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“Yes.” I gritted my teeth.
“Good. I’ll redirect the team.”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me, Reynolds. If you go easy on her, I’ll send the team out for both of you. Understood?”
“Understood.” I clenched my fist.Fucking asshole.
“Good. Send me photos of the job when it’s done.”
The line went dead.
Fuck!
I gritted my teeth and threw my phone across the room. I sat on the edge of the bed and ran a hand over my face, steeling myself for what I was about to do. I hated this. I hated that it had to be me. But at least if it was me, I knew she wouldn’t end up with any broken bones, and she’d keep all her teeth. So that was something, I tried to convince myself. I’d scare her, and try to make it look worse than it actually was, for Viktor’s sake. But Iwouldhave to scare her. Hot anger boiled through me. This was the best I could offer her, and it was unacceptable. But at this point, hurting her was the only way to keep her from getting hurt.
I pulled on a dark shirt and dark pants and made my way down to the basement. I put together a bag, throwing in the essentials. Among my smash and bash kit was duct tape, zip ties, and I threw in a couple flash bangs, and some foggers. I hesitated before grabbing a small pouch that contained a syringe and a few vials of sedative and I threw them in the bag, too. I holstered my gun and pulled a mask over my head that had a voice modulator as I went out my backdoor. I went through the gate in the fence that divided our backyards, and I rolled my eyes at the theatrics of it. Normally I’d sneak in, but here I was going to make as much noise as possible. Alerting Emma of what was to come, another layer to the intimidation.
I stood outside her sliding glass door, and from my phone; I disabled hers. She had a company phone and laptop, so that if the agency ever wanted, it could pull all communication at the simple tap of a button. One of their many ways of controlling you. I stood there for a moment, and tried to shut my brain off, shut off the dread that filled my body. I had to dissociate whenever I did targeted intimidations; I had to disappear into a place where emotion didn’t exist. Though I didn’t disappear this time with the intention to harm, no, this time, I disappeared to cut off the guilt that rolled around inside me.
I gritted my teeth, and I smashed the sliding glass door in. I grabbed a stick from the yard and clanged it around, making as much noise as possible. I shook my head and stomped inside and dropped a smoke bomb. As I slowly stomped up the stairs to her room, I rolled a flash bang down the hall in front of her door, if nothing else, then to scare her. Finally, I stood in front of her door.
I shut my mind off and kicked the door in.
I looked around, and the sheets on the bed were mussed up. I reached under the bed and fished around until my hand locked around a flailing arm, and my stomach curdled at the sound of Emma screaming in terror.
I was the one making her fearful, and it made me want to vomit.
I chanted in my head, you’re protecting her, you know that. This is an act of kindness. Over and over.
3
MASON
I draggedEmma out from under the bed with a bruising grip.
“Please, what do you want?” She begged, pleaded for an answer as I hauled her up.
I didn’t say anything; even with the voice modulator I could hardly speak, I could feel my emotions welling up in my throat, threatening to make my voice falter.
The lump in my throat tightened as I threw a screaming Emma over my shoulder and carried her downstairs.
Fight Emma, fight me. Don’t give in.
I pleaded with her silently in my mind, knowing this was just as likely to happen again. She never was any good at staying out of trouble. Part of me wanted to see how much of a fight she had in her.
And fight me, she did. She screamed, and clawed at me, and thrashed as I bobbed down each step with a death grip on her.
Suddenly, there was a searing pain in my side. And I groaned and stumbled into the wall at the bottom of the stairs. Then another searing pain.
Emma grunted as she drove a knife into my side for the second time. “Let me go!” She screamed.
I momentarily lost my grip as I winced from the stab wound.
Good girl.
Emma scrambled off me and sprinted for the front door. She struggled to shove a dresser she’d pushed in front of it to the side. I grabbed my gun and fired a shot just above her hand, and she froze.
