COCO LEANED AGAINST the front passenger seat, her arms tied to the headrest with a collection of zip ties that were cutting into her skin.Ebrahim was quiet now. He'd spent well over half an hour yelling at her as he drove the stolen car toward the city.If she'd just gone to check on the pangolins by herself like she'd wanted to, maybe this wouldn't have happened. In the split second when she'd first seen Ebrahim, she hadn't thought about herself. No, she'd first thought about Lacey. How she'd confided that maybe she wasn't as anti-baby as she'd been. That maybe her and Shane would start a family. Then there was Cane. He was her twin and regardless of what he'd done to her, he did good things. People believed in him.Coco could not risk their lives.There'd been no choice for her except to go with Ebrahim, for their sake.From the man's ranting, she'd gathered she was the source of all his life's problems. From why his family had been forced to move to why his plans hadn't worked
PAXTON SPRINTED PAST the perimeter, past his friends.Coco had been taken by the very man who'd already tried-and failed-to kill her. That time Paxton had been there to save her. This time he hadn't been there for her."Pax? Pax!" Silas bellowed.Paxton ignored him and kept going, past the cop cars.He caught sight of Zain standing behind a police van speaking with two officers. A short distance away the SUV Zain had ridden in idled, the windows down, one of the fresh meat guys at the bumper watching the crowd.That was Paxton's ride.He changed his course and in three strides he was at the driver's side door. He pulled it open and climbed inside, pausing only to unclip his rifle from his vest and slid it into the passenger seat.Silas ran straight into the hood of the SUV, staring at Paxton.He leaned out the window and yelled, "Move."Silas shook his head and Paxton didn't have to hear him to know he was cursing a blue streak, probably in Spanish. Silas always did go bilingu
PAXTON STARED AT the old money houses. Each one was surrounded by a tall fence, some topped off with wrought iron spikes. Gaining access to the property where Luke was holing up would be their first problem. After that he was fairly certain it came down to available bullets and bodies to put them in.Brett broke the silence. "Johann Nodorf, up here on the left, that's the house where the cell signals are transmitting. All three of them."Paxton eyed the collection of guys from Henchmen R Us hanging out front of the Nodorf house. Getting in there wasn't going to be easy. The moment they made their move, if Luke was smart, he'd grab for Coco."Okay, how we doing this?" Silas glanced at the side of Paxton's head. "We aren't just going to roll up to the fence, get out and see what happens."Paxton wanted a perch and his rifle. He'd pick off the whole lot of them. But that was asking a lot."If it was me?" Vito shifted, leaning into Paxton's line of sight in the rearview mirror. "I'd t
WHERE WAS HER action hero guy now?Coco shifted. At least she was more comfortable zip tied to a length of chain anchored into the floor of the garage than she'd been earlier.She focused on breathing deep, nice and slow. She'd come to in the car to them screaming and crying that Luke had killed her. While her head hurt like hell, she wasn't substantially banged up. He'd just gotten her just right on the temple and she'd blacked out. There'd be a knot later, but chances were that wasn't what could kill her.Right now she had to remain calm for her brothers. They were in this mess because of Cane and her. They were innocent.What about Mia?She glanced at the other woman. Mia had pulled as far away from Coco and her brothers as possible, the other two children clinging to her and whimpering.This was the woman Cane wanted to marry? Did he even know her?So far Mia hadn't said anything to Coco beyond a few muttered words. They didn't meet each other's gaze, they might as well be i
PAXTON WAS THE first through the wall. He had his rifle in hand, a ball of coldness in his chest. His finger twitched to pull the trigger, but he wouldn't take that first shot. It mattered. He'd do what he had to so that Coco was saved, but he wouldn't fire first."The girl. The girl, where is she?" Silas bellowed, charging into the lush back yard of the Nodorf home.The man on the porch rolled to his back and lifted a gun."Do not shoot," Paxton roared.The man's arm flinched, and the muzzle lit up with the first shot.Paxton squeezed the trigger."Pax! Pax, the door!" Silas yelled.Paxton glanced at the door where a metal barrier was lowering into place. He could just barely hear the motors humming.A window to his left shattered, blowing glass and bullets.Paxton rolled forward, hiding behind a short stone wall surrounding the grill area."Go, go, go," Brett called out as he reached them. "I'll cover you."Paxton didn't hesitate. He shot forward, his gaze on the narrowing
COCO SAT ON the bumper of the ambulance. She knew she'd been sitting here for a while, staring at the asphalt but she couldn't make herself move. It was all a blur. She wasn't even sure how she'd wound up here, just that here she was.The last clear thing she remembered was locking eyes with Paxton and then...Her mind shied away from it. Her skull ached. She was impossibly cold despite it being early evening still."Coco!"The sound of her name had her chin jerking up.Paxton?The man jogging toward her had her face. No blond hair. No broken nose. He was familiar, just not the person she wanted to see.Cane closed the distance between them at a run. When had her intellectual brother taken up running?There was so much they didn't know about each other anymore. She was clueless when it came to her other brothers, too.Brothers.Oh, God.Her throat tightened. How could she have forgotten?Cane reached for her, his hands gripping hers."James? Patrick?" Their names came out
PAXTON SHOULD HAVE already been gone, but he couldn't exactly show up at the airport covered in blood and expect to be allowed to board a plane. No matter how much his mind screamed at him to go, to get out of there before Coco returned, he couldn't just leave his things there.She wasn't going to understand any of this. Part of his head screamed at him to stop, slow down, think it all through. But his gut knew better. What he'd done today had been easy, except for the part where he feared Coco might have been injured or dead.Coco was fine. She was alive. The cops and Silas would watch out for her.Paxton, on the other hand, needed to go home.The guys would be here for another week. He'd have the house to himself for seven whole days. He couldn't remember the last time he spent that much time alone. It would be good for him.So why was he moving so slowly? And where the hell were the rest of his dirty clothes?Something jostled the front door.He froze, listening for the sligh
A year later. Cane De Jong's Home, Johannesburg, South Africa.COCO DIDN'T KNOW how her brother had pulled this off. She couldn't remember both sides of their family having ever been in the same room before.Her father and step-dad were snickering like kids and fiddling with Cane's stereo.Mom, Olivia and Mia had taken over the kitchen, fussing over the food.The boys were sprawled on the sofas, taking turns on the two hand-held gaming devices.It had taken Coco moving half a world away for her to really get to know her family. She'd talked to each of these people more in the last twelve months than she had in years.And the cherry on top? Cameron and his mother were here.Cane had really stepped up after everything went down with Luke. One of the things Coco had been most touched by was how Cane went to bat for Cameron. He'd not only hired a lawyer and got the boy free, he'd found Cameron a job with one of his peers in Soweto handling social media and administrative tasks. Ev