Page 75 of Midnight Torment

I moved to the helm of the boat, slowly counting in my head to stop the fury inside from unleashing itself. An envelope was tucked behind the wheel, with the wordprivatewritten on it. I slid it into my pocket and prepared the boat for launch. There were small private islands in the Mediterranean off the Italian coast, and Megan’s tracker had indicated she stopped there.

I plotted a course far enough away that we wouldn’t garner attention until we got an idea of the security situation. Flynn moved around in the background, humming to himself. Personally, I wanted to strap as many weapons as possible to me, sail right there, and blow that asshole directly into the afterlife. I took out my phone and turned on the app that linked me to Megan. There was a steady heartbeat registering on the screen and that little line was the only thing ensuring I didn’t lose my shit.

Flynn appeared beside me. “She’s a fighter,” he said, nodding to my phone. “Men like us don’t deserve someone so kind.”

“We have a chequered past,” I replied. “I walked away to protect her and ended up together anyway. I’ve been a complete dick.”

Flynn chuckled. “We all have in our own ways. All you can do is look to the future since the past is behind you.”

I wished it was that easy.

After I turned off the app, I opened the letter. It was from Ash.

I got Caleb to add a few extras.

Check the hold.

Fly high, my friend. A.

Since we were on autopilot, I took the stairs down into the hold. There were two of the nifty flyboards I had ordered a while ago but didn’t have a use for. Ash had laughed at the time and told me they were a rich man’s toy.

He was right. I’d played on one for a while and taught myself the balance needed to operate it, but had never had an opportunity to take one out in the field.

“Fuck, yeah,” Flynn said, coming down the steps behind me. “Are these what I think they are? I have always wanted to try these babies out.”

“Looks like today is your lucky day,” I replied. “They’re small enough that we won’t register as a plane on any radar system. I had planned on going in by sea, but this works too.”

At least one of our group was using their brain. Caleb had been right to tell me to phone the guys. They were able to assess the entire situation without being as emotionally involved as me.

“I can try one of these out while we’re skirting the area and make it look as if we’re here for a holiday,” Flynn said, lifting one of the boxes and taking it above deck to study it.

I took a rare moment to myself and sat in the darkness of the hold, still trying to stabilise myself after that alarm sounding. For a few moments Megan had been dead, which meant only one thing— they were torturing her already. At least we gave our prisoners a few hours to compose themselves before we started to take them apart.

This was my fault, and for the first time in my life, I hadn’t a single fucking clue what I was supposed to do. Megan was the one weakness I’d spent five years desperately trying to hide from the world, and it was all too late. The side of my fist slammed against the wall, and I screamed to release all my frustrations and fears.

I creaked my neck from side to side and straightened my spine. Every one of my fears was pushed down into the box inside my head that I firmly put a lid on. No one would ever see my emotions or what she meant to me. I was the man who loved her, but right now I needed to be the coldblooded killer who would destroy everything in his path and leave a body count.

Step by step, I returned to the sunshine, leaving all my emotions behind me in the darkness. If anything happened to her, any humanity I had left would stay in the darkness with the tattered remains of my heart.

“You good?” Flynn asked, glancing up from where he sat on the wooden floor surrounded by the parts of the flyboard. These ones had a motor on them, so we didn’t need the pipes to feed into the water.

“Yeah, just getting rid of some excess emotions.”

“I hear you. Those pesky little bastards creep out to bite you in the ass when you least expect them.”

I nodded once and returned to the helm to send a few messages to the guys on our private group chat.

Me:Thanks for the gifts. On our way now.

My phone pinged about a minute later.

Ash:We have all the details for Megan inputted into our network. You doing okay?

In other words, they’d seen that alarm activate earlier.

Xavier:Her stats have returned to normal. Cas says she has a few allergies, so she may have reacted to something they’ve given her.

I wanted to throw my phone in the ocean. Why the fuck was Cassandra involved?

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