Page 127 of Breaker

This is where I’m taking a huge risk. His security camera is recording us right now, and there’s a possibility that Rune can see this footage live. He may be receiving notifications as I press the code into the keypad on Zane’s front door. If he’s tracking Cora, he’s tracking Zane.

The door unlocks with a loud click. I turn the knob and kick it open. Zane squeals as I push him through the doorway still holding his hair. Lights pop on, flooding the entryway with bright white light as I step in after him.

“Welcome home,“ Alexa says as I stop us in the foyer to scan the space.

“Alexa, call the—“ Zane’s words cut off as my fist meets his throat.

His knees buckle, hands now at his neck as he coughs, blood splattering on the floor in front of us. Zane stumbles but I keep him upright and turn him to me. I shake my head slowly, waggling my finger in his face.

No. No. No. Zane.We won’t be doing that.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that,“ Alexa says. “Do you want me to play your favorites?”

Zane coughs again.

“Okay,“ Alexa says, and the melancholy notes of Chopin’sNocturne op.9 No.2play throughout the house.

I nod appreciatively.

More lights come on in the rooms off either side of the entryway, showcasing dark woods and deep forest greens. In fact, everything is a deep green, from the walls to the sections of velvet furniture I can see, to shelves, and if it’s not green it’s a dark polished wood.

I want to tell him he as a really good decorator, but then my voice would give away that I’m also Ben and then I’d have to kill him.

Which I’m still debating. We’ll see how the next hour goes.

With my boot, I kick the door closed and the sound echoes through the near empty foyer. It seems to wake him up a little.

“What the fuck do you want?” Zane asks, recovering enough to realize the danger he’s in. He swings for my helmet, but it’s sloppy, poorly aimed, and I knock his fist away, annoyed.

Releasing his hair, I grip his shirt by the collar and drag him with me to the keypad to type in his code disarming the security system. Rune’s enough of problem. I don’t need the county deputies coming to check on him.

“I have money,” Zane says, stumbling as I release his him and he faces me.

No shit.

His eyes dart around, swimming in his head as he looks for an escape. First to the door behind me, and I can practically see the wheels turning sluggishly in his head as he realizes he’ll have to go through me. He eyes dart to the office to our right. He debates, and dismisses that idea, then he looks to the large sitting room to the left. Another debate makes his face go slack. Appears Zane doesn’t like that idea either.

His brows pinch.

He turns and runs.

Finally.

My heart kicks. I take off, stalking behind him, my bootsthunkingalong with the beat of Chopin’s nocturne. Before he’s even through the kitchen door, I kick. My boot lands behind his knee and he crumbles, going down so hard. He skids, head smacking with satisfying crack on the hard tile floor.

The impact stuns him, so he’s down for a minute, but he shakes it off, and scrambles to his feet. Not even looking over his shoulder, he breaks into a run.

I’m a little disappointed. I honestly thought he’s put up more of a fight. But cruel men tend to be weak when faced with enduring the fear they’ve elicited from others.

When he’s almost at the sliding doors at the back of the large kitchen. I pick up pace, taking note of the woods and greens in here too.

I really like his house. I need to tell Viper we should decorate our house on the coast like this. Cora would look so pretty in a room with deep greens, all cuddled up with Delilah on a velvet couch.

The picture in my head is enough to spike my blood. Fire and heat and rage scalding through me that he fucking took her from us. Planned to breed her, when the only men allowed to ever touch her, are us.

Me.

He must see my reflection stalking toward him in the glass because he slams into it, blood coated fingers slipping franticly over the lock trying to get it open. Zane lets out a scream as my hand latches on to him, and I snatch him away from the door. With his blood smattered shirt, I turn him to face me, using all my force to slam his back into the glass. It rattles, glass shaking. Zane screams, fear making his voice rise a few octaves.

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