Taking another sip, I drew my attention back to Kathleen Kelly yelling at Joe Fox over caviar being a garnish as Rossy headed to the door. When he finally left, I let the movie continue to play in the background as I pulled out my laptop and got onto the twenty-four-hour helpline with my bank. I didn’t have the time to wait until tomorrow. I needed answers now. When I finally got in touch with a human, after going through twenty minutes with a computer system, the truth cracked my soul in two.
I had been right.
My money had been stolen from me, but not by a hacker.
It was only when the movie credits ended that I threw the blanket off, put my shoes back on, and called an Uber.
I was going to fix this shit right now because there was no way in hell I’d let my past ruin my future—again.
Chapter Nine
Hayes
My head snapped to the side, pain radiating through my jaw and up to my temple as the man’s fist connected with it.
“Told Red Snake last year I didn’t want any trouble,” Jack rumbled from somewhere in the darkness beyond me.
The light above me swung back and forth as dots danced in my vision. Jack’s lackey removed his fist from my face as my bare chest heaved. I kept my head to the side, hocking up all the saliva and blood in my mouth before spitting on his other lackey's shoe. The man growled, but I didn’t care. I raised back up, the middle of my back digging into the rusted metal chair, the jagged pieces piercing my skin. My eyes were focused on the shadows, searching for the bastard who’d had me running all over Southeast Asia for the last few weeks. After having no luck in Japan, I was forced to head back to the mainland to meet up with one of Collin Stevens’ men. Jack had not only been running Vegas for the last seven years, icing out other crime organizations, but he had been stealing from them. He’d managed to steal millions from Stevens just in the last year while being on the run, Black Mist nonexistent. It took seven days for us to find Jack’s safe house, and the last thing I anticipated was an ambush.
Foolishly unexpected on my part. I should’ve been more prepared.
Jack was supposed to be isolated, but somehow, he’d managed to recruit new members to his lost cause; he was a dead man walking, according to Red Snake’s government contacts. What he promised these men remained a mystery. All I knew was it couldn’t be money, because here, on the opposite side of the world, he had no access to his accounts. If I gave a shit, I would have Dominic dig around in Jack’s mind, find out how he made people fall in line, because it wasn’t with fear.
Jack was the least intimidating son of a bitch I’d come across in this lifetime.
Grayson and Carrie’s orange cat, Tic-Tac, was scarier than this asshole.
It had been nearly seventy-two hours since I touched base with Murphy, meaning he’d sound the alarm soon. After whathappened with Ash, he set a hard limit of seventy-five hours of no-contact. I just needed to keep Jack from putting a bullet in my brain until that happened.
“Your friend wasn’t of much help to you,” Jack noted.
I didn’t bother looking at the rotting corpse in the chair next to me. He’d been dead for two days, and the smell, his decomposition paired with his shit, was finally starting to get to me. Still, I somehow managed to keep my sanity intact, holding on to the hope of seeing my angry girl again. The memories of her soft touches and breathless moans were the only things tethering me to this world, keeping me present. It was a strange sensation, really. I’d never anchored myself to another person while staring death in the face. Then again, before Margo, my life had been a series of events that, over time, I’d managed to detach myself from. Something in my spirit wouldn’t let me forget her, the night we shared, or the pain I’d caused her.
I wouldn’t feel whole until I had her in my arms again.
“You’re a fool for coming after me,” Jack continued, arrogance oozing from his voice.
“There’s a bounty on your head, Jack,” I pushed out, the taste of blood on my tongue.
“Yes,” he muttered. “I am aware of that.”
“Is this your plan? Start over? Rebuild the empire?”
Silence.
I jutted my chin out. “Black Mist is no more, Jack. Why go through all this trouble?”
“Mr. Mitchell, you are in no position to be asking questions.” He paused and I heard him move closer. Still, the bastard refused to come into the light. “I’m surprised you haven’t begged for your life yet.”
“I don’t beg to worthless men.”
That earned me another punch. This time, my jaw cracked. It took a second to get my bearings, but I rolled my neck, chanting her name in my head to keep myself grounded.
Margo.
Margo.
Margo.