Page 26 of Monster

“My mother won’t pay, you know,” I said.

Teo searched my eyes. “I’m sure she’d pay anything necessary to save her only child.”

“Then, clearly, you don’t know my mother.”

He cocked his head. “A bit of a dark thing to say about your own mother.”

I shrugged. “I know she prizes her firm above all else. And if anyone asked for anything that compromised that, she’d never do it.”

“It’s really interesting that you think—”

I gnashed my teeth together. “You sent those traffickers to kidnap me and bring me here, didn’t you?”

“Miss Pettigrew, I can assure you—”

“How did you hack into my schedule?”

He paused. “Your schedule.”

“Are you hard of hearing? Yes, my schedule! I keep it on a secure server that only the employees of the firm can access. I was supposed to be here on vacation for two weeks. Everyone knew it. How did you hack into my schedule and get that information, huh? Is that what you told the traffickers when they found me on the beach? Did you have me followed!?”

He kept his cool, and it infuriated me. “No, Miss Pettigrew. I didn’t have you followed. Those disgusting men don’t work with me.”

I narrowed my eyes. “But…?”

He grinned. “Intuitive. You really do keep surprising me.”

“What did you do, you son of a bitch?”

He stood to his feet. “I didn’t aid in your capture. But, that doesn’t mean I didn’t do what I could to help you after they snatched you up.”

“You slimy little—”

“Eventually, you’ll come to realize that I saved you.”

I held up my hand, my cuffs jangling. “This is what you call saving? Because if it is, someone needs to do some Googling.”

“I have toys for that.”

I scoffed. “Gross.”

“Not what you thought when I had you pressed against that wall the other day.”

I felt my cheeks flushing and I hated myself for it.

“Don’t change the subject, Teo. I want to know exactly what you’re going to do to me since you apparently think you’re helping by locking me in your fucking basement.”

He slid his hands into his pockets. “Better than letting you go and allowing the Lucchese’s to come after you. And they will, too.”

I paused. “Why?”

He shrugged nonchalantly. “The bidding war from the auction.”

“What about it?”

“The other man bidding for you would have tortured you just for fun before defiling your corpse.”

I swallowed down bile working its way up my throat. “You’re being serious.”

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