Page 174 of Stand: Part One

“At least now you’ll finally have all the chances you’ll need to fulfill your end of our first little bet you lost,” Darren said as he brushed his hands through his unruly hair.

I furrowed my brows. “What are you talking about?”

A tight grin formed in the corner of his mouth. “Babysitting Ella. You’ll be seeing a lot more of her when you get back.”

My brows knitted in confusion. “What? Why?”

His eyes turned grave as he lifted his gaze to mine. “Because Daniel’s home was attacked at the same time we were,” he replied, causing my body to stiffen with suspense. Had this been part of the plan?

“Are they okay?” At least let Katherine and Ella be okay. Fuck Daniel.

“Ella is fine, but Katherine and Daniel were badly injured. They barely made it out before their home was completely destroyed, and the majority of their staff were killed.”

My breath caught in my lungs, my heart frozen with horror for Katherine.

“So they’ll be coming to stay with us for a while until their house is rebuilt.”

I didn’t know why I was going to ask because I already knew the damn answer, but I needed to hear it from him.

“Do we know who attacked them?”

Darren’s features tightened into a scowl. “Take a wild fucking guess.”

42

At least you tried

The night was colder than usual. With the wind picking up as the moon appeared beyond the clouds, the night promised to be every bit as pleasing as ever.

Scott and me, along with Antonio, Carlos, and Luis, my three soldiers best matching the description of the other soldiers we captured, all accompanied our last man standing, Marx.

We stayed hidden in the shadows of the extraction point, awaiting the helicopter that Miguel would apparently be riding in.

I didn’t understand why he wouldn’t just wait for the helicopter to transport me to his compound. But apparently, his ego required that he personally escort my dead ass back and serve me up in front of his men so he could claim the kill. Fucking pussy.

Tonight, I would end this pitiful war with the Spade family and get back to killing Matthew Rainer’s.

And maybe even finally start my own.

We didn’t have to wait long for the helicopter to arrive, the sound of its propellers giving us the signal we needed to ready ourselves. Unzipping the body bag, I lay down inside it and allowed Scott to zip it up. Once the helicopter had landed, he heaved my dead weight over his shoulder and walked us out into the open.

“Christ, you weigh a fucking ton,” Scott muttered under his breath.

It was a bold move, but sometimes it took bold moves to win wars. And winning wars was my specialty.

Four taps against the back of my knee from Scott told me how many men were inside the helicopter. I suspected Miguel, two of his soldiers, and the pilot. Listening as the door slid open, I could hear my men climb inside before Scott gently dropped my body onto the floor of the chopper.

“Ha ha!” Miguel’s laughter was excited. “Look at this shit!”

I kept still as I felt the pilot fly the chopper up into the air, back to their base. Back on land, four armor-plated Hummers were following our tracking signal back to Miguel’s base to finish off whoever was still left.

“Ha! We got you, you stupid gringo fuck! I told you we could do it without those fucking Americanos!”

Americanos? What the fuck is he talking about?

Knowing full well he wouldn’t be able to resist for very long, Miguel got up from his seat to climb over the partition separating the pilot from the passengers. Judging by how quiet and spacious it felt in here, he had to be flying a pretty nice luxury helicopter.

Reaching for the zipper, he began to slowly pull it down, revealing parts of my would-be unconscious body. More laughter came from Miguel, his excitement almost as irritating as his laugh. But the moment he pulled the bag apart, I struck.