Page 126 of The Last Promise You Made

My heart joined my frozen lungs, forgetting to pump, forgetting to function.

I’d teased Gia about the cliché of a shoot-out.

It had been a taunt because, somehow, I’d expected the good guys to win, just like in a real movie. I’d expected her plan to work because she’d made it with a surety, a confidence I couldn’t doubt, hadn’t wanted to doubt.

Looking down the barrel of the gun held by a man I’d doubted from the moment he’d shown up at the ranch, I knew any chance of us surviving had disappeared long before the credits had rolled.

Chapter Forty-one

Gia

THE CHAMPION

Performed by Carrie Underwood

Pain tore through me at the sight of Addy’s stuffed animal lying next to a blanket-covered heap on a cot. Her backpack was next to her on the floor of the cell. Somehow, some way, Laredo had gotten to her. I’d promised Ryder she wouldn’t be hurt. I’d sworn she’d be safe.

What the hell had happened to Maddox? To the deputies guarding her?

Nausea twisted through me.

Ryder! God. Ryder would never survive this. And even if he did, he’d never forgive me.

I’d never forgive myself.

Laredo’s face was dark and gratified as he took in my stunned expression. I had to pull myself together. Had to continue the play. Had to find a way to get her to safety. She wasn’t harmed. I didn’t think he would hurt her. What had he said? He wanted her to love him more than she loved Ryder and Ravyn. He wanted to have her at his side where he could get his revenge every day for the rest of Addy’s life.

I buried my emotions, finding that calm I’d been taught to show in the worst of situations.

Summoning the strength of every fictional spy character I’d ever loved, I gave Laredo a careless shrug. “I liked the kid. It’ll be nice to have her here. But she doesn’t know the code.”

Something flickered through his eyes. The first sign of uncertainty.

“You don’t believe me?” I asked. “Bring her here, ask her. Even if you can get her to talk—because she doesn’t really talk to anyone—she still won’t know the answer.”

Irritation rushed over his face, and he yanked me to him with a brutality that had me slamming one hip into the desk. He put his hands around my neck and squeezed. The bruises that were already there, the wounded windpipe, screamed at the touch.

“Tell me. Tell me the code, and I promise not to destroy the Hatleys, your family, and anyone you care about when I’m done with you.”

“That’s hardly a promise I can believe in,” I choked out.

He let me go, and air rushed into my lungs. I forced myself not to clutch at my neck, to act as if he hadn’t just tried to strangle me.

He stepped away, reasserting a terrifying calm. “Reacting in anger is never the right answer.” He looked down at his hands. “I will burn my father’s responses from my body.” He glanced up at me, tilting his head as if finding something curious. “Maybe you are the answer. Maybe your defiance will be the way I learn to control it.”

My pulse was pounding, my breath hissing out in sharp puffs. Every nerve was on alert. Fight-or-flight instincts screamed at me to do both. I rammed those reflexes down, knowing I couldn’t do either. I had to stay the course. I still had a chance to get Addy out of this. To get Ryder and Addy to safety. If I were truly turning traitor to join Laredo, what would I demand from him? What kind of assurance for my safety would I request in trade for the code?

“Give me the key code,” he commanded.

“I need some assurance you won’t kill me once I’ve given it to you. Some assurance you’ll keep me at your side like I want.”

He chuckled. A dark sound that made me believe in the demons Natalia had run from. “There are no assurances you would believe. I will always be able to kill you if I choose. You can die now, without having given me the code, and I’ll set my people on it and figure it out eventually anyway, or you can risk giving it to me, knowing that, at the moment, I’m fascinated with you, and my reaction to you is enough to keep you. Perhaps, if you always entertain me, if you continue to surprise me, I will always want you at my side. It will fall on you to make it so. That is the best I can offer you.”

Our gazes locked. I battled those flight instincts more as my veins pounded with fear and heartache. Would a woman who wanted to rule the world accept these terms? Would a cornered animal relent so easily?

“I can see you are running through all your options,” he said, a hint of pride there that made my stomach curl. “Unfortunately for you, there is only one door open. You closed the rest when you showed your hand.”

“I want Addy to travel with me. Wherever I go, she goes with me.”

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