"Hold on!"

Seeing that he was about to be taken away, Langdon panicked and shouted, "You have no right to arrest me without a thorough investigation or a judge's ruling! This is outright brutality! You're abusing your power!"

Austin scoffed. "When I tried to play fair, you pulled every dirty trick in the book. But now that I'm playing rough, you suddenly want to talk about the law? Do you really think that's going to happen?"

"Mr. Langdon, if you have anything to say, you can tell me in prison. We'll have plenty of time to chat." Axel strode forward with a wicked grin, clamping a firm hand on Langdon's shoulder.

"Wait! I still have something to say." Langdon swallowed hard.

Realizing he had no way out, he finally dropped the tough act and tried a softer approach. "Austin, we're family. Do we really have to take it this far? Look, I screwed up. But can't you cut me some slack, just this once?"

In the past, his silver tongue had helped him turn situations around and distort the tr