Chapter 490
Kaleb’s voice wavered. “What — what are you talking about? Nobody sent me. This was my idea.”
“I won’t ask again.” Colton’s voice dropped to something quieter and far more dangerous. “Who sent you?”
He stood perfectly still, no anger on his face, no tension in his posture. The overhead lights caught the hard lines of his features, making him look less like a man and more like something carved from stone. Kaleb took a step back, his nerve failing him. He glanced at his guards — some still on their feet — and scraped together one last desperate impulse.
“Take him down!” he screamed.
The bodyguards surged forward, closing around Colton from every direction.
Kristine watched from where she stood, her mind working quickly.
Kaleb was a puppet. She had sensed it from the beginning. At first she had assumed she was the target, but watching it unfold, it was clear — they were after Colton.
Two men came at him from the left and right simultaneously, while the rest closed in from every other angle. They knew he could fight. They were betting on numbers.
It wasn’t enough.
Colton moved through them as though they were barely there. He slipped past every swing with precise, unhurried timing — and when he caught one man’s wrist, the twist that followed was sharp and absolute. A loud crack split the air, followed by a scream.
In the same motion, Colton pivoted and drove a kick into a man charging from behind. The impact sent him sprawling.
The few still standing hesitated, their confidence visibly faltering, then threw themselves forward in a last desperate wave. It changed nothing. Colton moved among them like smoke, untouchable, and one by one they folded, until the hallway was littered with groaning bodies and only Kaleb remained on his feet — staring, pale, at what had just happened to his men.
He bolted.
He made it only a few steps before a powerful strike caught him across the back, and a hard kick drove him into the floor. Before he could move, a shoe came down firmly between his shoulder blades, pinning him in place.
Kaleb trembled. He twisted his head around and looked up with wide, frightened eyes. “Mr. Yates, I was an idiot — I know that. You’re a reasonable man. Please, please don’t hurt me.”
Colton crouched down, resting his arm loosely on his knee, and regarded him with calm, unhurried patience.
“I’ll consider it,” he said. He pressed his foot down slowly. “But first you’re going to tell me exactly what I want to know. Who gave you the order to come here?”
The pain was bad enough that Kaleb nearly screamed the truth right then and there. But the thought of the person who had paid him stopped him cold. He bit down hard and waited for the worst of it to pass before forcing out his words.