Playing Dirty (Risky Business, #2)(83)

“Excellent job!” Viktor crowed. The call had been live the entire time I’d been speaking to Malone. “It’s rather apropos, my final words being delivered by a beauty such as yourself. Death comes in all kinds of packages, though honestly I think I did him a favor, sending you. Much better than one of these thugs—unexpected and poetic, if I do say so myself.”

“I did what you said, now let them go,” I demanded, my voice shaking only a little.

“I said you might be able to save one of them, not that I’d let them go, but let’s make it more interesting, shall we? Come to this address, and we’ll continue our game.” He rattled off an address in the southeast part of Chicago. “Let’s make it ten minutes,” he said, “or they’ll start losing their fingers, one by one. Tick tock, little Sage.” The call ended.

“Goddammit!” I exploded, tears of rage and fear spilling down my cheeks. I’d known he wouldn’t live up to what he’d said, but what else was I supposed to do? And now I was on a time limit before he hurt them again.

My dad had grown up in that part of Chicago and I had cousins all over the place. I was vaguely familiar with the address, but even in light traffic, I was twenty minutes away. I floored it.

Stoplights were nonexistent for me as I blew through too many red lights to count. I prayed I wouldn’t get stopped by a cop as I took every shortcut I knew, making turns at speeds that were outright dangerous, not to mention foolish. But I had no choice. I believed absolutely that Viktor would do as he said. He’d cut off their fingers and laugh while he did so.

The truck tires squealed as I made a hairpin turn, glancing frantically at the clock. Two minutes.

I was going sixty-five in a twenty-five zone, swerving around cars and into oncoming traffic. Horns blared in my wake, but I took no notice of them. My entire focus was on the road and the ticking of the clock inside my head.

The docks were close and I swerved into the address he’d given me, slamming the truck into park and jumping out. I hit the pavement at a dead run, aiming for the door I could see set into the bleak warehouse. And I was only steps from it when something slammed into me from behind, knocking me to the ground. My head cracked against the pavement and everything went black.





CHAPTER SEVENTEEN


A blinding pain woke me, then another, before I realized someone was slapping me. First one cheek, then the other. I tried to lift a hand to stop them, but couldn’t. My hands were tied behind me.

My eyes blinked open and I flinched as another blow came toward me, but it stopped at the last second.

“Oh good, you are awake. I was afraid Lee had hit you too hard.”

Viktor was the one hitting me and I glanced to where he indicated. A body lay on the floor, a pool of blood spreading beneath him. Not far from him was a metal barrel with a fire burning inside. It cast weird shadows around the room.

“You’re certainly leaving a lot of dead bodies in your wake,” I said.

“Yes, well, good help can be so hard to find.”

I was sitting on a chair, my wrists tied behind my back, inside what I assumed was the warehouse. Glancing around, heart in my throat, I spotted Parker and Ryker. They were maybe twenty feet away and now I could see they were tied to a set of bedsprings suspended above them. No blood marred their wrists or forearms and I breathed a sigh of relief.

“Yes, you made it just in the nick of time,” Viktor said. “And I had hoped to at least get a pinky as my trophy. Ah well. Perhaps later.”

“Not if I have anything to say about it, you bastard,” I ground out.

Viktor laughed. “You are entertaining, Sage, I will give them that. But your loyalty is quite lacking.”

I pressed my lips together and didn’t reply.

He began to pace slowly, back and forth as he talked. “So please tell me, how did this come to be? Last I saw you and Parker, you were quite the hot item. I believe my driver reported a steamy scene in the backseat of the car. And you two did share a room together.”

I half-listened to him as I took stock of the huge room. The ceiling was high, at least twenty feet, and there was a glimmering light from the hallway to my right. I thought maybe that was an exit. Unfortunately, three guys stood between me and the exit, not to mention getting Parker and Ryker free and out of here was probably beyond my capability.

“And yet,” he continued, “you’re dating the detective.” He shook his head sadly. “I can’t help but think you’re not being true to yourself, Sage. I think the detective is merely little fling on the side, that you know you belong with Parker. Or am I wrong? Does the lawman bring out a side of you your boss cannot? Do tell me.”

“This isn’t a f*cking soap opera,” I spat. “You’re insane.”

He backhanded me with enough force to knock me from the chair. I lay on the floor, gasping and blinking the blackness from my vision. Blood ran freely from my mouth, the inside of my lip cut from my teeth.

“Viktor, what the f*ck are you doing?” I heard Parker call out. “You should be getting out of town while you still can. You don’t think the CIA is going to track me down? You stick around here, you’re going to miss your chance to get out of the country.”

“The CIA doesn’t even know I’m alive,” Viktor said. “I’m not worried about them. What I do want, what I crave, is a bit of revenge.”