Lita. In Mexico. They have come for you and Tanner.”
“Tan . . . ner?” Fear for him made me try to move. Luis guided me back down to the couch when I hissed out in pain. My ribs . . . my stomach . . . everything hurt. My heart worst of all. “The Hangmen have taken the Klan’s camp.” He nodded enthusiastically. “They’ll save him, Lita. I’m sure of it.”
“He came . . . after . . . me . . .?” My lip wobbled, and my heart ached when I thought of how I left him . . . and what he’d risked to come and get me. “He came . . . after me . . .”
“I’ll make contact with the Hangmen as soon as it’s safe.”
“Thank you . . .” I whispered. “Thank you so much . . .”
I was pulled to my feet by Kenny and Lars. These fuckers wouldn’t have dared even look at me when I was in the Klan. Now, they were dragging me to stand after beating the shit out of me for hours.
I stood fucking tall. I wouldn’t let these assholes see me weakened. They walked me down a hallway. Kenny hammered on a door. I didn’t know who the fuck was beyond it. I’d been met at the border by these two assholes and taken to some camp in the middle of nowhere. Last night, I was put in a truck and brought here—wherever this was. I hadn’t once seen my father or uncle. I hadn’t seen Wade . . . and I hadn’t seen Beau.
“Come in,” someone called, and I immediately recognized my father’s voice.
This was it.
This was fucking it.
My father wasn’t gonna let me go. I’d expected to feel more. I’d expected to want to fight. To fucking survive. But Adelita was gone . . . I didn’t give a fuck what these assholes did to me now.
They couldn’t kill an already dead man.
Kenny opened the door, and I was thrown inside. I quickly righted myself, refusing to fall at their feet. My hands were tied behind my back. The door shut, and I lifted my head. Across the room, I saw them. My father, in his usual suit—all business and politics. Landry, snarling my way . . . and Beau. Beau was staring at me with no fucking expression on his face at all.
Wade was present too. Wade, who had been my contact all this time, was sitting in the corner. He was glaring at me. Playing the perfect little Nazi in front of my father, uncle, and Beau.
“Tanner,” my father said and got to his feet. He came toward me. The second he stood before me he punched me square across the face. My head snapped back. But I made damn fucking sure my feet didn’t move. I wouldn’t give this prick the pleasure of bettering me.
“Father,” I replied, the taste of blood coming from my busted lip. We’d been here many times before.
“So. All this?” he mocked, pointing to my cut. “All this for a fucking spic?” My teeth gritted together as that word left his mouth.
I stepped closer to him. Close enough that my boots touched the toe of his expensive shoes. “You speak about Adelita like that again, and I’ll kill you.”
My father’s mouth twitched. Landry got up and came round the table they sat behind. The asshole just plowed his fist into my stomach, then my face.
He kept going until my father pulled him back. “Patience,” my father said to him.
I glared across the table at Beau. “You next?”
Beau, as silent as always, actually got to his feet. Dressed in black, his brown hair falling over his face, he came toward us. He stopped in front of me with his arms folded across his chest. My fucking kid brother, the one who never left my side, was gonna be here as I died. As our uncle and father killed me.
Wade got up too. “Wade,” I said coldly, like the guy wasn’t on my side. I had to protect him.
“Shut your fucking mouth, traitor,” he snapped. His face was red as he spat at me, and his hands were balled into fists at his side. He was doing a good fucking good job at pretending he was pissed.
“Untie him,” my father ordered my brother. Beau moved behind me and cut the cable tie that was holding my hands together. I fisted