His brows lift when my only reaction is to start laughing.
“Are you fucking kidding?” I ask between my laughter. “All of this because you want my mother? Jesus, Luis. I really thought you had more important things to deal with.”
“I do, but she’s one of them. She has something I need.”
I raise a brow in question.
“You’re so fucking naïve, Ramsey,” he spits out, looking me up and down.
“Is that right? And I think you’ll find it’s actually Ramsey-Cirillo. Do you realise the amount of shit you’ve landed yourself in with this stunt?”
His expression doesn’t falter, but something flickers in his eyes.
If it were anyone else staring back at me, I’d say it was probably fear. No man alive can want the wrath of not only the Reapers but the Cirillo Family on them. But I’m pretty sure all I see staring back at me is excitement.
“I can’t say that you don’t have it coming. How you’ve lasted this long is beyond me.”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about, little girl.”
“Do I not?” Folding my arms across my chest, I take a step toward him. “My mother might be weak, easily manipulated, willing to do your bidding. But make no mistake. I am not my mother, and I don’t care who you are. I will not bend to your wishes.
“Right now, my mother is safe. Far, far away from scumbags like you,” I spit out, looking him up and down as if he’s nothing more than a piece of shit on my shoe.
He moves faster than I give him credit for, his fingers wrapping around my throat a beat before my back slams against the cold wall of my cell.
“Watch your fucking mouth, little girl,” he spits in my face, his nose only a hair’s width from mine.
I sneer at him, baring my teeth.
He might make others piss themselves with nothing more than a look. But I’m not everyone else.
I’ve had plenty of experience dancing with the devil, and Luis is just another power-hungry, big-headed prick who needs taking down a few pegs. Or sending directly to hell. Either works.
“Fuck you, Wolfe. I don’t answer to you.” My lip curls in disgust as his fingers tighten. He compresses my windpipe but even still, I hold his eyes, daring him to end it all right here.
I’d let it happen. My only regret would be not being able to witness the fallout when Dad and Cruz got their hands on him. Maybe even Theo too, if he doesn’t totally hate me after the other night.
“Where. Is. Your. Mother?”
“Fuck. You,” I force out.
A bang somewhere in the distance cuts off whatever his response was going to be.
“Boss, we need to move,” someone shouts from outside the room. “Now.”
Luis’s eyes continue to hold mine despite the warning from one of his minions and yet another bang, which I’m starting to think is gunfire.
An inferno ignites in my belly and a smile curls at my lips.
“Go on, Wolfe. Run along back to your pack and let the big boys take over,” I taunt, assuming what’s about to happen.
“Wolfe,” someone barks out, his voice a little more insistent this time.
He leans in, letting his whisky-laced breath wash over my face and making my stomach turn over.
“I will find her, and I will get what I want.”
“I can’t wait to see you try. I hope you’ve got your ducks in a row, Luis, because something tells me you’re going to lose a few otherwise. And ones you care about.” Using Archer as a threat when he’s been nothing but a good friend and a half-decent lay over the years makes my chest ache, but desperate times and all that. Luis won’t lose a second of sleep threatening people I care about, so why should I?
“Luis,” someone barks as a loud bang makes the floor beneath me vibrate.
“Coming.”
With one last threatening look in my direction, he bolts and disappears from the room, quickly followed by his little minions.
Luis Wolfe, you fucking dumb cunt.
You’re going to die for this stunt.
6
THEO
Seb and I drag the guy who was meant to be securing this place inside and release him with a thud, not bothering to look back at him as he continues to bleed out on the floor.
I’d have hoped that Luis would have had better guard dogs than this, but clearly, his little gang is about as weak as I always suspected it to be.
“She’s not here,” D booms from somewhere deeper in the house, making my heart drop.
After all the shit I got about chipping her in order to keep her safe, it seems that maybe I wasn’t onto such a bad thing. Because no sooner had she run away from me and escaped my clutches, her dad and uncle took matters into their own hands to ensure her safety with things so up in the air with her mum and Ram.
But as much as it pisses me off, fuck am I glad they did.
“She has to be. It’s where the tracker said she was,” Link calls back. “Keep looking.”
Marching down the hallway, I emerge in the kitchen. Something immediately catches my eye in a bowl in the middle of the table.
“She’s not here,” I confirm, walking toward it and scooping the piece of jewellery up in my hand.
I had no idea she was wearing it, and damn if it didn’t give me a shred of hope to cling to when Dawson explained what he, Cruz, and Link had done when they realised just how attached to it she was. She might not have been wearing it on her finger, but she hadn’t immediately discarded it like I thought she might.
Letting Cruz, Seb, and Alex see what I’ve found, I slump down into one of the chairs.
“They’re close by. There has to be something else here. They wouldn’t be attempting to guard a fucking piece of jewellery, as nice as it is,” Cruz adds when he catches a glimpse of the expression on my face.
“Cost more than you’ll likely see in a lifetime,” I mutter, much to his irritation.
“Shut the fuck up, both of you,” Dawson snaps. “Link, get up a satellite view of this place. There has to be outbuildings. She’s here somewhere. I know she is.”
Curling my fingers around her ring, I send up a silent prayer to any deity who might be willing to listen that she’s okay. Because if she’s not then…
I blow out a long breath as the harsh reality of the situation slams into me.
If they’ve hurt her—really hurt her, no matter what the reason for it—it’s all my fault.
I’m the one who was fucking about, playing games, keeping secrets, refusing to admit just how I felt about her.
All this time I should have been protecting her, and yet all I’ve done is push her toward danger. Forced her to run from and then run into a den full of fucking wolves.
My fists curl. Her ring digs into my skin as I think about Archer Wolfe and his phone call to tell me where my wife was.
Was the whole thing a setup?
Did they want her, but also want to hurt me too?
Is that why they forced that fucking acid on her?
I might not know Emmie as well as I probably should, but I know for a fact she’d never take any drugs, weed aside. I’ve heard the way she talks about her childhood, about her mum’s addiction.