Why not send Niklas?”

“He cannot be reached.”

“Fredrik?”

“Do as I say.”

He ends the call.

Dropping the phone crushed in my hand to my side, I sigh deeply, seriously fucking annoyed.

“I can’t believe he wants me to do this,” I say, though more to myself. “We’re this close”—I press my thumb and index finger an inch apart in front of my squinting eye—“and he wants to fuck it all up because he….god, I hate even saying it.”