Page 8 of Riordan's Revenge
“No. Stay and guard Cassie. Whoever wrote that note was using you to get to her. I need you to keep her safe, yourself, too.”
Safe with the woman who’d abducted me? What a fucking joke. I tried again. “How am I supposed to do that? I’ve got no transport. No weapon. Nothing beyond the clothes on my back.”
“Noted. Leave that with me.” Arran spoke again to whoever was in his office then hung up.
Cassie’s brother grabbed her hand and tugged her from the room, addressing her in low and urgent tones. Her one-word answers were far more muted.
Her brother returned alone.
He took the opposite seat to mine. “I need to know your intentions towards my sister.”
“She fucking kidnapped me. My intentions are to get the hell away from her.”
“You’re not going to do that. Arran ordered ye to stay, and I’m reinforcing that. Not for his sake, but for Cassie’s. Tomorrow, my wife and I will be leaving in the morning and staying away overnight. The rest of my family are elsewhere, and we’ve made arrangements for the three kids who aren’t at camp to stay with friends. I’m going to pull Struan back, that’s our older brother, but I can’t be sure when he’ll arrive. The one thing I am certain of is Cassie will not be left alone.”
I worked through his problem. I shouldn’t give a fuck, but I couldn’t help myself. “You leaving here means Cassie would be unprotected. Tell me why I should care.”
His gaze shifted over me like he was sizing me up. My biceps under my skeleton crew black t-shirt. My frame. I sat taller as if I needed to prove my worth.
“Because she’s Cassie,” he replied simply. “Arran said you’re a hard worker. Can ye fight?”
A scowl formed on my lips. “I spent the past seven years working construction then one month in a gang. Unless you count the times I had to knock back my drunken stepfather, no, Ihave no experience of fighting beyond taking care of myself. But that’s beside the point.”
He palmed his chin, thinking. “Struan can help with that. Cassie’s good with a blade and is a decent shot, but at close range, her size and strength are a disadvantage.”
“For fuck’s sake. You’re talking about a woman who drugged me to bring me here. Why does no one else think what she did is messed up?”
“We do. We also respect her choices.”
“I’m not hers to choose. I’m also not her fucking boyfriend and I have no interest in staying here to play bodyguard.”
He leaned forward so his forearms were on his knees, and his expression morphed to something dark and deadly. I’d seen the same shift in his sister when she’d tortured a man in the warehouse’s basement. Then, I’d been unexpectedly turned on. Her brother bringing that same energy chilled me.
“A killer threatened my sister by pretending to be ye. I get your concerns, but that’s pride talking. Get over it. There is no other priority than her safety. Do ye hear me? Let’s make one thing clear. Hurt her, or allow her to be hurt, and I’ll end ye.”
I gave a slow nod in reply. Anything else would be risking my neck.
Cassie’s unique form of crazy obviously ran in the family.
“Glad we understand each other. If it’s your ego you’re worried about, our brother Jamieson’s girl had to spring him from prison. My lass left her island to hunt me down. Sometimes, women make the show of strength, so fucking deal with it. Now, sit up straight and raise your hands above your head. Get your elbows close together so there’s tension on the tape, then you’re going to bring your hands down quickly so your elbows go either side of your ribs.”
Sin acted out slashing his wrists down and breaking them apart. “One swift action and it’ll shred right through that. Good practice if it happens to ye again.”
Incredulous, I followed orders and got into position, enough strength returned to my muscles to comply.
It didn’t feel like this would work, but I had to get free. I needed to take a piss. To work out how to get out of here. To call…
Would anyone be worried about me?
Genevieve would hear from Arran that I was away from the warehouse. She’d tell Everly, my other sister, who now knew that we shared a father, a secret I’d carried for years. Neither of them would be alarmed. They were friends with Cassie, the three women thick as thieves. It would probably amuse them to hear what she did.
Shades of embarrassment threatened my mood further. I’d been captured by a five-foot-nothing lass, but only because she’d been able to knock me out. I wasn’t in any real danger from her.
But she was. Someone had threatened her.
“Fucking hell,” I growled out. Then with a savage downwards slash of my hands, broke the tape that held me.
Chapter 4