Page 121 of A Captive Situation

That last question was a test. He was looking for something in me now.

If someone did that to my mother? To Sawyer? Would I wipe out an entire family?

The answer was swift inside of me. I would have no problem killing the ones who had a hand in hurting either of them, but extending that to others who had no part in it? No. I wouldn’t kill anyone who was innocent, but I knew that absolutely no Santorini existed anymore. Even second cousins and third cousins had been executed no matter where they lived. One was in Singapore and had no idea of his relations, and he’d been killed. It was a mystery that cops talked about because no one had a clue.

“I’m not like you in that regard.”

He raised his chin up. “Not a killer?”

“Not a mass murderer.” But that was a lie. It’s the first job I’d been trained for in my life.

He smirked, the first emotion showing from him. “That’d be the cop inside you. Once a cop, always a cop.”

“Yeah, sure.”

He tilted his head to the side, sizing me up again, as if looking for something he hadn’t looked for before. “You’ve always been the lone wolf too. Except you had a cub with you.” He paused. That smirk only deepened. “Your brother. Justin.” He was so fucking smug, indicating his eyes. “I saw the pictures. I share these with him. It’s the one family trait I noticed. Your mother. Your brother. My mother. There’s a few others in the family with the same eyes. Do you miss him? Your brother. You dedicated so much of your life to protecting him.Coddlinghim.”

My blood started to heat. “I didn’t coddle him.”

“You did.” His voice was even, casual. “If you hadn’t sheltered him so much, he would’ve had a different reaction when he found out who your cousin was working for. That’s the real reason he’s dead, isn’t it?”

My blood was fast on its way to boiling. “You don’t know shit about that.”

His eyes went back to looking like death. The smirk disappeared, his mouth returning to being flat. A flat affect, it’s a term used tocategorize someone who didn’t show emotions. Some people had resting bitch face. Creighton had a non-emotive face. It was his default setting.

The corner of his mouth lifted up, a rareness. There’d never been a picture of my cousin grinning or smiling. I saw it now and it was surprising, but none of it reached his eyes.

He was gone. There was no redemption for Creighton Lane. He was a crime lord and he had no soul. He would never care about anyone. He would never feel guilt or shame. He was a corpse that walked around with a ruthless brain.

I pitied Blake Green.

“Your strength is also your weakness. You’re a lone wolf. That makes you dangerous. Those men couldn’t kill you because of how good you are at being the lone wolf, but it made you weak today. Out of everyone in this game we’re playing, you have the most power, and you never once thought to wield it. You could’ve used our shared family, called in some of the Worthing men to back you up. You were police. You could’ve called in favors, used those resources. It’s the biggest gang, after all. Or the other two kings of this city. Why are they not here having your back? Why are you alone, like you always are? Being a lone wolf was reckless, but that’s your nature. I wondered what you would do, but a part of me knew you wouldn’t go against your nature. So very few actually do. It’s who you are. What other options do you have except to be who you are? Still, though. I hoped you would surprise me today, but you didn’t. There’s no cavalry coming for you. It’sjustyou. I’m disappointed.”

I was done with the formalities. “Don’t you want to know where your woman is?”

His eyes sharpened, but he blinked lazily. “There have been a few changes since our initial agreement.”

The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. “What changes?”

“Well, the first one is that I’m aware you don’t have my toy. You, in fact, don’t have her at all.” He motioned to his men, and a far door opened.

I shifted, my hand reaching for my gun. There was a flap on my vest, which his men would’ve skipped over, not questioning it. They wouldn’t have felt for the small compartment where my gun was hidden. It was designed to mold against my body so their hands shifted over it, just assuming it had a rough extra layer.

I began tugging at the flap, pulling the Velcro off slowly.

More of his men stepped through the door. They were dragging two people with them.

No.

Everything stopped for me.

My body went cold.

No. No. No . . .

“I mentioned a cub earlier.” Lane’s smirk was back. “I wasn’t only talking about your brother. I was talking about your son.”

They were dragging Sawyerand EJinto the warehouse.

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