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At least they didn’t hit me in the face again.
Chapter Forty-Four
RYDER
“We should look at the numbers and compare them—” I zone out of the meeting, wondering what Roxy is up to. I promised her one hour, but it’s been an hour and a half. I’ll have to find a way to make it up to her. I almost smirk, thinking of all the ways I could, each of them involving her naked and coming beneath my tongue.
My phone vibrates for the hundredth time, so I turn my chair and discreetly check it. This meeting is important, and if it goes well, we’re expanding into other cities, both legitimately and otherwise.
Unknown:Roxy is gone.
Unknown:They got her, Ry.
Two texts, two fucking texts, and they destroy my world. Fury like I’ve never felt before flows through me. That ice I have cultivated around me for so long cracks, and the lava flows through, burning everything in its path.
They took my girl?
Our girl?
I stand, ignoring the questions fired at me, and storm from the conference room, my phone already to my ear. “Tell me everything,” I snap. I listen as Garrett explains, his voice tight and angry. I hear Diesel in the background screaming at someone, and then gunfire.
“We followed the trail of bodies to a car park and saw the tire tracks. They must have grabbed her there.” He goes quiet for a moment as I leap down the stairs of the building, taking them two at a time. “Ry, fuck, she put up a real fight, there are bodies everywhere.”
“Garrett,” Diesel snarls, and there’s a moment of silence before Garrett swears.
“What?” I demand.
“Watch what I’m sending you,” he growls.
I pull my phone away and stop on the stairs, my hand gripping the railing as the video loads. I watch it once, then twice. That pit in my stomach grows, those demons escaping until I’m nothing but a man possessed.
They hurt her.
I watch her crawl from the wreck of the car, the CCTV from the highway zooming in on her. She stumbles away with blood dripping from her head, her hands, and her arms. She only has one shoe on, and her face is pale, her eyes fuzzy as she falls to her knees. I watch again as they come at her, she still fights, trying to take them down. That’s my fucking girl, a fighter to the end, but she doesn’t see the needle coming.
I watch her fall, and this time, they catch her and carry her back to the cars. Then, they are gone. Breathing heavily, my muscles shaking with the need to kill people, I put the phone to my ear. “Track the cars.”
“Diesel’s new friend is already on it.” He pulls the phone away from his mouth. “D, he can’t work if you keep stabbing him,” he snaps, and then comes back. “I can’t get a hold of Kenzo, he gets no signal in the basement of Diamonds. Get him?”
“On it,” I snarl, and the line goes quiet. “Garrett, we kill them.”
“Too fucking right,” he retorts. “Anyone who touched her dies horrifically, and the Triad? We are going to fucking burn them alive for taking our girl.”
I hang up and send a message to my driver and the guards downstairs, so when I make it into the lobby, they are there. The car is idling outside, and I get in quickly. “Diamonds, now,” I demand.
First things first, get my brother. Then they are dead men.
They feared my father, but they should fear me more. Roxanne is mine, she owns us, and they took the one thing we will do anything to protect. They kicked the goddamn vipers’ nest, so now they get the fangs. This city will run with blood before tonight, and when I find them, I will make them scream for every finger they ever put on her.
I dial a number for their restaurant, knowing they will get it. They will understand. “You took something of mine, something precious.” There is no use denying it, they already know what they have, it’s the only thing keeping her alive right now. “I’m going to let the streets run red with your people’s blood until I get her back, and then? I’m going to kill you all. Starting with your families, your wives, your sons and daughters, even your parents. Only then, when everything is burning and destroyed around you, will I kill you. You fucked with the wrong family.” After I leave the message I hang up.
One, two, three, four, five.
I repeat it again and again, trying to stay calm, but I can’t. It doesn’t work. Fuck the calm. All I can see is Roxy, the smile on her face before it fades to that blank, scared look she had on the highway.
The city is about to go to war.
And before the sun rises tomorrow, only one family will be left.
