Page 56 of The Last True Hero

Sixteen

"ISHOULDN'THAVE said anything."

Adam undid the collar from Ellie's throat and curled the leather around his fist as Mia paced.

"Thanks," Ellie said, with a sigh. She rubbed at the red mark where it had rested.

"We can't afford to be seen as weak," Adam countered, tossing the collar on the bed. "Besides, I think Vex likes you."

"Vex liked Rykker," Mia pointed out.

True.

The four of them reconvened in Adam's room following the massacre at the War Games. Mia couldn't stop pacing, but Adam suspected that had more to do with the shock of seeing her sister and not being able to do anything about Sage's imprisonment. The jitters extended to Jake, who seemed far too quiet. Trouble brewed within the other man's hard body.

Only he and Ellie seemed unaffected.

"Do you think he'll come after us?" Ellie asked.

"He doesn't seem the sort to let bygones be bygones," Adam replied. He'd met men like that in the past. Rykker didn't seem the sort to kiss Vex's heel and enjoy it, so he'd probably take this upset out on the four of them. "Watch your backs, okay. What's the rule?"

"Nobody goes anywhere alone," Ellie parroted. She looked tired. "We know Vex has Sage now. Where do you think they took the others?"

Mia squeezed her shoulder. "Rykker said he had five others, so that means they're all still alive. We can work out where he'd keep them in the morning."

"This is fucking bullshit," Jake declared, tension radiating through his body. "How can you all just sit here? That bitch has my wife. Who knows what she plans to do with her?"

"For now? Not much, I think," Adam replied.

Mia stepped closer to Adam's side, as if she subconsciously looked to him for protection now. "Jake—"

"No!" Jake jerked to his feet and headed for the door. "I'll be damned if I'm letting my wife stay one more night in this hellhole."

"McClain!" Mia warned.

"On it." Adam moved fast. He grabbed Jake by the arm, but Jake moved with furious grace, swinging a punch toward his face.

The blow glanced off the forearm he hastily flung up, and then he used his greater weight to shove Jake against the door. They wrestled furiously for a second. Anger gave the other man a strength he could barely match.

Adam pinned Jake against the hard timber, his forearm pressed across Jake's throat and his other hand twisted in the man's collar.

"You get your hands off me, you filthy fucking—"

"Jake! Stop it." Mia touched his arm.

Jake sagged against the door, his breath coming in ragged gasps, and his eyes showing far too much white as he glanced at her.

Adam sucked in a lungful of air. That had been close.

"I'll let you go the second you start acting rationally," Adam replied, cutting him off fast. If Jake blurted out his secret right now, who knew how Mia would react? He needed them both to listen.

Or they'd get themselves collared for real.

Jake glared at him, the pulse in his throat throbbing.

"You walk out that door," Adam growled, "and you not only sacrifice any chance of getting your wife out of here safely, but you condemn Mia to the same fate. And I won't let you do that. You understand me?"

"Who the fuck are you to order me around?"