Page 69 of Toxic

Toxic

Having my family out at the farm had gone a long way toward improving my perpetual bad mood, but then we’d gone right back to the way it’d been before they’d come out. Billie was back in her room, working away on her computer, digging through receipts and spreadsheets. And I went back to fixing things on her farm.

My phone rang, breaking through my grim thoughts. “Yeah?”

“Hey, Bro,” Riptide said. “You got a minute?”

“Yeah, what’s up?”

I set the screwdriver aside and leaned against the generator I’d been fixing. “You find something?”

“Just what we expected. Fission Solutions is definitely behind this. All with the approval of Jonathan Brently.”

I swore, wiping my grease stained hands on a rag. “Can you get me an address?” Butcher had taught me the easiest way to stop a war was to cut the head off the snake. Taking out Brentlywould put a stop to this. And if it ended the threat to Billie, that’s all I needed to know, it had to be done.

“Got a Chicago address for him,” Rip told me.

“Good. Send it over.”

“Will do, Brother.”

We broke the connection and I stalked off to find Butcher. He was on the porch, sharpening a knife, the dog asleep at his feet. He looked up as I approached. “Finally.”

“What?” I asked, confused.

“You’ve got fucking murder in your eyes,” he said with a shrug. “I assume that means we’re getting into some action.”

I chuckled. “Rip connected Brently to all this shit.”

“Where’s he at?”

“Chicago.”

“When do we leave?”

As though sensing the violence in the air, Eris woke up, yawing and watching us with an eager expression.

“I’m doing this one alone.”

Butcher frowned. “What the fuck does that mean?”

I glanced over at the front door, then met his pissed off gaze. “I need you to stay here and watch over her.”

“Fuck that,” he growled. “One of the others can watch her.”

I shook my head. “If this asshole figures out we know he’s linked to this shit, he’s going to come after her. It’s not that I don’t trust the others, but I want you watching over her. You and Isla. Hell, all of you. I’d rather have every one of you sitting here on the ranch than coming with me to Chicago.”

“That doesn’t make any fucking sense,” he snapped. “There’s no reason for you to do this alone. You’ve never let me go off on my own.”

I raked a hand through my hair. “I know, dammit.”

“I’m going with you,” he said. “I’ll have Isla watch over Billie. Shit you know all our brothers will offer to do the same. But there’s no way Lock is letting you go alone. And neither am I.”

“Fine,” I muttered. It didn’t even make sense as to why it felt as though I needed to do this one by myself. “But I get to kill Brently.”

The more I’d gotten to know Billie, the more I thought about what happened the day I met her. It could have been her in the hospital. If they’d found her alone on this ranch instead of Robert, they wouldn’t have hesitated to beat her. Who knew what else they might’ve done. That knowledge had a black pit of violence welling up inside me. It’s been dormant, but now that I knew where to point it, I wasn’t going to hold back.

Once I took care of Brently, I’d have Rip help me track down the fuckers he hired to come out here that day. They’d be next. Even once this was officially over, it wouldn’t be for them. This only ended with their death. No way I’d leave them to keep breathing when they posed a threat to my woman.

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