“Coy, my boy, I don’t think the little lady appreciates the way you’re handling her,” a rough, scratchy voice chuckles.
“I don’t give a fuck what she appreciates, Grem,” my captor snaps back. “Not when she’s trying to—”
“Get off my mommy!” Levi yells and I look up to see him flying down the stairs with his fists up.
“Levi, no!” I shriek as the bag of dicks holding me swings back around, cutting off my view.
“What the fuck?” Mr. Bag of Dicks growls before he lets out a loud grunt of pain.
Doubling over, his grip on me goes slack and I drop to the floor with a thud, landing hard on my ass.
I scramble away from him as he gasps, “Fuck,” and grabs his groin.
With tears in his eyes and his face flushed red from anger, Levi starts to take another swing at the guy, but I manage to crawl over to him on my knees, wrap my arms around him, and pull him away.
“Goddammit, he got me right in the balls,” the bent-over guy croaks.
At first, Levi tries to fight me, but when I hold tight, he collapses against me and bursts into sobs. My heart fucking breaking, I hold him close and get to my feet, looking for a way out.
The black-haired man standing in the doorway looks at me before he looks to the guy still hunched over, holding his balls.
Shaking his head, he mutters, “Well, ain’t this a complete shitshow now. Can’t say you didn’t deserve it, though.”
With him still standing in the doorway and the guy clutching his balls blocking the stairs, I twist around, intending to head to the back of the house.
But the blond guy from Walmart steps in front of me, cutting off that way as well.
Stuck between the three of them, we’re trapped with no way out.
“Please…” I plead, turning back around to look at the black-haired guy standing in the doorway.
Out of the three of them, he seems like he’s the least on board with what’s going down. He also looks like the one who could be financially persuaded the most. There’s literally duct tape on his vest and covering his boots.
“I have money, I’ll pay you more than whatever he’s offering,” I tell him.
The guy shakes his head slowly, almost sadly, as he looks back at me. “Ain’t no one payin’ me for this, darlin’.”
“Then why?” I ask, staring into his green eyes, trying to understand.
If they’re not doing this for money, what the fuck are they doing it for?
Do they get some sick, twisted kick out of picking on women and kids?
“You know why, Allie,” the guy that got punched in the balls rasps and looks at Levi.
The strangest expression passes over his face, an expression that both confuses and scares the hell out of me.
I turn to fully face him and push Levi behind me, using my body as a shield to protect him.
“No, I don’t know why you’re doing this! I don’t know what you want!” I insist.
If they’re not here because Mikhail paid them, why are they here?
And how does this asshole know my name?
Why does he keep using it like he knows me?
Straightening to his full height, the dark-haired jerk that Levi punched takes a step toward me and growls, “I want what’s mine.”
“Coy,” the guy blocking the front door warns, “somethin’ ain’t right about this…”
So that’s his name, Coy.
And why does it seem so familiar? Where have I heard it before?
“Stay outta this, Grem,” Coy snaps back as he stalks toward me. “That’s a fuckin’ order.”
Staring up at Coy, staring into his hard, determined face bearing down on me, the mysterious sense of familiarity grows, pulsing behind my temples and flustering the hell out of me.
I don’t know how much more of this crazy nightmare I can take.
“Then take what’s yours and leave!” I beg.
Coy’s lips stretch into a grin and he looks downright devilish as he purrs, “That’s exactly what I’m doin’.”
He keeps stalking toward me, though.
And I don’t know what the fuck to make of it.
Stretching out my arm, I back Levi up, trying to keep some distance between us. “Please, I don’t know what you want, but whatever it is you can have it. We won’t put up a fight. Just leave us alone!”
“Oh, you know what I want,” Coy says ominously as he backs us up until we’re trapped against the wall.
“Mommy,” Levi whimpers and clutches at my shirt.
And that’s it, I can’t take any more of this torture. I can’t take any more of this hell we’re being put through.
“I don’t know what you want!” I shout at him, so scared, angry, and confused I can’t think straight.
“I want my son!” Coy roars back at me as he stops in front of me. “And I want to know why you disappeared!”
“What?” I flinch and gasp at him.
What the fuck is he talking about?
Does he somehow believe I’m hiding his kid? Is that why he’s doing this? Is that why he’s so pissed?
Chest heaving and face darkening with anger, he snarls, “Don’t play dumb, Allie. Don’t.”
I shake my head because none of this makes sense. “I don’t know where your son is. I think you got some bad information because we just got here…”
Coy clenches his jaw and grits out, “He’s standing right behind you.”
“Levi?” I scoff.
What the fuck?
Is this guy on drugs or something?
“He’s mine,” he insists.
“He can’t be!” I argue, growing angry myself. Are we seriously being put through this because these guys are coked-up crackheads? “His father passed away in a car accident five years ago.”
“Look at him, Allie,” he says.
And the idea is so ludicrous, I scoff at him again. “You’re crazy.”
“Coy…” the guy in the doorway says, sounding uneasy.
Coy turns his head just enough to roar at him, “I said stay the fuck out of this, Grem!” then he looks back at me. “Look at him and tell me he’s not mine!” he insists so vehemently I decide to give in, hoping he’ll back off and go away.
Glancing over my shoulder, I look down at Levi’s head.
Yeah, so they both have the same color of hair…
So what? Lot’s of people have that color. Dark brown is pretty common.
Sensing my attention, Levi tips his face up to peer at me and my head starts to go fuzzy.
I glance back at Coy, checking the color of his eyes, and then look back at Levi.
They both have blue eyes, a blue that’s so dark it’s almost black.
“So you look a little alike… Lots of people look alike that aren’t related,” I choke out, suddenly feeling off kilter.
It’s Coy’s turn to scoff. “A little alike? He’s the spittin’ fuckin’ image of me.”
I look between the two of them again, the fuzzy feeling in my head expanding. I shake my head, trying to make it go away, but that only seems to make it worse.
Something is wrong with me and I don’t know what the fuck is happening.
Why does the world feel like it’s flipped and I’m hanging upside down with all the blood rushing to my head?