Chapter 14
“Can you imagine how frustrating it was to learn I’ve been searching for weeks and you’ve been right under my nose this whole time?”
Even though Toni knew Cross wasn’t talking to her, she couldn’t stop her body from shaking in fear.
She tried to hold still, logic warning her of the sharp needle Cross held to the side of her throat.
It kept scraping along her flesh, and maybe she was imagining it, but she would swear it sounded like a nail on a chalkboard.
Ranger stood several feet away from her.
She wasn’t sure if that was intentional on Cross’ part, or he’d just grabbed her where she stood staring dumbfoundedly down at the paraphernalia on his coffee table.
He’d wrapped his hand around her mouth before she could scream a warning to Ranger.
Then, in the span of seconds, he grabbed the syringe from the table and pressed the needle to her throat.
He told her he would inject her with the heroin if she didn’t stand perfectly still and not make a sound.
Minutes ticked by painfully slowly. Toni prayed her heart was pounding loud enough that somehow Ranger subconsciously figured out something was wrong—but then she also realized that would place him in the same room as the heroin.
An entirely new fear took her. She’d still been trying to figure out how she could overpower or get away from Cross before Ranger came into the room when suddenly Cross moved his hand from her mouth to her hair and jerked her around to face Ranger.
Toni had no idea how Cross’ hand was so steady that he didn’t accidentally jab her with the needle as he moved them, but she was very, very grateful it wasn’t.
The anger on Ranger’s face when he saw her was visceral. She saw the warrior, the protector, behind his ice-blue eyes. There was no mistaking his silent vow of vengeance. It radiated off him like an electric pulse.
Then Cross motioned to the couch, and Toni’s heart sank as she saw the addict replace the warrior.
It wasn’t a gradual shift, but an immediate flip triggered by a mental switch.
The second his eyes landed on the coffee table, his body tensed in an entirely new way.
Like a starving man presented with a steak, Ranger leaned towards the table.
But he wasn’t totally lost to the pull. Toni had seen it time and time again, like a war of wills inside her parents’ heads. Her grandma used to attribute it to the angel and devil on your shoulders analogy. Whose voice was louder today?
Ranger took a step towards the table.
“Easy,” Cross cautioned, like he was talking to a rabid dog.
“You and I both know that snorting won’t scratch that itch.
Not the way this will.” Cross pulled the needle away from Toni’s throat long enough to catch Ranger’s attention.
“You’ve earned the needle, my boy. But you’re going to have to wait until I get what I want before you can have it. ”
Ranger’s body froze like a rusty tin man.
All but his eyes that kept flicking back and forth between the needle and the powder.
Toni’s history with meth had not prepared her for Ranger’s addiction to heroin.
Shortly after he’d taken her on that trek through the woods where they peed on the graves of his tormentors, Toni had dove into research on the effects of heroin and how it differed from meth.
She could guess what was going through Ranger’s mind.
The powder would require time to work, but he’d still get high.
Whereas the syringe, when delivered through the vein, would be immediate.
“What do you want?” Ranger demanded, barely moving his jaw.
“Pike’s money.” Cross’ voice was as steady as his hand with the needle.
If Toni hazarded a guess, she didn’t think Cross was high.
Did that make him more or less dangerous?
She had no idea. “I have been searching for that fucker for weeks, thinking he’d run off with the cash.
Then I find out from Colby of all people that your club recently gave his rehab center a massive donation.
Didn’t think anything of it at first. What’s more desperate clients for him to send my way?
But then I discover that the bitch Pike said he was going to go see about a debt was your girl.
” Toni felt Cross shake his head behind her.
“Can you imagine how impossibly frustrating it was when I finally put all the puzzle pieces together? Pike was there the night Toni killed her father and planned to extort money out of her, but he wouldn’t give me her fucking name.
Said he’d handle it. I could have had all this solved weeks ago if he hadn’t kept her name to himself!
“Now, I’m guessing Pike is dead. He threatened your girl, you killed him…
Blah, blah, blah. Fine. One less person who requires a cut.
But here’s my problem, that money your club took?
That money you gave to Colby for his stupid redemption project?
It wasn’t yours to give. It was mine, and I want it back. ”
“You’re Pike’s partner.” Toni did not like how shaky Ranger’s voice was, or how long his eyes stayed transfixed on the loose powder on the table before flicking back to her. Every time his eyes shifted, it felt like he looked longer and longer at it.
Toni didn’t recognize the name ‘Pike’, but from the conversation she could easily piece together who he was, or had been.
From the sounds of it, Mr. Smith was quite dead.
She wasn’t entirely sure how she felt about that, but she also knew she wasn’t surprised by it.
The man had vanished after all, never to follow through on the threat or ultimatum he’d given her.
Toni specifically hadn’t asked what happened to him.
Maybe because she’d already known, or at the very least, had guessed?
Was he buried next to her father in the woods, a new unmarked grave?
“Interesting. He couldn’t have told you my name because he didn’t know it. What else did the little weasel tell you?” Cross almost sounded amused by this revelation.
Ranger’s body started shifting towards the coffee table again.
“No, no, no, my boy. This is what you want.” Once again, Cross lifted the needle from Toni’s throat to present the syringe to Ranger like an offering. But the second Ranger’s attention was back on it, the needle was once again pressed to Toni’s throat.
She felt so fucking useless, helpless. A pawn to be sacrificed. She didn’t know what to do. She didn’t know how to help Ranger.
“Here’s the deal. Are you listening?” Cross asked when Ranger’s eyes stayed focused on the syringe a beat too long.
“You get me my money and you get this needle. Simple, easy, and oh so worth it. Aren’t you tired of fighting?
Of that empty feeling pulsing through you?
You know the answer, you know how to fill that void. ”
“Stop it!” Toni shouted, not knowing what else to do. It was like he was hypnotizing Ranger, lulling him into compliance.
Cross shook her violently, pulling strands of her hair from her scalp and making her cry out.
And for the briefest of seconds, the warrior was back. “Don’t hurt her!”
Cross stopped shaking her, returning his attention back to Ranger.
“I have no intention of hurting her. She’s innocent.
The only reason she’s here is because of you.
You brought her, my boy. But you can save her.
If you don’t…” Cross let the threat hang unspoken as he tipped her head to the left by her hair, exposing even more of her throat to the needle pressed against it.
“How… How do I know you’ll let her go?” Ranger looked weak on his feet, like his legs were struggling to hold up his body weight. He was pale and shaking, licking his lips as he stared at the needle.
He wasn’t even looking at her.
“I already told you, I have no reason to harm her. Do as I ask, and you get this needle, not her.” Cross said it like it was the simplest transaction in the world.
And the saddest part? She could see it in Ranger’s eyes. The longing, the pull. He was believing what Cross was telling him.
“Liam, no?—”
But once again, Cross dropped his hold on her hair to clamp his hand over her mouth again. “Sorry, my dear, but Ranger’s smart enough to make this decision on his own without any outside interference. Isn’t that right? You want the heroin, and you know how to get it.”
“I…” Ranger swallowed hard, his voice sounding parched. “I don’t have it on me.”
“Of course not. I wouldn’t have expected you to, but you know how to get it. Transfer the funds to my account, or Toni gets this needle instead of you. Time to choose, son.”
* * *
Ranger felt caught in a spider’s web. No, it wasn’t like he was stuck, waiting for the inevitable bite that would kill him. It was like he was being pulled in too many directions. Was this how it felt to be drawn and quartered?
He wanted to kill Cross. Cross! How many people were going to betray him before he learned to stop trusting them? But what was he to do when the man had a needle filled with heroin at Toni’s throat?
That heroin… It was so close. If Ranger rushed Cross, he could take it. Overpower him. Get it for himself. It was right there. He just had to get it before Toni did.
Toni. Fuck. She was so scared. He needed to protect her, needed to get her away from Cross.
Cross was right. It was Ranger’s fault she was even here.
He’d been the one to bring her here. If she got hurt, it was on him.
Ranger couldn’t let her get hurt. Cross had told him what he wanted, told him how to set Toni free.
But Ranger had been down this road before.
He’d taken that needle, and Becks had still gotten hurt.
He couldn’t, wouldn’t, make that same mistake again.
She was so scared. Ranger hated seeing her tear-streaked cheeks and the uncertainty in her beautiful eyes, but he didn’t know how to reassure her.
He didn’t even know how to reassure himself.