Chapter 19 Flynn
FLYNN
“…and we lost The Crystal.” Frank sighs deeply as he tosses down the last picture onto the desk. “That’s three nightclubs and two cook houses gone.”
My jaw ticks as my teeth snap together and I glare down at the pictures with my heart pounding.
This is Antov’s response to my threat.
It almost feels like a dare for me to put Kaia up for auction as if he doesn’t believe I’ll go through with it.
He’s right.
The Gallaghers have never handled skin like the Yudkin’s have, other than some years ago when the wife of one of my men got kidnapped and ended up front and center at an auction.
We went to hell and back to save her. Since then I’ve kept an eye on the underground slave market so we can step in whenever I see something I don’t like.
Which is often these days.
“He’s calling my bluff,” I grunt, dragging my hand down my face. “He doesn’t think I’ll put Kaia out for sale.”
“So what are we going to do?” Frank asks. “I understand this is delicate because he has—.”
Frank’s words are cut off by the sudden shrill screech of an alarm blaring through the estate.
An alarm that cuts through my chest like a razor blade, and my heart stalls painfully in my chest.
I know that alarm.
It’s only ever been used once when we had an intruder not long after my twins were born, and they were headed straight for them.
A guard’s dying action was to activate the alarm and let the entire estate know that my children were under threat.
I never thought I’d hear that sound again.
Frank and I collide as we sprint out of my office and down the hall, racing at top speed toward the west wing.
We pick up guards along the way who run with us while Frank stumbles behind as he uses his phone to connect with the CCTV to trace Angie.
Just as he comes up empty, we sprint around the corner and I crash headfirst into Florence.
She squeals in fright and is knocked clean off her feet, landing hard on the floor a few feet away.
The impact stuns her as her head cracks back against the floor but I’m already over her, hauling her up by the shoulders and shaking her.
“Florence!” I bark in her face, trying to shake her out of her daze. “Where’s Angie?!”
“A-Angie?”
“Where is she?!”
“I left her with Kaia, she told me you wanted to see me and you were…”
Her words trail off into silence as my heart pounds so loudly it drowns out everything around me.
Kaia is with Angie.
The alarm blares through the air like a dying scream and Kaia is with Angie.
“Flynn!” Frank grabs my arm and jerks me out of my half-second frozen shock, thrusting his phone into my face.
On the screen is Kaia’s bedroom where a dead guard lies prone on the floor, surrounded by several other guards who likely raised the alarm.
Not again.
This can’t be happening again!
Suddenly, I’m back in the middle of the street, soaked to the bone from the downpour, with Angie screaming in agony in my arms while my dead men coat the street with crimson.
A set of taillights shrinks away from me as a car makes its getaway and I’m left with the crushing guilt of my failure.
Not again.
“She’s in the garden!” Frank’s gasp cuts through my mind and in a blink, I’m back in the estate. “Kaia, she has Angie and it looks like she’s heading for the dock.”
“Fuck!” Passing Florence off to one of my guards, I rip my gun out of its holster and break into a fresh sprint down the corridor toward the double doors leading to the garden.
I’m going to kill her.
Her value to me ended the second she put my daughter in danger and I’m going to kill her.
Never again will a Yudkin harm my family.
My race takes me down slippery stone slabs and across the grass while Frank follows behind, yelling that the alarm has been activated at the gate to the docks.
I can’t think. I just run as fast as I can down stone steps that threaten to throw me off balance with every step, moss that threatens to make me slip, and a single alarm blaring in my mind that once again, I’m going to be too late.
This is my fault.
I didn’t see Kaia as a threat. I was starting to think she was just as much a victim as my daughter and that the warmth I was feeling for her was justified because she was a good person.
I was wrong.
At the bottom of the steps, I take the corner and sprint down through the moss-covered forest floor until the wooden dock comes into sight and my heart flies up into my throat.
Kaia is leaning over the small rowboat docked there, and Angie is inside, clutching her giraffe tightly to her chest.
Her face screws up as she listens to whatever Kaia’s telling her.
My vision clouds with red and in the three seconds it takes me to sprint the length of the dock, I realize I don’t have a plan.
All I know is Kaia took my daughter and I’m going to kill her for it.
Rather than shooting her, my gun falls and hits the dock in the first second.
Then Angie spots me and her face breaks out into a wide smile as she waves at me.
Kaia spots me in the third second and I glimpse the terror in her eyes in the brief moment before we collide.
My body slams into hers, knocking her clean off her feet and her scream of fright follows me as we both plummet off the dock and into the cold water of the lake below.
It closes over my head in seconds, and with Kaia under me, there’s nothing to prevent my weight from dragging us deep under the water.
I want to kill her.
I have to kill her.
I should have killed her the moment I saw her at the estate.
The Yudkins are slowly taking everything from me and I made the terrible mistake of allowing one under my roof and next to my daughter.
Never again.
As water churns and bubbles flood past my eyes, both my hands seal around Kaia’s throat and I squeeze hard.
She kicks at me, her fists colliding with my body like rocks and then her nails scratching deep into my arms, but I don’t stop.
I have to kill her before she takes the only thing I have left.
Her hair swirls in front of her face as we sink deeper, then her knee collides with my crotch and a pulse of weakness shoots through my body.
Doubling over from the pain, my hands slip and Kaia’s able to kick herself free from my grip, but as she fights to swim upward, I grab her calf and drag her back down.
Each second under the water drags on, my lungs burn from immediate lack of air due to my sprint to get here, and my heart’s about to explode out of my chest.
None of it matters as long as Kaia dies.
Unfortunately, my grip on her slips again, and this time, before I can reach her, she’s suddenly swiftly dragged upward and out of reach.
Desperate, strong hands come for me next, and I’m dragged from the water by several of my men who followed me in without a thought to their own safety.
My first breath when I reach the surface makes me momentarily dizzy and I’m docile enough that Frank and my men are able to haul my body up onto the dock.
Water drags at my limbs and drenches my clothes as it fights to drag me back into the lake but once I’m on the dock safe and sound, my target locks back onto Kaia.
She lies a few feet away on the dock, coughing and choking on the water and the lingering pressure from my hands.
Her hair, soaked, hangs forward and drags along the dock as she tries to scramble away the second she notices me.
I climb to my feet, snatch Frank’s gun out of his hand and aim it at her.
“You motherfucker,” I snarl as droplets of water spray from my lips. “My daughter? You try to take my fucking daughter?! I should have killed you the first time I ever saw you!”
“Wait—!” Kaia throws both her hands up when there’s no more dock for her to scramble too and her eyes flood with tears. “Wait—!”
My hand tightens but before I can pull the trigger, someone throws themself over Kaia and tries to hug her.
Angie.
My breath catches in my throat and anger pulses through me like molten lava, but I move my finger away from the trigger. “Angie, baby, move out the way.”
Angie turns to face me and to my surprise, she’s glaring at me.
“Angie, move!”
Still she refuses, rapidly shaking her head and keeping one hand on Kaia’s soaked leg.
“Frank, will you get her out of the damn way!”
He moves past me on my command, but as he reaches for Angie, she kicks out at him and slaps his hand away, refusing to move away from Kaia, cowering behind her.
I want Kaia dead. Every bone in my body screams at me, every nerve burns hot with the desire to bring down my wrath on every Yudkin who has ever caused me distress but for some reason, I can’t.
Angie won’t move, and even as Frank drags her away the damage is done.
Despite every instinct screaming to the contrary, despite how I want Kaia to suffer and feel a fraction of the terror that grips me, I can’t do it.
With a snarl of anger, I lower my gun.