Defiance (The Protectors, Book 9)

by Sloane Kennedy

  But it sure would work in my favor.

  Gage followed me into the room and went to stand against the far wall. We’d agreed on the ride over that it was my show, though Gage had made it clear he wanted a piece of the man.

  Vengeance for Reese, probably. I had no clue what his relationship with Reese consisted of, but I suspected it didn’t go beyond friendship considering the way he’d looked at Everett. It was a development I just didn’t have the time to deal with at the moment.

  “What’s your name?” I asked as I took my time taking off my watch and sticking it in my pocket.

  “It’s fuck you, what’s yours?”

  I guessed the man to be in his early twenties at the most. There was a thin gash on his left cheek, presumably from when Nathan had cut him with the broken glass the night of the attack. He was wearing camouflage clothing, and I’d had a chance to look at his weaponry before I’d entered the room. He’d definitely come prepared to do some damage, because he’d had enough firepower in his car to take out a small platoon…or a rural police department. It had left me wondering if his intent had been to hunt down Brody’s men once he’d taken care of Brody. It wouldn’t have been unreasonable for him to have watched Brody for a while to learn all he could about his movements. And what better way to inflict as much emotional damage on Nathan as he could by taking out his brother and a slew of innocent people as well?

  I stepped forward and studied the young man for a moment before slamming my fist into his jaw. His head whipped to the side and blood went flying as I knocked at least one tooth loose.

  “Now, let’s try that again. What’s your name?”

  “Fuck-”

  Another punch cut off the response and two more to his gut had him gasping for breath. I didn’t wait for him to catch his breath before I grabbed him by the hair and wrenched his head back. “Name,” was all I said. I took my gun out and pointed it at his groin to let him know I wasn’t playing.

  He remained silent, but when I pulled the trigger, unloading a bullet into the wood between his legs, he let out a bark of fear and yelled, “Clint!”

  “Clint,” I said in satisfaction as I stepped back. “Clint what?”

  He began shaking his head. Before he’d even finished the motion, I shot him in the knee. He screamed in agony as his body jerked in the chair. “Yates!” he shouted when I aimed for his other knee.

  I glanced at Gage, who nodded and left the room. He was pulling his cell phone out as he walked through the door. I knew Ronan had a lot of resources at his disposal, so we’d likely have the basics on Clint in a matter of minutes.

  But I wanted more than just the basics.

  “He’s going to kill you,” Clint growled between pants as he tried to control the pain.

  “Oh yeah?” I asked casually. “Who is?”

  Clint remained stubbornly silent, so I shot him in the foot. He bellowed in pain and let off a string of curses. I strode forward and snagged him by the hair. “Did you think this was a game?” I asked coldly. “Did you think we’d dance around with this? That I’d try to be your friend or that I’d toss you some empty threats to try to get you to talk?”

  Clint wisely didn’t answer. Sweat was pouring off his brow and he was struggling to catch his breath. I took my gun and jammed it against the bullet wound Reese had inflicted earlier. Clint cried out in pain and tried to twist away from me.

  “Why were you after Nathan Wilder?”

  Only when Clint looked like he was going to pass out did I relieve the pressure on the injury. When he didn’t answer me, I aimed for his other knee.

  “My pocket!” he screamed. “Check my back pocket!”

  I hesitated and then stepped around him to check his pockets. There was nothing in the first, but when my fingers grazed a piece of paper in the second, I carefully worked it free and stepped around to Clint’s front again.

  Gage returned to the room and said, “Our girl’s working on pulling his info.”

  I nodded as he stopped beside me. His eyes impassively took in Clint’s moans of pain before he looked at the piece of my paper in my hand.

  Except it wasn’t exactly a piece of paper.

  It was a check.

  I opened it and flinched when I saw Nathan’s name on the signature line. The check was made out to someone named Megan Yates. The amount was for five thousand dollars. I glanced at the account information and realized the check had been drawn on Nathan’s campaign fund account.

  “What is this?” I asked as I turned the check over. The check had never been endorsed and there was no indication it had been deposited or canceled.

  “The cost of penance,” he snarled.

  Pure fury went through me. I put the gun to the guy’s head. “What the fuck did I tell you about this not being a game?” I snapped. “Who is Megan Yates?”

  “My sister!” Clint yelled.

  “What’s the money for?” I asked.

  “I told you-”

  I aimed my gun at his other knee and pulled the trigger. Clint screamed as tears streaked down his face.

  “What is the fucking money for?” I asked again.

  It took several moments for Clint to speak. His voice was choked as he tried to deal with the pain. “Abortion!” he cried out. “He knocked her up and told her to get rid of it.”

  I was so stunned, I actually lowered my gun and stepped back. It wasn’t fucking possible.

  “You’re saying Nathan got your sister pregnant and paid her to get an abortion?” Gage asked.

  “Fucker told her he loved her! That they were going to be together. She was eighteen goddamned years old!” Clint sucked in several harsh breaths. “She killed herself when he told her all she’d been was a good fuck!”

  “You’re lying!” I snarled.

  “No!” Clint shot back. “Look at the goddamn evidence! It’s right there in your fucking hand!”

  I looked at the check again.

  “Why not go to the press?” Gage asked. “You could have destroyed him politically.”

  “I don’t give a fuck about his career,” Clint growled. “I want him to know what it’s like! To lose that one person that means everything to you!”

  “Why go after Nathan in his house, then?” I asked.

  Clint managed a smirk. “Couldn’t pass up the opportunity,” he said. “Him sitting there, not knowing what was coming.”

  Gage’s phone beeped. He glanced at it and then handed it to me. The screen showed Clint’s military record. He was ex Special Forces.

  Which explained his skill with a gun.

  But not his ability to hack Nathan’s accounts. “Who helped you?” I asked.

  Clint’s eyes went wide before he quickly shook his head. “No one, I work alone.”

  Gage took the phone back and scrolled through it. “His father,” Gage murmured as he showed me the screen.

  I shook my head. “William Yates, retired FBI agent specializing in Intelligence,” I said softly. I handed the phone back to Gage and glanced at the check again. “Where is he?” I asked.

  “Fuck you,” Clint bit out.

  “We’re back to that again?” I asked calmly as my eyes caught on Nathan’s signature.

  I stared at it for so long that Gage asked, “What? What is it?”

  I shook my head as I tried to figure out what was wrong with it. I searched my memory for that fleeting piece of information that was trying to elude me. Finally, it hit me.

  “It’s not his signature,” I said.

  “What?” Gage asked.

  “It’s not his signature,” I repeated, louder this time. “I’ve seen his signature…but this handwriting,” – I tapped the signature on the check – “I’ve seen it too.”

  I searched my pocket for my phone, and then remembered I’d left it outside the room after sending Cain a text asking him to let Nathan know I’d made it to Montana okay. I left the room with Gage right behind me.

  “It’s his mother’s handwriting,”
I said as I looked at the check again. “When I was researching Nathan, I saw a handwritten letter she’d sent the press. They posted a picture of the letter. It was in response to Nathan switching parties. She was telling the press how disappointed she and her husband were in losing both of their sons to the devil, and she was asking people to pray for them.”

  I found my phone on a small table next to the cache of weapons Ronan’s men had found on Clint. But as soon as I turned the phone over, I saw a flurry of notifications for missed calls…all within the last five minutes.

  They were from Cain.

  Panic went through me as I scrambled to unlock my phone. Gage’s phone rang just as I was starting to dial.

  “It’s Cain,” Gage said as he put his hand on my arm. He hit the speakerphone.

  “Cain, I’m with Vincent,” Gage said.

  “What happened?” I asked, my heart in my throat, because there was only one reason Cain would be calling me so often.

  “I’m sorry, Vincent. Nathan’s gone.”

  Chapter 29

  Nathan

  “Get up!” a voice snapped as I felt a hand dig into my hair and yank me to my feet. Pain ratcheted through my body as searing agony fired up my arms which had been bound behind my back for hours. I stumbled as my numb legs tried to hold my weight. The hold on my hair was unforgiving, and I winced when I received another sharp yank. Then, blessedly, hard fingers closed around my upper arm instead.

  My vision was fucked up because I’d been punched repeatedly on the right side of my face. My assailant was definitely a leftie.

  I wanted to spit out the blood that had collected in my mouth while I’d been passed out, but I couldn’t find the strength to do even that, so I had no choice but to swallow it. My captor dragged me maybe a hundred feet or so before he shoved me to the hard cement floor. My knees buckled as soon as I hit the ground, and with my hands bound, I had no way to break my fall. I tried rolling on my shoulder and barely stifled a cry of pain as a booted foot hit me in the middle of my back.

  “Not so tough when it’s not an innocent girl you’re toying with, huh?” another voice said as heavy footsteps headed my way. That voice I did know. I’d heard it for the first time several hours earlier when I’d answered Brody’s phone while he’d been asleep. I’d been in his room talking to him while he’d waited for his pain meds to kick in. I’d grabbed the phone to put it on vibrate when it had started ringing, but when I’d recognized my mother’s phone number, I’d answered it instead.

  The memory came back in a rush.

  “Brody?”

  My mother’s voice was uncharacteristically shaky.

  “No, Mom, it’s Nathan.”

  “Oh, Nathan, thank God,” she said, and then I heard a muffled squeak just before a man’s voice had come on the line.

  “Mr. Wilder, for someone who likes the cameras so much, you’ve proven awfully difficult to find lately.”

  I stiffened as I realized who I was talking to. And what it meant that he was talking to me using my mother’s phone.

  “Please don’t hurt her,” I said softly so Brody wouldn’t wake up. I took the phone and went into the attached bathroom.

  “Your parents will be just fine if you do what I say,” he said.

  Parents.

  Jesus, he had both my mother and my father? If he was with my parents, who the hell was Vincent questioning?

  “Mr. Wilder,” the man repeated impatiently, and I realized I’d been quiet for too long.

  “Yes, okay, anything,” I quickly said. “I’ll do anything.”

  As much as I hated my parents, I still loved them.

  “Your one job, if you want your parents to get through this thing in one piece, is for you to make it to the mainland. Alone.”

  The fact that he’d referenced the mainland had me guessing he knew exactly where I was. I could only assume he’d tracked Brody’s phone or something.

  “My associate will be waiting for you at the Anacortes ferry terminal.”

  “I…I can’t leave. People are watching the house,” I said frantically.

  “You seem like a resourceful young man, Mr. Wilder. I suggest you figure it out, and quickly. You have three hours. And if you’re followed…”

  I didn’t even let him finish the threat. “I’ll be there,” I said. “Alone.”

  “No phones. My associate will be searching you,” he warned.

  “Yes, okay.”

  “Three hours,” the man said again, and then he hung up. Panic seared through me as I checked the watch Vincent had given me. I stared at it as I realized it would be the first thing Vincent checked when he found out I was gone. And if Cain realized I was missing quickly enough, Vincent could tell him where I was and he’d intercept me before I could make sure my parents were safe. But if I left the watch behind, I had no hope of Vincent finding me. I took the watch off and studied it. It took me several precious seconds to finally figure out how to open the back of it. My eyes fell on the battery. Removing it would mean Vincent couldn’t track me, but I couldn’t be sure that putting it back in would somehow magically link the watch back up to the app Vincent used to monitor it.

  It didn’t matter; I didn’t have a choice.

  I sent Vincent a silent apology and then pulled the battery out.

  “I don’t know what girl you’re talking about,” I managed to get out as the guy behind me pulled me upright so I was on my knees. Tears pricked the backs of my eyes as pain washed over my entire body. The man who’d called me had also been the one who’d beaten me as he’d kept throwing questions at me about a girl named Megan. All I’d managed to figure out was that the girl was his daughter and he clearly blamed me for whatever had happened to her.

  But I’d never heard of her before.

  The man grabbed my chin. “You’re lucky I promised Clint he could have you,” the man snarled. “He’ll kill you fast.”

  He shoved me hard, but I managed to stay upright. “My…my parents,” I mumbled, though my tongue felt thick in my mouth. Nausea had my stomach rolling back and forth, and I prayed I wouldn’t pass out again.

  I’d ended up stealing Dominic Barretti’s boat to escape the property. I’d managed to figure out how to get to the ferry dock only because I’d seen a ferry making its way towards the mainland. Just before I’d reached land, I’d put the battery back into my watch. I’d been relieved when the time showed up on the normal-looking dial, but there’d been no way to know if the watch had reconnected with Vincent’s app.

  I’d docked the boat in the harbor, certain that I’d run into one of Dom’s or Ronan’s men, but it had been a guy in black jeans and a dark T-shirt that had appeared at my side and pressed a gun between my ribs. After searching me for a phone and thankfully leaving me with the watch, we’d driven for a good two hours before the car had turned onto a narrow dirt road that had led to some kind of singular building. Inside had been a few pieces of large machinery. I’d been led to a back room where a guy with silver hair had been waiting, and I’d barely gotten the question out about my parents before he’d hit me. I’d lost track of things after the fourth blow.

  “Your parents are the least of your concerns,” the man said. “You-”

  The man’s words dropped off suddenly when there were a series of loud pops coming from outside the building. The man snagged my arm and dragged me to my feet. To the other man who’d been covering me he said, “Go check it out.”

  I was dimly aware of more popping sounds, and I sensed the man behind me getting more and more agitated as he kept turning us around to face the direction of the sounds. There was enough light from the overhead lights that I could make out more of the inside of the building. I suspected it was some kind of outbuilding for a farm, because the few pieces of farm equipment inside of the building looked used.

  The popping sounds stopped and the man began calling out different names. When the door on the far end of the building opened, he jammed a gun against my temple. “Do
n’t move,” he warned me.

  I wanted to tell him I couldn’t promise anything because I was so dizzy. I tried to focus on the figure at the far end of the building.

  Several figures.

  I thought it was his men at first, but when the guy yelled, “Stop right there!” I knew they weren’t his guys.

  Which meant only one thing.

  “Vincent,” I whispered, though I knew there was no way he could have heard me.

  Knowing he was here helped clear the fog in my head, and I managed to make him out, along with another man with gray hair. Between them was a third guy. It looked like Vincent and the other guy were holding the third guy up.

  “You lose something, Yates?” Vincent called.

  I heard the man behind me suck in a breath when Vincent and the other guy released the third guy and he fell to his knees between them and let out a scream of pain.

  “Clint!” he shouted. The man’s hold on me eased a little and I felt the hard metal of the gun ease back from my skin. “What did you-”

  That was all he got out as I watched Vincent raise his gun in one fluid move. Warm liquid hit my skin as the man behind me crumpled to the floor. My knees refused to hold my weight anymore and I unceremoniously fell onto them. I managed to look over my shoulder at the guy’s lifeless body, blood leeching all over the floor from a gaping hole in the middle of his forehead.

  “Nathan, baby,” Vincent called as he reached me. He caught me just as I started to fall over.

  “Knew you’d come,” I managed to say as he stroked my face.

  “Always,” he whispered, and then his mouth was brushing gently over mine.

  That was the last thing I was aware of before I let the darkness claim me.

  Chapter 30

  Vincent

  The first thing I saw when I entered the room was Nathan sitting on the edge of the bed, his back to me. I quietly shut the door behind me and went around the bed.

  “You should be lying down,” I murmured as I sat down in the chair next to the bed. My belly rolled at the sight of the bruises covering Nathan’s face. Since I’d helped Ethan undress him so he could examine him, I knew his sides were also covered in black and blue marks. It made me want to kill William Yates all over again.