Page 8 of Vengeful Reign

“I was on the bloody fucking ground, bleeding and broken.”

My nose flared as I challenge him. He still fucking thinks he’s in charge, but he lost that battle a long time ago when we were nearly killed because of him. “You should be dead, apparently, like our other men are. They let you off lightly, it would seem.”

“Ha! How else do you think they’re going to get the money out of me?” he asks.

“I suppose he has a point there,” Connor says. Barely, because there’s me they have to bargain with.

“Do you have any idea who they are?” I question, demanding answers as we stand in front of the nurses’ station.

“So, do you think we can have this conversation somewhere else?” my brother asks, raising his brows while turning his head left and right, pointing out all the attention we’re drawing.

I look at all the nosy-ass women, and they turn their heads when they catch my expression that saysmind your fucking business. “Let’s get out of here,” I snarl, grabbing the old man’s arm.

“Excuse me. I need you to sign these before he can leave,” a nurse skittishly says, holding a clipboard out toward me. I take the papers from her shaky hands and look them over quickly, their standard release forms informing me that if something should happen to him after he leaves the hospital, they’re not liable for it. I don’t give a fuck, anyway. This man has pushed me to my limits over the past few years since my mother’s death and even before, so I quickly sign off and tell them to bill me.

We walked out of the hospital and straight to my vehicle. My brother helps my father inside, and I go straight to the driver’s side because hell if I’m going to give him a hand.

Tension between us has grown over the years, especially when it comes to John and his welfare. He may be his father, but he’s been anything but a good one and has always pushed me away from my little brother. Since I wanted him to see other specialists outside of my father’s private doctors. If I wasn’t running the family business, I would have snatched him up and forced my father’s hand. Once we get him back, that’s exactly what I’ll do, whether he likes it or not.

“I need to know everything that happened before I go another inch farther,” I say, pulling over onto the side of the road just a few minutes into the drive.

“I know you don’t believe me, Son, but I love him. Maybe not as much as I should as a father, and not as much as your mother would have loved him, but I do. I want him back, and I’m going to hurt everybody who took him from us.”

I slam my fist into the steering wheel. “Just tell me what the fuck happened so we can find him and find those sons of bitches.”

“We’ll find him. I won’t rest until I do.”

I put my vehicle back in gear, hit the road, and drove toward the house. “Did you get a good look at the bastards?”

He shakes his head. “No. They were masked, and I was shot quickly.” Of course, proving to be useless. If he was anyone else, he’d have a bullet in his head already.

“So, they grabbed Joanne?”

He shakes his head. “I don’t know. At first, it sounded like they did because she was screaming, but then I heard her running and asking for help, and then gunfire started going off.”

“This is going to be harder than we thought. We can’t involve the police any more than they already have been. The fucking governor is on our ass already.”

“You’re damn right about that, but do you think that asshole could be involved?” my father asks.

“That son of a bitch could be.”

Connor’s phone goes off and he answers it, snarling, “Tell me you have something and not wasting my time.” He nods and then mutters, “Get it to me, and if you find anything else, don’thesitate to give me a call. We want everything you got on the van, including reflections. Follow the cameras as far as you can.” He ends the call and then says, “They got the video of a white van leaving the area in a hurry. They’re trying to follow it, but it’s rush hour and there are dozens of white vans passing until they reach the expressway.”

Shit. This is exactly why they did it. Of course they wanted to blend in, and hell, there could be several white vans involved for all we know. They might have transferred John to another vehicle before we realized it.

Chapter Three

Nora

May 2013

“Thanks for tonight,” I say, even though I don’t mean a single word. Dinner with Jeremy had been awful. We’ve hit a major bump in the road, and this relationship is over. Three months of going back and forth, and yet getting nowhere.

“Don’t you want to invite me in?” he asks, winking with a casual smirk. I used to think it was cute, but now it’s just annoying. There’s something about the way he stares that gives me an uncomfortable feeling. All evening, he’s been hinting at sex—the one thing I’ve been putting off.

“Actually, I’m kind of tired, and I have to work in the morning.” I shouldn’t have gone out on a Thursday night, but that’s the only time he was available.

“Are you serious, Nora? You’re doing this again?”

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