Claiming Felicity (Ace Security #4)(66)

Felicity’s hands clenched into fists. She refused to ask what he meant this time.

“Yeah, sweet little Megan. Your mom. I should’ve killed her years earlier. All this could’ve been done with way before now, but I was busy. It’s not easy being the son of Garrick Watson. My dad kept me busy, but I was still able to build my own empire right under his nose.”

Joseph laughed then, and Felicity’s skin crawled.

“You might be interested to know that I did my best to get your mom to tell me where you were. She held on pretty well. Didn’t beg for her life until near the end.” He shrugged. “I would’ve played longer, but she jerked under my knife at the wrong moment, and I slipped. Cut her throat long before I was ready.”

“You fucking bastard,” Felicity ground out, and actually took a step toward Joseph before realizing what she was doing and halting herself. “She never did anything to you.”

“On the contrary,” he spit out. “She’s a fucking woman. I have no use for any of you. If I had my way, you’d all be kept on your backs in the house. Not working. Not spouting your ‘I’m as good as a man’ shit. Because, news flash, you’re not. No woman will ever be as good as a man.”

“Cut the shit,” Ryder barked out, obviously having reached the end of his rope. “Where’s Nathan?”

At his words, Joseph suddenly moved, pulling out a handgun and pointing it at Ryder. “Shut the fuck up. I’m in charge here. I’m holding all the cards.”

As if choreographed, all four brothers pulled their own guns and pointed them at Joseph at the same time.

“Back up, Felicity,” Ryder ordered.

“No, don’t, Megan,” Joseph retorted. “Stay right where you are or you might end up with a bullet in your kneecap . . . to start with.” Her stalker pulled out another handgun and pointed it at her this time.

Felicity froze. Her hands went up in capitulation. Her mind spun. She felt as though she was in the middle of the Wild West. She didn’t particularly like having four guns pointed at her from behind . . . well, they weren’t pointed at her, but she also wasn’t convinced she was completely out of the line of fire either.

A bead of sweat rolled down the side of her face, but she ignored it. “I’m not moving,” she said softly. “All I want is to make sure Nate is safe.”

“Walk toward me,” Joseph ordered, ignoring her words. “You come with me and I’ll take you to the baby.”

She didn’t believe him for a second.

“Don’t move, Felicity,” Ryder growled from behind her, closer now. She didn’t take her eyes off Joseph to check, but he sounded as if he’d moved a little to her left and closer.

“Stop moving,” Joseph barked, obviously seeing Ryder’s movements as well.

His gun swung from her right to her left. “You too, asshole. If you think I don’t see you moving, you’re just as stupid as Megan here.”

Then he pointed both his guns right at her. Felicity looked down the barrels of the pistols into Joseph’s blue eyes. He was furious.

“This didn’t have to be so hard,” he ground out. “All you had to do was follow one simple instruction. Come by yourself. But no, of course not. No bitch does what she’s told. Not even your fucking roommate all those years ago. All I wanted was for her to do what I told her to, but she couldn’t do it. She nagged, day in and day out. I couldn’t fucking stand it. It’s my right as the man to maintain discipline in my home. All I did was smack her around a little, and she wouldn’t fucking stop crying. All night. Begging that she needed to see a doctor. Crying that her arm was broken. Fucking crybaby. I told her to shut up time and time again and warned her she’d regret it if she didn’t. Finally, I had no choice but to shut her up myself. Fuck, the blessed sound of silence when she took that last breath and stopped sniveling was almost orgasmic.”

Felicity listened with horror to Joseph describing Colleen’s last moments.

“Joseph, can I—”

“No! You. Fucking. Can. Not!” he roared, then shot off a round.

The ground in front of her exploded in a cloud of dust, and Felicity felt debris hitting her legs. Luckily her jeans kept most of the damage to a minimum, but something hit her hard. She forced herself to stay upright, instinctively knowing if she crumpled to the ground, Ryder would shoot the man dead. And they’d lose the chance to find Nate.

Gritting her teeth, she remained upright, putting her weight on her right leg. As it was, she could hear growling coming from behind her. All four of the men were on the edge.

“Get your ass over here, right now!” Joseph yelled.

“I don’t think so,” a new voice boomed into the clearing.

Shocked, as Felicity hadn’t heard anyone else arrive, she turned her head just enough to keep her eye on Joseph, not putting it past him to bum-rush her the second her head was turned, and saw a man she’d never seen before striding into the fray as if he hadn’t a care in the world.



Ryder had never wanted to kill anyone as badly as he wanted to kill Joseph Waters. He’d thought he wanted him dead before. Now it was a certainty. The man had shot at his woman. Fucking shot at her. The only thing keeping him from filling the man with an entire clip of bullets was the knowledge that they’d never know where Nate was if he did. He had to keep the man alive and get him to Black. His friend and teammate would get the knowledge out of him, using whatever means necessary. Once they had Nate’s location, Black would turn Joseph back over to him, and Ryder could have his vengeance. For him, Felicity, and Nate.