The door opens a second later and two huge guys push through the door frame, both clutching one of Kristina’s arms. Her eyes well with panicked tears as she tries to break free of their Gorilla glue grip. A piece of silver duct tape covers her mouth, preventing her cries from piercing the air.
Lugo walks up to her, dragging a finger down the side of her face.
“It was supposed to be business, Massimo. But it got personal for you, didn’t it?” His hand slides around her throat. “And your mistake has become my advantage.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
KRISTINA
I choke on the knot of tears caught in the back of my throat with no ability to scream or cry out. My lungs constrict as if they’ve been wrapped tight with heavy metal chains that are squeezing the remaining bits of oxygen from them.
“Take your fucking hand off her, Lugo,” Massimo seethes, his dark eyes spewing fury.
“You’re not really in any position to give orders, Massimo.” Lugo looks at me, dragging a hand down the front of my shirt and I jump backward as his cock grazes my legging.
Oh my God, I’m going to puke.
And there’s duct tape covering my fucking mouth and a thick piece of rope slapped around my wrists.
Massimo lunges for him, yanking him by the hair to get him away from me. Lugo grunts, stumbling backward. Tears stream down my face, wetting the glue holding the tape against my lips. A sob catches in my chest with no way to erupt out of me.
I didn’t see his guys coming before. I was so focused on remaining invisible that I didn’t pay any attention to what was happening behind me. But by the time I figured out that there was a hidden door in the wall right next to my table, it had been too late.
And I was already being dragged through it with a gun against the back of my head.
Lugo fists my t-shirt in his beefy hand, my chest heaving as his thick fingers come dangerously close to my boobs. A muffled whimper somehow escapes the tape and I swing my ankle out to sweep his leg with no hope that it’ll do a damn thing but piss him off and make him more liable to continue his assault on me.
He chuckles. “Massimo, I know you want to shoot me in the head right now. But you’re a smart guy, aren’t you? You know exactly what will happen if you do. You know I’m not bluffing about your kids. And you also know that if you kill me, there will be someone ready to launch the attacks I have planned. I have an army. My death will be avenged.” He turns around, his fat rolls jiggling from the laughter rumbling through him.
“Yeah,” Massimo grunts. “That’s true.” He walks up to the guy manhandling me from behind and grabs him by the ear, pulling him away from me and firing a shot into his skull. His body drops to the floor like a sack of cement. “Now I’ve decreased it by one. And that’s exactly what will happen to anyone else who lays a finger on her. Should we make it two?” Massimo calmly holds his gun up to the other guy who dragged me in here and he backs away with his hands up, wide-eyed with a quick glance at Lugo.
“That wasn’t really necessary, but I get it. I understand you’re upset,” Lugo says. “Imagine how I felt, being fucked up the ass by Savio. Hard and with no lube. I’m not his bitch. And I don’t owe him shit. But you, Massimo. You owe me plenty. And you’re gonna pay because you’re—”
“I will fucking pay,” Massimo thunders, not letting him finish his thought.
“And you will get Mulligan to agree to slot me into your pipeline. I know you two are asshole buddies. You’ll convince him, or your little girlfriend here will get it hard up the ass with no lube.” He waggles his eyebrows at me. “Are you gonna take the chance that I’m bluffing about that?”
Lugo loops his fingers into the waistband of my leggings, dragging me toward him. I dig my heels into the ground but his grip is tight enough where he can pull me across the floor. The rubber soles of my sneakers squeak as I try to run backward, working against his massive force.
It doesn’t work and I stumble, losing my footing and landing in his hairy arms.
Oh my God, the nightmare has gone from bad to worse.
I really thought I’d hit rock bottom after the break-in.
I could never have predicted what would have come next.
And I don’t want to even let that thought percolate right now.
I pull away, cringing as Lugo sticks his forehead against mine and draws in a deep breath, his eyes rolling into the back of his skull.
“I can smell it coming out of your pores,” he moans. “Fear. Ah, fuck, I want to bottle it up. It gets me so hard.” His fingers slip deeper into the waistband and I let out a muffled scream, locking my knees right as Massimo slams a stapler against the side of his head.
“You sick bastard,” he yells, swinging the stapler around for another shot to Lugo’s jaw. “This has nothing to do with her. Don’t fucking touch her.”
Lugo crumbles to the floor in an oversized heap, his hands clutching the side of his now-bloodied head. His other bodyguard launches himself at Massimo with a loud grunt, tripping over Lugo’s immobile body and slamming his arm into the large wooden desk in the center of the room.
Massimo grabs a knife from some Velcro strap hugging his ankle and cuts the thick rope digging into my skin. Then he pulls the tape from my mouth and I squeal in pain, clapping a hand over my lips, the burning sensation stinging me worse than a hive full of wasps.
He flips around, pressing his knee against Lugo’s throat, the knife in his outstretched hand. “I wouldn’t if I were you,” he growls at the bodyguard who is fumbling around for his gun. “I’ll fillet you faster than you can pull the fucking trigger, asshole.”
Massimo closes his hand around Lugo’s throat, hovering the gleaming steel tip above his eye. “You want your money? Don’t ever dare try that shit again. This is between you and me now. Period. Nobody else.”
Lugo snickers as he swings himself up to a seated position. “I’m gonna let you go this time, and only because you have something I want. But let me tell you this, Massimo. If you don’t make the deal with Mulligan, if you don’t come up with my money, you will have more blood on your hands than you could ever wash off. I’ll make sure it stains you forever, you prick bastard. I will destroy everything that’s good in your life. Do you hear me? Every fucking thing!”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
MASSIMO
“What the fuck just happened?” Kristina shrieks at the top of her lungs, clutching the sides of her head once we’re back in my car speeding away from the strip club.
I slam my fists on the steering wheel while I slow for a red light.
Savio is watching me.
I was stupid to not realize it before.
He knows I’ve been glued to Kristina, and he knows it’s moved well beyond a business arrangement. He said so himself.
Sneaky fucking bastard.
He’ll grab onto whatever leverage he can.
He sold me out to Lugo and told him exactly how he could fuck me for a bigger piece of the money pie.
Now everything I’ve been trying to protect is slipping from my grasp.