My alarm pulls me from sleep around two in the morning. I spent the rest of the day and night with Kylie, trying to keep her calm and happy, but in the back of my mind I knew that I couldn’t let what happened go.

He tried to kill us. There’s no questioning that. His men rammed up against my truck on some of the hairiest stretches of road in the whole area without a second thought. It was absolute madness, and if they didn’t intend to kill us, they sure fucking fooled me. Kylie was shaken, clearly pretty upset, but she wasn’t holding it against me.

I don’t understand why. If I were her, I would have run the fuck away by now. But I’m happy that she hasn’t. I’m happy she’s staying here with me, even though I don’t deserve it.

Well, tonight I won’t let it stand. I dress in black and slip my gun into my waistband before heading out into the kitchen. Kylie turned in early, and her door is still shut, so I assume she’s still asleep.

I head through the kitchen and open the garage door. Nick Sloan and three other men are standing there in the garage, each of them dressed in black gear. I step outside and shut the door behind me.

“Everything ready?” I ask Nick.

He nods once. “All set. But are you sure about this?”

“I’m sure.”

He frowns slightly. “We don’t normally do this kind of thing, Carson.”

“I know. That’s why I’m paying you a lot of money.”

He nods once. “We’ll have men stationed here to watch the house while we’re gone.”

“Good.” I pull a black cap from my back pocket and push it low over my head. “Let’s go.”

We pile into two black trucks that Nick’s people provided. I’m driving one and he’s driving the other. The guys riding with us don’t identify themselves, and I don’t ask them to.

What we’re doing isn’t legal, and I don’t want to know them if something goes wrong. I figure the less I know about them the better I can protect them in the end. Maybe that’s foolish, but I’m not such a reckless guy that I’d send people on a suicide mission.

Like my fucking brother did. Those guys driving those cars could easily have gotten themselves killed, and yet they were throwing themselves at our truck like it was nothing. I still can’t get over the fact that they were risking their own lives for my brother Elliot. It just makes no sense. Elliot doesn’t inspire anything but loathing in people. He must be shelling out astronomical amounts of money to get these guys to follow his orders.

We drive into Juneau, keeping slow and sticking to back roads. The target is in a building at the edge of town, a little nondescript office building with nothing marking it from the outside. That’s on purpose, I assume, because this place is supposed to be a secret.

But it hasn’t been a secret for a long time. We park the trucks out front and climb out. We gather up together behind the trucks.

“Inside this building, my brother keeps an office,” I say. “It’s his private office. We’re going to break in and ransack the place. Destroy everything that doesn’t look important, take anything you think might be worthwhile. Understood?”

“Yes,” Nick says, and the other men nod their heads in agreement.

“Good. Nick?”

“I want you to watch the outside,” he says, touching one guy’s vest. “Slash the tires of any trucks or cars you think might belong to Elliot.”

“Roger,” he says.

“Everyone else, stay tight and close. No weapons. We don’t want any fucking mistakes here. Understood?”

“Roger,” the guys all say together.

“Let’s go,” I say.

Nick leads the way to the building. As soon as we get to the front door, it’s definitely locked, but that doesn’t stop anything. Nick takes out a black crowbar and smashes into the glass, shattering the door. One of the men steps up and walks to a panel on the wall, clearly a security panel. He takes off the front plastic part and cuts a few wires before nodding.

“Let’s go,” Nick says. “Ten minutes, no more.”

We rush up the steps. I lead the way now, past a dentist’s office, and to the back wing of the building. Elliot’s office is tucked into a three-room suite. The door is locked, but Nick’s guys knock it open and we get inside.

I’ve never been in here before, but I knew it existed when Elliot was audited by the IRS and it was mentioned in his list of assets. I only saw it because I had to do some minor paperwork for the company, and just happened to see it there on the accountant’s desk.

It’s exactly what I thought. There’s a conference room, a waiting room, and a large office in the back. I head right into the office and start tearing out the drawers.

There are papers spanning back years. Most of it is junk and relates to various businesses and holdings he has. We start piling the paper into metal trashcans stacked on the desk. In the conference rooms, one of the guys goes to work smashing everything in sight.

It feels fucking good to tear his papers apart. I stuff a few pieces into my pockets, but pretty much everything goes into the fire. Nick lights one up, burning what we have in there already to make room for more. We smash pictures, trinkets, trophies, the usual shit someone has in their office.

“Safe,” one of the guys calls out from the other room.

“You go,” Nick says to one of the guys. “Crack it.”

The guy nods and head into the other room. We continue burning the papers, destroying what he has. This damage is going to affect Elliot for the rest of his life, assuming he even has a rest of his life. If it were up to me, Elliot would already be dead, but Nick wouldn’t go out on a hit with me. I figured ransacking one of his offices would be easier and send him a message.

I’m not fucking playing around anymore.

“Four minutes,” Nick calls out.

We keep working, throwing what we can onto the fire. I wish it were Elliot I was throwing into the flames, but I have to settle for precious financial reports and other important documents. This isn’t the same as trying to run him off a cliff, but it’s going to be a thorn in his side at least.

“Safe’s open!” a guy calls out. I step into the other room and find the safe wide open, tucked behind the secretary’s desk.

Inside is cash. I pull it out and hand it to one of the guys. “Consider it a bonus,” I say. “Split it up.”

“Roger that,” he says with a grin and starts handing out the cash.

There is some jewelry and diamonds, which I slip into my pocket, and more documents. They’re deeds to properties that I didn’t know he owned. I take a picture of them with my phone and everything else in there before tossing it into the fire.

“That’s time,” Nick says.

“No,” I answer. “We’re not finished. It’s not all destroyed.”

“We can’t risk it,” he says, motioning for his guys. They all gather and head toward the door.

I stand there, torn. I know Nick’s right and we should go while we can, but I want to destroy it all. I want to kill Elliot, or at least fucking hurt him badly for risking Kylie’s life like that.

I’m so angry that I can barely think, and that’s what ultimately convinces me to leave. If I can’t think, I can’t make good decisions. I finally catch up with Nick and his men as we make our way through the dark hallways.

As we get outside, the guy on watch joins us. We move toward the trucks, but before we can get there, a vehicle suddenly comes screaming down the road and pulls into the lot. It’s the sheriff’s truck, although its lights aren’t on.

“Fuck,” Nick says. “Mack, you disabled the alarm?”

“I thought I did,” he says. “But there might have been another silent one.”

“In the office,” I say. “Of course. He’d be paranoid.” I step away from the truck and walks toward the sheriff’s truck. “I’ll handle this.”

Two men climb out of the truck, their guns drawn. “Hands up!” Myron Hoover, Juneau’s sheriff himself, steps from around the driver’s seat and toward me.

I do as I’m told and I raise my hands into the air. “Myron?” I say. “Is that you?”

He pauses. “Carson? What the fuck are you doing here?”

“Burning down my brother’s office,” I say with a grin.

Myron lowers his weapon but he doesn’t put it away, eyeing the men behind me. “It’s okay, Josh,” he says to the deputy. “Lower your gun.”

Josh does as he’s told, but he looks wary. Myron walks toward me, a confused look on his face. “You said you were burning down the office?”

“That’s right,” I say. “Burned his papers. Stole from him.”

“Now why the fuck would you say that to me?”

I laugh, grinning. “We both know why, Myron. You aren’t going to arrest me.”

“Maybe.” He concedes. “But I might arrest them.”

“No, I don’t think you will.” I put my hands down slowly and cross my arms over my chest. “Why are you here in person, Myron? It’s three in the morning.”

“I was on duty,” he says. His deputy glances at him and I catch the surprise.

“You’re lying,” I say. “You don’t fucking work overnight shifts anymore. You’re too goddamn old.”

He looks pissed at that. “What do you fucking care what I do, Price?” He spits out my last name like a curse.

“I think you’re getting paid directly by Elliot to protect this place, Myron. Is it because of the shit in his safe? Some of that property looked a little sketchy to me.”

Myron stares at me for a second, clearly warring with himself. “Josh,” he says finally, “get back in the car.”

“Sir?” the deputy asks.

“Now,” he snaps. “In the fucking car.”

The deputy hesitates then obeys the order. He shuts the door behind him, looking confused, as Myron walks up to me.

“I don’t know what you saw in there, but you best forget about it,” Myron says. “What I do with your brother is my business.”

“It’s my business now too, unfortunately. Did you know that he tried to run my truck off the road earlier today? Two of his cars, up on the pass road.”

“I didn’t know that,” he admits. “You got any proof?”

“None. But we both know what Elliot is like, especially right now.”

“Stay out of this business,” Myron says, shaking his head. “Go the fuck home. Make sure I never see those men again.”

“Don’t get involved with Elliot,” I say to him. “He’s going to lose. And when he does, I won’t forget this.”

“Go home,” Myron snaps. “For fuck’s sake. Get out of here.”

“Good night,” I say. I wave to the deputy then give Nick and his team the high sign to get into the trucks.

We pile in, not saying a word, and head out again. My mind is distracted as we go back to my place, trying to work out what exactly Myron and Elliot are up to. I knew that Myron was under Elliot’s thumb, but tonight shows me a whole new side to their relationship.

I didn’t see any solid proof, but there might be something in the documents I took. They’re clearly in bed together over some deal, and that might just be exactly what I’m looking for. If I can find it and prove to my father that Elliot is involved in some shady shit, then there’s nothing that will stop me, no matter how violent Elliot gets. I can just sit tight and wait him out.

It has to be bad. Otherwise, Myron would never get his old, fat ass out of bed late at night to check out a break-in at some random office complex. Elliot’s office had to have its own private silent alarm which alerted Myron and led him to check it all out.

I’m going to use this to my advantage. I just have to figure out what they’re up to. I’ll hire some people to look into it as soon as I’m back home.

I have far too much adrenaline and anger inside of me to go back to sleep. There’s no fighting it. As soon as we get back, Nick and his people head home, but I go into the kitchen and pour myself a drink.

Thoughts of Myron, Elliot, and my father all swirl in my head. I need to connect the dots, but I’m not sure how, not yet at least. Most of all, I need something to do, something to occupy my mind.

I glance at the hallway, and an idea creeps into my brain. I know what I want, and she’s sleeping maybe fifty feet away.

I smile wickedly to myself and head to my room to get what I need.