Page 65 of Don't Let Go

“Despite all evidence to the contrary?” I leaned to the right and spat out a wad of blood. I’d cut the inside of my cheek apparently.

“You always were a stubborn boy. It disappointed your father, you know.”

“Yeah well, he and I have been disappointing each other for nearly forty years. Why break from a good thing?”

“I thought you might have learned something since you left the military. Abandoned the path your father set for you… true patriots exist, you know. Not all are relics of a bygone era. Like your father…like youusedto be.

“I used to be a lot of things. Haven’t turned bat shit crazy this week. Still time, I suppose.”

Stone didn’t look impressed. Instead he gestured with his unlit cigar. “I am aware of your extra curricular activities. Your unsanctioned missions into enemy territory. Your work with refugees. You could be doing more for your own country, you know?”

I snorted, then asked in the boredest tone I could manage. “What do you want?”

“What I’ve always wanted, a safe and secure country once more. I want to take it back from all the enemies who’ve invaded. It’s not a straightforward war anymore, son. Now we bring them here. We save them, bring them in, house them, cloth them, and give them funds. We let the enemy in because the enemy has learned our greatest weakness.”

“That we’re cuckoo for cocoa puffs?”

The general waved his hand and his guys came at me again. The pummel of their fists threatened my ribs this time. Yeah, that wasn’t working for me, I gripped the chains with my hands and caught the little guy with my legs.

Too late to help himself, he realized what I was doing. I locked my legs around him, squeezing the air out of him and with the right torque—I snapped his neck. He dropped unceremoniously and the guy with the weak shoulder retreated.

Hey, look, some fear in his eyes. Smart. Fear might let him live longer.

The general gave me a benign smile. “You are the best. Like your father. You know he and I planned all of this together… Sadly, he doesn’t see that by letting in more and more of our enemies, we are literally trying to destroy ourselves from within. The people who want to defund us or shrink the military budget—worse criminalize the police and take all the guns. Who defends us then, John?”

There was crazy and then there was this guy. “Thought you and my father had a falling out.”

“Difference of opinion. I know we can do something, he doesn’t think that because we can, we should. Still, he helped me to build the apparatus.”

Section Five.

I had no idea how he covered his crazy from the military for so long. Then again, he called his operation Section Five, maybe he was on to something. Stone wanted an ear in every household, and he wanted his finger on the pulse of every person, good or bad, because their job was to defend against all enemies foreign and domestic.

In his opinion, sometimes you had to crack a few eggs to make an omelet and if freedom is that omelet, then he’s willing to crack all the eggs. My father was a hardass but he wouldn’t promote this. Protection yes, but Stone was insane.

So much of what happened to Patch began to make more sense and it pissed me off. Stone’s phone rang and he paced away to answer it. I couldn’t catch if he said anything. He finished the call swiftly, then turned to look at his surviving man.

“Deal with him. I want him softened up. I’ll be back later.” Then he strode out of the garage.

Fuck.

The guy with the bad shoulder looked at me and I looked at him.

“You want to do this the easy way or the hard one?” I meant it. I wouldn’t be in these chains much longer. I could practically read the understanding in the guy’s eyes.

“You gotta make it look good.”

“Not a problem,” I promised.

Still, he hesitated, and I almost had one wrist free. Finally, he swore and crossed to where I was. He loosened the chain so I landed on my feet and then he undid the shackles.

“There—”

I slammed my fist into his bad shoulder and his mouth opened in a soundless scream before I shut him down with an uppercut.

He dropped like a rock.

A rush of footsteps had me spinning just as I retrieved my gun from the feckless wonder at my feet. Locke and Remy stared at me.

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