“What about Sarah?”
“She’s coming with me. She wants to talk to Landon, and I don’t think it’s something that can be said over the phone.”
“Does she intend to break up with him?” Rick asked.
“I think so. She’s not happy, and she hasn’t been herself in a while. She’s eighteen now, and she wants to go away, exploring, not stuck in some village waiting for him to come and get her.”
“I did warn the kid that Sarah was a free spirit. This is no surprise to me. I miss you, too, baby. There’s something I need to finish. Call you back in a few minutes?”
“Love you,” Mandy said.
“Love you, too.” He couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across his entire face, which always happened when he spoke to his woman. He loved her more than anything else in the world, and the past few months had been impossible for him.
The need to kill was always there. Only when he wasn’t with Mandy, that need changed into a fucking obsession. It was ironic because he was a damn good doctor and could kill people without them even realizing it, but he had a code. He only killed bad people and those that got in his way. There had been a few doctors over the years that had sneered at him or at Mandy that were lucky to be breathing. For those he had a book where he wrote down the pros and cons of someone dying. Of course just because he didn’t like the fucker wasn’t a big reason to fucking kill them, even though he was tempted all the time.
When it came to his family, to his loved ones, he would fight every step of the way to protect them.
Entering the rundown apartment building, he saw several rats running along the hallways, and he kept on walking, knowing right away where Westbrook was.
He entered a room, and ducked as the gun was fired.
“I knew you’d come,” Westbrook said.
“You should have known when you framed my family, and tried to take apart the Denton empire,” Rick said.
“It was worth a shot.”
Rick threw something, and a succession of bullets ran off. The fucker was panicking. He’d been picking off this man’s business for weeks now, and all he had on him was one gun.
Rounding the wall, he stared as Westbrook kept trying to fire his weapon. Rick took a step closer to the man, and pulled out a blade, and before Westbrook had even known what was happening, he slammed the tip into his thigh.
His screams were all Rick wanted to hear, and he was rewarded.
“Fuck!” And a long scream echoed off the wall.
“You know, you should have left my family alone.”
“This city was mine for the taking. You fucking bastard. You had no right to take what was mine.”
“This place wasn’t yours. It was never yours. This is Denton land, always has been, always will be.” Rick pulled the blade out, and stuck it in Westbrook’s shoulder. “You went after my family, and that is where you went fucking wrong.”
Westbrook cried out and then started to laugh. “You think you’re so smart. You don’t have a fucking clue.”
Rick grabbed him around the throat. “I suggest you speak very fucking carefully, or those next words will be your last.”
Westbrook laughed. “I didn’t act alone, and as you see, I’m very much alone.”
“Your point.”
“Ivan was with me, and he had his own plan. He hates the Dentons, especially as one of them took his little toy away, and his kid.”
Rick didn’t for a second like where this was going. He pressed the tip of the blade against Westbrook’s throat. “You will tell me this instant where Ivan is.”
“Where do you think he is? He’s dealing with a Denton and then he’s going to deal with that whore that left him.”
Sliding the blade across Westbrook’s throat, Rick took little pleasure in the death as his thoughts went to Damian. Out of all of the Denton men he was the only one that didn’t have a great deal of protection in that luxury apartment of his. He was open, he was exposed, and Ivan could get to him.
When the call went straight to answerphone, he cursed. Calling Maddox, he gave his brother the update, and then headed straight out to his car. They were all too far away from Damian. No one was close enough to reach him, and his nephew may already be dead.