His face was just inches from mine, his thick dark brows were pulled together as he narrowed his eyes angrily. “Where is Emerald?”
“She’s. Not. Here,” I growled back, trying not to let my eyes water from how much pain was resonating through my scalp.
“You want to play, fine,” he huffed, yanking on my hair and sending me sprawling across his body, where he slammed the side of my head into the nightstand beside the bed before letting me go.
I crumbled to the floor, my forehead pressed to the carpet as I tried to fight through the pain and dizziness.
“I want my wife back,” he snarled, standing over me.
I heard the words, but I couldn’t piece together what he was saying.
His wife?
I could feel blood dripping down the side of my head, leaking into my ear.
“You’re just as stupid as that brother of yours, fucking idiot actually thought I was here to help him, yet while his men down there did the dirty work and took all the attention of the club, I knew they’d be hiding you girls somewhere up here.”
“All this, hurting people, killing people, that innocent little girl down there on the street, just so you can have a young girl as your wife?” Hadley asked, obviously both angered and disgusted.
He chuckled lightly. “My possessions mean a lot to me, especially when I have buyers who are ready to pay upward of five hundred thousand dollars for them,” he responded looking me directly in the eye. “She was owed to me for all I’ve done for that shitty Colony. When Abel suggested marriage I thought, why not? I insured her life, she goes missing, I claim the insurance. I get twice the money.”
My body was hurting, I was struggling to fight past the pain, but when I was finally able to put the puzzle pieces together, all I could do was stare at this man in horror.
“We’re losing men fast,” one of Brock’s men murmured. “We need to move.”
I still didn’t get it. My father, he was an asshole, a bigot, a misogynistic bastard. But he still believed in the Colony and the Colony only, he believed that we were perfect because we were untouched. Why the hell would he let this man come in and taint everything he had spent his life working so hard to achieve?
“What does my dad have to say about this?” I asked, groaning as another piece of glass stabbed into my hand as I tried to push myself up off the ground.
“He doesn’t have anything to say,” Brock replied, his eyes lighting up like Christmas morning. “You don’t know,” he laughed loudly.
The men around the room chuckled, and I suddenly felt like I was missing out on some kind of meaningful joke.
“Abel killed your father months ago when he didn’t agree with how Abel wanted to help populate the Colony,” Brock laughed.
I didn’t have time to respond, or even process whether or not my father being dead was a good or bad thing because the bedroom door burst open and shots lit up the room once again.
One, two, three, direct shots, straight to the head of each of Brock’s men before they even had a chance to focus on the sudden intrusion. I gasped, looking at the door to find Jake leaning against the doorframe, breathing heavily, his gun aimed directly at Brock’s head. Of course, they never had a chance against Jake, there was a reason he was recruited into a special ops team, and they were trained to deal with situations like this every damn day.
Brock’s eyes widened in shock, and I could tell he was processing his options, trying to figure out whether he should go down fighting and be killed, or give himself up and face the shit-storm that he’d created.
“So is he dying or what?” Jake asked casually as Hadley dropped her gun and ran across the room to Levi. Sugar did the same while I continued to sit on the floor, far enough away from the asshole that if he decided to come for me, Jake would have a bullet through his skull before he could get anywhere near.
The thump, thump, thump, of footsteps coming up the stairs had me taking another painful but much-needed breath of fresh air. Optimus and Wrench both ducked into the room, scanning it quickly while Jake held his ground.
“Where is everyone?” Op asked urgently.
“In the bathroom,” Sugar confirmed as she stood and stepped straight into Wrench’s arms.
The closet door opened suddenly, and the first thing I saw poking out was the barrel of a gun, Emerald slowly emerging behind it. We all froze.
“Emerald, put the gun down,” Optimus ordered sternly, but her eyes were focused purely on Brock.
Now he was alone, I could see the fear in his face as he watched the .22 rifle come toward him.
Oh, how things had suddenly changed.
“Em,” I said quietly, trying to draw her attention to me. “Come on, leave the boys to deal with him.”