Before Stan could reply, a steel door screeched open. Kyle leaned against the frame, his dark hair matted, his jeans torn, and despite his enormous size, his cheeks and eyes were dark sunken holes.
“Best you put my brother down and come inside.” Kyle laughed, sounding crazy as hell. He threw a blast at Jack, then made a large sweeping motion over the parking lot. “Everyone else stays outside.”
The electric energy sizzled in Jack’s midsection, but he was too angry to feel the pain.
“Let her go, and I’ll let you live.” Jack kept his voice calm, despite the rage and terror that tore through him.
His cousin had finally lost it. Even the blast felt drugged up. But it wasn’t powerful, and again, it wasn’t what had hit him and almost got him killed the other night.
“Let me help you with the rules of the game.” Kyle sneered and fingered another ball of energy. “Page three hundred and one. If you win,she dies.”
Jack could barely contain the fury building inside him, the need to protect Zoe. But losing his cool wouldn’t do either of them any good. He glanced at Josh with a raised eyebrow, indicating he was to stand by. His brother gave an almost imperceptible nod back.
Stan led him into the building, up the cracked wood stairs and into the bar. The room was torn apart, as if demolition had started years ago, but was then left abandoned.
Jack breathed in the stuffy air and tried to focus on Zoe’s energy. Nothing. He couldn’t sense her. All he got was a repugnant muddle of dark energy. There were at least twenty to thirty men in the building. He recognized most of them as his own clan members.
Fear nearly choked him. Zoe couldn’t die. Not now. Not after what they’d shared.
He’d kill Kyle and his gang the minute he had the chance. How the hell had they got her out of the house? He should never have left her alone.
Stay calm, he reminded himself. If he killed either one, he might not find out where she was hidden.
“I want to talk to her.” Jack leaned against what was left of an old bar, hiding how tightly he was wound.
“First, admit that I’ve outplayed you.” Kyle, using plywood as a table, snorted something up his nose with a rolled bill.
“No, you haven’t. I talk to her right now or I assume she is dead and take the next logical step.” Jack spun a small fire-vortex in his left hand and started to take aim with a revolver in his right. A few of the gang members mumbled nervously among themselves and then left the room one by one.
“What the fuck.” Kyle stared at the small tornado, eyes and mouth wide. “Relax, Jack. I’m just getting you all worked up.”
He texted something into his phone, and a moment later, Jack’s cell rang with the ring tone he had reserved for Zoe.
“Zoe?” He cringed at the panic he heard in his voice.
“Jack, I’m okay. I thought–”
The connection hung up. After a wave of relief washed over him, Jack focused on Kyle with a deadly calm. He was a dead man walking – he just didn’t know to lie down yet.
In his peripheral vision, Jack picked up five or six men entering the room. A few he recognized. The young woman who Kyle had claimed he mated with came in behind them. Her long dark hair hung disheveled around her face. There were dark bruises under her eyes and along her exposed arms. She glanced at Jack and the air in his lungs left him. Up close he could tell that she was younger than he’d first thought. Barely thirteen if he had to guess. Fuck, what was Kyle thinking?
“Dealing in pedophilia now?” Jack snarled. “That’s low, even for you.”
“Fuck you, Jack!” Kyle glared at the girl, raised his hand like he was going to hit her, and snapped, “Get back to your room.”
The girl’s eyes widened and she scurried away. Kyle smirked and turned back to his makeshift table.
“As I was saying…” He snorted the white powder again, which seemed to allow him to regain some of his bravado. He was oblivious to the fact that these might be his last words. “If I lose, she dies. I get injured, she dies. Get the picture?”
He threw another blow to Jack’s midsection. Jack easily deflected the energy and used the opportunity to back towards the exit. That had to be where they kept her.
“Uh-uh. No slipping away.” Kyle picked up his phone and texted again. “Tonight you’re going to step down as clan leader.”
Kyle sent Jack another blast, this time more powerful, and Jack gritted his teeth.
“It won’t do you any good, Kyle. We’ve already mated.” He brought his palm up and created a small vortex.
“Don’t care. She’s still a hot piece of ass. Besides, I have a buyer, even if she’s damaged goods.”
