Page 49 of Gilded Caresses

He ends the call and immediately dials up another number. “Hey, boss. I found your cousin. The Southern Alliance snatched her. Let’s talk. Ping my phone. You’ll find me.”

Pure evil glitters in this man’s eyes.

He replaces the phone in his hand with the gun. I’m going to die with my family thinking I followed in my father’s footsteps.

“Do you know how many broken ribs a man can live through before passing out?”

Even if I knew, there is no way in hell I would answer that question.

“No? Let’s play a game while we wait.”

I don’t know where I get the strength but I manage to break the spike on my heel.

I swing.

Roars of pain chase after me and I don’t turn around when I hear the squeal of tires over the pouring rain.

I stumble, fall and jerk off the last shoe as I run for my life. I manage to get my footing and do a thirty-yard dash in record time. We’re on some abandoned dock road and I see a warehouse dead ahead. No lights. Perfect.

High beams shine from behind and when I hear the rev of a motor coming from the opposite direction, I do the only thing I can and duck for cover.

A nearby trash bin is my first choice and then I scramble behind a set of crates. Rats skitter around and I kick one off my bare foot.

“Shit! Get off!” I scream and crab walk backward into a stack of pipes. They clatter around me giving away my position.

Shit.

Instead of the midnight Rolls Royce I expected, it’s my cousin’s Ghost—a pearl white luxury sedan that I suddenly feel euphoric to see.

Both sets of cars skid in the rain and then all hell breaks loose. Pings and pops go off around me and then I see him. Out of the darkness I see a blur of blackness and realize too late that Snake Eyes is barreling toward me. I cast around for something, anything. I clutch something long and cold and swing with all my strength.

Cold steel connects with ribs and the giant killer about to tackle me drops to his knees at my feet. From over my shoulder, I hear another motor revving through the rain.

But it’s the gun going off beside me that kills the excitement at hearing my men racing to save me. Snake Eyes meets the same end he’s given so many others.

I turn. Drenched through to the bone and scared, I stare into the eyes of the man who saved me years ago and saved me again tonight.

“Harlon.”

Headlights hit us and he whirls, gun raised. “Get behind me and stay there.”

The Royce skids to a stop and all three men are out weapons drawn. Behind them, Santi and Cassius step out of nowhere, their guns aimed at the back of my men’s skulls.

Elyah, Lev, and Gregor don’t seem to give a fuck and it guts me to think they will die because of me.

This can’t be happening. I will not lose them like this. I will not let my family take everything away from me. We are all so close to finding peace.

No one seems to pay any attention to the rain.

“Harlon. Listen please.”

Using my calm voice isn’t getting anywhere. He shoves me behind him when I try to move. “Careful.”

“The dead man behind me says you kidnapped my cousin.” Harlon pulls the second gun he carries.

Fuck this. I rush between them, hands raised. Not my smartest move of the day but this can join the list of stupid shit I’ve done lately.

I place myself in front of Harlon’s gun and he does what I hope. He drops the barrel so as not to shoot me in the face. He can afford the move when he has two men at our backs.

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