Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 155900 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155900 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
But I had no time to acknowledge it before he tore himself away, grabbed his bag from the ground, and left me with the pounding of his boots on the stairs before the door clicked shut behind him.
FORTY-SEVEN
KANE
I sat in the driver’s seat of the white Suburban that we had hidden behind a hedge at the far end of the lot. Near the sidewalk where Sophia Damascus walked her son to and from school each day.
It was the only time we thought she might not be being watched, though undoubtedly, there would be a tracker on her phone.
We’d made a pass in front of their house right before dawn when we’d made it to Eugene, Oregon, verifying her piece of shit husband’s truck was there. That it was the same as the intel Cash had gotten that he drove a brand-new gray Tundra.
He typically left for work at seven thirty in the morning and arrived back at just after five, though based on the information Sophia’s best friend had given, it wasn’t atypical for him to drop in at random hours throughout the day to make sure she remained bent to his twisted, tyrannical will.
We needed to nab them before they got onto school property. Back where we’d remain invisible, and they’d simply disappear into the morning.
It was the only way we were going to get them out of this without a showdown. Without anyone else realizing what was happening. We needed them to become little more than a missing person’s report.
And we needed Sophia’s cooperation to do it.
For her not to freak out when we grabbed them. For her to remember the hints that her best friend had given her that someone was coming. That there was going to be a way out of the torment that plagued their lives.
That purpose pounded inside me. The one I’d made for my mother on that fateful night when I realized the path I’d been traveling had to come to an end. When I stood there realizing who I was meant to be.
To fight for those who couldn’t fight for themselves.
In every way.
“This feel off to you?” Theo asked. He itched in the passenger seat, dude antsy as fuck, continually peering through the window at the slip of street we could see from our vantage point.
She wasn’t due to walk down that street with her six-year-old son for seven more minutes.
I blew out through the tension that thickened the air. “We knew this extraction might be messy.”
It was the whole reason he and I were there. The reason we’d taken over for River when this was normally his gig. To protect him from the added dangers when he had his family he needed to be present for.
Now he was standing guard over mine while I was here.
The tattoo on the back of my hand throbbed. The stacked Ss and the wilting rose on top. I’d never been so sure that there was no turning back.
“There’s just…something in the air. Don’t like it.” In agitation, Theo ran a tattooed hand through his crop of black hair.
“Nothing but the fact that bastard is breathing the same air as us from a mile down the street.”
Where he worked as the manager at an autobody shop.
Theo scratched at his jaw. “Think we should just take him out and rid the world of his stain rather than putting Sophia and her son through the bullshit of starting new lives.”
Something unsettled rumbled in my stomach, and I clutched both hands on the steering wheel. “Not the way of Sovereign Sanctum.”
We did our best to keep it clean unless circumstances required otherwise.
It was the safest for everyone involved. At least, that’s what we’d decided when we’d established it.
Droll laughter rolled out of Theo, and he swung his attention toward me, staring me down. “That’s not the way you do it, though, is it?”
My chest tightened. “What are you talking about?” I defended.
Disbelief filled his features. “Don’t play dumb, Kane. You know exactly what I’m talking about.”
Fuck. He knew. How the fuck did he know?
“Not Sanctum business.” I tried to assert it casually, though it cracked through the clench of my teeth.
Air puffed from his nose. “Sanctum is family, and you know it, so it most definitely makes it our business.” He paused for a strained beat before he continued. “Know why you do it. Know what you did and what you continue to do.”
What the fuck?
Adrenaline pumped through my system. “Theo…”
I struggled to find a way to explain my actions. Why I’d gone behind Sanctum’s back for all these years.
His head barely shook. “You did the right fucking thing. Those bastards deserved to die, just like they still do.” He shrugged a nonchalant shoulder. “Just so you and I are on the same page. And now that you have Maci and Emery in your life, figured you might need backup.”