Torch (Unbreakable Bonds 3)

“Shut up!” she continued, her voice moving higher in pitch and more desperate.

“Gag her!” Rowe shouted.

“Don’t!” Ian said, putting up a hand as Andrei grabbed the blindfold that had been wrapped around her eyes with his free hand. “They were young. Younger than me when I was taken to Jagger. I…they were alone and…”

Rowe suddenly stood and grabbed Ian by the shoulders, his own hands shaking. He wanted to kill Jagger. He wanted to drag the man out of his fancy house on the north side of town, strip him nude, and crucify him in the middle of Fountain Square before peeling every inch of flesh off the bastard. And then he would work over every fuckstick that he employed.

Over the years, he told himself that it was enough that they’d gotten Ian out and given him a better, safer life. But the knowledge that it hadn’t been—that they should have burned Jagger down—hit him like a stab to the chest. Here he stood, looking into the eyes of a warped and battered human being who hadn’t escaped Jagger and his men. Getting Ian out hadn’t been enough. Trying to sabotage Jagger behind the scenes hadn’t been enough.

“Breathe, Rowe,” Ian said calmly.

Rowe nodded absently and carefully walked him over to Lucas, who wasn’t looking too good either following their brief stroll down memory lane. He had a feeling both Lucas and Snow were feeling the same as him—ready to murder Jagger and torch his entire compound. But Ian didn’t need them losing their minds over this.

“So, Jagger hired you,” Rowe said loudly, trying to get their thoughts back on the right track again even as he delivered Ian into Lucas’s arms. Ian dutifully leaned against Lucas as if seeking comfort, but he knew it was Lucas who needed the reassurance that Ian was safe as he wrapped arms around the younger man. A glance across the room revealed Snow holding Jude in a death grip, his face pale and features strained.

When Rowe started back to his chair, he found Noah now seated in front of Hanna, a wide, charming grin on his face as if the man hadn’t a care in the world and that holding women prisoner in the middle of the country was a common occurrence. That eased him. Seeing the man use his brain and his killer charm when Rowe was too mired in the past.

“Jagger hired you and your brother to kill Rowe, Snow, Lucas, and Ian,” Noah started and then stopped. He stared at Hanna long moments, then sucked in a sharp breath at something he saw. “Not Ian,” he corrected, his grin growing wider.

“Fuck you!” she snarled.

“You’re not supposed to kill Ian. Just the other three…possibly even their boyfriends,” he revised. Rowe hung back, watching Noah’s intent focus on the woman’s face, reading each little tick and twitch as a tell. Admiration, pride and a fierce stab of pure love surged through him. The man was incredible. And fuck, there was no way in hell he was playing poker against him ever again.

“You don’t know shit.” Hanna laughed, but she didn’t sound nearly as confident as she had earlier.

“I know you almost killed Ian at the new nightclub. I know that could have gotten you in a shitload of trouble if he wasn’t on the hit list. If maybe Ian was still a favorite...” He paused, reading something that Rowe couldn’t see but he was happy to let the man work his magic. “And that failure at the first nightclub, that would have brought attention down on you. Making you reckless and desperate.”

“Whatever. Like you know anything about starting fires.”

Every nuance in her tone said Noah was hitting pay dirt.

Noah shrugged, his grin staying light and carefree. “You’re right. I don’t know shit about starting fires.” Reaching into his back pocket, he pulled out a smartphone and held it up in front of Hanna. “But I am damn good at guessing security codes on phones. Particularly when people don’t bother to clean off their screens.”

To prove his point, he tapped a few numbers and the lock screen disappeared, giving him access to the phone. “I noticed there are only two numbers in your phone and one of those numbers has been calling you almost constantly since you fell into our care. I’m gonna guess that’s your brother. Shall we call him? Tell him you’re safe?”

Rowe walked to stand behind Noah, just in time to see Hanna pale. Interesting.

“Leave him out of this. You wanna deal? Then you deal with me.”

“But that’s the problem,” Rowe said. He stood over her, his hands on his hips. “We’ve got you, but you’re not what we want at all.”

“What do you want? I can’t start any fire if I’m here. Your place was the last one I had on my list. You want us to leave town? Hand over Jagger? Like I can fucking do that.”