Rule's Seduction (The House of Rule 4)

Even though he was impatient as hell to move forward with a plan, he wasn’t looking forward to this meeting. He knew his brothers. Nick was going to come unglued when he found out the full story, but Garrett—fuck—Garrett was going to want to commit murder.

His youngest brother already hated Maximo Villarreal with a vengeance that made Damian clench his fists in poorly veiled alarm. He should have listened to his brother. Goddamnit! Why the hell had he continued to brush Garrett’s concerns under the carpet? This was his own fucking fault—and he didn’t know what they were going to do about the situation. Never before had he needed his brothers as he needed them now.

He’d barely been able to stay focused since he’d talked to Erin the previous day. Frankly, he’d been scared shitless for her welfare—and when he’d thought about Angie, he’d broken into a cold sweat. Immediately after he’d spoken to his sister, he’d left the office and driven home, solely to make sure Angie was exactly where she was supposed to be. There was no way he was leaving her alone until he knew exactly what Villarreal was capable of. Even now, she was upstairs in the penthouse—and that was exactly where she’d stay until he had this shit figured out.

After he’d picked Angie up the day before, they’d driven to his mother’s house. It wasn’t just his wife he’d been worried about, he’d been concerned for the safety of his entire family. But when they arrived at the house, Rick Harris had been with his mom. The man had looked him straight in the eye and announced that Damian didn’t need to worry about his mother—and Damian had understood in that moment that Rick wouldn’t let anything happen to her. Under the circumstances, he’d been relieved—but he couldn’t deny that his head began pounding every time he thought of the older man moving in on his widowed mother. But there wasn’t a lot he could do about it, his mother had berated him more than once for crossing the line.

Knowing his mother was at least temporarily safe, his thoughts had moved to Courtney. Truly, she was Nick’s to worry about now, but she’d been part of their family for so long that he was worried, or at least he had been, until he’d found out that she was safely in California with his brother.

That left Garrett and Maria. He’d been unable to actually speak to Garrett—but they’d been playing tag by phone. He’d left a voicemail that said only enough—that they were facing an emergency, and that Garrett needed to find Maria, keep her close, and get his ass home.

As he stopped pacing for a moment to stare out at the window, his phone rang. “Yeah?” he asked abruptly.

“They’re here. Conference Room One.”

He dropped the phone back to its cradle and strode down the corridor. He’d expected only his brothers, but as he walked into the room, Maria stood in front of Garrett, his brother’s hands on her shoulders. Damian glanced over to Nick, who was sitting at the conference table gripping a pencil so tightly that it looked like it was about to snap in half.

Nick’s gaze met his and Damian asked, “Where’s Courtney?”

His middle brother gave him a heated look that indicated Courtney wasn’t his to worry about—and it was enough to set off Damian’s temper. “Son-of-a-bitch, Nick—I get it. You’ve harped on it long enough. She’s yours now—not for the Rule family to worry about anymore—but I’m under a lot of pressure here and I want to know that the women are safe. All of them. Just tell me where you’ve put her.”

“Where I’ve put her?” Nick drawled with narrowed eyes.

Damian remained mute as he stared at Nick, his silence demanding an answer.

His brother never flinched but he did finally relent. “She’s in the penthouse with Angie.”

Damian let out a pent-up breath. “Good.” He turned to his youngest brother. “Don’t you think Maria should be with the women as well?”

Garrett blistered him with a look that said Maria was going nowhere. “Why? What the fuck is going on?”

Damian had already broken the majority of the news to Nick and the two of them shared a glance now. This was not going to be good and they both knew it. “You better sit down,” he said to Garrett.

His youngest brother gave him a smoldering look. “I’m good—just spill it.”

Damian couldn’t put it off any longer, shit, he didn’t want to put it off any longer. He needed to share his burden with both of his brothers. “Maximo Villarreal has Erin and he’s taken her to Argentina.”

The changing expressions of alarm, horror, and rage he saw on Garrett’s features didn’t surprise him; the color that blanched from Maria’s face and left her looking like a ghost surprised the fuck out of him. The girl knew something and he needed to know exactly what that was.