Page 22 of Pound

“I appreciate your thoughtfulness, prez. But in the future, I would appreciate it even more if you relied on me. I get that I made that difficult, but that’s in the past. Clean slate from here on out and no more secrets.”

“No more secrets.”

They shook on it.

“Now, go get ready to ride, we have a damsel in distress to rescue.”

Pound scoffed. “Don’t let my ol’ lady hear you call her that, she’s liable to set you straight.”

My ol’ lady.

Pound was liking the sound of that more and more.

6

MERI

Meri hadn’t laid eyes on another soul since Anna made her offer. Her biggest fear wasn’t that Anna was playing her. Something told her it was the sincerest thing anyone had said to her since she’d been taken.

She was reeling over the meaning of Anna’s words she couldn’t latch on to. It was just a nagging feeling in the back of her brain as opposed to anything she’d actually said. How did Anna expect her to find the Joe? There had to be hundreds of thousands, hell, millions of Joes in the world.

Meri was glad that she wouldn’t have to hunt for a man based on first name alone, an impossible task because she would free Anna.

Once free, Anna could tell the Phantoms more about him and they’d surely find him for her.

But it still bothered Meri that Anna had expected her to be able to find him. The way she’d spoken was like she thought Meri knew Joe. Maybe she did. There were a few Josephs that worked at the same hospital, but she knew next to nothing about them. Maybe that was it.

Buuuuut, Meri detected a slight Southern accent with both Anna and Reno. No matter how hard he tried to cover it up. So, how could the Joe she was looking for be right under their noses?

“Ugh.” Meri flopped back on the dirty mattress, hissing when her bruised ribs protested slightly. She was obsessing over something that wouldn’t matter as soon as they were both free.

The sound of footfalls descending the ramp caused her to perk up. “Shit,” she cursed under her breath. If she appeared too anxious, Tony would know something was up.

She rose and went to the bars, which she’d decided might make her seem more anxious. Meri knew she couldn’t push his buttons, but she needed balance. If she were suddenly too anxious, he’d be suspicious. On the other hand, if she didn’t appear a bit starved for attention and sustenance, he might also wonder why.

Normally, Meri was good at reading people and acting accordingly, but her brain wasn’t exactly firing on all cylinders lately. She was not cut out for the covert type of stuff though. Given the chance, Meri overthought things. If overthinking was an Olympic sport, she’d be weighted down with gold.

She took a calming breath as Tony came into view. Her gaze stayed on the ramp, and nothing. No Anna, just Tony. A fairly chipper Tony at that.

Meri’s suspicion rose. She’d never seen Tony grinning like that. “Your dinner, sweet Meri.”

The asshole presented it to her, no problem. No taunts, no bargains, just passed it through the slot. Normally, when he didn’t upturn it out of her reach, he entered the cell with it, hoping for sexual favors.

Instead, he stood there watching her. Waiting. “Aren’t you going to eat? You must be hungry. Famished even. Thirsty?”

Ice shards pulsed through her blood. He knew. Somehow, he knew and it was not going to be pleasant for her.

Her mind was reeling, looking for a way out of the punishment she knew would come. Especially when he started unlocking her cell slowly. Very slowly.

She looked down at the shiny silver key. So much different than the dull one he normally used to unlock her cell.

“Oh,” Tony taunted, taking note of her gaze. “Do you like it? It’s new. Anna had it cut… for you.” The door swung open, and he stalked inside. Meri almost dropped the tray in fear but realized it was the only weapon she had.

“Where… where’s Anna?”

“What does it matter? She can’t help you.”

What could she do to stop this? The tray would piss him off at best. Unless she hit him just right, she wouldn’t even make it out of the cell before he caught her.

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