“You’re not going,” Tate said flatly. “Zane would never forgive us if something happened to you. Christ! You’ve just recovered from being kidnapped.”
“If you don’t take me with you, I’ll show up there anyway,” Ellie argued. There was no way she was staying behind.
“I’m going, too,” Blake insisted.
“Neither one of you are trained in hostage situations. Just let Tate and I deal with it so nobody else gets hurt,” Marcus said gruffly.
Ellie crossed her arms and glared at all three men. “I have to go. He’s expecting to see me. How do you think you’re going to explain when I don’t show up? If you catch him off-guard, we might have a chance.”
“She has a point,” Tate ventured. “But you know Zane’s going to be pissed.”
Blake shrugged. “Better angry than dead.”
“I don’t like it,” Marcus rumbled. “It’s too dangerous for Ellie.”
Frustrated, Ellie turned around and went back into the family room, hoping for some backup. All three men followed.
“It’s not that we don’t think you can do it, Ellie,” Tate said as he entered the family room with the others right behind him.
“Then tell me what it is, because I’m going to be there whether you like it or not. It’s Zane’s only hope right now. If he sees you two, he could kill Zane.” She took a deep breath and tried to calm down.
“You have to understand that we can’t put your life in danger. I would kill anybody who let Lara come to any harm, including one of my brothers,” Tate answered irritably.
“I’m going, too,” Lara informed her husband matter-of-factly. “You could use another skilled professional with a gun.”
“Like hell you will,” Tate argued angrily, giving Lara a warning glance.
Ellie saw Chloe sitting on the couch with a crying Aileen, trying to comfort her mother. All this arguing wasn’t making this any easier on Aileen or the rest of the family.
“Stop!” Ellie raised her voice to be heard over all the noise. Now wasn’t the time for debating. “I think all of you need to understand that nothing will keep me from being in that building tomorrow morning. Zane saved my life. He never gave up on me, even though he should have.” She hesitated before adding, “Since he never gave up on me, I’m never giving up on him. I’d rather die trying than live in this world without him.”
Tears were streaming down her face as she finished her speech.
“We know you care about him,” Blake said quietly.
“I. Love. Him.” Ellie put emphasis on each word. “I love him more than anything else in this world.”
God, she wished she had told Zane how she felt. Now, it seemed so petty to be worried about his reaction.
“Are we going to make a plan, or are we going to sit here and argue?” Marcus asked drily.
They all decided that a plan was the best option.
Zane knew he was going to die. It was just a question of when Sean decided to off him. The only consolation he had was that at least Ellie wasn’t here with him, and he knew his brothers would keep her safe.
It had been a long night, Sean keeping Zane in a state of semi-consciousness so the guy could sleep.
Like it wasn’t enough that he was tied to a chair in Sean’s office with so much overkill that Zane couldn’t possibly get loose. And dammit, he’d tried. Over and over again. The moment he started making too much noise, Sean would wake and bash him over the head again. Thankfully, Zane could hear his employee snoring from his office chair behind him now.
Really, he found it pretty ironic that he was being held captive in an office he owned and had given to Sean when he’d hired him not all that long ago. It was a damn nice office, too. Now, he regretted not putting his director in some crappy cubbyhole somewhere instead of granting him an executive office as nice as his own.
Zane tried not to make a sound as his head began to clear. He wanted to be awake and conscious in case the police arrived, to see if he could do anything to help keep himself alive. Honestly, he’d expected police intervention way before now. It was definitely morning, and by looking at the sun rising through the window, it was well beyond dawn.
Fuck! He hoped to hell that Ellie wasn’t planning on carrying through on Sean’s demands. The bastard would kill them both in a heartbeat if she came walking into the building with the stuff Sean wanted. Zane’s heart chilled.
Whatever Sean’s issues were, they weren’t with Zane. He’d just become his employee’s fixation, a target that didn’t really exist.
Why did I never see the signs? How was he able to hide this side of himself for so long?
Zane knew it happened. Hell, he’d just seen a news story about a father, husband and seemingly normal man with no criminal record who just went off one day, killing multiple people in a mass shooting.
Maybe Elena’s apparently final desertion had set Sean off, but Zane had no doubt that Sean’s mental issues had always existed and had been hidden away, just waiting for the right reason to go psychotic. The guy might have a brilliant scientific mind, but in other areas of his brain, there were definitely some major problems.
Turning his head slowly, he looked at the clock.
Almost nine!
He was getting nervous, worried about the fact that the police still hadn’t showed. Was Ellie really going to try to bring what Sean wanted? Please God, no!
Not possible. I never got her access to my lab in Rocky Springs.
However, Zane knew that Ellie would have needed to work with his family if she wanted the money Sean wanted, and his brothers could be downright dangerous. With Tate and Marcus’s skills, Zane didn’t doubt they might try something themselves. It was the only explanation for why the police weren’t here.