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This was for Aislynn.
My men and I were spread out across the warehouse, covering all the exits, while Tennessee and Moore watched from a nearby rooftop. We’d been in the building all day, but I didn’t want to be caught off guard.
When the sound of tires on gravel hit my ears, I checked my phone before turning it off. No texts from the security team meant he’d come alone, no bombs that they could see. Guns and knives, we could handle. Anything else would be a problem in this small of a space.
A door slammed open, the echo ricocheting around the warehouse. Then my cousin’s voice followed, wrecking me all over again. “I want my wife.” When no one responded, Cameron growled. “Did you hear me, Cash? I want my wife!”
Again, silence, and I felt his rage grow. “Where are you, motherfucker? Come and face me. Unless you’re too much of a coward. Is that why you took my woman? Because you’re afraid?
“I can assure you I’m no coward,” I said, finally stepping into the light.
Cameron’s eyes widened, a flash of fear taking over before he schooled his expression. “I’m so glad you got my message. Have you found Aislynn yet?”
He sounded so sincere, but we both knew there were no messages, no texts, no calls, no carrier pigeons. Just lies upon lies leaking between us to spread on the floor.
“Mari, have you seen Ash? Cash has her.”
“He doesn’t,” I promised.
“I don’t understand. Did he text you too?” Again, he faltered, and at his uneven gait, I looked down to see the cane in his hand. I hadn’t even realized he’d walked in with it.
The fire had been weeks ago, but because of his injuries, his healing had been slow. For weeks, I’d been killing myself over it all, but now I was glad. This would’ve been much harder if he was in fighting form.
“No, I didn’t text her.” Nate stepped out from behind his pillar, hands casually in his pockets.
Cameron’s eyes narrowed as he looked between us. “What the hell, Mari? Did your boyfriend take my wife?”
“Thought you said Cash did that?” I asked easily.
My cousin’s face froze as he tried to figure out how to get out of the mess he’d made. “I mean, that’s who I assumed.”
“You seemed pretty positive when you walked in shouting his name. How’d you know it was Cash who took her in the first place?”
For a split second he hesitated, motionless, as if he realized he’d let slip something he shouldn’t have. “Who else would it have been?”
“Who else, indeed? Can I see the message?”
Cameron dug the phone out of his pocket and held it out to me. With every step closer, I felt my men getting tenser and tenser. I could practically feel the trigger beneath my finger as they kept him in their sights, but I didn’t flinch. There was nothing my cousin could do to hurt me anymore.
Taking the phone, I didn’t look at the message. Instead, I nodded to Nate. “Call him.”
Cameron’s eyes darted between us as I moved back, putting space between us again. “What? The message is right there. You just have to?—”
I held up a hand, cutting him off. “Call it, Nate.”
He slipped the clone phone out and hit a few buttons until ringing echoed around us. There was nothing but the sound of it for a second, until my cousin’s phone went off in my hand. I didn’t bother answering, just held it up for him to see.
He went pale, but he stayed where he was, even when I continued. “You knew it was Cash texting because you’ve worked with them before.”
“I haven’t.” When I rolled my angry eyes, he doubled down. “Seriously, Mari. Look at my phone. You won’t find any messages. No phone calls either.”
“I have no doubt you covered your tracks, but you forgot about one important thing.”
“What?”
“Not a what, a who.” When I flicked my gaze to him, Nate grinned, and Cameron’s fists clenched.
“Are you telling me you believe that backstabbing asshole over me, your cousin?”
