"Now then," he said, adjusting his grip on the remote. "Let's discuss your cooperation."
"There's nothing to discuss," Britt said, her voice steady as steel. "I have no intention of helping you destroy the organization my father built."
Wesley's face darkened. "Then why?—"
"Why the exchange?" Britt let out a bitter laugh. "Because my daughter deserves to live, even if I don't." She took a step toward him, then another. "I'm going to die in this room, and I'm taking you with me."
Chapter 53
Inhaling the strawberry scent of his daughter’s shampoo, Lachlan clutched her tiny body to his chest, placing gentle kisses on her head. She held him too tight. He swore he’d never let her be in this kind of danger again.
“You okay, hen?” Lachlan asked, his gaze drifting to the closed door his daughter had exited. Britt was inside alone with Wesley Thomas, but he couldn’t focus on her. Not until he was sure that Paloma was okay.
“I was r-really scared, Daddy,” Paloma said, leaning back to look into his face. “I tried to be brave, but I c-couldn’t.”
“It’s okay to be scared, hen. Even Daddy gets scared sometimes,” Lachlan said, rubbing his hands down her arms. “Did the bad man do … anything to you?” He choked the words out through gritted teeth. “Touch you in a … scary way?”
“No.” Paloma shook her head. “He yelled lots and made me cry. He said if I talk, he’d do bad things, so I stayed super quiet.”
“Good girl,” Lachlan said, kissing her forehead. “I’m so proud of you.”
“But the bad man’s gonna hurt Mommy!” Paloma said, her voice hitting a higher pitch as tears filled her eyes.
“Mommy …” Lachlan said, reeling with emotions of hearing his daughter refer to Britt that way. The way their child should think of her.
“You have to help her!”
“Aye.” Lachlan took a deep breath. “I’ll help Mommy as soon as I get ye out of here.”
“No, Daddy!” Paloma said, crying. “Help her now! The bad man’s gonna hurt her real bad!”
“I’m not going to let your Mommy get hurt,” Lachlan reassured her. “I promise. Tell me what happened when Mommy came inside the room.”
“The bad man made Mommy take the scary vest off me,” Paloma said.
“Scary vest?” Lachlan asked, looking down at his daughter dressed in one of her signature outfits—hot pink pants and a t-shirt with a glittering unicorn on the front. She didn’t own any vests.
Paloma nodded, tears streaming down her cheeks. “It was so heavy. It had wires and funny looking boxes all over it. Mommy took the vest off me and put it on.”
Fuck!
He didn’t have to ask for any more details to know the vest was a bomb, configured with pressure plates that would be triggered from some kind of remote device. Rage coursed through him at the thought of Wesley putting that on his child. The fucker was far from the man they all knew. His thirst for justice, at any cost, had pushed him too far, obliterating the line between righteous vengeance and depravity.
He had to be stopped.
And Lachlan would be the one to do it.
Britt wouldn’t become the fucker’s next victim.
“Where’s Britt?” The voice wafted from behind him.
Lachlan glanced over his shoulders to see Sebastian, followed by Adonis, Kane, Rocco, and Everett.
“Has it been twenty minutes?” Lachlan chuckled, grateful to see the guys had disobeyed his order and come earlier.
“Seven,” Adonis said, dropping to Lachlan’s side. “Close enough. How are you, Paloma?” He reached into his backpack and pulled out Mr. Bow.
Paloma’s face lit up as she grabbed her favorite teddy bear. “Better now,” she said, clutching the stuffed animal to her chest. “Mommy is stuck inside there,” she pointed back to the door, “with the mean bad man.”
