Page 87 of Reckless Dynasty (Knight's Ridge Empire 9)

“A life of wealth, power, and the protection of a whole family not enough for you, soldier?”

“I owe my wife more,” he says, his voice giving away the fear he’s trying so hard to hide.

“And you think a life that is now going to be without you is better than this one with her husband alive?”

“T-they promised i-it would b-be easy.”

“Well, yes. I guess leaving a door open is fairly easy. But you seem to be forgetting something,” Damien states, his voice as hard and cold as always. “The Italians are stupid, power-hungry fucks. Did you really think you’d get away with this? You were the last two to see him alive. Toby, release him,” Damien demands. “You need them both breathing a little longer yet if we’re going to find your girl.”

The guy before Damien pales.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Did you really think that Jonas was going to skip off into the sunset and leave us all to our happy lives? I’m sorry to break it to you, but this life isn’t like that. And we had him down here for a goddamn good reason.” His voice deepens, getting more and more deadly by the second.

The guy I’d almost strangled to death heaves in hungry breaths as he tries to get enough oxygen back into his system. He’d better make the most of it, because as soon as we have all the information we need, the pair of them are fucking dead.

“Now,” Damien says, his eyes lifting to his son and beckoning him over. Pulling a switchblade from his pocket, he hands it to Theo, whose eyes blaze with bloodlust. “Are we going to do this the fun way or the easy way?”

Theo clearly doesn’t give a shit about the answer to that question, because the second he wraps his fingers around the knife, he drives the blade straight into the back of the guy’s hand that is strapped to the arm of the chair, making him howl like a wild beast.

“I’m not really feeling easy tonight, Boss,” Theo says casually, pulling the weapon back out of his hand and wiping it clean on the guy’s trousers as he whimpers.

“Fair enough. So… where has Jonas gone?”

“We don’t know, Boss,” the guy I was strangling rasps.

“Not good enough,” Damien roars, his booming voice making me flinch.

“W-we didn’t ask questions, Boss.”

“Theo,” Damien offers not a beat before the knife finds a home in the guy’s thigh. “We can keep doing this for days. Keep you on the edge of death for longer than you would believe. And the longer it takes, the closer we get to your kids. Do you think they’ll scream as much as you?”

He groans as Theo pulls the knife free and looks down, blood spilling from the wound. There’s a lot, but not enough for it to be an artery.

“He’s leaving the country.”

“Tonight?”

“No. He wanted to get his family first.”

* * *

“Her tracker still hasn’t changed,” I say, staring down at the thing as if it’ll magically move and tell us where she is if I pray hard enough.

“Tell us again why you thought it was a good idea not to put a tracker in her necklace?” Theo asks me, his brow quirked as if he genuinely can’t understand why I wouldn’t have done it.

“Because, arsehole, I didn’t want to treat her like a fucking dog.” I shoot a glance at Emmie, knowing full well that he fucking chipped her not so long ago.

“We would know where she was right now if you had.”

Surging to my feet, I drag him from the sofa by his shirt.

“You think I don’t fucking know that?” I boom, our noses so close they’re almost touching.

My chest heaves as pure desperation rushes through my veins.

He could have taken her anywhere. He could be doing anything to her.

My stomach turns over at the thought of him laying a hand on her. Of him treating her even similarly to how he did me.