Page 6 of Captive Prize

Which was why spotting my second-in-command casually leaning against a wall, cleaning his gun while the surrounding men bled and my unconscious prisoner lay unrestrained on the cold concrete floor spiked my blood pressure.

Time to be the ruthless bitch they accused me of being.

“Mateo!” I yelled, careful to not let too much anger show. Just enough so everyone knew I wasn’t fucking around. Controlled fury.

God, walking that line was exhausting.

“Oh shit,reina de hielois getting hysterical,” someone muttered. I shot them a withering look, and they moved behind someone else.

Ice queen.

At first, I hated the nickname, but now I used it as armor. Another layer between me and the men who worked for me.

“Mateo,” I yelled again.

“Yeah, boss?” he said, not looking up from his pistol. The further into the warehouse I moved, the stronger the stench of acrid gunpowder and carnage became. I breathed in deeply, using the smell of violence to focus myself.

“You said he’d be alone. Why wasn’t he alone?” I demanded.

“I don’t know.” Mateo shrugged. “It was a mistake that should have never happened.” He looked up, his dark eyes assessing me, like he was annoyed by my presence but was forced to tolerate me. “But we’ll take care of it. We’ll go back and kill the bitch.”

Every time one of them opened their mouth, I remembered why I hated needing them.

I hired them because I needed ruthless; I needed vicious.

It didn’t mean I had to like them…or respect them.

There had to be a certain element of crazy in any man willing to go up against the Ivanov family. However, their complete nonchalance over killing women and children was unsettling.

I wanted the men responsible for what happened to my family dead, not their wives. Not their children. The sins of the father did not pass down to the son. Not in my world.

“No,” I said, a little too quickly. Mateo raised an eyebrow, ready to question me.

Wrong response.

Too emotional.

What would my father do? He would kill her. But if he didn’t, what excuse would he use?

“Leave her,” I said, not letting him speak. “Let her be a warning. It’s good to have witnesses, so the Ivanovs know what happened.”

Mateo nodded, approving of what he considered a strategic move. It still made me sick to my stomach, and I hoped that girl, whoever she was, survived the crash.

Then there was the matter of the man who chased after us. Another miscalculation. Another strategic failure I couldn’t afford. Another fuckup.

I thought again of how he moved like a weapon. Cold. Programmed. Unstoppable. He’d focused his fury and rage more intensely than anyone I’d ever seen.

I didn’t recognize him as one of the Ivanovs.

They never hired guards that weren’t family in one way or another.

Every person working for or with the Ivanovs was Russian. This man wasn’t.

He was something else, someone else.

I pushed the thoughts away and looked back over at my prisoner. Pavel Ivanov. The only one who didn’t live atthe compound, thus making him the easiest target. He lay unconscious on the cement floor.

Abducting him was just the first part of my revenge. His family had taken so much from me, so much, and I intended to pay it back with interest.

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