Chapter Forty: Man of Steel

Ryder

MAN OF STEEL

Performed by Brantley Gilbert

Just before the door shut behindGia and Jaime, he sent a cold look in my direction. A smile that radiated evil. How had I never seen it before? How had I only seen friendliness and confidence and not the demon underneath?

It wasn’t just his look that had me wanting to break through the door and chase after them. It had been the hungry, brutal gaze he’d given Gia and the way he’d all but fucked her on the dance floor. My body burned with hatred and jealousy.

This man had ruined my life once by destroying his sister’s.

I wouldn’t let him ruin it again.

I wouldn’t let him hurt a hair on Gia’s head. He couldn’t have her. Oh, he’d try to take her and use her, but she’d never be his. I wouldn’t let him, but even more importantly, Gia wouldn’t let him either.

Right now, I had to find a way to get back there with them. Should I create a scene to do so? Or try something stealthier?

As I got closer to the door, I saw the scanner and the keypad. Gia would know a way past the electronics. Or Rory. Why hadn’t I put Rory’s number into my phone? Why had I just assumed we’d be able to reach her through Gia?

Jesus, I was an idiot. Definitely not cut out for spy work.

I headed in the opposite direction, out the ballroom doors, requesting directions to the restrooms, but before I could get there, a large beast of a man showed up at my side. Dressed in the black gear one might expect of the special forces, I recognized him as the animal who’d nearly strangled Gia in my house. It took everything in me not to lunge for his throat and repay the favor. My body instantly stiffened, fists clenching as I fought to hold myself back.

“Mr. Laredo has requested your presence.”

It wasn’t really a request. It was a command, but it was one I would easily follow if it meant getting behind the party walls and closer to Gia.

“Lead the way,” I grunted in response.

He took me down several hallways to another door guarded with scanners and keycode locks. The walls beyond it were black and the floors a checkerboard pattern. I’d been in the Grand Laredo before and had been impressed by its luxury and elegance, but I’d never been hit over the head with the pure black and whiteness of it. Was it a recent change?

The outside of Laredo’s home—as well as the barns and the other outbuildings—were warm greens and browns that blended in with the trees and mountains at the edge of the Daniel Boone National Forest. But inside, the house lacked any hint of color. I tried to remember a time when I’d seen Jaime himself wearing anything but black or white and couldn’t. His red Porsche was probably the only color I’d ever seen around him. It felt like it was a statement I’d need another encryption key to unravel.

At the bottom of another set of marble stairs, we moved past another key-coded lock and along another monochrome hallway to double doors, which the man opened with his thumbprint. Inside was a sitting room filled with black leather and white brocade. The walls were stark white, and the tables were black marble. There was a large television hanging over an ivory-colored buffet.

I was surprised when Gia and Jaime weren’t in the room. I’d been sure he’d want us all together so he could rub in my face his ability to seduce her, to show he could take what he wanted while causing the utmost pain to me. My pulse spiked, and my stomach rolled as unease crept through me.

“Enjoy the show,” the man said, head nodding toward the television.

He took a step back but didn’t leave the room. Instead, his arms crossed over his chest, revealing the gun tucked in at his waistband.

I turned my head to the screen as it came on, revealing another black-and-white room. This one had a large bed with black satin sheets. At the foot of it were two tufted armchairs. In one of them sat Gia with her back straight. Granny’s gems in her hair and on her body glittered in the light cast by the enormous chandelier glowing above her.

Standing beside her was Jaime. He’d removed his tuxedo jacket. It was draped over the back of the chair next to her.

“Tell me, Gia. Has Hatley made you come with his fingers and tongue as well as his dick? Or have you kept him dangling while using him for your job?” He ran a finger along the shell of her ear, and I was filled with the need to rip his hand off and shove it down his throat until he choked to death.

“A girl’s got to do what she’s got to do, right?” she said, voice colder than I’d ever heard it. Even when she was angry with me, there was emotion in Gia’s voice. Fire I loved. That same fire I’d felt as I’d embedded myself in her last night. I hated that he was trying to turn what had happened between us into something dirty. Something ugly. It had been a little piece of heaven—heaven I needed back, needed in my life with a desperation that would make me do just about anything to keep it.

“He fucked my sister. For that alone, I should have killed him,” Laredo said, but there was no heat to his voice. He was in complete control. “Instead, I will make his daughter love me more than she ever loved him or my traitorous sibling.”

Gia stood, entering his space with a saucy dare as she pulled the flash drive from her clutch. “Do you want this or not?”

He stared at her for a moment and then grabbed her chin. Even over the screen, I could see he was holding it with a fierceness that made his fingers go white, that might leave more marks on her than the ones already on her neck. My nails dug into my palms, and my teeth ground together, shooting pain through my jaw.

“The first lesson you need to learn is that you do not set the terms. You don’t demand. There is only one of us who will ever set the rules.”

She dropped her lids, and I knew it was so he wouldn’t see the hatred and fury those words caused her. Gia wasn’t built to capitulate. She was meant to burn and scorch and lead. But even as I had the thought, I realized just how much she’d relinquished control to me—not only last night but multiple times since she’d returned to Willow Creek. She’d trusted me enough to give me power over her and her body. It was a gift. One I’d never take for granted.

He jerked her chin higher and smashed his lips on hers. My entire body jerked, twisting to scan the room, looking for a way out. A way to get to her.

The giant stepped closer, reading my thoughts.

“Let’s see what you’ve brought,” Jaime said, drawing my gaze back to the screen. As he walked away holding the flash drive, Gia scrubbed at her lips with the back of her hand, and I caught a hint of red. He’d made her bleed. Fuck this. Fuck all of this.

“Take me to them!” I demanded of the man beside me.

“Soon.”

I whirled toward the door, and the man calmly pulled out his gun with a silencer screwed on the end and aimed it directly at my heart. “You are to watch first. Then, I will take you to them.”

My blood was pounding so harshly it filled my ears.

My eyes returned to the television, hating every moment that I was forced to stand there, knowing this was exactly what Jaime wanted. He wanted me to feel helpless, jealous, and angry.

But what he didn’t realize was Gia didn’t really need my help. Not yet. Maybe never. She knew what she was doing in that room. I’d said I trusted her, and I would. I’d trust her to get herself the hell out of there. I had to believe she could, because if I didn’t… I couldn’t even let myself think it.

Jaime moved to a table at the side of the room where a laptop awaited. He plugged the flash drive in, hit some keys, swiped the screen, typed some more, and turned to glance at her with narrowed eyes. “Where’s the malware? The back door the NSA loves to plant.”

“I don’t expect you to trust me right away, but I’ve already told you why I’m here. The NSA doesn’t even know I broke the code. I’m here for myself and the life I can have if I choose correctly.”

What was she talking about? What life was she choosing? What had she told him? My heart rate spiked. Not with doubt, but with fear that whatever she was playing at might backfire.

He fiddled with the computer some more, checking for who knew what. He messed around for so long I was afraid he’d find the Trojan horse Rory had said Ravyn had planted. Laredo turned back and said, “It’s encrypted. Just like the one I already have. How does this help me?”

“Because I have the key.”

He laughed, a dry, cynical laugh. “If I couldn’t figure out my sister’s password, there is no way you could. You know nothing of Natalia. I am the one who spent my childhood playing games with her and spent my teen years shielding her from our father. I am the one who gave her the freedom she tossed back in my face. I know everything there is to know about my sister, and I still couldn’t unlock it.”

Gia moved toward him with a grace and confidence that took my breath away even over a damn screen. When she reached him, she gave him a careless shrug.

“I’ve spent years lying to my family about who I am. My brother knows nothing about the real me.”

“I knew my sister.” His voice was a barely controlled warning, screaming at Gia to stop, even though he hadn’t raised his voice.

Her chin went up, defiance in those eyes. “You didn’t know she was screwing Ryder Hatley. You didn’t even know she had a daughter. Ryder knew more about the real her than you did.”

His hand collided with her cheek, sending her face jerking to the side and requiring her to step back and steady herself on the table. My arm swung automatically in response, connecting with the beast next to me, and the hand holding his gun flung upward. I followed the first hit with a thrust to his nose and a knee to his groin. He grunted, countering my movements before shoving the gun into my temple.

I stilled.

“He wants you alive. Do not make me kill you and anger him,” the beast said just as, on the television, Jaime said, “Is this how you would try to win my trust?”

“You said you would require honesty. I’m giving it to you.”

Jaime’s hand wrapped around Gia’s neck, drawing her close. “You’ve overplayed your hand. I don’t need you.”

“If you didn’t, you’d already be using the Houdini box she created. You’d already have taken over the world one system at a time.”

His eyes narrowed, but his lip curled up, making him look a thousand times more demonic than ever before. “But a wolf whelp brought me a present today. A way to get the code without ever having to accept your offer. Would you like to see it?”

He turned on a television hung on the wall across from the bed, flipping through several screens until he found the one he wanted. As I registered what was on it, my heart shattered and broke, and I let out a roar of agonized fury.

A cot was the only thing in the cinderblock room, and lying on it, covered entirely by a black blanket, was a slight body. Next to the blanket was a stuffed jaguar, and on the floor beside the bed was a purple backpack I knew well. I knew every item stuffed inside it. They were things my daughter loved most and ensured she had when she needed to run.

Gia was talking. I could see her mouth moving, could see Jaime respond, but I couldn’t hear any of it over the thundering need to get to Addy, to save her from the demon her mother had run from.

My gaze landed on a large marble bust on the table next to me. I hunched, clutching my stomach as if in despair and ensuring the barrel of the gun dropped from my forehead as I picked the bust up and swung at the beast’s head. In his attempt to block it, he moved the gun, and a shot went off with a quiet puff. I swung again, catching him on the cheek this time with a satisfying crunch. His fist connected with my jaw, sending my head reeling and blood bursting from my lip. I ducked the second punch, spinning around and catching him in the temple with the bust, using a ferocity I’d never applied in my life. He’d barely crumbled to the floor before I’d stolen the gun from his slack fingers and headed for the door.

It was locked. A panel required a thumbprint on this side as well as on the outside. I aimed the gun at the pad, shot it, and was satisfied to hear the lock click open. I pushed out of the room just as I heard a moan behind me. The black hallway greeted me. Where the hell was Addy?

I raced to the next door, shot the keypad there, pushed it open, and was greeted with an office. I spun around, heading for the next door. I couldn’t shoot them all open. I’d run out of bullets. But what other option did I have?

“Addy!” I screamed, listening for a quiet response. Could she even find her voice enough to respond if she was scared out of her mind?

Behind me, the door to the room I’d been in slammed against a wall, the noise shattering the silence.

A bloodied beast emerged, fury registering in those cold eyes.

I spun, banging on the next door with the butt of the gun, calling my daughter’s name again.

The man stalked toward me. A deadliness in his look left me with no doubts he’d easily anger his boss now to get revenge for the blows I’d landed.

I aimed the gun in his direction. “Take me to my daughter!”

From behind me, another voice spoke. “He doesn’t have her.”

I spun around to find Enrique—or what once had been Enrique—easing toward me. One arm hung useless at his side, blood trailing down it. His chest was bare, and large bloody circles covered his torso. His nose was crooked and swollen, the skin on his cheeks drooping as if the bones beneath them were no longer there to hold them up, and cuts over his entire being oozed blood. His eyes were hollowed and his brows bloodied from a gash on his forehead. He used the wall to prop himself up. In his hand was a stick that looked like it had been broken off from a broom or a mop, long and jagged.

“Keep the gun aimed at Julio,” Enrique groused, his voice barely recognizable.

I turned back to see the beast had closed the distance between us to mere steps. The giant’s eyes shined with a deadliness that promised no mercy. He would kill us. He would kill us in a way that was even more painful than whatever Enrique had already been through.

“How did you escape?” Julio’s voice was as dark as his look.

“Never leave someone else to do your cleanup work,” Enrique said.

Fuck this cozy little chat. “Take me to Addy, or I will pull this trigger.”

“He doesn’t have her,” Enrique insisted. “He only has things that look like hers.”

I didn’t know if I believed him. All my doubts about the man flooded through me.

“He lies,” the beast—Julio—said. “He brought us your daughter. Handed her over for nothing. For a few thousand dollars and a position in our organization. The only reason he tells you this now is because he realized we would never let a coward and traitor inside our doors.”

I put my back to the wall, gun swinging between the two men.

Julio eased a hand into his jacket pocket.

“Freeze, asshole,” I demanded.

“It is just my phone,” he answered. Calm. Cool. No fear. He pulled the device from his pocket, swiped a few screens, and then Enrique’s voice came from it.

“I’ll bring you the girl. I just want in. I want Vito’s old position and fifty grand to set me up.”

My insides coiled and seethed. Anger burned through me, making me want to use the bullets to end both these men. I barely stopped myself from pulling the trigger, and I only did it because I might need the ammunition for our escape.

“Someone take me to my daughter before I start aiming for heads,” I growled.

“He can’t take you to her. He doesn’t have her,” Enrique insisted. “I wouldn’t give her to them.”

“Come, I’ll show you.” Julio spun on large feet, heading back toward the staircase.

I waved my gun in Enrique’s direction. “You go first. Follow him.”

He did as I requested, using the wall and the broken stick to keep himself up. Every movement looked pained, but I had no sympathy for the man who’d brokered a deal with the devil for my daughter’s life.

“It was a play, Hatley,” he said quietly. “It backfired, but it was a play I had to make.”

“Giving them Addy!”

“No. I swear on my brother’s grave, they don’t have her. Call your brother. You’ll see.”

And if they didn’t have her—God, my heart burst with hope at even the thought—what would happen if I called? Would they triangulate my signal? Find my brother? Find Addy? Could I risk it?

Waiting for Enrique’s slow movements, I lost sight of Julio, as he’d reached the staircase well before us. I’d never been in this part of Jaime’s house. I didn’t know what was down below waiting for us. When Enrique and I hit the landing, the giant was at the bottom with another pistol in his hands, pointed up at us.

I barely had time to react, pushing Enrique to the ground. As I dove, Julio pulled the trigger, and a bullet scorched by my ear. I twisted, aiming my gun. I wasn’t a crack shot. I wasn’t trained to pull a trigger in these situations, but I’d done a fair share of shooting in my lifetime, so when I shot at Julio, it found home in his chest. As my body slid to a stop, I took better aim and followed the first shot with a second. Julio’s body jerked again, his hand went to the wound on his chest as if he could stop it from bleeding, and then he fell to his knees, crashing face-first to the cement floor.

I rushed to my feet, and the damn dress shoes I was wearing skidded out from beneath me on the cement. I found myself sliding down the stairs. Pain ricocheted through my elbow and hip. As my back hit the edge of the bottom step, my breath was knocked from my body. I lost my grip on the gun, and it went flying as I collided with the beast’s body.

My lungs screamed, attempting to breathe. I was frozen, struggling to regain the air I’d lost as Enrique’s bloody hand picked up the pistol Julio had dropped. Everything slowed as he whirled in my direction.

My heart joined my frozen lungs, forgetting to pump, forgetting to function.

I’d teased Gia about the cliché of a shoot-out.

It had been a taunt because, somehow, I’d expected the good guys to win, just like in a real movie. I’d expected her plan to work because she’d made it with a surety, a confidence I couldn’t doubt, hadn’t wanted to doubt.

Looking down the barrel of the gun held by a man I’d doubted from the moment he’d shown up at the ranch, I knew any chance of us surviving had disappeared long before the credits had rolled.