Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 125248 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 501(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125248 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 501(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
God ground his teeth until pain shot through his jaw.
He glared at Ruxs and Green wanting to blame them.
“Tech,” God hissed into the comms.
“I know,” he answered tightly.
“Tell Curtis to shut the fuck up and stay that way.”
A beat passed.
“Curtis, you’re pissing off more than these guys. Shut the fuck up.” Tech said, low and sharp.
Curtis muttered something God couldn’t make out.
Tech growled, “I mean it.”
Another minute dragged by.
Maybe two.
Time became a living thing.
Then Free’s screens lit up on the other side of the room.
They all rushed over and zeroed in on the map blooming from dark gray into grid lines, before a fixed location marked in red appeared on the larger screen.
It was in an industrial district on the outskirts of the city. Another screen showed what Tech could see through his glasses.
Concrete floor. Rust-stained support columns. High, broken windows blackened by dirt.
Xander on the floor with his hands bound behind him, breathing too fast, face pale, and eyes bloodshot and wet. Curtis beside him, lip split, blood at the corner of his mouth and on the concrete near his knee. Free sat near Tech’s other side, wrists zip-tied, eyes locked with cold hate on the man standing over them.
Tech’s viewpoint tilted slightly as he kept his head down.
Fox’s serious face appeared on the third screen. He stood in his ranch office in a black T-shirt and cap, eyes moving fast across the feed. Behind him, shelves, maps, and old tactical photographs blurred in the background.
“Got ’em,” Fox said. “Location is an abandoned freight warehouse off Alameda corridor. Sending coordinates to your phones now.”
Cassidy snatched his phone as it buzzed.
Fox’s gaze cut to God. “Do you want me to call authorities?”
God shook his head once. “No.”
Day glanced at him, then back at the feed.
God kept his voice controlled. “Not yet. They hear sirens, they might panic. If LAPD sends a negotiator who doesn’t know what the fuck they’re doing, they may decide they’ve already lost and start shooting. I don’t wanna give ’em a reason to accelerate.”
Cassidy’s mouth tightened, but he didn’t argue.
God was shocked he was letting him assume command and hadn’t tried to override his decisions or take over.
Maybe because Cassidy knew this was too personal for him and his strategies could be irrational and too loaded with emotion.
“If they’ve lost brothers and friends, it’s a gamble to think they’ll just let Xander walk after he transfers the money,” Steele said, making perfect sense.
“Exactly,” Cassidy said.
Ruxs turned from the window, Green beside him.
“Let us go get ’em.”
God met their eyes. He knew those expressions.
Ruxs and Green could get in. Maybe.
Day could too.
Steele could ghost through that place and kill all of them.
Even he could put all nine of those bastards down and sleep just fine tonight.
But that wasn’t the issue.
The issue was what happened after.
A warehouse full of dead kidnappers. No warrant. No LAPD presence. No jurisdictional authority. Captain Vega waiting for him and his men to cross the line.
God wasn’t afraid of blood. But he was afraid of prison bars closing around the men he loved.
If they went out and dispensed vigilante justice, Ruxs and Green could spend the rest of their lives in cages.
So could he. It’d mean never holding or making love to his husband again.
God stared at the screen.
Xander’s breathing had gotten worse. Free leaned subtly toward him, shoulder pressing into his, offering contact.
Curtis looked furious and too young to be in this shit.
Tech’s glasses caught the kidnapper’s boots near them, the gun in his hand.
Ruxs and Green were glaring at him, desperation burning in their faces.
Do something!
Cassidy stood near the screen, barely breathing, one hand braced on the table, the other against his chest. If God didn’t move soon, Cassidy would, and in turn, throw his life away to save Xander’s.
God needed help, and he hated that feeling. It felt like a hand gripping the back of his neck and pressing him down.
There was only one man he knew who could get his family out and make sure the problem in front of him never became a problem again.
Not police, or negotiators, or a damn SWAT team.
It was the name of a man God had promised he’d never call on unless the world gave him no other choice.
Day turned toward him slowly as if he’d felt him make the decision.
God left without a word and went into the bedroom.
He unzipped his duffle and dug inside the inner lining beneath the false bottom.
His fingers closed around the black phone.
It was heavier than it appeared.
No apps or contacts list.
One device that’d access one number.
One man.
God stared at the blank screen for half a heartbeat while the sounds from the other room bled through the walls—Cassidy’s rough breathing, Xander’s panic, Free’s live feed as men circled them like vultures waiting on the kill, his brother’s fiancé bound and bleeding.