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My heart hammered in my chest as I realized the implications behind what he was saying. When I thought the government was screwing us over, it went so much deeper than that.
“The men in my unit,” I choked out.
“Killed for the cause,” he answered.
“And the Senators behind it?”
“Put in place because we knew before they did what greed would do to them. They were never fighting for a noble cause. They were money-hungry bastards who only saw dollar signs. The lives of those soldiers was the cost.”
“And you fucking knew it,” I snapped. “You let good men be killed, and for what?”
“To keep the balance,” he answered simply. “Everything comes at a cost. Whether it’s one life or a hundred, there will always be a price for freedom.”
“What freedom? You manipulate everyone!” I shouted. “You play us like puppets!”
“Because it’s what needs to be done.” He glanced down at my brother, still passed out on the floor. “He will either join us or he’ll suffer the same fate as you.”
“Then put the fucking bullet in my head right fucking now. Be the father I always knew you were. More interested in furthering your own agenda than ever being the man who stood for right and wrong.”
A smirk tilted his lips, but again, the guilt in his eyes shone bright. I just couldn’t put my finger on why. But slowly, his face grew serious again. “It was why I knew I had to distance myself from you. You could never be turned. Not even when Kate was taken from you. I found that out the hard way. But Cash…”
His eyes flicked down to his other son.
“With the right leverage, Cash can be turned. All it took was one simple request.”
Rage was boiling under my skin at the implications of his words, but I needed to hear it for myself. “What request was that?”
“All it took was whispering in his ear,” he answered, his voice drifting off. “Rafe did all the hard work for me. He went to the island. He got himself taken and got on Zavala’s bad side by beating his wife—your sister. And when he was about to be burned alive, all I had to do was ask for one simple thing.”
I swallowed hard, my gaze drifting to Cash’s prone body. “You asked him to shoot Rafe.”
He nodded. “He couldn’t stand to see his brother suffer. It’s amazing what a little plea like that will do. The guilt was eating him alive. He would do anything to get revenge for what happened to his brother, and in search of the answers he so desperately craves, I’ve managed to turn the tides in my favor.”
“Seems maybe a good initiation would be to have Cash shoot his brother,” the man next to my father said. “Have him prove himself. Otherwise, we’ll never truly know if he’s on our side.”
Michael stiffened, but agreed. “Get him tied up. We leave in ten.”
Then he turned on his heel and walked away. I was yanked to my feet as two of the men grabbed Cash. I knew there was no way I was getting out of here, but the rage burning in my gut made it impossible not to attempt to escape. With the last bit of energy I had, I snapped my head back and hit the man behind me in the face. I swung hard to my right, slamming my fist into the man next to me, but another of the suits was already on me, tackling me to the ground. With a quick twist, I wrapped my leg around his waist and spun him over. I didn’t bother with fighting. I grabbed his head and twisted hard, snapping his neck.
A hard boot hit my side, cracking my rib. Grunting in pain, I fought through the nausea rolling in my stomach and kicked out, but I wasn’t fast enough. A meaty fist slammed into the side of my face over and over until I collapsed on the ground. Blood pooled in my mouth as another boot slammed into my side.
Black spots filled my vision as I laid on the ground, staring at my brother. He was still out cold, and I might never get the chance to tell him he was fucking wrong.
He should have called Eva.
I should have never gotten involved.
36
CASH
Black filled my vision and a suffocating fabric covered my face, but I forced my heart rate to steady. As sounds slowly came back to me, I noted the steady drip of water and the muted sound of voices. The cloying scent of blood permeated the cloth covering my face enough to realize that wherever I was, there was a dead body nearby.
Dead, or very nearly dead.
I took a moment to focus on my own physical state. Between the pounding in my head and the roiling in my stomach, I was in pretty shitty condition. Not that this was the worst way I’d woken up. When I’d been taken in place of Rafe, that had been worse. Weeks of torture at the hands of those maniacs had left me physically broken and mentally checked out.
I swallowed past the bile sitting in my throat and forced myself to concentrate. I wouldn’t survive this if I couldn’t fucking remember what I’d been taught. I didn’t survive years in the military only to be taken out now. Besides, my mission wasn’t over. I had to concentrate.