Page 76 of Unchained

His heat engulfed her. The warmth of his embrace calmed some of her frazzled nerves.

“She fucking killed Dennis. Ran him over with a truck!” The guard’s chest heaved. “You should kill her now, boss.” He tangled a hand through his long, curly black hair, ravaging the strands.

Leonetti’s face was impassive. “I make the calls, Manny. Don’t worry, we’ll have our revenge.”

Brooks squeezed her harder. A silent promise that everything would be okay. She tipped up her chin to inspect his face. “What’s going on?” She jerked her gaze to two people tied up in chairs. Her stomach dropped. “Who’s that?” She didn’t need to ask, but good lord she hoped she was wrong.

“It’s so nice to have you back.” Dr. Leonetti stepped forward. Brooks’s arm tightened around her, molding her to his side. “Come in. We have someone for you to see.”

She gulped one deep breath after another. Warning rang in her ears as she watched Leonetti turn toward the people with burlap sacks over their heads. Nash stood with his hands raised. A guard held a gun to his head. Dammit! Her stomach pitched. Their odds were slipping.

Her feet dug into the plastic floor. She jerked her gaze to Brooks. “Who—”

He shook his head sharply. “I don’t know.”

Leonetti was using whoever was in the chairs to control Brooks. It was the only explanation for why Leonetti was still breathing. Brooks motioned her forward and stopped several feet away from the restrained individuals. Cam wet her lips as she took in their clothes—a man and a woman for sure.

“C-Cam? Are you here?” The small, frantic plea made Cam’s heart plummet.

“Mom?”

She raced forward, but one of the guards pulled her back.

Brooks caught her elbows and drew her in front of his chest. “Don’t fucking touch her.” His growl made the hair on her neck spike to attention.

Leonetti pulled the burlap bag off the woman’s head. Her mom’s cool blonde hair spilled out. Mascara tracks ran down her cheeks, and a gash tainted her temple.

The taste of copper filled her mouth.

“Oh, god, Mom.”

They were all going to die here.

Cam’s weight pulled her knees to the ground, but Brooks held her against his chest, preventing her from collapsing. His mouth came down to her ear. “It’s going to be okay. I promise. Please, just follow my lead.”

Tears leaked out of her eyes as she watched her mom’s face crumple. “Honey, what’s happening? Who are these people?”

A pang of guilt cut through Cam. Leonetti tossed the sack to the floor and reached his hand out to touch a strand of her mom’s hair. Linda jerked out of his hold.

“Let me out, dammit! All you fuckers are going to die.” The body behind her mom shifted, the burlap sack swiveling as the person beneath fought against his restraints.

Memories pulled at her brain. Her breath expanded in her chest as she locked eyes with her mom.

Leonetti yanked off the burlap sack, and Cam took in Isaac’s face. He’d changed since going to prison. His face had filled out, and a tattoo of a gang symbol decorated the corner of his eye. Isaac’s light-brown eyes bulged. “You,” he spat.

Terror consumed her. As much as she didn’t want to be anywhere near Isaac, she also didn’t want him dead. He needed professional help for his aggression and the pain of losing his mom, but not this.

Cam shifted her gaze to Nash. His grim expression made her nerves bubble under her skin. He stood almost at the back of the tent, too far away to help Brooks take on the men without getting shot. She turned to Leonetti. The shakiness that threatened to steal her resolve vanished. “Let them go.”

Leonetti paced between Cam and her family. “I’m in quite a predicament here. After you ran off with Brooks, I had one of my private investigators find out everything they could about you. That’s how I learned your real name, Camryn Bayfield.”

Her abdominal wall tightened. Flashes of seeing both her real name and her alias on the news struck her. She hadn’t given it much thought at the time, had assumed the police had dug up her background. Leonetti would have been able to find her mom in a heartbeat, once he knew her last name.

“Then I learned about your unfortunate nephew—”

“Fuck you!” Isaac called from the chair.

“And your mom, who you’d stashed away in Arizona. Didn’t take long to track these two down. Turns out I got there shortly after your nephew got out of prison. It was an unexpected convenience. And he knew exactly where to find you.”

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