Cole(89)

She tucked it under her arm and leaned close, pressing her lips to my forehead. “I’m so sorry, Addison. I know you love this friend, but he’ll know. If it was Sia, he’ll know, and if it wasn’t, don’t worry. She won’t be harmed. I have to tell them.”

I tried to hit her with my head, but she moved away. I couldn’t do a thing to stop her. I was still tied down, just to a bed instead of a chair.

She went to the door and looked back. “I’ll make them free you. Get ready. You’re going to go home with Hank and me. We’ll disappear together. Everything will be fine.”

But we wouldn’t be. We were so far beyond fine that there was no going back. She was deluding herself, and after she went to him, he would kill Sia. He would kill me, and he might even kill Carol herself.

No, we weren’t going to be fine.





COLE





The tip came in through Ken.

He wasn’t told who took Addison. We already knew that. He was told where she was, and we didn’t hesitate. We were moving within the hour. I was in the weapons room when one of my men gave me the news I’d been expecting since Addison was taken. He coughed. “Sir, Carter Reed is at the door.”

I stopped, knife in hand, and looked at my soldier. He fidgeted in the doorway, and I knew he wanted to run. Right now I wasn’t the nice boss, the boss who joked around sometimes, the young boss everyone underestimated. I was the assassin the Bertals had created, the weapon Carter himself helped hone.

I was the fucking head of the Mauricio family staring back at him.

“You’re new,” I said.

His eyes narrowed before he nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“You’ve killed before?”

Another jerk of his head. “I have, sir.”

I pointed my knife at him. “And if they attack right now—if Carter’s actually a traitor and he’s going to try to kill me, what do you do?”

To give him credit, he didn’t hesitate. He rolled back his shoulders and tucked his hands behind his back, spreading his feet evenly. “I’d kill him instead.”

The door to the room opened and Carter walked past the soldier, but he paused and glanced at him. “You would, huh?”

The soldier’s eyes went wide. His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. “I would. Sorry, sir.” His eyes flicked to mine. “Other sir, I mean,” he corrected. “But I would. I’m loyal to the head of the Mauricio family and…” He hesitated, glancing to me again before returning to Carter. Their eyes met and held.

My respect for him went up a notch.

“You are not in the Mauricio family in the official capacity anymore, Mr. Reed, sir.”

Carter was holding back a grin, but he wasn’t here to goad my soldiers. He was here for a whole other reason, and as I remembered that, the moment passed. I tossed my knife in the air, caught it by the handle and sent it soaring past my soldier. It stuck in the wall behind him.

He’d gone still, his eyes not even moving to the knife.

I gestured to it. “Take it. You’re going to need more than a few guns tonight.”

He stepped to the side, grabbed the knife, and yanked it out of the wall. He nodded to each of us before stepping out into the hallway.

Carter waited until the door closed, then turned to me. “You got his ear. Did you know that?”

I threw him a look. Of course I knew. I wasn’t feeling particularly talkative. “What are you doing here?”

His eyes narrowed, looking over the assembly of weapons I spread on the table. “Are you ready to do this?”

“To do what?”

I knew. He knew. I wanted him to say it.

“Start a war.”

There it was. “Like you did?”

“That was different.”

“How?”

He crossed the room and stood on the opposite side of the table now. He lowered his eyes, studying me. “Do you love her?”

Emotion flickered in my gut, hardening everything again. I scowled, picking up another knife and shoving it into my shoulder holster. It hung beneath a 9mm. “You started a war for the woman you loved.”

“I did.”

“You finished a second one, too. For her.” My eyes cooled. My jaw hardened.

“I did.” Carter was waiting.

“So, you flew all this way to ask me if I love Addison?”

“Don’t go to war if you don’t,” he said quietly. He leaned forward on the table. “She’s theirs. They took one of their own. You broke in to take one of theirs—that’s how they’ll spin this. Are you ready for the fallout afterward? Businesses will be affected. Lives are going to end. Families will be torn apart. You could die. She could die. Are you ready for that?”