Chapter Thirty-One #2
“You won’t live long enough to be able to do that,” I replied. “Your father is dead back in the front hall, so that makes you head of the family. Congratulations on your promotion.”
“My father has been nothing more than a figurehead for years,” Brendan said, moving forward. “He was a useful diversion, nothing more.”
I was beginning to see there was a lot more going on than I had understood. “Why would I believe you?” I queried with a shrug. “You could say anything now he is dead.”
“I will not be disrespected in my own home!” Brendan screamed, his eyes bulging. When you lost your self-control, you lost the battle. The asshole inside me started to grin, since the man in front of me had daddy issues.
“You want to go outside for me to tell you what I think?” I asked.
“I want you to get the fuck out of my house,” Brendan snapped. “You are violating all the terms of our organisation.”
“I’m here to claim my property,” I said, straightening the cuff of my jacket to show him I was unimpressed by his act of dominance. “You have my wife here.”
“Do I?” Brendan queried, his eyebrow quirking up. “The only women in this house are the slaves we keep to satisfy the needs of our guests. Did you want me to arrange a whore for you?”
He was deliberately trying to antagonise me, but it wouldn’t work.
I spent years locking my emotions down so no one ever saw beyond the mask I had cultivated.
Inside, I was terrified that Olivia was dead.
If she was broken, I would spend years putting her back together again, until I mended her with love.
“Men like you make me sick,” I replied. “The only way you can get a woman is to buy them and break them. Slaves are not submissives, they are women who no longer care what is done to them, because they no longer want to be alive.”
“You must have gotten tired of seeing the disappointment in their eyes,” Jordan said from the other side of the room. “Small dick syndrome is a serious disorder, especially when you have no idea what to do with that tiny member.”
Brendan’s jaw tightened. Why did so many men have issues around their dicks? If they were so worked up about it, they should put some effort into their technique. None of us were born with instant orgasms at our fingertips, and had to practice and experiment.
Jordan moved slowly, his eyes on his phone as he tracked Megan. I needed to give him time as it was our best route to Olivia. The chatter in my ear said Jake’s team hadn’t found the girls, although they had found several areas that contained slaves.
“My team are currently dismantling your sordid establishment at the back of your property,” I said, deliberately checking my watch to demonstrate I wasn’t worried about his small army emerging behind him. “You’ve been a very busy boy.”
“Fuck you,” Brendan snapped, waving his right hand to one of his men. “This is my home, and you have no right to be here. No one will ever know you were here, and there will be no evidence of your bodies when I’m done.”
A gunshot rang out, and the man beside Brendan fell to the floor. “Do I look like I have time for all this nonsense?” Roberto demanded. “You know the rules for touching a woman in our organisation without permission. Hand over my sister, and we will deal with this indiscretion later.”
Brendan stared at his man for several seconds. “You just killed my fucking cousin,” he sneered, his top lip lifting.
“Really?” Roberto craned his neck to stare at the dead man. “Caine is my cousin if you want to take a shot at him. Be warned, he doesn’t take kindly to bad behaviour, so he’ll probably kill several of your men in return.”
Caine glared at Roberto before looking away in disgust.
“As pleasant as this interaction is,” Jordan said in his posh English accent. “You took my wife without my consent, and unless she is returned, I have no issue eradicating you and this nasty little house of yours from the face of the Earth.”
“My house is not small,” Brendan almost screamed. “Someone kill this asshole.”
“You seem to have a problem with size,” Jordan taunted. “I have an ancestral estate, and this is a quaint cottage in comparison.”
Brendan tried to grab a gun from one of his men to shoot Jordan himself. Who the fuck didn’t bring their own gun?
I shot him in the knee with my spare gun since it hurt like fuck, and made sure you didn’t wander off anywhere. Brendan howled, dropping the gun he had taken to clutch his injured leg as he fell to the floor.
“Kill them!” Brendan commanded. “Kill them all!”
“For fuck’s sake,” Roberto said. “This is ridiculous.” Both him and Caine moved forward together, both of them firing indiscriminately at the men at the door. It was a bad strategy for Brendan’s men, who were stuck in a bottleneck, and easily picked off.
“The women are this way,” Jordan called, moving toward the corner of the room, his finger trailing over the wooden panelling.
As we searched the area, a panel opened, and three figures stumbled out.
Scorching rage pulsed through my veins in a primitive hatred which demanded the sacrifice of flesh and blood. Bruises were present on Olivia’s face and arms, and no doubt other areas of her body. Her bottom lip was swollen and bleeding, her eyes almost closed from injury, and she could barely walk.
Someone was about to die.
She stumbled forward into my arms, and I tugged her tightly against me. Even injured, she was still the most beautiful woman in the world. Nothing else mattered except she was with me. My gaze fell on a woman I didn’t think I’d see again.
“I might have to take you up on your offer,” Alexander’s daughter said.
I nodded once. “Whatever you need.”
I continued to hold Olivia until she stopped shaking, her head tucked under my chin. I pressed a kiss to her forehead absently, watching what was happening. Caine and Roberto continued to kill those who opposed us.
Jordan fell to his knees to prop Megan against the wall. She looked like she had been trampled on by a herd of wildebeest. He pressed his forehead against her, speaking in a low tone even as a battle raged behind us.
He stood slowly, turning toward the fighting, a cold-blooded killer emerging. He walked across the room toward where Brendan was dragging himself away from the fighting, probably toward another hidden door. There had to be another house inside the walls.
“Where the fuck is Greg?” he demanded, kicking Brendan in the balls.
“Greg!” Brendan screamed, curling himself into a ball, and proving he was nothing more than a typical bully not able to defend himself.
I reluctantly released Olivia, placing her beside Megan. Olivia tried to grab my hand.
“I’ll be back soon,” I said, kissing her fingers and meeting her eyes.
I moved to join Jordan since a storm was brewing, and this had to end.
“Boss?” A man pushed his way past the last of the weary men who didn’t seem to know what was happening anymore, stepping over the dead bodies on the floor. “Have we sorted out this misunderstanding, or do you need me to contact the mediator?”
The mediator eased frictions between families. “There is no need for a mediator,” I replied. “Perhaps a mortician, but not a mediator.”
Greg looked toward the door, but Jordan stepped in his path. “I believe you’ve met my wife, Megan,” he said, and Greg glanced toward where the women rested against the wall. “Did I mention that she’s the sun in my dark life? The only person in this world who controls the monster inside me.”
He punched Greg before he could reply, making him stumble back as he stalked forward.
I had witnessed Jordan in action before, but there was something feral and brutal today, a control had disappeared.
I knew he was strong, but I’d never witnessed someone breaking bones so easily to destroy the person in front of him.
The man didn’t need weapons as he started to take his opponent apart.
He stomped on the side of Greg’s ankle to break it, then grabbed his arm to twist it up his back and dislocate his shoulder, kicking him in the kidneys as he fell forward. Jordan leaned over him, grabbing his hair to haul him back, directing his face toward Megan.
“You dared to put your filthy hands on her. For that sin alone, you’ll die.
The fact that you hurt her means you’ll suffer on your way to the other side.
My only regret is that I’m not at home to ensure you suffer for weeks as I remove your skin and organs bit at a time.
” Jordan shoved him forward, and slammed his heel down on the back of his knee.
I touched the communication device at my ear. “Targets have been acquired,” I said. “Commence exit phase.”
Jake would ensure everyone was removed from this place before Flynn worked his magic, and no trace was ever found of the bodies here today.
“Roger that,” Jake said in my ear. “Outbuildings cleared and moving toward house. Tunnels have been identified.”
“You do realise that your family line ends today,” I said, standing beside Brendan with my arms folded across my chest as I watched Jordan losing his shit.
To prove my point, I activated the first target in my car by pressing a button at the side of my watch.
A few seconds later, there was a massive explosion, and the ground shook.
The men remaining in the doorway all seemed startled, looking around them.
It only took the first man to run before the others joined him.
Brendan seemed to be part slug, leaving a trail behind him as he crawled across the floor.
I moved in front of him. “Who?” I demanded. “You don’t have the balls to plan this yourself. Who ordered Olivia’s abduction?”
He stared up at me. “I have lots of brothers who will take over.” His grin was filled with blood. “You think you’re untouchable, but there are players in this organisation you have no idea exist. Those men make you look like a teddy bear.” He had the audacity to laugh.