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The kickback sent me falling to my ass.

The sand embraced me.

My teeth rattled.

Darkness hovered on the edge of my vision.

Six men surrounded me, all with guns aimed at my every body part, their tension feeding into mine and helping me stay awake.

My leg looked like fucking mincemeat.

A strange kind of spaghetti of muscle and blood.

More nausea clawed up my throat, making me sweat and shiver all at once.

The men surrounding me swam in a blur. I licked my lips, tasting sand and salt. “Whatever he’s paying you, I’ll quadruple it.” I struggled to breathe as my leg continued to drain me of everything. “Kill Drake and leave, and I’ll give you whatever you goddamn want.”

Drake climbed gingerly to his feet, rubbing at his bleeding nose, favouring his stabbed shoulder. “They can’t be swayed, Sullivan.” He sniffed loudly and spat a large glob of blood right by my bare feet. “They don’t want money. They want this.” He waved his hand at my island. “They want what you’ve created here. They want a goddess for themselves. They want their dicks sucked. They want ultimate fucking power.”

He stumbled toward me, hissing, “I’m going to take it all, and unlike you…I’m going to share.”

Hissing hate ran through me. “My islands are not for sale.”

“I don’t remember offering you a price.”

“You think you can take my business by force?” I smirked and tapped my temple with a wobbly hand. “It’s all up here, cunt. The programming. The cypher. The way Euphoria works. The recipe for elixir.” I shrugged. “You can’t have a damn thing because I fucking refuse to give it to you.”

“Oh, you will. I’ll trade you. Eleanor Grace for everything.”

I grinned. “She’s gone. You couldn’t shoot her down. You’re too late.”

“I’ll find her. I know her name. The world is an open book these days.” He smiled and rubbed his mouth with the back of his hand, spreading more blood. “I already have her parents’ names and addresses. I’ll just make myself at home here, we’ll have a family reunion while she flies to her folks, then I’ll arrange for her transportation back here. When she arrives, we’ll have ourselves a little chat and see how firm you are on the idea of business over pleasure.”

I flinched as another wash of sickness made me sway.

Fuck!

“And you call yourself a man.” He clucked his tongue. “Can’t shoot. Don’t eat meat. Have to buy whores to sleep with you. And think just by sending your girl away that I can’t hurt her. You’re an embarrassment, Sullivan.”

My heart galloped, oozing more blood from me to the beach. Terror I’d never felt before crippled me at the thought of Eleanor being tortured and raped by my sibling.

I wanted to launch at him.

I wanted to tear him into shreds.

But my own body imprisoned me.

My own blood forsook me and soaked into the sand instead. Balling my hands, I snarled, “Yet for all my downfalls, you still wish you were me. The older brother envious of the younger.”

I screamed as he kicked me in the leg, his boot catching on the spear, sheer fucking agony bellowing through me. “Not jealous. Just owed what’s rightfully mine.”

I gasped and groaned, writhing with uncontrollable pain.

Fuck, I’d been blind all over again.

I’d given Eleanor access to my credit card so I could track her whereabouts.

If I could do that…of course others could. She would never be safe until Drake was dead.

I hadn’t learned a fucking thing.

It was my fault she was in danger.

My fault all my rescues had died.

My fault that Cal was barely breathing.

My fault that my beach was decorated with the bodies of my guards.

My fucking fault for everything.

Drake clucked his tongue again. His forehead shined fake-perfect, his eyes unable to fully squint with intimidation.

It’d been a few years since we’d seen each other, and instead of letting nature weather him, he’d turned to pharmaceuticals to reverse the hints of aging.

“You know…” I coughed as my pain levels crept to all-consuming. “Injecting your face with botulinum toxin might do my job for me.” I attempted to stand. To grab him, kill him. “You’ll die wrinkle free, Drake, but you’ll still fucking die.”

I wobbled and fell sideways, cursing my failing body, eyeing up the pool of blood beneath me.

“What’s the matter, little brother? Feeling woozy?” He grinned and kicked my leg again, crunching the harpoon against my thigh bone.

“Motherfucker!” I jack-knifed up and shoved him away.

He snickered, his own injuries making him trip. “I can take that out of you. I could be nice like that. However, the hooked end will mean I’ll rip off most of your leg…but you don’t need to walk anymore, do you, Sully? All I need is that genius brain of yours.”

He ducked to his haunches beside me, his hands locking around the spear. “By the way, this look is good on you.”

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