Chapter 42
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
ALYX
It was dark with the bag pulled over my face. My heart pounded, and I could almost hear the swooshing of blood inside my veins.
The rope tied around my wrists behind my back cut into my skin, but I kept twisting my hands with the hope that I might magically be able to free myself.
I had no idea where I was, or who I was with.
All I knew was when those men came rushing into the house, chaos exploded around me.
It was impossible for me to focus with everyone shouting, cursing, and frantically rushing around like maniacs.
When smoke erupted around us, I was too disorientated to realize that whoever pulled me out of the house, shoving me into the back of a van, wasn’t trying to save me from the mayhem.
The last thing I saw before a bag got pulled over my face was Granite being taken down by a bunch of men, and I heard him scream my name. Calling me.
I tried to fight blindly against the masked monsters, kicking and screaming, managing to slam my fists into bodies I couldn’t see. There was a slight sting on my arm, and I became groggy, dizzy, my arms and legs getting weaker…until finally everything went black.
I woke up in this metal chair, feeling the cold spreading through my bones, my wrists and ankles tied.
Everything was still black, the rough fabric of the bag over my head scratching my face.
My lips quivered, and my body shook like crazy.
Not knowing where I was, unable to see anything, only heightened the fear.
Intensified the terror. I tried to listen if there were any sounds around me, but all I heard was my frantic heartbeat.
God, it was like I had a giant neon sign around my neck reading ‘Kidnap me!’
“You awake, there, princess?”
I snapped my head to the sound of the familiar voice. “Who are you?”
“Aw, have you forgotten me already?”
Dammit. That voice was so familiar. I just couldn’t fucking place it.
“I’ll tell you what I can’t forget. Your fucking screams while you and Granite fucked like rabbits in the room next to mine.”
“Tanit?”
Abruptly, the bag was pulled off my face, and I wiggled my nose as I opened my eyes.
True as fuck, it was her standing in front of me, cherry red lips pulled in a wicked smirk. “Hello, princess.” She placed a finger over her lips. “Or what is it he calls you? Ballerina girl?”
“Tanit, what are you doing?”
She placed her hands on the chair’s armrest, her long black fingernails scratching against the metal. Dark brown irises gleaming with malice studied me, looking me straight in the eye. “I don’t like it when people become thorns in my side, Alyx. And you have become a thorn in my side.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Tanit. What the hell is going on?”
She straightened, flicking her dark hair over her shoulders. “Granite and I had a good thing going until you fucking showed up.” The heels of her black boots clicked across the floor as she started to circle me. “All I needed was a little more time.”
I pulled at the ropes around my wrists, my shoulders aching and complaining. “Tanit, I don’t know what the hell is going on here, but this is insane. You need to let me go.”
My scalp stung as she pulled my hair back, craning my neck.
“I’ll tell you what the hell is going on here.
” She brought her lips close to my ear. “Last night, while I listened to your filthy sex cries, thinking about Granite’s dick fucking pleasure into you, I couldn’t stop thinking about how that used to be me.
How it used to be my cries hitting the goddamn roof while he ploughed into me. ”
I shuddered as menace coated her every word.
“And then I realized there was no chance in hell I’d just stand by and let you take him from me.”
I swallowed hard, closing my eyes. “Tanit, this is insane.”
Abruptly, she let go of my hair, shoving my head forward. “Come on, Alyx. I think you’ve been kidnapped enough times to know that sanity rarely has anything to do with it.”
The black skirt she wore about just covered her ass, her naked thighs firm and rounded. Her shirt had to have been two sizes too small, as her breasts were only one deep breath away from popping out the top.
She leaned against the wall, looking at me like I was a doll she really wanted to play with…right before she ripped my head off.
“Have you sucked his dick yet?”
“What?”
“I do this thing with my tongue, and then bite down slightly, adding a little pressure. Oh, he would shoot cum down my throat within seconds of me doing that.”
I cringed, having that image in my head. It made my skin crawl and my stomach turn inside out, thinking of her being with him. “Tanit, stop. You don’t have to do this.”
A dark brow almost reached her hairline. “You don’t even know what I’m doing yet.”
“I know you’re making a mistake.”
She gave me a dismissive wave. “No, you don’t.
You’re nothing but an underweight rich bitch.
You have no clue what it’s like to have nothing, and the only way you’re guaranteed to have something that resembles a life is by opening your fucking legs.
” Her forehead creased, her eyes wide and filled with hostility.
“You had everything. You didn’t need to have him too. ”
“It’s not like that.” I shook my head.
“Becoming Granite’s old lady is the only way for me to have a secure future.
” She stalked forward. “And you were on the verge of taking that away from me.” The hate in her eyes intensified, and I could feel it slice through me like razor blades.
The hair on the back of my neck stood up, and seeing how much she despised me was enough to make my bones quiver.
It wasn’t mere jealousy that fueled her, but the threat of losing her one ticket to a better life.
“Tanit, you’re a beautiful woman. You can have any guy you want, and there are tons of men out there who would kill to be with you.”
Her lips curled. “You have no idea how powerful Granite is, do you? If you did, you’d understand why I don’t want just any guy.
I want him. I want the president of the American Street Kings.
” She stepped closer. “I want the man who brings fear to everyone who knows him. The man who rules the fucking streets of New York. Granite is the kind of man who can own you just by walking into a fucking room.” Her hair draped over her shoulders a she leaned her head to the side.
“I’ve been part of the Kings for years, and I’ve had my sights on Granite ever since I first saw him.
And that first night he spread my legs,” she closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, “God, it was mind-blowing. I knew he was meant to me my man.” Her eyes snapped open, and she glared at me. “Until you came along.”
Tears prickled the corners of my eyes, but I clenched my jaw in a bid to push them back. “It wasn’t my intention, Tanit. Everything is just so messed up, and—”
Without warning, she slapped me across the cheek, and my skin instantly lit on fire. This time, a tear did slip down my cheek.
“You should have stayed in your million-dollar mansion, Alyx. You should have enjoyed your own life instead of fucking with mine.”
“This isn’t about you!” My voice sliced through the room, anger slowly starting to smother my fear. “It was never about you. I didn’t even know you existed until last night.”
Tanit’s face screwed up in a pretty mess of hate and resentment before she spat in my face, slimy mucous dripping from my eye and onto my cheek. “Well, now I’m making it about me by wiping your miserable existence from this motherfucking story.”
I glared her way while trying to blink the spit out of my eye, my cheek still stinging from her open palm slap.
It was clear by the expression on her face that she hated me with every ounce of passion she had in her.
At first, I thought I might be able to talk her down, make her see reason.
But not with the kind of animosity radiating from her, all because she thought I had stolen Granite from her.
I turned my head, trying to observe my surroundings, to see if I could figure out where we were.
But there was nothing that gave me a clue.
It was an empty room with a beat-up old desk on the other side, and blue wallpaper that had started to tear and pull away from the wall.
It smelled like mold and dust, the floors covered in dirt, and I could practically feel the filth cling to my skin.
“You’ll never figure it out, pretty.”
I looked her way, and she shrugged.
“You’ll never figure out where we are.”
The hollow feeling in the pit of my stomach gnawed at my insides. “What’s the plan, Tanit? You have me all tied up. What are you going to do with me now? Kill me?”
Holding her hand up, she admired her freshly painted nails. “I don’t plan on doing anything with you. But just in case you have thoughts about misbehaving…” She pulled a gun from her back and placed it on the desk, the blood in my veins running cold.
Her dark eyes were glowing with menace, staring at me like I was the one thing she needed to sacrifice on the goddamn altar in order to have world fucking peace.
She winked. “If you behave, I won’t need to use it, and my job will be done.”
I didn’t like the creepy feeling tingling across my skin.
The look on her face was calm, relaxed, like the fact that she had kidnapped and tied me up didn’t bother her in the least. Like it was just another day in the life and times of Tanit, the local fucking psychopath.
I tried to shift in my seat, my body starting to ache all over. “What do you mean, your job is done?”
The roar of engines came from outside, and hope immediately rushed through my chest like a breath of fresh air. It was motorcycles, a sound I clearly recognized. A sound that managed to dull the panic that currently pulsed up and down my spine.