Using his other hand, he backhanded her across the opposite side of her face. The newest blow struck her temple, cutting the corner of her brow bone and nearly knocking her unconscious.
Coop’s desperate plea filled the large room. “Fucking stop!”
“Goddamn it. He’s beating the hell out of her!” Derek spoke to the others. “We need to get the fuck in there.”
“Hell yeah, we do,” Trevor agreed.
“Hold up.” It was Jake. “She hasn’t used the signal.”
“I told you, Mr. Cooper.” Tony turned to face Coop. “Do you remember? I explained what I did to people who fucked me over.”
Her uncle turned back around, his fist slamming into her gut again. Mac gagged. Coughing against the pain, she spit the saliva filling her mouth onto the floor by the asshole’s feet.
“Fuck the signal. Is anyone else hearin’ this shit?” Derek yelled into the coms. “He’s gonna kill her, for fuck’s sake!”
Mac could tell Trevor’s next words were for Jake. “D’s right, man. If we don’t do somethin’ now, he’s gonna end up killing them both.”
“Mac’s the one in there,” Jake pointed out. “We need to trust her judgement on this.”
Thank you, Jake!
“Stop!” She shouted, her voice echoing off the room’s paneled walls.
The order was meant for everyone involved. Her team outside, Tony…Coop. She couldn’t think with so many voices rolling around in her head.
“You want me to stop?” Tony stared her down. Pulling a pistol from his waistband, he raised his arm, stopping when the barrel was lined up perfectly with her forehead. “I can end this right now.”
“No!”Coop screamed again. “Ah, God. Pleasedon’t.”
Mac didn’t look over at him. If she did, she’d lose what was left of her inner strength. She needed her head to stay clear so she could think of a way to get them both out of this alive.
“Why are you doing this?” She tried to keep her uncle talking. “Why leave me your estate if all you want to do is torture and kill me?”
Her uncle shrugged. “The will was a backup plan. In case you decided not to heed the threat to your boyfriend and attend the funeral.”
“You made me your beneficiary so I would be accessible,” Mac surmised what she’d already suspected. “I still don’t understand. I left years ago. Yeah, I took the money, but you have that back now. You can take it and go. Run off to some beach somewhere and live out the rest of your days a free man. No one will ever know you’re still alive.”
“That’s what I tried to tell him, but you know how much of a stubborn bastard your uncle can be.” Another man entered the room from behind her. The fourth heat signal Derek had picked up on earlier.
Shit.Between her fear for Coop and the shock from seeing her uncle again, she’d completely forgotten about the other person in the building. A perfect example of why emotions have no place on the battlefield.
Mac turned her head to the look at the newest addition to the party. “I thought you were in jail.”
Henry Doyle shrugged as he came into her vantage point. “You don’t spend decades as one of the most successful mob lawyers without learning a few tricks.” To Tony, he scowled. “Put the gun down, Anthony. You know your shooting her wasn’t part of the plan.”
With a snarl, her crazed uncle actually lowered his weapon, keeping it loose at his side.
“How’d you get out?” Mac asked Henry. “Bribe the cops so they’d let you go?”
“For starters.” He stopped a few feet from Tony, hands casually placed in the loose pockets of his khaki dress pants. “It helps that I’ve collected a multitude of favors owed to me over the years. Many within the fine law enforcement community serving Jersey City.”
“And they let you walk right out the front doors even with the evidence stacked against you?”
He shrugged again. “All circumstantial, at best.”
“You were still in Jersey less than three hours ago. How the hell did you get here so fast?”
“Oh, Mac.” Henry shook his head. “I walked straight into that police department, put on a show for all the good cops to see, and got escorted right out the back door and onto a private plane. I’ve been in Dallas half a day. Plenty of time to find this place and get everything set up. With my nephew’s help, of course.” He gave the man still holding her a grateful grin.
