He was a stocky man, but stout. He wore a bandanna on his head; the bright red contrasted starkly with his coal-black hair. A gray hoodie hung loosely over his chest, but something told Ashleigh that she wasn’t going to find much flab under there, judging by the definition of his arms, which strained against the stretchy material
What struck her most was his eyes though. There was a deadness there that left her deeply unsettled.
She forced a smile at him. Maybe she was jumping to conclusions. “I’m sorry, sir, but we’re not open yet. The hours are posted on the sign there—“
“I’m not leaving until I get what I want,” he told her. He advanced slowly, almost leisurely, his pace completely at odds with his expression.
Ashleigh tried to swallow past the sudden extreme tightness in her throat. Her stomach had begun to churn as the foreboding feeling grew more acute. “Sir, I’m not sure what you’re talking about. I’m sorry, but if you don’t leave immediately, I’m going to have to have you escorted off the premises—“
“Are you?” he inquired, not slowing at all or showing the least bit of alarm at her threat. “You think that’s a good idea?”
Her eyes fell to his hands, hidden in the pocket of his hoodie. The bulge there was unnatural. She couldn’t tell what he had concealed there, and she didn’t want to know.
She backed slowly toward the phone, but what Alex had said about Jasper’s guys flashed through her mind. He had cops in his pocket. She didn’t know if that was true or not, but she wasn’t willing to chance it.
She tried to quickly run through all her options. She didn’t know Alex’s number. Why the hell hadn’t she asked him for that? Not that she’d have time to look it up with this psycho in front of her.
The delivery entrance. If she could beat him to the punch and make for the back door, she could maybe get out to her car or at least a public area where she could yell for help.
“Now, we can do this civilly,” the man began.
She didn’t wait for him to finish his thought. She bolted for the exit, forcing herself to run as fast as her legs could carry her. She didn’t even turn back to see if the man had followed her. She scrambled through the kitchen, catching herself on the middle corner of the island counter she used for prep work, and using that force to propel herself into a sharp left.
She heard his footsteps behind her. How far behind she couldn’t tell. Her own heartbeat seemed to be drowning everything out. She flew past the cleaning supply closet, steps away from the back door.
She pushed against the bar, expecting it to give way. It didn’t. She’d never unlocked it that morning.
She started fishing for her keys in her pocket, panic causing her hands to shake too hard to be of use. But it was too late.
She heard the scuffle of footsteps behind her and whipped around to find the man charging down the hall after her, a murderous look on his face. His features relaxed into a sneer when he saw her trapped against the locked door. He slowed his pace gradually, not stopping till he was right in front of her, blocking any possible escape route.
Now he pulled out the bulge he’d concealed in his pocket—a switchblade. With his free hand he grabbed her by the collar, twisting hard, and slamming her against the glass door behind her. He flipped the switchblade open with practiced ease and laid the edge against her throat, digging the edge in hard.
She could feel her pulse against the cold metal. He wasn’t pressing hard enough to break the skin, but the pain of his hold was a reminder of how easily he could cut her open if he wanted to. She hated herself for the sign of weakness, but she couldn’t stifle the small, automatic whimper that slipped from her lips.
He released her collar and slipped his hand up into her hair, lacing his hand in it close to her scalp. His grip tightened, putting a painful amount of pressure on her roots. She felt her eyes start to water from the suddenness of it.
“Thought you could run away, bitch?” he growled, accenting his question with a sharp tug on her hair. He yanked her head back so she was looking at the ceiling and her throat was thrust against the blade. “Now, you listen to me. You seem to have a hard time getting the message, even after we tried to spell it out for you downstairs. We know Danny stashed it here. Took us fucking long enough to figure that out. We haven’t heard any news about product moving around here, so guess what, cupcake? Means you still have it here. You thought we’d forget about it? That we’d just let it slide? Shit, you’re dumb.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she gasped, trying to move her throat as little as possible.
“Still playing stupid, huh? Carlos said you liked pretending to not have a fucking clue until your bodyguard showed up. Well he ain’t here now, is he? I checked. Tailed you all the way from Clairmont.” The man dragged her away from the wall and thrust her in front of him, still keeping his hand tight in her hair and the knife hard against her throat.
“Now,” he continued in a threatening whisper. He leaned in over her shoulder and spoke directly into her ear. She could feel his fetid breath against her neck. “I’m gonna make this real simple. You’re gonna take me straight to the goods. You’re gonna hand them over to me. And if we can do that, well, I’ll walk out of here a happy man. You get back to your life, I get back to mine. Simple, right?”
She whimpered again as he tugged on her hair.
“But if you don’t, if you keep playing this fucking game, you and I are going to go for a little ride, and you’re going to get to meet my boss. And trust me when I say you don’t want to be his guest. Because, sweetheart, there are so many ways we can get what we want, but in the end, we are going to get it. If that means we have to ruin that pretty face, then so be it.”
He pushed her forward. She moved slowly, trying to keep as much distance between her and the edge of the knife as possible.
What was she going to do? God, they were going to torture her like they did to Alex. They were going to cut her to ribbons just because they thought she knew something. And she probably wasn’t going to be as lucky as Alex and escape.
Alex. Could he find her? He didn’t even know where she’d gone. She didn’t even know if he was awake yet.
The man forced her into the kitchen and held her facing the back wall.
“Now,” he sighed, “let’s try this again. Where is it?”
Ashleigh thought she heard a soft jingle from the front room.
The man must have heard it too, because he swung her back in the direction of the counter and marched her forward. “Who’s there?” he bellowed. “I got your girl. She ain’t going nowhere, and if you want her to keep breathing, you’d best step out where I can see you.”
Ashleigh couldn’t breathe. She could feel herself shaking in the man’s grip, fighting to keep the fear from completely overwhelming her.
There was no response. The man waited for a few seconds, then pushed Ashleigh forward. “Hey! You step out now, you little fucker, because if you try to pop out at me, I’m going to just cut her open. You hear me?”
There was still no response.
“You hear that front door?” he demanded in a harsh whisper.
She shook her head, pulling his hand with the motion.
He still didn’t relax. He pushed her forward, through the doorway leading from the kitchen and up to the front counter, where he continued to look around.
Ashleigh heard him grunt loudly, and suddenly his grip slackened, giving her enough room to slip away from him. She instinctively ran toward the door, trying to put as much space between her and that knife as possible.
It was only after she’d reached the safety of the front door that she dared to turn around to see her savior.
Chapter 10
Cobra
Cobra knew he had to be very careful. One wrong move and Ashleigh would most likely bleed out on the floor or, best case scenario, end up in the emergency room. He’d thought for sure he’d given himself away when he heard the man shouting out at
him.
Thank God he’d had the instinct to cross the room quickly and quietly and wait pressed against the wall beside the entrance to the kitchen.
He’d been beyond pissed when he’d woken up to an empty bed. At first he’d thought that Ashleigh had just gone back to the spare bed, but a quick search through the house had confirmed his worst suspicions.
He knew exactly where she’d gone. Back to that goddamn bakery. After she’d sworn up and down that she wouldn’t. After he’d told her what would happen.
And it had been too much for him to hope that he’d get there in time before anything too bad could happen. Of course not. She fucking had to run off and right into Jasper’s arms. If she hadn’t believed him before about the danger, she would now. At least one good thing would come of this, he’d thought grimly.
When Jasper’s guy forced Ashleigh through the door though, he realized that things were much worse than he’d initially thought. He hadn’t expected the henchman to have such an effective hold on Ashleigh. He hadn’t thought to call for backup, or even grab a gun. Idiot, he cursed himself. He knew what he was dealing with here.
At least the moron hadn’t looked to either side. He’d left himself wide open for an attack from behind.
Cobra crept forward, already analyzing how best to approach this. He’d have to make sure that Ashleigh could get herself to safety, meaning his first challenge was getting that knife as far from her body as possible. He’d have to sacrifice efficiency for caution here, so he might get a few cuts himself. But that was a small price to pay for Ashleigh’s life.
He lunged forward, wrapping an arm around the man’s neck and his other hand firmly around the man’s wrist. He bent the guy’s arm away from Ashleigh’s throat, forcing the arm to stay straight.
The suddenness of the attack was enough to cause the henchman to release Ashleigh’s hair. And she had the good sense to get the hell away from him which made the rest of Cobra’s work easier.
He tightened his arm around the man’s neck, constricting and holding him there until the man slumped in his arms. Cobra let him drop limply to the floor then, and he stooped down to wrest the switchblade from the man’s hand.
He turned his attention back to Ashleigh, who was cowering across the room, shaking hard, her eyes wide and shining with tears. He just stared at her for a moment, waiting for the whirlwind of thoughts in his mind to subside. At that moment, he was sure the only words he’d be able to get out were a long chain of expletives, and he wanted to make sure he could fully articulate how stupidly she’d acted.
A sob tore through her chest. Then another. He watched her slide down the wall until she was sitting on the ground, hugging her knees, looking like she was just trying to hold herself together.
Cobra felt some of the angry edge in him soften. But he was still pissed. “Why the fuck would you come here?” he demanded. “You see this shit?” He held up the switchblade. “Jasper doesn’t play games, Ashleigh! What, you didn’t fucking believe me before? You think I did this to myself?” He pointed to the scar on his cheek. “That a fucking cat or some shit gave this to me?”
Ashleigh said nothing. She just continued to cry into her knees.
He hated her seeing like that—broken down, scared. He’d hardly ever seen her like that before. She used to hate crying in front of him, and any time he’d walked in on her when she was upset, she’d clammed right up, wiped her eyes, and told him she was fine, don’t worry, or some other bullshit.
But goddamn it, he’d told her. He’d told her it wasn’t worth it. He’d told her not to come back.
“Shit, Ash,” he muttered, flipping the switchblade shut and slipping it into his pocket. He moved toward her until he was close enough to kneel down and pull her into his arms. She let him, her body easing comfortably into his.
Her face was warm and wet against his shoulder. He pulled her head against him, crushing her to his body, hoping that holding her so tight would help her realize she was safe.
“It’s fine now,” he murmured to her. “I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. You’re safe while I’m here.”
“I’m sorry,” she hiccupped against him. Her arms twined around his neck, and she pulled herself even closer to him. “I shouldn’t have gone. But you don’t get it, Alex. If this place goes under, I have nothing. I’m in the hole with a business loan, and we’re barely turning a profit. It’s getting better, but Christ, if I have a few bad days with no business, I’m done.”
“Fuck, Ash,” he growled, “if your bakery goes out, you’re still here. You pull this shit and fall into the wrong hands and you don’t live to see the end of the week. He was going to kill you, you know that? Jasper doesn’t let anyone walk away. I told you that.”
Another sob tore through her. She tried unsuccessfully to stifle it.
Cobra sighed and leaned his cheek against her hair. “You should have told me you were coming down here. I could have come with you. I could have stopped that rat bastard from ever laying a hand on you.”
“You never would have let me walk out the front door,” she mumbled against him.
Cobra said nothing. She was probably right.
They sat like that for a few minutes, their only communication the contact of their bodies.
When her sobs had died down to sniffles, Cobra pushed himself to his feet and offered a hand down to help her up. She stood, shaky but solid enough.
He watched her gaze wander back to the unconscious man sprawled out on the floor. He couldn’t quite make out her expression.
“What happened?” he asked. He moved swiftly over to the man, pulled his bandana from his head, and used it to secure the man’s hands behind his back.
Ashleigh told him how she’d come into the bakery. How he’d threatened her and how she’d tried to run. How he seemed convinced that she knew all about whatever Jasper was looking for, like she was keeping it for herself and planning on selling it.
It finally dawned on Cobra. Jasper’s men had been casing the joint because whatever it was Jasper was after had to be stashed in the bakery. That was probably why they’d torn her storage room apart.
Cobra pulled out his phone and made a call to Zane, telling him to round up Axle and Ajax and get their asses over to the bakery as soon as possible.
“What happened?” Zane demanded.
Cobra watched Ashleigh. Her eyes were still fixed on her attacker, though she’d moved back against the far wall. “Ash got her ass into trouble. I’ve got the situation handled here. The guy’s out cold. I figured we can get a few answers out of him and see exactly what we’re dealing with.”
“Sure thing, man. Be there in ten.” Zane hung up.
Cobra paced around the man on the floor, trying to get a good picture of him. He looked like he might be a low-level enforcer. Jasper must have still been thinking that he was dealing with a baker and her boyfriend, otherwise he would have sent more guys. Cobra leaned down and patted the guy down just to make sure he hadn’t missed anything.
He wasn’t even packing either. Shit, Jasper must have thought it was amateur hour over here. It was good for him and Ashleigh because if he’d come face to face with even one armed guy, they would have been screwed.
“What are you going to do with him?”
Ashleigh’s question interrupted his thoughts.
“Ask him some questions.” Cobra glanced back at her just in time to see her quizzical look.
“Ask?”
Cobra shrugged. “Ask questions. Beat the shit out of him. Some combination of those things.”
Ashleigh snorted. “I meant after. You know, when you’re done with him, you, what, shoot him in the back of the head? Put him down for a dirt nap?”
Cobra barked a laugh. He didn’t know if it was her deadpan expression or the ridiculous euphemism. Maybe it was the way she asked the question so casually, like she was asking about the game last night. “Fuck, Ash, I’m not running with the mob.”
It was her turn t
o shrug. “How should I know? And I’m serious. You’re not going to just let him walk out the front door, are you?”
He couldn’t help but marvel at how quickly she’d recovered. Apart from the redness around her eyes, there was no trace of vulnerability left in her. She didn’t let life knock her down for long.
“I’ll have Ajax or someone take him for a long ride way out in the countryside. Why do you care? You worried about him?”
Ashleigh scoffed. “Fuck no.”
Cobra couldn’t help but grin at her. Yeah, that was his girl all right.
Chapter 11
Ashleigh
Ashleigh’s phone buzzed in her pocket. Alex was talking to his guys again, probably discussing how they were going to deal with her assailant. The man who attacked her still lie on the floor, though he’d regained consciousness and was now gagged.
BAD INFLUENCE: A Dark Bad Boy Romance Page 35