Free Betrayed by Marisa Michaels

PROLOGUE
     
    It was heavily gold plated with a weird square of squiggly lines right under the trigger. Rick couldn’t stop staring at the dangerous looking pistols carried by all three men in the room. He shifted his eyes from the pistol and observed the men. One was totally engrossed in a football match screening on the flat screen, another was fast asleep on the couch his pistol placed carelessly on his chest and when he turned to look at the third man, he was greeted by deep, dark eyes glaring at his own. Rick quickly looked away. That second, the door behind him opened and yet another man entered the room. He was around six feet tall, on the leaner side, his eyes black and his skin pale. He was wearing a deep blue suit and came right in front of Rick who got up hastily.
    “Forty five thousand ,” he said, his voice deep and clear as he handed a briefcase to Rick.
    “Yes. Yes, thank you so much ,” he said and held the briefcase. But the man didn’t let go of the handle. “I better find you right here in exactly ten months with the money including interest or I will have to show you my dirty hand of blood. Do you understand?”
    “Y-yes, sir, I will return the money, I promise. ” He spluttered but looked as strong and confident as he could, staring back at those dangerous eyes. The man let go of the handle and walked out through the door he came in. After a quick thank you to the three unresponsive men, Rick dashed outside the room and quickly walked towards the elevator.
    He was at the West Care hotel, on the twenti eth floor. An hour back, he had come here after a hasty phone call he made the previous night, when his fiancée had fallen asleep. That morning, he was unsure of his decision but here he was, with the briefcase of cash in his hand as he waited for the elevator doors to open.
    Once inside the elevator, he took a breath of relief. The elevator was empty, and he placed the briefcase on the floor carefully and looked at it. Rick was a stockbroker in Chicago, and he earned just enough to keep himself and his fiancée comfortable. But lately, his beautiful fiancée, Tracy, was getting restless and stressed by the workload her office gave her. All of her earnings went to the bank for the student loan she had taken up during college. He needed the money more than ever as he had promised her a Mercedes for her birthday after a nasty fight they had gotten into. She told him the car wasn’t necessary but she wouldn’t turn it down, and he saw the glimmer in her eye when they went to the car dealership to look at the cars.
    Rick had planned to pay cash for the car as his semi-annual bonus was due at work. But two weeks ago, he had gotten the news that their company was being bought out, that his management role was being abolished, and his income would now be strictly commission. When his last bonus check arrived on his desk, $5000, it was substantially less than the $45,000 he was supposed to get.
    He didn’t know how to tell Tracy. Everyone said how lucky he was to have a woman like her; she was beautiful, smart, in shape, and everyone loved her. Rick had moments of doubts as she never seemed to have a hard time spending his hard earned money, but he pushed those thoughts out of his head. He really needed to keep his word. He knew he could get another job, and then his salary would be back up to where it needed to be. He was unable to get a loan from the bank due to his job uncertainty and the fact that Tracy had run up over $20,000 of charges on the only credit card they had. He didn’t have anyone to borrow money from. When he heard about the Green brothers through a colleague of his, he inquired about them and knew for a fact that they were, what one might call, the men of underground business. But being desperate, Rick had made the phone call.
    It was all for good, he reassured himself, and the elevator opened.
     
     

C HAPTER 1
     
    Exhausted and spent, Rick rolled over. Eight months had flown by