Page 66 of Dagger

“What’s the plan?” I asked as I finally slowed down just outside the airstrip, Maverick and Hawk on either side of me.

“Diesel and Rocky are on the way with backup just in case we need it. Slate’s into the surveillance system so we’re just waiting. Can you do that?” Hawk gripped my shoulder tight, forcing me to look at him.

“I don’t fucking know, man. I can’t think straight.” I pointed at the airstrip. “She’s with him enduring who the fuck knows what, Hawk!”

“Yeah, man, I get it. Maverick gets it too. It’s hard to do the smart thing when the woman you love is in danger.”

I blinked and then frowned. I knew I was thinking it, but to hear one of my club brothers say it out loud brought it home. “No, you’ve got it all wrong. It’s just casual, nothing like what you guys have with Laura and Grace.”

Maverick barked out a laugh and shook his head. “Oh shit, he doesn’t even realize it yet?”

I tried to get my head back into the game. I needed to focus. “We need a plan. Those fuckin’ hangars have too many entry and exit points.”

Hawk and Maverick shared a look while I focused on the property. It was large and mostly abandoned, but the third building from the left was occupied.

“There’s a light on over there and the door is partially open.” I pointed. “We should move in close. Maverick, stay behind and let the guys know what’s going on.” I walked away before either of my brothers could talk me out of it because therewas no fucking way I’d leave Sinclair alone with that asshole another minute.

“Wait up, brother,” Hawk grunted, climbing the fence behind me but jumping down before I found the ground. “I get it, man, you love her, but you’re no good to her or me dead. Slow the fuck down. I got your back.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but, ultimately, I nodded. “Of course.” We moved in silence towards the open hangar door and slipped inside unnoticed. I pointed to the small Cessna with its engines running and a pilot conducting pre-flight checks.

“This is your fucking fault. If you’d never been born, he would have come back!” His voice sounded far away and crazed.

“How old are you?” Sinclair’s voice was calmer. Quieter. “Seven or eight years older than me? He had plenty of time to go back before I was born, yet he didn’t.”

That’s my girl.

She was scared, every syllable she uttered was shaky and thready, but still she fought back.

“Shut the fuck up!”

“Just like Dad, you don’t like hearing the truth.”

I crept forward, keeping my form hidden behind boxes and shelves that supplied the private flights that went in and out of this place. Finally, I saw them. She was sitting on a box beside one of the planes and he was pacing in front of her. My gaze landed on her tear-streaked face, on the lump that formed on the middle of her forehead, on the plastic ties that kept her arms bound behind her.

Motherfucker!

“You know what, Nicholas?” She sniffed back more tears as she shook her head, a sad smile on her beautiful face. “I wish he’d gone back to find you too. I wish he’d gone back to you and your mom after my mom died. I lost her too, but I didn’t get to grieve, I didn’t get a normal childhood, I didn’t get anything but leftovers. It should’ve been you carrying the burden. It should have been you!”

Nicholas stepped closer and leaned down until he was right in her face, the look of pure hatred turned his face red and pinched his lips. “Lying about him won’t save you.”

Sinclair didn’t blink. “I’m not lying, but if you need to think our father was a saint to make you feel good about what you’re about to do, I can’t do anything about that. I’m sure your mother would be proud. Very fucking proud.”

His nostrils flared and then his hands were on Sinclair, gripping the back of her neck in a firm hold as he dragged her off the box towards the waiting plane.

“The pilot’s on board,” Hawk whispered, pulling my attention from Sinclair. “We have to act. Now.”

“We’re here,” Rocky whispered. “Diesel and a few others are on the other side of the hangar. We got you covered, brother. Get your woman.”

That was all I needed to hear before I took off. Nicholas had her halfway up the stairs of the jet when I pulled out my gun and shouted, “Stop!”

He stopped, but not before he hooked an arm around Sinclair’s throat and pulled her flush against him, the perfectshield against my bullets. “You just don’t know when to fucking give up. What is it about her, does her pussy taste like whipped cream?” His laugh was dark, almost threatening.

“Wouldn’t you like to know, you little shit?”

“You’ve gotten the last taste you’ll ever have,” he snarled. “She’s mine now, and soon, she’ll be gone.”

I shook my head. “That’s where you’re wrong. She’smine, and there’s nothing I won’t do to keep her safe.”

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