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Rowe swallowed back the lump that had grown in his throat at the sight of Eric standing there. He couldn’t wait to get him into the waiting arms of his mother so this nightmare could finally end…at least for her.
“See! He’s fine. We never hurt him. Never gave him to Jagger. What about my sister?”
“She’s fine.”
“I want to hear her say it.”
Reaching down, Rowe pulled the gag out of her mouth.
“He didn’t come alone! He’s got all his friends here!” Hanna immediately started shouting, but Rowe had expected that. What he didn’t expect was to actually see Kyle’s shoulders relax as soon as his sister started talking.
“Are you okay?” he asked, but already some of the frantic tension had left his voice.
“Yes, I’m fucking fine,” she snapped.
“Cool. What do you want me to do?”
Hanna groaned and dropped her head, shaking it.
“Send the boy over to me,” Rowe said.
Kyle’s hand twisted in Eric’s shirt and he stiffened. It was like he had forgotten for a moment that Rowe was even there. “What about Hanna?”
“She’s safe. You’re both safe so long as I get the boy back. Send him over and you’ll get Hanna.”
Rowe held his breath, waiting for Hanna to start shouting something to contradict his order, but she sat silent on the ground, still shaking her head.
With a shove, he sent Eric running toward Rowe. At the same time, Lucas and Noah stepped around the building from opposite directions, closing in on Kyle with their guns aimed at his head. Rowe focused on the little boy. Tucking his gun into the pocket of his hoodie, he knelt down and held his arms out to him. The smaller body crashed into him and wrapped thin arms around his neck. Eric knew him. He and his mother had come over for cookouts. They’d hung out in the office when his mom was working. All the guys in the office knew and loved Eric. A shuddering breath escaped him as he held him close. He was safe.
“Are you okay?” Rowe whispered, choking on the tears of relief he was holding back.
Eric nodded against his shoulder. “Where’s my mom? I want my mom.”
“We’re going to get her, I promise.” Rowe brushed a kiss across the top of his head. “Do you remember my friend, Dr. Snow?” Eric nodded, tightly clutching Rowe’s hoodie. “Good. Well, his very nice boyfriend Jude is in that office over there and he has your mom on the phone. Can you go wait with Jude and talk to your mom?”
Eric gave another nod before he darted off toward the open door with the light shining from the interior office.
“Sneezy has the baby bird,” Jude said over the earpiece a couple second later, indicating that he had Eric safely in the office.
“There! You have the kid! I want my sister back!” Kyle shouted.
Rowe pushed back to his feet and resumed his spot behind Hanna. “Put your gun down, Kyle.”
Kyle shook his head. “I don’t think so.”
The pyro shuffled his feet, but kept his gun down. Still, Rowe would have preferred it out of his hand completely. “Why here?” he asked.
Kyle flinched but thankfully kept his weapon down. “What?”
“Why did you pick this location for the meet?”
“Because…because it’s artistic.” He laughed, a thready, broken sound that resembled a wounded animal. “Don’t you get it?”
Rowe blinked, trying to follow Kyle’s train of thought but he was lost. This rundown, abandoned factory in the middle of a declining town in Kentucky was artistic? Maybe if you were into ghetto trash.
“This is where it all started,” Kyle continued. “It was supposed to be this grand piece that made everything better. You and your stupid friends were supposed to die in that fire in Price Hill because that Vallois bitch was never supposed to get that property. And then we were going to kidnap Ian and bring him here. We were going to wrap him in a big red bow and hand him over to Jagger. And…and everything was going to be right again. Ian wasn’t even supposed to be at that stupid club.” He raised the gun again.
Ian’s gasp of horror was nearly drowned out by Hanna’s low, evil laughter.
“You still don’t fucking get it, do you?” she said. “You don’t get why Jagger hired us at all.”
“What are you talking about?” Rowe asked, his stomach sinking as pieces of the puzzle starting fitting together in a terrifying picture.
“You killed Jagger’s son. Chris Green was Jagger’s kid—one nobody knew about, not even the feds. Jagger knows it was you fucks who made him disappear and he wants you dead.”
“No…” Lucas’s haunted whisper slipped through his ear before he shouted it again. “No!” Lucas took a step forward, his gun still pointed at Kyle’s head, but Kyle didn’t seem to notice. His eyes were locked on his sister and Rowe. “Chris Green had nothing to do with Jagger. He was no one. Just some punk property investor trying to kill me, kill Andrei. He killed other people!”
