Page 137 of Creed

“Ryn can’t fight eight armed men,” Tag says in horror. “They’ll overtake her. They’ll—”

“Take them.” I grip his shoulder. “We can’t let them take them. Ortez… He’s a fucking piece of shit.”

“I know.” Tag looks ready to go nuclear as he stares at me. “We've just discovered that this is worse than we thought. Ortez and his crew plan to give Sophie to a death ring.”

I stagger back. “What?”

No. Fuck. No.

“I don’t have time to tell you more right now, but we need to get to them.”

“But we’re fucking pinned in here!”

I’m wild, and Tag fists my shirt. I watch as he battles for his own calm and wins, which settles me. This is a man used to chaos and warfare. This is a man who is a kindred spirit, a brother in arms, who needs to get to the woman he loves.

An understanding passes between us when I meet his dark, determined eyes. “Let’s go kill some motherfuckers and get our women.” I clasp his hand again. “Brother.”

“Brother.” He grips my hand just as hard. “Let’s finish this.”

It was a fight for our lives in the warzone behind Electric, and my family will have their work cut out to deal with it. I killed tonight, all of us did, including Antonio and Miguel. But my only focus is getting to Sophie.

Tag is as determined to get to Severyn, or who he calls Ryn.

He and I race through the trees while the voice over the earpiece continues to talk to us.

Tag wasn't fucking around when he said he was trusting me with more than his life.

I've put a few things together: Ryn's uncle is Zane Andrews, who is a billionaire tech mogul. His partner of Gado Technologies, a world-renowned technology and security company, is Kotan Luo, who is Japanese and that matches the accent of the man speaking over the comms.

Tag, Nexin, and Rolf are Len's team, not her liaison, and from the sounds of it Ryn is somehow involved on that team as well. She has a tracker; that's the only thing stopping me from completely spiraling.

But I don't focus on any of clandestine details I've discovered tonight, because Kotan has put us back on Ryn's comms and we can hear what is happening.

My knees almost buckle when we realize Sophie and Severyn are being surrounded and taken.

Tag frantically consults the tracking program on his phone that shows Severyn’s tracker. I don't need to see it to know… we're too far away to stop it.

His eyes are dark with lethal intent and a roaring need to get to Ryn. “She’s trained for this,” he tries to reassure both of us.

We listen as the men jeer in triumph, and I can envision thosedead fucking bastardssurrounding the girls. I nearly hit the ground again when I hear Sophie’s voice—so terrified, but still so strong as she curses her father

He's dead. I'll fucking rip him apart with my bare heads.

Tag and I race as hard and fast as possible—the man is a machine, and I match him stride for stride—but I know we’re too late. Sophie and Severyn are quiet now; the motherfuckers sedated them.

Kotan has taken us off Ryn’s comms, but I don’t think Tag realizes it yet.

He’s a rabid wolf, ready to rip the world apart to get his mate back when we reach the spot the girls had been only minutes before and find it empty. He’s all darkness, fury, rage, and hate mixed with terror.

Kotan tries to reach him, calm him down, but Tag hears none of it.

“She shouldn’t have been here.” His eyes are wild. “She left this life. Fuck!” He grips his head. “She’s not even disguised.”

There’s no time to get my rampage of questions answered about Severyn Andrews because that’s not important now. Our women have been taken.

To bedelivered to a death ring.

“Focus, Tag!” I slam him into a tree. “We’re wasting time.”

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