Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
Dante
? Two days before the kidnapping. ?
I could still feel the mat under my spine, the sting of impact radiating across my shoulder blades.
Leigh’s knees settled on arms to hold me in place as she held the blade to my throat. I was stronger than her, just not with the tip of a knife to my jugular.
“You’re dead,” she murmured, breath warm against my jaw.
I swallowed as the metal bit into my neck. “Only because you brought a weapon to the fight. If you were more confident, you would’ve just fought me barehanded, one on one.”
She bit her lip before speaking again, “That would then give you the upper hand since I’m a girl and all.”
The knife pressed a fraction closer and I felt a twinge of pain. She’d nicked my skin with it.
“Don’t give me that shit, Leigh. You’re the most dangerous girl I’ve ever met.”
“Mm.” She shifted, and suddenly I had a moment of leverage.
I twisted, testing her balance and surged, hips bucking, one arm wrenching free just enough to catch her wrist. The knife clattered across the mat as we rolled, bodies colliding hard.
She was fast and elbowed me in the ribs as she slipped out from under me.
We were on our feet in seconds.
She came at me without hesitation. Her fist swung left, missing me by an inch before her right fist struck out, catching me on the opposite side of my face.
As her arm drifted past me, I caught her wrist and spun her to where her back was against my chest. I tossed my arm around her neck in a firm headlock.
“Cheap shot,” I whispered near her ear.
She leaned back into me provocatively. Her head tilted just enough that I could see the edge of her grin.
“You’re just mad you didn’t stop me in time.”
I tightened my hold. But a shaky breath fell from my mouth as her bottom half rubbed into me lightly.
She exhaled slowly, “You’re predictable,” she said, slamming her foot down onto mine.
Pain shot immediately, and it was enough to make my grip falter. I hissed through my teeth at the throb.
She twisted out of my hold, and as she leaned forward her elbow caught me in the nose. I stumbled back a step, weight shifting to save my balance, and in that half second she was already moving.
“Fuck,” I muttered, knowing exactly where she was headed.
Leigh dove for the mat, fingers skimming across the surface before closing around the knife that had gone flying earlier. She rolled with it, came up on one knee, blade back in her hand like it had never left as I moved toward her.
I lunged, and caught her wrist just as she brought it up, steel flashing between us. The impact jolted up my arm. We froze there, faces locked inches apart.
Her smile was wicked.
“Told you,” she said quietly. “Predictable.”
I stared at her for a long second, then shook my head with a breathless laugh and released her wrist, stepping back and raising my hands in surrender.
“Fine,” I said. “Point proven.”
She straightened, knife still in hand, chest rising and falling like she’d just won something more important than a spar.
“Next time,” she said, brushing past me, shoulder clipping mine on purpose, “don’t hesitate.”
I stood there long after she’d walked off, foot and face still throbbing.
I knew damn well that she was right.
But I couldn’t help the way she made me feel.
The memory dissolves the moment I step through the door, walking around Finnic.
He seems ready to put distance between himself and Leigh before she can crawl any further into his head.
“Don’t.” I command.
He stops in his tracks, then glances back at me.
The conflict is written all over his face. Doubt pulling him in opposite directions, weighing loyalties that no longer fit.
Who to trust. Who to stand beside.
“What,” he mutters. “You ready to torture her again?”
“Torture’s a strong word.”
I turn away from him before he can argue, already pulling my phone from my pocket. At the tap of the screen, the recorded video reloads exactly where I left it.
Viktor has been efficient in getting the information he needs from the Armani’s.
Leigh doesn’t move when I kneel beside her. She stays where she is on the thin mattress, her hair falling slightly around her face. But her eyes track me instantly.
“What’s this?” she asks.
Finnic shifts behind me. “What are you showing her?”
“Quiet,” I say without looking back.
I lean in close enough that she can see the screen clearly when I tilt it toward her. Close enough that I can see the moment her confidence falters.
I press play on the video.
Representative Armani’s voice filters out through the audio. He is consistently bargaining and barely holding together. His face is bruised and swollen from the numerous blows to the skin.
Viktor circles him like a lion hunting its prey. “You either give us what we want, or I broadcast your daughter’s allegations against you to the media.”
Leigh’s breath hitches dramatically.
The video rolls on.
It gives her every bit of information she needs to temporarily keep this ruse going.
Representative Armani panics consistently through out the footage as Viktor blackmails him with assault allegations that are against his own daughter.
I didn’t expect that to be what returns the money to our boss, but it works nonetheless.
It is disgusting.
I’m not even a father yet. Even so, I can see how fucked up that is, and that is one hundred percent surprising considering I make a living ignoring worse.