Page 75 of Saving the Last Heir
“That’s what I thought you’d say,” Joseph said, then snapped his fingers.
Luca dragged the egg back inside. Without her in sight, I managed to compose myself enough to wipe my tears and turn my eyes back to Joseph.
“Who is it?” I asked.
“Good boy,” Joseph cooed, patting my shoulder, and it was all I could do not to reach out and tear it off his body and beat him to death with the limb.
“Who?”I repeated, almost shouting at him.
“Brynhilda Bauer. Age eleven,” Joseph said without hesitation, grinning at me with that knowing smile that said he knewexactlywhat he was doing and was loving every second of it.
“Bryn?” I muttered, too shocked to comprehend what had just been said.
“Oh,”he said with mock realization, snapping his fingers, “That’s right! That’s your best buddy’s little sister, isn’t it?”
16
JACKSON
Igaped at him in horrified confusion. Christian had two siblings—his little brother Broderick, who was seventeen years old, and his baby sister Bryn. She was a sweet kid who enjoyed watching old-school musicals and going to plays. She wanted to be a stage actor when she grew up. I’d held her the day she was born.
The Bauer family had been one of my family’s closest friends for as long as any of us could remember, one of the greatest alliances between wyrm and winged dragons. We’d vacationed together, celebrated birthdays together. Christian’s dad and my own had been as close as I was to Christian. When my father succumbed to The Vanishing, Christian had been my support system while my mother mourned. We hadn’t been able to hang out much the last three years, as my responsibilities had grown with the decimation of winged dragons, but that didn’t change our relationship. I’d never had a better friend than Christian Bauer, and there was no one—no one—Christian loved more than his little sister.
My head shook back and forth, moving of its own accord. “You can’t be serious,” I muttered.
“I’m very serious, Jack,” Joseph said. “Snatch the girl and bring her to me. That’s that.”
Breath hitching, fingertips tingling with terror, I said, “What are you going to do to her?”
As Joseph smirked at me, the dragon claw on my leg tightened, squeezing so tight that he was close to snapping the bone. The mob boss put a hand on my shoulder and looked deep into my eyes. His grin appeared genuine, but his eyes told a different story. There was a soulless and sociopathic emptiness in them that made my guts turn to water.
“That’s actually an interesting question,” Joseph said. “You see, I like tying up loose ends, and right now, this car is a loose end. The Torrences won’t stop looking for it until it’s found. I hate those fuckers. I also hate the Bauer family. I figure, why start a war on two fronts when you can simply let your enemies duke it out and fuck each other up.”
Shaking my head, I did my best to see where this was going, but couldn’t.
“What are you talking about?” I said.
“You see,” Joseph went on, like a professor trying to explain something to a slow and helpless student. “We know Christian Bauer helped you steal the car. We have eyes everywhere, Jack. Which means the Bauer family is partially responsible for the slight against the Torrence family. The Bauers know who that car belongs to. Me and my people take the car, get the girl from you, dump her bitch ass in the passenger seat, and run this piece of shit car into a lake. Phone the cops with a tip, andboom!” Heslapped his hands together. “Blood feud between the Torrence and Bauer families. With a little poking and prodding from the shadows, the two will burn themselves out, and I can step in and sweep up the ashes, so to speak.”
He gave a self-satisfied chuckle. “It’s a good plan, if I say so myself.”
In my mind, I saw a flash of Bryn, on her knees and crying, as one of these fuckers walked up and pressed a gun to her head. I could picture thepopof the gun and the way her small body would crumple to the ground.
“I won’t do it,” I said, fresh tears filling my eyes. “I won’t. I refuse.”
Joseph looked like he’d been expecting that answer, he straightened and bellowed out a single word. “Luca!”
From inside the house, the earth-shatteringboomof a shotgun blast shattered the quiet. I screamed, an inarticulate cry of heartrending loss and fear.
“NO! GOD, NO!” I lunged forward, yanking on the talon that held me in place, tearing the skin off my fingertips as I tried to get to the house. Tears and snot ran down my face as I screamed in horror, my heart threatening to explode. Nausea roiled in my stomach as bile rose up my throat.
No matter how hard I pulled, the claw wouldn’t release. I could shift. I’d be stronger than the thug holding me then, I could…
At the door, Luca dragged the egg into view, whole and unharmed. I sobbed in relief. Nausea burned in my gut, making me want to puke. He could have killed her, could have ended my sister in an instant, and there wasnothingI could do about it.
Joseph knelt beside me. “You see, Jack, you might be an alpha, but there are times in life when that doesn’t mean shit. Right here, right now,I’min charge. I always get what I want. If I want your sister’s egg blown to shit? I get it. If I tell you to steal me a car? I get it. And, most importantly, if I want you to kidnap some snot-nosed little rich bitch, I fucking get it.”
He gripped my hair and yanked my head back, pressing his face so close to mine I could smell his fetid breath.
