Torch (Unbreakable Bonds 3)

Rowe watched his friend starting to unravel as everything suddenly made sense. Chris Green had threatened Lucas and nearly killed Andrei. Lucas had lost it. Andrei meant everything to him and he couldn’t deal with the idea of someone threatening Andrei or the rest of his family, so he’d killed Chris Green rather than risk the man coming after them again…and finally succeeding. They’d thought that was the end of it, but Green’s disappearance didn’t go unnoticed by apparently…his father. Now their old enemy was out to get the blood he never got when they’d bought Ian from him.

Fuck, the domino effect of that one act hit him.

If Lucas hadn’t killed Green, Mel wouldn’t have been killed.

Snow wouldn’t have been nearly killed by Gratton.

Ian wouldn’t have been nearly kidnapped by Gratton.

Lucas’s businesses wouldn’t have been burned down.

Rowe’s business wouldn’t have been shredded by the fires.

And an innocent child wouldn’t have been kidnapped.

Over the earpiece, he could hear Andrei trying to talk to Lucas, but the man wasn’t listening. Andrei was hurrying to the drop spot with Ian, but Rowe didn’t think the presence of Andrei would help this time.

“Doc, you need to get here now!” Rowe shouted as he grabbed Hanna roughly by the arm and pulled her to her feet. Sliding his knife off his belt, he quickly cut the ties binding her wrists behind her back. He’d watched Lucas reach Snow on so many occasions when the doc sunk into a dark place. He was praying that Snow could help Lucas now. Noah still had his gun trained on Kyle, but Lucas had dropped his arm. This was bad. Real bad.

“Nearly there,” Snow immediately came back.

Rowe shoved Hanna at Kyle. “Get out of here.”

Hanna walked quickly over to Kyle, who dropped his gun down to his side, oblivious to the chaos he’d created. His eyes were locked only on his sister. When she was finally standing at his side, trying to pull him into the car, he lifted his confused gaze to Rowe again.

“I don’t get it. You’re just going to let us go?”

“You promised to leave Cincinnati and never come back.”

His brow furrowed and he looked at his sister for a second before looking back at Rowe. “Yeah, but…”

“You can go home, Kyle Fogle.”

Kyle stepped away from his sister and actually approached Rowe, stepping a little into the shadows of the factory. Behind them, Snow and Andrei reached Lucas at roughly the same time, but they kept their distance from the man. He had his gun pointed again at Kyle, but his hands were shaking. Noah stepped behind the car, moving out of Lucas’s shot, though Rowe was pretty sure they were all praying that nothing set Lucas off. They didn’t need more deaths.

“What did you say?”

“You could always go home, Kyle Fogle,” Rowe repeated, soft and even.

“He’s lying, Kyle.” Hanna snarled. “He doesn’t know shit. Now get in the car.”

Kyle jerked at her tone, but he didn’t move.

Rowe took a cautious step forward. “I know your names are Kyle and Hanna Fogle. Your parents are Linda and Mark Fogle. You were born in Boise, Idaho.”

“How?” Kyle murmured and even Hanna stopped trying to pull Kyle back toward the car and turned a shocked expression his way.

“Facial recognition software. We got a picture of you off the computer and it matched an old picture from a missing poster,” Rowe explained. “Your parents are still looking for you. They want you to come home.”

“No!” Hanna screamed, pointing at Rowe. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. You don’t know—”

“I talked to them, Kyle. Talked to your mom. They want you both to come home.” He didn’t add that he’d bounced the call through a shitload of channels and masked his voice—that he’d never told the parents his name.

“Home?” Kyle’s voice broke on that single word.

Hanna was growing more frantic with each word Rowe spoke. “No, we can’t!”

“I can put you on a plane tonight. You’ll be back home with your parents by morning. This will be put behind you forever. You can move on with your lives and never have to think about Jagger again.”

Kyle looked at his sister, a smile starting to spread across his lips. “You hear that? We can go home.”

Hanna smacked Kyle hard across the cheek, snapping his head around and knocking him off balance so that his thigh slammed into the side of the car. “It’s a lie and you know it! We can’t go home. We can never go home. You think they’re going to want you after what Jagger did to you. What all those men did to you. You’re broken and dirty. I’m all you’ve got. I’m the only one who will protect you and keep you safe. Mom and Dad don’t want you. Not like you are now.”

Rowe’s heart just shattered. Hanna had been just as traumatized as her brother.