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I’d never known such a big fuck-up in my entire life as I stared down at the bruised woman that was not Demon’s daughter, Cassie. The plan was simple. While Demon thought he was hurting me and taking out some of the Volkov main warehouses, my men had gone on a mission to extract his precious daughter, Cassie-the Evil Savages MC princess.
What did I get? Lottie, the bastard daughter, the one known to be his, but he never fucking claimed. The one who was constantly left out in the cold because her mother had been a club whore who’d become a rat, so Lottie became known as the Rat’s daughter. She was all but useless to me. Ivan was on his way to me as I watched this young woman. Eighteen fucking years old.
I’d already killed the men responsible for getting me the wrong woman. Lottie looked nothing like her sister Cassie.
Running fingers through my hair, I glance at Terrance who’s been quiet since I killed the two men who were lying in a puddle of their own blood. My thirst to kill was strong. Rage consumed me.
I had no choice but to wait for Ivan, and I don’t even know why he was in town without my knowledge. Ivan always did whatever the fuck he wanted. The usual rules of the Bratva structure didn’t apply to him. He always had a plan in motion, and there was always a reason why he did what he did.
Hands on my hips, I waited. My cell phone beeps, and I see my other little problem is also being taken care of as we speak. I’d deal with that problem after I handle this one.
Of course, Ivan arrives within twenty fucking minutes. I have no idea how he’s able to get to and from wherever he is within such a short amount of time, but he arrives looking collected and calm. I bring him up-to-date.
Lottie is still out completely cold. The tranquilizer we gave her would see her dead to the world until tonight.
“Now this is an interesting turn of events,” Ivan said.
“Do you want me to kill her and dispose of the body?” I asked.
“Why would we do that when we have a far more interesting player?” Ivan moved toward Lottie and crouched down. “Now, my sweet, I didn’t think of you, but this is going to go very nicely indeed.”
I frowned. “She’s not Cassie.”
“You’re right, and that bitch would be difficult to handle. This one … this one is perfect, and don’t you think she will look interesting on Ive’s arm?” Ivan asked.
“What?”
Ivan chuckled. “Move her to secure location. I’ll handle the rest, and I don’t want to see her harmed in any other way, do you understand me?”
There was no point in arguing with him. What Ivan wants, he will get and I’m more than happy to grant it. I nod my head, and he smiles. It’s not nice at all.
Ivan’s the first to leave after I’ve made the necessary arrangements to transport Lottie. I’m not sure she will suit Ive, but I’m not going to criticize that decision. Ivan’s in charge of who we marry. There’s no chance of us making that choice. I’d tried to deal with Bethany, to accept my future with her, and then he handed me Adelaide, and well, I was learning to accept this life with her.
I tell Terrance where to take me, and I sit back, pulling out my cell phone and seeing a text from Leo, telling me that Adelaide is fine. She decided to stay in the apartment. I opened the app and glanced through the cameras, but I don’t find her. I spot Leo in the sitting room, and I don’t have time to question it, as Terrance pulls into the warehouse.
Three men are stationed outside the door, and I climb out of the car, making my way inside to the man currently tied to a chair, bleeding. It’s the best look that son of a bitch has had. He was quite a hard man to track down.
Dragging a chair toward him, I take a seat and stare at him. His face is swollen, but one of his eyes is open.
“I see my men have kept you busy,” I said.
“Fuck you.”
“Let us both save all of our troubles and tell me what a fucking hit man is doing playing friends with my wife?”
Nathan is not his real name. The life he claimed to be living is not real. The man is good, there’s no doubt about that. He knows how to blend into a crowd and manipulate those around him, but I’m not most people. From the moment I saw his picture, I knew there was something off about him, and not just because he was near my wife. There was something about him that I couldn’t quite put my finger on, and then it had all fallen into place.
He’s a hit man with many aliases.
Over forty years old, multiple passports, and so many kills under his belt. I’d met him once, nearly twenty years ago on the streets. He’d been a cold dead killer then, and staring at him now, he hadn’t changed. Age marked his face, but I recognized him.
Nathan burst out laughing. “Do you think I pose a threat to Adelaide?”
I wrap my fingers around his throat, cutting off his air. “You don’t get to say her fucking name.”
It’s pointless. This man has been trained to withstand all kinds of torture.
“If you had questions about my friendship with her, why didn’t you just ask?”
“I did.”
Nathan coughed, spitting up blood. I’d told my men that he didn’t need to arrive at the warehouse in one piece. He just had to be alive. That was my only requirement.
Now I’m wondering if he had to be alive. I’d gladly have him dead.
Adelaide hadn’t seen him in a while. They’d texted but not met. It would be so easy to cut him out of her life, and that’s what I wanted to do. First, I wanted to know what brought him to Adelaide.
“Have you been hired?” I asked.
Nathan sighed. “I’m not here to kill her.”
I frowned. “Why are you friends with her?”
“Because she’s so sweet, don’t you think?” Nathan asked. I wanted to kill him, but he spit out some more blood, and it looked like a tooth had come loose as well, as that was mixed with the blood. “Bethany is the person I was hired to kill. She pissed off the wrong people several years ago. Adelaide was unexpected. She was selling some nasty-ass lemonade, helping some kids. Bethany was supposed to be volunteering, but as always, she put Adelaide to the task. That’s where I met her, and that’s where Nathan was born.”
“The charming gay friend with a job she doesn’t understand.”
He chuckled. “Exactly.”
“You’re not here to kill her?”
“I’m here to protect her,” Nathan said.
This made me pause. “Why?”
“Do you really think her sister is going to allow her to play ‘happy family’ at your side? Bethany got out of the contract on her head. I don’t know how, but I got paid and she’s still breathing. I follow the money, but Adelaide always needed someone in her corner. Do you think Ivan Volkov is the only person Bethany pissed off?”
This made me pause.
Just as I was about to answer more questions, I heard the commotion outside, and then my men stepped forward as Adelaide entered the warehouse. Without Leo. On her own. Her gaze went to Nathan and then to me. What the fuck was she doing here?
I see the red dot on her chest and I know it’s not from my men. Someone lured her here. Someone who knew I would be here, and before I can stop it. I watch Adelaide’s body jerk as someone shoots her. One to the chest and the other to her stomach.
I charge forward as she starts to fall. “Fucking kill them!” I scream, pulling Adelaide into my arms.
Blood has soaked through her white shirt. Two gunshot wounds.
“I … I…”
“Shut the fuck up, Adelaide. Conserve your strength. You’re not dying on me.” Her face has already gone pale.
“I … I’m so cold.”
My hands are covered in blood as I cup her face. “Look at me.”
I don’t know how Nathan got loose, but in the commotion, he’s on the other side of her.
“Adelaide!” I scream her name, shaking her.
Fuck.
No.
Fuck.
This is not supposed to happen. Adelaide was meant to be at home. Safe. Away from danger.
“We need to get her to the hospital,” Nathan said, reaching for her.
I punch him hard, staining his cheek with Adelaide’s blood, but I don’t care. “You stay the fuck away from her.”
I don’t have time to tie him up, and while my men deal with whoever fired at my wife, I pick Adelaide up.
Terrance is there, but I ignore him, climb into the car, and hold my wife close to me as I pull out of the warehouse and head to the first hospital. I’m not thinking straight but I don’t give a fuck. This is my wife. Adelaide-the nicest person I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting, who didn’t deserve me as a husband, and who should have never come near me. Who I stayed away from even though I craved her, and she became mine. Ivan knew what he was doing the moment he replaced Bethany.
Adelaide was mine. She is mine.
I pulled up outside of the hospital. I don’t park the car, I abandon it and carry my bleeding wife into the hospital. Doctors and nurses surround me. They keep bombarding me with questions and in the end, I warn them. I tell them who I am, and that I will end all the fucking lot of them if they don’t fix my wife.
One of the doctors comes forward, and he takes charge. Adelaide is put on a gurney and carried away from me. A nurse puts her hands on my chest and tells me that I can’t follow.
I need to know Adelaide is alive. She has to live. I cannot accept any other outcome.
With my hands clenched into fists, I stay in that one spot, staring at the door. I don’t know when my men arrive, but Terrance is the first.
“Sir.”
“Sir.”
“Sir.”
He keeps repeating my title, and I finally turn toward him. “This is Adelaide’s phone. There’s a text. It tells her that if she wants to see you, she has to go to this location. It’s sent from an anonymous number.”
I don’t care.
Nathan has arrived with my men. His face is still bruised, but he’s cleaned away some of the blood.
“He helped to detain the men responsible,” Terrance said.
We’re in a public place. I can’t kill him right now. I don’t have to worry because over his shoulder I see Ivan appear, and I know he’s come to deal with the shit that just went down, because for the first time in my life, all I can feel is grief.