Chapter 107

I can see the way his eyes are glazing over and his erection is prodding me in the pelvis already. Men like this use sex as a means to feel powerful, and he wouldn’t be the first arsehole to do it.

‘’You think this is an opportunist moment? You’re a dumb broad. Offices have windows, high buildings have ways down and I have a van waiting outside. This building isn’t watched from the outside looking in because Carrero is more interested in what goes on inside.’’

I pale, alarm bells ringing because I know what he says is true. There’s an alleyway behind the building that you can access from another street, the building isn’t watched from outside and there’s a fire escape that runs half way down to above the height of a van. If he gets me down that he can pass me off to anyone standing on the roof of a transit. This was planned, they have been waiting for a chance and my return gives them that.

They knew I was coming back, what I don’t get is why no one snatched me the night I ran? I was an easy target then, less hassle than this. Maybe that was all just confirmation for them. My running and his hightailing it to be there to find me.

They missed a chance because they weren’t sure I would be a weapon, and now they are.

Fuck! Except I’m not, Alexi won’t bend to save me because I’m only a toy and not of long-term value. He’s not stupid, he will let me go the second he realises I affect his standing in this world and he’ll let them kill me.

I should be terrified of that prospect but I’m not. I’m strangely calm and devoid of feeling, much like I was when Tyler’s men made it clear that day it was the end of my road. I swear I am broken and if it was Alexi making threats on my life I would probably be a hysterical puddle on the floor, yet here I am, solid and stable as a rock.

I told Sophie something about me because I had no one else to remember it after I was gone. Who I was, my real name. I was disappearing after a lifetime of being invisible, and I told her something true and meaningless. I don’t know why, I guess it was like an acceptance that I never amounted to anything, and someone should know a girl named Lisa once lived in this body.

Lisa was born with so much promise … but fate gave her a shit path, and she died somewhere after her eleventh birthday.

Camilla isn’t a real person, she’s a guise, a façade, a mask, and she is truly worthless. A body that’s been used by hundreds of men, a dirty vile hooker with no moral compass and no one who ever gave one shit about her. She fought to survive and hurt countless girls in the process; her death will not mean anything to anyone and therefore, I feel nothing about it happening.

He drags me out of the lift on the office floor, tripping on my heels on the thick carpeting but I don’t reach out to grab hold of him. I would rather fall and make it an effort for him to get me moving. The guard up here is new, he’s only been here for the last two months, and instead of offering me relief at seeing a saviour he just nods and grins, and I swear I baulk at it.

He’s completely unshocked by the appearance of some greasy thug dragging Alexi’s hostess by the arms with him to the office, and it dawns on me that this prick has been paid off.

The nerve of the slimy little weaselly bastard.

He’s the insider? Someone who sits every day watching over Alexi’s club like a silent protector; someone we put our trust in? He’s new to here but I know he’s been a paid hand for years in Alexi’s empire.

What the hell? Alexi was right, you can’t trust anyone. They are all just opportunists waiting for a better deal, no wonder he keeps his circle of trust to blood only. No wonder he believes I will do the same, this guy has worked for him for a decade.

As the hired hitman drags me towards the open office, I make to fight, twisting and digging my nails into his wrist with vengeance as I realise my last hope of help was a complete fail. It gets me slapped hard across the jaw for my efforts, and sends me flying into the open office door, so I land face first on the floor and lose a shoe in the process of carpet skidding and burning up my arm as I yelp in pain. It burns like hell and I scramble around trying to right myself, so I have a better position for a second wave of kicking back.

‘’Be fast, Mico comes up here to check in every so often.’’ The gravelly voice of that traitorous bastard sitting at his bank of monitors makes me rage, and I literally will Alexi to find out what he’s done. I want him to make his torture slow and fucking painful and I hope he drags it out for weeks and endures the worst kind of hell before he dies.

‘’The van should be there in two minutes exactly, everything is working to plan.’’ The thug is over the top of me grabbing my limbs and body and dragging me across the carpet as though I am weightless. Effectively moving me without breaking a sweat, no matter how hard I am trying to resist.

‘’Shut the door in case anyone comes up to check on me.’’ Traitor is up on his feet, picking up my shoe, and he tosses it into the room we are heading for.