“You are so full of shit, Perez.” Kane laughed.
“And jealous,” Cullen said as he threw a handful of dirt at him.
“And envious,” Asher said at the same time as Cullen.
“Do you have something to say?” Leo asked Ezio.
“I’m not sure yet,” Ezio admitted.
“What are you talking about?” Cullen asked. “You have Samantha living at your house.”
“Temporarily. She plans to move back to her apartment as soon as the other guy is caught. I haven’t convinced her to stay.”
“Have you asked her to?” Leo wanted to know as he kicked dirt at Cullen.
“After a few days? It’s too soon.”
Asher laughed. “Dude, remember me? I decided that Eden was the one after forty-eight hours. You are on the slow bus.”
“Here’s the deal. I don’t want her making any decisions when she’s under duress. She needs to be able to move back to her apartment and living a normal life again, then I’ll ask her to move in.”
“Again, my man, I have to ask you, are you just going to do the pansy thing of asking her to move in? You are so damned in love with her you’ve got rainbows shooting out of your ass when you talk about her, and moving into together is the best you can do?” Leo derided. “Jesus, you’re better off just giving her your letterman’s jacket.”
Cullen roared with laughter. “Our bachelor friend has it right. What the fuck is your problem?”
“I don’t know where she stands on all of this. I don’t want to rush her.”
“Pussy,” Leo shook his head sadly. “Perhaps I need to ask her out. She seemed to be eyeing me when I met her.”
Ezio grabbed a big clump of dirt and hit Leo in the face with it. Everybody but Leo laughed.
“I guess you got your answer, Perez,” Cullen finally wheezed out.
Why aren’t I dead?
It was the one thought that kept swirling through her head as she shivered in the back of the warm SUV. It was the poker game all over again. As soon as she got into the backseat, a man was waiting for her. He snatched her purse.
“No cell phone or mace for you, young lady,” he smiled blandly.
“Where is Kevin? Where are you taking me?”
He jumped out of the other side of the car with her purse. The doors locked and she heard him get into the driver’s seat. There was a partition between the back and front seats.
She felt dizzy. She’d done the wrong thing. She shouldn’t have gotten into the SUV, she should have called the police. Better yet, she should have called Ezio. Instead, she was locked in some vehicle without her cellphone. Again!
“Fu- Fullback.”
I am not going to say the F-word because of these men.
She tried opening the car doors.
Nothing.
She tried rolling down the windows.
Nothing.
“Where are you taking me? Where is Kevin?” she screamed.
There was no response from the two men in the front seats.
“Answer me!”
Samantha started to bang on the partition, but still nothing. She continued until her fist hurt. She felt tears burning the back of her eyes.
As she shook her hand to alleviate some of the pain, she kicked off one of her heels.
This should get their attention.
She started banging on the partition with the spiked heel; maybe she’d crack the darn thing. She felt the SUV swerve sharply and she careened into the locked door. The vehicle came to a shuddering stop and the partition came down. She held onto her shoe, waiting for the moment when she could use it as a weapon.
The partition slid down slowly and Samantha shrank back as she saw the muzzle of a gun come through.
“Bitch, you pull that shit again, and I’ll kill you.”
“No, you won’t, or you would have already.” Samantha kept her voice steady.
“Okay, you’re right, I won’t. But your boyfriend will die a painful death, do you want that?”
“Ezio?”
“Jesus, you’re a slut. How many men do you have dangling on a string anyway? I’m talking about that poor slob Kevin. He told me how you’ve ghosted him and set security on him. Who the hell is Ezio?”
Me and my danged mouth. “No one. Where are we going?”
“I’m taking you to my boss. He’s got a score to settle with you.”
“The man who ran the poker game?”
“Hell no, the boss has a score to settle with Harry too. You two need to be made examples of. No way the shit you pulled is going to stand.”
“Who’s your boss?”
“You sure have a lot of questions. Just shut the fuck up. Quit hammering on the car, or I’m calling my other partner and he’s going to start shooting Kevin in the knees and elbows. Got it?”
“Why should I? Your boss is just going to kill me anyway.”
“I didn’t say you’d end up dead. He’s just planning on making an example of you. It’s possible you’ll live through it.”
The partition rolled back up and the SUV started moving again. Samantha thought she was going to throw up. Who was the boss, and what did that mean, by making an example of her?
Samantha didn’t know how long she let herself be terrorized by those thoughts. She had to pull herself out of this downward spiral of dread and come up with a way out of it. Sure, there were two men up front with guns. But they hadn’t killed her, so that was a plus.
There was a boss who wanted her and the game-runner from the poker night alive, so he could make examples of them. Who did he want to make them examples to? The boss had to have other employees. Had Harry screwed up so badly the boss wanted to show
