“What the fuck happened to her,” Romeo exclaimed as he stepped into the room.

I wanted to rush inside after him, but I knew the moment I saw her I wouldn’t be able to control myself. The act I was playing would be right out the window, and we would be completely screwed within seconds. It had taken us all day to get plans into place, and I couldn’t ruin them by losing my shit in the first few minutes.

Instead, I waited in the hallway, trying not to pace and look concerned.

“I’m going to have to speak to my man about this. He didn’t want a fucking broken bitch because you can’t control your temper, Isiah,” Romeo roared, completely in his element with control and making these shitheads feel like they were nothing.

Romeo knew how these guys worked. He knew what steps we needed to take and what path we needed to follow if we were going to get Meyah out and make Isiah regret touching her.

Or Carly.

“Fucking clean her up, will you. I’ll give you five minutes.” Romeo stormed out of the room, Isiah on his heels.

I pursed my lips and stood a little taller. “I didn’t want her harmed,” I growled, staring Isiah down like he wasn’t one of the darkest bastards in hell.

Isiah’s nose twitched, and he clenched his fists at his side. “The little bitch has a mouth on her.” He was holding a washcloth to his hand, blood staining the white shirt underneath his suit jacket and there were a couple of scratches on his face.

I tried not to smile knowing that Meyah was giving this asshole absolute hell.

That was my woman.

“Cooper and I need to have a chat about the state you’ve put her in, and whether he still wants her,” Romeo snarled.

Isiah’s eyes narrowed. “There are plenty of other buyers out there, Romeo.”

My brother scoffed. “Ones that are willing to take the fall out that’s going to come with her because you have some idiotic vendetta?” Romeo tsked and shook his head. “Get her cleaned up.”

I could tell Isiah wasn’t happy about being talked to like he was a small errant child, but I also knew he’d been pretty desperate to get rid of Meyah quickly, knowing the longer he held onto her, the more danger he was in if the club found out what had happened.

He stomped back inside the room, throwing orders at his men to patch her up.

Knowing she was hurt somehow was making me itching to walk right in there and put a bullet in his head.

A few minutes later, I took a deep breath and stepped into the room next to my brother.

Meyah was on a sofa not far from the door, her eyes barely cracked open, and her hands bound behind her. There was a piece of tape over her mouth.

“Did you drug her?” I asked, concerned as hell as I made my way toward her, trying not to act too concerned but my old friend, Kero, stepped in front of me, his hand on my chest. I looked down at it then back up at him. “Get your dirty ass hand off me before I break every goddamn finger on it.”

“Move back,” he ordered, and I reluctantly took a couple of steps back toward Romeo.

He was also staring at her in concern. “What happened?” he demanded, turning to face Isiah who just shrugged as he tended to his wounds.

There were a couple men on the floor, sweeping up broken glass and dismantling what was left of a glass top table.

“I didn’t give her shit,” Isiah snorted. “She came at me. We both fell into the glass. She got cut on her thigh, but it’s not too deep.”

“Fuck,” Romeo cursed under his breath, storming toward Meyah, shoving Isiah’s men out of the way. He crouched down beside her, rolling her body over. She was barely conscious. I could see her trying to figure out what was going on but feeling too weak. I just hoped, for now, she kept quiet until I could get her the hell out of here. “We need to take her, now.”

Isiah shook his head. “Money first, then she will be delivered. You were only here to look.”

Actually, we were always here to take. We just thought we’d be able to show him a fake transfer on a computer and that we’d be gone. Well, we’d have Meyah safe before we came for Isiah.

Romeo pressed his hand to the cut on the side of her leg that had sliced through her jeans and looked like it was still bleeding. “She’s going to fucking bleed out,” Romeo roared, his eyes looking directly into mine, telling me there was something wrong and to be prepared because shit was about to go south.

Isiah stood up, his eyes watching Romeo carefully, his head tilted to the side. “I’m sorry, what did you say?” he challenged. I was already making sure I knew where the exits were, and how many men were in the room.

Four including Isiah—all armed.

Meyah was fading, her eyes barely open.

“Meyah has a blood condition. Her blood doesn’t clot like it should.”

My heart skipped, and my stomach sank.

My head was spinning with this new information—information I should have known, that she should have told me or fucking anyone. This was a life or death thing, but the more I thought about it, the more I put the clues together.

There wasn’t enough time to ask questions. I could see the worry on Romeo’s face as he pressed hard to her leg with his palm.

A man moved up behind him. Pressing the barrel of a gun to his temple.

“Move away,” Isiah ordered, and Romeo turned to glare at him but pulled back, climbing to his feet with my old lady’s blood smeared across his palm. “Want to explain how you know this bit of information?”

“Because I actually do my fucking research when I see something I want. Unlike you,” Romeo hissed, staring Isiah directly in the eye.

The corner of Isiah’s mouth twitched, slowly pulling into a smile. “Romeo, Romeo,” he said with a grin, shaking his head as one of his men moved in and picked up Meyah off the sofa.

I observed as they carried Meyah around the room to where Isiah was standing.

With two men on either side of Romeo and one just behind me, all pulling their guns into their hands, I knew things were about to escalate a little quicker than we thought they were.

I just hoped everyone was ready.

“Eliza Visser. The county sheriff’s daughter. Your foster sister,” Isiah rambled on, with each word I could see Romeo’s face growing with anger. “When you walked in here with that photo, I knew she wasn’t for your friend. I wondered whether you’d come looking for her eventually. Which is why I kept her for myself because you know how I like to be one step ahead and have a card in my pocket.”

Romeo’s chest puffed up, and his breathing grew harder. “That’s called cheating,” he managed to growl out from between clenched teeth. “Where the fuck is she?”

Isiah chuckled softly and then sighed. “Do you know how broken she was when he delivered her to me? She’d already lived through hell. There was nothing I could do that would be any worse than what she’d already been through. No way to train her or scare her. She was basically an empty shell.”

“What the fuck did you do to her?” Romeo roared, throwing his body forward only to have a fist slammed into his gut and his body thrown back into the wall. Two men grabbed each of his arms and pinned him there. He was like a raging bull and Isiah had just waved a red flag in front of his face. He was distracted, he was going to lose his shit, and then everything was going to go to hell.

“Romeo! Stop,” I barked, hoping to gain his attention, to get him to remember that Meyah was thrown over some asshole’s shoulder, bleeding out on the wooden floor.

“I showed pity on her,” he answered with a shrug, looking down at his palm and dabbing at the wound. “I gave her a bottle of pills and a quiet room.”

Romeo roared. The sound a mixture of anger and pain as he fought the two men who had a hold on him. Slamming his fist into one of their noses, before plowing his entire body into the other and lifting him, throwing him across the room and into the bookcase on the other side before he turned and focused his deadly gaze on Isiah.

I took a step forward but was instantly met with the click of a gun at my side and gritted my teeth as I watched my brother lose his shit.

He stormed forward but froze when Isiah stepped to the side.

Kero was holding Meyah’s weak body in front of him, one arm holding her up while the other pressed a sparkling silver knife to her neck.

“I’m going to kill you,” Romeo promised, his eyes moving between Isiah and Meyah.

The man laughed. “You should be thanking me. I gave Eliza the freedom she’d been searching for. I allowed her to fly.”

“You have no fucking idea who you’re messing with,” Romeo drawled, standing a little taller as he began to regain control of his emotions and realized we had a plan, and that right now, it was to get Meyah to safety, then to bring Isiah in.

“I thought you were smarter than this, you know.” Isiah shook his head like a disappointed parent. “I thought you knew better than to show your hand too early. You walked in here with that photo, assuming I didn’t know the connection between you and our friend, the sheriff, but I’d heard rumors. Obviously, you’ve softened since you’ve been away from the city.”

“I thought you were smarter than this, too,” Romeo threw back and Isiah’s body instantly tensed.

The whirl of an alarm began to ring through the level, and I heard the distinct but distant sound of gunshots.

Isiah turned looking at me before looking back at Romeo.

My brother grinned. “And I thought you knew better than to think we would come in here without fucking backup.”

With the confusion, I turned, swinging my arm and knocking the gun from Isiah’s man’s hand. It flew across the floor, the both of us chasing after it.

“Kill them,” Isiah roared, and I looked up just in time to see him and Kero carrying Meyah, back out a side door, while two of his men jumped on Romeo.

My man jumped on my back, grabbing at my arms so I couldn’t reach the gun which had slid underneath a sizeable lavish chair. I expected nothing less from this asshole.

I threw my elbow with my body weight behind it, up into the fucker’s face, ramming it right into his eye socket. He screamed in pain and threw his head back, his hands automatically reaching for the injury, giving me room to twist my body and pull out from underneath him.

I wrapped my hand around the gun, the cool metal instantly giving me the boost I fucking needed as I rolled over and pointed it directly at the asshole sitting on me. His one eye widening, and his body stilling for part of a second before I pulled the trigger.

I scrambled to get his body off mine and to get to my feet. Turning to find my brother driving his fist into the face of a man who was already unrecognizable, and unmoving, only to look over his shoulder and find the second of the guards with his body in a twisted and mangled position, his head facing the opposite direction than it should have been.

“Romeo, fucking stop!” His breathing was heavy, and I could see that the rage inside him was burning, and he needed an escape, a way to rid it from his body before it consumed him and he did something stupid. “We have to get Meyah, or she’s gonna die.”

He stilled, his eyes looking up at me, his fist poised in the air. Blood was splattered across his face. He looked like a fucking madman.

The door behind me clicked open, and I spun, raising my gun ready to shoot anyone who got in between my fucking woman and me.

But Ripley, Texas, and Brewer rushed through, looking at me the same way.

“Where is she?” Ripley demanded.

I flicked the safety on, and Romeo climbed to his feet. “We’re going with Plan B. He’s got her, and he’s gonna try and get out of the building. So everyone better be in place because we’re in a time crunch now.”

“What happened?” Brewer demanded.

“She’s bleeding out.”

Ripley was already turned and heading for the door. I followed him, walking down the hallway. Carnage was the one thing on my mind. “I’m not going to lose her,” I told them loudly, not caring who was listening and who wasn’t.

“Then we better get this party started.”