“It’s not good for my child to be around people who hate each other,” I tell her, getting pissed. She may have some valid points, but she doesn’t get to tell me I don’t know what is best for my daughter.
“True. But if there’s a chance those parents could find their way back…”
“There’s not. I respect what you’re trying to do,” I tell her, even though I’m lying, “but this is not your business, and since you haven’t walked in my shoes, you can’t really tell me what you would do.”
“Point made,” Nicole says, standing up with her baby. “But I’ll tell you what I do know, Beth. I know that I would fight like hell to keep my man. It wouldn’t matter how long we were apart, or what was between us. I’d fight.”
“How nice for you,” I tell her, getting up to leave. I definitely need to take Gabby and go back to my room.
“I just have one more thing to leave with you, Beth, then I’m done.”
I sigh hearing her say that, but resign myself to listen. “Please just say it and get it over with, because I’m kind of done here.”
“Will you be able to live with the fact that you didn’t even try? Will it ever bother you to know that you basically just handed the man you love over to another woman?”
I swallow hard and turn away from her. I don’t want her to see my face when I lie.
“I … don’t love Skull.”
“Then I guess it won’t bother you at all when he finds someone else.”
“No, it … it won’t bother me,” I whisper brokenly, walking towards my room and ignoring the tears that again threaten to fall. It won’t bother me at all.
It will kill me.
I hold my fist up in the air to tell my men to hold tight. I’m not about to ruin shit when I’m so close to getting Colin Donahue in my hands. He’s the first step to my revenge. Pistol is a barely-breathing dead man. When I have Colin chained up beside him, maybe I’ll be able to finish Pistol off. I’ll center my rage on Colin, the fucker who truly deserves it.
When I got the intel that Colin was hiding out in this remote cabin in the backwoods of Georgia, I wanted to scream. The fucker thought he could hide from me? He wants to try and take what is mine? I’m going to make him regret the day he was born. All he fucking did was make things easier for me. I still would have stormed the gates of his pretty house on the hill. It doesn’t matter. I don’t give a fuck about anything at this point except revenge; it’s the only thing that’s keeping me going.
My men are tired. I’m driving them hard. We’ve been on the road for two days straight and, besides a quick nap in a fucking pig sty, we’ve barely taken a break. I can’t help it. Being away from Beth is making me nervous.
No. Gabby. Being away from Gabby, not Beth…
I grab my binoculars and zoom in on the window that’s closest to me. There’s three heads in there. I can’t tell that any of them are Colin. I need to just go in and make my move. There’s something feeling off, though. I’m trying to ignore it because I’m so fucking raw about things right now. It’s probably nothing. Still… the lives of my men are at stake here.
“You’re sure you checked the perimeter carefully?” I ask Beast.
He’s back to doing things for me, but he’s not adjusting great. He’s letting his hair and beard grow out again. It’s slowly covering the wicked scars that twist the skin on his neck and up the side of his face. He doesn’t talk a lot anymore. His voice is hoarse and quiet. I haven’t asked, but I’m sure that’s beyond his control too. Just one more thing the explosion has taken from him… one more thing Beth’s family has taken from him.
“It’s clear.” His voice is animalistic, like a growl.
I hold my hand back up using a series of numbers to signal the beginning of our plan. I’ve ordered radio silence. I can’t take the chance that they have technology that might monitor that shit. Colin might not be fucking smart, but he has money, and money makes even the dumbest of men at least look more intelligent.
I’ve split the men up in teams of two. I’ll charge in front with Briar at my side. Beast and Sabre will follow guarding our backs, then Shaft and Latch will follow and so forth. Hopefully by the time Roadkill, our newest recruit and last in the formation, follows in, there won’t be a need for anyone to be watching his back. Hopefully by then I have Colin’s neck in my hands and I’m choking the life out of the son of a bitch.
We start moving forward, staying in the brushy cover of the woods surrounding the cabin. When we reach the edge, I take a breath to move forward. I’m at the base of the steps along the small wooden porch when I see it. The small pinpoint red light flashing on my pants leg. It’s connected to something that’s mounted underneath the step. It’s way too small of an area for a gun, but I’ve been in the military and I’ve dealt with this shit way too long. I also know what the Donahue’s calling card is.
One word registers in my brain before I call out. Bomb.