Strike ( Book 4: Stronger Series )

54. More Lessons

I paced back and forth in front of the car, my blood boiling to a degree I didn't think it could reach as we hid from view near the rendezvous point. It had already taken far too much restraint to keep myself calm during that conversation with Tony, the urge to reach through the phone and rip his goddamn tongue out so I could strangle him with it was far too great. He made us wait hours before he finally answered the phone and then tried to call the whole thing a mistake. A simple misunderstanding.

His damage control game was weak.

He knew he fucked up. And he knew exactly who he had fucked up with. There would be severe consequences for this, consequences that I did not intend for him to survive. If he thought he could use that tech against me like this, then I had mistakenly invested in the wrong company. And I would rectify that with permanent remedies so that it never happened again.

"Where are they? They're late," Matt whined as he stood next to the SUV, looking out through the trees.

I looked at him with unabashed disdain. There really was no other way around it, no reason or explanation. This was his goddamn fault. If he had told me about Tony's threats, I could have prevented this. I could have handled it so that he didn't have to, but no, Matt thought he could resolve it on his own, and everything would work out.

But Matt lacked the influence I had, and he hated standing in my shadow, which was idiotic. My shadow alone was the best thing to have in your corner when you were at the negotiating table. But he wanted to be able to stand on both legs without me.

Of course, he could have also just listened to me in the first place and not made deals with people I explicitly told him not to. The Lobos would also pay for their stupidity since they knew they weren't to contract with anyone else but us.

"It's only been five minutes," Scott reminded Matt. "Don't lose your head yet."

If Matt said another fucking word, he just might.

But then five minutes turned into fifteen, and fifteen turned into twenty.

Pulling out my phone, I dialed Tony to tell him his man was late, but there was no answer. Trying not to crush my phone in a silent rage, I tried again, and again, and again, but there was still no answer.

"Fuck," I muttered before pocketing my phone.

There were only two reasons I could think of for the current change in events. Either someone got to Tony or Jaden did, and I had a pretty strong feeling it was the latter. And if that was the case, Jaden had better have a damn good reason for going against what I had already secured for her.

This place and the entire drive here for the next mile to and from was surrounded with my men, forty guns pointing in this direction and the road, ready to blow whoever the fuck was bringing my wife back to me to holy fucking hell should they try anything with her. But I intended to get them alive.

They would lead us to Tony, and we would get Kayla back for Matt, assuming I didn't kill Matt before then.

Assuming there was anything left of Kayla by then.

"Bring up a map of the surrounding area," I ordered. Something had gone wrong.

Scott pulled out an iPad from the car and placed it on the hood of the SUV, manipulating the screen to bring up the satellite image as we all gathered around. Adjusting the screen, I zoomed out just enough to get a better look at the surrounding areas, places that were within a few miles of our location.

"Matt, look closely. Tony can't be too far from us. Can you think of anything that might lead us to him?"

Matt reviewed the map, moving the screen this way and that, his gaze focused and hardened while I stood there trying not to kill him. It was after several frustrating minutes he finally spoke.

"I remember him mentioning once before about a storage facility he runs in Henderson. I imagine it would be well isolated with multiple buildings and a warehouse. Something like this," Matt said as he pointed at a spot on the map.

Scott and I looked over the site Matt had pointed to, assessing the likelihood of him being correct before we abandoned our location.

"Seems like a good fit to me," Scott said with a slight shrug. "Better than wasting our time here."

I nodded in agreement. "We'll leave five men behind here. Three along the road and two to wait here in case something comes up."

Our plan decided, we packed up and began to head out.

"I swear to God, I am going to murder Tony for this," Matt concluded as he headed for the car.

I shook my head at him. If Tony wasn't answering his phone, then there was only one conclusion I could draw.

"Don't get your hopes up. If he isn't answering his phone, he's probably already dead."

Matt whipped his head around at my response, his brows knit with confusion. "What makes you say that?"

"Because he has Jaden. And she doesn't handle captivity very well."

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I know it was a short chapter, sorry