Page 137 of Fourth Point Of Contact

I hurried up the steps, cursing when I stepped through the door and saw Edu’s old man gripping his daughter around the throat as he held her to him. Brock had a clean shot to his head, but the knife pressed to her throat made it an uneasy kill.

“You don’t want to do this,” Edu snapped, his eyes flicking to the little girl.

“Do you have any fucking idea what you’ve done?” his father snarled. “I have cops looking for me everywhere! My wife fucking left me!”

“You were holding her in a fucking hole!” Edu shouted.

“Easy,” Brock hissed as the blade nicked her skin.

My eyes scanned the room, taking in Harper standing just ten feet behind the old man with her daughter in her arms. She had no fucking clue when she let him in that he was a monster. And now, there was no way out for her.

Lock pulled up seconds later with half of OPS on his tail. I moved back outside to fill him in, but the look on his face said he’d seen it all. He must have hacked into the video feed.

“Scottie and Max, go around back and lock this place down!” he ordered. “Sit-rep,” he snapped as he climbed the steps.

“The target has a knife to the girl’s neck. Harper and the baby are just behind him. Lock,” I said, stopping him from going in. “Whatever you do, do it fast before Edu loses his shit.”

He nodded, then stormed past me into the house. I was fucking useless out here with no way to help and no weapon to take anyone out.

32

EDU

Terror leachedinto my veins the moment Brock announced my old man was here. How the fuck could I have been so stupid not to tell anyone about what he’d done? I hadn’t even had the balls to tell Harper yet, and now she was in there with my kid and my sister.

“Put the knife down!” I snapped, holding my gun steady.

The knife pressed into my sister’s neck. A small trickle of blood slid down her skin, but it was the fear shining in her eyes that nearly had me buckling. After all the years she’d suffered with this asshole, I was supposed to keep her safe, and look at where she was now.

My finger itched to pull the trigger and take him out with a headshot, but I didn’t dare risk it with Eden in his grasp. I couldn’t risk that he would jerk and slice her open.

Sweat trickled down my brow with every second that passed. My heartbeat hammered in my head, making it impossible to hear anything other than my own thoughts.

You should have taken him out years ago.

Eden is suffering because of you.

You were a coward then, and you’re a coward now.

Every horrible thing I could possibly think of ran through my head on a reel. Memories of my mother’s blood spilling on the floor clouded my vision. Blinking away the images, I focused on the here and now. That’s all I could deal with. I took a deep breath and willed away the negative thoughts that would do nothing but get us all killed.

“Put the knife down,” I repeated.

“Why? So you can put a bullet in my head? Or so that you can turn me in?” He barked out a laugh, the knife digging into Eden’s skin again.

I heard Lock on the steps, commanding everyone as they gathered around my house. I was covered, but that didn’t mean we were all getting out of here alive. My mind spun as I tried to come up with the best solution to get Eden out of his grasp, but I knew my old man well enough to know there was no talking him out of something once he made up his mind.

“Take me.”

Those two words cut through me like a knife, piercing my heart. Time slowed as my gaze drifted to Harper. She lowered our daughter to the ground, pushing her behind her legs as she stepped forward.

“Harper,” I croaked out, desperation leaking out with every syllable. “Don’t.”

But Harper never did listen to a damn thing I said.

“Take me,” she repeated, coming face to face with my old man. “You’ll never get out of here alive if you hold Eden hostage.”

“Yeah? And you’d let me go?” He dug the knife in deeper and Eden whimpered as tears rolled down her cheeks.

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