Page 76 of Graveyards & Greed

“Why don’tyouadmit that you love him too, but you’re scared shitless of commitment after watching your mother make a mess of it over and over? But you’re not your mother.” She stopped short and winced.

“That hit a little too close to home, didn’t it?” I taunted and turned to Drakos. “We shouldn’t get married for marital immunity,” I argued.

Drakos raised an eyebrow. “That isn’t what I said. Don’t put words in my mouth.”

Throwing up my hands, I turned to Alexa. “That is exactly what he said.”

She gazed at both of us and shook her head. “I’m going next door to talk with Ivan. It’d be better if I’m the one to tell him I hacked his feeds.”

“I’ll go with you.”

“Don’t leave without a bodyguard,” Drakos called out.

“I won’t, but if I don’t get some air and a few minutes away from you, my head is going to explode.” We walked out of the loft together and stopped in the garage.

Alexa turned to me and studied my face. “You love him. I can tell.”

Sighing, I hung my head. “It’s not that simple.”

She nodded. “It never is.”

We both jumped when loud screams erupted on the street in front. “What the hell?” I muttered.

Alexa and I ran to the garage door, and I hit the button to turn on his security feed. What I saw chilled me. Two men dressed in regular street clothes were dragging a woman to a shiny black SUV. Without thinking, I started to unlock the deadbolts.

“No! Sylvie, wait.” Alexa rushed toward me, but I was too angry to stop. As I stepped outside, I felt her grab the back pocket of my jeans, but I pulled out of her grip and moved forward when one of the men slapped the woman, a white-hot rage filling my vision.

As I ran to help the woman, the other man turned. He had a big gut and bad teeth. He was also one of Terrance LeBaron’s lackeys. The lady abruptly stopped screaming and smiled wide. Her lip bled onto her teeth, giving her a psychotic clown look.

“Your daddy said you’d come out,” the second man smirked and lunged for me. He had a receding chin and greased-back hair. I quickly backed up, but the guy with the gut circled behind me. I turned to keep him in my sights. When he rushed me, I stepped aside and kicked out, hitting his thigh. He didn’t seem to have any training, but he had a good eighty pounds on me. Another man swung out of the driver’s seat of the black Escalade. Terrance LeBaron strode over, wearing his OutKast vest, and the blood drained from my head. Fuck, I was in so much trouble.

“‘For the Lord of armies will have a day of reckoning.’ It’s a reckoning day for you, Sylvie Spade. Are you going to come quietly, or do we need to put a bullet in your thigh like you did to Tank?”

One of his men pulled a gun and aimed it at me. I tensed when I saw Alexa step out, and I shook my head vigorously at her. I couldn’t protect us both, and I needed her to tell Drakos and my cousins what was happening. She gazed around and summed up the situation in a split second. Her face went bone-white, but she nodded and backed into the garage quietly. They didn’t spare her a glance.

I held my hands up and tsked at Terrance. “You keep forgetting about the cameras, old man. There’s surveillance all over this block. If you shoot me, the police and the entire Spade clan are going to hunt you down.”

He chuckled and tilted his head. “I don’t care. Get in the SUV—now.”

When I didn’t move, Terrance strode over to me, cocked his fist back, and punched me in the stomach. If his friend hadn’t been holding a gun on me, I would’ve fought back. Instead, I swiveled sideways to lessen the blow. But the pain still burst through my gut, and I landed on my ass.

“We gotta go,” the stocky one muttered nervously.

Terrance leaned down and felt in my pants pockets as I hunched in on myself. He fished my phone out and threw it over his shoulder, then he and the greasy-haired man lifted me up as I started to struggle, and threw me into the back of his SUV. My knee whacked the side, and I groaned in pain as Terrance roughly pulled my arms in front of me and duct-taped my wrists together. I started screaming for help, but he grabbed my shirt, pulled me up, and punched me in the side of the head. My mind blanked and I fought to stay conscious as he ripped off another long strip of tape and wrapped it around my head, covering my mouth. He’d caught my hair in the tape, and it was going to hurt like a son of a bitch when it came off.

Grinning, he slammed the back door down and they quickly piled into the vehicle, speeding off less than two minutes after I’d run out of Drakos’s front door. A wave of panic and abject fear threatened me, but I swallowed it back.

I was a fucking idiot. But if I wanted to get out of this alive, I needed to stop being stupid and use my head. Because there was no way I’d let that psychotic, Bible-quoting prick take me out without a fight.

My head pounded, and the smell of exhaust and the motion of the vehicle made my stomach roil, but I knew if I threw up, I could suffocate. Swallowing, I got control of myself. Were Drakos and Ivan looking for me? Would they call my cousins and get them involved? I hoped to God Alexa had gotten Terrance’s license plate, but her angle hadn’t been good.

I was so stupid. If Ididget out of this mess, Fennick was going to rip me a new one, and Kilian would be so disappointed. I wondered if I’d ever see them again as tears pricked my eyes.

The SUV's cargo area smelled like a wet dog, and when I looked up, I noticed a mesh barrier between it and the back seat. However, I could clearly hear them talking.

“You gonna let us have at her before you kill her, Boss?” one of the men asked Terrance.

“The Lord rewards those who are faithful and righteous.”

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