Page 89 of Holding On

“I didn’t do anything, but neither did you, because there are no Swiss accounts for you to access, dear sister. Josh never set up what he said he did, and so there’s no place for you to put your money offshore, but it’s okay. It’s my fucking money and you’re never getting your hands on it.”

“No, no, no. You’re lying. Josh wouldn’t … he didn’t … Dammit!” Debbie Jo stomps her feet again and raises the gun back to aim at her brother.

“Now, why would you want Kane to have a syringe of insulin ready for you, Debbie Jo? Is there something you want to confess to your big brother?” His voice is firm, but dangerously low. I can only remember hearing him talk like that one time, and it ended with him breaking multiple bones in one of my hands.

“Once we get our money, we are out of here!” Kane yells, but his voice isn’t as strong as it was a few minutes ago. Debbie Jo doesn’t back up Kane’s plans, but her face has gone ghostly pale as Kane proclaims his love and her brother prowls toward her.

Rick has slowly taken steps toward Debbie Jo, but she keeps looking between Rick and Kane so often that she hasn’t noticed how close Rick has gotten to her. “I’m afraid both of you have been woefully misinformed. Neither of you are going anywhere, and Kane doesn’t have this on his person anymore, but I am curious, why on earth does Kane think you’d be leaving, dear sister?” Rick’s voice is too calm, and even though he’s facing away from me, I know that vein is bulging.

“You sneaky little bitch. You what? You were going to have lover boy over there take me out like I took out Michael and then take my fucking money?” Debbie Jo starts furiously shaking her head, finally realizing that her brother now has her in his crosshairs. “That’s why you had me change the beneficiary on everything last year, didn’t you? You said you were worried if I left Bridget as my beneficiary that somehow my money would end up back in Tinsley’s or even her brother’s hands, but you had this all planned out, huh, little sister? Looks like I taught you some life skills after all, but you forgot two very important lessons, Deborah Jo.”

Debbie Jo rolls her eyes at the full name, but her bravado is false. The gun that was once held level at her brother has not only lowered, but the hand holding it is shaking slightly more than it was a moment ago. “Oh, yeah? And what’s that?”

“One: never underestimate your opponent, and two—” Rick rushes Debbie Jo before pistol-whipping her across the face, and she crumbles into a heap with a thud as a yelp escapes me. Rick wipes another trail of blood from his nose before turning back to me. “And two, no one will ever stand between me and my fucking money.”

Kane tries calling out to Debbie Jo, but she’s out for the count on the floor. I guess when it comes to Rick, there’s absolutely nothing in this world that matters more to him than his money—not even his own flesh and blood.

“Such a disappointment. I really had hoped she was smarter than to cross me, but at least she was dumb enough to go to someone that liked Bridget.”

He turns his attention back to me as I press up against the kitchen island. “You know, Tinsley, your mama really was kind of useless. At least back in the day she was fun in the sack, but that was a long ass time ago. There wasn’t any life insurance on her. But you.” He points the barrel of the small handgun at me as he tilts his head while making a tutting sound. “I’ve had multiple multi-million-dollar policies on you, as your loving stepfather and faithful manager with an insurable interest, of course, since you were ten years old.”

The blood from his nose has dripped down into his teeth, and when he smiles, a shudder of panic moves throughout my body. “But apparently, you’re a fucking cat with nine lives.”

My eyebrows scrunch together in confusion. Nine lives? Wait…

“Oh, you haven’t figured it out?” He tilts his head slowly to the opposite side, almost too slowly as he studies me. “You never were that bright.” He huffs in frustration. “Not that I give a shit, but Roman Cash and Fiona Skye were never supposed to die. Well, Roman was a risk, but we didn't know he’d also be hopped up on cocaine that night, but it should’ve only helped our efforts.”

“Your … your efforts?” I barely manage to whisper.

“Hmm. But you can’t even do that right, can you? Forever the disappointment and always falling short.”

I don’t know if curiosity will kill a cat with an alleged nine lives, but I am who I am, so I ask anyway, “Do what right?”

He barks a harsh laugh. “You can’t even die like you should.”

I try to stop them, but my hands start to tremble as fear courses through my body and the reality of the situation sets in—I might not make it out of this room alive.

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

Walker parks his truck under the building in the lower and even more guarded residential parking area. That’s the other part that doesn’t make sense: if these guys got into the penthouse via the residential elevator, how did they get on it in the first place? The only access points are in the parking area, which is a level lower than general parking for the building. The parking areas are both secured with gated entrances that require codes or keycards, and employees don’t have access to the lower residential parking area. The other access points for the residential elevators are in the lobby, which are right in front of the security desk, or from the floor with the lofts that belong to Wells and Max. It doesn’t make sense how Rick and Kane were able to get access, let alone do it without anyone noticing. If they had tripped one of the many alarms, Liam would’ve been notified, as would have my security team here on-site, including Thor who is on-call for Tinsley’s personal security.

There are too many unanswered questions, but I’m getting answers today.

Right after we rescue my girl.

She will come first—every single time.

We walk to the locked residential elevator, and I override it with the code only Liam and I have before taking it to the floor below my penthouse. It’s killing me not to go right to Tinsley, but we need a plan. Walker can see my struggle as I glare at the button to my floor and he reaches out to squeeze my shoulder.

Based on what we can see and hear, she’s okay for the most part right now and my girl has even gotten Rick, Debbie Jo, and Kane to confess to some of their crimes while the video feed records—one crime in particular none of us had any clue about whatsoever that Rick was involved in. Wells is out for blood and Walker may need to give him the speech about intending to take Rick into custody because I’ve never seen Wells like this. My friend very well may try to kill Rick with his bare hands today between what he did to his sister and what he’s confessed to on the security feed.

And I can’t blame him—not one bit.

He’s destroyed their entire family.

If someone is going to hold Wells back from extracting his own revenge, it sure as shit will not be me.

Liam and Thor walk us through the plan, with Wells volunteering to be the initial distraction necessary. Walker is going to notify his supervisory agent as soon we set the plan in motion, and I’m glad he’s still on paternity leave so he could be here to help with this. The logical part of my brain knows that it’s better for Rick to get handed off to the authorities, and there is more than enough to justify getting the feds involved, but my baser instincts want to remove that threat that has caused immense harm and pain to people I love.