When Jae shook me awake, I almost punched him. I’d been in the middle of a dream about silken, snow-colored hair draped over my thighs while a pair of perfect crimson lips slid up and down my dick, and I seriously didn’t appreciate the interruption.
“We’re home, boss,” Jae told me with a smirk that I wanted to smack off his smug face. Then I realized I was effectively humping a pillow. Fuck’s sake.
Clearing my throat and thinking unsexy thoughts, I pulled my game face on. I wanted to get this over and done with as quickly as possible so I could get back to Shadow Grove. All I could do was hope she actually read my note and didn’t think I’d left for the fun of it. Idiot that I was, I hadn’t taken her number so I couldn’t text her.
I also had to hope that fucking snake Leon didn’t suddenly decide to come back for her while I was gone. The way her eyes softened when she spoke of him scared me. She was too attached, and he needed to be taken care of. Sooner rather than later.
“So, what’s the game plan?” Jae asked as we disembarked the jet. “You just here to question the prisoner, or…”
I grunted. Yeah, that extra detail needed taking care of. “That too.”
We hopped into the golf cart that was left at the edge of the airstrip, and Jae drove us back to the house where the rest of my team should be waiting. They’d come back here after the little territory dispute that Mo handled, taking a couple of weeks’ downtime while plotting out our next strike on the Guild and their Project Remus. It was something I should be here for. I should be the one driving the mission forward and motivating the others, but my heart wasn’t in it.
Arriving at the house, I stormed inside like I was planning on shooting everyone in sight. Eli spotted me first, silently questioning my arrival before melting away out of sight. He’d known me long enough to see the murderous rage I was in the grips of. It was a rage I’d forced myself to put a lid on for the better part of two days, but now it was all spilling over.
“Sam!” I bellowed, my voice bouncing through the house. When he didn’t immediately appear, I turned my scowl on Jae. “Find him. Drag him out here by his balls if you need to.”
Jae’s eyes were wide as he nodded, murmuring his understanding. He didn’t understand, though. He had no fucking clue. But he was about to find out.
“Hey, Kai!” Cyryl called out coming inside from the pool with a towel draped over his shoulders. “What’s with the thunderous expression, my man? You couldn’t blow your load again now that she’s not scared?” He winked, teasing, but I wasn’t fucking amused.
“Where’s Sam?” I snarled instead.
Cyryl shook his head, confusion clear on his face. “I dunno, boss. I’ll go find him for you, though.”
I was seething now. “Good. Do that and hold him here. I need to go chat with our guest.”
Not waiting around for Cyryl to ask questions, I stormed over to the stairs and stomped my angry ass down to the basement. This island wasn’t set up like Croatia, with a dungeon. Instead, we just had our prisoner handcuffed to an exposed pipe in the laundry, and he gave me a calm appraisal when I threw the door open.
“Ares himself,” the guy said, his lip curling with a sneer. “Finally gracing me with your presence, huh?”
I clenched my teeth and unlocked his handcuff from the pipe so I could jerk him to his feet by the front of his dirty shirt. My anger was fucking close to out of control, so I needed to put this greasy shithead in a chair before I put his head through a wall. So I shoved him out into the main room of the basement and pushed him into a chair.
Eli had silently followed me down to the basement and used a handful of zip ties to secure our prisoner to the chair. But that only made me think of Danny and how she’d laughed at my amateur restraint choices. I needed her to teach me those fancy rope knots she’d used on her victim. Maybe we could use them somewhere else…
“Let me save you the effort of asking,” my prisoner drawled, his gaze bouncing between Eli and me. “I’m not telling you where to find her, so you may as well just shoot me and be done with it.”
A small amount of respect for the man rose up inside me. If he’d been willing to sell my woman out easily, I’d have made his death all the more painful.
“We don’t need to know where she is,” I rumbled, folding my arms over my chest. “I just came from her bed. We’ve reconciled our differences. So to speak.” My smirk spoke volumes about what that meant, and I expected to see jealousy and rage on the tattoo-covered man’s face.
Instead, he just laughed. “Well… I didn’t think you had it in you, Ares. Have you dealt with Leon yet? Because trust me when I say, he’s not letting her go. Not for fucking anything.”
Just hearing that name made my temper flare, and I delivered a vicious right hook to his face.
“I suggest you not actively try to piss me off, Carlos,” I spat, flexing my knuckles.
He spat blood onto the floor, then eyed me up. “What do you want if it’s not where to find Danny?”
That was actually why I’d taken him. My research had told me he was the one helping her stay off all official radars. It was his jet that she used to get around and his helicopter that allowed her access to that little cabin in Iceland. Hell, even the cabin was purchased by Carlos and transferred into a fake name for Danny to own.
Why though? He didn’t take the bait when I implied Danny and I were fucking. So why the fuck was he doing all this for her?
“Boss!” Jae called down the stairs. “Sam’s here!”
I drew a deep breath, exchanging a long look with Eli, then glancing down at Carlos. “Find out whatever he knows about her escape plans. Where she’d go if she wanted to run and hide. Where she’s hidden Stanley. All of it.”
Carlos started laughing, and I got the distinct impression he wouldn’t be easy to break. It made me even more enraged, and I punched him again for the trouble.
“If he won’t talk, fucking kill him,” I snarled. I hated that she turned to him for help before me. Hell, she never even asked me for help, she called my sister.
“If you kill me, she’ll never forgive you,” he taunted me, his bloody lips curled up in a mocking smile. “She’ll hate you, and there won’t be anything you can do to fix it.”
Shit. He was probably right. But there was no need to tell him that, so I just gave Eli a long look and stomped back upstairs to deal with the real reason why I returned to my team.
“Kai, you’re back,” Sam greeted me, his smile brittle. “Cyryl said you were looking for me?”
My glare was pure venom as I snatched a chair from the dining table and pointed to it. “Sit the fuck down, Sam.”
His expression darkened and his eyes flicked around the room. Searching for an escape route or an ally? “Kai, man, I dunno what—”
“Sit down!” I roared, and he flinched before doing as he was told.
Mo stepped forward, a worried frown creasing her brow. “Kai, why don’t you tell us what’s going on?”
My focus was all on Sam, though. “You gonna tell them, Sam? Or am I?” I was so mad, so hurt by his actions, I was practically choking on the words.