Danburn: The English Dragon ― Erotic Paranormal Dragon Shifter Romance (13 page)

“Now, you’re going to make a call and tell them that I have you.” She asked him again about the ropes. ‘There will be no new fucking ropes on you. Mother fuck, are you this stupid?”

“I’m not stupid, but I do have things I want. I’m going to live in the big castle with Kendrick until Danburn tosses her out. Then we’re going to have him set up the apartment I was in. It was nice and all, but it wasn’t the castle. Plus, there isn’t much in the way of furniture anymore. I’ll need that taken care of too. When I’m living at the castle, I’m going to be the queen of it.” She frowned again. “I don’t think they’re moving fast enough on my chair and new ropes.”

He pulled out his gun and aimed at her. She only stared at him, looking like she knew he wasn’t going to shoot her. And the problem was, he needed her too badly to let her get to him. So instead of killing her like he really wanted to do, he left her in the cell. This wasn’t going to go well if he couldn’t be with her long enough for her to do what he wanted her to.

He saw Collier leaning against the wall across from him. “Get her to make the call.” Collier nodded. “She’ll drive me crazy before she is done. I’ve never known a woman so stupid before. I think she might even have Angel beat in that department.”

His niece. She was dead, and she did end up in the pit with the others. An accident when Collier had been trying to get her to do what he wanted when he’d met up with her at her apartment. She’d run screaming from him and into traffic before he could stop her. It was either dump her body or have to answer plenty of questions about why she had been tied up when she’d been hit.

Even after questioning Collier about it, Bernie wondered why English had told him to talk to Collier. He was just fine with the way things had turned out with Angel. She was gone, and he didn’t have to worry that she’d be around to tell her mom how badly he’d treated her. He supposed having her killed was bad enough, but he couldn’t care less right now.

He heard the door open, then close behind him. Good luck was all he could think to say to Collier. He was going to need it. The woman was fucking nuts.

His phone was ringing when he entered his office. Instead of answering it as he had been for the last few days, he let it go to the service. As he was sitting down, he looked out the back of his office into the plant area and smiled.

It had taken him nearly ten years of murdering others and taking over shit territories to get to where he was today. Ten whole years of barely making enough money to afford the smaller things on his want list, much less the bigger ticket items that he really wanted. And now it was within his grasp to not just have his list fulfilled, but to have anything he wanted. If not for the fucker across the way.

When the phone rang again, he turned and looked at the caller ID. The number was blocked, it said. Fine by him. Bernie had made it a habit of never answering those types of calls anyway. Especially after the other day when English had gotten through to him on his cell. Pulling out a pad of paper and making notes on the ransom note that he was going to give English, he revised it to be a demands list about halfway through it. He wasn’t really going to give the dumb woman back to English, but he was going to get what he wanted.

His phone rang again five minutes later...same blocked number. He wanted to pick it up. His fingers were itching to do so, but he really didn’t want to talk to anyone just yet. But he did turn on the big screen television across from his desk to see what other information they were fumbling with at the crime scene.

Bernie had ordered the shooting, and Collier had claimed that he had to do it the way he had or he would have lost the opportunity to get what Bernie wanted. Besides, he told him, they were able to plant men in the department now that all the good guys had been taken care of. And Collier had assured him that he’d taken care that his face was never seen. Bernie knew that the town was small time, and more than likely only had Internet because it was required of the department to have it. But he’d bet his last nickel that they no more had any way of tracking who had shot up the station than they did the knowledge on how to use anything very high tech. It was why he’d chosen this town for the base of his operation.

When his phone rang again, he picked it up this time. Not saying anything, he listened for several seconds before he heard the sound of a soft laugh. He wasn’t sure why, but he had the feeling that he’d made one of the biggest mistakes of his life by answering the call.

“Waiting me out isn’t a smart business move, Bernard. I have more important things going on in my life than waiting for some shit to answer his phone, then when he does, waiting for him to speak.” Bernie swallowed twice, trying to get his vocal cords to work with his now thickening tongue. “When are you getting my goods to me? I have a long list of clients that are just chomping at the bit to have a taste of what I was supposed to receive from you several days ago. I do not care for waiting. On calls to be answered, nor the things that I want.”

“I’m working on it right now. The men, they’re working round the clock to make sure that we have the entire order ready for you as planned.” Michael Hollywood laughed. “There shouldn’t be any trouble this time around. You’ll have everything that I promised you in this shipment.”

“No, there had better not be. As for my completed order, I’m not sure you understand how this works. When I place an order, I expect it to come. When it does not, through no fault of my own, you’re supposed to double my order. At no extra charge to me, of course.” The laughter again. “You should be a man that is true to his word, Bernard. However will you make it in this world if you are doubted at every turn?”

Double? Christ, they were going to be cutting it close now. Even with working the men twenty hours a day. He asked if he could have an extension.

“Why, of course. But the same penalties apply. You don’t have my order, the full order when it’s due, then I get to have double that. For no extra charge again.” The soft laughter again. This time it was chilling, and bringing sweat to his brow at the same time. “I am a man who does not like to be trifled with. And you have taken my patience with you to the limit, Bernard.”

No one but his mother had ever called him by his given name. Bernie had not allowed it after she passed. Now this man was using it as if he had a right to, and there wasn’t shit he could do about it. Collier walked in, looking pissed off when Bernie spoke to Mr. Hollywood.

“Sir, I’m sure you can understand the issues that I’m having here. The people here, they might be hard up for some income, but they have no concept of how this works. It’s all I can do to keep a good crew working for me without them fucking up my—”

“Profanity is not necessary, Bernard. Please. Let us be civil about this. But as you were saying, you have poor workers. Then I would suggest that you rid yourself of the dead weight and move on.” The sound of papers being shuffled came over the phone line, and Bernie closed his eyes, afraid of what Hollywood was going to say next. “I’m a generous man, so I will tell you what I’m going to do. I have some men, good workers, who will gladly come and work on my order with you. And once you are caught up, you know, with all of your orders to me, then they will return to me. How does that sound?”

“And what will this generosity cost me?” The laughter again, and Bernie thought it got more and more scary all the time. “Not that I don’t think you have some good reliable workers, but I should know up front what I’m going to be dealing with.”

“Yes, smart on your part. It will only cost you a part of your business. I think a sixty-forty cut should cover my expenses and the wait I have to endure.” Bernie asked him how the cut would work. “Oh, you would get the lesser, of course. I do have to send my men to you. Then there is the added expense of their payroll. You can pay that to them weekly, as you are your own men. Then I will expect a percentage of their income too. Not from their checks, but you covering it for them. It wouldn’t be fair of us to charge them for your incompetence, now would it?”

“No. But I don’t think I can afford that, Mr. Hollywood. As I said, I’m cutting it close to the margin now.” Mr. Hollywood told him he didn’t understand. It only took Bernie about two seconds to realize that it was going to be his way or else.

“The men will arrive in about three hours. And when they get there, I will expect you to let me know that they have arrived safely. The first check you send me...well, not a check. You’ll send me cash. But the first installment will be given to me twenty-four hours after they arrive. Then every week until we have finished our business. The checks, as it were, will be given directly to me; that way I can be assured of getting my end of our little deal.”

After a few more minutes of Bernie being told how things were going to work, the call ended. He didn’t say a word as he thought of what had just happened to him and his little business. When Collier said his name, probably not for the first time, he told him what had just transpired between him and his now new partner in this.

“How the hell are you going to afford that?” He told him he had no idea other than to pay it and not die. “Christ, he’s going to be making more than you are at this, and you’re still going to be doing all the work on your own.”

He knew that. But as far as he could see, there wasn’t any way out of it. When Hollywood spoke, people usually listened or ended up dead. He wasn’t ready to call the undertakers just yet. Bernie decided to change the subject, just to get his mind off the new deals he had been forced into.

“The woman, did she make the call?” When Collier scrubbed his hand over his face, Bernie had to smile. The few minutes that he’d spent with her had been bad enough. Collier had been with her for over an hour. “I take it there weren’t any calls made.”

“Oh, she gave me the number all right. Even told me who to ask for when it started ringing. But as soon as I put the phone to her ear for her to tell them what I wanted, she started talking about the castle and how she was going to need a much nicer room after all of this. And that we won’t give her any kind of nicer chair and silk bonds. I have no fucking clue what she’s talking about with that shit.”

Bernie explained. “So we’re not closer to having what we want than before.” Collier said he would go back down in a moment, that he just needed a break. “I’d just make her scream in to the phone, then tell them what we need for them to get her back. No more fucking around. The faster we can get this mess cleaned up, the faster I can get rid of Hollywood’s men and I can move on to more important matters, like making me money.”

Once he had what he wanted from English, he was going to simply walk away from this business. He’d thought of that while talking to Hollywood. The man would take over anyway. Why should he hang around only to have himself killed when this deal was done and he was no longer of use to him? Selling the woman back to English, or the illusion of selling her back, would net him enough money that he’d be able to set up again. Just not in this area.

When Collier got up to leave, Bernie went with him. He wasn’t in the best of moods, so he thought he’d go and take a little of his frustrations out on the woman. She was going to die anyway. He might as well have a little fun with her now. As soon as he entered the room, she started on about the nicer chair that had not arrived and the silk bonds. He wished to Christ now he’d never used that word.

“You’ll do as you’re told, or so help me, I’m going to blow your fucking brains out.” She just stared at him. Collier must have hit her earlier, because her lip was puffy. When she opened her mouth, he warned her again. “If you so much as mention the chair or the ropes holding you, I will do it.”

“My sister won’t be happy with you treating me this way.” He asked her how she’d feel if he was to kill her. “It would devastate her. I’m her sister after all. I’ll ask her, but I think that you’re being terribly mean to me.”

“Yeah, I think you’ll get over it.” Collier put the phone to her mouth, leaving it on speakerphone so they could hear what was being said on both ends. As soon as the phone was answered, the man’s voice at the other end sounding bored, Bernie hit Louisa across the mouth and sent her flying to the floor. As she lay there screaming at him, he took the phone from Collier.

“You want her back? You have Danburn meet me at the lake in twenty minutes. Tell him I’m done fucking around and I want him to pay up.” The man said he would give him the message. “If I see cops, I’m going to kill the woman and Danburn. I’m sure you know what sort of man I am.”

“Yes, I understand what sort of man you think you are. Big and bad. But you have no idea what sort of person you are threatening when you speak of his lordship this way.” Bernie told him to do what he was told. “Yes, I will, but I have a message for you as well.”

When there was nothing forthcoming, Bernie thought he’d hung up. But when the woman spoke, the cultured voice of someone that had taken the phone from the man who had answered, Bernie thought of Hollywood and his soft voice over the phone.

“My name is Kendrick Barrera. If you hurt my sister, you piece of shit, I will come after you and you will rue the day that you messed with what is mine.” He asked her about Danburn. “Him? I’m not worried about him. He’s going to stomp you into the ground so far that no one will find you for centuries. If the earth even takes you inside of it.”

“What?” She only laughed, a laugh that made his skin crawl and his balls tighten up around his throat, it felt like. “You’d better watch your step, Miss Barrera. I have something of yours.”