Page 9 of Ruthless

However, the moment was fleeting, and she snapped her mouth shut, her expression going cold. “Untie my wrists, and I’ll call him.”

I stayed facing her, thinking of anything and everything under the sun that turned meoff. Viper would rip my ass right out of this room if he knew that I was aroused. It was one thing to play games or for her to try and play games with me—but my reaction was pushing the rules.

No sex with prisoners.

And I had never had the urge to blur the lines until now. Granted, I wouldn’t touch her unless she asked me to, but based on her reaction, I don’t think it would take much. Andfuck,that was exciting.

I finished untying her wrists, mentally preparing for her to take a swing, but she didn’t. She instantly began to rub her marred wrists, her eyes squeezing shut as a single tear ran down her face.

I should’ve loosened them.

The guilt was unwanted and unsettling, but enough to drain my body of arousal. I turned to the guys, who were watching me with curious glimmers in their eyes.

“Call him,” Will snapped at her. “Or we’ll cut those hands right off.”

She looked startled but nodded. “I don’t know if this number will work.” Her tone was distressed, and I actually believed her this time.

“Guess we’ll see,” Gunner grunted.

“Put it on speaker,” Viper snarled as she punched the number into the phone with shaky hands. “We want to hear.”

She nodded, and the sound of the line ringing filled the basement. Rachel actually appeared surprised that it was going through, and a flash of relief hit her expression as it connected.

“Hello?” A gruff voice answered. It wasn’t Chaz—but she didn’t appear bothered.

“It’s Rachel,” she said in a calm and collected tone.

There were a few beats of silence. “This is a forced phone call.”

She looked over at us and Viper nodded, giving her the okay to be honest. “Yes, it is,” she muttered. “And they want to talk to Chaz.”

“Of course they do,” the man laughed. “Nobody calls to just talk to me.”

“But he’s there,” she countered, her voice growing in sharpness. “I know he is. Let me talk to my brother. He got me into this mess.” There was a muffled exchange of voices on the other line, and I almost smiled at the impatient sigh she gave.

“Rachel,” Chaz’s voice came over the line, sounding meeker than I had ever heard from him before. He was atough guyin the way he spoke, but this was new—and based on the exchanges going on between Gunner, Viper, and Will, they all thought so too.

“What the hell did you do?” She demanded, her voice quivering. “You’re going to get me killed.”

“They won’t kill you,” he responded, his tone soft. “You know that, and so do I. The Steel Heretics and Charlie Hughes just want their money.”

Fucker just gave us away, knowingly putting his sister in danger.

A murderous rage simmered deep in my core, wondering just what kind of brother Chaz was. Did he care if his sister got killed? Because if Rachel was anything to me, I’d be burning the whole goddamn town down to save her.

“Hmm,” Rachel’s reply was blank, but the expression on her face wasn’t. She was just as aware as I was of what her brother had done. “And why won’t you just pay them their money?”

“Oh, sweet girl,” he began, chuckling. “You’ve been out of the game too long.”

It hit me then that hismeektone was really just condescending. Whatever fucking relationship these two had was either rancid, or they were putting on a show. I wasn’t sure which it was.

“I really would just appreciate it if you would get me out of here,” she shot back, her tone cold. “I don’t have time for this bullshit. You know he’ll come looking for me if he can locate me—and you know he’ll kill whoever to get me to me first. It’ll make a bigger mess for you.”

I whipped my head around to my brothers, giving them a questionable look likewho the fuck is she talking about? Her partner?

“The only way he’ll come for you is if I let him off his leash, baby girl, and we both know he’ll rip you to shreds more than those biker boys will,” Chaz laughed, the tone cruel and demanding of attention. “Tell the fuckers that if they want to talk, to call me themselves. I’d rather my whore of a sister not be the middleman.” With that, the line went dead, and Rachel was left staring at it, her eyes unmoving from the white screen.

“What the fuck…,” Gunner mumbled, voicing what all of us were thinking.