Page 85 of Betrayed

“We can’t,” I begged. Blake was my everything.

Blake stepped in front of me, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. “You have to. I can’t let them hurt Meg because of me.”

“Blake,” her name falling from my lips like a prayer.

“I have to do this, please,” she begged. “It’s the right thing to do.”

Cupping her face, I said, “I can’t lose you.” I didn’t even have her yet, not really.

“You won’t. You’ll save me.” She placed one small, trusting hand on mine. “I know you will.”

Her trust was a balm to my soul. And a dagger to my heart.

I wanted to promise her I’d bring her home safe and sound, but I wouldn’t lie to her.

“I’ll go to the pits of hell and battle Satan himself.”Not a lie.

Her soft smile soothed my nerves. “They’re after my money, not me. I’ll just tell them I’ll give them whatever they want, if they promise not to hurt me. You’ll have plenty of time to rescue me.”

So innocent. So trusting.

So wrong.

Blake turned twenty-five in six days. Six days too many for her to be in the hands of someone with a vendetta against her father.

“Blake,” I begged.

“Jay’s here,” Jack interrupted.

“We have to do this,” Blake answered.

I held Jack’s phone out over Blake’s shoulder. The second my hand was empty, I used it to trace the soft, beautiful edges of her face. Memorizing every inch as tears blurred my vision. I blinked them away as I lowered my forehead to hers.

I whispered, “I know, but I’m terrified of losing you.”

I heard the knock and let Jack handle it.

A few seconds later, Jay’s shocked, “Whoa,” broke up the moment.

I lifted my head, willing laser beams to shoot out of my eyes.

He held up his hand. “Sorry, man.” He turned to Jack. “Dad said you’d fill me in on why we’re all going back to the office.”

I wrapped one arm around Blake’s shoulders, pulling her in close. “It’s not safe; they know where it is.”

“It’s the safest place we can be,” Jack countered.

Fair point. The entire building was bulletproof, but we had to get there first.

I nodded at Jack over Blake’s head.

“We leave in fifteen. Grab what you need while I fill Jay in,” Jack ordered. His voice was less shaky now that we had a plan,but his composure wouldn’t last long. Jack loved Meg with every fiber of his being and then some.

I’d watched him fall apart when the trafficker she’d testified against came back for revenge and kidnapped her. I helped him stack bodies outside the cabin as we shot our way to her. I stood beside him as he forced the guy to shift his gun from Meg’s temple to his chest, giving Jamie a clean shot. Jack took two bullets for Meg that day.

He’d sworn he’d destroy heaven and hell to bring her home safe.

I made the same silent vow to Blake.

---