Page 82 of Broken Discipline
The nanny laid lifeless on the backseat. The suited men pulled out the twins, throwing them over their shoulders.
Mama!Larkin’s mouth twisted into that word.Mama! Mama!But I couldn’t hear her voice. I watched helplessly as she slammed her fists into the man’s back.
Leon’s eyes were wide and full of pain. His lips moved:Where are they taking us, Mama?
The suited men dropped them into the back of an SUV with tinted windows. I pushed myself forward—I’d hold on to the car for dear fucking life if I had to—but the soldier tightened his grip around me, and two more men appeared at my sides, aiming their guns at my head.
The van drove back up the ramp, merging back with the highway.
How had I let this happen?
The soldier let go and I fell to my hands and knees, tiny granules of asphalt digging into my palms. I lurched, bile piling onto the ramp, acid burning my throat.
Where was Finn?
The shadows of the three board members covered me. I bared my teeth. I couldn’t rely on Finn anymore. I never could. If I had protected them like I always had,by myself,my kids would still be okay.
I pushed myself up to my feet, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand.
“The twins have nothing to do with this,” I hissed.
“And that was supposed to be the beauty of it. I knew that. Finn knew that. But Bruce, gullible fucking Bruce, thought the placebos I had given him had actually worked.” Upchurch pressed his hands together. “Perhaps knowing that his bloodline is at risk will make your precious husband actually come forward and give me what I want.”
I lunged, my hands curled into claws. “Fuck you—”
But the soldiers swarmed me, putting me in an abrasive lock. Blood puffed under my skin, every part of my body swelling with pain. I couldn’t move.
Saunders waved to me before he settled back into his own car. “They’ll be at my place, Mrs. Carter. Tell your husband to find me.”
“I’ll fucking kill you,” I said, pointing at the board members. “I will kill all of you.”
“This is nothing personal, Mrs. Carter. We simply need to negotiate properly with your husband.” Bloom bowed his head, dipping back into his vehicle. “We hope you understand.”
“Tell your husband to come and find me,” Upchurch winked, then closed his car door.
Everything was bright, but my mind was dark. My children were gone. Our nanny was dead. There was a good chance that every guard at the Carter Compound had been executed too.
And it was all because I had followed Finn deeper into this trap, when I knew better. I knew he wasn’t safe.
He might have been Hyde Griffin, the man I had fallen in love with, the father who had given me the twins.
But Finn Carter was still a dangerous man, and it was my fault for following him into the darkness.
CHAPTER 20
Finn
Pressing the phone to my ear, a weight filled my chest, hardening my stomach, my fingers curling into fists. While I was literally putting out fires, Upchurch’s soldiers—better ones this time—had managed to take out all the guards at the Carter Compound. Besides the few guards that were completing contracts, the rest of Carter Care was effectively gone. Chip had been taking care of Edith’s corpse, but was back at the Compound now, watching over Ramona.
“Then where the fuck did they go?” I asked.
“They took the children back to the Saunders Estate,” Chip said.
I rubbed my forehead.Fuck.My mind raced with emotion.
“They won’t hurt the children, sir,” Chip said. “It’s a tactic to get you to cooperate.”
His voice unnerved me. Chip had been trained, like me, to be emotionless. To hold everything back. To treat these situations like events that simply passed. To see the children as humans, not people. And in any other situation, I would have been the same way. I had been like that with Edith.
