TOBIAS! TOBIAS PLEASE!
Her screams rang inside my head. They were all I could hear. She’d screamed for me…she’d screamed for me. The sound of it shattered something inside me. Still, I gripped her chin and stared deep into her eyes. Be the man…be the man she needs you to be. Be that fucking man or I swear to God…I’ll eat that goddamn bullet myself. “We take care of our own, little mouse. You understand me?”
There was a tremble in her eyes, a glistening of fresh tears even over the savage gleam. “Yes.”
We take care of our own…
Hate moved inside me. I’d tasted that hate. In the darkest hours, when they’d taken her from me, I’d swallowed it down. The bitter tang bloomed now in the back of my throat. But as I stood there and stared into her eyes, I welcomed the taste. “Then we take him out.”
“All of us,” she agreed.
She was holding onto that hate, tasting it for the first time. Fuck, it felt like a freight train hit me. Seeing her like this, her hands clenched at her sides, and that look of pure, cold rage.
Pure…
She was pure to me.
First her virginity.
Now her hate.
But the thought of her—I lowered my gaze to her perfect fucking hands fisted against her thighs—the thought of her carrying blood on those hands was almost too much to bear. “I can do it on my own if you want me to.”
Those words were quiet, too fucking quiet for the malice they intended. I’d never felt like this with anyone before, never felt so raw and open. I’d never felt so…selfless.
“No,” she answered and shook her head. The muscles of her jaw flexed. “I need this.”
“Then we do this our way, got that, little mouse? Because if you think I’m taking one more fucking risk with you, then you’re in for a goddamn surprise.”
Her eyes widened.
“It’s our way or not at all.”
She scowled and fuck me, if this conversation wasn’t so dangerous, it’d be cute. “Fine,” she gave in.
“Fine,” I answered back, then turned to find my brothers. “Agreed?”
Nick glanced at Ryth, and so did Caleb. They didn’t like it. No, my brothers didn’t like it one little bit. They wanted her as far as possible from this bloody fucking mess as I did. But like me, they understood.
Our little sister was finally one of us.
“And this time, we’re using the fucking Rossis,” I added.
I’d use their damn snipers and their former Marines. I’d use whoever I could to make sure she got through this safe…because after hearing that recording, hearing what that vile, scum-sucking motherfucker had done to her—there was no way we were leaving that piece of shit alive.
“Agreed,” Nick answered.
I shifted my focus to Caleb. Our loyalty was rocky…too damn rocky. Still, he gave a slow nod of his head. “Agreed.”
“Then that’s that.” I turned and brushed my lips across her cheek. “I’ll make a plan and come find you.”
She just nodded and I’d never felt fucking prouder in my life. It was pride that stayed with me as I left my family behind and strode back to the gym in the east wing of the house. But I had no intention of climbing back on the cross-trainer. My damn leg had been pushed to the limit as it was. Instead, I used the quiet, pulled the phone from my pocket, and hit Ben’s number.
He answered with a sigh. “I’ve been waiting for your call.”
“That predictable, huh?”
“Not at all. I’d call it…invested, how’s that?”
I clenched my grip around the phone and that old familiar weight of betrayal settled on my chest. “You should’ve come to me.”
“Really, why’s that?”
The bastard almost sounded indifferent. “Because…because…”
“Because you’re invested, Tobias.”
“We’re all fucking invested,” I snarled into the phone.
“Yes, but Caleb knew when he was in trouble. He knew that one wrong move and you’d do what you do best. You’d destroy him. Besides, Caleb knows these men better than you ever could.”
Heat burned in my face. “You saying my brother can protect her better than I can?”
“Not at all.”
He was so careful, so fucking controlled. I wanted to reach through the damn phone and strangle him. Pain flared through my chest. Cruel enough to make me catch my breath and curl my shoulders. I closed my eyes as the thunder in my head took hold. “Because I can protect her. I can keep her safe.”
“I know you can, son, better than anyone else alive at this point.”
I opened my eyes with the words.
“Because you love her,” Ben added. “I knew that the second I saw you. I knew it with one look, one word…one threatening phone call.”
I shook my head. “I haven’t threatened you.”
“No? Is that not what this is about?”
“No,” I shook my head, but deep down, I knew he was right. “I called because I need your help.”
“You know you have it, you’ve always had it. Tobias, you are a son to me, anything you need. Anything I can do, all you have to do is say the words.”
“Your men. The ones guarding the house. We need two good ones.”
“Done,” he answered, then added. “But I want you to be careful on this, Tobias. Those men are dangerous. The connections…the reach. It’s not like what you’re used to. Hell, it’s not even like what I’m used to.”
There was fear in his words, real fear. The kind of fear I never thought I’d hear from someone like Benjamin Rossi. I knew he’d gone to help Lazarus and I also knew the asshole was tied up with the man who owned The Order. “Laz?”
“Is safe,” he said, and a hard rush of air filled my ear. “As is Katerina VanHalen. But Hale is a man who’s savage and dangerous, and right now he’s licking his wounds. You don’t want to cross a man like that. You don’t want him as an enemy.”
My mind was racing, searching. “You spoke about that guy, King. He seems to be the kind of man Hale doesn’t want as an enemy.”
“No, he doesn’t.”
That thrumming in my head only grew louder. “And you can’t reach out to this King? To see if there’s a way to get her dad out?”
“I’ve reached out, but so far, I haven’t heard anything back. But everything I’ve heard about this guy tells me he’s a ghost. It’s just whispers.”
“But he’s invested, right? He’s invested in her dad.” There was silence on the other end, the kind of silence that made me pull the phone from my ear and check the connection. But the timer was still counting. “Ben?”
“Her dad isn’t the real reason for this guy’s investment. One of the few things Jack told me about him was that the man only helped him because of Ryth.”
“Ryth?” My blood ran cold. “Why?”
“He never told me.”
I forced the words through gritted teeth. “And you didn’t push?”
“How the hell was I to know she’d be important to you? As far as I knew, it was a private matter from one of my closest friends, he asked me to stay out of it, so I respected his wishes.”
How was he to know? How were any of us to have known?
“All I remember was that King wanted to meet her.”
The words rocked me backwards. He wanted to meet her, had set up private deals and threatened those bastards to get her free. A man like that, tied to others like Haelstrom Hale, only meant one thing…he wanted Ryth for himself. “That’s never going to happen.” My words were hollow and strange. “Do you understand me? That’s never…going…to…happen.”
“I understand,” Ben answered, and for a second, I forgot who this was. I forgot this man loved me like a father, like a real father and not the kind that’d kill his own blood to save his skin. “Dad was…”
“Weak.”
I swallowed hard. “Yeah, he was.”
“I’ll never betray you, Tobias, you don’t have to worry about that from me.”
Relief slammed into me. “I know.”
“Good. I’ll have my men ready, all you have to do is say the word and, son.”
“Yeah?”
“When this is done, I want you back. I want you to put whatever beef you have with Lazarus behind you and I want you back, okay?”
Fuck. My throat tightened, the lump too big for me to speak. I could only nod. Maybe that was enough. Maybe that was all he expected as he continued. “Blood means nothing. Not when your heart is on the line. Protect yourself, son. Protect yourself and keep your family safe. Call me if you need anything else.”
“I will,” I croaked, then lowered the phone and ended the call.
