Page 52 of Unmasked Rivalry
“Please don’t touch me,” I whisper. “If you touch me, I will crumble and I can’t crumble. I just want my brother free and this to be over. Please, just let me have that.”
I turn before I can see the expression on his face.
If I do, I’ll fall into his arms.
I drive home with my eyes so blurred that I can barely see the road.
I have a plan.
And this time, nobody’s going to fuck it up.
I need this to be done.
14
“Here, connect this,” Zane says, thrusting a cord at me.
We have been in this barn for about five hours, setting everything up. It took so long to get it out of the basement, but I think they have the right idea doing it in the barn. The explosion will be bigger, and it is a good reason to get Ralston close. After all, he will be coming to collect cows.
That’s what we’re going to use to lure him in: the promise of all the remaining cows being sold to him. A good amount of money to run through the books. It will get him here, I have no doubt about it. It’s a solid plan, and I can only pray nothing goes wrong.
For right now, though, we need to focus on this.
There are wires and cables everywhere, but Zane moves around them effortlessly, like he has done this a million times before. His phone keeps buzzing, so he keeps tossing it into piles of insulation to ignore it, only to dig it out a minute later when he inevitably needs to check something.
I snap a connector onto the relay and motion to him. “Where does this go?”
He takes it without arguing, opens up a metal case, and screws it in. “You’re good at this, you know that?”
“At following instructions?” I dust my hands off on my jeans. “Yeah, I’ve always been amazing at obedience.”
Zane snorts.
I’m untangling a knot in what looks like three yards of copper wire when the barn door creaks open. Sunlight flaresin, followed by the silhouettes of Nia and Mera, both carrying brown paper bags and laughing about something.
“My God, look at the mess you two have made,” Nia calls as she drops the bags on a hay bale, hands on her hips. “Here.” She rifles for a sandwich and tosses it my way without waiting for me to answer.
Then she throws one to Zane, who takes it very appreciatively.
Mera looks around, eyes wide. “This is terrifying. I’m not even going to ask how you know how to do this.”
Zane winks at her.
We all sit and eat, and I have never been more grateful for a sandwich in my entire life.
I’m starving.
We are halfway through when more trucks pull up, and the barn fills quickly. Wolfe, Knox, Talon, and Sable all walk in. Sable has a heap of water bottles, and the other guys are all carrying boxes full of things for Zane. I don’t look at Knox. I keep my eyes on the sandwich in my lap, hyper-aware of the way his boots sound on the concrete.
“Got a surprise for you,” Wolfe says.
I look up, meeting his gaze. “Me?”
“Yeah, you, darlin’.”
I’m confused, but the confusion doesn’t last long because Mera does a happy clap, and then I follow her eyes to the barn door where there is a man standing, grinning at me. I know that face. I have grown up with that face. Prison has changed him, sure, but it’s still the same brother who has been with me through thick and thin.
For a moment, I can’t breathe. My brother is here. Out. “Ruger?” I ask, voice cracking.
