Dark Vengeance by Kristi Belcamino (libby ebook reader .txt) 📗

for the bathroom to shower, his phone dinged. He glanced down. Fuck.

The text read “Midnight tonight.”

It wouldn’t be enough time.

22

I woke with a dry mouth and Makeda leaning over me, handing me what looked like a glass of fresh-squeezed juice that was a pinkish orange color.

“This will help replenish you and rebalance your electrolytes.”

I sat up, blinking, and gratefully took the glass from her, gulping it down.

“Thanks,” I said, wiping my mouth and standing.

Her hair was wet and in a neat braid down her back. She wore her wetsuit. The light filtering in the open door was blinding. It was late.

I scrambled to my feet.

“Easy,” she said.

“I’m fine. Stone cold sober. I need to go.”

I pulled on my leather motorcycle jacket, grabbed my cross-body bag, and headed out.

My bike was parked outside the hut on the street. I didn’t know what to do, but I knew I couldn’t sit there. I’d show up at X’s house and demand to speak to him. Why the hell not? I’d sit there with the goddamn barking dogs until someone came outside. Or better yet, I’d disable his laser system and then just march up to his house and break the windows until I could get in or he’d come out.

I’d stop in town and pick up supplies—crow bars? A nail gun? That would be amazing if I could find…something, anything I could use as a weapon.

As soon as I reached the main part of town I slowed down, eying the small group of buildings. The auto garage was my best bet. The mechanic would have some tools that could be used as weapons. But his large garage door was locked tight.

I’d have to try the small general store. Inside, I found some old fashioned straight-edge razor blades, a spade and a pair of pliers. Not the best weapons ever, but not the worst, either. I shoved the razor blades deep in my jeans’ back pocket, hoping I didn’t cut my ass wide open by accident.

The clerk was an older man I didn’t recognize who barely glanced up when I plopped some money down on the counter. I didn’t know the exchange rate, and when he took all the bills without giving me change, I knew I was being ripped off and didn’t care.

As soon as I walked outside, I froze.

X was sitting there eating lunch on the deck of the one restaurant in town. He was facing me, one leg crossed over the other, his shirt unbuttoned halfway down his chest, revealing a gold necklace and slight tuft of dark hair. His eyes were shielded by dark sunglasses. His elbow was resting casually on the table with his hand up holding a lit cigarette that he now slowly brought to his mouth. He was staring at me and gave me a slight smile as he took the cigarette out of his mouth, exhaling a puff of smoke in my direction.

He flicked the ash on the ground beside him, and that’s when I saw it.

A leash wrapped tightly around his other hand. And then Dylan, partly under the table, lying there with his head on his paws.

Motherfucker.

Even as I thought these words, I felt a whoosh of air behind me and whirled in time to take the blow to my face. As I crumpled to the ground, the edges of my vision grew black. I fought it, but as soon as my face hit the pavement it took over.

23

X frowned, examining the woman splayed on the bed before him. He took the fireplace poker he was holding and nudged at her chest. She didn’t move. He needed her alive. He’d told Kue and Khan to be sure not to kill her, just disable her.

Now, her wrists and ankles were tied to the bed’s four corners.

He watched her face closely and poked her again, pushing aside the opening of the leather jacket she still wore to reveal her chest. She didn’t flinch. Her breathing was steady. He watched her chest rise up and down.

Despite himself, he used the end of the poker to lift the bottom of her black T-shirt up, revealing her abdomen. She was in excellent shape. A fighter for sure.

He was horny, but not for the woman in front of him. He hadn’t managed to talk Ms. Mercedes into his bed yet. The thought of her aging flesh and the money in her bank account was what really turned him on. It would be as soft as a baby’s and he would bury his face in her skin. He preferred feminine softness and curves over hard abdomens like this woman had. He wanted something he could grab hold of when he was fucking a woman.

Even so, as a fitness enthusiast, X admired this woman’s body. She obviously took good care of herself, and he had to give her credit for that.

A throat cleared behind him, and he startled.

X turned.

“Do we have something to wake her up early?” he said briskly and put the poker back in its holder by the fire. “I am short on time.”

Kue walked over and began to shake the woman. X sighed. That hadn’t been what he had in mind, but it would work.

“Wake up, sleeping beauty,” Kue said in his gravelly voice.

The woman blinked and made a face. She lifted her head as far as she could off the pillow taking in the room with her gaze. Her eyes widened and her face stilled when she saw X.

He could tell she was fighting against the pain. She had a large bruise around one eye. She’d managed to take Khan’s punch right in the temple. Knock out.

Kue had immediately leaned down and stuck the needle in her neck, which had been the plan the entire time - to drug her enough for them to get her back to the house.

As soon as the punch had landed, the entire street had cleared. The waiter who had been at his side refilling his water had disappeared. The old