Page 58 of Keeping Kasey (Love and Blood #3)
It takes a torturous hour to reach the coordinates due to the condition of the roads. When I turn onto the near-invisible driveway, I’m grateful this car has four-wheel drive. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have made it two feet.
I reach three cars parked in front of a small cabin—two white trucks matching the one I drive now, and an old sedan. I barely turn the car off before I’m out and striding toward the small cabin.
And when I say small, I mean small .
From out here, it looks like the entire building is roughly the size of my bedroom.
I reach the door, and it opens for me. The blank and punchable face of Emilio Diaz greets me, and he holds up a hand to halt me.
Two soldiers walk past him, and I lift my arms while they pat me down, never tearing my glare from the Diaz underboss, who is no doubt enjoying every second of this.
The soldiers nod to Emilio—confirmation that I’m unarmed—and he smiles. “Welcome, Mr. Consoli.”
I ignore him and step into the cabin.
When I do, my senses take in the surroundings one at a time.
The smell—heavy with the putrid scent of lost life, mixed with the musk of several men in a confined space.
The taste—distinctly of blood, sweat, and death.
The feel—chilly from the unforgiving blizzard, and thick with the tension of bracing for a fight.
The sound—howling wind against the thin cabin walls that barely hold the place up, and harsh, labored breathing.
But it’s the sight that crushes my soul and drowns me in grief.
The woman I love lies unconscious on the couch, nearly unrecognizable.
She looks nothing like she did in the pictures Diaz sent me. She’d taken one, maybe two hits then.
Now?
Her face is covered in dried blood—a sick mosaic of blue, purple, and red.
She has a gash on her forehead, a black eye, and the bruising around her nose suggests it’s broken.
Her arms have similar bruises with rare patches of unharmed skin, and the way she lies on her back—with one arm over her stomach and the other at her side—I can already tell that one shoulder is dislocated.
Blood soaks her shirt from a cut at her collarbone and deep incisions at her wrists from where she must’ve been restrained with metal cuffs.
She trembles where she lies, and I’m certain her clothes conceal even more injuries.
I have never experienced something so visceral and excruciating as seeing Kasey beaten nearly to death.
Knowing the pain she’s endured, the pain she’s in …
There’s no doubt about it: if Kasey doesn’t get medical attention soon, the injuries could be fatal.
I need to get her out of here.
I process all of this in two seconds. Then, I’m throwing myself toward Kasey, desperate to offer her any sort of relief—but I don’t move an inch.
I’m held on either arm by Emilio and another soldier.
“I believe you have something for me,” Leon says with a taut smile.
“You touched her,” I grate out in barely audible words. “You hurt her.”
“I would never touch a woman who wasn’t my wife,” Leon says, then looks at the man who stands to his left, giving me a languid grin. “Rex, on the other hand, got a bit carried away—I will admit.”
I study Rex for all of three seconds—which is all I need to memorize every detail of his dog-like face. As I stare at the blood coating his knuckles, I swear to myself that I will kill that man in the cruelest way imaginable.
But right now, I need to take care of Kasey.
“You had no reason to touch her. You knew I would come.”
“I’m sure it doesn’t come as a surprise to you that this one isn’t good at listening to directions or showing respect. She also isn’t the point of this meeting. The list,” he demands with an outstretched hand.
“She needs medical attention.”
“She won’t need anything if you don’t hand me the list.” To emphasize his point, Leon pulls a gun from a holster in his jacket and points it directly over Kasey’s forehead.
“Don’t,” I plead, ignoring his smug grin. “What do you want with it anyway?”
If I’m going to hand over two hundred known traitors within Moreno’s family and mine, the least I can do is attempt to determine why.
I jerk out of Emilio’s and the soldier’s hold, and they let me go. I pull open my coat, and Leon shifts his gun to me.
“Do something stupid, and I will kill you, then your heir.” He nods to Kasey, whose hand rests over her abdomen.
I lift my hands in surrender. If something happens to me, Kasey has no chance.
“You already know I’m unarmed,” I remind him through gritted teeth. He doesn’t lower the gun, but I take the lack of being shot to mean I can continue. Slowly, I reach into my jacket, pull out the envelope, and hold it out in front of me.
“That doesn’t answer my question,” I say as Emilio takes it and walks it to his cousin.
Leon opens the envelope, looking over the information with a smile. “You would’ve killed them, no?”
“They’re traitors.”
Leon nods. “Exactly. That’s two hundred men with intimate knowledge of the inner workings of two of my enemies. I save these men from certain death, and in turn, they hand over that information.”
“You’ve started a war over a few recruits?”
“You and I both know this is more than a few recruits . You asked for war when you aligned with Moreno on the basis of a sham marriage. Do you think the other families are taking well to the prospect of an alliance that size? That’s without mentioning how your sister now holds a position as a capo within the Moreno family. ”
“Then your problem is with Moreno, not me.”
“Ah, but Moreno didn’t locate the traitors—you did.
Besides, he took what he wanted; that’s not unnatural.
What is, however, is that you let him . Any real man in your position would never have allowed his sister to marry an enemy.
But I’ll admit,” he says, lifting a hand, “I’m being harsh.
I’m genuinely impressed with how you’ve managed such a smooth transition of power.
You earned my interest, and I’m curious to see how you’ll retaliate if you survive the night. ”
“This is all a game to you?”
“On the contrary, it is with the utmost severity that I regard the complete lack of respect for the traditions our families have upheld for years. If you think I’m the only one who has an issue with this mass alliance, then you’re far more out of touch than even I realized.
You’ve prompted the other families to start looking to align as well.
So, if you ask me, it is you and Moreno who have started this war.
” His smile turns triumphant. “I’m just the first to win a battle. ”
“You got lucky,” I clip. “It won’t happen again.”
“ Lucky ?” Leon laughs, a deeply amused sound.
“I don’t believe in luck, young Consoli.
I believe in leaking an email to one of your associates after you began inquiring about a cybersecurity specialist. I believe in following the girl until the perfect opportunity arose to inject her with a tracker.
I believe in slipping into her apartment to track her progress on the retrieval software.
I believe in tipping you off to her location when it was ready.
I believe in using the very passionate neighbor to bring her to me, so I don’t even have to lift a finger to have you at my mercy.
No, Consoli, I don’t believe in luck . I believe in winning. ”
I don’t bother hiding my surprise.
“You planned all of this.”
“Not all . I didn’t know she made the communications program, and I certainly didn’t expect her to get pregnant with your spawn, but it certainly made for a fascinating turn of events,” he says with an easy smile.
“Lo-gan,” Kasey rasps. My name is nearly unintelligible, but I’d know it on her lips anywhere.
And with that, I don’t care about anything Leon has to say. Nothing is keeping me from Kasey now.
No one stops me when I rush to her side, kneeling on the floor and hovering over her, with no clue how I can possibly help. The pill bottle in my pocket seems pitiful compared to the damage that’s been done.
“Ready the cars,” Leon barks to his men, then looks down on me with gross satisfaction as he says, “I do hope you survive this. As I said, I’m curious to see what it is you will do next.”
With that, Leon Diaz and his soldiers leave the cabin. They pile into the three white trucks, but not before slashing the tires on the sedan. It’s to ensure we can’t stop him from poaching the traitors, but leaving us stranded in this weather is effectively a death sentence.
Tears spring to my eyes for the first time since I can remember. As I cradle Kasey’s bruised cheek in my palm, I hope beyond reason that, somehow, I can get us out of this.