Chapter 5
Victor snatched her phone and laughed.
“Call the cops? Go ahead.”
Before she could react, it rang.
An unknown number.
Victor checked the recent call log. She hadn’t dialed the police. She’d called a company tied to the Blackwood Syndicate.
“Calling backup?” he sneered. “You think anyone can save you?”
He smashed the phone against the concrete until it shattered. Then he grabbed her chin, forcing her to look up.
“You ruined my shipment. You humiliated me in front of Sebastian Blackwood. You’ll pay for that.”
Rip.
Her blouse tore.
Lexi froze.
Victor’s gaze dropped, greedy and unrestrained. He’d wanted her before—back when she worked under one of his legal fronts. But she’d been protected then. Untouchable.
Not anymore.
His hand slid down her throat toward her collarbone.
Lexi lunged and bit one of the guards hard.
He screamed. She twisted free and ran—
Victor caught her immediately.
More fabric tore. Her shoulder was exposed.
The injured guard stepped forward—
A scream echoed through the warehouse.
Not hers.
Victor howled.
Lexi looked up.
Sebastian stood over him, one foot crushing Victor’s hand into the concrete. A gun was pressed between Victor’s legs.
Behind him, armed Blackwood enforcers lined the entrance.
“Didn’t I tell you,” Sebastian said quietly, “not to touch her?”
Victor trembled. “I—I’m sorry! I’ll punish myself—”
He slapped himself repeatedly until blood split his lip.
Sebastian didn’t react.
He sat down slowly, composed.
“If words don’t work,” he said mildly, “let knives speak.”
A blade flashed into one of his men’s hands.
“Which hand touched her?” Sebastian asked. “Cut it off.”
Victor’s face drained of color. “Please! Spare me!”
Guards forced both his hands forward.
“Which one?” they demanded.
“I—I don’t remember!”
“Then take both.”
Sebastian lifted a glass of wine and took a slow sip.
Victor sobbed.
A gunshot exploded.
Smoke filled the air.
Lexi dropped to her knees, hands over her head, shaking.
Victor collapsed, wailing, then crawled forward. “Thank you for sparing me—”
“I’m not killing today,” Sebastian said. “Leave. If I see you again, you won’t walk away.”
Victor scrambled toward the exit.
“Stop.”
He froze.
Sebastian calmly blew on the barrel of his gun before holstering it.
“Which hand touched her?”
Victor turned white.
He fell flat, forehead striking the floor. “Mercy! I swear I’ll never touch her again!”
Sebastian crossed one leg over the other.
“Cut off the longest finger on each hand.”
The screams that followed echoed through the warehouse.
Lexi stood frozen, unable to move.
When silence finally returned, Sebastian approached her.
He lifted her chin.
“I saved your life again.”
Her throat tightened. “Thank you.”
“Just that?” he murmured. “That seems insufficient.”
“What do you want?” she asked carefully.
His gaze dropped to her torn clothes.
She followed his eyes and quickly tried to cover herself.
“It’s not the first time I’ve seen you like this,” he said lightly.
Her pulse spiked. She didn’t ask what he meant.
Victor was dragged out, barely conscious.
Sebastian’s attention returned to her.
“I don’t save useless people,” he said coolly. “Quit your job.”
Her breath caught.
“You’ll work exclusively for me.”
Her knees buckled. She hit the floor, skin scraping against stone.
Now she understood.
This wasn’t mercy.
She had just stepped deeper into his world.
“I’ll take the second-female role,” Lexi said evenly. “But I’ll play it my way.”
