Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
EROS
The only thing that kept my rage in check was that the motherfucker was already dead and seeing the tears stream down Bonte’s face.
There wasn’t a choice. I couldn’t lose my shit.
I had to keep it together for her even if I was salivating to destroy everything in my path.
The mere thought of someone trying to harm my girl had me out for blood.
“I know you’re going to tell me to fuck myself, but take a breath,” Jax tells me.
“He needs to fight or fuck,” Dad says from behind his desk.
Once we got back home, I took Bonte up to our room, where she clung to me.
I got some food in her, and then she nodded off.
That gave me a chance to slip downstairs.
Binx is watching over her. I didn’t want to leave her, but shit had to be handled.
When Bonte’s safety is in question, there’s no time to waste.
“Dad, Jesus,” Damon mutters.
“It can take the edge off.” His eyes snap to me. “And we all know what happens when Eros loses his shit.” They are never going to let talk of my temper go. It’s been a long time since I lost it, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel it simmering right below the surface.
I swore I’d lost it but kept my composure. The driver in the SUV is dead. There wasn’t more I could do to him. I didn’t want to kill him—yet. A dead man doesn’t talk.
"Oh, I think he lost it. He walked toward a speeding vehicle like he was in a James Bond movie." Jax stands.
"I'm a good shot." I have always been skilled when it comes to weapons. Some may say I’m overconfident, but I don’t see it that way. I’m not afraid to protect what’s mine. In that moment, I knew I would do anything to keep Bonte safe.
"Yeah." Jax steps towards me. "What if it had been bulletproof? Then what?"
"I realized it wasn't bulletproof after the first shot."
"And then what?" He steps closer; I can see the anger in his eyes.
"Backup was coming."
"Fuck you." Jax steps even closer, right in my face. "I'll kill you myself next time."
"All right, lovebirds." Damon pushes between us. "This went from James Bond to a love scene. I was sure you were about to kiss."
"Stupid," Jax mutters, shaking his head and turning around.
“You telling me that you wouldn’t put yourself in harm's way for Kinsley?” I don’t really care if Jax thinks what I did was stupid. I know he’s coming from a place of love, but like I said before, I will protect Bonte at all costs. Even if one of them is my life.
“You ending up dead doesn’t help any of us.” I see he doesn’t bother to answer my question because he knows I’m right. He’s being a hypocrite.
“Enough,” my dad says, letting us know not to utter another word. “This isn’t helping. Channel all that pent-up rage against the enemy, not each other.”
I actually listen to Jax’s advice and take a few deep breaths. “Do you have anything on the man yet?”
“Nothing.” Dad shakes his head. “His prints don’t match any. We’re still running through a couple of databases, but there isn’t going to be a hit.”
“Because he is an agent?” I ask him.
“I don’t know what he is, but if he is, he might be rogue, and he’s not working alone.” I walk over to the couch and sit down.
“You think they wanted Bonte dead or alive?” I hate speaking the question, but it needs to be said. This is a riddle I can’t figure out.
“It has to be alive.” Damon takes one of the seats in front of Dad’s desk, kicking his feet up. “Either way, I’m sure her father is all kinds of pissed. We could lay low and let him take them out.”
“We can’t predict or trust crazy.” I’m not down with this plan.
“Don’t say that. I trust you.” Damon smirks.
“I’m not fucking crazy.” I shake my head. “Apparently, I’m a barbaric sociopathic Neanderthal.”
“You too?” Jax finally relaxes.
“Must run in the family,” Dad adds.
“Thank all the gods she skipped me.” Damon’s day will come. We all know it. I’d gladly take a front row seat to that show, but I have better things to do. Bonte.
“These men have to be agents,” I say, cutting back to why we’re all here. “I mean, is anyone looking for her?” If she belongs to WITSEC, you’d think they’d be scrambling to find her. I have no doubt they clocked the second she was at school.
“At this point, I’m inclined to believe that. At least they were at some point.” Dad says. I don’t think they are agents anymore.
“That’s what I was thinking too because of her father.
They used Bonte as bait, and then when that went to shit and her father killed a bunch of FBI agents, they put her into WITSEC.
It has to be around the bait and it blowing up in their faces.
There is something there I’m not getting.
” I run my hand across the top of my skull.
I keep circling back to that. It’s messy, and the Feds don’t do messy.
“And WITSEC is going to make it a whole lot harder to find anything, including what agents are assigned to her case. We don’t even know the agents that her father killed,” Dad adds.
I’m sure their names are up on a wall somewhere.
Whatever family they did have believing a story told to them about their deaths. If they have a family.
“If they still worked with WITSEC, they would have come in the front door of the school today and simply taken her and disappeared,” I point out.
It’s hard to become a ghost, but if the government is involved, it’s possible. WITSEC is no joke. It’s an inter-curate web. They would have walked into that school, and when they walked out, they’d be long gone before anyone could even think to question.
Dad nods in agreement. "They would have, and at this point, War and I would have been reached out to. If this was truly a clean case. Especially if they see we're looming around her. I have a handler, and he would have been on me about it. He's an annoying bastard."
"You don't think us being around might be why they tried to play it this way?" Damon asks. Jax is already shaking his head no, and I'm with him.
"The way they handled Bonte’s condo wasn't what I'd call clean. That place should have been sterile by the time we got there." I’ve been thinking the same thing. No one can clean anything up quicker than the Feds. They would have left nothing behind, including fingerprints.
"I could reach out to my handler and tell him I got one of their witnesses." I lean back in my seat, mulling this idea over. “Like I said, he’s an annoying bastard but reliable, and I trust him.” This isn’t the first time Dad has brought his handler up.
They do have a two-way street of favors they go back and forth on, going back two decades.
"What can it hurt at this point?" Damon shrugs. "If they are or aren't who they are trying to appear to be, it doesn't matter. If they are WITSEC, then it's already known to them we have her."
"Only a small hub of them would know," Dad cuts in. "But yes, I agree with Damon. Whoever they are, they know she's under our arm."
“And they clearly don’t give a shit. They were willing to kill me, and there isn’t a chance in hell they didn’t run my tags and see it linked back to the Marino family.
Agent or not, if they’re in this city, they know who we are.
” Everyone nods in agreement. “Any hits on the prints we lifted from the condo?”
“Nothing.” Dad sighs, appearing annoyed but relaxed. Which he’s not, but he’s good at pretending he is.
"All right," I say, standing. "I'm going to check on Bonte. If anything new pops—”
“I’ll let you know,” Dad says before I can finish.
“Thanks,” I tell them before heading upstairs. Or at least I try. Mom is on me the second I step out of Dad’s office. She wraps her arms around me in a tight hug. For as tiny as she is, Mom can still squeeze the hell out of you.
“Are you good?” She drops her head back to stare up at me. I’m sure hearing about my little run-in scared the shit out of her.
“As good as I can be.” I tell her the truth.
“All right.” Mom gives me a soft smile. “Well, you know I’m around. I’m giving her space, but not to be cocky”—that smile quickly switches to a smirk—“she’ll want us bugging her soon enough.”
“I think you’re right.” I lean down and kiss the top of her head, knowing that will make her happy. I’m not wrong; her whole face lights up.
Mom isn't wrong; she often isn't. Today made it clear how much Bonte cares about me. She tries to hide her emotions and wants. At least the ones deep down. She's protecting them. Scared of what might shake them, and today, it did just that.
I need to get this shit figured out and handled. That's what Bonte needs, and I know of one person that shares that determination with me. He helped create this mess, and now he's going to help me clean it up.