“And then Cass will come and find your bloody body. Think he’ll lose his mind?”
She swung the hammer and brought it careening toward his head. I’ll make you lose your mind.
“You fucking bitch!”
His grip loosened. She fell to the floor on boneless legs and sucked in air, but she couldn’t suck in air and scream at the same time. He plowed his big boot into her stomach, making her wretch and choke as she tried to breathe. She swung out the hammer that she still clasped. It hit him in the knee, and he almost went down. Hell, yes. Now she just had to?—
“Night, night, bitch,” he snarled. His big hands came at her again. Slapping over her mouth and nose. No air. No freedom.
Darkness.
She didn’t even feel it when the hammer fell from her grasp.
Chapter Twenty-One
Cass pressed the muzzle of his gun into the stranger’s chest. A stranger who’d just signed that Agnes was his sister. Cass was pretty sure the bastard had signed just to prove how much he knew about Cass. Proving you know all my secrets, you bastard? “You don’t look a damn thing like her.”
“Um. Aren’t genetics fun that way?”
Was this jerk truly her brother?
“This is how the scene will work,” the man told him. No accent touched his words. “You’re going to take me inside. You’re going to let me see her. You’re going to let me take her away.”
“No.” Just that. To all three orders. As if this jerk would order him around. “You’re not the one in charge here.” But it was fun that the guy had confidence. Sort of the same wild confidence that Agnes so often possessed.
But while Cass loved a confident Agnes, this guy just annoyed the hell out of him.
You’re going to let me take her away. Nope. Not happening. No one was taking her away.
“Your enemies are gonna kill her.” Flat. “They don’t buy that she’s turned away from the Feds. Or maybe they don’t care. She stays with you, and she is dead. Do you hear me? Dead.”
A black van hurtled away from the shopping center, with its tires screeching. What in the hell?
His eyes narrowed.
“Cass!” Javion’s shout. “Cass, she’s gone!”
“He better not be talking about Agnes,” his new enemy snarled.
Cass whirled toward Javion.
“Gone!” Javion bellowed as he launched out of the tattoo parlor. “She snuck to the back of the shop, and I—shit…” He rushed to Cass, breathing hard. Blood dripped from his cracked lip. “Bear took her. She wasn’t moving, man.”
“You’re dead,” the man claiming to be Agnes’s brother fired at Cass. “Dead.” He shoved past Cass and ran toward the tattoo shop.
Cass still gripped his gun with his right hand. With his left, he grabbed Javion’s shirtfront and hauled him forward.
“She’s not in there!” Javion spoke quickly. “He was hauling her out back, toward a van. I tried to stop Bear, but he punched me—you know how damn hard he hits. I blacked out a second, and when I got up, shit…he was hauling ass and…she wasn’t moving. I’m sorry, I’m fucking sorry. I’m personally responsible and?—”
Cass’s bellow of rage cut through Javion’s words. All of his crew members surged toward him. “The van!” he roared at them. “Track it. Find it. Stop it. Now.”
Men leapt onto their cycles. Engines growled and howled, and Cass jerked on the t-shirt he still held. He gripped the gun and jumped on his own motorcycle.
The stranger with the dark hair flew out of the tattoo shop. He raced toward Cass even as Cass throttled his motorcycle. The prick launched into his path.
Cass nearly mowed the dumbass down right then and there.
“Blood is on a hammer!” The man’s eyes were wild. “What did you do? What did you do to Agnes?”
