Page 23 of The Rebel King

“He loves me.”

Dad pushes my hair back. “Who wouldn’t?”

“Spoken like a daddy.” A real yawn, not like the one I faked to get rid of everyone, catches me by surprise. “Guess Iamtired.”

“Love you, kiddo. Get some sleep.”

I nod, determined to see Maxim before I close my eyes, but I don’t last.

CHAPTER 10

MAXIM

“I want to see his dead body, Grim.”

The words vibrate in my chest, rattling across my rib cage. I grip the cell phone tightly and run a hand through my hair, keeping my voice low in the front room of Lennix’s apartment.

“I know.” Grim sounds as weary as I feel. “My team’s doing everything short of draining that river to find him. You and I both know his odds of surviving in that current with four bullets in him are almost zero. The rapids alone would probably drown him, and if they didn’t, he’d bleed out in the middle of nowhere with no medical assistance available.”

“I don’t want odds. I want proof. I don’t care if he’s facedown, blue and bloated in that river. Until I see for myself that he can’t get to her again, this isn’t over.”

“King, itisover.”

“You don’t believe that. You just want me to stop harassing you about it whileyoukeep searching because you need the same closure I do.”

His silence admits that I’m right.

“What about his partner?” I ask. “Get anything from him yet?”

“The body’s back in the States. We’re cross-referencing fingerprints and DNA with state records, FBI, Scotland Yard, every database available. We’re hoping there’s some biological ordocumented connection between the two of them that will also give us clues to Abe’s identity.”

Hearing the fake name for the masked man makes me grit my teeth. Coward hiding behind a mask and threatening my girl. Putting a gun to her head. Fury contracts the muscles in my belly.

“He called Nixon ‘Jack,’” I say, recalling the volatile scene by the river. “He was beyond distressed. I bet they’re related.”

“Yeah, I heard. We’ll get everything we can from the body and go from there.” Grim pauses and then sighs heavily. “Look, I know you said you’d be okay if you had to kill, but taking a life is some heavy shit. If you need—”

“Like a baby. That’s how I told you I’d sleep if I had to kill one of those motherfuckers to get Lennix back, and that is exactly how I plan to sleep tonight.” I glance at the closed door to Lennix’s bedroom where I hope she’s sleeping peacefully. “Like a baby.”

“All right.” A dark chuckle comes from Grim’s end of the line. “I knew you were a ruthless son of a bitch, but even I underestimated you. You handled yourself well, and you aimed straight. Right in the throat on the first shot. Not bad. You sure you shouldn’t have enlisted?”

The panic of those moments rushes back. Adrenaline coursed through every vein and deployed to every vital organ in my body when I saw that man pressing a gun to Lennix’s head. I knew something had to have gone wrong if Grim’s team wasn’t on their tail but didn’t have time to process that.

Grim had a location, and the team struck out for the cave where Lennix’s geotracker had led them. They must have been detected somehow because the team found six locals dead and the cave empty. Grim had half-joked about the action coming to me, but it did. I was in the trees, waiting for instructions, an update—something—when Abe and Nixon came into view, guns trained on Wallace and Lennix and headed for that boat. I didn’t even pause to think.

Aim. Fire.

It was as instinctive as when my father taught me to hunt. I felt more for the first deer I put down during hunting season than I did for that cretin who held Lennix hostage.

“King?” Grim asks again, all humor stripped from his voice and replaced by concern. “Maxim, you there? You sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah.” I release an extended breath. “I’m sure. Just a long few days. And to answer your question, my father would have lost his shit if I’d enlisted. Owen, yeah. He could have, since the military looks good on your record when you’re running for president. But me? Nah. He wanted to keep me close so I could run his empire.”

Ironic, since wanting me close ended up pushing me so far away.

“Speaking of your brother,” Grim says, “thank him for the reinforcements. With those time constraints, pulling a team like that together would have been much tougher without him calling in some special ops favors for us.”

“Yeah. Between his guys and yours, we got it done. I know I was being a tyrannical asshole, but—”

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