Page 69 of Unhinged Cravings
“I’m doing this for Ava. If you prove yourself and don’t turn on me like I suspect you will, then I’ll accept your apology and your thanks.”
I put my phone in my pocket and met Riley’s eyes.
“So, I finally get to meet the infamous brother?”
Tipping her chin, I said, “No. You’re staying here.”
“Nope. We’re a team, Grey. Where you go, I go.”
She was stubborn, but there was no way I would take her to Seagate. “I know we are, but this is too dangerous. My brother can’t be trusted. I could walk off that plane and he could gun me down in seconds. I don’t want you there for that, and I won’t risk losing you if this shit about the trafficking is all a ruse.”
“What shit?”
I rested my head on hers and sighed. “Lunch is off, baby girl. Let’s call your brother and I’ll fill you both in.”
Her arms wrapped around my neck. “And then we leave for Seagate?”
My jaw tightened, but I saw the resolve in her eyes. Once she had it in her head to do something, there was no talking her out of it. She was the only one who had ever gotten her way with me. It was the reason she now worked out of my sight and too far from me for comfort.
“There will be consequences if you insist on defying my order to stay here,” I said. My fingers draped down her arm, causing goosebumps to rise.
“I like your consequences,” she said with a grin, those green irises sparkling with mischief.
There was no winning this argument. The situation was dangerous. Emerson could turn on me, kill me and everyone I brought with me, but my gut told me otherwise. That my brother needed me and this was a chance I couldn’t turn away from. To mend the gulf between us. If we survived.
“Ready to save Ava?”
Her smile faltered, worry coating her eyes. “What happened to Ava?”
Chapter Twenty-Three
EMERSON
Relief and hope mingled with the fear that held me in its grip. Every minute Ava was in their hands was a minute closer to losing her for good. But if it was one thing I admired about my brother, it was his precision and patience. He had gained his power by taking his time. His enemies looked over their shoulders for months and sometimes years before he struck. And when he struck, he was methodical and deadly.
I clutched my desk, hating that I’d dragged Ava into this mess. Hating that she was in trouble and possibly hurt, that she wasn’t here with me, that I had told her I would protect her and instead I’d let her slip through my fingers.
A knock at the door halted the bombarding thoughts.
“Enter,” I said, pulling my gun and stepping to the side of the door. I didn’t trust anyone now. No one but Pack and the few men who had remained loyal to me since the beginning. The ones those fools hadn’t dared approach to betray me because they would have been dead within seconds of voicing any thought of mutiny.
“It’s me,” Pack said, coming into the office. I lowered the gun as he closed the door. His muscles were tight with tension, his facelined with anger. “We flushed out another traitor.” He threw a patch of bloody skin onto my desk.
I walked over and studied the snake tattoo on it. The same that had been on the cheek of the man who took Ava. Flashes of white rage tore across my vision.
“Looks like they have their own brand,” he said. “I’ve had every man on the property stripped and searched for the tattoo. The one I found it on was kind enough to tell me they all have it, before I cut his tongue out when he failed to give me anything else of use.”
“Copying everything from us,” I mumbled. “Our moves, our strategies, our brand.”
“Looks like it.”
Rolling out the strain in my neck, I looked over at Pack. “I think it’s time we change our ways, Pack. Think you’re up for it?”
“I’ve been by your side since the beginning, Cade. I’ll be there till the end.”
“Emerson,” I said. “Emerson Tides.”
He gave me a goofy grin. “You never looked much like a Cade.”
