Page 48 of Ma Belle Marguerite (Hidden Secrets #1)

Alexander

C ole makes it into the vent, but I’m not far behind him. I’m finishing this today. No matter what.

I reach a fork in the vent, left or right. A loud banging noise followed by a grunt sounds from my right. I’m taking a risk of losing him, but I decide to follow the noise. It has to be him, he’d be hurting after taking a bullet to the shoulder.

Speeding up as much as I can, I crawl a bit more before I reach a room. The grate is knocked off already. That was most likely what I heard. He shouldn’t be too far now.

I pull my gun from my belt, where I had shoved it while trying to get into the vent, and quickly scan the room. It is full of crates that I recognize. These are my guns and others from our shipments that had gone missing. This mother fucker is going to regret crossing me.

If he weren’t already a dead man, he definitely would be now. There is no way my father knows about this. He would have taken Cole out personally by now. He cares about blood as much as he cares about what meal he’ll have next.

I walk as quietly as possible through the crates, listening for anything to tip me off as to where my piece of shit brother is hiding.

I can hear faint shuffling noises, but it’s hard to pinpoint exactly where they’re coming from. “Grow a set of balls and show your face, mon lache .”

“I am not a coward! I just have more self-preservation than you.” The nerve of him.

It sounds like he is behind me and I spin around in time to see his boot sticking out past a crate. I can’t help but laughing, “ Sure , if that’s what you want to call it.”

“You’re the idiot that ran into the bunker to save your precious woman. Did you even stop to think that I had left her there to draw you out and kill you?” His voice is irritating me and just making me more and more angry.

So those bombs were meant for me after all. I start to step forward but pause as I hear noises behind me. Before I have the chance to turn around, I feel a sharp pain in my calf as a gun goes off.

“You’re going to regret coming here. I’m going to make you and Bella watch my men kill your children. Then I will take what I want from Bella before I kill you.”

I am going to literally skin him alive! He will never lay hands on my children or Bella. He’ll have to kill me first. Wait, he is still in front of me. Who is behind me?

“Take him alive dumbass.” He yells at whoever just shot me.

“Yes, boss,” the voice sounds familiar. “Are we taking him to the other warehouse or to his own basement?”

Why can't I place that voice? The throbbing in my calf has me distracted, but whoever it is that shot me in the leg will die too. My leg doesn't matter right now; I just need to get my brother out of here and make sure Bella and the kids are okay.

Taking advantage of their misconception that I am weak I play into it.

Pretending to try to limp away so that the guy behind me will get closer seems like my best option until one of my guys hopefully finds me.

I can hear his footsteps behind me once he sounds close enough I act like I'm about to fall.

I am too close to him to be able to get a shot off safely in the tight space between the crates.

Instead, I reach down and grab the knife that is hidden in my boot.

As I feel his hands on me, I spin quickly and stab him in the gut. He rears back once he registers what happened, and I see his face. It’s the kid, Josh’s understudy. What the fuck! No wonder my brother had access to so much stuff, and was always one step ahead; this fucker was helping him.

I don’t have time to deal with this now, I need to finish things with my brother first. I highly doubt this kid is going anywhere with a knife sticking out of him.

“Fuck!” I hear Cole behind me, and his footsteps start to shuffle away. All I can think is, not today, asshole, not today . I pick up my gun from where I dropped it on the floor and chase after him ignoring all the pain radiating through my body.

“You think you're so smart Cole, but you won't be making it out of here on your own. You are mine now. I would have given you the whole business, but you had to go and be greedy and try and take everything from me instead.” I mock him as I stalk him down the aisles between the crates. I feel like a lion hunting his prey.

“Father will never give it to me unless you’re dead.” I hear his voice to my left, “You've always been his favorite, and I intend to get what I deserve for putting up with being the useless other child all my life.”

“He would have given it to you because I would have left. He would have had no other choice.” I need to keep him talking so I can hear where he is.

“You're right. He won't have any other choice but to give it to me because once I get rid of you and your children, our father is next, and I will take over everything with Bella by my side.” He is very close, and his words make me very angry.

I have to fight to keep my hands steady as my whole body shakes out of pent up rage.

“What makes you think she would stay by your side if you kill me and her children and tried to blow her up?” All I can see is red, but I need to remember I want to prolong his death, not make it quick. He needs to suffer.

“She’ll come around eventually when I show her what kind of man you really are.

Besides, she wasn’t supposed to still be there.

You showed up faster than I expected and I had to hope that you’d get her out.

She’s replaceable though. Pussy is pussy.

” His voice comes from almost beside me.

“You got her pregnant and then left her alone with no one to take care of her. You didn’t want her and just saw her kids as a way out.

I see your plan. Toss the boy in fathers direction so he’ll want him as the new heir. I won’t let that happen either.”

He’s trying to push my buttons, and it is working. I can’t let him get into my head. I need to remain calm for Bella. I hide behind a box and hope that he’ll come to me. This game of cat and mouse is getting old.

“Once I show her this letter you’re leaving her, she’ll see that you just want to use her and don’t actually care about her.” His voice comes from even closer.

What the fuck is he talking about?

I hear him bump something and curse, and I take that as my cue to attack.

Jumping up from my crouched position I tackle Cole to the ground.

He isn’t hard to pin down. I guess taking all the MMA lessons paid off for me.

Slamming my elbow into his temple, knocking him unconscious is all I can do in this small space.

I see a knife fall from his hand. Nice try, I taught you that trick.

There is a rope not far from us hanging from a crate. Dragging him over I use his knife to cut a section off and tie him up. Once I have his hands secured and he is tied to a post, I grab another section of rope to deal with the computer tech that was spying on me for Cole.

I find the kid still passed out with his hand on the knife. He was smart and left it in. I will make sure he survives long enough to get information from him. So maybe it wasn’t so smart after all. This will just be one of many, many new holes in his body.

“Boss, where are you?” D’s voice sounds not too far off.

“I’m over here in another room. Come through the vent, I don’t know how else to get here and haven’t seen any doors.

I have Cole and our apparent mole tied up.

” As much as I hate to say it, I force the next words out.

“Get a medic as well. We need them alive long enough to get back to the basement and get the information we need from them.”

“On it, Boss!” D answers as he pops out of the vent nearby.

“D, Can I use your phone to call Bella quickly and make sure that the kids are out of the house before we head back? I don’t need them seeing these two looking like this and asking questions.” Thinking back to breakfast, I’m quite sure that they are not ready for this side of my life just yet.

“Sure Boss.” Handing me his phone, he says. “We got these two boneheads; you do what you need to. Josh will meet you at the SUV when you’re ready.” D grunts as he lifts the unconscious kid, and another one of my men that followed them grabs my brother.

“Try to keep the kid out of Josh’s sight for now. I don’t want him to know just yet.” I don’t think he would be in on all this, but I need to be more careful. There are too many people who are close to me who have betrayed me. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

I dial Bella’s number, and it just rings until it goes to voicemail. That isn’t unusual if she’s talking to one of the other moms at the school.

I check the time and see that she should have returned home by now. Getting that uneasy feeling in my stomach again, I bring up the tracker app and see that not only is she not at home, the kids' phones are offline.