Torn from You (40 page)

Deck was striding to the car as he listened
to whoever was on the phone with him.

Logan started after him then jumped in the
car. Kite got in the other side and nodded to him.

Kite was the guy that would stand behind you
a hundred percent even when there was a chance you might not come
back alive.

Deck threw the car in gear. “That was
Georgie. Raven was the one who gave away Emily’s location. She’s
helping Alfonzo.”

I was thrown onto the floor, and my nose hit
hard and immediately started bleeding onto the carpet. Orange shag
carpet. Not many people had orange shag carpet, except Georgie.

“Keep it on her,” Alfonzo said. “She makes a
move, shoot her in the leg.”

I looked up and saw Raven pointing the gun
at my head. Oh God, no. Why? Why would Raven help him? Why were
they at Georgie’s?

“Where’s the other girl?”

He had to be talking about Georgie.

“She ... she heard me talking to you on the
phone and ran. I ... I didn’t see where she went, Master. I’m
sorry. I’m sorry, Master.”

“Fuck. Stupid girl. We have to get out of
here.” Alfonzo took out his phone and started to walk in the other
room.

“Raven?”

Alfonzo came charging back, phone to his ear
as his fist plowed into my stomach knocking the wind of me. “No
fucking talking.” I heard his phone ring, and then Alfonzo was
walking into the other room talking quietly. He sounded frazzled as
he paced back and forth.

“Raven. Please.” I struggled to sit up then
rubbed the blood from my eyes as best as I could with my shoulder.
“Why?”

Raven was trembling and pale. The gun
wavered, and her eyes were blank as she did as she was told. She
looked terrified. I wondered if she was doing this out of fear of
Alfonzo. A fear likely ingrained so deeply that she was like a
robot, unable to act on her own free will any longer.

“Raven. Please. Deck will help you. Don’t do
this. You don’t have to do this.”

She was shaking so badly now that she had to
clutch her arms close to her sides to keep from dropping the
gun.

“Yes, damn it.” Alfonzo was shouting in the
other room. “You’ll have her back.” He kicked a chair in the
kitchen, and it went flying into the fridge.

“Where’s Georgie, Raven?”

Raven stared at me as if I hadn’t
spoken.

Alfonzo came striding from the kitchen, and
Raven flinched so hard she dropped the gun.

“Useless slut.” Alfonzo picked up the
weapon, then grabbed her around the neck, hauling her against him.
“Aren’t you?”

“Y-yes, Master,” Raven replied in a
quivering whispered voice.

“Kai says to behave yourself, Raven. Keep
doing exactly as I say, and he’ll still buy you.” He lowered his
mouth and kissed her cruelly. “You’ve been good. Very good at
getting the information for me.”

She nodded. “Yes, Master.”

Shit. That’s why Raven came and talked to me
at the bar. I thought it had been strange she’d taken initiative
like that, but she has been feeding Alfonzo information. Had he put
her on auction, set it up so Deck would get her out? Had Raven
refused to go home because she knew she had to get information for
Alfonzo as to where I was?

“You keep doing as I tell you, and I will
sell you to him. You want to go to Kai? Or stay with me?”

Oh God, the thought of Raven under Alfonzo’s
hand for the last two years made me sick to my stomach. I really
had no idea if Kai was any better, but I understood why Raven would
do anything to get away from Alfonzo.

Raven didn’t answer, and he raised his hand
and slapped her across the face. She didn’t even whimper, but she
lowered her eyes from Alfonzo and said, “To him, Master.”

I saw Raven’s eyes close in defeat; Alfonzo
would punish her for that, for answering a question he forced on
her. A slave admitting she wanted someone other than her Master is
against the rules.

I heard a sound above me—attic. Georgie? If
she was hiding, there was the chance she had called Deck. God,
please, let her have told someone where we are.

“Now, Emily.”

I jerked at the sound of Georgie’s muffled
voice above me, but didn’t hesitate as I pushed to my feet and ran
bent over at Alfonzo, head-butting him in the back of the legs.

He went buckling forward, into the porch
door, and the gun went flying. “Bitch!” he yelled. “I’m going to
fucking torture you until—” Georgie landed on top of him as she
came out of the scuttle hole in the ceiling.

They rolled out the screen door and down the
steps of the porch. I could hear Alfonzo shouting as I used the
wall to gain my feet again. I was about to follow when I saw Raven
with the gun pointing at me.

“Raven. No. Put it down. I’ll help you. You
don’t have to go to Kai.”

She shook her head, tears streaming down her
face.

Raven cocked the hammer and pointed the gun
at my leg.

“Raven. No. You don’t want to do this.”

“I ... I ... have to.” Her voice was a
whisper of a shiver, and I could tell that she didn’t want to do
it, but she thought she had no choice—that whatever was driving her
made her do this.

“He doesn’t want you to hurt me, Raven. You
have to protect me.”

She was shaking so badly I thought she’d
pass out, her face pale and her eyes wild as she kept flinching
from the noises made by Georgie and Alfonzo fighting outside.

Then suddenly silence.

Raven’s eyes darted to the screen door, and
I leapt.

I tackled her, the gun sliding away across
the orange carpet, and my body landing right on top of her. I
almost wanted to say I was sorry, because it felt like her frail
bones cracked under my weight and she didn’t even struggle.

Suddenly I was dragged off her by the leg
and picked up with a hand latched around my upper arm. I started
struggling until I heard the voice. “Stop.”

I did. I was shocked to see him. And
terrified because this wasn’t Alfonzo—instead a man who was more
than likely deadlier.

Kai exuded power, even more, I expected,
than Raul, and that made him extremely dangerous. “Raven,” Kai
said. Raven was on her feet and at his side. He didn’t even look at
her. “Where is the transporter?”

Alfonzo had brought Georgie back inside. He
kicked her in the back of the legs, and she winced as she fell to
her knees. He had ropes on her wrists behind her back. All I could
think of was Deck and how he was going to have a fit if he saw
Georgie like that.

Alfonzo picked up his gun. “I promised you
Raven. You have her. That’s our deal.”

Kai’s hand tightened on my neck. “Our deal
has changed. What are you doing with that one?” Kai nodded to
Georgie.

“She’s coming with us. And that bitch” he
nodded toward me, “escaped Raul. No one escapes Raul.”

“Raul’s dead.”

Alfonzo kicked Georgie in the back, and she
grunted and fell forward. “Once I’m done with their training,
they’ll go on auction and never been found again. That’s if they
live through it.”

I knew Georgie couldn’t keep her mouth shut
no matter how much pain she was in. Her lips were pursed together
and her brows were drawn down over her eyes. Suddenly, she slammed
her head backward into Alfonzo’s knee.

I heard the sound of her skull hitting his
knee cap; then Alfonzo was yelling.

“No!” I shouted as Alfonzo raised his gun to
Georgie.

“Killing her is a waste,” Kai stated, his
voice steady and cool. “Take me to the transporter. I need to see
him.”

Alfonzo had his gun to Georgie’s head, his
fingers weaved into her hair. “I can’t do that. That wasn’t the
deal. Raven and the money. That’s it.”

“It’s the deal now.” Kai remained
unflinching.

Alfonzo’s face turned beet read. “I’m
selling you the girl for half her price.”

“I could have easily found Raven myself. I
found you, didn’t I? What I want is the transporter.”

“No one gets to meet him. He doesn’t meet
with anyone. Ever.”

Kai shrugged. “He will me. Call him.”

Alfonzo blanched. “You just don’t call him.
It’s been set up already—”

“Raul is dead. That means you and your
transporter no longer have a main source. Call him. Now. Or I kill
you and take all three girls myself.”

“Fuck.” Alfonzo was fumbling and upset. His
fingers were jerking on the gun, and it was obvious he was scared
of Kai and what he’d do if he didn’t call this transporter guy.
Alfonzo raised gun and hit Georgie on the head.

“Georgie.” I tried to pull away from Kai,
but his grip was unrelenting. “Please don’t hurt her.”

Kai’s voice was low and almost inaudible as
he said, “It’s better this way.”

Alfonzo tied a strip of cloth around
Georgie’s arm and I saw the syringe. I didn’t know if it was street
drugs or something else, but anything put into her system was not
good. I struggled to get to her, my legs kicking out at Kai.
“Please, don’t. Georgie.”

“Stop.” Kai yanked on my arm to the side and
I cried out in agony.

Georgie didn’t move, but I could see her
eyes flickering, looking dazed from the blow. Alfonzo slid the
needle into her vein, and within seconds her body relaxed and her
eyes closed.

I started crying, and my legs gave out, but
I didn’t fall. Kai held me against him, his arm now locked around
my chest. Whether it was to keep me upright or to stop me from
running to Georgie, I didn’t know.

Alfonzo was on the phone mumbling something
about Kai and a meeting. Then he hung up and nodded to Kai.

“Let’s go,” Kai ordered.

Alfonzo slung Georgie over his shoulder, and
we walked out the back door.

I lay on the cement floor beside Georgie. We
were in some kind of warehouse that looked like it had once been a
factory. I could smell the distinct odor of the Don River which was
the acrid scent of garbage. I guessed since we hadn’t driven very
far that we were still downtown. Alfonzo had blindfolded me and
tied my wrists together before he shoved me in the trunk, but I’d
managed to slip off the blindfold about an hour ago.

Kai was standing with his arms crossed,
leaning against a large piece of machinery looking completely
relaxed. Raven knelt beside him, her hands in her lap and her head
bowed.

Georgie was still drugged, and her eyes were
glassed over and she was not responding to her name. Her breathing
was slow, but steady, and I suspected whatever they’d given her
wasn’t harmful enough to kill her.

Alfonzo paced back and forth constantly
looking to the door then his phone.

Finally the metal door slid on its tracks
and opened.

It was dark, and I couldn’t see the large
shadow that came toward us until the moonlight hit him just as he
stopped in front of Kai.

Fear and recognition slammed into me.

Jacob.

He had waterboarded me again and again
without mercy when I was held captive. He tortured me without pity,
and he looked stone cold now.

“I don’t like changing plans,” Jacob said to
Alfonzo. “It causes mistakes.”

Kai kept his eyes on Jacob. “Raul’s right
hand man. I thought you were dead.”

“So does everyone.” Jacob nodded to Raven.
“You’ve travelled a great distance for one girl, she doesn’t look
worth it.”

“Where are the other girls?”

“Here. Awaiting shipment.”

I was about ten feet away, and I noticed the
tension in Kai go from zero to a hundred within seconds. Something
wasn’t right. “Georgie,” I whispered. “Georgie.” I nudged her with
my shoulder, and she moaned. Kai, Jacob, and Alfonzo’s attention
were on one another. “Georgie.”

It happened so fast, Jacob pulled a gun,
turned, and shot Alfonzo in the head.

Alfonzo dropped to the ground.

Kai never moved a muscle, instead he looked
even more casual as his hand went to Raven’s head, and he stroked
her hair as if to soothe her.