Page 128 of Kai
She’d done the squinting thing again. Like she’d done to me many times. She’d studied Javier and Bozeman with the same single-minded intensity she was now applying to Levine.She was monitoring his aura. However it worked, I trusted her gift.
“I’ll give you what you want,” I said. “I’ll do thatafteryou’ve answered all our questions.” The latter could take a while, given Dagger’s extensive curiosity about the NWO and anything Li. “Take the deal,Jack.If you don’t, I’ll make sure Li and his crowd learn that you’re still alive. Hell, I’ll even text them a set of coordinates to come pick you up. Or maybe we’ll leave you all bundled up at the NWO’s door, minus your prick, of course.”
The threat brought out the visceral reaction I was looking for. His throat rippled with a dry croak. The leverage I needed snapped into place. The one thing Levine feared above all else? His boss and the organization he’d recently worked for.
Levine considered me closely. “How do I know you won’t kill me after I talk?”
“Because I’m not Li,” I answered succinctly. “Because I don’t have time to ask the big existential questions until I get you to safety. That alone will keep you breathing. I give you my word that you won’t die in my custody.”
“Your word?” He sniggered. “Ha!”
“Deal or no deal?” Cece ran out of patience. She stretched out her arms, double-gripped her gun, and aimed at the merc. “This is a lot of blah, blah, blah. Personally, I find this deal deplorable, but yeah, this jarhead believes in principles and shit like that. I don’t, so stop wasting my time. If it’s no deal, I’m happy to put a bullet through your brain right now.”
She was so damn convincing that I wanted to give her a standing ovation.
“Okay, fine, deal.” A cruel smirk twitched on the man’s thick lips. “You’re fierce, girl. You’re so hot you’ve got my blood boiling. You took me down at the lighthouse.”
“And I’ll take you down again if you so much as twitch the wrong way,” Cece retorted.
“You are, like, fucking incredible, not to mention the sexiest, most desirable woman I’ve ever met.”
“You’re drunk on your own testosterone.” Cece’s grip tightened around her gun before she glanced at me. “He’s one sick bastard.”
“Sick, disgusting,andsuicidal,” I grumbled.
“I’m lovesick.” The merc grinned. “I’m smitten. Your scowl is seductive. The rage in your eyes is epic, and—”
“Jack,”I growled. “I warned you—”
“You’re wasting your time and your potential hanging out with the likes of him.” The merc knocked his head toward me, then smirked back at Cece. “Don’t be surly, my sweet-and-sour buffet. Or be surly, if you wish. I adore your temperament. You’re giving me a hard-on right now.”
Fuck the bastard. My top was about to blow. Since I operated by the book, torture was not an option, but today, for the first time ever, I considered it. One… Breathe. Two… Breathe. Three…
“You call that pathetic tiny thing a hard-on?” Cece scoffed, lowered her arms, and adjusted her aim. “I call it extra, extra small. I’m happy to use it for target practice.”
“Cece, you’re hangry,” I said, maneuvering to position her away from the pervert. “You need to go get something to eat.”
“You’re no fun,” Cece groused, but she clicked on the safety and put away her gun. “Okay, but promise me that if he doesn’t put out, you’ll let me have a go at him.”
“I promise.”
Levine’s cackles resonated in the boat. “Soldier boy, you’re so pussy-whipped that you can’t give her what she needs, what she really wants. You’re way too…lenient.”
I bit down on inner cheek so hard I drew blood, but I couldn’t kill him, at least not yet.
“Cersi, you wild thing,” the fucking creep kept at it.“You’re rare, remarkable, extraordinary. Why are you hanging out when Mr. Yes Dear when you’re craving Master Levine?”
Yep.The douchebag was gonna end up dead anytime now. I was gonna be the perpetrator.
“You don’t need Soldier Boy here.” Levine played his cards hard and fast, knowing his window was small. My patience was getting even smaller. “You ran away from home for sound reasons. Your father was a son of a bitch. Your sisters didn’t understand you. They never cared for you. Hell, no one did.”
Cece flinched. She hid her pain quickly, but the fucker had scored a hit, and it echoed in me like a punch to the gut.
You need the intel, Marine,I reminded myself. You know how to play this game.
I clenched my fists and relaxed my hand on my Glock. But it was a close thing, especially given that he kept flapping his lips.
“This man is taking you back to your father’s place.” His gaze pleaded with Cece. “He’s taking charge of you,controlling you like your father did.”
