Page 122 of A Captive Situation

My knees almost buckled.

They dropped both of them on the ground between us. His men went to each, grabbing a hold of their hair, and yanked them up so they were kneeling on the cement ground. His men took position. Two behind each of them. Two guns pointed at their heads.

Both had been worked over with bruises already showing. Their faces were swollen. Their hands were taped together, the tape so tight their hands were turning white. The same duct tape was over their mouths. Fresh and dried blood covered their faces.

EJ’s eyes weren’t focused. They’d tortured him.

Jesus. EJ.

His sweatshirt was torn. His jeans roughed up. Bloodied. He had no shoes. His feet were bare.

Sawyer was alert, but pained.

She met my gaze, an apology flaring brightly in her eyes.

Rage swept through me. It wasn’t fast, how I might’ve assumed it would be. It was slow, blanketing over every organ, every limb, every cell, every tendon.

It was shutting everything off inside of me.

“Like I was saying earlier, you don’t have my toy, but you know how to find her. My men informed me that Blake went with your woman’s family. So because of that, I’ll give you a choice. You go and get my toy for me, bring her back to me, and I’ll reward you. You can choose who lives. Your woman or your son.”

He wasn’t going to do this.

I had no choice. I had no options, just the one I came here to do.

“You should’ve done your homework better on me, cousin.” I didn’t recognize myself. That voice that came out of me belonged to someone else, someone who was at his end. I sounded like Lane, and so be it. “I didn’t call on our family because they would’ve come, but you would’ve killed them. You’re smarter than any of them. I’m aware of this. I’m sure you’re smarter than me, but in the end, you would’ve killed the rest of our family and in the process, I would’ve gotten you.” My voice cracked, thinking about a possible shoot-out with Sawyer in the middle, with EJ in the middle, and hardened again. “Maybe I could’ve called in favors from some police buddies. But you would’ve been alerted by that too. You have men on your payroll, I’m sure of it. You would’ve known before we even showed up. And as for Ashton and Trace, you’re wrong about them.” My hand moved away from my flap. My gun would need to stay where it was. “I’m done with taking orders. I’m done with receiving ultimatums. That means I’m also done being used as a pawn. You want your woman? Too bad. She doesn’t want you.”

There was no way out of this for me, for Sawyer, for EJ now.

I said, “I’ll giveyouone option.”

Something flickered in his eyes. Interest. “What?”

“My life for theirs.”

Whatever it was flickered right out of his eyes. They returned to being flat. I momentarily interested him, but just as quickly bored him. “That’s nothing new. You’re going to die no matter what. You were always going to die. You’ve just been very good at evading it until today. You are a dead man standing right now. That’s all you are.” His eyesturned mean. “I don’t care enough about you to kill you myself. This is the only choice you will get today, and I’m being gracious in giving this to you. You can save the life of one of these two. Your woman or your son. You failed to bring me my toy, so one of them will die because of that, but the other I’ll set free. Your life will take their place.”

I shook my head, a part of me disassociating with myself.

My soul was leaving my body, stepping away because of what I would need to do, what I’d been trained to become.

His men took the safety off their guns.

Creighton said, “Choose.”

I did. “My son.”

Chapter Forty-Three

Sawyer

Jake looked ready to collapse as soon as he chose. My heart ached for him.

When they brought me in, I tried to let him know. I was sorry for running. I was sorry for not trusting him. I wasn’t sorry for helping Blake, but I was sorry I got caught. I was sorry for not thinking anything through, but there were other things I wanted to tell him.

I wanted to tell him all the things that I wasn’t sorry about. Meeting him. Kissing him. Falling in love with him. But it was almost over. The fight had started to drain from him and as soon as he said those words, an order was given.

EJ was dragged out of there.

---