Page 167 of Receiving His Mercy
“And you helped me last time? Why?” she asked.
“Aadan shouldn’t have brought you here. It was a big mistake. Men like us don’t have weaknesses. It will get us killed. You were his weakness. But more than that, you wereattention we didn’t need. An American going missing? Too much attention. Especially a young, beautiful woman. So I sent him away, paid to have him incarcerated for a while and then I got rid of you.”
Holy shit.
He’d had his own man locked up just so she could get a clean break? Why hadn’t he just killed her? Because of some bad attention? Didn’t he already have that?
“It wasn’t just because of you,” he explained. “I needed Aadan out of the way for a while. He tends to be . . . impulsive. Case in point, you. He wants to marry you. That’s what his big surprise is, he has a priest coming tomorrow. That isn’t happening, though. Unfortunately, Aadan is losing his grip on reality. In hindsight, I should have had you suffer an ‘accident’. What can I say? Sometimes I make poor decisions. Like taking my half-brother in. It made me reluctant to get rid of him even though he’s become a loose cannon. But sometimes . . . you just do what you have to do. He’s pushed my hand now. The question is what to do about you and the man in the dungeon?”
What? Tyler was in the dungeon? And was he saying that Aadan was his half-brother? And that he was going to . . . to kill him?
Caren licked her dry lips. “You could just help us leave? I mean . . . you wouldn’t want to draw America’s ire, right?”
“Would they care that much about two citizens?” he asked. “I made the mistake once of not getting rid of you permanently.”
“My boyfriend would care. A lot. He’s also Tyler’s brother, the guy in the dungeon. He has a lot of contacts overseas. And the FBI and Interpol are looking for you.”
“Yes, I’m aware,” he said dryly.
“So you should just let us go. After all, I don’t know what you look like. Wouldn’t it be easier to let us go rather than risk my man’s ire? He knows powerful people.”
Slight lie. Although Travis wouldn’t rest until the General was dead or he was.
“Hmm. I’m not so sure about that. I think it might just be easier to get rid of you all. Less . . . hassle.”
Great.
She’d been a hassle for half of her life . . . and now it seemed that was going to get her killed.
45
“The fucking compound is on fire!” Clay said through the ear-piece to Travis.
But he didn’t need the update. He was staring at the compound in horror.
Disbelief enveloped him.
They . . . they couldn’t be in that inferno. Could they? He didn’t even know how it had gone up so quickly. It was like someone had set off multiple ignition points and the entire place was fucking exploding.
“Nooo!” he screamed as took off.
He ignored the yells of people behind him and in his ear. He could barely hear them over the manic-sounding screams around him.
Who was making that noise? It sounded like they were in agonizing pain whoever they were.
Fuck.
Was it him? As he grew closer to the compound another explosion went off, sending him flying to the ground. It felt like all the hairs of his face were singed as a wave of intense heat washed over him.
Then something heavy landed on him and refused to move. Was he being crushed by something?
“Fuck!”
“Stay down, motherfucker!” Hunter screamed.
“Get off! I need to help them! They’re in there. They’re in there!”
They were dead.
