“Didn’t make it in time.”
“Did you kill him?”
Riley shakes his head. “No, his self-loathing is enough punishment for now.” He picks up his phone, then sets it down and continues pacing. “Just go, Jesse. I’ve asked you to do many things for me during our time together, but this is the only thing that matters. You could have stopped this several different times in varying ways and chose not to.”
“I wasn’t lying about everything, Riley. I do have feelings for her. You know that though. It’s why you feel so threatened by me. I saved her once. What’s one more time?”
Riley’s gaze turns to ice. “If by some act of God, you pull through on this, don’t touch a hair on her fucking head. Do you comprehend? You will never touch her again. If I had it my way, you’d never lay eyes on her again. This is just desperation seeping through blind fury right now. You double-crossed me, brother. You lied to the family. You weren’t transparent. You put your revenge plot above loyalty. You might have saved her, but Drew is mine. In all ways now that she’s my consort. There’s no sharing. Never again.” He’s awful sure she’s not dead. I don’t know if it’s his blind confidence in me or something else propelling his train of thought. I’ve never seen him act like this, and I have to chalk it up to this sudden onslaught of possessiveness.
“I lied to protect her,” I say, swallowing hard. “And she’s not your consort yet, which is why they took her.” He could send his guards and the small army that came with the estate, but their loyalty problem remains. The second security leave the property, they could turn on us, and there aren’t enough guards with us from the States to attempt a no-fail rescue mission. No, this needs to be something sneakier than that. Something masked as something else. Lucky for everyone, I have an idea. “You gave her a bracelet and didn’t finish the paperwork. I claimed Drew before you. I claimed her when she was Destiny, and I did it in a permanent way. She wears the brand.”
“What do you mean, she wears the brand?”
I look away, terrified he’ll beat me again after he knows the extent I went to get what I want. “I’m surprised you didn’t see it. I had her marked before we went to the hospital when I found out who she was. That first day. The happenstance encounter you didn’t understand because I didn’t want anyone to know who she was but knew she was important in my plan. There’s an ‘A’ tattooed behind her ear. The old school mark.” The mark before there were diamonds and contracts. The type of branding that some label barbaric, insensitive, and low level. Before I came here, the gang I was in was marked with tattoos. It was a prideful moment when a member reached the age and fulfilled the duties required to wear the scorpion. The A Team has never viewed the ritual in such a way.
“I shouldn’t be surprised you went to these lengths given your propensity for getting exactly what you want, but I can’t believe you did that. It makes sense.” I hired the beauty person right away. The hair extensions made it near impossible for Drew to notice the tattoo in the inconspicuous spot, and I knew Chaz wouldn’t breathe a word. She’s old school. The kind of human who is so far in, they know that threats and blackmail mean death. “You understand I don’t care. You claimed her out of a technicality. I claimed her out of love.”
“I have one question.”
“What?” he asks, turning his back.
“Why the fuck would you share her if youlovedher? I thought I had it all figured out and then you flipped the script completely.”
“No, I played a part and went to my own lengths to keep her safe. My reasons for sharing weren’t selfish like yours. Here I am trying to focus on the business, the entire fucking business, mind you, which seems like it might self-destruct at any moment, and here you are. Here you’ve always been,” Riley says, chest rising and falling quickly. “Only worrying about yourself and what you want. I couldn’t give her up, and I did the one thing I knew would keep her close. I shared her.” It’s so poignant and honest that it takes me back. I pause for a few beats and choose to ignore his last sentence.
“You were born an Astor. I was made. Our loyalties will never be the same. Can never be the same no matter how much time passes.”
“You call yourself an Astor while betraying the name. I fucking hate what you’ve done to the brotherhood.”
“You offered me a choice when I was young, and I took it. It wasn’t much of a choice, if you remember. You offered me the world on a platter to lose that fight. I didn’t do anything to the brotherhood that wasn’t expected. I may use the Astor name, and you may have given me a solid chance at life, but brotherhood means no more than handcuffs dripping with blood. Blood is all this gang has given me.” I said the word the Astors hate the most. One I know will seal my fate, but that’s what I want.
Mr. Astor storms into the room, followed by Reggie and several other security guards. They’re here to put me out of this misery, I think. Riley looks like he might pop off any second, and Mr. Astor reads the room correctly immediately. “Put your dicks away, boys. This wasn’t an inside job. Drew’s kidnapping was a random crime of opportunity. She’s being sold in The Ring.” My stomach drops. It can’t be. One of the leaky security members told me higher-ups wanted her for ransom.
“That’s not possible,” I say, turning my back on Riley. If he hits me now, it will be a low blow everyone will see. Reggie’s face is ashen. I’d hate to be that motherfucker right now. “The Ring doesn’t take wealthy women off a private beach.” I’m speaking rationally—something I know won’t last long because nothing in this fucking galaxy is rational. It’s why I paint. To make sense of the madness I’m surrounded by. It’s the only place I can get it all out in a way that forces sense to the things I see… and do. To others, my paintings seem like chaos, to me, they’re intellect unleashed.
Mr. Astor strides up to Riley. “Son, this is unprecedented. Possession doesn’t matter to The Ring. They’ll sell her to the highest bidder, no questions asked. I doubt they know who she is to us, and if they do, they likely don’t care. She’s beautiful and the right age.” He closes his eyes. “We know how the perpetrator got in, and we’ve secured it.”
I watch the tortured emotion cross his face as he envisions her fate. He looks at me, at the blood soaking into the front of my shirt. “They must know who she is. They took her off my property!” His voice booms, then echoes. “It looks like we need to be the highest bidder.”
Reggie is already shaking his head. “We won’t be able to get close enough. There’s no way.”
“What the fuck do you suggest?” Riley roars.
I clear my throat. “We wait until she’s sold and get her back after.”
“They export the women immediately after the sale. It will be almost impossible to trace her unless we have someone in the arena.” Reggie’s voice shakes as he speaks to the room. I feel like I might throw up and scream at the same time. “What she’ll have to endure during the sale will likely be brutal.” He winces. “We need someone on the inside.”
“Jesse,” Riley speaks one word. “Fix it.”
“Technically speaking, this isn’t my fault anymore,” I say, stepping back.
“The fuck if it’s not. I don’t care how much it costs. I don’t care who you kill or how you kill. I don’t care if you drop a bomb on the arena. Her alive and unharmed is the only way you’re living.”
“Son,” Mr. Astor chides. “Don’t say things like that. Men of their word never advertise false threats.” How many times have I heard him chide that same warning in the past?
Riley’s gaze turns to absolute ice. “Nothing about what I said was false. He abandoned us and withheld information about my consort and tried to kidnap her. There are several more offenses I could list, but he’s already sinned enough to earn a death sentence. It wasn’t a threat,” Riley sneers. “It’s a promise.” He swallows hard. “He fucked up his appearance enough. Go put on an expensive suit and pretend to be an out-of-town buyer. Reggie, go with him and find out as much as you can about the leaders. Their names. Their wives’ names. Where their children go to school. When you find out, do your worst.” I’ve never seen him this loose.
“Riley,” Mr. Astor scolds. “You speak like you don’t own the Astor last name. We never involve women or children.” Reggie leaves without being dismissed. He’s going to do research. His life hangs in the balance, depending on this job. It appears as does mine.