“And if Dare already knows?”
Ezra blew out a sigh. “Dare’s going down, Ryder. You know this. When you came to me, the DEA had already been watching him for two years. You just gave them the extra evidence to make this happen sooner. He’s not getting away with any of this. We just need to see this through so you’re safe from the fallout. Make sure you’re on the right side of it.”
The smallest fraction of relief eased inside me. The only thing I wanted was to put Dare behind bars, where he belonged.
As for me, I’d struck a deal. I was giving them the safehouse location, and they were going to raid while I was there loading the car Tuesday night.
I’d be arrested, too, but I’d get off on a technicality.
My immunity for setting this up.
Ezra looked at his phone when a text went off. A small smile tugged at the edge of his mouth.
“Who is it?” I asked.
“Olivia. She said she just helped her grandma make dinner for us, and it’s Sunday and it’s family day and I’d better hurry up and get home.”
His little girl was adorable. A year older than Evelyn. I figured she’d taken the role of mothering since her own mother had been killed a couple years ago.
And I realized as Ezra stood, all massive muscle and hulking height, ghosts forever writhing deep in his eyes, that I was fucking lucky.
Dakota was safe and we were going to make sure we put this threat away permanently so Dare couldn’t hurt anyone ever again.
Ezra hadn’t gotten that chance.
His wife had been stolen from him, and he’d never even had a warning.
“You should get back to them.”
“Yeah.” He reached out and squeezed my shoulder. “This is for the best right now, Ryder. Let her be and let’s get this behind us and then you two can figure out your shit.”
I gave him a tight nod. “Okay.”
“Give him a little shit for the attack, play it that you didn’t see it coming.”
“Already did.”
Ezra cracked a smile. “Don’t need to coach you, do I?”
I scoffed. “I’ve had to survive this life for years.”
Air puffed from his nose. “See you Tuesday, brother.”
A promise came with it.
A wedge of hope slashed through the turmoil.
I was finally going to get my life back. I just prayed it wasn’t too late to get Dakota back, too.
Ezra dipped out, and I blew out a sigh, snagged my keys from the table, and jogged out of the shop. I locked the door behind me before I hopped into my car, deciding to head home, the way I would any other night.
I was halfway there when a call rang through the Bluetooth.
Rage blistered my insides when I saw Dare’s name lighting the screen.
“What?” It wasn’t like his calls weren’t always met with animosity. I was all about keeping it consistent.
Except a wail echoed through the background. A wail that stabbed through my heart. A wail I would recognize anywhere.
Kayden.
Dare tsked. “It seems my son doesn’t like me very much.”
Ice froze over my soul, and a bolt of fury cracked through the middle of it.
There was shuffling in the background, and the gagged whimper that curled through the line tore me in two.
“Dakota doesn’t like me much, either, though she liked me plenty the night she let me fuck her in my truck.”
Bile erupted in my throat. “You fucking bastard. I will kill you.”
He tsked again. “I don’t think you’re in the position to be making threats, now, are you? Be at my office in one hour, and you get to choose which one lives. Come alone, or neither of them do.”
Without saying anything else, the line went dead.
Terror ricocheted, pumping my blood into chaos.
My mind twisted through what he’d said. What he’d implied.
He’d fathered Kayden, which meant he’d known all along. Had planned to use them as bait. As pawns for whenever the time arose.
And it wouldn’t matter if Kayden’s blood did run through his veins.
He had no fealty or morality.
He’d gladly hurt Kayden if it won him what he wanted.
My sight turned red, and my knuckles blanched white as I held onto the steering wheel. I made a U in the middle of the road, the tires squealing as my car fishtailed. The second it righted, I gunned it and flew in the other direction.
I hit the desolate two-lane road that I’d taken so many times. Each time I felt like I was cutting out a piece of myself. Leaving it behind. But this time, I was getting it back.
The only things that mattered.
I wavered, contemplating, every scenario curling through my thoughts. I finally tapped the button and dialed Ezra.
“Miss me already?” He tossed out the razzing.
Only I croaked around the terror and fury that clotted my throat. “He has them.”
Silence resounded for a beat before Ezra heaved out a sound of horror that he attempted to quell. “Stay calm, Ryder.”
“I’m not staying fucking calm, Ezra. He has them. He told me to be at his office in an hour. To come alone. He said they both were dead if I didn’t. Otherwise, I got to choose which one would live.”
“Shit,” he hissed. “Where are you?”
“On my way.”
“Fuck, Ryder, you can’t take off over there. Pull over.”
I could hear his tires squealing as he turned around, his engine roaring as he rammed on the accelerator.
“You know that’s not going to happen. He wants me there, and I’m going. You can’t call anyone to come in blazing. No sirens.”
“I’m going to be right behind you. Just wait and don’t do anything stupid.”
The laughter that rolled out of me was hard. Close to deranged. Because I’d done a million stupid things in my life. Made uncountable mistakes. Had stumbled and failed.
But this time wasn’t going to be one of them.
My heart battered at my ribs as I came careening to a stop in the alley behind the dry cleaners. I’d forced myself to slow, knowing it would close the gap between mine and Ezra’s arrival.
Now, I felt like I was going to tremble out of my skin. My blood pulsing so hard that it thundered in my ears. Could feel it in my fingertips that raged with the need to end anyone who would ever think about harming Dakota.
About harming Kayden.
But this bastard always preyed on the innocent. Wielded his rancid power over the blameless.
I should have known that he would have been watching closer. That there’d been no way to hide what I felt for Dakota.
Not then and not now.
Should have known he would have twisted it in his favor. Hunted her, used her, shored it away like blackmail until its fitted time.
I was shaking with the weight of it as I tapped at the heavy door at the back.
It cracked open, and Pete peered at me through the narrow slit. Rage clouded my sight, and my fists curled just as a sick, satisfied laugh rolled from him when he saw my busted to shit face. “Looks like you ran into some trouble.”
“Fuck off, Pete.”
He only laughed lower as he widened the door for me to step in. He pushed me against the wall and patted me down to make sure I wasn’t carrying, his voice in my ear when he warned, “If I were you, I would have already left town. Left no trail. Disappeared.”
Yeah, because he was a fucking coward. All of them were. Out for themselves, willing to hurt anyone if it protected their asses.
I bit it back because my issue wasn’t with Pete right then.
My only concern was the torment that rode through the air. Stagnant terror that coursed through the descending night.
I had to force myself to keep my cool and not go rushing the door, and I swallowed around the razors in my throat as Pete led me the rest of the way down the hall.
Two more of Dare’s guards rested against the walls, watching me like I was a dead man walking.
With each step, Kayden’s cries grew louder.
Pete tapped at the door with the barrel of his gun before he cracked it open. “He’s here.”
“Alone?”
“Yes.”
“Bring him in.”
The door opened the rest of the way. All the oxygen punched from my lungs as I scanned the room.
Dakota faced me where she was against the far wall, bound to a chair, her arms behind its back and a gag in her mouth.