Page 17 of Deceit
The words continued to repeat for the duration of the drive home and theentire time I stared at her sprawled out on my bed while I waited for the family doctor, Doc Harris, to arrive at the house to check her over. A green-eyed monster threatened to burst from under my skin with every passing second.
Despite Theo and me looking almost identical, and women almost alwaysfalling at their knees for him, I was never jealous of him. Never felt animosity or wished our roles were reversed.
With the exception of one person.
Evenin his death, jealousy streaked through me like a fire blazing its waythrough my veins. It was a miracle I hadn’t cracked any teeth from where my jaw clenched so damn hard as I tried to push the jealousy away and allow hate to replace it.
It was easier to hate Sofia for the way she made me feel about Theo. And forthe way she made me feel about her.
When a gentle knock sounded at the door, and Doc Harris poked his headthrough, relief swept through me. I could escape the scent of cinnamonthathad filled my room and take my anger out on someone who deserved it.
Briefing Harris on what had happened and my suspicionthatSofia had beendrugged, I left him to examine her. Taking large strides across the grounds of the house to the lock-up, adrenaline pumped through me.
The lock-up was a converted barn situated at the edge of the property. Asidefrom security cameras watching over the barn from every angle, there were a number of security measures in place to prevent unauthorized access—namely Angel snooping in places she shouldn’t be.
Despite Riley’s warningthatshe wasn’t allowed within a hundred meters ofthe lock-up, Angel had been caught several times trying to get inside, which usually resulted in Riley losing her shit, and Angel throwing a tantrum, much to Kai and mine’s amusement.
The two girls were as feisty as each other.
Since moving into the house, the lock-up had only been used a few times,mainly because people knew not to fuck with the Wolfes. After the battle against our enemies where we reclaimed the city, the people of Hollows Bay were reminded of who was in charge, and for the most part, they fell in line.
There were the odd few, though, who thought they could challenge our authority andhad found themselves chained up in the lock-up, where Kai and I reminded them of who ruled the city.
Some walked away, others didn’t.
The cunt chained up in the lock-up awaiting his fate wouldn’t be goinganywhere.
Tapping in the code to open the first door, I used my thumbprint to unlockthe second, before standing in front of the face scanner to gain access through the third door. Like I said, extra measures to keep a prying thirteen-year-old girl out.
When the door swung open, I marched inside, finding my prey tethered to achair, and five semi-automatic rifles pointed at him. He’d been stripped down to his boxer briefs, and the bruises decorating his face and torso were in full bloom, his skin a mixture of deep purples and reds. The result of my handiwork. He’d managed to crack one eye open, but the other was firmly swollen shut.
“Boss. We managed to get a name out of the punk,”Ernie said, lowering hisgun as he approached me.“Allow me to introduce you to Adrian Powell, brother of Markus Powell. He’sevengot a stag tattoo.”
My gaze narrowed on the fucker. Markus Powell had been the deputy of TheStags, the gang who had the moronic idea that they could claim our city, along with someone we'd once thought was a friend.Family.
Markus was the fucker who’d thrown Sofia into a cell with Kimmy, a friendof ours, and hadthenproceeded to try and assault Sofia. Kimmy had intervened, preventing Markus from doing whatever he’d planned to do to Sofia, but as a result, he’d beaten Kimmy black and blue.
When Rafe and I, along with several of our men, found the women in thecell and freed them, Kimmy told me what Markus had done. A rage so blinding had consumed methatwhen I found Markus, I riddled his torso with bullets.
After we’d reclaimed Hollows Bay, Kai made it his mission to rid the worldof The Stags, and we’d succeeded.
Or so we thought.
At least the Herrera cartel wasn’t involved. The fuckers had threatened tokidnap and sell Sofia to the highest bidder on the black market inrevenge for a drug dealthatwent wrong between them and Georgio.They hadn’t made their move. Yet. But it was only a matter of time, andgiven the lack of precautions Georgio was taking to protect his daughter, I was certainthatwhen they did strike, they’d succeed in their mission to kidnap Sofia.
Which was why I was already making plans in my head to make sure Sofiawas brought under my protection, and why Kai and Riley had cut short their honeymoon, and were on their way home.
Keeping my composure, I nodded.“I’ll deal with him from here.”
“Sure thing, Mr. Wolfe,”Ernie replied, shaking my hand with his free one.“Do you want more men stationed around the property?”
“Station an additional four men at checkpoint one. We’ll discuss furtherwhen Kai’s back,”I said, clapping Ernie on the shoulder.
Ernie was a good man, and he knewjusthow serious Kai and I were aboutmaking sure our women were protected properly.
Not that Sofia was my woman.
Fuck.
