Extreme Curves (Dangerous Curves Book 7) (13 page)

Chapter Eleven

Lilly walked up the path to Kevin’s house, determined that
this
was the night… tonight she was telling the man that she loved the truth about her past, her present – and her future. Hopefully, a future with him.

She balanced the bag of takeaway sushi and the bottle of white wine on her hip as she fumbled with the house keys. If Kevin was able to forgive her all her lies, and accept her job and the risks that it brought, then King would arrange to have his tech guy put a world-class security system on Kevin’s house. No more keys: everything would be codes and fingerprint- and retina-scanned, and there would be cameras and alarms. It was always a shock at first, Lilly knew, but she hoped that Kevin would see the need, and understand it, even if it took him a while to like it.

She entered the house and shut the door, set down the food and wine on the table, and called out, “Babe? You home?”

No answer, so she listened hard as she kicked off her snow boots. No sound of the shower, no music, no movement. His car was out front, so maybe he’d gone to the corner store for milk? She knew they’d used the last of it in their coffees that morning.

Lilly walked into the kitchen, flicked on the light. Saw it immediately.

The bottle of wine crashed to the floor, shattering into hundreds of pieces, soaking her dress pants and leaving small, oozing cuts on her stockinged feet. The bag followed, and the plastic container burst open, spilling rice and raw fish everywhere. Not that she felt or saw
any
of it.

“Oh, my God,” Lilly whispered. “Oh, my
God
.”

At that exact second, the phone on the counter next to Kevin’s dismembered hand rang. She jumped, gave a tiny scream of shock, then she found her legs. Keeping her eyes averted from the large, shapely hand that had touched her so tenderly in the shower just that morning, she picked up the phone, numbly noticing that the number was unlisted.

“Welcome home, bitch,” the male voice hissed in her ear. “Have we got your attention?”

“Where’s Kevin?” she managed to choke out. “What have you done to him, you fucking son-of-a-bitch?”

“Besides cut off his hand? Nothing much.” A pause. “That may remain the case, but it depends on you.”

“Who are you, asshole?” she asked, though she thought she knew. “Are you… are you with the Fallen Angels?”

“None of your fucking business who I am,” the man snarled. “And if you ask me again, I’ll make you listen to your boyfriend being beaten by at least four guys. Is that what you want?”

“Please,” Lilly said, as the panic finally began to mount. “Please… please don’t hurt him anymore.”

“Then you do what I say.”

“Anything.” Despite herself, Lilly looked at the hand, felt her stomach lurch. She closed her eyes and fought down the bile rising in her throat. It was a massive effort to drop the enraged tone, and turn polite and welcoming, but she knew it had to be done. “What do you want?”

“We want to know where Ace Fucking Cuddy is.”

She exhaled, hard, not even remotely surprised. “I – I don’t know.”

“Liar.”

“No! No. I really don’t know.”

“Bullshit. You work for Matt Kingston, so you know where he hides people.”

“I know where the safe houses are, of course,” Lilly babbled, starting to lose her cool. “I mean… we all do, right? But King hasn’t told me where Ace is hidden, not specifically. I can give you – I can tell you the addresses of the places I know, and you can –”

“Fuck, no.” The man was coldly contemptuous. “We’re not running all over the goddamn state like headless chickens. That’s too much work, and you know we’d be wasting time, and anyway, your boyfriend can’t wait. He needs medical attention pretty damn quick. Believe me.”

“So…” Lilly shook her head. “So…”

“
So
,” the man said, in a voice that clearly thought she was a fucking moron. “You find out.”

“But –”

“Wow, you’re really fucking dim, aren’t you?” the man said. “Let me make it easy for you, OK? You find out, or we send you your boyfriend’s head in a box. You choose.”

“No! Don’t! Please!” Lilly cried. “
Please
don’t do anything else to him… he has nothing to do with this.”

“Bitch, we know that, and we really don’t care.”

She fell silent then. Yeah, she knew they didn’t care; she knew they were the kind of men who’d hurt anyone – innocent people, bystanders, kids, elderly parents – if they thought doing so would get them what they wanted.

Oh, God, Kevin. I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry
.

“I’ll – I’ll find out,” Lilly said, numb now. “I’ll find out somehow.”

“By noon tomorrow.”

“Yes. By noon tomorrow.”

“You going to tell King?”

“No!” she exclaimed, even as a small part of her resolved to do just that, started plotting and planning. “No!”

“You’ll forgive me if I say that I’m not about to trust your word.”

“So…”

“Take the SIM card out of your phone, cut it into four pieces. Then smash your cell phone on the floor.”

“What? I –”

“Do it.”

Lilly did as he said, making sure to use a hammer from Kevin’s toolbox for good measure. As requested, she took a picture of the destroyed card and the smashed phone on the burner phone camera, sent it to the man.

“Good,” he growled. “Now… see the earpiece?”

Lilly glanced down at the counter, surprised. She actually
hadn’t
noticed it, but seeing as it was clear plastic, that wasn’t a shock. Also, considering what was sitting right next to it; she’d been distracted.

“Yes,” she said.

“You put it in now,” the man ordered. “You put it in, you leave it open, you leave it in. You sleep with it in, you shower with it in, you shit with it in. You stay the fuck away from the home phone, and from your laptop. You go to your bedroom now, and you fucking stay there. Keep the TV off, and no music. I’ll hear everything and if you take the earpiece out, or if I think for even
one second
that you’re trying to signal for help, Loverboy is dead. It’ll be as slow and painful and terrible as you can possibly imagine… and I’ll make sure you hear every second of it.”

“Understood.”

“Now put it in.”

With a sense of falling, Lilly inserted the tiny earpiece.

“I can hear your breathing, cunt,” the man said, amused. “I can practically hear your heartbeat.”

She bit back a retort. Being mouthy would only hurt Kevin, so she just stayed silent. Years and years of training were suddenly useless; she was at the mercy of a monster.

“I’ll be listening when you talk to King tomorrow, and I’ll know when you’ve gotten him to tell you where Cuddy is,” the man continued. “After I know where to find that traitor, I’ll text you on this phone, telling you where to find your boyfriend. You come in person, bitch. No cops, no King’s Men, no ambulance. You come and get him yourself, you drive him to the hospital yourself. Clear?”

“Yes. Clear.”

“Good. Noon tomorrow.”

He abruptly disconnected, and Lilly set the phone down with trembling hands. She knew that he was still on the other end of the earpiece, though, and the nausea rose again at the thought that this monster (
maybe Nails? Maybe Joker?
) was listening to her right that second.

Her stomach wrenched, twisted, turned, and she knew she wasn’t going to be able to hold it down this time. She shut her eyes to avoid seeing the hand on the counter, then leaned over the kitchen sink. Lilly vomited, shook and sobbed, threw up some more.

“Not feeling so good, cunt?” The taunting hiss in her ear startled her, and she gasped. “Feeling a wee bit sick?”

“I – I –” She threw up again, hating his chuckle of obvious enjoyment. “I’m OK.”

“Yeah, you sound it.”

And so began the longest night of Lilly’s life – a night that would bring no sleep and no reprieve and definitely no forgiveness, but plenty of self-hatred. Self-hatred in goddamn
spades
.

My fault. My fault. Why didn’t I come clean sooner? Why didn’t I tell King that I was involved with someone that I’d compromise the Men for?

Why didn’t I protect the man that I love?

All my fault
.

**

The next morning, Lilly walked into King’s Garage, nervously pulling her long blonde hair over her ear. The voice on the other end had been pretty quiet that morning, but she knew that he was there. She heard him clearing his throat, heard muffled conversations in the background. She strained to make out words, to make out anything, but to no avail.

God
, she hoped that Kevin was still alive.

“Lilly!”

Startled beyond measure, she jumped, spun in mid-air, gave a half-scream. Knox stood in the doorway with two steaming cups of coffee in his hands, and watched all of this with bewildered shock.

“Hey,” Knox said, dark eyes concerned. “What’s up?”

“N – nothing,” she stammered. “You just took me by surprise.”

“I did?”

“Yeah. Sorry.” She forced a smile on her face. “I was distracted. Didn’t hear you behind me.”

“Ohhh-kaaay,” he said a bit dubiously, extending a cup. “Coffee?”

“Oh, yeah.” She took it, hoping that he didn’t notice her shaking hands. “Thanks.”

“You got it. King wants us in the conference room in two minutes.”

“Sure thing,” she said, forcing an upbeat note into her voice. “Be right there.”

Knox nodded, headed into the backroom of the garage which served as the King’s Men meeting space. Lilly watched him go, wishing that she could signal him somehow. Maybe she could write something on a pad of paper, show it to King and Knox? They wouldn’t give anything away, she was pretty sure of it.

And yet – and yet… she
knew
that there would be some minuscule reaction. Some change in breathing, some tone or note in the men’s voices, some slight pause in the flow of conversation. Something,
something
. None of it would be noticeable… unless you were listening for it.

And the man in her ear
was
listening; she knew that with every fibre of her being.

Unless I can get them a message outside the conference space? Maybe I can write King a note now, leave it somewhere obvious, like next to the coffee machine, give him and Knox time to be able to act natural?

“Thinking about how to tell King?” the man muttered. “Thinking about a note? A message written on your hand?”

“No!” she exclaimed. A few of King’s mechanics glanced her way, puzzled. She gave them a smile, then barrelled into the ladies’ room, which was mercifully empty. She lowered her voice. “No. I’m just – I’m getting ready.”

“Sure you are. Maybe you need a quick reminder what’s at risk here?”

“No,” Lilly whispered, her heart juddering to a stop. “
No
.”

“Too late, bitch.”

Suddenly, Kevin’s screams were in her ear. Lilly gasped, doubled over, wrenched the earpiece from her ear. What was happening? What were they doing to him? Image after image flashed in front of her eyes, every one worse than the one before, and she held her breath, helpless and furious. It went on and on, and she heard a high-pitched, whining sound that froze her blood in her veins.

Is that… a machine?

The screaming and whining stopped now, and she jammed the earpiece in again. “Kevin?”

“Kevin’s not available right now,” the man said. “He’s taking a little rest.”

“What – what did you…”

“Your boyfriend is now missing his right foot,” the man informed her. “That’s gonna make working out challenging, huh?”

“Oh, God.” Lilly shut her eyes. “You –
why
did you –”

“Well, we had this brand-spanking-new mini-chainsaw just hanging around,” the man said cheerfully. “Seemed a shame not to use it. Again, I mean.”

“Oh… oh,
no
…” Lilly gagged, clutched the sink. “Oh,
fuck
…”

“Don’t you puke again,” the man barked. “You fucking get your ass to see King, and I mean right the hell now. You give nothing away, bitch…
nothing
.”

Lilly made a small sound in her throat that she hoped sounded like assent.

“Go.
Now
.”

On autopilot – because God knows, she had precisely zero control over her body right then – Lilly left the bathroom, somehow still clutching her coffee, and walked into the backroom. Tex’s voice was coming over the speaker in the middle of the table, so she nodded at King, managed a smile, and sat, thanking Christ that she could just be quiet and listen.

Well,
pretend
to listen. Because all she could hear ringing in her ears were Kevin’s screams of agony, and the scream of a chainsaw slicing through bone, and tendon, and flesh.

My fault. My fault
.

“Lilly?”

She forced her mind to the here and now, and looked across the table at King. Those gray eyes were fixed on her, unnervingly focused and intelligent, as they always,
always
were. Dammit, she had to step up her game here – and fast.

“Yes?” she said, keeping her voice inviting and calm.

“Did you hear what Tex just said?” King asked her.

She faltered, felt sweat start to break out along her hairline. “About…”

Valentine huffed. “Weren’t
you
the one who was cheerleading for this, Lilly?”

“I’m – I’m sorry.” Lilly clenched her hands together under the table. “I – I got some bad news last night about… my mother. I’m a bit out of it today. I didn’t get much sleep.”

“What?” King said, and sounds of concern came over the speaker. “What happened?”

“Oh, nothing terrible.” Lilly dug her nails into her palms. “Just – just some bad medical news. She needs more tests next week.”

“I’m so sorry,” Tex said sofly. “You need anything?”

“Time off?” King offered.

“Oh! No, thank you.” Lilly plastered a smile on her face. “I’d – I’d rather stay here and work. If I need to go, I’ll let you know, King. Thank you.”

He nodded, eyes still examining her face closely. She sucked in a deep breath, scrambled to change the subject.