I Blackmailed Her Brother

by Jessica Frances

  “My parents, my brother—”

  “Gemma is getting them now. We’ll all go somewhere safe until we know more. Come on; we need to grab Larissa. Zander is picking us all up from the office.” Although, with all this traffic, I doubt he will be fast about it.

  We rush back down the street, my mind racing as my gaze jerks over each car and truck. It doesn’t immediately click that the traffic jam closer to the office are vehicles seemingly doing nothing. As if their purpose is to cause the traffic, not because of the construction site. It also doesn’t sink in when Larissa steps out of the front gates of the construction site that I should find this odd.

  Instead, I feel relief at seeing her unharmed.

  “We need to get to the office. Scarlett might be in trouble,” I tell her, walking past Larissa while still holding Scarlett’s hand before a man in denim and plaid cuts me off.

  “Out of the way!” Scarlett demands.

  When I feel someone at our back and turn to see another large man blocking our way, I realize something is seriously off here.

  I turn back to Larissa, not seeing the upset woman from the phone, but a slightly gleeful one. Her expression isn’t one I recognize. The easygoing woman I spent so much time with isn’t there at all. Instead, she seems cold and distant.

  “You’re not who I think you are, are you?” I ask dejectedly.

  “No, I’m not.” She smirks then signals for the two men to grab us both.

  Fuck.

  Chapter 16

  We are forcibly taken into the confines of the construction site, around a corner and away from prying eyes. There are men and women working around us, but none are too close and no one pays us a lick of attention.

  I can guess who bought this project back to life now.

  “You’re the head of the Eden foundation?” I ask her, recalling the name of the building company. Zander was keeping an eye on it purely so we had an idea of when we would be free from hearing the loud and annoying construction noises. He was also interested to know who our new neighbors would be, not that we were able to find much out.

  “Yes, among other things. This has been a pet project of mine.”

  “I’m sorry, but what the hell is going on?” Scarlett snaps.

  I glance over to her. We are separated and held with our arms behind our backs. I can’t see what the asshole restraining me is carrying, but I notice the gun tucked into the back of the man’s pants holding Scarlett. These guys aren’t messing around.

  Larissa’s eyes narrow on Scarlett, and I immediately feel uncertain at the true hatred I see in her eyes. I have never seen that in her before, and seeing it directed at Scarlett while I am helpless to stop whatever happens next is equally terrifying and frustrating.

  I stare closer at Larissa, seeing more differences in her the longer I do. She holds herself taller, looking confident, and there is anger rolling off her in waves. There is nothing of the sweet, funny, open woman I have called a friend. Where did that Larissa go? Or did she never exist?

  “What is going on is that you’re about to die,” Larissa barks at Scarlett, forcing us both to gasp in shock. We had this fear in the back of our minds since we entered the construction site but hearing it out loud is another thing entirely. There is no mistaking it or telling yourself you are overreacting.

  “Why are you doing this? What’s going on?” I ask, gaining her attention as well as her ire.

  “Catch up, Cynthia. Who else wants your girlfriend dead right now?”

  “You work for Sanchez?”

  Her laughter holds no humor, only anger. “I have never worked for that idiot.”

  “So then, who are you? Why do you want Scarlett dead?”

  “Not just Scarlett. I want her whole family wiped out,” she admits.

  I snap my head to see Scarlett collapsing, the man restraining her forced to hold her up.

  “Why?” I bark, still confused.

  “Because I know Manuel is an idiot, but family is still family.”

  “Family?” I gape, my mind racing as I recall the file I read on him. Sanchez was an only child, as were his parents. What family could this woman be to him?

  “Right now, every witness who testified, or at least signed up to testify, against my brother is being wiped out, families included,” she says with a large, misleading grin.

  Scarlett gasps in denial, a moan of pain leaving her.

  Larissa glances down at her, her grin sadistic in the glee she openly shares, while my mind races to her using the term brother.

  Sanchez is her brother?

  I look for any similarities, but nothing shouts out to me, not at first glance and not while half-terrified.

  “Yes,” she tells Scarlett, not that she asked a question. “This does mean your parents are getting a surprise visit from a hit team as we speak. Your brother, I have been informed, is at home with them. Your mother just made him a sandwich, and they’re both sitting inside, watching TV. Your father is shoveling snow off the driveway.”

  “You have people watching them?” I question, hating the tears that fall fast and hard down Scarlett’s face. My arms jolt, wanting more than anything to comfort her, but the guy holding me tightens his grip.

  “I’ve had people watching you all. I wanted your routines known so there would be no surprises. I even had your phones hacked into.”

  “It was one of your people who pushed Scarlett that day?” I ask, wondering just how many close calls Scarlett had.

  Larissa frowns. “No one made a move on anyone until I said so, which is today.”

  “And the couple who died in the accident a few weeks ago?” I ask.

  She tips her head to the side, her piercing eyes dark and soulless. “That was an unfortunate accident. One of my men was made, and they reacted rather badly. Panicked.”

  I hear truth in her words, but I’m beginning to doubt everything when it comes to this woman. I was duped by her for months, so what the hell do I know about truth?

  “Why now? Why not before the trial?”

  She stares at me, gazing over my body in a predatory way.

  Larissa has looked at me many ways before. When we had our first date, she showed interest, and after we agreed what was happening wasn’t going anywhere romantic, her expressions turned friendly. But this is a side of her I haven’t seen before. It’s cocky, fury, and madness all rolled into one heated gaze.

  “I can see you’re stalling. I assume you’re waiting for something or someone to help you escape. But there is no help coming. That traffic jam goes both ways. You aren’t visible from the road, and one of my men has an electronic device that makes your phones untraceable or able to be used. There’s no help coming and no escaping your fate.”

  “Why are you doing this?” I ask desperately. “Are you doing this on Sanchez’s orders?”

  A shout bursts out of her, and we all brace for whatever is about to happen. Then I realize that it’s her laugh.

  “I certainly do not take orders from that dumbass. I wanted my brother to go to prison. I need him to take the fall for what happens today because, as of tomorrow, there will be no more of Sanchez’s men left. From those chauvinistic ashes will rise a new, more brutal and smarter drug cartel. Blood is the only acceptable language in this world and refusing to shed any makes you weak. It makes you silent, and silence breeds incompetence and disloyalty. It was only a matter of time before someone put my brother down and destroyed all our father’s groundwork, as well as my strategy. He needed to be stopped before he screwed it all up. I managed to find a way to make him useful.” She gives me a small shrug, clearly unaffected.

  “How can Sanchez be your brother? You said your dad was—”

  “Fine, he is my half-brother,” Larissa snaps. “It turns out my mother wasn’t exactly satisfied to share her husband with other wives. She often went elsewhere to get what she needed. She met my biological father one night at a bar. He was just starting out, and he made a comment about women
being only good for two things: to take a beating and for fucking.”

  I cringe at the crude words that Larissa delivers emotionlessly.

  “She wasn’t sure who I belonged to until after I was born. My biological father and I share the same eyes and skin tone. As I began showing some … alarming traits that are more associated to a murderer than a strange, albeit loving family being brought up on a farm, she put two and two together. She eventually told me of my true heritage.”

  “And you decided to take over the family business?” I ask, sounding a little shrill to my own ears.

  “It’s my right. I am older than Manuel. I was first in line. But my father was shortsighted about such things. He still believed a woman was only good for two things. So, I proved to him I was good at something else—killing him.” She waves her hand dismissively, like killing her father is no big deal.

  “Great psychotic friend you have here, Cyn,” Scarlett scoffs, earning herself a knock to the head with the butt of Larissa’s gun.

  “Stop! Stop! You don’t have to do this,” I plead, terrified there is no way out of this. That we are trapped and close to our deaths.

  “But I do have to,” she counters, smirking at Scarlett’s pain-filled cry. “I handpicked my team, and each person has one specific job today. This has been planned for months. Though, I admit, having your little side trip to New Zealand delayed things.” She glares at Scarlett like she did it on purpose. “Then again, I’m sure everyone’s guard is down now.” She delivers a sickening grin. “I have a man at each hit, recording it. Their murders will be uploaded soon, and then no one will ever mess with me. I told them to get close-ups of the kids.”

  I shake my head. “This is crazy.”

  “Perhaps. But no less crazy than what happened when I found you in Scarlett’s files.”

  I frown, not understanding.

  Elaborating, Larissa continues, “I’ll admit that I have always had a thing for Asian women, but one as feisty and sexy as you? One as smart and determined? One as hardworking and innocent?” She shakes her head with a small laugh. “I was fucking gone at just the first photo of you. I knew I had to meet you, and then I literally bumped into that bitch friend of yours and knew I had my in. It almost seemed”—she cocks her head, searching for the right word—“like fate. Like we were meant to be. Not that you wanted me.” Her face twitches and a flash of anger briefly lights her eyes before she gets it back under control. “Still fucking mooning after this one.” She jerks her head at Scarlett. “But I knew I could use you; get close to her through you. It wasn’t going to be a wasted chance.”

  So much for Sasha’s baby bump being a lie detector, I think through my panic.

  “I admit to wasting precious time on you. I mean, when we first met, you weren’t even in contact with Scarlett. But there was something about you.” She purses her lips, like the idea concerns her. “I wanted a taste, even though I knew just one would never be enough.”

  I shudder, finally seeing Larissa’s crazy shining through. “You’re insane.”

  “Possibly. I admit my attraction has been borderline obsession. But even obsession in this business is weakness. I can’t afford to have any weaknesses. Just as I was easily able to exploit my brother’s lack of balls, so could someone exploit me by using you, which leaves me with only one solution.”

  “I’m not going anywhere with you!” I yell at her, envisioning being forced to leave with her and her goons then being locked up for the rest of my life.

  “I know. I don’t plan on letting you go anywhere.”

  My anger skids to a halt as her words sink in. “You’re going to kill me?”

  “No!” Scarlett cries.

  “It’s for the best. This is only the beginning. It’s best to end this now. I did consider waiting until after you found Scarlett dead. I thought it might be amusing to console you. But that path leads down a problematic road,” she says dispassionately.

  “You don’t have to do this,” I repeat, my tone sounding as defeated as I feel.

  Two against three isn’t impossible, but with Scarlett untrained and assuming the guy behind me has a gun, three weapons against our zilch doesn’t exactly speak volumes about how well this is going to go down.

  “You know, I’ve never felt much affection for anyone. You should feel special that I was able to muster some for you. You have achieved something no woman has ever been able to do before.”

  When her gaze shifts to the man restraining me, I’m tempted to charge her. However, her gun never shifts from Scarlett’s way, and her steady hand and calm voice tells me she won’t hesitate to pull the trigger.

  “Take her over there,” she says to the goon behind me with a nod of her head to the side. “I don’t think I can watch.” She sounds disgusted in herself, but all I care about is that she is separating Scarlett and me. We don’t have much of a chance of getting out of this, but I know for sure we will have no chance if we are separated. “Besides,” Larissa continues, unaware of my internal panic, “I’ll enjoy putting a bullet in the one who stole Cynthia’s heart.”

  I glance around desperately, seeing a few men working in the distance. How can they simply work when this is happening? Why is no one helping us? Surely not everyone here is dirty?

  “Move,” the man holding me grunts out, his physique three times my size. He looks like a gym junkie with an affinity for steroids.

  I don’t know how I am supposed to stop this. How can I beat this man and save Scarlett? How can I make this right?

  “I like the idea of hurting your bitch by letting her see you die, but that isn’t going to happen. So, the longer you stand here, the more I’m going to make it hurt for her.”

  Larissa’s words are like a bolt striking me, jolting me enough to move a few steps, but I’m moving in the wrong direction. I’m moving away from Scarlett. That can never be right.

  The asshole pushes me from behind, and I shuffle forward a few more steps.

  “Don’t do this, Larissa. I’m begging you! Let her go!” I cry out, unbidden tears escaping to blur my vision.

  “I love you, Cynthia!” Scarlett shouts.

  My knees buckle at her declaration, but before I can take it in, before I can even think to do something, we round a corner and the asshole pushes me down.

  “Boss wants this done quick and clean. I’d rather have my fun, but she is fucking scary. So, stay still and this will all be over before you even get the chance to feel a thing,” he says, pulling a gun out of his holster.

  I glance around frenetically, hoping to find sympathetic eyes or something I can use as a weapon. Luckily, I’m being killed at a construction site, so there is crap lying all around us.

  I grab a steel pole of some sort and, without much thought, given I have nothing to lose, I swing it wildly at the man now pointing a gun at me.

  He fires, perhaps in reflex, but since I’m swinging so powerfully, I shift with my own momentum, moving out of firing range. Well, I do feel a sting in my side, so maybe not completely out of the way, but the pole I’m wielding knocks the man’s arms.

  From my angle, I don’t do much damage, but it’s enough to shock him. At his distraction, I jump to my feet and bring the pole down on his arms harder.

  The vibration of the impact wobbles up my own arms, and I lose my grip on the pole. Fortunately, he also loses his hold, dropping the gun.

  Not allowing him any time to regroup, I charge at him, fearing where the gun fell isn’t close enough for me to make a grab for it without him getting the upper hand.

  Making impact around his middle, I push him back, using his surprise to gain traction as I slam him into a large set of tires. He groans as his back slaps against the grooves of the unforgiving rubber, but it doesn’t wind him like I hoped. Instead, he immediately retaliates by shoving his fist into my side, winding me instead.

  “Hey, what’s—”

  A man exits the truck we are against, which I belatedly realize is a crane, but he
doesn’t get more out before I reach up and grab the bottom of his shirt, pulling him down and ducking as the guy loses his balance and crashes into the asshole I’m fighting.

  I dive to the side, grabbing the fallen gun, but when I turn to face the man I have been fighting, he shoves the surprised man at me.

  I don’t fire, though my finger is on the trigger and I’m a hairsbreadth away from freaking the fuck out and shooting anything that moves. Instead, I shift to the side, trying to get out of the man’s way, but he crashes into me anyway and I lose my grip on the gun.

  I shove the man off, watching as the asshole I’m fighting stalks toward me.

  “I tried to do it the nice way, but now you’ve made me do it the hard way,” he grumbles, huffing from the exertion and bleeding from a cut across his forehead.

  My side still stings; otherwise, I can’t feel a thing.

  “You don’t have to do this,” I say, itching to get back to Scarlett, but I can’t leave without shutting this asshole down.

  “Yes, I do actually. You might be annoying, but the boss lady is fucking crazy,” he admits, shifting so he can take a step into the crane’s cab.

  I notice a shotgun resting on the other side of the seat, something he has likely seen, too.

  Without thinking, I jump on his back, pushing us both into the cramped space. With the motor already running, it takes almost no time before one of us knocks a control. I briefly notice that we are on the move, but I don’t have time to see if we are about to crash into anything as I block his attacks.

  He gets some hard knocks in, but in the cramped space, it’s hard to get much force behind anything.

  I use all my might to punch him in his sides, hoping to inflict some pain in his kidneys since this is the only open shot I have. He barely grunts as he picks me up and throws me against the front of the cab. Buttons and levers dig painfully into my back as I kick out my legs and manage to get him good in the jaw. His roar of rage is nothing compared to the noise coming from just outside the cab.

  Even though we are mid-fight, we both pause, me on his back and him with his arms out as the ground shifts. Comically, we glance up at the large crane’s hook attached to a large cannonball-like thing on the end. It’s huge enough to block off most of the view in front of us.