Page 68 of Waging War
For all the panicking he showed, Diablo is now eerily calm. “You’re still the same weak man, Ben.”
“What did you do?” I ask, breathless.
The bright light of the raging fire flickers in his cold eyes. “What needed to be done. I can’t take a risk on anyone using this place against me.”
A second explosion rocks the ground under our feet, and we’re forced to take another step back.
“I’ve got some calls to make to set up arrangements for our new location. We’ll reconvene at the hotel in two days.”
All I can do is nod. I’m utterly spent, emotionally and physically. My knees shake with exhaustion when I move and I nearly fall to the ground, but I won’t give Bruce that satisfaction ever again.
I grab the handle to the door of my truck, feeling a wave of nausea weakening my stomach. All I want is to climb inside and get as far away from here as imaginable. I pull the door open just as I hear Bruce call after me.
Pausing a moment to pin me with beady black eyes, he says, “If the Wolves had anything to do with that shipment, I want to make them pay.”
Ice freezes every cell in my veins.
“In fact, why don’t you get rid of Kenny’s daughter?”
A knot forms in my stomach, mingling with a rush of anxiety already posting up shop. “You ready to start a war? Because that’s exactly what that will get you.”
“The less stragglers I have around, the better. Besides, it’ll be a nice little message to make sure they heel.”
My jaw works as he steps past me toward the idling supply truck.
“Slit her throat, toss her into a creek—I don’t care. Just make it clean and keep it quiet from Jackie. I’m not sure if I can trust him, but I’m going to find out very soon.”
CHAPTERSEVENTEEN
Hazel
It’s been hours since Ben left, yet here I sit, cross-legged on the floor in front of a dulling fire. My eyes flick toward the door. Any moment, he’ll come running back to apologize for being such an asshole.
But the minutes tick by, and he doesn’t come back to comfort my aching heart and body.
What if I told you that I’m the reason you were taken from Lucky’s in the first place?
I press two fingers to my temple to ease the pounding.
I was certain the man who’d drugged me and Jules was up to no good. There was just something creepy about the way Ethan ate her up with his gaze and seemed to watch her every move. Intuition burned my gut, but Juliana was hurt, and I thought I was being a good friend by appeasing him.
Even still, Ben can’t be the reason we were taken…can he?
Bile rises as I remember the way I’d been manhandled just before being shoved into a trunk.
“Should have just stabbed him,” I mutter against my knees, hugging them tight as I shiver.
I’m not sure if I’m referring to Ethan or Ben.
Yet as furious as I am with how he’s handled all of this, that undeniable pull toward Ben lingers. I pick at the edge of the quilt I’m sitting on, trying to forget about the food he’d gotten for me, or the way he’d held me when I told him about being abused. Even the feel of his wickedly tempting body wrapped around mine all night continues to torture me.
“It was just sex,” I say aloud. “Nothing more. He doesn’t care about me. Heleftme.”
But if that’s true, then why does it taste like a lie?
The sound of crackling embers is the only response I get.
“This is what happens when you trust your libido over your gut,” I mutter.
