Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 83772 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 419(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83772 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 419(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
“Someone knows something,” Octavio said. “The leader of the Brotherhood doesn’t just let his position go. He’s in communication with someone. If we can’t pick them off one by one, we’ll just take the whole damn thing.”
I didn’t tell Astrid about the plan. If I did, she would worry herself to death, and she was already worried enough about my well-being. I didn’t leave her with Axel, not when he’d already done me a huge favor by protecting her once. “Let’s do this.” I strapped on my bulletproof vest then grabbed a rifle from the cabinet.
My phone rang in my pocket. It was Axel. If it were anyone else, other than Astrid, I would have ignored it. “Let me call you back.”
Silence.
I waited for Axel to say something. “You there?”
“Oh, I’m here.” A smirk was in his voice, a dangerous one. “Axel, however, is not.”
I froze on the spot, and for the first time since I could remember, I was truly scared.
“I’ve got Scarlett here,” Bolton said. “And I thought Astrid was feisty…”
Scarlett’s voice came from the background. “I swear to fucking God, I’ll kill all of you—” Her voice cut off like someone had punched her in the face.
My heart cracked right down the center, but I kept an even tone. “What do you want, Bolton?”
“I’m glad I have your attention, Theo,” he said. “Axel won’t come to her rescue, not when I have a gun to his daughter’s forehead—”
“You motherfucker—”
“Yep, that’s me,” he said simply. “But all of this could have been avoided if you just hadn’t touched what was mine. So, you’re the motherfucker, if you ask me. But I have some good news for you. You can save Scarlett and Axel and their two little ones if you do what I say.”
I knew what he wanted—Astrid.
All the guys knew something was amiss because they stopped what they were doing to stare at me.
If I handed her over, I might not get her back. He would take her somewhere far away, make sure I couldn’t find them again. She would endure his malice and his cruelty. But if I didn’t hand her over, Scarlett would die.
I couldn’t even entertain the idea. Couldn’t imagine the look on my brother’s face when he found out that his wife died because I refused to give Astrid up. That he would raise their children as a single father because he’d lost the love of his life.
Fuck.
“Are you listening, Theo?”
It took all my strength not to strike with an insult, to be obedient. “Yes.”
“Good,” he said. “You’re going to walk to the street outside the restaurant. A black van will pull up, and you’ll get inside. No guns and no men.”
My eyes shifted back and forth, trying to understand these demands. “I don’t understand.”
“They’re simple directions, Theo.”
“I assumed you’d want Astrid.”
“You assumed wrong.”
My heart should pound in my chest, but it remained slow. His plan started to unfold in front of my eyes. Once he had me, he would kill me—and nothing would get in his way again. Astrid would have nowhere to run. Axel would need to focus on protecting his family, as he should.
“It’s you or Scarlett. What’s it going to be, Theo?”
If I’d known that a love affair with Astrid was going to get me killed, it probably wouldn’t have changed anything. I would still want her. I just wished the story would end happily for her, instead of trapped with him.
“You have five seconds before I change my mind.” He spoke to the guys in the background. “Cock the gun and put it to her head.”
Scarlett screamed in the background.
There was no other choice. I had to do this. “I’m coming, asshole.”
“Oh good,” Bolton said. “I’ll have a scotch waiting for you.”
I hung up the phone and looked at Octavio.
He seemed to hear everything based on the sadness in his eyes.
I took off the vest and left it on the table. Put down the rifle and removed the handgun from the back of my jeans.
“What’s the plan?” Octavio asked.
“There is no plan,” I said before I turned around. “He won.”
I was handcuffed, and a bag was placed over my head.
You weren’t blindfolded if you were going to die, so Bolton was paranoid that I would get the upper hand and call for backup. But if I didn’t know where to send them, then I would be cut off at the knees.
It was a long drive, at least an hour and a half. The road was smooth before it turned bumpy as we went into the countryside. They were probably taking me to a village in the middle of the hills, surrounded by acres of olive trees and vineyards, so remote that gunshots wouldn’t be heard.
I didn’t say a word, and neither did the guys in the car.
I should be panicked right now, but the sense of defeat was potent. All I cared about was getting Scarlett out of there. Some men would have shot Scarlett when I turned up just because they could, but I didn’t believe Bolton would do that. Not when he knew Astrid cared about her. As sick and twisted as his mind was, he knew he wouldn’t be able to fix their marriage if he killed her friend.