He opened the door without looking at me. “She’s gone.”
“Gone?”
If Shannon was gone, why was he taking me into this room? Into a room that was at the very end of a long, dark hallway and guarded by his enforcers. A room so isolated that no one would be able to hear me scream over the loud music from the onstage band.
Before I could fully process the sudden danger I was in, Lalo grabbed the back of my neck and shoved me into the room. I stumbled forward and right into a desk. My phone and purse skidded across the surface and onto the floor. I had barely regained my balance when Lalo fisted the collar of my jacket and spun my around until my back slammed into the now closed and locked door. My teeth rattled as my head whacked into the metal slab behind me.
In the next instant, Lalo’s mean face was right up in mine. The scent of peppermint and his cologne overwhelmed me. I put both hands on his chest and tried to push him off of me, but he used his hip to pin me in place before grabbing my ponytail and yanking my head back. I cried out in pain and shock but he didn’t loosen his grip. “Stop!”
“Stop?” He laughed and used his other hand to grab my throat. His fingers bit into my skin, marking me and threatening to choke the air right out of my lungs. “No, Shay. We are so far beyond that now.”
He released my hair but kept that cruel hand of his on my throat, all but immobilizing me. Tears sprang to my eyes when he unzipped my jacket and shoved it off my shoulders. He grabbed a handful of the pink fabric of my work uniform and sneered. “You need my help, and this is the way you present yourself to me?” He clicked his tongue against his teeth. “You’re going to have to learn quick how my girl is supposed to look.”
“Your girl?” I sputtered in gasping breaths.
He nodded slowly. “Your sister and Ruben fucked off and left a huge pile of shit right on my doorstep. I’m going to clean up their mess but your little ass is going to be my payment.”
Horrified by the quid pro quo he was describing, I scratched at his hands and tried to force them away from my throat. “No! No!”
He winced as I clawed at his skin and drew blood. With a slap to my face, he knocked the fight right out of me. His hand tightened around my throat as he surveyed the damage I had inflicted. “Ay, mami. You are really going to have to work for it now.”
“Please.” I coughed out the word. “Please, Lalo. Don’t.”
“I don’t want to hurt you.” The fingers around my throat eased some but he roughly hissed, “You played your little game with me too long. I can’t let your family get away with this disrespect.”
“Please, Lalo,” I begged futilely. “I don’t know what Shannon or Ruben did. This isn’t my fault.”
He dragged his fingers along the hot strip of skin he had just slapped. “It doesn’t matter. People will talk. They have to know I’m in control. Do you understand what that means?”
Oh, God. I did. I did understand—and it terrified me.
I bit back a sob and tried to keep my eyes lowered demurely. Those old painful lessons from a childhood of being knocked around by my mother and the angry men she brought home told me the only way I was getting out of this without major damage was to show him that he was in charge and that I would do whatever he wanted.
Lalo started dragging my work smock and undershirt up my torso and over my head. I wanted to fight him. I wanted to kick and scream and punch but I remained motionless like a doll, letting him undress and fondle me. My face still burned from the smack he had given me. Bile rose in my throat. The fingers on my neck were a constant reminder that with one good squeeze he could put me down for the count.
“I know you’re a good girl, Shay.” He ran his fingertips along my exposed flesh. “So I’m going to go easy on you tonight. I’m going to let you earn my protection and show me your loyalty.”
When his hand drifted from my throat, I stifled a cry of panic. Of all the ways I had imagined my first sexual experience, this wasn’t it. I didn’t want this. I didn’t want him touching me. I sure as hell didn’t want to put my mouth or hands anywhere on his body either.
But I didn’t want to die and I didn’t want to get beaten bloody for something I hadn’t done.
His hand moved back to my throat, and he pushed me back against the door. His hard gaze turned my insides cold. “I want you to remember why I’m doing this, Shay. This is to teach that puta sister of yours what happens to the people we love when we do stupid, stupid things.”
Looking into his sadistic and dark eyes, I lost all hope. I didn’t want to die. I didn’t want to get beaten bloody. I didn’t want to be sexually assaulted. But what I wanted no longer mattered.
He was going to hurt me here in this office, in a building where we were surrounded by thousands of people, to prove a point to everyone on the street that he wasn’t a man to be fucked with and that no one could touch him. He was going to show the underworld that he could commit a heinous crime right under the nose of HPD and nothing would happen to him. By tomorrow night, everyone in town would be talking about what happened to me. I was going to be the cautionary tale they used to keep their street crews in line.
“Tell me you’re sorry, Shay.”
I swallowed anxiously and found the courage to stare into his eyes. “I’m sorry.”
He tilted his head to the side as if to study me. “You aren’t sorry. Not yet,” he added quietly. “But you will be.”
His promise of pain and humiliation sent a cold spear into my heart. He pushed down the cup of my bra and bared my breast. He cruelly pinched my nipple and drew a pained cry from my throat. “Shh,” he murmured. “It will be easier if you relax.”
He gripped my face in his hand, pinching my chin and cheek between his thumb and fingers, and forced a kiss on me. I sobbed pitifully and tried to push him away but he stabbed his tongue into my mouth uninvited. I recoiled with disgust but he wouldn’t stop. His hard erection jabbed against my stomach. He was getting excited over the power struggle.
Proving my suspicion, he laughed acidly. “You can fight all you like, Shay. You aren’t getting out of here until I say you can. Tonight I’m getting my first payment on the big fucking bill your sister just rang up.”
Desperate now, I cried, “I have money. I can pay you.”
“I don’t want your money.” He used his thumb to trace my mouth. “I want the one thing no other man in Houston has ever gotten to touch.” His hand slid down my stomach and between my thighs. “This.” His hand moved from between my legs back up to my mouth. He jammed two fingers between my lips, and I gagged at the intrusion. “And this.”
Drawing back his hand, he retreated a few steps and started to loosen his tie. “We’ll see how fucking uppity you are once you’re on your knees with your lips wrapped around my cock.” He pointed at my bra and then my pants. “Take off your clothes.”
I shuddered inside at the horror of what awaited me. In the throes of panic unlike any I had ever know, I made a decision. I had to get out of here. I had to get out of here now.
My panicked gaze jumped to the small window behind the desk. There was a short bookcase and filing cabinet underneath it. I scanned the room for anything I could use as a weapon. A heavy crystal paperweight shaped like a teardrop caught my eye. Did I have the courage or the strength to use it?
Lalo made the biggest mistake of his night by turning his back on me while shrugging out of his blazer. I didn’t hesitate. With two quick steps, I reached the desk and swiped the paperweight. I had to use both hands to lift it high overhead. I thanked my lucky stars that Lalo wasn’t much taller than me.
I embraced that primitive survival instinct to do whatever was necessary to get out of here. Inhaling a sharp breath, I slammed the paperweight onto the back of Lalo’s shaved head. He grunted and stumbled forward but didn’t fall. Panicked that he might spin around and hit me, I struck him again.
This time, he dropped like a sack of rocks. Shocked by what I had done, I dropped the paperweight and stu
mbled away from the sight of the cartel’s top man bleeding and knocked out on the dirty cement floor. Had I killed him? No, no. He was breathing. But there was so much blood...
You have to get out of here. Run. Now.
I snatched up my jacket, my purse and my phone and jumped up onto the filing cabinet. I didn’t even bother trying to put on my shirt or work smock. I wasn’t sure how long Lalo’s enforcers would leave us alone in here or how long he would be unconscious. I needed to disappear. Fast.
The window opened but it wasn’t a very big space. I stuffed my phone into my purse and wrapped them both up in my jacket before shoving them out of the window. I slipped one leg through and then managed to shimmy the rest of my body out of the small slot.
Out in the shockingly cold night, I hurriedly jammed my bare arms through my jacket sleeves and tried to figure out where the hell I was. I could see the loading dock to the right and decided to run toward the left instead. Regretting every decision I had made since finding my vandalized car, I retrieved my phone from my purse, unlocked the screen with trembling fingers and found the newest contact that had been programmed into my phone.
While I prayed Alexei would answer, I clutched my handbag to my chest and ran. I didn’t know where I was going, but I just kept moving away from the Arena. I had to find a place to hide.
“Hello?” Alexei’s confident, strong voice glided across the airwaves.
“Alexei!” His name burst from my lips in a sob of relief.
“Shay?”
“Oh my god! Alexei! I need your help.” I began to weep uncontrollably. “They trashed my car and then Lalo tried to—” I couldn’t bring myself to say the word rape. “And I hit him and he’s bleeding everywhere. God, I’m so scared.”
“Shay! Calm down.” He spoke firmly. His stern, commanding voice calmed my rapid heartbeat. “Where are you?”
“I’m behind the Arena? I think?” I glanced left and right and then straight ahead. In my panicked sprint, I had somehow run around the edge of the parking garage. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Can you get to one of the restaurants on Fondren? There’s a couple of fast food joints there.”
“I don’t know.” Could I make it? I had to try.
“I’ll stay on the phone with you. I’m only a few minutes away on Hillcroft. I’ve been looking for you.”
Find me, I pleaded silently. Please find me.
Holding tight to my phone, I hurried across a short piece of paved road where a couple of buses were parked and squeezed between them. They were wrapped in band and sponsor logos so I tried to be as quiet and inconspicuous as possible. I could hear raucous male voices and got nervous. The band’s road crew was probably tucked away in Lalo’s pocket. I could just imagine the price on my head now.
As I made it through that obstacle, I noticed how strangely quiet my surroundings were. Where were the police? Where was security?
You can’t trust them. You can’t trust anyone except Alexei. Lalo can buy and bribe anyone he wants.
“Shay? Are you there?” Worry edged into Alexei’s voice.
I waited until I was well clear of the band buses to answer him. “Yes.”
“Can you see those restaurants?”
“I think so.” There were bright lights up ahead, just through a line of trees. “Yes. I’m almost there.”
“Good. Keep moving. I’m coming for you.”
Grateful for my Russian knight in shining armor, I burst through the tree line and experienced a wave of elation—but it was quickly dashed by the sight of small groups of men hanging around SUVs and cars. I recognized the white gleaming SUV as one that belonged to Lalo. Four of his guys stood next to it and bullshitted the night away with a circle of Hermanos gang members, their neck tattoos boldly displayed for all to see.
Shit. I quickly flitted back into the shadows of the trees and ran back toward the parking garage. There was no way in hell I was getting anywhere near those guys. The mix of Hermanos gang members and cartel enforcers on Lalo’s payroll meant certain death if I was caught.
“Shay? Is something wrong?”
“Lalo’s guys are in the parking lot. I can’t go there.”
He cursed in Russian. “There’s that dim sum restaurant on the other side of the parking garage. If you can’t get there, stay hidden. I’ll find you.”
When I rounded the back edge of the long parking garage, I came out between a parked police cruiser and a long line of cargo vans. For a split-second, I considered trying to find the police officer who drove that cruiser but then I caught sight of the blood on my hands. Almost naked under my jacket, I didn’t want to explain what had happened back in the Arena. If I got the police involved? I was a dead girl.
I scurried across the street and made it to the strip of parking lot behind Fung’s Kitchen. I skirted along the edge of a massive dumpster and hurried toward the main parking area that had much better lighting. As I walked fast, I noticed the bounce of headlights to my left. I glanced back to see if there was a vehicle turning into the parking lot and nearly had a heart attack.
“Oh, God. Oh, God! Oh, God!” I started running even before my brain could piece together what my eyes were seeing.
“Shay? Shay! What is it?”
“It’s the truck that was at my house earlier! Shit. Shit.” I was sprinting now, my strides tearing up the parking lot as fast as my legs would take me. I didn’t know where I was running or why. In a full-fledged panic, I had gone straight to flight mode. I didn’t want to stick around to fight.
“I’m on Southwest Freeway. I’m almost there. Just keep moving, Shay.”
I hooked a quick left across the next parking lot and slipped between cars. The truck revved its engines as those skinhead goons chased me. Barely able to breathe, I raced forward on wobbly legs. Somehow I managed to make it to the car stereo place. I swung around the side of the building and found myself in a large rectangular space between commercial buildings.
Up ahead, I could see a narrow outlet to the front of the shopping strip. That area nudged right up against the road Alexei was traveling down right now. If I could just get there…
Brakes squealed and car doors slammed closed behind me. I whirled around and tried to gulp down the dry ball of terror lodged in my throat. Four men advanced on me. One of them had a long piece of rope dangling from his hand. The other held a baseball bat.
“Oh, God.” My hand started to drop, and I could just barely make out the sound of Alexei shouting at me, telling me he was almost there.
But he wasn’t going to make it.
It was too late.
Chapter Four
One Hour Earlier
Alexei slipped his SUV into a parking space along the outer edge of the lot in front of the strip club. Besian Beciraj owned a string of adult entertainment spots around the city and this was one of his newest acquisitions. By the looks of it, the place needed a shitload of renovations. The club had a reputation as the place tired and rundown dancers found work at the end of their careers. Besian would have to sink a ton of money into revamping the business and discovering new talent to turn this sinking ship around, but if anyone could pull it off, it was the Albanian enforcer turned loan shark and mob boss.
Glancing around the parking lot, Alexei made sure his alarm engaged before crossing the pavement to the entrance. A pair of bouncers waited by the doors. They took one look and waved him inside. What would Shay say if she knew that he got VIP treatment in establishments like these? She’d probably wrinkle that dainty little nose of hers and shoot him a disappointed look. The thought of her reaction made his chest tighten with shame.
That girl has you wound right around that pinky finger of hers!
Shoving aside that troubling discovery, he passed the hostess station and angled toward the rear of the club where Besian had told him he would be waiting. The heat inside the club slapped him in the face, especially after that brisk walk across the parking lot. The scent of musky, spicy pe
rfumes saturated the air.
Every now and then, he caught a lungful of that awful smelling body spray so many of the young male patrons were overusing. It was a product he forbid the employees at any of his dealerships. He glanced at the clueless twentysomethings doused in that ungodly scent who tossed wrinkled dollar bills onto the main stage in a disrespectful display.
As he passed the stage, he reached into his jacket and retrieved a pair of crisp twenties that he had tucked away there. He slid them onto the stage and winked up at the blonde who smiled down at him. In a club like this, forty dollars would probably cover the stage fees and tips she would be expected to pay at the end of her shift. At least she would be able to leave tonight with some cash in her pocket.
His good deed done, Alexei weaved around the tables and kept his gaze straight forward when he walked by the lap dance booths. He doubted the men hidden away there with dancers were only getting a private show for their thirty or forty bucks. It was an ugly side of the business but it was a reality, especially in a place like this.
When his cell phone began to vibrate, he answered it. “Yes?”
“Hey, it’s Boychenko. Can you hear me? The music is loud!”
“Yes, I can hear you.” He pressed his finger to his other ear and turned away from the DJ stand. “What’s wrong?”
“Look, there was a wreck so it took me longer than expected to get to this cleaning place. Your lady? She’s not here.”
“Has she gone home?”
“I don’t know, man. Does she drive a white car?”
“Yes.” His stomach knotted with worry. “Why?”
“It’s been beat to shit, Alexei. The windshield and windows are busted out. Someone took a sledgehammer to the side panels and the hood.”
“Is there blood?” He held his breath as he waited for an answer he didn’t want to hear.
“No. I checked. I think it was a message to her. Wait. Hang on. There’s a truck pulling into the parking lot.”
“What kind of truck?” He remembered the vehicle Shay had described. Had they come back looking for her?