Page 65 of King of Wrath

For a moment, I close my eyes, trying to remember my cousin’s lessons.

Push the brake, hit the start button.

The car turns over, coming to life. With a surge of triumph, I press the D button and let my foot off the brake and the car lurches forward.

I give a little scream as I grip the wheel in both hands and hit the gas…

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Jake

Even over the chopper,I hear the change in vibration of another engine starting.

I look over my shoulder in time to see the taillights of the Accord turn off and the car jolt forward.

“What the fuck?”

And that’s the moment that Nia glances back at me from the driver’s seat. She looks scared out of her mind, her big eyes even wider and her lips parted as the car moves.

“Stop,” I rumble, taking a step in her direction but she shakes her head, and I know, she’s running again. Who can blame her?

“Seatbelt!” I bellow over all the noise, making a gesture with my hand as I spring toward her.

I watch her click in and for a moment, relief washes through me. But gripping the wheel she hits the gas and takes off.

The car swerves this way and that, like Nia has no idea how to steer. My heart jumps into my throat as I stare for another second before I pivot back to Roman. “We have to catch her.”

“No,” Roman answers. “Let her go.”

I finish my turn back to him and, without warning, swing my fist, clocking him a good one in the jaw. Fucker deserves it.

And right now, I’m not playing.

Roman, Mason, Leo. They are tough men. I won’t deny it. But none of them have done what I had to, none of them have my grit. It’s a fact that they all know, but Roman is getting a solid reminder lesson.

He reels back, closer to the chopper, and grabbing him by the collar, I bend him down below the blades and push him toward the door.

We are not going to stand here and argue, we are going after Nia, and I don’t have time or patience to explain.

But he recovers before I can shove him into the bird and hits me with a good gut shot that has me doubling over. I let him go with a push to the side and jump in the helicopter myself. “Follow that car,” I bark at the pilot, Carl.

Carl knows every Kincaid, he’s been with the family for a long time, and he knows that Roman and I are equals, at best.

As the actual patriarch of this family, I’m being generous.

Roman jumps in just before the chopper lifts off the ground. “You were going to leave me?”

“At a fully stocked house,” I answer back, pulling the protective headphones over my ears that are also equipped with microphones so we can better hear each other. He pulls his on too. “Yes. I was going to leave you. And you fucking deserve it.”

“I meant what I said this morning. Let her go. It’s the easiest way for this whole thing to go away. We don’t need her anymore.”

“I need her,” I answer back, knowing what I’m revealing. “And I’m not letting her go, so you can either help or get the fuck out of my way.”

“Jake. You’re not thinking straight.”

I glare at him. “I’m thinking the same about you. I don’t know what’s twisted in your brain, but I know what kind of man you are. I was there when you moved heaven and earth to help Charlotte.”

“Charlotte was innocent.”

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