Page 33 of Capture Me
“How many?” a familiar voice asks.
I peek my head around the doorframe, and my stomach clenches. Two of my masked captors are standing over a bloodied man, their backs to me. They have their newest victim tied to a chair, similar tohow I was when they were interrogating me. Only his face is so beaten that his eyes are nearly swollen shut. He’s shirtless with dozens of cuts lining his torso; there’s so much blood coating him and the floor that it’s pooling around the drain. They’ve obviously been at this for a while.
Thing Two lifts the knife, pressing it to a spot of skin that hasn’t yet felt the blade’s kiss. “How many do they expect on the next shipment?”
The guy whimpers. “I would tell you if I knew, I swear.”
The blade pushes in, and the man screams.
“When is the next shipment coming in?” Thing Dickbag asks.
The man heaves, trying to fight the pain. “I don’t know! Fuck! I swear I don’t know! I only work with Clay to handle the money.”
My ears perk. There’s the mention of my dad’s slimy associate again. If he’s the real reason that Cerberus believes I’m involved in any of this nonsense then I’m going to kill him myself.
“And when does Clay expect his new batch to arrive? He had to have told you when to be ready for the next shipment.”
The man shakes his head, a sob breaking loose. “I told you, I don’t deal with the shipments, and neither does Clay.”
“Lying will only bring you more pain,” Thing Two warns.
Clay isn’t the type of guy to hang around a shipyard anyway, even I know that. That preppy asshole wouldn’t be caught dead around the smell of fish unless he was in a five-star seafood restaurant. The thought gives me an idea.
“He doesn’t know about shipments because that’s not Clay’s area of expertise.”
My captors whirl at my interruption. I steel myself and step into the room.
“What are you doing here?” Dickbag grinds out.
I ignore him, keeping my eyes on the bloodied man. “Clay doesn’t lower himself to going to the shipyard, does he?”
Even though the man’s eyes are nearly swollen shut, they still flare with recognition when they land on me. “It’s you! M-Miss Helix.” He thrashes in the chair, trying to get loose. “Help me get out of here! Please!”
Yeah, sorry dude. I can’t even help myself at this point. Plus, if he is working with Clay, I’m not sure I’d even want to help him if I could.
Thing Two kicks his leg. “Answer her question.”
“N-no. He doesn’t like going there. He doesn’t want to get his hands dirty in that way. Too risky.”
Inod. “Sounds like Clay.” I can feel the heated gaze of both captors as I form my next question. “He’s more of a crowd pleaser. A people-person who likes to wine and dine. Does he take any meetings before he pulls you into the loop?”
Thing Two stares at me, and I see when the lightbulb goes off because his gray eyes widen. He gets where I’m going with this.
“Y-yeah. He, uh, he meets with this guy named O'Brian. I don’t know his first name, but Clay meets with him before anything goes down because he has connections that help cover our tracks or some shit.”
Dickbag and Thing Two exchange a look, then glance back at me.
“Damn, Poison.” Thing Two steps into my space, but I don’t move. I’m done being intimidated by him. “Maybe you’re more useful than you think.”
Fast footsteps echo behind me. “Siren? Where are – Oh.” Thing One comes up behind me. “Sorry,” he says to the others. “I was dealing with a crisis.” He takes my hand to pull me out of the room, but a different hand clamps on my shoulder, holding me in place.
“Wait.”
I glance up at the rune mask, those gray eyes churning with something like determination. In one swift move, he grips the bottom of his mask and pushes it up and off his head, sliding his hood down in the process and revealing himself to me.
All thoughts vanish as I stare up at his face – at his beautiful, maskless face.
I’ve seen him before. Well, through the screen of my computer I’ve seen him, when I was doing my research on Lunar Security for Helix Enterprises. I remember staring at his profile picture for far too long to be appropriate. Like in his picture, his ashy blonde hair is tousledfrom wearing his hood, the locks just the perfect length for me to run my fingers through if I dared. He’s got that bad boy vibe to him like he did online, with his pierced eyebrow, those full pouty lips, and that come-near-me-and-I’ll-kill-you stare. He’s even more gorgeous in person.
