: Chapter 44

“We should look at the numbers and compare them—” I zone out of the meeting, wondering what Roxy is up to. I promised her one hour, but it’s been an hour and a half. I’ll have to find a way to make it up to her. I almost smirk, thinking of all the ways I could, each of them involving her naked and coming beneath my tongue.

My phone vibrates for the hundredth time, so I turn my chair and discreetly check it. This meeting is important, and if it goes well, we’re expanding into other cities, both legitimately and otherwise.

Two texts, two fucking texts, and they destroy my world. Fury like I’ve never felt before flows through me. That ice I have cultivated around me for so long cracks, and the lava flows through, burning everything in its path.

They took my girl?

Our girl?

I stand, ignoring the questions fired at me, and storm from the conference room, my phone already to my ear. “Tell me everything,” I snap. I listen as Garrett explains, his voice tight and angry. I hear Diesel in the background screaming at someone, and then gunfire.

“We followed the trail of bodies to a car park and saw the tire tracks. They must have grabbed her there.” He goes quiet for a moment as I leap down the stairs of the building, taking them two at a time. “Ry, fuck, she put up a real fight, there are bodies everywhere.”

“Garrett,” Diesel snarls, and there’s a moment of silence before Garrett swears.

“What?” I demand.

“Watch what I’m sending you,” he growls.

I pull my phone away and stop on the stairs, my hand gripping the railing as the video loads. I watch it once, then twice. That pit in my stomach grows, those demons escaping until I’m nothing but a man possessed.

They hurt her.

I watch her crawl from the wreck of the car, the CCTV from the highway zooming in on her. She stumbles away with blood dripping from her head, her hands, and her arms. She only has one shoe on, and her face is pale, her eyes fuzzy as she falls to her knees. I watch again as they come at her, she still fights, trying to take them down. That’s my fucking girl, a fighter to the end, but she doesn’t see the needle coming.

I watch her fall, and this time, they catch her and carry her back to the cars. Then, they are gone. Breathing heavily, my muscles shaking with the need to kill people, I put the phone to my ear. “Track the cars.”

“Diesel’s new friend is already on it.” He pulls the phone away from his mouth. “D, he can’t work if you keep stabbing him,” he snaps, and then comes back. “I can’t get a hold of Kenzo, he gets no signal in the basement of Diamonds. Get him?”

“On it,” I snarl, and the line goes quiet. “Garrett, we kill them.”

“Too fucking right,” he retorts. “Anyone who touched her dies horrifically, and the Triad? We are going to fucking burn them alive for taking our girl.”

I hang up and send a message to my driver and the guards downstairs, so when I make it into the lobby, they are there. The car is idling outside, and I get in quickly. “Diamonds, now,” I demand.

First things first, get my brother. Then they are dead men.

They feared my father, but they should fear me more. Roxanne is mine, she owns us, and they took the one thing we will do anything to protect. They kicked the goddamn vipers’ nest, so now they get the fangs. This city will run with blood before tonight, and when I find them, I will make them scream for every finger they ever put on her.

I dial a number for their restaurant, knowing they will get it. They will understand. “You took something of mine, something precious.” There is no use denying it, they already know what they have, it’s the only thing keeping her alive right now. “I’m going to let the streets run red with your people’s blood until I get her back, and then? I’m going to kill you all. Starting with your families, your wives, your sons and daughters, even your parents. Only then, when everything is burning and destroyed around you, will I kill you. You fucked with the wrong family.” After I leave the message I hang up.

One, two, three, four, five.

I repeat it again and again, trying to stay calm, but I can’t. It doesn’t work. Fuck the calm. All I can see is Roxy, the smile on her face before it fades to that blank, scared look she had on the highway.

The city is about to go to war.

And before the sun rises tomorrow, only one family will be left.

Ours.

We pull up outside Diamonds, and I wait as they get Kenzo. He slips into the car next to me, frowning. “What’s wrong?” he asks straightaway, pulling out his phone before I stop him.

“She’s gone.” My voice is empty, not reflecting the inferno burning inside me. How can I sound that calm when I’m this fucking angry…and scared? Scared I will lose her. Scared that the best thing that has ever happened to me will be gone before I can even tell her. Scared to lose my love.

“What?” he questions, scowling and looking at me over.

“Roxxane, they took her,” I rasp.

He freezes, his head jerking down to look at his phone as he scrolls through the messages. “What?” he gasps. “No.” He shakes his head as we pull away from the curb.

“Yes, they did.”

He turns to me then, his eyes outraged, his lips curled into a snarl. “How can you be so fucking calm?” he screams, and then throws himself at me. He always did wear his emotions on his sleeve. I capture his head in my hands, pressing my forehead to his as he struggles and swears.

“Brother, look at me,” I whisper, but he’s still fighting, so I grip him harder. “Look at me!” I command, my hands shaking against his skin. He stops fighting then, staring at me. His eyes are lost, scared, like mine. “We will get her back, I promise you that,” I whisper. “I’m not calm, I’m anything but, yet I have to hold it together. For you, for her. Now more than ever, she needs us, and we need to handle this, we need to find them. Breaking down will not help, not now. We need to use every goddamn ounce of our power and intellect.”

“You promise?” he begs, searching my eyes like he used to when I was a child and he was scared, when I swore to protect him. I do the same now, protect him, it’s my job. Because, honestly, I don’t know if we will get to her in time, and that makes me feel so sick, I want to throw up everywhere, knowing what they will do to her.

Every minute counts, but if he needs my lies to function, then he can have them.

“I promise, we will get her back, and then we’ll kill every last one of them,” I vow.

His eyes shutter for a moment, those long lashes concealing him from me as a shaky breath leaves his lips. When they open again, they are hard, cold, like mine. It saddens me, but I understand. “I can’t lose her,” he admits, his voice making my heart ache. I wish I could shield him from this. I wish I could keep this from him like everything else.

“I know. We won’t. I need you, she needs you,” I tell him, and he nods.

“We kill them all,” he agrees, deadly calm. He’s feeling the type of tranquillity where you feel too much and you become numb. He’s nothing more than the Viper now.

A cold-blooded snake striking out.

In those eyes, I see myself and I see our future, because if we lose her—the thought even hurts—there will be no coming back. We will cease to exist as we do now. All laugher and love will be gone until nothing, nothing is left but our venom.

He moves away, and I let him, hiding my shaking hands from him. He needs my strength, not my weakness. Because that’s what she is, our weakness, but they don’t know she is also our heart, our strength, our reason we fight now.

“What’s our first move?” he asks, his voice dead.

I stare out of the window, a cruel smile curling my lips. “We hunt them across the city, starting at the bottom. Get your gun, it’s about to get bloody.”