Page 74 of The Piece You Stole

Silence.

I harden my voice. “Aden, I said, do you understand me?”

After a moment, he nods. “I understand.”

“Kade?”

He draws it out a little longer, but eventually, he relents with a heavy sigh. “Yeah, nap time all around. I got it.”

I nod. “Good. Aden, go get a weapon. I have cash in the desk in my office. Help yourself to what you need.” Reaching into my pocket, I pull out my keys and toss them at him. “Here. Take the car. Kade and I will grab a cab into the city and hire a car for our reconnaissance.”

As Aden leaves the kitchen, I turn to Leandro. “While you’re out with him, you’re going to make sure nothing happens to him. Doyouunderstand?”

Leandro straightens, his jaw tensing. “You know, I never agreed to be part of this insane plan. I have no desire to step into a war for a piece of magical pu—”

“He’s not a favorite child, is he, Dariel?” Kade interrupts, his tone so casual I’m almost positive Leandro isn’t likely to survive the next five minutes.

I could warn him, but at thirty-four, if Leandro hasn’t inherited enough self-survival instincts to see where his taunts are leading by now, maybe it's time Kade taught him an important lesson before someone else does.

I shake my head and turn from Leandro before I give into my growing need to teach him the lesson myself. “He is. Though, if you kill him, you’re dealing with the body.”

Kade rattles his bucket as a smile stretches across his lips. “Shouldn’t be too hard to think of a way to dispose of a body. The smell won’t be pleasant, but it’s not the first time I’ve learned to plug my nose.”

“Who’s carrying her out?” Aden asks as he steps back into the kitchen, the pocket of his gray sweats bulging with cash, and a black handgun in his right hand. His Glock 19, a longstanding favorite weapon since he learned to shoot when he was fifteen, ten years ago. “Because if I’m going to be in a tree picking off his pack, it’s either going to be you or Kade.”

He gives two options, but he means Kade. Twice now my wolf has lunged at Saige. There’s no reason it won’t happen for a third time, and with the mayhem that’ll be happening tonight, there might not be time for anyone to stop me.

“I’ll get her,” Kade says.

Aden’s eyes dart to him and then back to me. “But if Kade gets pinned down, and—"

“I won’t,” Kade says at the same time I say, “It’s your job to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

“We can’t tell her any of this,” Aden says. “If she knows what we’re doing to free her, she’ll run again, or she’ll try to get involved—”

“Which could put her in harm’s way,” I say. “Agreed.”

Kade nods. “Agreed. We all keep our mouths shut.”

“And if she’s dead?” Leandro asks.

I turn to Leandro because, despite all the warnings I’ve dished out before, it’s looking like he has a death sentence. “You never used to be this stupid.”

Leandro smirks. “I’d say you’re the stupid one for walking away from—”

Something inside me snaps. I stalk toward him. “A mate who will fuck anything that resembles a man as long as it gets her the pretty bauble she wants? An older brother who betrayed me? A father with a taste for underage girls?”

Green eyes turning wary, he backs up.

I prowl closer, my words punching out of me the way Aden’s bullets would tear through the bullseye at the shooting range. “A mother who cares more about making the right impression than she does about anything else? I’d say you’re the stupid one for staying.”

Leandro’s back smacks against the kitchen wall.

I don’t have time for this.

Turning my back on Leandro, I face Aden, who's eyeing me curiously as he tucks his Glock into the waistband of his sweats.

I remember buying that gun, handing it over in a gift box, and watching him tear into the packaging. I remember him throwing himself at me in a hug before he caught himself, realized that I might not want to be hugged, and pulled back.

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