“Can’t say I approve of the tattoos and all that metal in your face, but I can see your mother in you. God rest her soul,” he said with mock solemnity.
“How dare you speak of her!” I might not have known she was my mother, and I might not remember her, but she gave birth to me. I wasn’t about to have this low-life piece of shit mock her death. I moved forward to lash out at him, but Blade held me back.
“What do you want?” Blade demanded.
“What do I want? Why, I want what any dad wants… to get to know my daughter.” The evil grin that split his face sent a foreboding chill down my spine. The fact that he called himself my “dad” made me want to vomit.
“No.” Blade stared at him with a colder than usual glint to his eyes. I’d had minimal interactions with him. The man could be scary as fuck. Right now, I was glad he was on my side.
“No?”
“You heard me.”
“I don’t believe I asked you. However, you have a debt yet to be paid to me. Did you think I forgot?” Luis said to Blade with a smirk.
His smile fell, and he motioned to his men. “Secure them.”
I could sense the rage emanating off Raptor, Blade, and the others. Three of the nine men went around and zip-tied the RBMC members and lined them up on the floor against the wall. The others continued to train their automatic rifles on them.
Me and Blade, they left standing.
That’s when I realized Squirrel was missing. Yet I knew I’d seen him run past my room.
“Get them. Let’s go. I can’t stand being near that pig farm in this godforsaken state any longer,” Luis instructed his men.
“We need to stall,” I heard Blade whisper.
“Wait! Please,” I blurted. It had the desired effect, because Luis paused and looked slowly over his shoulder.
He cocked a brow and waited for me to continue. For the life of me, I couldn’t see a thing we had in common other than the color of our hair. While mine had been very fair as a child and young adult, it had darkened with age to a light brown. It was how I’d gotten away with dyeing the top by my roots dark and the bottom pink. As it grew out, it wasn’t super noticeable.
“I um, I need my purse and my papers,” I stammered.
“My dear girl, don’t fuck with me. Your papers are all fake, so you won’t need them. Besides, I’ll have new ones made for you anyway.”
“Fine,” I huffed. “But why do you even want anything to do with me? I’m nearly thirty years old. You’ve had nothing to do with my whole life, but I’m supposed to believe you want to get to know me now?”
“First of all, I don’t owe you any explanations, but I’m feeling generous considering the circumstances. I’m sure you already know that your family hid your existence from me. It was actually quite brilliant that your uncle and his wife pretended you were theirs. Had I known you were mine when I had them killed, I would’ve had my men take you instead of shooting you—not that you were supposed to be shot, but I digress. Faking your death and witness protection was also quite smart. Until my well-paid man overheard one of those idiots with the US Marshals discussing your case, I actually believed it. Except you made one foolish mistake.” He was so smug and condescending, I wanted to slap him.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“You hacked into my partner’s business.”
My eyes closed. Of all the stupid and ridiculous coincidences.
“Now that I’ve found you again, you perfectly wrapped up a problem I’ve been dealing with.”
“How?” Not that I cared, but I was doing my best to keep him talking like Blade had said.
“Lila.” He sighed my old name. “Enough fucking around, unless you’d like me to kill your new friends. I’m on a schedule.”
One of the men pushed me and Blade from behind, and I stumbled. Blade growled deep in his chest and caught me before I fell. Then he shot a vicious glare at the man who had pushed me.
They took us out to a waiting SUV. There was another SUV that was mangled as bad as the tall fence it had plowed through. Two men climbed in the far back, two men up front, and me sandwiched between Luis and Blade.
“I honestly wasn’t expecting the extra passenger. I’m impressed that you hid so well, Finley. Who would’ve thought I’d find you both in the same place? Must be my lucky day.”
Blade’s name is Finley?