Page 4 of Run

“You are only hurting yourself with your refusal to tell me what I want to know, my friend.” Henk Bakker, drug dealer, information broker, and all-around asshole sat at the bar, sipping cheap Scotch. His silver-colored suit was pristine, and his shoes shone—because the Dutchman never did his own dirty work. He waved a hand toward the dumb grunt beating David. “Azzo could do this all day. He’s being careful, making sure he doesn’t damage anything vital. That can change if you don’t answer my question. Where is the hacker who is searching for you?”

“Don’t know who you’re talking about,” David said again.

A fist struck his jaw, knocking his head to the side and making the room blur for a second. He spat blood on the floor as he raised himself onto his toes, attempting to ease the pressure on his shoulders from having his arms stretched tight above him while he hung from a hook in the ceiling. A bruised face wouldn’t slow him down, but a ripped tendon would. And he knew from experience that his shoulders would tear if he hung there long enough.

As he breathed through the latest bout of pain, he calmly cataloged his injuries. It was a relief to find nothing that would hamper his walking away.

Because he would walk away.

There was always an out. He just hadn’t found it yet.

“David, David, David, you must stop doing this to yourself.” Henk sauntered toward him, glass in one hand, the other in the pocket of his pants. His open jacket exposed a gun sitting snug in its shoulder holster—strapped in nice and tight.Idiot.In the time it took Henk to free his gun, David would have broken his neck.

“Last I checked, it wasn’t me doing this,” David said, purely to keep Henk talking. To draw him nearer still.

Azzo smirked his amusement while, no doubt, planning where he’d place his next strike. Even though the enforcer was more flab than muscle, his prison tattoos bore testament to years of experience in his chosen profession. One he clearly enjoyed.

“David,” Henk said, “we have been friends for many years and I don’t want to hurt you. But you must understand, there are several interested parties who’d like to know what I can learn from you. Make this easy on both of us and give me what I ask. Tell me where the girl is.”

“Friends,” David mumbled, speaking softly to entice his prey closer. “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” If Elle had been there, she would have laughed her ass off at him for quotingThe Princess Bride. Thankfully, the reference went over his interrogators’ heads and didn’t prompt them to hit him harder.

Henk sauntered forward. One more step was all David needed. He wrapped his hands around the chains suspending him from the ceiling, gripping tight. His ankles were in the same shackles as his hands, a long chain between them linked around a hook in the floor. A hook screwed into wood. A hook David had been loosening with each jerk of his legs. He was dealing with amateurs.

“Give the girl up,” Henk persuaded. “We know you know who she is and where she’s hiding. Otherwise, why would she be searching for you and leaving such personal messages everywhere?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” David stalled as his mind raced for a plan to get him out of there.

Henk pulled his phone from his pocket and tapped the screen. “This was left on one of the message boards you use for contracting work:Blue girl still seeking partner in crime. Fluffy pink handcuffs included.” He gave David a look that said he pitied him. “She used your contact code.”

“It must have been a mistake. That message was meant for someone else because it means nothing to me.” Other than David planned to use those handcuffs on Elle when he next saw her, and it wouldn’t be for pleasure. No, that woman deserved a spanking. Big time.

“Perhaps, but my contacts tell me that the style of hack used to get into this board is the same one several interested parties have been tracking for a very long time. It’s the same one that keeps popping up in relation to you. There are no coincidences in our line of work; you know that.”

“Then this is a first,” David said.

A fist came from the side and struck his kidney with practiced precision. David breathed through the pain. He’d be pissing blood for a week from that blow alone.

Henk’s look of concern was as phony as a three-dollar bill. “What is she to you that you want to protect her? She isn’t protecting you. She’s leaving a trail all over the web pointing right at you.”

“I’m telling you.” David spoke quietly. “I don’t know her.”

Azzo shifted, no doubt intending to beat David for yet another denial, but Henk held up his glass, signaling for his henchman to wait. “I’m afraid that isn’t good enough. You see, there’s a lot of money on the line for information regarding this hacker. Alotof money. I would very much like to be the person who collects it.”

David hung his head as though losing strength. Damn stubborn woman. He’d told her time and again to stop searching for information on him. But no, she treated the whole thing as a game, a puzzle she needed to crack. As though her life would fall apart if she didn’t know which government agency pulled his strings. Sure, he’d played along for a bit, mainly because there was a novelty in someone wanting to play with him. Although, it hadn’t taken him long to warn her to back off—which she’d ignored. It was enough to drive a man insane.

“Don’t tell me you’d sell out afriendto cash in, Henk,” he said, making sure to slur his words and appear weaker than he felt.

Henk waved a dismissive hand. “This is the business, is it not?”

Yeah, which is why David should have been more careful when he turned up for his meeting with a snitch. There was a possibility he was slipping, becoming soft in his job, which could get him killed.

Or worse, get Elle killed.

Letting his head loll to one side, David acted as though keeping his eyes open and staying focused was difficult. “If she’s that important, I’d have heard of her, and I haven’t.”

“I once told you that your stubborn streak would get you into trouble one day,” Henk said with a shake of his head. “Today might very well be that day.” He motioned to Azzo, who struck David in the ribs again.

Yeah, he felt that.