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“Thank you.” I let Sky down. “Go with Grandpa Daniel, okay. Your mom and I will be at the hospital soon.”
She nodded at me as Aidan led her to Daniel’s car.
Oliver came over and looked at Jared. “Tell me you know where to find this asshole?”
“You’re coming with us?” Yeah, I was surprised. His sister was in critical condition, surely he wanted to be at the hospital.
“Don’t insult me. You’re family. Sky and Ev are family. Let’s go get her.” Oliver glared at me. “All I can do for Bex is sit on my hands and worry, and I can do that as soon as we get Ev back.”
Mason clapped a hand on my back. “Getting Everly back is something we can do now.” He turned to Jared. “Do we have a location?”
“He’s headed back to the farm by the look of things.” Jared started walking back to my car. “I shared the live location with Scott’s cell. I’ll call him from the car and let him know.”
Scott was going to be so pissed he was once again involved in a Salingersituation,as he called them. All the man wanted was to enjoy his retirement from the Army as one of the top chefs in Southern California and we kept dragging him into Salinger Security business. Actually, that wasn’t true. The only other situation he found himself in beside the one we faced at the moment, was when Anna had been kidnapped during the Holiday Party last year. Both situations were more personal than business.
Jared had his phone on speaker with Oliver and Scott on a conference call. Trey was on his way past Waite’s Steakhouse and Scott would try and intercept him.
“I can see him approaching.” Scott was breathing heavily. “I can’t get my car around in time. I’ll use my shotgun.”
“Why do you have a shotgun in your restaurant?” That was from one of the Salingers in the other car. “You’re supposed to be retired.”
“It’s a shotgun, not an assault rifle, and you’re right. I amsupposedto be retired. And yet, you and your family manage to drag me into drama more than I would like to admit.”
He was giving us shit, but was full of it as well. The man was a protector at heart, he wanted to give his boys a quiet and stable life, but he would do anything to protect his friends, and he counted Everly as his friend. I wasn’t sure how that happened, and it may have had something to do with his wife’s death, but I had never asked questions.
“Do what you need to, Scott.”
There was silence as we turned onto Main Street.
“He’s driving at the speed limit.” Scott’s voice had gone cold. I imagined something similar to what mine was. “I don’t have much time.”
More silence as we waited on Scott. I never considered Marina De Ferrier to be a large town, area wise, before. But as we drove down Mainstreet trying to catch up with Trey, everything seemed oversized.
A gunshot rang out in stereo. Over the phone and in the air around us. The shot was loud enough to be heard over the sound of my car.
As we came to a stop, Trey seemed to be struggling with Everly at the door. All five of us had our doors opened before he even had time to notice us.
When he did notice us, however, the rage written over his face was palpable. “Stay away, Moore. I will not hesitate to shoot her. If I cannot have her, no one will.”
I didn’t doubt that he would do it. He was crouched down behind Everly like a fucking coward. He knew he wouldn’t get out of the situation. He was determined to take Everly with him. But as long as he could see all five of us in front of him, he may not consider that none of us were around to shoot his tire. At least that’s what it looked like Scott had done. Simple but effective.
Scott’s voice was a whisper on my phone. “I just need to get into position, buy me some time.”
“What exactly is your plan here?” I shouted over at Trey. I knew Scott needed time, but I didn’t need to be nice. “You’re either going to get yourself killed or you will be in custody. There is just no other way. And if you kill Everly, you’re probably going to leave in a body bag as well.” If I had his attention, even if it was to talk about him killing Everly, he would be arguing with me and not actually thinking about killing Everly.
“She was meant to be mine. You think you’re so clever. I knew if I used the code to get into her house, it would look suspicious. So, I cut the power and made the system useless. She needed to read the letters I wrote. Then she would understand. But of course, you wouldn’t let her read it. No, you were selfish.”
What the fuck was wrong with that asshole. I decided I wouldn’t dignify his statement with a response. “Everly doesn’t need me to make decisions for her. She is strong and independent and if you knew anything about her, you’d know if she wanted to read your letters, she would have made a plan to do so.”
That didn’t help his temper, but he was determined to prove me wrong. “Of course, you would think that. You’re too weak to make her heel to you. She needs to be broken and tamed. Butyou fucked her and then abandoned her and have no idea what to do with a woman like her.”
Well part of that statement was somewhat true. I mean, I did leave her even knowing we had a connection. I was the one to walk her away, but I doubted she would’ve accepted me if I had suggested we stay together. Explaining that to the asshole was both pointless and unnecessary. What I didn’t appreciate was the way he characterized our time together. It was disrespectful to Everly. But there was nothing I could do.
Sirens were blaring in the background. If Scott was going to do something it needed to be quick. The police were not going to take too kindly to the shooting, and Scott would have a lot of questions and paperwork anyway. Not to mention they could well make Trey more agitated and make things worse.
We didn’t want things to be made worse.
“Scott, please tell me you’ve got the shot.”
