Page 71 of It Destroys Me

Honestly, I didn’t have one. “I don’t know. He must have changed locations by now.” I didn’t know how I would find him, not without a lead. He would wait me out and hit me when I least expected it. Every war in history spanned years, and this one was no different.

She drank her coffee and tried to mask her disappointment in silence. “Maybe you could use me as bait to draw him out?—”

“I’ll figure this out, sweetheart.” I didn’t mean to snap at her, but I didn’t lose my brother’s remains and get shot just to use her as bait on a hook. “I always do.”

I left Astrid at home that night, protected by the walls of my fortress. The codes to the system had all been changed, and I had a security team stationed outside the property every hour of the day. The only way Bolton could get to Astrid was if he bombed the place—but he would kill her in the process.

I was at the Underground with Octavio and the guys, preparing our hit against the Brotherhood.

“We go in guns blazing,” Octavio said. “Hit the entire network and force them to give up Bolton.”

I wasn’t convinced anyone knew where he was. “And if no one talks?”

“Someone knows something,” Octavio said. “The leader of the Brotherhood doesn’t just let his position go. He’s in communication with someone. If we can’t pick them off one by one, we’ll just take the whole damn thing.”

I didn’t tell Astrid about the plan. If I did, she would worry herself to death, and she was already worried enough about my well-being. I didn’t leave her with Axel, not when he’d already done me a huge favor by protecting her once. “Let’s do this.” I strapped on my bulletproof vest then grabbed a rifle from the cabinet.

My phone rang in my pocket. It was Axel. If it were anyone else, other than Astrid, I would have ignored it. “Let me call you back.”

Silence.

I waited for Axel to say something. “You there?”

“Oh, I’m here.” A smirk was in his voice, a dangerous one. “Axel, however, is not.”

I froze on the spot, and for the first time since I could remember, I was truly scared.

“I’ve got Scarlett here,” Bolton said. “And I thought Astrid was feisty…”

Scarlett’s voice came from the background. “I swear to fucking God, I’ll kill all of you—” Her voice cut off like someone had punched her in the face.

My heart cracked right down the center, but I kept an even tone. “What do you want, Bolton?”

“I’m glad I have your attention, Theo,” he said. “Axel won’t come to her rescue, not when I have a gun to his daughter’s forehead?—”

“You motherfucker?—”

“Yep, that’s me,” he said simply. “But all of this could have been avoided if you just hadn’t touched what was mine. So, you’re the motherfucker, if you ask me. But I have some good news for you. You can save Scarlett and Axel and their two little ones if you do what I say.”

I knew what he wanted—Astrid.

All the guys knew something was amiss because they stopped what they were doing to stare at me.

If I handed her over, I might not get her back. He would take her somewhere far away, make sure I couldn’t find them again. She would endure his malice and his cruelty. But if I didn’t hand her over, Scarlett would die.

I couldn’t even entertain the idea. Couldn’t imagine the look on my brother’s face when he found out that his wife died because I refused to give Astrid up. That he would raise their children as a single father because he’d lost the love of his life.

Fuck.

“Are you listening, Theo?”

It took all my strength not to strike with an insult, to be obedient. “Yes.”

“Good,” he said. “You’re going to walk to the street outside the restaurant. A black van will pull up, and you’ll get inside. No guns and no men.”

My eyes shifted back and forth, trying to understand these demands. “I don’t understand.”

“They’re simple directions, Theo.”