Page 7 of Pound

“That’s two, sweet Meri. You don’t get a third.” The calmness with which he delivered the monotone threat was terrifying.

“Noted,” she said with little to no inflection. She’d already figured out he hated it. So why not find defiance where she could since direct insults were out? At least to his mental status or physical being.

“Now, dear.” He was back to sounding chipper. “No need to be glum about it. Where’s that fire, that passion? You must be hungry. I know how women get when they’re hangry. Am I right, Tony?” He slapped the Buick driving on the shoulder. “Take us to Vito’s instead, but call my sister first, have her pick out a dress for my sweet Meri. She can’t eat the most heavenly lasagna in Reno dressed like that.”

“Yes, Mr. Moreno.”

Mr. Moreno? So that was Designer Suit’s name.

He turned to her. The questioning look showed on her face. Mr. Moreno smirked. He liked her confusion? Of course, he did. He viewed any information as currency.

The smirk was replaced with a sneer as his gaze tracked down her body. It seemed her scrubs had personally offended him.

“Shoes?”

“No, thank you?” The upward inflection at the end posed it more as a question than an answer. She watched him roll his eyes in frustration then give her a hard look.

She was rethinking every life choice she’d made up until that point. The man was clearly unstable and that made him unpredictable. Unpredictable made it impossible to play into his weaknesses because there was no way to pin them down.

“Um, seven and a half.” She took mental note of the micro reactions on his face when her answer pleased him. That was something. It wouldn’t help her navigate him before the fact but may help her mitigate his anger afterward.

They pulled up in front of a hidden little hole-in-the-wall restaurant. Another car was waiting, with a man leaning against the hood holding a cream-colored dress and silver shoes.

Meri did something she hadn’t done in a really long time, put her faith in a man, or rather, men. She just had to survive until her brother’s club came riding to her rescue on horses of chrome.

Tony exited the vehicle and collected the dress and shoes while the other Buick opened the door for Mr. Moreno.

The bastard reached for the clothes and passed them to Meri. When she didn’t immediately accept them, he frowned before realizing her hands were still bound.

Dropping the clothes to the seat, he reached behind and freed her hands, but she still didn’t reach for the clothes. Meri remembered she was wearing her smartwatch. Her trackable smartwatch and didn’t want to draw attention to it.

“Um, I’m not changing in a car.”

Can I not be biddable for even a second to make this kidnapping go a little easier? No, no I can’t apparently.

Meri would damn sure give it the college try, but she’d never been sweet and cooperative. That wasn’t true. She was, once upon a time. Before Jake got her pregnant and bolted. Leaving her to raise twins by herself. Only to swoop in later and put her in her current situation.

Fuuuuuuuuck. Me.

Mr. Moreno looked angry but smirked. She realized that combination was worse than either alone. “Well, you have five minutes. Either change or I drag you from the car by that hideous ponytail, strip you in the parking lot, and change you myself. I have to say, I prefer that option personally, but I doubt you do. Your choice, sweet Meri.” He spoke the last with eagerness as he closed the car door.

Meri made quick work of changing. Everyone had gathered a slight distance away and was talking. It was now or never. She reached down as if to buckle her heels and slipped the smartwatch off. After dimming the display and silencing all sounds, she wrapped the magnetic band around what she assumed was the seat track.

Her scrubs she folded in a neat pile on the seat. Assuming he would order them burned, she didn’t want any reason for someone to bend down by the seat at all. Satisfied with her efforts, she exited the car and joined her kidnapper, who she hoped would be satisfied with that title and didn’t wish to graduate to rapist or worse.

As soon as she joined the circle of outlaws, the Buicks stepped back. Mr. Moreno reached up and ripped the elastic from her hair and nodded, offering his elbow.

If Meri didn’t know she’d been taken against her will, nothing in Mr. Moreno’s disposition—after pulling her hair band out—would’ve suggested it. They walked in and were seated as if it was a date. He ordered for her, explained the notes in the wine, and seemed overly concerned with if she was having a good time or not. The man seriously thought he could seduce her.

As if. However, she’d use that to her advantage. If information was his currency, she needed to get paid.

“So, Mr. Moreno, tell me about your family. You mentioned a sister earlier.” Meri sipped the wine as casually as possible in the situation.

His eyes twinkled with her feigned interest in him. Good.

“Please, call me Leone.” He motioned for her glass to be refilled. “My dearest sister is all I have now. She’s my everything.” Something about his words and the look in his eyes totally skeeved her out.

“She’s the only one who’ll have anything to do with me after your Jake cheated my family out of half a million dollars.”

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