Page 51 of Surrender (Angels Halo MC Next Gen)

“After taking the pros and cons into account, Anya and Ryan are both in agreement. You have to come home, Samara,” Nova said again. “Now.”

“Of course I’m coming home. Papa needs me.”

“The jet is already on its way to you,” Nova informed her. The sound of her voice was usually reassuring for me. Not this time. Not when she was talking about taking Samara away. “It left about two hours ago. You have plenty of time to grab your things and get to the airport.”

“Yeah, okay. I’ll meet the pilot.” Hanging up, she dropped her hand and turned in my arms, hiding her face in my shirt. “Don’t ask questions. I know you have them. But I can’t right now. Just…hold me?”

She was right. I had a million questions, the one I wanted answered the most desperately waswhenshe was going to be back. Because she was coming back, goddamn it. I couldn’t let myself consider any other option. But she sounded so lost, I swallowed the questions that needed a response before I lost my fucking mind.

Every instinct inside me demanded I go with her. All but one, and it told me I couldn’t force my way through this. She had to trust me enough to ask me to go.

And she wasn’t there yet.

Giving her what she needed, even though it felt like I was pouring acid directly onto my heart, I wrapped her tighter. “Okay, baby girl.”

CHAPTERTWENTY-EIGHT

samara

My mind wasin complete chaos by the time the jet touched down in New York, my heart pulled in two different directions.

Papa in NYC.

Elias and Daisy back in Creswell Springs.

As much as I’d ached to bring both with me, I couldn’t. It wouldn’t have been fair to put my little fur baby through a long flight and then subject her to being locked in my bedroom at the mansion. And Elias…

I needed space so I could rein in my crazy after the intense morning I’d already had, coming face-to-face with Berkeley. Not to mention the bullshit of witnessing her trying to flirt with him right in front of me.

Getting Nova’s call had only sent me spinning deeper into madness.

For whatever reason, no one would tell me for sure, Papa had left the compound the night before, convinced I was in danger because I wasn’t in my room. I’d lost count of the times he’d called me since I’d moved to Creswell Springs, thinking I’d snuck out. But during none of those instances had he been the least bit concerned I had been hurt or taken. Every time, he’d only been worried I would get in trouble with Mom.

Which only confused me more as to why he would suddenly think I had been abducted

According to my sister-in-law, Papa had stormed into a warehouse operated by one of our family’s rivals, Kovak, hell-bent on getting me back. He’d been alone, with nothing more than two Glocks and his favorite knives in hand. After taking out six men, he’d finally been captured and beaten.

By that time, Mom had found him, but the damage was already done. Now it seemed like Ryan had a possible war on his hands.

I couldn’t give two fucks about that.

It was Papa I was worried about.

He had a laceration to the back of his head that had required staples to close, as well as a few busted ribs. Despite the sedative he was given, he was still agitated and demanding everyone look for me.

Not only had he been hurt by Kovak’s men, but his dementia was getting worse. And once again, I was the catalyst.

Not for the first time, I cursed and questioned my existence.

Panic tried to smother me as the pilot taxied toward the private hangar where a caravan of men already waited for me. I could take whatever life threw at me. But when the people who mattered most were in danger, I couldn’t think straight.

Mom once said my heart was my biggest weakness. She’d taught me to turn it off. Around then was when my mind started working against me, the obsessions began to trickle in, and she had to teach me to keep them quiet. But I never fully mastered the ability to keep my heart and obsession switched off at the same time.

I’d tried to keep my emotions in check, but when it came to Elias and my papa, there was no way of turning off my love. Being the trigger for Papa’s episodes was torture. Nothing my mother had ever taught me could have prepared me for that kind of agony.

Fifteen men were waiting for me when I stepped off the plane, a mixture of Vitucci and Volkov soldiers. I’d stopped trying to keep up with their names when I was a kid. After Bain O’Farrell and his men had swept through, killing anyone who got in his way of taking my cousin Ciana, I’d stopped letting any of them become more than just a number.

In my late teens, my parents had no longer required me to have bodyguards when I left the compound. They drew too much attention, and Mom knew what I was capable of. Papa suspected, but never asked.

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