Save Me If You Can (21 page)

Seventeen.

“Funny, isn’t it? How quickly the tables turned?”

Even though he was in pain, Damien Wolfe smiled. He would take this pain – more, if he had to – as long as there was a clear differential in power. Right now, he stood in front of Terry King – on crutches, and in pain, but
standing
– watching with muted satisfaction as his enemy fought against the ropes that kept him bound. Once again,
he
held the power.

There had been a moment, when Harrison showed up, clearly on King’s side instead of his, where Damien had panicked. The man he considered his right hand, his
nephew
, had pointed a gun at him, with death in his eyes, and he’d had to count off another of the three people on which he thought he could depend. Noelle’s crazy ass was out, and now Harrison too, which only left Barnes. But… good old Barnes had shown up right on time, and because of him… Wolfe was back in his element now.

A good long bath, a good meal, and… Noelle, because no matter what she did, he was still as addicted as he’d always been. Nelson had damaged her, yes, and left her unbalanced. Her logic didn’t always line up with his, but she whatever her threshold was, she operated within it. Had she tried to shoot him, yes. But she swore it was staged, and Damien believed that.
She
was the one who’d led Barnes to where he was being held by Terry King.
She
was the one who would bring Naomi to him. But none of that really mattered anyway. At the root of it all, he still wanted her because she belonged to him, and that was a fact that nothing would change.

Harrison, on the other hand… may as well be dead to him.

After not speaking to her brother for almost fifteen years, Yvette had come to Damien when the boy was barely twenty years old, and she herself was on the verge of death. She’d explained everything, how Terry King had forced himself on her when she was a teenager, after realizing she had a schoolgirl crush on him. How she’d been scared to say anything, for fear of seeing her brother go to prison for hurting Terry. So she left. With her swollen belly and enough financial support from Damien to get on her feet, she moved away, and decided that she wanted nothing to do with anyone from her past anymore. So she worked her ass off to raise her son, until she fell ill. And suddenly, she needed her brother again.

Yvette passed away, and Damien took Harrison in. The boy was already on his way to becoming a police officer, but Damien worked hard at eroding the boy’s moral ideals away, molding him into what
he
thought was the perfect inside man in law enforcement.

Apparently, Harrison had just been a good actor.

Damien was usually an excellent judge of character, but Harrison’s hatred threw him for a loop. What more could he have done for Yvette, when she wanted nothing to do with him? Nothing. So Harrison’s anger there was misplaced.

His anger over the mistreatment of his sister… maybe warranted.

Now
that
was something that Wolfe respected.

That absolute drive Harrison had to protect Renata’s honor increased Harrison’s currency as a man, at least in Wolfe’s eyes. Of course there were things that got by, things that brought him closer to Terry King’s demise, but even that was understandable. Everybody, at some point, had to make some sacrifices. But as much as Wolfe “got” Harrison’s anger, the betrayal was just something he couldn’t abide.

So he told Barnes to take care of it, at the same time he snatched Terry King.

King was here now, in Wolfe’s domain, but Barnes was nowhere to be found. With everything going on though, that was fine. Barnes still had a cover to maintain, so maybe he was dealing with Naomi’s friends. But no matter… Wolfe had something to occupy him in the meantime anyway.

“Overconfidence,” he said, smirking at Terry. “You know what that means, right? I mean… you’ve
always
been full of it. You take action without thinking it through, without forming contingencies, and backup plans for the contingencies, and you’re just… I hesitate to call you stupid, but… that shoe does seem to be your size, Terry.”

“Fuck you.”

Damien smiled. “Oh, you tried that already. Shooting me, blowing up my house, leaving the bodies of my staff to pass off as Noelle and I. Holding me hostage, trying to kidnap Naomi… you’ve tried a lot. And I haven’t even brought up our past yet, old friend. But maybe I should. Because you see… you
started
this war. You and I
were
friends, remember? And then you screwed me out of that deal. You conspired with the FBI against me. And let’s not forget the late revelation that you touched my baby sister. So…” Damien shook his head. “You have to understand my anger at this point, right? That you started this, and weren’t even big enough to take the punishment I dealt like a man.”

“You went after my
fifteen year old,
and got her
pregnant!
”

Damien shrugged. “You went after my fifteen year old sister, and got
her
pregnant. Payback is a bitch, isn’t it? No expiration date. No statute of limitations. Not with me. You see… the thing is, I’m a very easy man to get along with. There are only two things that move me – my family, and my business. As long as you don’t mess with either of those, you’re good with me. But goddamnit, Terry.
Somehow
… you just couldn’t seem to keep your hands off either. And so… here we are.”

“Yeah,” Terry chuckled. “Here we are. I’m tied up, my son stabbed me in the chest. If you don’t kill me, I’m probably going to die of a blood infection, or something, from not getting it treated.”

“I actually like the sound of that.”

Terry smiled. “I bet you do. But here’s the thing. You’re standing there
crippled
, thinking you’ve won. But… I have the last laugh here.”

Damien shook his head and laughed, tipping his head to the side. “You are one funny motherfucker, Terry. Explain to me why you think
you
get the last laugh.”

“Cause you didn’t see the double-cross your little homeboy Barnes pulled. He’s probably halfway to somewhere tropical by now, with both of our money. Isn’t returning any calls, is he?”

What double-cross?

Swallowing his sudden panic, Damien smirked, trying his best to keep it from showing on his face. “What is this? Dying man’s last delusions?”

“Not delusions at all. I hope you took some time since you’ve been free to call your daughters. Because Barnes sold me the location to their safe house. And I can see from looking at your watch – what is that, an Audemars Piguet? It’s nice – that it’s
juuust
about to be seven. And well…” he smiled. “
Boom.
”

Damien’s heart dropped to the floor as Terry’s words registered in his mind. What was…? No, he was probably lying. Just trying to get a reaction. But… Barnes
wasn’t
returning any phone calls. Was this why?

A slow, steady, burning rage built in Damien’s chest. The kids were innocent in this, really. But he realized with a jolt that he couldn’t even say they were off limits, because he was the one who’d dragged Renata in. But that fact didn’t bring the level of his anger any lower.

“You motherfuc—”

“Oh, relax.”

Damien stiffened, then turned toward the doorway to see Noelle standing there, looking positively bored. He shook his head. “How am I supposed to relax when this sonofabitch—”

“Did absolutely nothing?” Noelle tossed her hair over her shoulder as she sauntered into the room, stopping in front of Terry King. She was dressed for the weather – boots, jeans, and a white sweater – but when she bent in front of him, there was a clear, enticing view of her breasts, and that was where Terry’s eyes went before he smirked up at Damien.

“Oh yeah,” he said, his face pulling into derisive sneer. “I almost forgot about the fact that I’ve been in
every inch
of your drugged out whore of a wife. Pussy was just as sweet as you claimed.”

Damien’s jaw twitched as he watched Noelle lift a hand to caress Terry’s cheek.

“Oh, Terry,” she said, giving him a sweet smile. “You really shouldn’t gloat. It’s not very nice, first of all, and second… while you were
all up in every inch of this sweet pussy
… I was plotting on your ass from the beginning.” The sweetness dropped from her voice as she stood, crossing her arms. “This
drugged out whore
made sure the explosives you intended to use on the safe house got a last minute detour. You see… money works both ways, and your security guards were really easy to turn against you, cause they don’t think you’re a very nice guy. That
expensive
private jet of yours blew up about ten minutes ago. Damn shame you weren’t on it, in route to Dubai, but… shit happens, right?”

Noelle giggled as Terry lunged in her direction, fighting against the ropes that kept him tied. She turned to Damien with a smile, and however brief this moment of clarity was, before her personal demons took over and she medicated them away, she reminded him of the girl he’d
first
fallen in love with. “I was gracious enough to spare his family, so we can stop affecting innocent people. And our girls are just fine,” she said, under her breath. “… including Naomi.”

“She’s here?”

Noelle nodded.

That had been the last thing Barnes had done, removing the agents from the gym and making sure Naomi could be reached. Noelle had insisted that she could do this – that she
wanted
to this, and against his better judgement, Damien had agreed.

But… she’d come through. He wasn’t sure how, but apparently, she’d convinced Naomi to come here. With one last sneer at King, who was cursing and fighting and trying his best to move, Damien stepped out, and slowly started following Noelle down the hall.

A commotion started around the corner, and they moved a little faster. When they rounded the wall, Damien was… honestly unsurprised to see two large bodyguards on the floor, apparently knocked out, and Naomi standing over them before she turned around.

“I told you I was coming right back,” Noelle scolded, crossing her arms.

Naomi shrugged. “Whatever. I’ve waited long enough.
Too
long. I was ready to meet my…” she took a deep breath, and then turned eyes full of barely veiled disgust up to Damien. “…father. I’m ready to meet my father.”

&

They’d done this before.

Suited up for battle, and gone after Damien Wolfe.

Last time, they’d been interrupted by Harrison’s arrival, and the gear had come off, weapons were put away. Nobody sped off to put their lives in danger.

This time… it was really happening.

Renata sucked in a deep breath.

After confirmation that Barnes was dirty, she’d carefully searched the safe house for any traps, scanned the computers, done everything she could on her own to make sure she and the girls were, indeed, safe. Every one else was off shooting people or getting shot, getting in car accidents and rescuing people, or looking for Naomi. And Renata was… alone with the girls, and trying not to look panicked, for their sake.

She wasn’t alone anymore now though. Inez and Harrison were back now, in makeshift hospital beds that had been pulled into the “war room”. The girls had been assigned as nurses after a quick and dirty training session from Savi, just enough to make sure Harrison and Inez didn’t die of their injuries before she could get back.

If
they got back.

But Renata was really,
really
trying not to think like that.

Her brain power was better used remotely hacking Wolfe’s security system, and she needed it all, because she was on her own. Quentin was with Marcus, heading into unknown dangers. There was so much they hadn’t done together yet, so many things left unsaid, but… again. She was trying not to think about that.

Her fingers flew over the keys as she worked her way through the maze-like code protecting Wolfe’s security system. She was struggling hard against his anti-malware protections, and every bit of ground she gained, it seemed like the virus protection was kicking her back another step.

“Can I help?”

Renata looked away from the screen long enough to see Taylor standing over her, her eyes scanning the lines of code. She opened her mouth to tell her daughter that this wasn’t a game, or a test, that what she was doing required an experienced hacker, an adult. But before she could form any words, Taylor had plugged Quentin’s extra laptop into a doc, and started typing away. She watched, in awe, as Taylor weaved and navigated through the code even faster than
she
had. Instead of speaking, Renata indulged a smile, and then went back to typing herself.

In what seemed like no time, they were in, and the security camera feed was playing on her screen.

Taylor winked at her mother as she stood to return to her nurse duties, and Renata shook her head as she placed a call. “Harrison was right,” she said, as soon as Quentin answered the phone. “That’s definitely where they are. I’m watching Naomi kick a security guard’s ass right now, and the other one is already on the floor.”