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Unable to hold back, I answered his question from earlier, “I told you I didn’t love Paige because—” I gestured to the boxes “—I didn’t want her to lose this.”
“How long did you love her, Adrian?”
I glanced over at him. “Since before you did.”
He shook his head. “How did we let ten years go by and not talk about this?”
I solemnly shook my head, “I don’t know.”
“How did you find her?”
“Fate.”
“Fuck!” he exclaimed. “If you would have just said that to me back then things could have been so different. Neither one of us would’ve lost her, Adrian.”
Hearing my brother admit that was like taking a bullet to my heart.
“Cade—”
My phone dinged with a text message. A photo of the girls lit up the screen.
Followed by an address and message that read…
Just you and your brother. No cops. Or I’ll kill them both.
Thirty-Three
Adrian
What felt like an eternity later, we were walking into a warehouse building, fully strapped. This piece of shit didn’t think we’d come unprotected. He had to be expecting this. Preparing for it.
The number of times I contemplated how this would all end, I never imagined we’d be walking into a fucking warehouse with no control whatsoever. We were walking in blind, ready for battle.
Once we stepped inside the wide-open space, Charlie was standing there waiting for us.
“You motherfucker,” I spewed, unable to hold back.
He shrugged with a grin, aiming his Glock at my head.
“Are you that big of a pussy, you find the need to show me your gun?” I taunted. “What’s wrong, Charlie boy? Can’t take me like a real man?”
Cade exploded, “For fuck’s sake, Adrian! Can you not piss him off when he knows where Hayley and Paige are?”
“At least your brother has some sense.”
“Oh, so you know he’s my brother?” I questioned, needing more answers.
I trusted this son of a bitch.
He was the head of my security.
I couldn’t let this go, I wanted to strangle him with my bare hands. What else do you know?”
He deviously smiled. “Everything.”
I tried to govern my breathing as my blood seared, fuming from the inside out with rage. All I wanted to do was knock him the fuck out, but I couldn’t. I had to play nice to see my girl again.
He pulled out a metal detector. “Toss your guns over to me or I use this. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Choice is yours, gentlemen.”
Growling, I grabbed the guns from inside my suit jacket and threw them over to him. Cade did the same.
“It’s showtime!” Charlie hollered.
On cue, the girls stumbled into the warehouse.
I immediately stepped in Paige’s direction, but Charlie threatened from behind me, “Don’t even fucking try it.”
My chest tightened.
I saw nothing but fucking red.
Rip-roaring red.
Paige’s hands were tied behind her back. Blood was dripping down the side of her face from a head wound at her temple. Through the fear in her eyes, I could also see her relief knowing I was there with her, which would be enough to keep me at bay.
“I’m going to make you regret that,” I warned Charlie, backing down for the first time in my life.
He chuckled. “That wasn’t courtesy of me.”
My eyes stayed connected with Paige’s for several seconds. Fuck, it could have been hours. Time just sort of stood still as tears slid down her beautiful face. There was no hiding them from me.
I’d never felt devastation quite like this. It was ripping me apart, crushing my bones, shredding me from the inside out.
One by one.
I was a pile of ash.
It wasn’t until my eyes lifted to the man holding them hostage with a gun in each hand, pointed at their heads that I realized who it was.
“No,” I breathed out. Completely caught off guard.
He seethed, “Surprise, motherfucker!”
“How can this be?”
The amount of agony I felt was almost unbearable. I had no one to blame but myself. It wasn’t only Charlie I allowed into her life. It was her stalker too.
This was on me.
The brutal realization was enough to render me speechless. I felt like a failure. Nothing but a complete and utter fucking failure.
In a daunting tone, I threatened, “Eric, I’m going to kill you for this.”
“What do you mean?” He beamed, looking psychotic. “I did you a favor. Now it’s time to collect.”
From the corner of my eye, Hayley caught my attention.
She asked, “Do you know him too, Adrian?”
“This is like a family reunion!” Eric celebrated, waving his guns around. “Should I introduce everyone? That’s the polite thing to do, right?”
He was truly crazed.
“Let’s start with your pussy ass, little brother who stole Hayley from me, shall we?”
Nothing I’d faced.
Done.
Past or present…
Could have prepared me for what he shouted next.
“She was my girl! My high school sweetheart!”
“Eric, please,” Hayley pleaded.
“Fuck you!” He aimed the gun at her again. “You don’t get to talk anymore! Do you have any idea how long I’ve waited for this moment?”
