Stolen: A Bad Boy Romance(28)

It came down in a feeble flop, and I saw her. She was tied against a chair in the fucking living room, a gag in her mouth.

God dammit.

I grabbed the first man I could find and put him in a sleeper hold. We were outmanned, but it wasn't a huge force. Probably six in total. Now five.

That's when I saw him. David. He was smug at the top of the stairs, just standing there, waiting.

"Now, boys," a voice bellowed. It was a voice I knew, and suddenly, two men turned and cut the throats of the other two.

Kathryn let out a blood-curdling scream. I saw him. The Butcher.

He grabbed David and didn't even think about it. He brought out his knife and dragged it across the asshole's throat, blood pouring from it as he fell into a crumpled pile.

Henry had betrayed him.

"You plan to do that?" Greyson asked.

"The entire fucking time," the Butcher said. "I might be a pawn for your father, but I work for you. I'm not going to choose his side over yours. You two are the only ones I respect."

Kathryn had gone quiet, and I ran to her, untying her as she shook. "They just, it's, I can't." The words came out in forced breaths like she was trying to get past the shock, but I just scooped her up and walked her right out of the damn house.

I didn't want her to have to witness any more of that. It would be too much of a shock to the system as it was.

“Are you okay?” I asked as she stared at me, her eyes wide.

“Fuck, no, I’m not okay. That was a fucking bloodbath.” She paused, then shook her head. “And not the way I thought it would be.”

That lip, it quivered just slightly. I grabbed her and kissed her softly. “It’s going to be okay.” I believed it with every fiber of my being. “We have people who take care of this. I’m okay, you are okay. No one is ever going to hurt you again.”

I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her to me. “Janson, I wasn’t thinking. I was scared. I just, I’m, I’m-”

“Pregnant.” I finished the sentence for her, my chest swelling with the idea. I’d wanted this, begged for it. And now, it was here, and all I could do was relish it.

“How did you know?” she asked.

“I saw the test, baby. It’s okay. It’ll be okay. I’ll take care of you.” I kissed her again.

“I’ll take care of both of you.” She was my family and there was nothing that could keep me from protecting her.

“If we can survive all of this,” she muttered.

One thing was guaranteed. I was going to make sure that our fathers paid for this act of betrayal. I spotted Greyson and Henry.

“What the hell happened in there?” I asked as I looked them over.

“You saved my skin, I owed you a favor. Plus, those jackasses deserve what they fucking get,” the Butcher said. He grinned wide and threw his knife down into the dirt, wedging it there, then pulling it up. It was how he cleaned it. “I should get going, though. Want to head back home, maybe make a stop or two on the way.”

“It’s probably for the best. If my father realizes what happened, he’ll have your fucking head for sure,” Greyson admitted. “Take David’s car, he won’t miss it, but be sure to ditch it the first chance you get.”

Henry nodded. “What will you do now that you know you are a wanted man?” he asked.

“Oh, I still have a few tricks up my sleeve,” Greyson said.





Chapter Nineteen



Kathryn



I fidgeted in the car behind the two of them. I had nothing to do but grip the leather seating, my hands threading in and out of the grooves in the stitching. I was nervous. Scared.

And my mind wouldn’t stop flashing back to those events. The knife against David’s throat, the blood. He was my brother, but he was an evil son of a bitch. Still, I wasn’t sure if he deserved to die that way or not.

He had meant to kill Greyson, after all. And possibly Janson, too. So I shouldn’t have been so upset. But I never wanted to see the life drain from someone, and now I was sure it was a terrible fate. I blinked again and tried to bite back the tears that were threatening. This was all my fault. If I hadn’t been so stupid, if I hadn’t disobeyed Greyson and tried to run away, none of this would’ve ever happened.

All because I was scared. It was a longer ride going home than it was coming out. I swear to god they were thinking all kinds of things about me and about what happened. It was making me so fucking nervous. I thought they would say something, but no, nothing. We just fucking sat there in silence as I looked out the window at the cars passing by.

Greyson was driving slowly and carefully, looking back in the mirror at me. He wanted to say something, I could tell, but no words came out of his mouth.

So, I spoke up first.

“How could you?” I asked, my glare very real. “How could you just charge in there like that? You have a wife, now. A child. You think they want you risking your life for me? That baby should mean more to you than that.”

I watched in the rearview mirror as his jaw clenched and he looked back at me. He was angry, I could tell, but he was doing his best to keep it in check.

“Joanna knew the entire situation and she agreed. You are a part of our family, too, Kathryn. You are important. You deserved to be rescued.”

“They never would have hurt me, you morons. You don’t understand? It was to try and lure you out. To try and kill you.” I was so angry. Angry at them. Angry at everyone around me. I wanted them safe, but I didn’t want anyone dead. No, that was asking far too much. It wasn’t fair. I wanted to rage at them all for putting us in harm’s way but hold them close at the same time. None of this was fair.

“But it didn’t work,” Janson spoke up now. “Everyone that mattered got out of there alive. Anyone who wasn’t going to betray us.”

“What about Dad?” I asked.

“We need to act quickly to neutralize him,” Greyson said. “I’ve already been in contact with Michael. You got them just the right amount of information they needed. Those coordinates, those code names. They were fucking bodies. People that they killed themselves. Ones they didn’t want the family to know about. He’s conducting a raid. We just need to stay away from it all and it will be taken care of.”

“When?” I asked.

“Soon.” Greyson was sure that everything was going to work out, but this was the most dangerous move any one of us have ever done in our entire lives. It was insane. We were going to use the fucking feds to stage a coup over our own family.

I had no idea how any of us were going to make it out of there unscathed. We got on I-83 and headed south. We were almost back to Janson’s place.

Home.

I’d been so stupid trying to run from it. From him. I was just nervous, scared. I eyed him. He comforted me in the wake of all that shit, but I knew I was in trouble. I knew that everything I’d done was wrong. He was going to take it out of my hide.

And I fucking deserved it.

But I also wanted it.

“You need to get some rest, Kathryn,” Greyson said. “It’s been an exhausting day for everyone. Now, I’m going to head home and prove to my wife that I am not dead. Silly, some things women worry about, am I right?” He smiled at his own joke but no one else laughed. Too much had happened. Too much blood had been spilt.

All because I couldn’t stay where I knew it was safe. All because I was too damn scared to talk to Janson about my feelings. About the baby.

I got out of the car and so did Janson, but the whole time, he was staring at me. Not saying a word, just staring. I knew what I’d done was going to cause him to read me the riot act. Hell, I was already screaming at myself in my own head. I could’ve lost everything.

“Upstairs. Now,” he commanded. His nose flared and his jaw clenched.

Fuck. He was so hot. Even when he was angry. Janson grabbed my arm and pulled me into the building.

“Ow, you are hurting me,” I said, but one look from him shut me the hell up.

“You really want to get into this right here? Right at the fucking bottom of these stairs for everyone to hear? You want me to scream about how stupid you were and how worried I was?”

I shook my head. He was pissed as hell and I couldn’t be surprised. I knew from the look in his eyes when he held me that I wasn’t going to just get off without a warning. I’d put myself in danger, put him in danger. And I deserved this.

I let him drag me into the elevator and up the stairs until we were to our front door. He looked like a steel trap ready to spring open.

I expected it as soon as we got into the damn condo. He threw me into the room and glared at me.

“Why in the hell would you do that? Why would you risk this, us?”

“I didn’t think, I was being stupid. I wanted to get away. I wanted to breathe. I thought about going back to Chicago, playing my music. Being alone.”

“Do you want to be alone?” he asked.

“No, I want you. I just want to know that you want me, too, Janson.”

“Are you kidding me? Do I want you?” Suddenly he was there, grabbing me. Holding me close. “Do you have any idea what you did to me? All the pain that you caused? All the hurt. I was so scared, Kat. So scared that he got you. You have no idea how worried I was. What if they killed you? Of course I want you. I love you.”