Something was very wrong. The biggest clue was that Faith couldn’t move, or much anyway. Her wrists were bound and pulled over her head, tied painfully tight with the roughest rope she’d ever felt. The last thing she remembered was getting a cup of tea in the kitchen at Cutty’s and then falling to the ground. It must have been the window. Cutty had left the one in the kitchen partially open. They might not have been able to cross the threshold but they must have shot her with something through that window and dragged her out somehow.
She kept her eyes closed, faking sleep while she tried to take in the sounds and scents of her surroundings. There was a damp chill in the air and the slight scent of mold. She must be in a basement of some sort.
Footsteps circled her and a vaguely familiar scent filled the air. She knew who had her and it was a worst-case scenario.
“I know you’re awake,” Keith said softly, sounding like he was less than an inch from her ear. His fingers trailed down her cheek and she pulled her face back as she opened her eyes, but his hand followed her movement.
She took in her surroundings. She was hanging from a large pipe in the ceiling. She wondered how strong it really was. Could she yank it down? She’d try the moment she was alone—if he left her alone.
Her gaze turned to him. She needed to remain calm and shield her feelings. “Why are you doing this to me? I thought you cared for me?” she asked, trying to keep her voice soft.
“I wanted to be nice to you,” he said calmly, giving her some hope. Then his face contorted with anger. “But you ran from me. I’m the one that found you. You’re mine. Not his. You’re mine or you’re nothing.” He grabbed a hank of hair and pulled it roughly back until her neck was strained. “Do you hear me?”
“Yes.” She had to stay calm.
“But he didn’t want you the way I do, did he? Is that why you were back at that other one’s house?”
“I made a mistake. I shouldn’t have left you.”
His grip on her hair loosened and then released.
“I was scared. That was why I did it.” And you’re a homicidal maniac.
He walked around her, touching her waist and then his hand drifted up the side of her ribs all while she tried to hide her disgust. He wasn’t going to untie her if he thought she’d bolt from him again.
“When I saw you walking down the street that day, I knew I had to have you. You were so bright and beautiful. You were the purest soul I’d ever seen, so filled with joy and hope. The exact opposite of me.” His voice was wistful as he spoke. “Then when I met you in person, you were everything I thought you’d be. I would have been happy with you…for a while, anyway. Until I slowly drained everything you were. Then we’d be one in the same. Even Malokin wanted to see it happen. See someone so pure become tainted, see if it would work. Take the exact opposite of what I was and corrupt it. But I would’ve kept you, even after you were depleted, if only as a lesson to others. Or an example of how fleeting something like faith can be.”
Keith stopped directly in front of her, almost nose to nose. He grabbed her face with his hand. “Where is it?”
“Where’s what?”
“The mark he put on you.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
He stepped back and his hand slammed across her face in a blow that would’ve sent her to her knees if she hadn’t been hanging there. Her teeth gnashed into her cheek and she tasted blood.
“Where is it, Faith?” he asked again in a patient tone, contradicting his actions.
She knew he meant the tattoo. The one thing that kept her cut off from him. She didn’t answer even though it was futile. He’d find it easy enough.
“You either tell me or I strip you bare to find it.”
She didn’t answer—couldn’t bring herself to tell him when she feared what he would do. His hand grabbed a fistful of fabric from the front of the dress she was wearing and wrenched it forward. The fabric tore easily, leaving her in only her bra from the waist up, but gathered at the small belt at her waist.
He scanned her skin as he walked around her. She felt his hand on her back where the tattoo was. “I’m going to get a knife and cut this off of you.”
She felt sick.
“Keith!” A second voice emanating from the single doorway in the corner spoke. It was Malokin. “We need to leave. You can play with her later.”
Keith let out a string of curses but then he walked out, leaving her hanging there.
Chapter 34
Lars leaned against the table in Cupid’s office. “Fate, I don’t like that we haven’t seen him approach yet. He should’ve tripped off some of the wards I did yesterday.”
“I know,” Fate said, pacing in front of him. Fate always leaned. Pacing wasn’t a good sign.
“I think you should go drag Karma out of that office downstairs and we all get the hell out of here,” Lars said, feeling uneasy.
Then Lars heard someone in the distance. It wasn’t a human’s footsteps either.
“Malokin is here, isn’t he?” Fate asked, guessing Lars had picked up on something.
“Yes.” Lars dropped his head, cursing himself when he heard even more sets of footsteps, way more than they’d anticipated.
“He’s got a lot of company.”
Fate cursed and then they both made their way to the door, signaling to the other guys to prepare.
Malokin was here and he hadn’t come alone, as agreed. That had been the deal. He’d meet Karma alone. It was a bit hypocritical to insult Malokin since they were waiting to spring their own trap. They’d expected him not to honor the agreement to show up alone but they’d miscalculated the numbers.
“We gotta go now,” Lars said to the guys.
“Why?” Bic asked. “I thought we were going to wait until we were sure he made it into the office where we could trap him?”
“He’s not alone.” There were a few worried looks but no one appeared to be surprised.
The guys at his back, Lars swung the door open and walked right into the ambush. No one hesitated because every moment mattered. They had to get downstairs to Karma immediately, and he wasn’t letting Keith walk out of here alive.
There had to be thirty of them squeezed into that hallway, but no one looked like Keith. He’d never seen him in person but he’d know him immediately. He’d watched surveillance footage of him, outside his shop, from when he’d shown up for Faith enough times to have his face burned into memory.
Malokin’s men came at them in droves while he wondered where Keith could be. He threw a punch right to one guy’s throat, taking him out instantly, to duck before a knife sliced at his arm.
He was taking blows and swings but luckily no one was shooting. No one would’ve been able to get a clear shot anyway, between the fighting and movement.
Malokin had probably anticipated catching them unawares, sitting in the office. They might have thwarted his plan somewhat but Lars was more than aware Karma was still on her own downstairs.
“I gotta get down there,” Fate said from where he fought beside Lars, shoulder to shoulder.
Lars looked down both ends of the hallway, seeing the line of guys waiting to get at them through the bottleneck.
“Fate, get the guys and duck into the office.”
“Are you insane?” Fate asked, in between taking a blow to his midsection and then giving the guy back twice what he’d just dished out.
“It’s the only way.”
“There’s too many.”
“I got this. Just get the hell out of my way so I don’t need to be concerned with it spreading too far,” Lars said, hoping Malokin’s men wouldn’t know what was coming. There was a reason he’d been the number one threat on Malokin’s list. “But do it quick.”
“Bic, Angus, Cutty, you hearing this?” Fate asked.
“Yeah. We hear you,” Cutty replied.
“On my count,” Fate said.