Page 119 of Undertow

“This?No. What’s going to happen to you when Mama H finds out you went behind her back? Absolutely.”

Tyler’s gaze narrows on me. “Well, joke’s on you, then, because shedoesknow. Not only that, Adrian is in charge now.”

My gaze snags on Adrian’s gloating stare in the rearview mirror.

Fear coils in my gut. Tightens my fingers into fists behind my back.

There’s only one reason that would be true.

“In charge of what? This negotiation?” I maintain a bored air, despite the dread mounting in my chest.

“No.Everything.” Adrian’s tone is thick with each terrible truth in that one word. There’s an ominous glee in his eyes when he flickers another moon-soaked glance into the mirror. “Mama H gave me the reins because Julia betrayed us. This bullshit romance with you proves she can’t be trusted to put the family first. Her fate is on you. How doesthatfeel, lover boy?”

Like I’ve been sliced open.

Any remaining snark leaves my lungs as reality crashes in. Julia didn’t know she’d been ousted when she went to bed. They could be punishing her for her betrayal as we speak.

I don’t even have a glare left in me as I close my eyes and turn my face toward the window.

I have no idea how to protect her this time. And now I’ll have even less control in McArthur’s custody.

I’m already a dead man. All I wanted was to take the path to my grave alone. It’s unfathomable to think I’ll be accompanied by the two people I care about. My final moments will be spent doing everything I can to prevent that from happening.

“A pleasure doing business with you,”Adrian sneers at Merrick in the private garage below the resort. “We’ll be doing a lot of business now that I’m in charge.”

Merrick lifts a brow as he scans the lesser man. “Is that so? Mama H is stepping down?”

Adrian shifts uncomfortably. “Well, no. I meant, I will be when the time comes. Julia is out. That’s the point.”

“Yeah! Can you believe she fell for this turd?” Tyler adds with a snort.

Merrick releases an impatient sigh and waves them toward their car. “Good to know. We’ll be in touch.”

He shoots me a warning look to stay silent while the Hartfords pile into the vehicle and back out of the space. Not that it’s necessary—the two automatic weapons aimed at me are doing a fine job of that. Andtheseminions know about the existence of gun safeties.

“Take him downstairs,” Merrick directs his men.

They also know shoving a gun in my back to make me walk is purely gratuitous fun, but indulge anyway.

After securing me in the makeshift cell, they leave the room, probably to wait outside the door. It’s several minutes before my theory is proven correct.

“Thanks,” Merrick says to the guards. The other men nod and the door closes again.

Once we’re alone, Merrick scans me for several long seconds.

“The Hartfords did a number on you, I see,” he says.

“Not a very effective number, but yeah.”

“They said you gave up a lot of information.”

“And you believe them?”

“No.”

He pulls a chair from the table by the wall and positions it in front of me. His stoic expression is unreadable as he sits and studies me again.

“Does McArthur know what happened? That I’m here?”

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