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I breathed a sigh of relief and then kissed him hard before taking his hand again and leading him to the cabin. We were surrounded by Ronan's men, but I knew it didn't matter. Bishop wasn't planning to leave this house alive. The question was, who would he be taking with him? If I had my way, it wouldn't be any of us. While I might not have had a healthy fear of dying when I'd been in the Army, everything had changed when I'd laid eyes on the man who was willingly walking into hell with me. Like I’d told Cruz, I might not have known what the fuck love was, but I knew that whatever it was, Sam was it for me. Even if I wasn't deserving of him, he still belonged to me and I to him. He’d made his choice last night and I'd made mine the moment I'd stepped out of the shadows in his backyard.
Once we reached the cabin, I forced myself to release Sam's hand and focused on steadying my breathing. I was glad when my instincts took over as we entered the building. I took note of all the entry and exit points as well as different items I could use as a weapon if need be. There hadn't been any point to try and sneak a weapon in on our person because the first thing Bishop would do would be to make sure we were unarmed. But if I could get him out into the open part of the cabin, at least I'd have some items at my disposal that could slow him down and give everyone else a chance to escape.
Once we reached the back room where Bishop was keeping my brother and Sam's sons, I used the last few seconds we had to try and cast out the fear and helplessness I was feeling. I would've loved to have held Sam for those few moments, but I needed to try and quiet my mind. It was like Sam had said, I had a tendency to feel too much and let it get bottled up. That emotion often translated to anger, but I couldn't afford that in this situation. I needed to keep a cool head. I needed to be able to identify any opportunity, no matter how fleeting, to end all of this.
But try as I might, my heart refused to let me get off that easy. Just as I lifted my hand to rap my knuckles on the door in front of us, my eyes automatically went to Sam. His eyes were already on me and in that second just before my hand came in contact with the wood, he mouthed something to me. It wasn't until my knuckles hit the door that my brain processed what he'd said.
I love you.
Chapter 30
Sam
Maybe I shouldn't have said it to him, but I couldn't regret it. If there was even a chance that this whole thing wouldn't end the way I wanted it to, I needed Matias to know how deep my feelings for him ran. After losing Mac, I hadn't thought I'd ever be able to love someone the way I’d loved him, but the truth was standing before me.
Or next to me, rather.
And just like with Mac, I stood to lose everything. I couldn't even imagine how I'd recover from losing my kids or Matias. Chances were, I wouldn't.
I forced myself to focus on what was happening in the present. Strangely enough, I had no clue how warm or cold it was, I couldn't really smell anything, the few sounds I did hear were dulled, and I barely noticed anything that made up my surroundings.
All that was changed when the door in front of us finally opened after what seemed like a prolonged conversation between Matias and Bishop that came down to the instructions for us entering the room.
The first thing I saw was an eerily familiar scene that I'd hoped never again to witness in my lifetime. Just like with Blake, my younger son was staring helplessly at me as the barrel of a gun rested against his temple. I managed to choke back a sob.
"Hey buddy, Daddy's here. We’re going to go home soon, okay?"
Ryan didn't respond. Instead, he closed his eyes and held them shut. I didn't know what that meant, but I was grateful for it. I chanced a glance to the right and saw Elliot and Cruz both on their knees, their faces against the wall. They had their hands tied behind their backs with zip ties. Their feet were also bound. They seem to be gagged as well.
Both men were covered in bruises, but otherwise appeared to be unhurt. Ryan, thankfully, had no bruises or cuts on him at all.
The man behind Ryan was actually crouched at his back. I figured it was to keep someone from shooting him as they entered the door since he would've been an easy target if he'd been standing. The position he was in meant that Ryan blocked most of him from view. That in itself scared me more than I wanted to admit. With Blake, he’d been so far gone in the head that he hadn't taken measures like that. Bishop was ex-Army and he'd already proven his skill by killing one of Ronan's men. Add in his sadistic streak, and I knew the chances of any of us getting out of this unharmed were slim to none.
