I’m getting toward the end of the ship now, and still no sign of either of them. We didn’t get it wrong. Eleanor and Steph have to be here somewhere. The little I understand about this man is his pathological need for control. Gail explained the bits she’s gathered over the years, betting her professional opinion that wherever Eleanor is, Steph will be. Jonathan knows he can control her through their connection, and he wouldn’t be willing to give up his trump card just yet. It saved me precious time and resources as I was torn on whether to let others come rescue Eleanor while I searched for Steph myself, or vice-versa. It’s an impossible quandary. Do you save someone you love, or the someone you’re in love with?
At least the motherfucker hasn’t made me choose yet.
The end of the path opens up to the massive bow of the ship, and I freeze at the scene before me. I fucked up. My eyes trace the trap I walked into without thinking twice. I got cocky thinking I could roll onto this boat and infiltrate an operation like this without backup or preparation. I let my heart rule my head, and now it may very well cost me both.
“What a fitting end to your little love affair, Mr. King,” Jonathan declares from his position at the base of the raised deck. Guards stand at his shoulders, guns gripped tightly in their hands. Eleanor stands to one side, naked, bound, but resolute. A lioness refusing to be tamed. To the other side is my sister, still clothed, but also bound. Her gaze finds mine, and she offers me a small smile before her eyes drift out of focus. I grit my teeth, panic battering at the ice surrounding me. That’s not good.
“I’ve alerted the authorities,” I shout, my voice nearly lost in the wind. “They are on their way to raid your ship.” Technically, Fox is on his way with the authorities to make sure they don’t fuck up the raid.
Jonathan shakes his head, a saccharine smile stretching across his face. “I’m aware. You think you can take apart my empire, boy? Bigger men than you have tried and failed. All they will find is a huge ship with a heartbroken biker clutching one of his women as he sobs for the other.” He stretches his arms out, a look of pride on his face. “We will all be gone, my new wife included, and all you will have succeeded in doing is making me your enemy.”
I don’t doubt he is about to take Eleanor, not Stephanie.
“Leave them both with me, and I won’t pursue you.” Today.
He chuckles, resting his hands on his hips. “You don’t frighten me, Mr. King. However, I don’t have time for a tiresome battle with the Desert Reapers, and whoever else William will rally around him, which is the only reason your bloodied corpse isn’t being thrown over the edge for the sharks to pick at.”
I take a step closer, but Jonathan raises his hand and snaps his fingers, stopping me in my tracks as I slide the knife out of my belt, palming the hilt. Waiting. The men next to Eleanor and Steph loop rope around their necks and tighten it enough to ensure they can’t slip free as chains clank along the deck, slowly lifting.
“This is really a gift for you, Stephanie,” Jonathan declares, his eyes tracing her figure with a bored look. Rage burns in my soul, but I’m proud when she simply glares at him.
Jonathan raises his hands, and the ropes begin to draw upward, the slack quickly disappearing as the chains wind into the shipping container crane. The blood leeches from my face as I realize what Jonathan’s plan was all along. I frantically search for a solution, desperate to find a path in this impossible situation. The twine is thick, and while my knife is sharp, it won’t be quick enough to release them.
“It takes nearly four minutes to die from hanging if you don’t snap your neck.”
Eleanor rises on her tiptoes and stares straight into my eyes. “I love you, Hunter King, with my whole heart. But choose her. I’ll be okay.” Her watery smile cuts me to the bone. “We’ll meet again. Just look up at the stars.”
Like fuck, Eleanor. You’ll be standing right beside me.
Jonathan shakes his head, his eyes dark, heated, savage, as they follow the curves of Eleanor’s body. “She’s quite something. Do you know how many people I’ve killed who beg for their own lives, even at the cost of someone else’s? Yet, here is the girl I raised, offering you her forgiveness because she knows you won’t pick her. Blood is thicker than water, as the saying goes. Pity her blood ties are weak.”
Eleanor’s eyes flutter closed as the rope lifts her off her feet, Steph a few seconds behind her.
Jonathan smirks, stopping them a few feet off the ground. Close enough to salvation, but still miles apart. “You can save your blood or your love. But not both. By the time you’ve released one, the other will be dead.”
“I don’t believe you,” I snap, my icy façade fracturing.
He cocks a brow, unbothered by the life leaking out around him. “Is that so?”
I lift my chin at Eleanor. “You’ve craved to own that woman all her life. It’s why you chose her, punished her. And it’s why I know your intention is to take her for yourself.”Please let Gail be right.
He tilts his head and eyes the thunderous clouds. “True. But watching you fight your feelings is the most fun I’ve had in years, which is a good consolation prize. Women like Eleanor are a dime a dozen.”
It’s been thirty seconds since their feet left the floor. If I kill Jonathan, then his men will put a bullet through my head and both women before I can blink. I force a deep breath, thinking about all the variables, all the connections, as if I was a part of Eleanor’s wall back in Chicago. If Jonathan truly believed his own bullshit, he wouldn’t have risked coming into my territory to get her.
He wouldn’t have set up such an elaborate game for us to play.
“Tick tock,” he taunts, waving a hand lazily in the air. “Indecision will leave you with two bodies, not one. Then who will mend your broken heart?”
I inch closer. Stephanie’s eyes are vacant, staring straight past me in a look I swore I’d never see again. Eleanor, in contrast, stares straight at me like I hung the moon and the fucking stars despite believing I won’t choose her. I do not deserve this woman. But I vow to spend the rest of my life tryingto be the man she thinks I am. Three minutes left. It’s enough. I will save them.
Dropping my knife, I twist my body and run toward Eleanor, wrapping my hands around her calves as I take her weight. Pulling the trigger, I kill the man next to Stephanie before snapping my elbow back and breaking the nose of the asshole behind me. I shoot him in his chest, his eyes fixed unseeing at the churning sky, then turn my gun on Jonathan who is holding Stephanie’s legs and giving her more time. Smart fucking man. Now he’s the only thing standing between my sister and death.
He throws his head back and laughs like he’s having the time of his life. “I did not see you picking the lovely Eleanor! James, I lost the bet. How much do I owe you? One girl? Three? I can’t seem to remember.”
Her brother emerges from the container I came through moments ago, his body relaxed and his steps silent. He must have been behind me the entire time. In another life, he would have made a good soldier. There’s no mirth on his face though. Pain, anguish, and determination flash across it at rapid speed—the same look Eleanor gets when she’s decided something is happening come hell or high water.
James’ gaze flicks to mine as he comes to a stop.
