there will be no motivation for his troops to be spread around the world unless I get my money back.”
Boots on concrete echo perfectly through the listening devices. They’re so sharp, I’m surprised we can’t hear Nick Peterson’s heartbeat—he’s that nervous.
Cole’s heat presses into my back as I watch my brother stride nonchalantly out of the church, as if he didn’t just admit to paying for murder to be carried out and threaten to finish me off himself. He climbs into a blue sedan and takes off like the nightmare this is turning out to be.
All of a sudden, the room becomes electric with activity. Crew and Ozzy move to keyboards. Asa is already on the phone. Grady and Jarvis are out the door and down the hall, chattering about guns and vests and night vision goggles…
But not us.
Cole’s arm snakes around me and I’m turned, pressed to his chest with his big hand on the side of my head. His heart beats in my ear. I swear, it’s the only thing giving me life at the moment.
His lips hit the top of my head. “I don’t have the first clue what to say, sweetness.”
I wrap my arms around him tighter. “However this ends … my poor parents. They’ll be devastated.”
He tips my chin to look up at him. His eyes are not gentle nor are they guarded. “This is only going to end one way. Do you understand me? You’ll be among the living and sleeping next to me every night in a home we rebuild together. I won’t settle for anything less. Your brother has made his bed. I can’t do anything about him, but I can take care of you.”
I don’t answer. I press my face into his chest as Crew barks orders, Ozzy rattles off computer jargon, and Asa bosses the recruits.
“Baby,” he calls for me.
I shake my head and look up to him. “I know what I need to do, Cole.”
Chapter 42
Sentry
Bella
Randolph took the meeting.
“I don’t like this.”
“I don’t care.”
“We’re not going to let anything happen to her.”
“She took your ass down earlier—she’ll be fine.”
“Dammit, Bella. I’ve been fucking you without a condom. What about that?”
“Why is it we know every detail of their sex lives?”
This has been going on for the last thirty minutes.
Cole arguing.
Me not caring.
Crew reassuring Cole.
And Ozzy getting in every jab he can about my out-of-control tussle with Cole, as well as complaining about Cole oversharing. Ozzy is not wrong—my love is sporting two bruises on his beautiful face and we’ve thrown birth control out the window. I really do owe him a blowie for the bruises. I refuse to think of the consequences of the other right now.
I’m also not proud of the fact anyone—least of all Cole—had to tell me to snap out of it. Were the circumstances extenuating? Of course. I mean, Devon…
Shit.
Breathe, Bella.
Devon has done what he’s done but I’m certainly not going to live in the shadows any longer. I had my moment but I’ve steeled my heart and am ready to do whatever the hell is necessary to end this.
Today.
I close my eyes and take a deep breath, willing that to happen, as Crew and his men plan, so I can spend the rest of my life with Cole and Abbott.
A magazine being snapped into place is enough to slap me back to reality.
My eyes fly open and Crew is standing in front of me with a sharpshooter rifle. “You’ll have me at your back. I’ll be closest. Ozzy will know your every move, but my goal is to not take my eyes off Devon.”
I force myself to look away from the gun that will be aimed at my brother. “Okay.”
“Let me go in,” Cole insists. “It’ll be better that way. You don’t need to be put in this situation, not with Devon.”
I shake my head. “It has to be me.”
“It doesn’t. However this goes, you don’t need this in your head. Baby, you of all people understand—no one believes in you more than me. You do your job better than most. But that’s a job. This is personal. If it comes down to it, you might not be able to do what you need to.”
“I will.”
“You don’t know that,” he argues. “In fact, there’s no reason for either of us to go in. Let’s regroup, let them hash it out, then we’ll take everyone down.”
I hop off the table I’m sitting on and move past Crew and Ozzy. I lift to my toes and