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“I want her alive!” I heard Dylan yell, and they ceased fire. When the room was quiet, Dylan spoke. “I have Jameson and Louie, Maura. And I have Brody.”
I sat up with my back to a chair.
“I will kill them right now if I have to,” Dylan pushed.
Shit! Shit! Shit!
Not having any other choice, I got to my knees and raised my hands above my head in surrender as I stood. I locked eyes with Dylan as his men rounded the table with their guns aimed at me. The first goon to reach me took my pistol from my hand and grabbed my arm.
With a bruising grip, the goon brought me to Dylan. When I was within his reach, his hand shot out and he smacked me across my face so hard, I would have fallen if the goon hadn’t been holding on to me. Pain spread like a lightning bolt across my cheek bone and behind my eye.
I laughed. “What a pathetic excuse of a man. You couldn’t land a hit when we were kids, and you still can’t do it as an adult without someone holding me for you.”
He smacked me again just as hard. “You’ve always been a mouthy bitch, cousin.” He was so worked up, he was breathing heavily. “Bring her,” he told the goon holding me, then looked at the others standing around us. “The rest of you keep looking for my sister.” After giving his orders, he walked off.
We followed Dylan to Stefan’s study. My heart skipped a beat when we walked in. Jamie, Louie, and Brody were on their knees, mouths taped and hands restrained behind their backs. There was an armed Italian goon standing behind each of them. All three of them looked bloody and beaten-up—Jamie and Louie more than Brody.
As soon as Jamie and Louie saw me, they tried to get to their feet. The goons behind them forced them back to their knees. The goon that held onto me dragged me farther into the room and forced me to drop to the floor a few feet in front of them. Right away, I tried to crawl over, but the goon grabbed me by my hair and yanked me back. He didn’t let go of my hair and I let out a pissed-off growl.
Dylan went over to the liquor trolley like he was king of the fucking castle and poured himself some whiskey in a glass tumbler.
“I should have let you die right alongside your fucking father,” I seethed.
Stop letting your rage in, Maura.
You’ll end up chasing the rabbit if you don’t.
Listening to my darker self, I made myself relax.
With his drink in hand, Dylan turned with a cruel smirk on his face. “For a smart woman, that was a really dumb move.”
“Clearly,” I said, my voice calm. “You went to the Aryans that night.”
He looked so proud of himself. “I did. I needed allies and I knew they wanted our guns. Thanks to our family meetings, I knew when Rourke was going to do an exchange. It was like the planets were aligned when I heard that you were invited to tag along. The Aryans were already prepared to take the guns and all I had to do was add your death to the plan.”
I needed him to keep talking to buy whoever Brenna called time to get here. “How did you learn that I was going to be with Rourke?”
Dylan seemed so happy I’d asked that. “From Rourke, of course. That day, he said it in passing when he stopped by to check on me before heading to pick you up.”
“And when they didn’t succeed in killing me?” I asked.
Dylan huffed a laugh. “I didn’t have to convince them to go after you because you went and pissed Buck off when you killed a few of his buddies at his bar. They tried to blow up your car and failed because the damn bomb triggered before it was supposed to. Honestly, those racist fucks were dumb as shit. I had to come up with a better plan for them and walk them through it step by step.”
“You mean when you gave Buck the security blueprints to my house,” I added.
“Yeah. A lot of good it did them, because they still managed to fuck up killing you again,” Dylan said irritably and took a gulp of whiskey.
I smirked at him. “Maybe I’m just too tough a bitch to kill.”
Dylan glared. “Like a fucking cockroach.” He shrugged. “Got your kid, though. Saved me from having to smother it in its crib.”
Jamie began breathing heavily through flared nostrils as he stared at Dylan with dark eyes. Louie was also seething, but not at the same level as Jamie.
Dylan grinned down at Jamie. “I guess that means you were the father. Not gonna lie, I was curious which one of you knocked up my whore of a cousin.”
I chuckled. “Man, you are such a pussy.”
Dylan’s triumphant glee dimmed a little as he stared back at me.
