I closed the few steps between us until I was toe to toe with the man I’d once thought was my forever, and all I could think about now was how I would have no problem laying him out flat to get to the one man who was now my everything.
“This is your fault,” I said in a voice I barely recognized but felt in my very soul.
“My fault?”
“Yes,” I hissed, baring my teeth. “If you hadn’t come to check up on us, we wouldn’t be in this fucking mess. If you hadn’t been your usual controlling self, Theo wouldn’t have been taken and I wouldn’t be out here wondering if he was dead or alive.”
I reached for King’s shirt and twisted it in my hand, hauling him in so close his eyes flared. “So if you want to talk about people who don’t use their heads, how about you take a fucking look at yourself?”
I shoved him away from me so hard he stumbled. His expression morphed from anger to shock then…acceptance.
“You’re right.” His jaw twitched as he cracked his neck from side to side. “But we don’t have time to play the blame game. With his tracker cut out and left at the house, we have nothing to go on.”
“Then how about you fuck off and let me do this my way?”
I turned, about to head deeper into the jungle, when King said, “Because I won’t be responsible for losing two of you.”
I rounded back so fast on him we almost collided. “He’s not lost. He was fuckingtaken, and I’m going to get him back.” I jabbed a finger between us. “You can do whatever the fuck you like.”
Fucking King.Always thinking he knew what’s best.Yeah, how’d that turn out this time?
“I think I should go back to the house.”
“Then go.”
“Shep, there’s no way they’ve stayed here. It’s been hours. If they were close by, we would’ve found them.”
“Then maybe they’re not fucking close.” I refused to believe I couldn’t get to Theo, couldn’t find him. I’d feel it if he was gone, right? I’d somehow know if he was de?—
No, I wasn’t going to let myself think about that. These fuckers were hiding somewhere, lying low until nightfall so they could make their escape. I had at least an hour or two left until then. Surely I could find some sign. I was a good tracker. A hiker. I could find him.
“Then maybe I should go back to the house,” King said. “You have a radio, weapons, your tracker. I can connect with New York and?—”
“They can do absolutely nothing.” I glanced over my shoulder to where King was eyeing me like I was a wild animal, which wasn’t far from the truth.“Go,” I said, dismissing him in a way no one would ever dare to. “I’d actually prefer it.”
I started off toward the thick vines, machete in hand in case that snake decided to make a second appearance—the reptileorthe motherfucker who’d dared to touch my man.
2
THEO
WELL.
I’M FUCKED.
And not the way I preferred to be fucked, either.
My head throbbed like I’d been hit with a crowbar?—
Oh wait. I had.
Not exactly the outcome I’d expected when I stepped outside to light a kretek and give Shep and King some space to hash out their shit.
Pain lanced through my temple and I instinctively went to reach for it, but a shooting flash of fire ricocheted up my arms and had me biting the inside of my cheek to keep quiet. My wrists were bound tightly behind me, and I was sitting on the cold ground, up against something hard. I didn’t dare open my eyes, though, not when I needed to assess the situation first. Hell, I didn’t even know if they were working, not with the amount of pain shooting across my eyes, which only pissed me off more.
Who the fuck thought it was a good idea to come after me? To leave me alive?
That was a fatal mistake on their part.Ce putain d’abruti est suicidaire.
