Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Aero
I’ve got one shot to get us out of here. I shift enough to position the jagged splinter on the back of the chair against the rope and start grinding. The chair groans beneath my weight as I twist harder, but I don’t stop, even though my wrist’s slick with blood.
I’ve been caged before. I didn’t go down then and I’m sure as hell not going down now.
Lacey’s eyes are locked on mine. She’s trying to stay calm but I see the tremble in her jaw, the way her hands twitch against the rope tied at her back. She’s terrified but she’s still fighting.
Damn, I love her.
“I’m getting us out. I won’t let them hurt you.” I whisper, barely loud enough for her to hear.
She nods once, her chin quivering, and for a split second I think she believes it. I need her to believe it. I won’t fail her.
The wood under my palm shifts again. I grind against it harder. Every tug sends fire racing through my arms, but the rope is thinning.
My eyes snap to the door as it crashes open, slamming against the inside wall hard enough to rattle the wood.
Garett storms in, his suit jacket’s gone, tie loosened and hanging crooked, like it’s choking the life out of him.
His sleeves are rolled to his elbows, exposing the black ink coiled up his arm.
Five more fucking minutes and I’ll be free enough to choke him with that tie.
He stops halfway between me and Lacey, right where the pregnancy test lies on the floor like a landmine. Disgust twisting his mouth.
“I had plans for us, Love, and this wasn’t part of it.” he sneers, flipping the stick over with the toe of his polished shoe like that will erase the truth.
“Don’t call her that.” I spit at his feet. He inches closer like the predator he’s always been. I shift just enough to keep working the rope, praying he doesn’t notice how loose it’s getting.
“You’re in no position to make orders.” he says, crouching in front of me. “Hell, there’s nothing stopping me from killing you right here and taking her with me.”
“You do that,” I growl, “and you’ll never find out what happened to your shipment.”
He waves a hand like he’s brushing off a fly. “That’s Sophia’s interest, not mine.”
“So you’re planning to screw her over too?” I snap. “Betray your own blood?”
His eyes flare. “I warned you to stay the fuck out of my way.”
He raises the gun and presses the muzzle to my forehead. The cold steel bites deep. Lacey gasps behind him, the sound like a blade slicing through my already broken ribs.
“I told you,” I grit out, “she’s not yours. She’ll never be yours.”
He turns his head, slow and deliberate, to look at her and I scrap the rope again. Another few seconds and I’m free.
“Keep your eyes open, Love. I want you to see what happens when someone crosses me.”
Lacey’s quiet, but I can feel her eyes on me. Holding it together by sheer will.
Garett swings his head back to me, his thumb tapping the safety off. I grip the rope harder. Almost there. Almost there…
“You touch him and I’ll put a bullet between your eyes,” Sophia says, voice cold, heels clicking sharp against the old floorboards.
Garett rises, grabbing Sophia by the arm and yanking her back where the dim edge of a window throws broken moonlight across the floor.
“You’re out of control Sophia. He’s never going to tell us what you want to know and he’s never going to crawl back to you.”
They stare each other down, a storm of rage thick in the stale air between them.
“Don’t pretend this is about the shipment or taking over Daddy’s organization. This is about your sick obsession with her.”
Their voices drop lower as they argue near the back wall, but I’ve heard enough to know the enemy isn’t united. That’s our advantage.
I shift my wrist, twist just enough to feel another strand snap. Almost there.
Somewhere outside the building, a roar like thunder rips through the foundation. It shakes the whole damn floor beneath us. Dust rains from the rafters. Wood creaks like it might collapse.
“What the fuck was that?” Garett barks.
“Find out. Now.” Sophia snaps back.
Their men scramble past the door like ants kicked from a nest, shouting orders, grabbing weapons. Garett and Sophia are right behind them, vanishing into the chaos.
I yank again, this time with everything I’ve got, and the jagged piece of wood I’ve been grinding into the rope finally bites deep enough.
The bind snaps and I nearly collapse with the release.
My arms fall forward, deadweight for a beat.
I shake them out, and roll to my side. I rip the remaining ropes from my body, blood pounding in my ears.
Adrenaline hits like a freight train and I crawl to Lacey.
She gasps. “Aero.”
“I got you.” My hands are already at her wrists, my bloodied fingers working the knots.
Another explosion rocks the building. Wood splinters. Glass shatters somewhere above.
“Did they find us?” she asks.
“Damn right they did.” The last of the rope comes loose. I drag her into my arms, just for a second. Just to feel her.
“Stay behind me,” I order. “No matter what.”
I turn, just as Garett steps into the room alone, dragging a crowbar behind him. “You son of bitch.”
I smirk. “Never underestimate a Royal Bastard.”
I meet him halfway into the space, ducking the first swing of the crowbar and burying my shoulder into his gut.
We slam into one of the support beams hard enough to rattle the building.
The crowbar clatters across the floor. My fist connects with his ribs.
Once, twice, three times, until I feel something crack under my knuckles.
Garett snarls, grabs my hair, and slams my head into the beam. The world flares white. I stagger back, tasting blood.
He charges again. I duck low, sweeping his legs out from under him. He hits the floor with a bone-jarring thud, and I’m on him before he can rise. My fists pound into his face, feeling his nose break under the third hit, watching blood explode across his teeth. His screams fuel me.
“She’s mine,” I snarl, grabbing him by the collar.
He spits blood at me. “She’s just a bitch with a bastard…”
All I see is red. I slam his head into the floor so hard it echoes. Again. And again.
He twitches. I grab the crowbar from the floor, driving it down until there’s nothing left of his face but shattered bone and blood.
Lacey turns her head away.
I drop the crowbar and suck in air. My hands are slick with blood. My arms tremble with exhaustion.
Outside, it hasn’t quieted. I grab the crowbar again and move toward the front of the warehouse.
I peek past the shattered window frame and catch a flash of chrome.
Grizzly’s hog, mounted with his custom barrel shotgun.
Padre’s right behind him, rifle steady against his shoulder.
Pike and Rancor storm the east side on foot, ducking into shadows and cutting down anyone in their path.
I turn to find Lacey crawling toward me, teeth gritted, one hand holding her side where the assholes bruised her when they took her. I yank her into my arms and press a kiss to her temple. “It’s almost over.”
“It better be,” she mutters. “I’m running out of adrenaline.”
Thunder cracks again. Another explosion. Closer this time. The back entrance erupts in fire and smoke. A man stumbles out screaming, both arms lit up like torches.
“Stay down,” I bark at Lacey, and she nods, ducking low as I rise to meet the fight.
The next fucker to round the corner doesn’t stand a chance. I shove the crowbar through his throat and rip it out sideways. Blood sprays the wall behind him in a fan, dark and wet. His body collapses at my feet like a sack of meat.
Another comes at me with a knife. I twist his arm, snapping his elbow in the wrong direction, and throw him into the beam. His skull cracks with a sick thud.
Crank bursts in through the side, face streaked with soot, eyes wild. “We got ‘em pinned! Backdraft’s laying fire on the west side!”
“Where’s Sophia?” I yell over the gunfire.
“No sign yet,” he growls. “You want her alive?”
My jaw clenches and a deep growl rips from my throat. That’s enough of an answer for him. He nods and disappears into the smoke.
Tango slides in through a blown-out window, an SMG in his hand.
“Glad to see you bastards.” I slap him on the back.
“You can thank Hashtag when we get you out of here.”
A scream slices through the chaos. I wrench my head toward the sound, and freeze.
Sophia’s standing at the threshold, her red dress soaked in blood that’s not her own. Her hair’s wild, her lipstick smeared and Lacey’s in front of her. A gun jammed into her stomach.
Sophia’s arm is locked tight around her, dragging her backward like a human shield. Lacey’s hands are up, her eyes locked on mine, wide, pleading, furious.
“Back the fuck off!” Sophia snarls at the room, her voice cracking with hysteria and hate. “I swear to God I’ll paint the walls with her.”
My body goes rigid.
Lacey stumbles, trying to dig her heels in, but Sophia jerks her forward, digging the barrel in deeper. Lacey lets out a sharp cry, biting it back through gritted teeth. She’s scared. But she’s fighting.
I take one step toward them, just one, and Sophia’s eyes flick to mine.
“You think you won?” she spits. “You think I’m going to let you ride off with her and play happy fucking family after you killed mine?”
Her voice turns into a hiss. “I told you. You’d regret leaving me.”
Then she drags Lacey out the door, the gun never leaving her belly.
I lose it.
“Lacey!” I roar, rage in my blood like wildfire.
I charge after them through the smoke. Sophia whips around.
Her dress is torn, blood on her cheek from where Lacey is clawing at her.
The look on Sophia’s face is madness. Feral, and desperate, teeth clenched like she’s choking on everything she can’t control.
Her grip tightens on Lacey, nails digging into soft skin.
“Let her go!” I growl, barreling through the wreckage.