Page 60 of The Orc of Wall Street

“Now hold on a minute,” Gage says, raising an enormous hand. “You don’t think we’re just going to let you go alone, do you?”

I do a double-take. “Of course. No one else can come. He said no cops, and he means it.”

Angel scoffs. “Yeah, but we’re not cops.”

I gape at her and then at the others. “You can’t be serious. This is dangerous. Who knows who is going to be there? You’ll all be in danger.”

“Right now, it sounds like Sloane is in the most danger,” Angel counters. “And since there can’t be any cops, you’re going to need all the help you can get if you want to save her. So we’re coming along, whether you like it or not.”

“Sloane’s our friend,” Lewis says with more confidence than I think I’ve ever heard from him before. “We’re not just going to let that scaly freak get away with this.”

My VP nods. “It’s settled then. You take these three with you, and I’ll stall the investors. We’re not going to let Craig get what he wants today.”

I shake my head in disbelief. “Hold on, when was this decided? Things are most definitely not settled.”

“Come on, Tarek, look around,” Val gestures to the others. “Do you really think anything you say is going to deter them from coming along?”

Staring at all of their faces, no, there’s nothing I could say that would deter them.

Pride swells within me. These are my people. People who are willing to do anything for a friend.

“We have to find her first,” I mutter.

“On it,” Angel says and she pulls out her phone. “Sloane and Amber probably went to Craig’s closest warehouse. Which is… three blocks away. I bet that’s where they took her.”

Suddenly I’m immensely grateful Angel is on our side. I nod. “Alright then, let’s go.”

With that settled, we all begin running for the door. As we run, I pray I’m not too late to tell Sloane all the things I should have said.

CHAPTER 30

Sloane

“Oww…”

Pain shoots through my body as I regain consciousness. My mind is foggy, my stomach is turning, and my head feels like it was bashed in with a baseball bat.

The floor beneath me is concrete, and the room smells old and musty. As I go to rub my eyes, I realize I can’t – my hands are tied behind my back.

Shit. I roll onto my back and wince at the bright light shining down on me from the ceiling.

Where the hell am I? I scan the room as my eyes adjust to the harsh light. There’s a shelf on the right wall filled with tools, and to my left, a bucket of cleaning products. Some kind of storage closet?

I scramble to remember the last thing that happened. I was in the office, and then me and Amber went to get coffee, and then I took a drink of mine, and it tasted kind of strange, and then…

And then I woke up on a concrete floor, thoroughly confused and feeling like I’d been trampled by a stampede of centaurs.

The door swings open.

“Hey, girl,” a familiar voice says. I turn my head, and sure enough, Amber is standing in the doorway with her arms crossed and a smug grin on her face. “How are you feeling?”

“Like garbage, thank you very much,” I say. “What the hell did you put in that coffee?”

“Oh, don’t be such a baby,” Amber says, crouching down in front of me. “You’ll be fine. It was a heavy-duty sedative. And before you ask, all I’ve done is tie you up while you were out. I’m not gonna hurt you.”

“Wow, so reassuring.” I roll my eyes and let my head fall back onto the concrete. “So what the hell is going on? I thought we were friends, Amber!”

Amber sighs. “Maybe in a better world, we could’ve been friends. It’s a shame because I really like you, Sloane,” she says with a shrug. “But we’re working for rivals, so that was just never in the cards for us.”

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