Page 74 of Cole

twenty-four

COLE

Isabelle.

After a week of trying to get her out of my head, here she was. Standing on bloodstained ground, terrified, a gun pressed to her temple. It was a sight I knew would be scored in my memory for the rest of my life.

My muscles were tight enough to snap. I pushed my anxiety down so far it could never be found. I couldn’t afford any distractions as I figured out how to get her out of this mess. The second I saw that barrel pressed to her head, her chest breathing rapidly in fear, I knew I would do everything in my power to make sure she walked away from this.

“Easy,” I said, my voice flat and even. “You don’t want that kind of heat on your crew. The cops will be swarming this whole place if you pull that trigger.”

Axel tilted his chin toward Isabelle. “Is she one of yours?”

“No,” I said, “She's a civilian who likes sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong.”

Isabelle’s eyes were trained on me. There was hurt buried deep under the fear, but now wasn’t the time to care about it. I needed to downplay her importance to me.

I watched as her hands began to tremble. It must have been sinking in just how much trouble she was in. What the hell was she doing here? The most important thing right now was stopping Axel from realizing the value of the leverage he had in his hands.

“Then we have a problem, don’t we?” Axel asked, his smile thinner than I had ever seen it.

“The only one with a problem is you,” I said, not taking my eyes off the weasel of a man. “You shorted the shipment, tried to pass off soft steel as the real shit, and now you grabbed a civilian. You are stacking up mistakes. Let’s stop here. Take the money. It’s yours.”

Axel did a quick scan of the surroundings, like he could possibly find a way out of this mess.

“You shot my man. What have you got to say about that?”

I shrugged. “I could say it wasn’t us, but I doubt you’d believe it. He’s not dead. Call it a win.”

Axel was thinking it over. They had taken more damage than we had. We could have finished them, if not for the fact that he had a hostage now.

“Look, man, you got half of our money already as a show of good faith to get the trucks here. You brought half of the order. So why don’t you let the girl go, keep the money and your steel, and we can all walk away from this?” I suggested, staring Axel down.

“And we get what?” Gage asked under his breath. Yeah, we were losing big, but there was a gun at Isabelle’s head and nothing else mattered.

I shot Gage a look that shut him up quickly, before returning my attention to Axel. “You know that girls with a face like hers don’t go missing unnoticed. The media will eat this up. You have too many witnesses. We’ve made too much noise already. Do you really think that the cops aren’t already on their way here? Don’t be stupid.”

That got his attention. All his men held their breath, as if listening for sirens in the distance. A muscle jumped in his cheek, and he dropped his thin, artificial smile. He glanced down at Isabelle, his gun still jammed against her temple. Her throat bobbed as she swallowed hard, her eyes still fixed on me. She still held herself tall, stubborn, and reckless.

“Maybe we shoot her, injure her too, just like you did my man, and then see how nice you want to play?”

I didn’t meet Isabelle’s eyes. I couldn’t. I just shrugged.

“Maybe, but it’ll draw more attention if a girl like this goes to the hospital. You do that, we have to kill her, and then there’s an investigation. I want less heat, not more.”

I didn’t dare to look at my little Goldilocks’ face right now, and see when she realized what kind of man I was. Sure, it was an act to save her, but there was no way those words weren’t worming inside her head and making sure she understood how dangerous it was to know me. Good. She should know. Maybe it would save her from ever being in this kind of situation again, with a damned man like me.

I stared the man with the gun down, refusing to back down for even a second.

Then, I heard it.

Sirens in the distance. Sirens on their way. The cops really were coming. I’d just been bluffing, but somehow, they were coming. The men opposite us looked around nervously.

“Let her go,” I called out to Axel, steel in my voice. “You’re going to get us all killed or locked up. You let her go, you get to keep the money, your soft steel, and your freedom. I keep my men, and everyone gets to drive away.”

His gaze slipped to the semitruck and the crates, half of which had already been taken out of the truck. He wanted to wash his hands clean of this deal as much as I did.

“We let her go, and everyone walks?” he clarified.