Page 67 of Forbidden Empire
Desperation took over, winding through me like poison. I stopped fighting it. I let it in.
I grabbed the nearest table and flipped it, wood splintering, my control slipping, my rage turning into something black and ugly, so much so that it almost scared me.
I turned on my heel and stalked toward the door. I needed to get the hell out of this room. I needed air. Space. Time to think.
“Boss, where are you going?” Ares called out.
Not slowing down, I said, as I passed him, “No one takes what’s mine and lives.”
If Rhea Konstantinou wanted a war, I’d make damned sure she got one.
Thirteen
AIDON
It took hours before I finally broke, driving nowhere, hands welded to the wheel, jaw locked so tight my teeth felt ready to shatter.
The office, the silence, those still walls, they’d been suffocating. Out here, at least, the engine’s roar gave me something to focus on besides the endless, gnawing images of what Rhea might be doing to Esme.
I blew straight through a red light. Horns blared, distant and muted. I-15 was wide open, just a hot ribbon of asphalt slicing through the city haze, when my phone buzzed against the console.
Ares.
My heart damn near jumped out of my chest. I answered.
He wasted no time. “We found her.”
That was all it took. I yanked the wheel hard left and crossed three lanes without blinking. A semi’s horn screamed at me.
Not caring, the needle shot past the I-215 Beltway. The engine howled, and I realized I was making the same animal noise low in my throat.
Every second counted. Every red light I ran, every car I whipped around, it blurred.
I saw nothing but her. Just Esme. Her face, her eyes, the way she smiled. The way she might never smile again if I didn’t get there fast enough.
Rhea was smart. She’d found my soft spot, the one crack I’d always denied having.
She was counting on it.
Forty-seven minutes, start to finish.
Then I was in front of a mansion in Henderson, shirt clinging, sweat soaking me despite the desert air.
Ares at my right, twelve of our best behind us, every one of them loaded for war.
My pulse pounded so loud it nearly drowned out the world.
Those ornate doors in front of me were the only thing between me and Esme.
“You sure this is it?”
Ares checked his phone. “Confirmed. East wing, second floor. Our guy’s inside.”
I chambered a round. The metallic sound was sharp and final. “I’ll paint these fucking walls with anyone in my way.”
Ares met my eyes, his face hard. “We’re with you, boss.”
The weight of my Glock pressed against my palm, safety off, finger hovering outside the trigger guard. Kevlar hugged my torso like a second skin.
