Carlotta and the Krius Scepter (Carlotta Series Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

breakfast ready.”

6.    Silver
     
    Well, that was a dilemma and a half. I was starving and here was a man offering me breakfast. Trouble was, that meant letting him in and who knew what they’d do to me in retaliation for Vinnie.
    I could smell coffee, bacon, pancakes with syrup and fried eggs. That decided it. It was worth risking death for a breakfast like that. As the chair was lying in pieces against the far wall I couldn’t keep them out for long anyway. I turned the key, took it out of the lock and pocketed it. If they wanted it back they’d have to fight for it.
    “It’s open.”
    I stepped back as the door swung open and Mike entered the room carrying a large tray. The breakfast looked as good as it smelled. I salivated rather a lot and swallowed hastily before I dribbled.
    Mike put the tray down on the dressing table and looked around. I saw an eyebrow rise as he saw the broken chair. A man I didn’t recognize appeared at the doorway with a gun pointed unerringly at me. He even used his other arm as a prop, FBI style.
    “If he’s going to shoot me, can he wait until I finish breakfast?”
    Mike grinned. “Pat ain’t gonna shoot you. Not unless you try anything, capiche?”
    “Yeah, sure. I only want to eat.”
    “Then eat.” Mike gestured at the tray and I moved it onto the bed as I could hardly sit at the table without a chair. It tasted every bit as good as it looked and I was ravenous. I forgot Mike was in the room and that a man held a gun on me. All that mattered was the food.
    As I got down to the last pancake I noticed Mike had joined me in sitting on the bed. He was making no attempt to touch so I ignored him. As I reached for the coffee he spoke in a whisper, too low for the guy at the door to hear.
    “Some of us want to thank you for what you did to Vinnie last night. He never goes for the whores, and some of us got young daughters.”
    I nodded. The Don’s son got off on fear and whores would have encouraged him. That left him the hoods’ daughters and the staff. Likely The Don would have warned him off the staff once hiring them got difficult.
    “I took him over to ER. They say he’s got to give the jewels a lot of rest and not walk about too much. He wanted to come and shoot you, but it seems he lost his key.”
    “Haven’t seen it,” I said. I’d unlocked the door with it only minutes ago, but Mike nodded as if agreeing with me.
    “I guess it’s missin’ then. Provided no one tries to use it to escape, that ain’t a big deal.” He fixed his eyes on me and I stared back. “This here’s the forty-first floor and the doors to the stairs don’t open. The elevator’s got a camera in it and it don’t come down if you ain’t got the special key.”
    He was leaving me the key to my door while explaining that it wouldn’t do me any good. Shame, because that wouldn’t stop me trying to escape as soon as he left the room.
    Mike seemed to read my mind. He got out a particularly shiny pair of handcuffs.
    “The boss say’s I got to show you what’ll happen if you try anythin’.” He waved the handcuffs at me as though they should scare me and I suppressed a giggle.
    “You really don’t know nothin’ about your kind, do you?”
    I frowned as that sounded a little insulting.
    “Even the boy knew he couldn’t touch silver. Allergies he said.” Mike snorted in derision. “These cuffs are silver plated and if you try and escape, you get to wear them all the time, just like the boy. You wonna try?”
    I put my arms out defiantly and he snapped the cuffs over both my wrists in a fluid motion. I screamed in agony. The cuffs burned as though they were red hot. My skin blistered where they touched. I rolled on the bed unable to think on anything but the pain. It took a lot of effort just to stay conscious. All the strength that had been flooding through my body since I woke up evaporated. The room dulled in my eyes, its colors fading and my head throbbed.
    Mike’s strong