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Greg hesitated. “Darling, I have some men looking for him now, but the police wouldn’t come and arrest him because you signed that affidavit. ”
The one Greg could only know about because he had a source inside the FBI, just as Dominic had suspected.
“They made me sign,” she said quickly, putting just the right amount of tears in her voice. “I think they were trying to buy time. Surely, the police are still looking for me. I-I was worried they would kill me if I didn’t sign. I was so afraid. ”
Dominic needed to figure out how many men Jansen had brought with him. He’d killed one, but there were surely more. He’d caught the one coming out of the building that housed the generator. He’d seen the SUV as soon as he emerged from the woods. It could likely hold up to eight people.
One down, potentially seven to go.
And he still didn’t know where his brothers were.
Looking up and down the deck, Dominic tried to decide which direction to go. The front would surely be guarded, but the house was rambling and massive. He probably had the best shot at getting in around the back.
Dominic started easing in that direction. Leaving Kinley was hell, but he couldn’t shoot the fucker through the windows. The James brothers were paranoid about their wife and kids. The glass was damn near bulletproof.
He started to work his way down the porch.
And then he heard the creak that told him someone else was walking on the wooden structure as well. He stilled, holding himself perfectly quiet.
Gigi ran forward, yipping like a maniac.
The minute Gigi pranced off, Butch darted after her. They ran toward the back, barking all the way.
A gunshot split through the air.
Gigi yipped, and Butch growled. Then the motherfucker showed himself.
Dominic took the shot. The man in black went down.
Two down, possibly six to go. But, fuck, he was going to invest in a silencer or he would get caught because it was so damn quiet out here. If they were in New York, no one would notice him defending himself.
But they were in the fucking wilds of Alaska, and the sounds of birds chirping did nothing to muffle the sound of a gun going off.
“Hold it!” A voice called out.
Dominic heard another shot, felt a bullet whiz by his left arm.
“I got him, too!” A voice from behind him yelled.
He could shoot one, but then the other would take him out, no problem. He could try to fight but he would lose. Once upon a time, that wouldn’t have bothered him. He would have died simply to avenge Carrie.
But then he’d met Kinley. He’d held her and loved her. He’d dreamed of a future with her and his brothers. She’d accepted him for the good and the bad and the kinky. She’d taken everything he had to give her.
He could fight and die. But that’s not what Carrie would have wanted. She would have expected him to live for Kinley.
Now he just might die for her, too.
Dominic let the gun drop. “You won’t find the diamonds without me. ”
He would take the beating, the humiliation that was sure to come, in order to give his brothers and their woman some time to escape.
He dropped his gun, opening himself to simply being killed on the spot. Thirty-one years into his life, and he’d finally found his true weakness: A sweet submissive with honey blonde hair and a smile like the sun. His love. His wife.
He would die so she could have a chance to live.
But he wouldn’t die without a fight. “I know where the diamonds are. You need those, don’t you? Your boss will be very upset if you kill the only man who can lead you to them. ”
“Fuck. Don’t shoot him yet. Jansen needs to hear this. ” The one on his right kicked the gun out of the way.
The one on his left moved in. “Put your hands over your head. ”
Dominic held his hands up, though it pained him. In the distance, he saw movement by the hanger. A single figure shifted, as though taking in the danger before hiding himself again.
Law had seen him. Law knew what had happened. Law would do what it took.
Even if he died, Law would come for Kinley. If both he and Riley died, Law would kill them all and then take care of Kinley.
As lousy as the situation was, this was exactly why he’d sought a ménage. No one had been there for Carrie. When Greg had seen her as a paycheck, she’d been all alone. Three men were fighting for Kinley. She had three chances to live because every single one of them would die for her. He could relax because his brothers had his back.
“Where the fuck are the diamonds?” The man on his right shoved the barrel of his gun to his temple, jarring his head.
“I’m not saying anything to you. I’ll only talk to Jansen. ” He needed to give Law time to do his thing. There was no doubt that Law was taking in everything, his brilliant battle mind deciding how to kill these assholes most efficiently and lethally. Law knew how to take down the enemy. He only needed time.
A foot kicked the middle of his back, and Dominic fell to his knees. Jansen’s goon tucked the barrel of his gun between Dominic’s neck and brain stem. One shot and he was done. “Tell me now or I shoot. ”
A vision of Kinley reaching for him wafted across his brain. She’d smiled slightly, like a beneficent goddess. She’d drawn them together, accepting them all. Happiness might have been short lived, but while it lasted, it had been glorious.
“No. I’m only talking to Jansen. ” Dominic closed his eyes and waited for whatever happened. It was so far from his usual behavior that he laughed.
“Get up, then. ” Someone roughly grabbed him and jerked him to his feet. “You want to talk to the boss, fine. But we’re tying your hands first. I have some zip ties in my bag. We cuff him then take him to the boss. ”
As soon as they had bound his wrists behind him, Dominic began the long walk to the back door, every step bringing him closer to Kinley. At least he would get to see her one last time.
* * * *
Law watched as two assholes hauled Dominic along, forcing him to walk to the back of the house.
He didn’t have a shot. If he’d had a sniper rifle on him, he could blow them away, but he didn’t. He had his SIG Sauer and two hundred yards between him and two moving targets. And whichever one he didn’t nail first would run and warn the rest of his crew, no doubt.
He had one chance to get back in that house.
Where was Riley? God, where was Kinley? He hoped they were together. He prayed Riley had holed up with her and hidden them well.
A thousand questions ran through his head, but in the end he didn’t care who had come or why. He only cared that he killed every fucker who had walked into that house, threatening his family. He would kill and kill and kill until he got to their woman. That was his job now.
He moved from the right to the left, hugging the hanger, keeping his body low as they walked Dominic along the west wall of the house to the back door. All their attention was on Dominic. He disappeared inside with a gun poking the back of his neck.
And someone was moving from the east side of the house, his body close to the walls.
Riley. His brother was alive.
Law moved along the building, trying to reach the shortest distance between him and that back porch. Two hundred yards. He had to get there without taking a bullet.
Adrenaline rushed through his system.
Riley looked out over the space between them. He stilled, his body going utterly motionless.
Law’s prayers were answered as Riley saw him. He glanced behind him, before motioning Law on.
Law took off, his feet darting across the ground in utter silence. All his years of training rushed back to him, making his every move a graceful leap of faith. He stalked the distance between him and Jansen’s thugs. He’d marked them for death. He would find them.
“Where the hell is Kinley?” Law asked between g
ritted teeth as he caught up to his brother.
Their backs were against the wall, each looking in the opposite direction, waiting for the threat.
“She’s with Jansen. ”
Law was going to kill his brother. “You were supposed to stay with her. ”
“Jansen isn’t going to kill her,” Riley quietly explained. “He wants his diamonds too badly, so he’s letting her think that he’s rescuing her for now. This gives her time and a chance. I heard some of their conversation, and she’s pretending that she’s still afraid of us. If I had stayed, Jansen and his goons would probably have threatened to kill me. The truth would have come out, and they would have used me as leverage against Kinley. ”
“Yes, but now he’ll take off with her. ” God, Jansen was probably getting ready to do that right now.
Panic threatened to overwhelm Law. He was an ice man, always cool under pressure, but the thought of his wife being taken hostage was just about enough to give him a heart attack and to send him running straight into that house like a madman.
Wife. She was their wife. It didn’t matter that they hadn’t taken vows. It didn’t matter that he’d never told her he loved her. She was theirs, and he refused to let her go.
“He won’t go anywhere without these. ” Riley pulled a piece of denim out of his pocket. “With the security system off, I managed to sneak in the side door before that asswipe put a guard on it. I snagged a pair of scissors and pulled the pockets off seven pairs before I heard them coming. I had to leave the rest there. I just managed to creep out. Between what I have and what Kinley hid, we’ve managed to tuck away about eighty percent of those diamonds. He’s not going anywhere without them. ”
So they had some kind of leverage. But so did Jansen. “He has Dominic. ”
Riley’s eyes flared. “Are you kidding me?”
Law shook his head. “No. We’re all off our game, and we need to get the fuck back on it. Do you know how many men Jansen brought with him?”
“I know there’s a dead body near the front lawn. I’m pretty sure that was Dominic’s work. Inside, there’s Jansen, Dargo, whom we saw in the elevator in New York, and at least one guy on all three of the doors. ”
“I think one left his post to bring Dominic in, maybe two. ” They needed to get in the house. He pulled his spare piece and handed it to his brother. “Take an extra clip. ”
Riley flipped the safety off his handgun and slid the extra clip into his pocket. “Let’s head to the side door. ”
“If we can take them down quietly, let’s do it. ”
Jansen might be able to guess that Dominic had two accomplices since he and Riley had kidnapped Kinley. And because Jansen was Dominic’s former brother-in-law, the asswipe probably knew a thing or two about who Dominic shared a sex life with. Given that, Jansen probably knew how much manpower Dominic had. So taking these fuckers by surprise would be tough but critical.
“What the hell do we do if they threaten Kinley?”
Eventually, they would do just that to force her to tell them what she knew. When she refused, they would kill her. “We have to take them out first. ”
Or die trying.
There was a high-pitched yipping from the other side of the house. Gigi ran around the corner, her tiny body darting through the grass. She yipped and howled and jumped as though trying to get their attention.
They didn’t need that.
Gigi ran onto the porch and right to the back door, clawing at it in an attempt to get in.
Someone would come to investigate. Shit. He had mere seconds.
Law crossed the space and put his back to the outer wall.
The door swung open. A man leaned out, his whole focus on Kinley’s little dog.
“What the fuck?” the suited-up criminal asked.
Suddenly, Butch gave a low growl as he made his appearance. Jansen’s tool stepped onto the deck and stared at the dogs. It was just enough of a distraction for Law to slide behind the man. Before Jansen’s guard could lift his gun or fight back, Law had his head in his hands. With a vicious twist, a neat crunch filled the air as he broke his opponent’s neck and released him. The goon slid to the ground.
The dogs both stepped around the body as they trotted into the house. Thank god the rat thing was an inside princess.
“Gigi, stay. ” He kept his voice down. Butch obeyed, so Gigi sat beside him. It wasn’t exactly obedience, but at least she wasn’t interested in biting the males in her mistress’s life anymore.
And she was a creature of habit. Once they’d settled in here in Alaska, he’d noticed that. Kinley had that dog on a schedule. It was past her damn feeding time and Gigi would run through the house barking until someone fed or killed her.
Law looked down the hall. No one. He looked back and gave his brother the go sign.
“Remind me to be more polite to you in the future,” Riley whispered.
“Put the dogs outside. ” Kinley would kill them if some prick shot her dog.
His brother stepped over the dead body and entered the house, shaking his head. “I have a better plan. It’s about time that thing earned her keep. Follow me. ”
Law followed, praying they were in time.