Relentless (The Hero Agenda, #2) by Tera Lynn Childs, Tracy Deebs Read Free Book Online

repeats.
    She pushes him back a step. “Not until you—”
    My hand is around her throat before I even have the thought to be mad, and I’m shoving her back until she’s flush against the cabin door. “Don’t. You. Touch. Him.”
    There is a flash of fury in her gray eyes, right before she bursts out laughing. She turns her head to look at Draven. “Oh, I like this one.”
    “Kenna,” Draven says, his hands coming to rest on my shoulders as he gently pulls me away. “It’s okay. V is going to let us inside now.” He gives her a meaningful look. “Right, V?”
    She narrows her eyes, evaluating me, before she sighs with resignation. “Anton will want to see you.” She casts her gaze over our entire group. “All of you.”
    I release my grip and slowly back away. Draven immediately interlaces his fingers with mine again. The message is clear. He’s not going anywhere without me and vice versa.
    We walk through the door, into the middle of an argument.
    A tall man with broad shoulders and dark-brown hair that falls past his collar is standing next to the small dining table. He cuts an imposing image, looming over Deacon like an inquisitor. With his hip-length black leather coat and dark-gray slacks, he looks like some kind of Mafia boss. Or hit man.
    This must be the infamous Anton Cole.
    My first thought is that Deacon looks worse than when we left.
    Deciding what to do with him during the rescue mission had been a big fight. Should we leave him alone in the cabin? With his fractured psyche and broken body, he wasn’t up to defending himself from an aggressive squirrel, let alone a hero attack.
    But we didn’t have a choice. He couldn’t come with us, obviously. And we couldn’t spare the manpower to leave someone with him. We needed all hands on deck at League HQ.
    Clearly, being on his own had only made the nightmares worse. The bags under his eyes are the color of the mountains at sunset, deep purple with black smudges. His eyes, the same dark brown as Dante’s, are cloudy and shadowed. We had to shave his head to get rid of the lice and to treat the wounds that the heroes’ torture had branded into his scalp.
    He looks like someone who’s been lost at sea for months.
    “I’m done with the excuses,” Anton says. “You’re coming with me and that’s final.”
    “No, Dad, I’m not,” Deacon replies.
    His voice is so weak that it seems to take all of his energy to make his defiant statement.
    “Yes, you are.” Anton leans down menacingly. “I’ve had enough of your playing around. We are getting you to safety—and to a doctor. Then I’ll come back and deal with your brother and cousin.”
    “You can deal with us now,” Dante says as he hands Rebel off to Riley.
    Anton whirls around.
    He shoots his piercing gaze over all of us, his eyes narrowing as he sees—and obviously recognizes—the Malones. The look on his face is a mixture of rage and relief. He stomps across the cabin. Not certain where this is going, I shrink back a little, waiting to see how Draven responds.
    When Anton reaches Dante and Draven, his arms snake around their shoulders as he pulls them into what looks like the fiercest hug in history.
    “I thought you were… I was afraid Rex had—” Anton squeezes his eyes shut and then abruptly pushes them away. “What the hell were you thinking?” he demands of Dante.
    “Nice to see you too, Uncle Anton,” Draven says in an obvious attempt to deflect his uncle’s fury from his cousin onto himself.
    It works.
    “And you!” Anton jabs a finger in Draven’s face. “That stunt at the mountain was the height of stupidity!”
    “We did what needed to be done,” Dante says.
    Draven moves to his cousin’s side. “We got Deacon back.”
    Anton barks out a harsh laugh. “He wouldn’t have been missing in the first place if you idiots hadn’t gone poking around in the hero labs. I’ve warned you to stay away from Rex—”
    “Someone had to,” Dante taunts. “We