Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 109086 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109086 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
I was done with the formalities. “Don’t you want to know where your woman is?”
His eyes sharpened, but he blinked lazily. “There have been a few changes since our initial agreement.”
The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. “What changes?”
“Well, the first one is that I’m aware you don’t have my toy. You, in fact, don’t have her at all.” He motioned to his men, and a far door opened.
I shifted, my hand reaching for my gun. There was a flap on my vest, which his men would’ve skipped over, not questioning it. They wouldn’t have felt for the small compartment where my gun was hidden. It was designed to mold against my body so their hands shifted over it, just assuming it had a rough extra layer.
I began tugging at the flap, pulling the Velcro off slowly.
More of his men stepped through the door. They were dragging two people with them.
No.
Everything stopped for me.
My body went cold.
No. No. No . . .
“I mentioned a cub earlier.” Lane’s smirk was back. “I wasn’t only talking about your brother. I was talking about your son.”
They were dragging Sawyer and EJ into the warehouse.
My knees almost buckled.
They dropped both of them on the ground between us. His men went to each, grabbing a hold of their hair, and yanked them up so they were kneeling on the cement ground. His men took position. Two behind each of them. Two guns pointed at their heads.
Both had been worked over with bruises already showing. Their faces were swollen. Their hands were taped together, the tape so tight their hands were turning white. The same duct tape was over their mouths. Fresh and dried blood covered their faces.
EJ’s eyes weren’t focused. They’d tortured him.
Jesus. EJ.
His sweatshirt was torn. His jeans roughed up. Bloodied. He had no shoes. His feet were bare.
Sawyer was alert, but pained.
She met my gaze, an apology flaring brightly in her eyes.
Rage swept through me. It wasn’t fast, how I might’ve assumed it would be. It was slow, blanketing over every organ, every limb, every cell, every tendon.
It was shutting everything off inside of me.
“Like I was saying earlier, you don’t have my toy, but you know how to find her. My men informed me that Blake went with your woman’s family. So because of that, I’ll give you a choice. You go and get my toy for me, bring her back to me, and I’ll reward you. You can choose who lives. Your woman or your son.”
He wasn’t going to do this.
I had no choice. I had no options, just the one I came here to do.
“You should’ve done your homework better on me, cousin.” I didn’t recognize myself. That voice that came out of me belonged to someone else, someone who was at his end. I sounded like Lane, and so be it. “I didn’t call on our family because they would’ve come, but you would’ve killed them. You’re smarter than any of them. I’m aware of this. I’m sure you’re smarter than me, but in the end, you would’ve killed the rest of our family and in the process, I would’ve gotten you.” My voice cracked, thinking about a possible shoot-out with Sawyer in the middle, with EJ in the middle, and hardened again. “Maybe I could’ve called in favors from some police buddies. But you would’ve been alerted by that too. You have men on your payroll, I’m sure of it. You would’ve known before we even showed up. And as for Ashton and Trace, you’re wrong about them.” My hand moved away from my flap. My gun would need to stay where it was. “I’m done with taking orders. I’m done with receiving ultimatums. That means I’m also done being used as a pawn. You want your woman? Too bad. She doesn’t want you.”
There was no way out of this for me, for Sawyer, for EJ now.
I said, “I’ll give you one option.”
Something flickered in his eyes. Interest. “What?”
“My life for theirs.”
Whatever it was flickered right out of his eyes. They returned to being flat. I momentarily interested him, but just as quickly bored him. “That’s nothing new. You’re going to die no matter what. You were always going to die. You’ve just been very good at evading it until today. You are a dead man standing right now. That’s all you are.” His eyes turned mean. “I don’t care enough about you to kill you myself. This is the only choice you will get today, and I’m being gracious in giving this to you. You can save the life of one of these two. Your woman or your son. You failed to bring me my toy, so one of them will die because of that, but the other I’ll set free. Your life will take their place.”