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“Don’t you fucking say it,” I hiss, knowing what’s coming next. “I would know it if she was gone.”
“We can’t use her as bait,” Rocker reiterates. “It goes against protocol.”
“Fuck protocol,” I snarl. If I’m not mistaken, I get a grunt of agreement from Hemlock in the third-row seat behind me.
“Wren is working to try and figure out the best outcome,” Rocker says.
“Don’t let the guy leave the park,” I snap. “They need to snatch him up and then Hemlock can work his magic. It’ll take minutes and we’ll know everything.”
“I like that fucking plan,” the man in the back seat says, his tone still as droll as if he’s picking up a prescription for athlete’s foot at the pharmacy.
Chapter 38
Beth
I don’t know if the other guy leaving me here with Nathan is the lesser of two evils. The other guy is the one who wants to hurt me, but Nathan is calling the shots. He’s the one who can easily decide I’m no longer of value to him. He doesn’t seem like the man who’s concerned with what his son wants from me.
I open my mouth to beg him to let me go, to make all the promises necessary to get him to release me. I snap it closed short of telling him I’m not even from around here. I have no doubt the man could easily find out who I am. Even though he doesn’t open his mouth to threaten me, the likelihood that he could go after my brother and others in Lindell is just as real as if he listed them all by name.
The clock on the far wall is menacing, letting me know that I’ve been alone with Nathan for over an hour. Despite the way I’m tied to the chair in the middle of the room, he still stays right in there with me, not allowing even a chance of me attempting to escape. I have no doubt he’ll put a bullet in my head as easily as he picks a piece of lint from his expensive-looking clothes.
“Your son,” I whisper.
“Xan,” he says, so sure that it doesn’t matter if I know his entire family’s life history because I won’t be able to utter a word of it to anyone.
“I’m surprised to see you working with him. It’s very personal.”
“This is a family matter,” he says without an ounce of love in his tone. “ I’ve always taken a hands-on approach with nearly every aspect of my business. Xan is—”
I snap my eyes toward the front door of the house when it opens. Nathan stands, a hint of shock in his eyes when Brielle walks through the entryway with her stepbrother at her back.
She looks at me, and I feel the disgust in her gaze.
“I think I’ve been followed,” Xan says, closing the door quickly behind him.
“By whom?” Nathan snaps, pulling a gun from the holster strapped to his side.
“I think someone from that biker gang,” Xan says, pulling out his own gun when his father does.
“So you brought her back here?” the older man growls.
“I told you long ago,” Brielle says, a certain kind of boredom in her tone. “He’s a fucking idiot.”
“Are you going to let her talk to me that way, Dad?”
My eyes snap back and forth between the three of them. It’s possible that if I wasn’t strapped to a chair probably within minutes of being murdered, I might actually find the banter amusing.
“Get away from the fucking window,” Nathan growls, but before Xan can straighten his body, the sound of glass breaking fills the tiny living room and Xan drops to the ground.
A scream of terror echoes around the room, and it takes what feels like forever for me to realize the sound is coming from me.
In a rush, Nathan dives for me as if he’s going to use me as a shield. Before he can get to me, he also falls to the ground. His hands go to his knee as a bloom of blood forms on his pants.
I’ve never seen such a commotion.
I want to kick out at Brielle when she drops down in front of me, but the way I’m tied won’t allow any such movement.
Tears streak down her cheeks. The woman who looked at me moments ago with disgust transforms into someone completely different.
“Are you okay?” Brielle asks.
“Get away from me,” I whisper. “Get away from me! Someone get her away from me!”
She’s no different from the men in her life. She’s manipulative and evil, able to turn on the waterworks as fast as she can and then step right back into whatever position she held in her family. There wasn’t fear in her eyes when she stepped in here. She held that chin of hers high as if she controlled these men, not the other way around. She looked annoyed like her playtime had been ruined, the party was canceled, and she was being called back home for a family emergency she couldn’t care less about.
