Hell Breaks Loose (Devil's Rock #2)(7)

Zane hesitated a moment and then flung his arms wide. As if the past were forgotten. As if bad shit never went down. As if Reid could still be one of them again. “Welcome home, brother.”

Zane embraced him, clapping him hard with his free hand. Reid pulled back and eyed the other men, meeting their dilated gazes head-on. Not a single one was sober. They were all high on something. Even so, several looked at him with distrust. Evidently not everyone had forgotten that before he went to prison not everything had been copasetic. They clearly remembered that he and Sullivan had grown contentious with each other.

Rowdy, his brother’s second-in-command, wore a grin for him, though. Even if that grin did not quite reach his eyes, Rowdy reached out and clapped hands with him.

“Good to have you back.” Rowdy looked him over. “Looking fierce, man. Guessing they didn’t release you for good behavior.”

“Nah. Thought I’d just go ahead and let myself out.”

Zane and Rowdy laughed. “Same ol’ Reid.”

“You couldn’t have come back at a better time.” His brother’s eyes glinted with excitement, reminding him of the kid he used to be, and that only made his chest ache harder.

“That right?” Reid asked.

Zane nodded eagerly, gesturing to the cabin. “Yeah.” He shared a look with Rowdy and the other guys, and Reid got the sense that he was missing out on some joke. “Let’s go inside and I’ll tell you all about it.”

Reid followed him inside and did a quick scan of the living room, noting how run-down the place had gotten in the eleven years he’d been gone. It had never been the Four Seasons, but now the house smelled of sweat and stale cigarette smoke. The upholstery on the arms of the couch had worn off. Dirty white threads tufted up as if trying to escape from the piece of furniture.

“We got something big going down, Bubba.”

The sound of his little brother using his old nickname elicited a pang in his chest. He had a sudden flash of a little boy missing his front teeth chasing him around the trailer park. Bubba! Wait for me!

That boy was gone. Zane’s eyes were bloodshot and dilated from God knew what drugs and a patchy beard hugged his cheeks. It was hard to reconcile him to the soft-faced boy Reid had last seen. Get over it, Reid. That boy is gone. Still. Easier said than done. His brother was the only family he had left.

“Yeah?” Reid looked at the men standing around him, a prickling sensation crawling up the back of his neck.

Zane chuckled lightly and scrubbed at the back of his neck under hair that fell long and greasy. He needed a shower. “Why don’t I show you?”

Turning, Zane headed down the dark hall to the back bedrooms. The carpet was flat and matted beneath Reid’s shoes as he followed his brother. He felt the other men behind him, crowding close like anxious dogs. Something was definitely in the air. Feral and testosterone-laced. He recognized it from prison. Right before a fight broke out. Blood was in the water and the sharks were hungry.

Zane opened the door to the master bedroom and stepped inside. Reid followed. He sucked in a breath as his gaze landed on the bed and the woman restrained there. His stomach pitched and a fresh wave of acid surged up inside him.

Her hands were bound together with a cord that extended to the brass headboard. She sat board-straight on the edge of the bed, her knees locked tightly together. Her eyes were red-rimmed and puffy. She had been crying, but now her eyes were bone-dry above the gag. She didn’t blink as her wide brown stare flitted over him, assessing him before flicking to the men at his back. Her nostrils flared as if scenting danger. She would be right about that. They were the wolves and she their next meal. Of that he was certain.

She tossed her head and said something against the muffled rag stuffed in her mouth. Her dark hair was loose and tangled around her shoulders, trailing long over her cream-colored blouse. The shiny fabric was dirt-smudged and stained, but still looked expensive. Probably the most expensive thing in this cabin. A bruise marred the flesh of her cheek above the gag where someone had hit her, and something clenched in his gut.

Even in her condition, Reid had no problem recognizing her.

Fuck.

“Surprise!” Zane waved at her.

They’d done it. They’d abducted the President’s daughter.





Three




She’d stopped crying some time ago, but the urge returned in full force with the arrival of the new guy. He was bigger than the rest of them. He looked more ruthless. Something in his eyes, in the hard set to his mouth . . . there was no softness there. She wouldn’t be able to appeal to any part of him.

He also seemed somehow more alert, more aware, more ready to snap than the rest of them. The rest of her abductors reminded her of children, anxious on their feet, unable to hold still. Their eyes, however, were dull and slow-moving. It was a strange contrast.

The sharpness of New Guy’s hazel gaze could cut glass. She felt it slice through her as he stood there staring down at her with an empty expression on his coldly handsome face. She registered this with a swift sweep of her gaze. There was no denying he was sexy in a rough and ruthless kind of way. Even with a faint shadow of beard hugging his square jaw he was model-hot. Charles had nothing on this guy. Even Holly’s hot boyfriend was somehow less.

Watching New Guy watch her, she lifted her bound wrists to her chest and attempted to twist her hands free. It pulled the cord tighter but she had to try. One of her abductors walked over and placed a hand on the top of her head, petting her like she was some kept animal. “We got f*cking royalty here.”