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Chapter 3
Eric
Undisclosed location
“Come along, Commander Winslow,” Jacob Hayes said with heavy irony as he pulled on my chains to remind everyone I was his prisoner.
I didn’t know where we were, but if I were to take a guess, I’d say we were on an archipelago in the Indian Ocean.
The sixteen-hour plane trip had been long and uncomfortable. The guards put an electric collar around my neck and kept me handcuffed during the entire trip because they were worried I’d break their necks.
And yes, I counted every single minute of the flight here. It was that or I go out of my mind with worry.
Sarah was a tough nut. The Guild Academy made her even tougher. She was also driven and completely dedicated to taking Baxter down, and I wouldn’t want her any other way.
But there was something you should know about my wife.
She hated the fighting, the mind games, the lies, and the endless betrayals. She struggled with the multiple roles she had to play over the years. Sometimes, she wasn’t sure who she was anymore.
I didn’t. I felt no ambiguity about it whatsoever.
Baxter needed to be taken down. Everything we have done, was with that goal in mind. Did we hurt people on the way? Yes. Were we going to hurt more from now till then? You can bet we will.
If you ask me if I feel guilty about it, however, I will tell you there are only a couple of certainties in this world.
One, the awkward girl you met at Elite Prep, who wore too much makeup and was computer crazy, was the real Sarah Murdoch.
Two, I love her.
And finally, three, freedom isn’t free. We were going to see this through until the end.
If this latest twist didn’t do us in, that is.
It had surprised me to see Hayes waiting for me when we landed. Last I heard, the Irish Butcher had been exiled from the American Guild, so I thought someone had killed this fucker for sure.
But I guess what they say about only the good dying young was true.
Hayes and I first met when he began working for Gabe’s father, and even then, he gave me pause. It took me years to recognize the intensity that clung to him like a nasty rash, and it was only after I joined the military and met men who went off the deep end that I understood.
He wasn’t a soldier who enjoyed killing. He was a serial killer who played at being a soldier.
Was he the one running this joint?
I took in the crowd before stopping on a tiny form I’d recognize anytime, anywhere.
“What is he doing here?” she angrily marched toward our captor and asked.
“A gift to you from the Sire. He wanted to make sure you gave our little tournament your all,” Hayes smiled. “You should count yourself lucky, my little mouse. You’ve been a bad girl, and the General usually punishes those who don’t follow orders. I should know.”
What. The. Hell?
Did this fucker just call my woman his little mouse?
Hayes made the intentional slipup worse by touching her cheek. This made me growl and pull on my chains.
The man holding me hadn’t expected the movement, and I dragged him forward five steps before someone hit me behind the knees.
“STOP!” my girl screamed as another aimed his baton at my head and she put her body between the guard and me in a desperate attempt to protect me.
