I shift my weight from foot to foot as we wait for Conor and Mikey. I came down to the basement five minutes ago and Shane was down here already. He has started up the giant armored SUV and has left the engine running while we wait for his brothers.
“You don’t have to come with us, Jessie. You can stay here where it’s safe. I’ll have my best men here watching you,” he offers.
“Are you kidding me, Shane?” I frown at him. “He has Liam. Because of me. Alexei is responsible for killing my whole family. He lied to me. Drugged me. Manipulated me into believing that you were the enemy. I want to look into his eyes while he takes his last breath.” I spit the final words as the venom I feel for him spills out of me.
“Okay.” Shane narrows his eyes at me.
“You think I won’t be able to do it, don’t you?”
“I never said that,” he shakes his head.
“No. You don’t have to. I can see it. You think I don’t have the guts to follow it through.”
“You have bigger balls that almost every man I’ve ever known, sweetheart. I have no doubt you could do it. But do you want to live with that?”
“I’ve lived with much worse these past ten years.”
He nods and steps closer toward me, with his hands in his trouser pockets. “Let me do this for you, Jessie.”
“Why? Do you think I’m weak?”
“Weak? No. You are titanium. But I would die if anything happened to you.”
“Shane!” I breathe.
“Or my brothers,” he adds quickly. “I should have killed our father. For everything he did to me and my brothers. For what he did to our mom. I had the perfect opportunity to. I pressed the gun against his forehead and he just stared up at me, slobbering and crying because he was steaming drunk. And I couldn’t do it. And I’ve fucking hated myself for it ever since. I don’t want you to have to live with any regrets. Let me kill him for you and you won’t have to.”
“I’m sorry that you’ve lived with that, Shane. I don’t know what happened to you all. Conor told me some of what he went through. I do know that your brothers wouldn’t have survived their childhoods without you. But I can’t let you kill Alexei for me. I still have so many questions left to ask him. I need to look him in the eyes and ask him why.”
“What if he doesn’t give you the answers you’re looking for, Jessie?”
“Then I’ll have to find the Wolf and ask him instead.”
Shane smiles at me. “Just know that I’ll be one step behind you all the way, Hacker. Okay?”
“Thank you,” I smile too. “I appreciate you having my back.”
“I’ll always have your back, sweetheart,” he says and there is a moment of connection between us that almost takes my breath away.
“We ready to go?” Mikey shouts from behind us and I turn to see him and Conor striding through the basement, looking like they are about to go to war, and I suppose that we are.
“Yes. Let’s go,” Shane nods and the four of us climb into the car. Shane and Conor in the front, and Mikey and me in the back. The shutters are open and Shane guns the engine and speeds out of the basement garage. Mikey stares out the window in silence and Conor leans his head back against the headrest. I reach through and put my hand on Conor’s shoulder and squeeze, and he places his warm, strong hand over mine. I reach for Mikey’s hand with my other one and he takes it, curling his fingers around mine as Shane goes over the plan, which is basically to plow through the gates, blow everything up and find Liam as quickly as possible while killing as many Russians as we can.
“We’ll have him home in a few hours,” he says confidently and we all nod our agreement. I swallow hard as I lean back and stare out the window. My hand is still wrapped in Mikey’s and he holds it tightly. The atmosphere in the car is thick with tension and I know that we are all probably thinking about the same thing. What lengths will Alexei go to in order to ensure I come back to him? What is he doing to Liam right now, and will we get our boy back alive?
