Chapter 62 #2
Three men with machine guns strapped across their chests stood guard behind him, and he had his own gun held at the side of Brinley’s head.
“Drop your guns or she goes,” Kent gritted.
I wanted to rush him. Throw myself on top of Brinley. A living shield who would gladly die to protect the treasure.
But I had to play this smart.
Careful.
I heaved out a strained breath, and my hands fucking shook as I tossed them to the floor three feet in front of me.
My eyes scanned, calculating how I could get to Brinley before Kent had time to react.
Then shock hurled from my lungs when I found my piece-of-shit father itching in the corner.
Confusion almost bowled me over.
A near faceplant into a vat of rage and disgust and hate.
I was stuck there for a prolonged beat, a storm of horror and devastation ripping through me as I stared at his worn, leathery face, trying to make sense of what the fuck he was doing there.
Kent released a condescending tsk that drew my attention back to him. “Silas Mercer. So predictable, aren’t we?”
His head canted to the side as he looked me up and down.
It wasn’t like I hadn’t stood before him before.
Pretending like my MC was interested in running his poison across the Northwest in an attempt to infiltrate his inner circle.
I let my eyes dip to Brinley for a beat.
Just needing to look at her.
To see that she was breathing.
Before I forced my focus back to Kent, knowing it was stupid to draw more attention to her.
Not sure what Kent knew. If he had any idea that she’d been in my compound and under my protection for the last few weeks.
Whittling her way into my heart for the same amount of time.
Air puffed from his pompous nose. “It took me a minute, you know, to figure out who you were. The president of this insignificant motorcycle club playing hard to get. Acting like he was above running my goods. One minute all in and the next withdrawing. Asking too many fucking questions. I thought you were trying to make a play. Strike a better deal for yourself.”
Locked aggression buzzed through my body, and my fingers tingled with the need to finally put an end to the monster standing in front of me.
But I waited. Searching for the right moment. Trying to calculate how I could take all three of his guards out and get to him without anyone else being hurt.
Minus my father.
I didn’t care if killing him did steal the last bit of my humanity. Just his existence was inhumane.
“So, I thought I’d have a little fun with your sister…” Kent continued.
Violence screamed across my flesh, and Brinley whimpered, knowing this beast who’d hurt her in the worst way possible had also tormented my sister.
“Put you in your place and show you who actually is in control,” he snarled.
His expression twisted like he had a hard time putting a finger on it. “It should have been impossible for you to get her out, to know exactly how to get in here and extract her. That’s when I knew something was amiss. That I had a rat in my midst.”
I refused to glance at Dereck, even though it was clear Kent already knew. Clear he possessed knowledge that he shouldn’t have.
Not because of Dereck flipping on us.
But because of my father.
Kent paused and glanced at the pathetic fuck who was sweating near the wall before he swiveled back to me with a malicious grin. “Then your father knocked at my office door. Telling me he had something I might want.”
Air puffed from his nose. “Such a funny thing, he recognized this pretty brunette from a job I had him on with me five years ago.”
I had to stop myself from bending in two.
Shocked that my father had been involved that night.
Had been culpable in what had happened to Brinley.
Rage blistered, and red glowed at the edges of my sight.
Had he been working with Kent the whole time? I thought the coward had run that night. Disappeared to save his own ass. Leaving my mother there to die.
And he’d run right back to Kent.
“Aww, don’t feel so bad for not realizing it, Silas.
” It was pure condescension. “I didn’t know you were PJ’s son until that moment, either.
He told me my runner in that small town of Crimson Creek had been killed.
I didn’t think much of it. Men die all the time.
Are expendable and easily replaceable. My mistake for not making the connection.
My mistake for not realizing that your father lied to me. ”
He suddenly pulled his gun from Brinley’s head and pointed it at my father. In surrender, PJ’s hands flew up, and he spluttered, “No, Kent, it wasn’t like—”
Kent pulled the trigger. An earsplitting crack ricocheted from the walls at the same second his body slumped to the ground.
A gust of addled air wheezed from my lungs.
Shock at seeing my father face down on the ground in a growing pool of blood.
Hatred and pain vied for dominance.
Brinley screamed against her gag, choking and crying as her shoulders sank forward.
My focus jerked back to her. Every muscle in my body twitched. Ached to get to her. Unbind her. Hold her. See to it that every promise I had made to her was fulfilled.
But I forced myself to remain there. Biding time as the gunshots began to fade outside, becoming more interspersed, praying that it was my men who were coming out on top.
Kent shifted so the gun dangled at his side.
Nonchalance radiated from his frame but venom dripped from his tongue. “That was when it all came together for me. I already knew Dereck was up to something. Coming back here out of the blue after he and his sister escaped with their lives five years ago?”
A huff left him. “Only to find out his sister is on your property. PJ confessing who you really are. Trading your real identity for a measly stack of cash. You and Dereck thinking you were going to overthrow me.”
I almost laughed. He thought I wanted to take over his twisted kingdom? I was here to end it.
“I figured I’d let you and your men come to me. Save me the trouble of hunting you down. Thank you for proving my theory and making this easy.”
“See, you’ve got something wrong in the middle of that.” It came out a low threat.
Kent seemed almost surprised that I spoke before his mouth twisted into a malicious grin. “How’s that?”
My phone vibrated in my front pocket, the specific rhythm Cash had set.
I cracked my own grin. “I’m not here to overthrow your empire. I’m here to burn it to the ground.”
That was right when all three doors leading into his inner sanctum burst open.
Cash, River, Theo, and Otto blazed in through one door.
Trent and his crew from another.
Fuse, Trevan, Phoenix, and my brother from the one behind me.
Caught off guard, Kent’s guards reared back, though they were quick to lift their guns to raze the room in a spray of bullets.
It happened at the same time as the guys who had always had my back also began to shoot.
In an instant, it was pandemonium.
Gunshots and dust and screams.
And the only thing I could do was throw myself forward, grabbing both my guns from the floor before I crawled for Brinley through the smoke.
My heart convulsed when I felt her skin against mine. The heat. The life. The light.
Her relief saturating. Burning through me like a thousand suns.
Wildfire.
While a barrage of shots continued to rain. I covered her with my body, desperate to keep her shielded while the battle seethed around us.
Dread slithered up my spine when I suddenly felt the abhorrent presence from the side.
Too close.
I shifted my head so I could peer out that way.
Kent was on his knees. A gun aimed at me from a foot away.
I curled myself tighter around Brinley.
“Brinley. Brinley.”
I didn’t realize I was chanting it aloud.
I just needed her to hear it.
My praise.
My belief.
The unending love that poured out of me.
Just as Kent fired three shots.